HE is qin shi huang not Kublai Khan

[Theodorick]

all asian people look the same anyways, so i don't see why this is a big deal

 

[Wyz_sub10]

I went into the ArtDefines_Leaderhead.xml file and switched all the lines for the two leaders except the backgrounds. It's a simple text edit and it works, but now the background for Kublai Khan (the stone wall with little plants growing on it) shows a thick red horizontal bar at the top.
Oh, Masters of Leaderhead Making, please tell us how to successfully make this switch. Yes, we really want to waste our lives cleaning up after Firaxis. Tell us how, PLEASE.

The problem is that your ArtDefines file is pointing to the wrong backgrounds. It's looking for a file that doesn't exist.

The easiest solution is simply to open the LeadersInfo file and switch the ART_DEF_ tag - change Kublai Khan to Qin and vice versa.

If you want to swap the backgrounds, so that the "new" Qin preserves the Great Wall, etc., you'll need to unpack the leaderhead files and move and rename all the "bg" files.

 

[jimbob27]

all asian people look the same anyways, so i don't see why this is a big deal

So you're saying if you had a choice between sleeping with Kobe tai and mr miaggi, you wouldn't have any preference either way?

 

[Armandeus]

The problem is that your ArtDefines file is pointing to the wrong backgrounds. It's looking for a file that doesn't exist.

The easiest solution is simply to open the LeadersInfo file and switch the ART_DEF_ tag - change Kublai Khan to Qin and vice versa.

If you want to swap the backgrounds, so that the "new" Qin preserves the Great Wall, etc., you'll need to unpack the leaderhead files and move and rename all the "bg" files.

I unpacked the files, and I saw some files with "bg" in the file name, but I also saw files like qin_shi_sky_diff.dds (there was no similar file for Kublai) that make me think that more than just "bg" files need to be moved.

Wouldn't a simple move and rename be the same thing as switching the paths in the xml file, which gives me the red strip?

Even after moving all the background-related files, and changing the directories around in the xml file, I still get the red strip, as you can see in the attachments.

Update: I noticed that the red strip appears right where the animated strip of sky is in the Great Wall background. I moved and reassigned (in the xml) all the "bg" files, so what file could be left that is reserving this textureless space?

Leaderhead Gurus? Anybody? Please?

 

[a1Basco]

So you're saying if you had a choice between sleeping with Kobe tai and mr miaggi, you wouldn't have any preference either way?

I know I wouldn't. Mr. Miagi is hot!


I kid of course.

 

[Koelle]

IIRC, they switched Kublai and Qin (possibly because Kublai looked the "nicer" of the two and Mongolians shouldn't look "nice"). Also, its likely that Augustus was planned to be in the original game and his artwork was used for Alexander. There was a thread about this awhile back.

Qin shouldn't be "nice" either, if you know he once buried alive 200.000 captured soldiers in just one day

 

[Armandeus]

Each and every one of the leaderheads smile and have a "friendly" mode, no matter how ruthless or murderous their real-life counterparts were.

Firaxis just got confused.

 

[AfterShafter]

Qin shouldn't be "nice" either, if you know he once buried alive 200.000 captured soldiers in just one day

Man's fast with a shovel.

 

[budweiser]

I always thought the color thing was related to the Mongols. The mongols were the golden horde, China, I guess was yellow, and the Russian portion was white. I'll have to look into it, but I'm pretty sure thats where it came from. So yellow makes sense for Qin?

 

[Uiler]

I always thought the color thing was related to the Mongols. The mongols were the golden horde, China, I guess was yellow, and the Russian portion was white. I'll have to look into it, but I'm pretty sure thats where it came from. So yellow makes sense for Qin?

No. Qin's colour was black. BTW this is why Qin's "colour" in the movie Hero was black.
Incidentally all of the Chinese language shows depicting Qin have him wearing black as well, even TVB which is not exactly known for historical accuracy to say the least...It was only much later that they standardized on dragon yellow as the imperial colour. Before that each dynasty had its own colour. I will copy and paste this very good post from the Chinese History forum that explains how this works:

http://www.chinahistoryforum.com/index.php?showtopic=3459

The element-colour system was quite complex, because each new dynasty had to take the colour that would succeed the previous dynasty's one in the cycle. In the Western Han, the Conquest Cycle (Xiangke) was used, in which earth (yellow) overcomes wood (blue), which overcomes metal (white), followed by fire (red) and water (black) and then earth again. Hence the sequence was:

Huangdi (Earth, yellow)
Xia (Wood, blue)
Shang (Metal, white)
Zhou (Fire, red)
Qin (Water, black)
Western Han (Earth, yellow) - however, Liu Bang is said to have personally preferred red, and had to be dissuaded from using red by his advisors.

However, Wang Mang reformulated this cycle into the Generation Cycle (Xiangsheng), in which Earth creates Metal, Metal creates Water, Water creates Wood, and Wood creates Earth. This was done so that he could identify himself with Yellow (earth), since he claimed to be a descendant of Huangdi. The sequence then became:

Huangdi (Earth, yellow)
Xia (Metal, white)
Shang (Water, black)
Zhou (Wood, blue)
[Qin not counted because Wang Mang considered it to be evil]
Western Han (Fire, red)
Xin (Earth, Yellow)

Liu Xiu, after founding the Eastern Han, adopted Wang Mang's system and also had prophecies produced identifying himself with fire, showing that he was the legitimate Han emperor. The sequence from then on was:

Eastern Han (Fire, red)
Cao-Wei (Earth, yellow)
Jin (Metal, white) - but for some reason its ruling house preferred red
Later Zhao, Liu-Song and Northern Wei after 492 (Water, black)
Southern Qi and Northern Qi (Wood, blue)
Liang and Sui (Fire, red)
Tang (Earth, Yellow)

By the Age of Fragmentation, the system was breaking down because of the proliferation of states and short-lived dynasties. For example, the Northern Zhou are said to have used black even though they should have succeeded Northern Wei as Wood (blue). The Chen dynasty is also said to have used blue despite succeeding Liang (red) - they should have used yellow. [This information comes from Liu Yonghua's Ancient Chinese Armour book] Furthermore, armies were no longer sticking to the colours of their dynasty, and were basing the colours of their armour and clothing more on fashion. Red and white were popular colours for soldiers throughout the Age of Fragmentation, regardless of the colour of the dynasty. We are also not clear about what colours the various northern Fragmentation states (other than Later Zhao) actually used.

The Northern Wei is an interesting case. They originally took yellow as their colour in 386 because they claimed to be descended from Huangdi. But in 491-492 there was a debate between two Wei ministers, Gao Lu and Li Biao, whether yellow or black should be the right colour.

Gao Lu said that the sequence from the Western Jin onwards should be:

Western Jin (Metal, white)
Later Zhao (Water, black)
Former Yan (Wood, blue)
Former Qin (Fire, red)
Northern Wei (Earth, yellow)

But Li Biao argued that all the states after Western Jin were not legitimate, and therefore Northern Wei should succceed Western Jin as Water (black). 12 other senior ministers supported Li Biao's argument, and the colour of the Northern Wei was changed from yellow to black in 492.

After the Tang dynasty, the element-colour system seems to have been abandoned. Officials were then classified or ranked according to the colour of their robes, rather than all wearing the colour of the dynasty.

To add further, this whole thing about colours can be seen most clearly in the Three Kingdoms era where everyone and their dog was trying to claim some association with yellow so they could make a claim for the throne. For one thing it is why the religious rebel group the "Yellow Scarves" chose yellow. So the choice of colour is not a trivial thing. At least it influenced the propaganda that various rebel groups/warlords used in order to attempt to claim the Mandate of Heaven. Colour + calender used to be two of the things that defined which dynasty was the "accepted" holder of the Mandate as defined by Confucian scholars in official versions of Chinese history. Also note that in Chinese blue and green are the same if you're wondering why blue is the colour for wood...

Anyway, Qin was really hated. I find it amusing the efforts of the Confucian scholars to give a definition of "dynasty" that could excluded Qin while including the "proper" dynasties. Of course they failed, but that didn't stop them trying. I guess when you do things like execute an entire village because someone wrote a single piece of anti-Qin graffitti and you execute your enemies by burying them alive en masse, well I guess you tend to earn hatred.

 

[Amra]

@Armandeus

Here is a small mod to swap the leaderheads for Qin & Kublai.

DOWNLOAD (for Warlords)

DOWNLOAD (for Vanilla Civ4)

 

[Lars_Domus]

Here is a small mod to swap the leaderheads for Qin & Kublai.

Smashing! I was thinking about going over to the C&C forums to request something like this.

 

[Armandeus]

Here is a small mod to swap the leaderheads for Qin & Kublai.

You are ... a .... GOD!!!

THANK YOU!!!

 

[Thorvald of Lym]

Now if only we could change their garb...

 

[lobster]

all asian people look the same anyways, so i don't see why this is a big deal

all whites look the same too...

 

[Armandeus]

Now if only we could change their garb...

If you mean adjusting the colors to match the dynasty, then it's a simpler matter than the problem I had with the background. Just open the DDS files and recolor the parts you want to change.

 

[Thorvald of Lym]

Not just the colours, but the clothing, too. Chinese and Mongols had distinctly different wardrobes, or so I've been threatened into believeing.

Although since Kublai was ruler of China, he would've worn the local fabric, so I suppose it doesn't really matter.
Sorry for wasting your time.

 

[lobster]

Qin should wear black...

 

[Papa Lazarou]

@Armandeus

Here is a small mod to swap the leaderheads for Qin & Kublai.

DOWNLOAD (for Warlords)

DOWNLOAD (for Vanilla Civ4)

hello dave!! first of all thank you!!

secondly, just to point out something to everyone that might be obvious to some but not to others (I just tested and figured this out myself). If like me you dont like the hassle of loading mods, you can actually have the swap as a permanent default in all your games.

All you need to do is:
1) download Amra's mod
2) extract the "CIV4ArtDefines_Leaderhead.xml" file to the "\Warlords\CustomAssets\xml\art" folder on your computer
3) and extract the "kublai_khan" folder (from the .rar) straight to "\Warlords\CustomAssets\art\leaderheads" folder on your computer.

sorry if this seems obvious but thought it might help some


ps. if i credit you, may i add this to my 'simple accuracy' mod please?

 

[Amra]

ps. if i credit you, may i add this to my 'simple accuracy' mod please?

Anyone can add this to any mod they would like. A shout out is always nice but not necessary. It didn't really take too long to do & I was happy to help.