Furinkazan: a comprehensive art rework (Works in MC! 6/15 Modpack split for convenience)

[Ying, Duke of Qin]

NOTE: So long as both you and a friend has this mod, it will work in co-op campaign!

Newest update is here. You may also download it below as an attachment. If you want just the event or just the portrait mod, they're also there - have fun.

Goal: To have a custom portrait for every unit, agent, and historical character in the campaign.

Methodology: Exporting art from an extremely obscure historical simulation game (Taiko Rissiden V by KOEI, and others cited on page 5) and applying them here. A surgical transplant, so to speak.

Rationale: I enjoy history, and I think Taiko V did a good job in its presentation of characters. Most of the character art there was carried out before KOEI went crazy with over-the-topness in character design, and I feel that the art I will be modding in adds another layer of flavor to Shogun II as a whole.

... Plus, some of the art was, in my opinion, pretty good.

Update Log:

6/4: All events added. Art credit is largely thanks to Tsuyoshi Nagano, KOEI's head artist. It is thanks to him and his art team that this mod exists today.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Somewhere in between: Added Ikko Ikki daimyo and updated baby portrait.

5/11(After exams and a lot of traveling): All family portraits updated.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

4/30: All generals added. Geisha, Monk, Missionary, Metsuke, and Ninja all have custom portraits.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

4/17: Agents updated. Attempted to fix the Hattori faction.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

4/12:
Daimyo pack released - this first mod contain new art for all of the special daimyos found in the campaign.

Preview (EDIT: Gah, forgot Hojo. Shameful display! V He's there now.)

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

More coming up!

A friendly note: This is my first attempt at modding. I try not to make too many mistakes with packing and things like that, but I think they're bound to happen somewhere. I apologize ahead of time for any glaringly obvious errors and hope you could pardon my noobishness. I promise I learn quickly!

[MarkusAntonius]

Nice work dude i was thinking about this before the game release,but i've drop out the project because of the accuracy with the 3D characters.but i knew somebody would do this. nice mod

[Trepalium]

nice mod I like the portraits

[Dalkar]

Looks cool, nice job! +rep
I'll test and see if I get any crashes etc.

[Syntax]

Looks very cool +Rep - but may somebody explain how to implement them into the game???
Thanks

[Dalkar]

You need to unzip and put into your Shogun 2 data folder.

[Syntax]

That's it - thanks +Rep....(Rep tomorrow - today out of stars...)

[Dalkar]

No probs. I had the same problem

[Instance]

Wow, those look really good. Fits the game atmosphere too, which is very important to me.

Look forward to your future progress.

-Instance

[LimitedTime]

Wow, really nice work.

[Wind]

Great mod.
But Hattori Daimyo doesn't work.
I think it is a bug in the vanilla, since Hattori seems to be using random Daimyo's face same as minor clans.

[Ying, Duke of Qin]

Great mod.
But Hattori Daimyo doesn't work.
I think it is a bug in the vanilla, since Hattori seems to be using random Daimyo's face same as minor clans.

Hey there. Thanks for letting me know. Unfortunately, I don't have the collector's edition, so there's no way for me to test the Hattori faction. I will attempt to fix it in my next update, which will be coming in a few days. I am currently tweaking the database, and I realized that the best way for me to go about doing my task is probably to generate a custom, unique unit for each of the campaign characters.

... I'm almost inclined to tweak stats now to reflect some of the awesomeness passed down by legend.

[Ii Naomasa]

I've never played this game you got these from but is there anything on the game which you will use for other units or are you just going to have general portraits?

[Ying, Duke of Qin]

Due to the ineffectiveness of the current tools avaliable, it is likely that I will simply stick to major historical characters for now. The goal is to give each Daimyo and important historical character a custom portrait - the smallfries and mooks can come later.

Eventually, I'll be making each general into an independent character. As I am completely inexperienced, I plan to first generate custom portraits before working on more grandiose ideas - and as we know, most ideas never get off the ground anyways. The thing that is preventing me from diving into this is a combination of heavy courseload taken this semester and my absolute ineptitude when it comes to reading databases and files. It literally took me two hours today, after floundering around forums and etc, to find what seemed to be relevant information regarding characters.

(Unlike others who are aiming for total historical accuracy, I plan to aim for "accurate to romanticized/idealized/legendary history". Famous generals like Sakon Shima, Sanada Yukimura, and Honda Tadakatsu should rightfully have a place in the game in accordance to their reputation - literary or historical. Takeda Shingen will eventually receive a custom formation skill called Furinkazan. Kenshin will receive the legendary Hanging Chariot/Rolling Wheel formation in which he is known for. I will rewrite bios. I will learn scripting. I will somehow figure out a way to edit that accursed encyclopedia. I will bring to light the Sengoku period that I have seen!

... Whoops, got carried away there. )

I would like to add customized unit portraits and agent portraits as well. For instance:


They may or not make decent replacements. I think they're probably, for all intent and purposes, functional. It's a different look, if anything else.

So yes, for now. Just an art mod - I'll probably be replacing the loading screens too, come to think of it.

[Sainty]

Love it!

[valky]

(Unlike others who are aiming for total historical accuracy, I plan to aim for "accurate to romanticized/idealized/legendary history". Famous generals like Sakon Shima, Sanada Yukimura, and Honda Tadakatsu should rightfully have a place in the game in accordance to their reputation - literary or historical. Takeda Shingen will eventually receive a custom formation skill called Furinkazan. Kenshin will receive the legendary Hanging Chariot/Rolling Wheel formation in which he is known for. I will rewrite bios. I will learn scripting. I will somehow figure out a way to edit that accursed encyclopedia. I will bring to light the Sengoku period that I have seen!

... Whoops, got carried away there. )

If I start to worship you in case you'll do such changes, you won't mind?

Anyway, love the Daimyo portraits!
+rep

[Wind]

Due to the ineffectiveness of the current tools avaliable, it is likely that I will simply stick to major historical characters for now. The goal is to give each Daimyo and important historical character a custom portrait - the smallfries and mooks can come later.

Eventually, I'll be making each general into an independent character. As I am completely inexperienced, I plan to first generate custom portraits before working on more grandiose ideas - and as we know, most ideas never get off the ground anyways. The thing that is preventing me from diving into this is a combination of heavy courseload taken this semester and my absolute ineptitude when it comes to reading databases and files. It literally took me two hours today, after floundering around forums and etc, to find what seemed to be relevant information regarding characters.

(Unlike others who are aiming for total historical accuracy, I plan to aim for "accurate to romanticized/idealized/legendary history". Famous generals like Sakon Shima, Sanada Yukimura, and Honda Tadakatsu should rightfully have a place in the game in accordance to their reputation - literary or historical. Takeda Shingen will eventually receive a custom formation skill called Furinkazan. Kenshin will receive the legendary Hanging Chariot/Rolling Wheel formation in which he is known for. I will rewrite bios. I will learn scripting. I will somehow figure out a way to edit that accursed encyclopedia. I will bring to light the Sengoku period that I have seen!

... Whoops, got carried away there. )

I would like to add customized unit portraits and agent portraits as well. For instance:


They may or not make decent replacements. I think they're probably, for all intent and purposes, functional. It's a different look, if anything else.

So yes, for now. Just an art mod - I'll probably be replacing the loading screens too, come to think of it.

Are you going to change the unit icons with those?
They look really nice.

[Mr. Os]

Tis a shame the current genera models are so damn rubbish. They look exactly like regular samurai.

[Ying, Duke of Qin]

I will change the unit icons with those -provided that I make a breakthrough with my initial attempt to mod in extra historical characters. I have spent the last few days hammering away at the startpos.esf, and encountered certain ... fatal errors that have seriously hampered my attempts to mod historical personalities in. I am currently working on Takeda Nobushinge (Shingen's brother - also a brilliant general). My goal for the next release is to release Nobushige alongside Yamamoto Kansuke, Takeda's legendary strategist. This mean that the Takeda clan would start with three generals rather than two (alongside Shingen himself).

The current dilemma is that the program itself is very ... non-modder friendly. If I simply generate each character as a separate special general's unit, then they cannot progress forward in levels. Attempts for me to actually insert new characters as generals have been met with unsurprising failure - I suspect that new characters may very well be contained in a DLC or something.

Currently, I can do simple portrait replacements across the board, but that feels like I'll be half-assing the job. That's why I'm taking so long.

[Solman88]

Could you list the names to the portraits? thanks.
I'm using this atm, very nice