How to add new new cultures and subcultures

In ETW there are several cultures in the DB tables, such as european, which are divided into subcultures, such as sc_european_east. Every faction belongs to a culture and subculture, both of which effect the how various things are displayed on the strat and battle maps.

The culture controls which portraits, agents, bodyguards, buildings effected by government type, and strat map buildings each faction uses. It also controls which traits a faction belonging to this culture can't get.

The subculture: controls which sounds are used; battle map cities, battle map bridges, and farms are used; and which ancillaries factions belonging to this subculture can get.

Part 1 Adding a new culture

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

All the DB tables are in the main.pack.

1) In the db/cultures clone an existing row and add your new culture, such as african. Change the "index number" to a number not being used, such as 4.

2) In the db/agent_culture_details assign your new culture to each of the agents. Changing the "Model Path" will change the agent's strat model and changing the "Bodyguard Unit" will change the bodyguard on the battle map.

3) In the db/building_culture_gov_type_variants assign your new culture to each of the buildings. This DB table effects which building each government type can build.

4) In the db/building_culture_variants assign your new culture to each of the buildings. This DB table effects the strat model, description, and icon of each building on the strat map; and forts on the battle map.

5) In the db/trait_to_excluded_cultures add your culture to any trait you don't want these faction to be able to get.

Part 2 Adding a new subculture

If you just want a new subculture you can skip the first part and add your new subculture to an existing culture.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

All the DB tables are in the main.pack.

1) In the db/cultures_subcultures clone an existing row and add your new subculture, such as sc_african_north. Change the "index number" to a number not being used, such as 6. Change the "Culture" to your new culture, such as african.

2) In the db/battle_city_subculture_jct clone an existing row and add your new subculture, such as sc_african_north.

3) In the db/battle_bridge_subculture_jcts clone an existing row and add your new subculture, such as sc_african_north.

4) In the db/ancillary_included_subcultures add your subculture to any ancillary you want these faction to be able to get.

5) Open the db/factions; find the faction you want to edit; and change their subculture, such as sc_mideast_islamic, to your new subculture, such as sc_african_north.

Part 3 Updating the sound files

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

All the xml files are in the sound.pack.

1) Open the sound_bank_ambient_environment.xml and add your new subculture to all the sound_bank_event you want for your subculture.

2) Open the sound_bank_building_ambience.xml and add your new subculture to all the sound_bank_event you want for your subculture.

3) Open the sound_bank_building_levels.xml and add your new subculture to all the sound_bank_event you want for your subculture.

4) Open the sound_bank_music_states.xml and add your new subculture to all the sound_bank_event you want for your subculture.

5) Open the sound_bank_region_buildings.xml and add your new subculture to all the sound_bank_event you want for your subculture.

5) Open the sound_bank_trigger_events.xml; clone every sound_bank_event you want your new culture to have; and replace the culture part, such as <culture>middle_east</culture>, with your new culture, such as <culture>african</culture>.

I haven't tried adding a new sound_bank_event but you may need to edit the files in the sound_non_wavefile_data.pack. You may also be able to use some of the unused sound_bank_event for South East Asia and Latin America.

Part 4 Adding portraits

You can skip this part if you're just adding a new subculture.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

If you included a "Fallback UI Culture", such as indian, in the db/cultures the portraits belonging to this culture will be used if you don't add any new portraits.

1) In the "ui.pack/ui/portraits" extract the portraits of an existing culture, such as indian.

2) In the ui/portraits folder rename the extracted culture, such as indian, with your new culture, such as african.

3) Replace the portraits you wish to change with your new portraits.

4) Import the new portraits into your mod pack.

Part 5 Adding building names

You can skip this part if you're just adding a new subculture.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

1) Go to the "patch_en.pack/localisation.loc". The pack's name may be different if you're not using the English language version on which language you're using.

2) Find all the entries that begin "clone the building_culture_variants_name_", such as "building_culture_variants_name_admiraltymiddle_east".

3) Clone an entry for each building you want your new culture to have.

4) Change the culture on an existing entry, such as "building_culture_variants_name_admiraltymiddle_east", for your new culture, such as "building_culture_variants_name_admiraltyafrican".

Nice job Uanime but you forgot to add a part so as to fix the music and sound issue (the difficultest part).

Also for the portrait it will be a real mess so as to add specific portraits to the new culture.

If you need help get a look to IS files. :)

Thanks for telling me that Flikitos. I'll add these things as soon as I can.

What do you mean by IS files?

Can this be used to assign a different general for say Poland or Russia by making them a separate culture?

Yep, agent's model is linked to culture.
So, creating a unique culture for Poland allow you to use unique model for Polish agents.

Thanks for the reply wangrin. However I was trying this last night and had a CTD when the screen loaded before a battle. I want to use different models for Polish and Russian generals in battle at least for the 1600s mod.

I encountered a problem where the target culture's portraits cannot be displayed in campaign, Quintus Hortensius Hortalus of the IS team has kindly provided some further tips to solve this issue, here is his post:

https://www.twcenter.net/forums/show...5#post15913935

Uanime5, I have encountered a "Missing String" problem in diplomacy for factions I assign to a new "culture". I used to know how to fix this years ago but I have forgotten. Could you explain it to me thanks?

Another question. Should the entry for "Culture ID Ref" be the same as "Culture" in the cultures_tables table?

Also in my 9 years war mod I am currently working on, I have created new "France", "Poland" etc. Cultures, with their respective subcultures being sc_france, sc_poland etc. But as I wanted them to use European types of buildings, I set the Culture cells for them as "European" in the battle_city_subculture_jct_tables. It is running, but I'm wondering could this have anything to do with the "String Missing" in the diplomacy tables when I play as those factions that have new cultures?

Update: Its okay I figured out the solution by looking in Quintus Hostilius Hortalus's Hanoverian mod. There are diplomacy tables which are not visible in DB Editor but are in Packfilemanager. Problem solved.