Proposal to Create a Faction "Library"
One of the few things everyone can agree on is that NOBODY can agree on which factions to include in their ideal mod. Many people want to play the country that they are from, regardless of whether it ranked among the "major powers" of the age. In fact, the major powers changed a lot over 400 years -- factions that were important later may not have even existed in 1060. Many people want to create specialized campaigns, which again require a different collection of relevant factions. The problem is that adding factions is a huge pain, requiring a lot of editing.
What I would like to suggest is a project to create a faction "library," a set of pre-packed "construction kits" that a modder can take "off the shelf" to add their desired factions one by one to their own mod. For each faction, there would be two things: (1) a collection of graphics files relevant to that mod, arranged in the right directory order and (2) a set of MSWord files for each txt data file to be changed, with the changes FOR THAT FACTION highlighted in red. The reason I say "MSWord" is because I don't think you can color-code notebook txt files. So essentially, a modder would have to go through each Word file and cut and paste the red sections into the data files. I'm not just talking about the base files to create the faction itself, but the unit, name, building, etc. files required to make the faction fully functional. The cut and paste job would probably be about an hour's work per faction, but a lot less time -- and a lot less error-prone -- than doing it from scratch.
Now there are a few graphics files with shared data, such as the campaign map banners and the shield menu icons, where you'd have to add instructions on how to make changes, rather than just add new files. Also, the text for the descr_strat file could only be a base, because everyone will probably be using a different map and so will have to assign provinces and garrisons manually. And there are a few situations, like in battle_models, where you have to add up the total number of factions using a unit, which would depend on the modder and would have to be pointed out. But on there whole, you'd still be saving a ton of work.
Obviously people could make further changes to that faction if they wanted, such as adding units or new banners or whatever. But the "library" would at least give you a working pre-fab foundation for your new faction without having to reinvent the wheel. It would also help the community identify areas where new skin sets are desired -- one of the frustrations of coming up with new factions is that the skins aren't always available, and nobody wants to design new skins just for your custom mod. In fact, I personally think there's a much more urgent need for skinners to work on new factions that don't have ANY skins yet rather than perfecting existing factions' skins. Sharing skins and other graphic resources would be a great way to consolidate efforts, while at the same time maximizing our ability to self-customize the game to our own tastes.
A lot of the resources are already out there, they just need to be gathered and put in the right format. I think the "construction kit" approach is more productive than people putting out dozens of incompatible mini-mods. For instance, I'm not going to install the Flanders mini-mod. But a lot of excellent work went into it, and I'm sure there are lots of people who might consider adding the Flanders faction to their own mod. Right now they'd have to scavenge through the mini-mod and use the bits and pieces to try to reconstruct that faction from scratch -- and then, of course, ask for special permission if they ever wanted to release it. If that mini-mod could be packaged as a "construction kit" for adding that faction, I bet a lot of people would use it and credit the kit. Same goes for the Bohemia mini-mod, and lots of factions, such as the Teutonic Knights, that have already been added to much larger mods.
Alternatively, maybe someone can design a faction-editing tool. But I suspect it will have to be pretty complex, and it would draw on the same resources anyway.
Any thoughts?
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