How to get rid of bald generals in Medieval II

**Ishan** · July 10, 2010, 01:45 PM

I have been thinking it to write a method on it but didn't had the spare time and energy to put it here. But i always think that whatever i learn or discover in modding it's my sole duty to share it in the mod workshop with u guys coz we all love TWC and all the experienced modders on it who help us relentlessly.

So lets get down to business.

But first a few facts:-
It bugged me a lot since i started playing the grand campaign from the very first time that sometimes which is at random my new general that comes of age is bald as if her mother during her pregnancy was exposed to radiation or something.

So there is simple way of eliminating all these bald generals forever. We all know that in total there are 3 cultures in the game i.e. northern_european, eastern_european and southern_european in which we see bald generals.

So i took my time and went through all the general portraits in these cultures. The north euro and south euro factions share the same portraits which can be found in these paths:

data\ui\southern_european\portraits\portraits\young\generals
data\ui\southern_european\portraits\portraits\old\generals
data\ui\southern_european\portraits\portraits\dead\generals

Whereas the east euro faction's generals portraits can be found here below in this path:

data\ui\eastern_european\portraits\portraits\young\generals
data\ui\eastern_european\portraits\portraits\old\generals
data\ui\eastern_european\portraits\portraits\dead\generals

(The middle eastern generals don't have bald generals).
The folders young, old and dead pretty much speaks for itself. So in total there are 201 portraits each for young, old and dead generals. The file names goes from 000.tga-200.tga.
The notable fact here is that a single character has the same file name in each type of folder i.e. old and young and dead.

So in total i found out there where a total of 24 bald generals in the game. The file names that contains bald type generals are given below in the following Figure 1.

Finally the remedy:-
So to get rid of them make duplicate copies of any other 24 generals portraits that u like according to your preference and rename them to same file names as listed in Figure 1. Even though the general portraits of east euro faction differ from the portraits in southern_european folder(which is used by both north and south euro cultures)but these bald characters have the same file name in eastern_european general portraits as well as southern_european general portraits folder.

So replace one by one all these 24 file names with a non-bald type portraits mentioned in figure 1 above under each of the six directories mentioned above(highlighted in blue).

You can also distinguish the new types in order to eliminate duplicity in the game by adding mustaches, beards and long hair.

Also on my personal account i think eliminating bald guys completely from the game would be unrealistic so what we can do is modify the default bald young type files only. Which will switch to bald type when the general becomes old which sounds good to me ( hair loss when the general grows old) coz the main concern here is that the young guys shouldn't be bald especially a 16 year old.

You can also change the color of the face slightly by switching the saturation of the pic (hot key Ctrl+U in photoshop). Remember while editing the bald characters in photoshop there is alpha channel also edit it according the new pic.

Hope u guys find this useful.
Enjoy.

**irishron** · July 10, 2010, 01:56 PM

Unfortunatly, as unrealistic as some think it is, I worked with a guy that looked like #158 before he was 21. We come to find out, he inherited it from his mother. Early baldness is a rarity but it does happen.

From anyone who wants to really mix them up, I also worked with another guy that had a full head of grey hair by his 21st birthday.

Genetics can be cruel.

**Ishan** · July 10, 2010, 02:20 PM

Originally Posted by irishron

Genetics can be cruel.

You are right RON it can be.

Few of the bald guys mentioned above can go on but some of them really don't have a appearance of a 16 year old.

So i thought it might be useful.

**irishron** · July 10, 2010, 02:37 PM

It is very useful. And no, I haven't seen a bonafide 16 year old that bald, yet. I have seen some in their 20s though and the young portraits are from coming-of-age to 50 years old.

I do agree that 70% or so of the portraits being bald are unrealistic. 5 out of 200 chances to me is more than enough.

**Ishan** · July 10, 2010, 03:05 PM

Originally Posted by irishron

It is very useful. And no, I haven't seen a bonafide 16 year old that bald, yet. I have seen some in their 20s though and the young portraits are from coming-of-age to 50 years old.

I do agree that 70% or so of the portraits being bald are unrealistic. 5 out of 200 chances to me is more than enough.

Gee thanks for the back up Sir Ron. +rep to you sir

**~~bbc~~** · December 30, 2011, 12:51 PM

Poor nutrition plus people having ringworms all the time (cure was found in 1906) might have contributed to more people being bald earlier in the middle ages than they are today.
That being said, baldness might have been quite common among men back then..

**7hillip** · June 09, 2015, 04:19 PM

Originally Posted by Ishan

I have been thinking it to write a method on it but didn't had the spare time and energy to put it here. But i always think that whatever i learn or discover in modding it's my sole duty to share it in the mod workshop with u guys coz we all love TWC and all the experienced modders on it who help us relentlessly.

So lets get down to business.

But first a few facts:-
It bugged me a lot since i started playing the grand campaign from the very first time that sometimes which is at random my new general that comes of age is bald as if her mother during her pregnancy was exposed to radiation or something.

So there is simple way of eliminating all these bald generals forever. We all know that in total there are 3 cultures in the game i.e. northern_european, eastern_european and southern_european in which we see bald generals.

So i took my time and went through all the general portraits in these cultures. The north euro and south euro factions share the same portraits which can be found in these paths:

data\ui\southern_european\portraits\portraits\young\generals
data\ui\southern_european\portraits\portraits\old\generals
data\ui\southern_european\portraits\portraits\dead\generals

Whereas the east euro faction's generals portraits can be found here below in this path:

data\ui\eastern_european\portraits\portraits\young\generals
data\ui\eastern_european\portraits\portraits\old\generals
data\ui\eastern_european\portraits\portraits\dead\generals

(The middle eastern generals don't have bald generals).
The folders young, old and dead pretty much speaks for itself. So in total there are 201 portraits each for young, old and dead generals. The file names goes from 000.tga-200.tga.
The notable fact here is that a single character has the same file name in each type of folder i.e. old and young and dead.

So in total i found out there where a total of 24 bald generals in the game. The file names that contains bald type generals are given below in the following Figure 1.

Finally the remedy:-
So to get rid of them make duplicate copies of any other 24 generals portraits that u like according to your preference and rename them to same file names as listed in Figure 1. Even though the general portraits of east euro faction differ from the portraits in southern_european folder(which is used by both north and south euro cultures)but these bald characters have the same file name in eastern_european general portraits as well as southern_european general portraits folder.

So replace one by one all these 24 file names with a non-bald type portraits mentioned in figure 1 above under each of the six directories mentioned above(highlighted in blue).

You can also distinguish the new types in order to eliminate duplicity in the game by adding mustaches, beards and long hair.

Also on my personal account i think eliminating bald guys completely from the game would be unrealistic so what we can do is modify the default bald young type files only. Which will switch to bald type when the general becomes old which sounds good to me ( hair loss when the general grows old) coz the main concern here is that the young guys shouldn't be bald especially a 16 year old.

You can also change the color of the face slightly by switching the saturation of the pic (hot key Ctrl+U in photoshop). Remember while editing the bald characters in photoshop there is alpha channel also edit it according the new pic.

Hope u guys find this useful.
Enjoy.

Cannot see the image, Figure 1?