Changing/editing Faction Banners! (BTW, I was successful...)

[Akaie]

So... this is about faction banners! ...or Flags!

I am wanting to change a clan's banner on the campaign map. If I'm not mistaken, 'faction_banners' only allows me to change the banners on the individual soldiers' back, not the huge banner hovering over each unit in battle or carried by the general/commander unit on the campaign map (the latter is what I want to change).

The only other entry in the db folder that seems relevant is 'factions_tables'. ('faction_rebellion_units_junctions' does not have anything to represent a choice of colour and deals with rebels, 'faction_resource_consumptions_tables' isn't supported, and 'faction_uniform_colours' deals with the colours of the units; not what I want!) Alas, the only thing I took from 'factions_tables' was that I could change the colour that represented the clan's territories in that map at the top-right hand part of the screen. A bit off topic, I should think.

Obviously, I have looked at the db entries that start with "faction/factions" more than anything. Now, I may have, due to human error or limited perception, overlooked a file/files in the 'data.pack' that allow me to change exactly what I intend to change. Alternatively, PFM does not have the appropriate support for this.

I have also noticed a distinction in the naming of the tables. In the "avatar_" set of tables, there are two that caught my attention: "avatar_faction_flags_tables" and "avatar_flags_tables." Notice there's no "faction_flags_tables" or "flags_tables". Furthermore, I can't remember what "faction_" table actually did this, but in one test I managed to get those bars that represent a unit in an army to turn black. This is the closest I have gotten to actually change a banner.

Ultimately, I am hoping the 'hovering banners' in multi-player are created in pretty much the same way the ones in the battles are, which may potentially let me edit them.

So, here's where I need insight. I'll continue to look for more information, as I may have over-looked something ridiculously blatant, but anything anyone has come up with regarding them would be awesome. Thanks.


Update I:
Well, it seems I have found them. They are in models.pack > flags > textures. Admittedly, that was an over-sight.

Now I am having the grueling problem of actually making changes to them. At first, I simply tried swapping the Uesugi banner with the Toyotomi banner. Theoretically, I figured, I would have the Toyotomi banner hovering in an up-and-down motion above my troops in battles, as well as it's presence in the campaign. In practice, it wasn't that simple. The game crashed when trying to entire the clan selection page for the campaign and when trying to enter the custom battle page.

Then I pulled out Photoshop (with Nvidia's .dds plug-in). Using the "banners2.dds" file in the same folder, I copied the Toyotomi banner and pasted it over the Uesugi banner. After going through a few compression types I found one that had the exact same file size as the original "banners2.dds" file, so if any compression were to be applied, I figure why not that one. Again, the game crashed. My last attempt in doing something with these damn banner files was with the Ikko-Ikki. I remembered their banner was actually white in the original version of the game before the fifth patch/DLC content gave them that orange-looking colour. From the patch5.pack file I noted every file name that was present in "rigidmodels > flags > textures" and extracted the original files from the "models.pack" with the same address (rigidmodels > flags > textures) into a new pack file, which would overwrite the files that overwrite the originals. AGAIN, the game crashed when trying to open the clan selection and custom battle menu.

This is what I have done so far. I am hoping that someone will come along and shed at the very least a tiny bit of information that might help me, even if it actually doesn't! Either way, when I commit time to it, I will continue to understand this banners stuff, and update in this thread for the 30 or so people who have already looked at it (yeah... extremely popular, huh...) and for those who eventually will.

[Akaie]

I'm not sure if there's a point to me going on about this, but I figure it may be interesting to someone fairly new to modding (not unlike myself).

Anyway, it would seem the screw-ups mentioned above in the update were not because of the banners; most likely a user script referencing a non-present modification. When I tried swapping out flags today I had immediate success, using the old Ikko-ikki banners as a test subject (I did upload this but promptly removed it due to an almost completely similar mod that was already released). Not stopping there, I went so far as to edit "agent_faction_ids0.dds," "banners0.dds" and "mon_stratbanner_ikko_ikki_diffuse.dds" with a custom "Bi" mon (in the same vein as Kanetsugu's 'Ai' mon).

I have an elementary understanding of visual content: I can do simple stuff, but creating something complex from scratch may be beyond my capabilities for now. Attached is a screen-shot. Here I slapped my Bi mon over that of the Ikko-ikki' in the aforementioned .dds files. Using the originals as a reference point so as to make sure I was using the right compression settings, I got things right on the first go.

A pretty good breakthrough, although I'm fairly new to this so my noob-ness may be blurring what is actually quite mundane. And as I said: it might be a decent bit of information for those new to modding.

[Moonflower]

Hey I just posted on your mod page and came across this! plus rep for the info I'm surprised more people haven't tried to tweak or learn about tweaking banners. I'm going to try my hand at it, seems pretty simple (since you already did the hard stuff for me haha) cheers!

[Akaie]

Cheers. I was surprised too, considering how long S2 has lived.

Anyway, this isn't a brilliant 'how to' so I fully intend to create a decent tutorial soon. Most of my modding time has gone into creating the banners, so I haven't been thinking about any tutorial that much.

So, sometime in the future that'll pop up.

[Moonflower]

thanks to your insights and a tutorial I came across in the workshop I successfully accomplished all I wanted except for the banners carried in the unit!

[Erwin Rommel]

Is there anyway to make the nobori banners..............taller?

[Akaie]

I have to deal in semantics. Taller? Probably not. Thinner, however, absolutely.... theoretically. The alpha channel of models.pack > rigidmodels > flags > textures > battle_flags_atlas0.dds can be edited to take a specific amount from the left side of the banner.

Catch my drift?