Zubei’s Flags – A civil flag mod
This mod alters the coats of arms of EU IV to their respective civil flags or ensigns wherever applicable. It also aesthetically enhances several of the existing game arms/flags without changing their elements.
Includes 165 processed flags so far.
Please rate up if you like this mod – it will boost my confidence in continuing to work on it.
If you like this mod you can thank Paradox for choosing the royal arms of King Henry IV as their flag for England. During a game with England and after changing my ruling dynasty, I ended up with a Portuguese King and the French and English arms. This was my basis for going through this process of replacing all royal banners and coats of arms with their respective civil ensigns, which had the historical tendency to change much more rarely or not at all, thus, in my opinion, being more representative of the countries themselves.
I also aesthetically upgraded several game flags that are correct but have, again, in my opinion, low detail.
While building this mod I came across several restrictions because of the game’s flag format. The game allows one, square version of the flag for each country. It then crops that image for the shield and after battle elements in the game and stretches it for the animated flags on the world map and on ships. This imposes severe restrictions to the historical accuracy that can be achieved in respect to flags and I have tried to work around this as best I can.
Due to the above reasons, I felt as if I had to make a set of rules to adhere to, otherwise I would descend into an arbitrary and do-as-I-like pattern. The rules are:
– Civil flags trump naval ensigns, coats of arms and royal banners and standards usually in that order.
– If a country had a flag at the game’s historical start in 1444, then that flag is used onwards.
– If a city had a flag and a crest and a coat of arms, the flag is preferred.
I have violated my own rules in select cases (no more than two or three I believe, e.g. Venice).
– An exhaustive list of all my changes and reasoning behind them exists in the change notes.
– I am aware that there are great similarities between certain flags. If you find yourself in a war between the Hansa, Bohemia and Hesse you might try to attack the wrong army. However, rules are rules and the overwhelming preference to flags with the motif of the cross of St. George or the imperial colours or the red and white motif in medieval Europe is not my fault. Most flags have varying shades of colours so you should be able to differentiate.
