Slitherine

Hi, I whipped up a small graphics pack, and thought I'd post it here and on the Matrix forums in case anyone else was interested. It does a couple things. First off, it changes the little pictures of terrain to color ones I stole from a HOI fanpack and off the internet. Next it gives the Germans a more historical flag. Finally, it modifies the unit badges so that a unit that moves displays NO badge rather then a pale one. In my opinion this makes it much more obvious which units you've used and which you haven't in any given turn.

To install just backup your \image folder and then copy mine into your game directory. You can copy your backup back if you change your mind. It should also be easy to use it in a modular manner. If you don't want the historical flag, delete all my files that start in 'flag', if you don't want the new badges delete all the files starting with 'emblem', etc.

Here's the download link, sorry for the crappy free file sever.
http://www.filefactory.com/file/5f64a7/

Here's a quick picture. You can see a sample of what I changed here. New flag, invisible badges, and color terrain.
http://img35.picoodle.com/img/img35/8/6 ... b2fc82.jpg

Enjoy!

Good man!

the link shows the filename but no obvious way of downloading it

Great work. Just be sure to get permission from the original creators of the images.

Well, I made the pack at first for my own use, so honestly, copyrighted images didn't even occur to me. A quick look around the net shows that it's really tricky to figure out which old photos are public domain or not. I'm 99% sure the images I used from a HOI2 fan graphics pack are just 'borrowed' from the internet too. (Haha, plus I noticed I missed the images for the seaport and oilfields on my uploaded version.)

So here's a version without the color terrain pics. If you really want them 15 minutes on google should get you a good variety to replace them yourself. I also put it on filefront, which I think will make downloading easier.

This just has a homemade historical German flag and makes the inactive unit badges invisible.
http://files.filefront.com//;7871348;;/

Fintilgin, that's nice work on the flag and unit badges, thanks.

Looking at the screenshot, I don't see anything different, aside from the missing cross on some units, presumably the ones that have moved. Oh, and your numerals look slightly different, but most people's screenshots have that. I'm guessing it's some minor font variation depending on localisation.

What do you mean by flag and unit badges? The units still have the same black cross or red star., as far as I can see.

possum wrote: What do you mean by flag and unit badges? The units still have the same black cross or red star., as far as I can see.

Look at the German national flag, upper left corner.

Borsook wrote:

possum wrote: What do you mean by flag and unit badges? The units still have the same black cross or red star., as far as I can see.

Look at the German national flag, upper left corner.

I don't understand why you would like that.

It has been my observation that europeans are far more sensitive to swastikas and other emblems of national socialism than Americans are. Truth to tell, we use the word "nazi" pretty casually here in the US, to describe anyone who is fanatical about something. But I have learned never to do that in front of europeans, having been rebuked and even screamed at for it more than once.

So why trot out the swastika, when there was a perfectly good and universally inoffensive symbol already in place?

possum wrote:

Borsook wrote:

possum wrote: What do you mean by flag and unit badges? The units still have the same black cross or red star., as far as I can see.

Look at the German national flag, upper left corner.

I don't understand why you would like that.

It has been my observation that europeans are far more sensitive to swastikas and other emblems of national socialism than Americans are. Truth to tell, we use the word "nazi" pretty casually here in the US, to describe anyone who is fanatical about something. But I have learned never to do that in front of europeans, having been rebuked and even screamed at for it more than once.

So why trot out the swastika, when there was a perfectly good and universally inoffensive symbol already in place?

Swastika is hardly ever found in games, because Germany has a law, which under some interpretations could be considered as forbidding it's use, and no company wants to risk it. Hell, in the German version of Hearts of Iron II even Hitler's name is changed to avoid problems. On the other hand some players (like me) prefer the historically correct flag, hence the need for such mods.

PS. The word "nazi" is used in this context in Europe too, i.e. in everyday speech. I suppose it is not the case of nationality but rather the personal ideas about correctness etc etc.

Borsook wrote: PS. The word "nazi" is used in this context in Europe too, i.e. in everyday speech. I suppose it is not the case of nationality but rather the personal ideas about correctness etc etc.

In that case there is a definite double standard at work here, because I have been excoriated by euros for using that word until I felt like the biggest stupidest most insensitive jerk in the world.

possum wrote:

Borsook wrote: PS. The word "nazi" is used in this context in Europe too, i.e. in everyday speech. I suppose it is not the case of nationality but rather the personal ideas about correctness etc etc.

In that case there is a definite double standard at work here, because I have been excoriated by euros for using that word until I felt like the biggest stupidest most insensitive jerk in the world.

You know, Europe is very diverse, it's impossible to talk about things "European" esp when it comes to such standard, there is none that works for the majority of the continent, rather dozens That said I'd stress that "everyday speech" e.g. I can't imagine anyone using the word in such a meaning e.g. on TV.

I think a lot of it is just people looking for an excuse to give some American a ration of crap. Anti-American sentiment in the world today is the highest I have seen it since the late 70's. And, today as then, I can sort of understand it, even as much as I dislike being on the receiving end of it.

Anyhow, I have derailed this thread badly, for which I apologise to one and all. This is getting perilously close to politics, which is the death of all polite conversation

OK, one last observation - the spellchecker on these forums likes only American spellings of words; it marks the English spelling as incorrect. Try it, saber and sabre, theater and theatre. I see our evil plan for linguistic world domination advances smoothly

ROFL, it also marks the word cheque as a mis-spelling

possum wrote: OK, one last observation - the spellchecker on these forums likes only American spellings of words; it marks the English spelling as incorrect. Try it, saber and sabre, theater and theatre. I see our evil plan for linguistic world domination advances smoothly

ROFL, it also marks the word cheque as a mis-spelling

There is a spellchecker in the forum? Where? Are sure this is not the spellcheck built-in the browser?

Indeed the use of swastikas is forbidden in Germany for any use except historical. Hitlers name is not, though, but perhaps the makers/publishers of HoI thought the sales of a game could be negatively if this name would appear.

If you called a German a "Nazi" it was a very bad insult.
(Neo) Nazis are prosecuted, and that is perfectly ok, because we never want to see Nazis here again.
I think this is similar in other European countries at least in France, Poland and countries wich suffered most from the Nazis.

But back to the topic, I shold get the invisible badges, too!

Dragonflame wrote:
If you called a German a "Nazi" it was a very bad insult.

I think possum meant metaphorical usage like calling somebody a "grammar nazi" when that person corrects every little grammar mistake other people make in a very "invasive" manner.

Borsook wrote:

Dragonflame wrote:
If you called a German a "Nazi" it was a very bad insult.

I think possum meant metaphorical usage like calling somebody a "grammar nazi" when that person corrects every little grammar mistake other people make in a very "invasive" manner.

Correct, Borsook. The specific usage that really dropped me in the poop recently was calling someone a 'nix nazi.

You know the type, every time anything glitches anywhere, they go "Well, this wouldn't be happening if you were running Linux". Sorry but, I'm sick to death of these types, and their attitude like the sun rises and sets on Linus Torvald's butthole.

And I think you're right; it's probably just the Firefox spellchecker. Gods merciless and immortal, but I hate spellcheckers; the damn things are everywhere these days, people rely on them too much, and they're no substitute for knowing how to spell.

Classic example of spellcheckers run amok. There was company called Tuscany Fine Arts, and they sold high-quality repoductions of classic paintings. They offered a nice print of a classic painting entitled "Circe offering the cup to Ulysses" , which illustrates a scene from the Odyssey.

They had it listed as "Circle offering the cup to Ulysses"

/me bangs head on desk repeatedly.

possum wrote:
And I think you're right; it's probably just the Firefox spellchecker. Gods merciless and immortal, but I hate spellcheckers; the damn things are everywhere these days, people rely on them too much, and they're no substitute for knowing how to spell.

In that case you can easily turn it off or install British spelling, indeed "armour" looks more lofty than "armor"

possum wrote: Classic example of spellcheckers run amok. There was company called Tuscany Fine Arts, and they sold high-quality repoductions of classic paintings. They offered a nice print of a classic painting entitled "Circe offering the cup to Ulysses" , which illustrates a scene from the Odyssey.

They had it listed as "Circle offering the cup to Ulysses"

/me bangs head on desk repeatedly.

That's a good one!

I believe that displaying the swastika symbol is illegal in Germany for any purpose except in an appropriate historical context, i.e. a military museum or a WW2 movie. In this context it would appear that a WW2 computer game displaying swastikas should be considered as appropriate, unless the game appears to promote or glorify the NSDAP and/or its policies. I very much doubt that such a game would be breaking German law, but it would raise eyebrows and generate the usual vociferous complaints from the Left and the Jewish community.

marklv wrote:I believe that displaying the swastika symbol is illegal in Germany for any purpose except in an appropriate historical context, i.e. a military museum or a WW2 movie. In this context it would appear that a WW2 computer game displaying swastikas should be considered as appropriate, unless the game appears to promote or glorify the NSDAP and/or its policies. I very much doubt that such a game would be breaking German law, but it would raise eyebrows and generate the usual vociferous complaints from the Left and the Jewish community.

No, such a game would violate against German law, as the display of the Swastika, even in historical context, is only allowed within educational context or arts. I have repeatedly read that computer games are not considered belonging to these.