[CKII] A little DW:R hack - Customisable Portraits for Children (announcement)

[vienastoks]

Hello, everybody,

 

I've always been a bit sad Paradox chose to make all CKII kids indistinguishable from one another, but I've learned to live with it. If, however, one has installed some mods that introduce monster, furry or any other outlandish ethnicities, the pain of seeing your brood as 'default' children becomes nearly unbearable. I hoped ReMeDy mod would remedy (sorry) this, but ReMeDy (and the version used by DW:Reborn) can only add custom static portraits to adults.

 

Now it so happens that I started playing as a Neko lady for entirely different mod project and got really p***ed at seeing my sweet children as stock lombard issue. So I spent an afternoon hacking and came away with this:

 

 

Cheesy names aside, I think this is quite an improvement.

 

If there's any interest I may polish my hack a bit and post it as a submod tomorrow or the day after.

 

What CPS ("Children Portraits - Static") does:

- Lets you right-click on any portrait and use a targeted decision to drop default static portrait (revealing a dynamic adult one instead).

- Once you've got an adult one revealed, you can add any custom portrait from DW:R collection (or your own creation) by simply typing in the console "add_trait portrait_number character_id".

 

Admittedly, this takes some DIY, so it's not for everybody. The interface for choosing static portrait replacement does not exist in CKII, so we can either use the console or assign random portrait (as DW:R does for felines, canines, etc.).

 

So, please, add your voice pro or contra, so that I'd know if there's any interest in beta-testing this. The hack does use free slots in DW:R custom portrait group so potentially there could be a conflict with some other mod that may use the same slots (files remedy_portrait_swapping 21 and 22). There shouldn't be any compatibility issues with other DW:R submods, unless they also will attempt to change stock portraits for children.

 

There are some other slight caveats, but I'll document them if I post the submod.

[bicobus]

It looks interesting, but I don't see myself bothered enough to actually make the effort of changing each child's portrait manually. Do you think it possible to include that feature in DW:Reborn once the system has been tested enough?

[vienastoks]

It looks interesting, but I don't see myself bothered enough to actually make the effort of changing each child's portrait manually. Do you think it possible to include that feature in DW:Reborn once the system has been tested enough?

 

You are right - a lot depends on how many children you have and how much you roleplay the parent. My case with neko cat and lombard kids was extreme in contrast. The best solution would be to make all childhood portraits dynamic, that's hardly realistic (or practical). But I plan to automate the hack a bit before public release:

- it would set an appropriate childhood portrait based on exotic species randomly (from a set in DW:R or submods if they deal with portraits) 

- it would let you skip portrait frames one-by-one through targeted decision without using console until you get what you want

 

This then would probably qualify for a Dark World: Reborn submod. And yes, I do plan to release it as a submod once I gather and implement all suggestions.

 

Thank you for your comment - it seems we can do without involving the console, after all!

[bicobus]

You could have an on_birth event to set the portraits. I don't think having the ability to skip through the portraits to find one we like is in the same spirit as CK2 though

[vienastoks]

You could have an on_birth event to set the portraits. I don't think having the ability to skip through the portraits to find one we like is in the same spirit as CK2 though

 

Yes, there is an event for birth. I'm actually nearly finished with core functionality of the hack. Selecting portrait might not be in the spirit in the original vanilla CK2, but it is completely in spirit of the Ruler Designer

[hampe973]

how goes it with this? sounds really interesting

 

[shanadir]

don't know how much this works as an extension of this mod, but for some races, i'd like to be able to keep the child portrait around for longer, (like elves) or, for true immortals, forever. if you become an immortal vampire at age 13, you should keep looking that way, even at 130