Hello, Before I forget to ever do this, I wanted to make a forum post for the Europa Universalis 4 total conversion mod I'm developing that transfers our beloved Aloria into EU4. At the current moment, the mod is incredibly barebones and is UNPLAYABLE. As in, the map won't load into the game. EU4 is a game with code that is shit-bricked together in as convoluted of a way as possible with non-comprehensive tools and barely any tutorials out there for modding, especially as it concerns something as Massive (hehe) as a total conversion mod. Additionally, I know how to repaint maps in GIMP, but I'm by no means any sort of computer science coder wiz. I am mostly getting by with support from the EU4 modding community, who helped me get a custom map loaded. I'm close to getting something resembling a map that will load in game, but it is a tantalizing and demoralizing process, and the slightest error results in a game crash with utterly no explanation as to what you got wrong. I've fully accepted I probably will not see this project to completion, but given the popularity of the game with Massivecraft RPers and my own love of it, I figured it would be a kindness to link all the files through a Google Drive in case I give up and someone comes along months down the line and wants to pick up where I left off. It's been a frustrating but entertaining passion project trying to at bare minimum get the map into the game. Most provinces are overgeneralized, some have madeup names I've cobbled between new and old lore, and what I'm trying to do probably isn't even feasible in the game engine (because Aloria is so huge compared to planet earth!). But feel free to check it out. LINK TO GOOGLE DOC OF FILES Below is sort of a dev diary of what I've done with notes on what I'd like to do in the future: Spoiler: Dev Diary 1 I first started out with drawing the archipelago on the map. This was before I decided to downsize the map to fit at least one dimension of the base game's map, and before I learned how to draw provinces on in the most effective way, but I still find it aesthetically pleasing to look at. The very first map I produced of Regalia. Traced off MonMarty's most recent map, but I'm really proud with how 'neat' it is to look at. Unfortunately, the final product will not include this many archipelago provinces. A province map of Aloria. I wanted to start small and build on it, but know that making provinces too big will insta-crash the game, so I was forced to populate the map instead of just working with one province and adding on once I got a successful load. There are presently 150 provinces on the map, but will be added as soon as I can get the game to load! : D As you can see, pretty map. Each tile requires a code linking the RGB color to a number, which then needs to be sourced into multiple files such as "continents," "areas" and "province history." From "Province history" you can assign the province to a country. From there, if you want your province's name to show up, you have to add an additional line of code under "localisation" that tells the game to display "PROV1" as "Regalia". It is super fussy. Early on in "dev", I was able to port the archipelago onto the base game's map. Oi bruv, whots 'at innit? It was a lengthy process of trial and error. Eventually, with the help of the EU4 modding community, I was able to implement a custom map: Real attractive, right? Right now, I'm pretty sure I'm having issues with porting a map that exceeds the borders of the base game. The base game runs on a 5632x2048 pixel spread, however, the most I can try to size down Aloria is to a 5632x3072 spread--Aloria is just too latitude-tall to resize any lower. I may need to move Farah'deen, the Sihai lands, Sendrass, the little islands off the coast of Sendrass and more up higher to condense everything to fit within the base game's parameters. The base game's map overlayed atop probably the smallest you can go for accurately representing Aloria. Something cool I'm proud of learning while creating the map is how to do a heightmap. Heightmaps are grayscale images that sample values between 0;0;0 RGB, through 255;255;255. "sea level" is roughly 95;95;95, meaning any shade of grey between 0 and 95 dictates how deep the ocean will appear, while any shade higher than 96 adds hills, and eventually mountains. Incredibly satisfying to paint: Part of the heightmap for the Aloria mod. The lighter the color, the higher the topography. I got much better at painting mountains as I worked further north. Because this file has yet to be loaded in game, I have no clue what these will look like---so I hope it looks good! Finally, the world map I traced over drawn by @MonMarty. Eventually, the 'terra incognito' will be represented in the game. Road map: I want to at least get a map running in game without crashes. Then, I will begin populating provinces with countries, with barebones government forms. After that comes cultures and religions---I hope to represent every culture/race and every religion in at least one province, but due to constraints with the size of the map, that may be an impossible endeavor. It would be neat to eventually implement different mechanics to differentiate between Regalia, Regalia heartland provinces, Regalia suzerain provinces and colonies, and to illustrate a power struggle between "the empire" and its subjects, which is what EU4 is built for. This mod will hyper-fixate on the Regalian Empire, but I hope to have "interesting" mechanics for the Allorn Empire, the Dread Empire, the Masaya, etc. too to make playing those nations "viable." But I should be honest in saying I'm mostly doing this to make pretty map, and then to make a game that lets you paint pretty map purple. Afterward, I'd like to add province flavors. Barratt, the island up near Nordskag, is only accessible one day of the year, so that should be reflected in the game. Sassrakand is an impervious fortress island, so obviously it shouldn't be easily siege-able. The Sihai Jade Wall at Dexai is this impervious wall shutting the Sihai from the rest of Aloria, so naturally outside countries should have to go through the island of Dexai if they want to conquer in. A lot of my lore knowledge is out of date, so I've been going through refamiliarizing myself with it. A start date before the formation of Regalia would be cool, but I'll want to make 300 and 310 start dates, too. Finding a way to split knight orders out and make them vassal countries could be neat. Creating a mechanic that lets culture spread naturally to illustrate the modernization/Regalization of the Empire just like the base game protestant reformation would be neat, too. At this point, I'm not accepting help until I can reliably load up the map in game---so if you're familiar with EU4 modding, I'd love to hear from you. Who knows, I might just give up and go over to CK3, which looks abundantly easier to mod from a glance. Time will tell. But I wanted to make a post and rant about my little passion project for a bit because it really interests me, and maybe someone will be inspired to make similar mods in other games, or pick this project up after I get burnt out and quit. I'll try to keep the Google Drive updated with the most recent files I'm working on. Feel free to take a peak and look through the neat maps. If you read to the end, thanks for tuning in to my dumb little mod, but seriously, go log on and Roleplay, purchase Supremium at https://shop.massivecraft.com/, and be sure to vote for your daily regals at https://www.massivecraft.com/vote.
