Strategic Command Historical Flag mod

[Philippe]

Strategic Command Historical Flag Mod version 1.3c
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This mod attempts to make the flags displayed by the game as historically accurate as possible.
It only changes the graphics of the mod, so it won't effect pbem games if one player uses it and the other doesn't.

The mod only makes changes to the flags and flag roundels, and should be compatible with any other graphics mod that uses the base game's flag images. 
In other words, you should be able to use this with any of the different unit mods that are out there.

The main correction to the flags of the game was the flag for the United States, which is not easy to work with. 
Throughout most of the twentieth century the United States flew a 48 star flag, and this was the flag that was used in both World Wars.
The difference between 48 and 50 stars is not merely a question of adding a couple of stars:
the 50 star arrangements are set up in a checkerboard pattern, whereas the 48 star arrangements are set up in aligned columns and rows. 
The two flags are visually different, and you don't have to count the stars to be able to tell which one uses 48 and which one uses 50 stars.

For those of you who come from one-flag countries and aren't familiar with these things,
most countries have two or three different flags which they use in different situations. 
France, the United Kingdom, and the United States are all single flag users,
which leaves their citizens conceptually impoverished and easily confused when looking at the flags of a nation that keeps its flag functions relatively distinct. 
Countries usually have a general or civil flag, which tends to get used as the short-hand symbol for everything else.
Another common flag category is the state flag, which you'll often see flying in front of an embassy or government building.  A third and extremely common flag type is the War flag or military flag.

Things can get a bit confusing when the categories overlap. 
Poland has an elegantly simple civil flag, and a state flag and military flag that are identical. 
Germany uses the same flag as the civil flag and the state flag, but its military flag is different. Other countries with distincly different military flags are Finland, Slovakia, and Romania.
And Japan has one national flag and different but extremely similar flags for the Army and Navy.


Here are a few screenshots so you can get a sense of what this mod does:





















The mod changes all of the flags and roundels in all four language versions of the Media folders.  Here are before and after screenshots of a sample of the flag changes.

Before:



After:










WHERE TO GET THE MOD:



The Matrix Version:

https://app.box.com/s/qqyuzge4dds77cmt6amnghmt46hz0vj3



The Steam Version:

https://app.box.com/s/ixni1igctg8rotk03dj7sk8wdi5q25qr


HOW TO INSTALL THE MOD


This mod is designed for manual installation. 
I have no intention of ever making it compatible with a mod installer because people should know what is going on inside their computers.

The mod comes in two versions, a Steam version and a non-Steam version.
They aren't interchangeable.

The structure of the mod in its folders mimics the folder structure of the game,
so all you have to do after you download and unzip it is to copy and paste it to wherever your Matrix folder lives.

The mod folder that you're looking for is simply named 'Matrix Games' ( or 'Steam', depending) , and has other folders  inside of it
(but don't go looking for them). 

On my ancient Windows 7 computer that would mean pasting it inside of the C:\Programs (x86) directory,
but different people put their Matrix Games folder in different places, so I'm trying to keep this as generic as possible. 

If you paste the folder into the right place your computer will immediately ask you if you want to start over-writing things.  The answer of course is yes to everything,
and if you aren't asked the question you're trying to install the mod into the wrong place. 

The two most common mistakes that people make with my mods is that they navigate inside the mod folders before they try to copy and paste,
or that they navigate to the game inside their computers before they try to paste. 
Either approach will yield no results. 
Try not to make any assumptions about how things work when installing one of mods. 
As my girlfriend can attest, I don't think like other people.

Most people won't have any problems installing this, but as a precaution against accidents you might want to consider backing up your originals (gentle hint).

These mods get downloaded from my personal Box account. 
Be aware that I sometimes run out of bandwidth towards the end of the month. 
It hasn't happened in a while, but if it should happen, please mention it on these boards. 
Ordinarily the solution is just to wait until about a week into the next calendar month. 
In the unlikely event that the problem becomes endemic, I will set up a pair of mirror accounts in Dropbox.

There are a few niggly little flag issues that will either get cleared up by future game patches, or will get addressed by future versions of the mod.
My mods usually suffer through several versions, because I can never make up my mind when confronted with a palette of colors.

[Philippe]

The main thing that's changed since this came out about a week ago is that all the minor countries now have flag bases for their 3-D units; these bases for minors were blank in the vanilla version of the game.

This is a flag mod only.  Among other things that means that it can be combined with the different 2-D unit mods that have been coming out.

[Barthheart]

Thanks!  O0

[stolypin]

Downloaded and installed. 

Thanks!