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Baron's Middle Earth Portrait Replacer [Submod] [Currently incompatible with the latest MEP]

NOTE: Hello folks, I haven't had the time to keep up with the MEP updates that keep breaking this mod so unfortunately it is gonna do dormant for a while. I might update it when MEP hits a stable version that will mean it has less updates for me to keep up with. Thanks to all who tried this mod out. - Baron

Make sure you start a new game if using this mod for the first time.

ABOUT THIS MOD:

Middle Earth Portrait Replacer is a sub-mod for The Middle Earth Project, adding approximately 170 portraits from the LotR and Hobbit movies into CK2. With a small handful of discrete exceptions, all portraits used are real people from the LotR and Hobbit movie franchise. I deliberately wanted to avoid using illustrations, fan art and other digital or drawn content, which means some characters that were pertinent to the books but were not featured in the movies were impossible to be portrayed.


FEATURES:

- Replaces around 170 portraits with movie tie-in counterparts, with plans to keep adding more.
- Some characters have portraits that age over time. For example Bilbo Baggins will be portrayed as Martin Freeman during the War of the Five Armies period, but will appear as Ian Holm during the War of the Ring era.
- Some characters have event specific portrait changes. For example Sauron appears in different forms before the forging of The Ring, when in its possession, during his period as The Necromancer and finally in spirit form.


INCOMPATIBILITIES:

- Mods that add/alter custom portraits will cause issues.
- Using ruler designer and/or the ingame barber is untested and likely to cause portrait strangeness.
- Any MEP updates to the history files are likely to break this mod, which will mean an update will be required. If that happens, let me know and I'll try update it asap.


INSTALLATION:

1. This mod requires "The Middle Earth Project". Subscribe to "The Middle Earth Project" and "Baron's Middle Earth Portrait Replacer" on Steam. Launch CKII. In the launcher mod tab enable both "The Middle Earth Project" and "Baron's MEP Portrait Replacer".

2.) Launch the game. The new portraits will appear on the world map as you are selecting a chartacter. (Note: They will NOT appear on the bookmarks screen, so don't panic)


FUTURE PLANS:

- Add more portraits where possible.
- Create more context based evolving portraits. One example could be Frodo will appear healthy before The Ring, sickly whilst in its possession, and worn after The Ring has been destroyed. [working on this]
- Add custom portraits to landmark Wilderness locations.
- If you have specific characters you want to see, leave a comment!

CHANGELOG:

VER 2.0:
- Added about 70+ new portraits!
- New portraits added for major players in the eras The Last Alliance and Battle of the Five Armies.
- Reworked from scratch, vastly improving portrait quality for all characters.
- More time-contextual portraits added. Sauron, Bilbo, Aragorn now appear different depending on the era.
- Some dynamic portrait functionality has been broken; For example, Aragorn may not change from his "Strider" appearance to his "Aragorn" portrait correctly. This will be fixed in upcoming patches.

VER 1.0 :
- Initial release. Added 98 portraits; Majority related to War of the Ring era.


CREDITS:

- This mod was built on the framework of ReMeDy's AGOT portrait template. It would not have been possible without his awesome work or his graciousness in making it available for all to modify.
- ngppgn for his automated Python script and template.
- Huge thanks to the MEP team for their incredible mod.

Thanks to the following awesome cosplayers:
- marinecosplaybr
- Yshara
- Quellart
- Flippotycoon
- silvercrow
- WulWhite
- Red-Dragon-Lord
- flaminodoug


FAIR USE:

This mod is a non-commercial, hobby project. It uses images from various LotR/Hobbit movies and promotional material which hopefully won't cause issue, but in the event there is a copyright problem the mod will be removed to respect copyright holders' wishes.

No donations will be accepted for the mod but if anyone would like to support me, please check out my gaming/VR review channel on YouTube! https://www.youtube.com/c/TheBaron


OTHER RECOMMENDED SUBMODS:

- Check out Maqerix' great LotR soundtrack mod for extra immersion. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1318962370