Uploading Custom Coats of Arms

Learn how to upload your own custom coat of arms in Manor Lords! This guide walks you through using the template, editing software, and saving your unique design.

Alright, so you want to give your settlement a truly unique look in Manor Lords, huh? Custom coats of arms are the way to go! It's not super complicated, but you'll need to follow a few steps to get your personal flair into the game. Don't worry, I'll walk you through it.

Here's the game plan:

1. First things first, you need the official template. Grab the template_custom_coat.png file from the Manor Lords Press Kit. You can usually find a link to that on the game's official site or through a quick search.
2. Next, fire up your favorite image editor. Photoshop, GIMP – whatever you're comfortable with will work just fine.
3. Open up that template file. You'll see a shield with a designated white area. This is where your masterpiece goes! Anything outside this white space won't show up in-game, so keep your design focused.
4. Once you've got your design looking sharp within the white space, it's time to clean up. Delete the original template layer.
5. Now, save your creation as custom_coat.png. This is super important: you need to put it in a specific folder. Navigate to C:\Users\Username\AppData\Local\ManorLords\Saved\SaveGames. Make sure to replace 'Username' with your actual Windows username.
6. Launch Manor Lords. Start a new game or load an existing one where you want to apply it.
7. In the game menu, look for a folder icon labeled 'Load Custom Texture'. Click that, and if everything's in the right place, your custom coat of arms should pop up! You can then save it like any other design or jump straight into your game with it.

Pro-Tip for Editing: When you're working on your design, try setting the template layer's opacity way down. This way, you can use it like a tracing paper, laying your custom design layer on top. It really helps you nail the positioning so it looks perfect in-game. Just remember to delete that low-opacity template layer before you save the final custom_coat.png, or it'll mess up your design!

Dealing with Multiple Designs: Now, this is where it gets a little fiddly. Manor Lords only lets you have one custom coat of arms saved directly from the game menu at a time. Plus, you can only have one custom_coat.png file in that SavedGames folder. If you want to switch between designs, you'll need to save backups of your custom files. Keep them in that folder but rename them something descriptive (like my_clan_coat.png or king_arthur_crest.png). Then, when you want to use a different one, just rename it back to custom_coat.png and load it in-game. It's a bit of manual file management, but it works!