Modding province.csv
Introduction
The province.csv file is the place in the game where all province information is stored. It can be found in the db folder and you can alter it to change the terrain types in a province, create naval and air bases, radar installations and other province data. Most importantly, perhaps, this file can be modded to change the number of IC in the province and add or subtract resources.
[ ]{#Hints_&_Warnings} Hints & Warnings
Don't forget that entries in the .INC files can modify the values in the Province.csv file. Thus if one province has 3 IC in the Province.csv file but another 2 IC are added in the .inc file then the resulting in game value will be 5 IC.
In my experience, Lord Ederon's Interactive Hearts of Iron 2 Online Map [1] is an invaluable resource when editing the province.csv file. In you need to know what province ID corresponds with a province, zoom in to the region you're working on, click "Province IDs" and you'll have a dynamic map of province ID information.
Example
Here’s how to do it, using the example of changing the number of IC in Turkish provinces.
Find the file Province.csv in the db folder. Before you do anything else, make sure you have a backup copy of the file (as you always do when modding). Then right-click on the file and in the “properties” tab uncheck the “read-only” option that is checked by default, and then open the file and find the provinces that refer to the country you are interested in modding.
To find out which ones these are, you can either use the “showid” cheat with the game map or go to the country’s inc file in the scenarios folders. In the example given here, you would go to turkey.inc in the folder scenarios\1936 and you would find there the following lines:
nationalprovinces = { 409 408 437 438 439 441 442 443 448 440 449 447 446 445 450 1851 1852 1853 1854 1855 } That gives you the province id numbers you need for the Province.csv file.
In that file, the information for each province is entered according to an established pattern, which is given at the very top:
Id;Name;Area;Region;Continent;Climate;Terrain;SizeModifier;AirCapacity;Infrastructure;City;Beaches; Port Allowed;Port Seazone;IC;Manpower;Oil;Metal;Energy;Rare Materials;City XPos;City YPos;Army XPos; Army YPos;Port XPos;Port YPos;Beach XPos;Beach YPos;Beach Icon;Fort XPos;Fort YPos;AA XPos;AA YPos; Counter x;Counter Y;Terrain variant;Terrain x;Terrain Y;Terrain variant;Terrain x;Terrain Y; Terrain variant;Terrain x;Terrain Y;Terrain variant;Fill coord X;Fill coord Y;;;;;; Now lets try to use this information. Take the example of province #409. The line for it in the province file is:
409;PROV409;Bosporus;Anatolia;Europe;Mediterranean;Hills;;;60;;1;1;2464;1;1;0;2;1;1;17069; 3517;17124;3517;17033;3611;17071;3610;6;17104;3577;17039;3532;17075;3536;;;;;;;;;;;17080; 3528;-1;-1;;;; The values are semicolon delimited. It means that each value is separated by a semicolon. Using previous explanation, we can read it easily:
- 409 = id
- PROV409 = name
- Bosporus = area
- Anatolia = region
- Europe = continent
- Mediterranean = climate
and so on.
So, to alter the province’s values, go to the appropriate section of the line and change the value. For example, IC is the 15th “unit” in the line:
409;PROV409;Bosporus;Anatolia;Europe;Mediterranean;Hills;;;60;;1;1;2464;1;1;0;2;1;1;17069; 3517;17124;3517;17033;3611;17071;3610;6;17104;3577;17039;3532;17075;3536;;;;;;;;;;;17080; To add more IC to that province, simply replace the highlighted number with another number. Say we want to change the IC to 99. We need to change the line into:
409;PROV409;Bosporus;Anatolia;Europe;Mediterranean;Hills;;;60;;1;1;2464;99;1;0;2;1;1;17069; 3517;17124;3517;17033;3611;17071;3610;6;17104;3577;17039;3532;17075;3536;;;;;;;;;;;17080; Save the province.csv file and you are ready to go.
If you do add a large amount of IC to a country, you might also want to think about adding more resources too, because those extra IC will eat through the existing resources more rapidly, just as the IC you build in-game do. Resources can be added at will to provinces, using the same method just described for IC.