Man, it's hard to decide.

On one hand, AI art is basically theft with extra steps. It's impossible to credit the people whose work gets processed by the algorithm.

On the other, it's cool that each house gets its own little flavor images, it'd feel disappointing for the legacy tracks to have reused vanilla images. Is borrowing existing artwork from the community (while giving credit ofc) out of the question? Maybe just pay someone to draw a single image that you can reuse for all the legacies exclusive to your mod.

Having to find a unique image for every single house sounds absurd without the aid of AI. If you do decide to borrow artwork from the community while giving credit, you could try to find eight images; one for each kingdom (plus crownlands). I rarely play in the same kingdom twice back to back, so going from Dorne to the Reach and seeing different legacy artwork would really add to the immersion and/or excitement of playing the new house.

That's all I got for now. I'm a fellow mod author myself so I have a similar thought process to yours. There was a time when I tried to please everyone, but quickly realized that was gonna be impossible. Everyone has different expectations of mods, and different tolerance thresholds for content they find unacceptable. I'm more than willing to put up with AI art if the rest of the content is good, and that certainly is true for your mod. Be proud of your work here.

You are not trying to profit off of AI art - the mod is free. If you were charging money for something and using AI images trained on the work of others without their consent, I think that's a different story and paying artists for custom art at that point would be best.

If people are fundamentally against your use of AI art for this free mod you're making for the community, they can choose not to use it, or build their own that aligns with their opinions on how to use AI art. I certainly don't think its reasonable for you to have to pay money to hire an artist to make these images. And there's also no way to know at this point whether images in games were made with AI, or AI assisted (not the case for CK3 I don't think, but will become increasingly prevalent as AI tools get better, games get bigger and more detailed, etc).

I can understand both sides here, but if I was in your shoes I would just make the mod as great, detailed, and flavorful as I can with the tools and resources at my disposal and let people decide whether they want to use it.

I appreciate both of you responding and giving your opinion. My whole goal for this mod is for it to be fun, immersive, and as detailed as possible with flavor and lore. I used AI for the images as I thought it was the best use of the tool. However, after some thought and reading comments from others, I decided that I would put in the effort to change up my images so that AI is not used at all for the mod.

For the past few days now, even before even posting this, I had begun to systematically change every MAA image from an AI generated one to an image created by a real artist. As Armies of Westeros does as others, I have used ASOIAF Tabletop game as my source for unit images. The one thing that I wanted to ensure if that you wouldn't see the same unit image too often, especially in the same region. There are many units that have a unique image you won't see anywhere, whereas there are other units that may have the same image as 1 or 2 others in the whole map. I have done editing to the vast majority of the images, but some more than others to still show a uniqueness for that house. I didn't just want generic images. After my initial upload, I will from time to time, make more edits to these images to maybe make them more unique.

Lastly, I have created a custom legacy track image that I will be using in replace of the individual dynasty track images you see now. Though there won't be a house to house difference, it will be more consistent with the legacy tracks of the main game staying the same for each house depending on the legacy.

With these changes, no AI will be present in the mod. These changes took a good amount of time so I hope it satisfies most people.

Thanks again for the support.

Oh wow, using the tabletop game as a source is not something I expected. Sounds interesting. Since you're eliminating all AI, am I to assume you'll be replacing the workshop thumbnail as well?

Originally posted by MK Black:

Oh wow, using the tabletop game as a source is not something I expected. Sounds interesting. Since you're eliminating all AI, am I to assume you'll be replacing the workshop thumbnail as well?

Yep. Haven't done that one yet but I will.

I enjoy your mod as is, but It's your mod, do what you want. The AI images don't bother me not one bit and no one ive shared your mod with does either, it adds to the immersion. An 14 thousand people in counting don't seem to mind either. who cares what a few holier that thou bums have to say. Can't appease everybody and you'll just stress yourself out trying to. It's like drinking seawater, I say let'em kick rocks. Wanna be Tytos or Tywin?

Originally posted by Eber:

I appreciate both of you responding and giving your opinion. My whole goal for this mod is for it to be fun, immersive, and as detailed as possible with flavor and lore. I used AI for the images as I thought it was the best use of the tool. However, after some thought and reading comments from others, I decided that I would put in the effort to change up my images so that AI is not used at all for the mod.

For the past few days now, even before even posting this, I had begun to systematically change every MAA image from an AI generated one to an image created by a real artist. As Armies of Westeros does as others, I have used ASOIAF Tabletop game as my source for unit images. The one thing that I wanted to ensure if that you wouldn't see the same unit image too often, especially in the same region. There are many units that have a unique image you won't see anywhere, whereas there are other units that may have the same image as 1 or 2 others in the whole map. I have done editing to the vast majority of the images, but some more than others to still show a uniqueness for that house. I didn't just want generic images. After my initial upload, I will from time to time, make more edits to these images to maybe make them more unique.

Lastly, I have created a custom legacy track image that I will be using in replace of the individual dynasty track images you see now. Though there won't be a house to house difference, it will be more consistent with the legacy tracks of the main game staying the same for each house depending on the legacy.

With these changes, no AI will be present in the mod. These changes took a good amount of time so I hope it satisfies most people.

Thanks again for the support.

Man this would be awesome, personally my main issue with the ai images was that AI art in itself has a look to it that is very distracting artificial look to it and takes away from immersion. And there are tons of awesome artworks done for different ASOIAF regiments that just look stunning if you do go ahead with this I think it will be well worth it. Might I suggest that some houses are super niche and you probably won't be able to find art for them so just wing it try finding something that looks like it would fit. If this becomes a drag I'd be happy to help.

Originally posted by UpgradetoMax:

some houses are super niche and you probably won't be able to find art for them

This is what worries me. The new artwork might be too generic or not evocative enough. I mean, some of these units are way too specific, not even an advanced google search can find anything approximating them. We'll just have to wait and see I guess.

Originally posted by MK Black:

Originally posted by UpgradetoMax:

some houses are super niche and you probably won't be able to find art for them

This is what worries me. The new artwork might be too generic or not evocative enough. I mean, some of these units are way too specific, not even an advanced google search can find anything approximating them. We'll just have to wait and see I guess.

Tbh its a surprise to even see legacy trees for some of these. A lot of the houses included barely have a paragraph written about them in the books, I'm happy that they are included though anything to add variety.

It would be one thing if this mod was something like, say, the Holdings Art one. A mod that is solely centered on the addition of images of artistic renditions of the holdings in Westeros. If this mod was just something like Bloodline ART, but it turned out it was just AI images... then there would be a problem. But, your mod goes way beyond that. Culture and family traits, descriptions, stats, balance, personality and traits additions, special troops, etc. And, from what I've seen, the only place there is any AI utilization is art for the special units that don't exist in canon. The images, whether drawn or generate, are a minor additional flavor in this feast of a mod. And you've made so many of these special troops. It would be insane if you actually drew that many. It would take time and TLC that the rest of the mod is actually centered on. Full disclosure, I'm someone who hates AI art and the negative effects it has brought into society.... Noticing the AI art in your mod did not give me an adverse reaction in the slightest.
And your response to this, from what I'm reading in this thread, just goes to show your dedication to this mod. That alone is worth supporting you for. Using the tabletop game is an amazing idea. Whether you keep using them or other small artists like ones on deviantart, just make sure you credit them in this mod's page.

It's a free mod, if the art looks good, use it. The AI art haters definitely need to take a chill pill. I definitely preferred the old images.

Originally posted by Rhinlord:

It's a free mod, if the art looks good, use it. The AI art haters definitely need to take a chill pill. I definitely preferred the old images.

Nah, the new images are better.

Originally posted by MK Black:

Originally posted by Rhinlord:

It's a free mod, if the art looks good, use it. The AI art haters definitely need to take a chill pill. I definitely preferred the old images.

Nah, the new images are better.

It depends, some look better but others are exactly the same - apart from having different sigils emblazoned on their shields. E.g. Webber Black Coursers are the same as Honeyholt Stingers. Yes the AI art was quite distinct (there is an 'AI style') but now, certain legacies just look bland.

Originally posted by Astrimas:

Originally posted by MK Black:

Nah, the new images are better.

It depends, some look better but others are exactly the same - apart from having different sigils emblazoned on their shields. E.g. Webber Black Coursers are the same as Honeyholt Stingers. Yes the AI art was quite distinct (there is an 'AI style') but now, certain legacies just look bland.

That's unfortunately the limitation of using real art. Can't please everyone I suppose.

Originally posted by Astrimas:

Originally posted by MK Black:

Nah, the new images are better.

It depends, some look better but others are exactly the same - apart from having different sigils emblazoned on their shields. E.g. Webber Black Coursers are the same as Honeyholt Stingers. Yes the AI art was quite distinct (there is an 'AI style') but now, certain legacies just look bland.

You should take a look again as I have updated MAAs for the following houses: House Targaryen, House Caswell, House Clegane, House Rowan, House Wylde, House Waynwood, House Upcliff, House Drumm, House Osgrey, House Darry, House Mallister, House Corbray, House Crane, House Beesbury, House Peake, House Grandison, House Ashford, House Rosby, House Grafton, House Redwyne, House Wyl, and House Qorgyle.