So a little while ago in a thread about Coats-Of-Arms and National symbols I posted this:

I wrote:

For a while I've been thinking of a Decoration editor. This would allow you to more easily make art in-game. You would have a 3d environment, and be able to spawn and pose a number of creatures and objects, as well as abstract symbols. Then, you could snap photos if said art desired is 2d or a carving/releif. Certain components could also be saved and used as say, staues on buildings/vehicles. This doesn't really equate to the more abstract nature of flags/logos/coats of arms, but perhaps it could have two seprate modes? One for more realistic depictions, and one for abstract symbols and such?

I got a thumbs up from ~scio, so I feel safe to expand that with a few ideas/questions.

1. Where should this be? Is it it's own editor or part of another?
2. If it's it's own editor when should it be unlocked?
3. If we add some sort of "Story Telling" research, (Not a good name, I know.) something the represent records of stories appearing rather than pure oral tradition (present before writing), than we should have it unlock the ability to load up certain important events that have happened recently. Writing would allow loading of any event after the discovery of writing.
4. The environment should be 2d until the research "Aesthetics," which would unlock the 3d environment. These would then become toggleable.
5. Certain FPs could be made to allow any decor of a certain dimension to be placed somewhere on a TO. This would allow randomization and would help alleviate reptativeness.

Any other thoughts?

I don't think we need an entire editor for this. Maybe just a section of the Tech Editor.

And you're not the only one confused by the whole event depiction thing, Scio. Do you mean that there would be no history kept by the game until Record Keeping, but the player can choose to preserve events in an art form? If so (i'm pretty sure that's it), what would the mechanic to do it be? It will be tricky to make it compatible across both Org Mode and Strategy Mode, let alone Strategy Mode with and without SCs (because of when record keeping is discovered, the player will most likely have to deal with both).

I see 2 ways we could do coat of arms or flags

The first example is like in Ck2 where you just pick what will be on it

And the second more impossible one would to have it be dynamic. A tribe/castle would have their CoA be a sword and shield if they were warlike, and if the area they were in was famous for its natural beauty the background would be green. A nation flag would have a regular CoA if it was a monarchy, a symbol in the corner and a solid color if it was socialistic, several symbols and some sort of powerful organism in the center if it was Fascist, or the three color band if it was a republic. I reccomend you look up the dynamic flag mod for a game called Victoria 2 to see what I mean