v1.7x Feedback and suggestions

**~~removeduser_65947364295621~~** · August 22, 2010, 06:17 AM

Hi,

I propose taht when a commercial harbour is blocaked, the ohters can receive the trade.To be efficient a blocus must be complete everywhere a trade port is.

In case of repairing his own ships, we'll can use allied port according to payment.

Finally, please increase dragoon Markraf Friedrich von Bayreuth to 60. They are now 45.

A+

**panzer 4** · October 30, 2010, 11:12 AM

i found this bug that when Cemmaat musketeers are about to fire, they all move inwards towardes the flag bearer making them standing literrally, should to shoulder. i was just wandering if anyone else encountered this problem and if the devs could plan on fixing it in a possible future patch.

**Pope_Fred_I** · November 04, 2010, 10:01 PM

Anybody here know of a way to replace the soundtrack in ETW? I have about 5000 tracks in my media player that would be more immersive, and less annoying.

**Bleda** · November 22, 2010, 06:58 PM

Well, first off I love your mod,. It's the best there is. That said, I'm extremely disappointed about stability. Anytime I play one of the major factions, namely Austria, Prussia, or Russia, I get the opportunity to spend 30 hours of my life building a campaign that ends not because I was defeated, but because I was glitched. I just finished my Austrian campaign, and I don't mean finish like I've either won or lost, I mean finish like the game crashes randomly once I get into the late 1700's.

After playing through the same battle 3 times and not being able to advance any further, my brain became saturated with the blood from my rage-ruptured blood vessel. Just thought you should know...

**m_1512** · November 24, 2010, 09:26 AM

Hi, Why is that in every mod, the Indian units have no shoes??? In this mod its the Gardi Infantry...

**Sol Invictus** · February 15, 2011, 06:14 PM

I never bought the Warpath dlc so I am running 1.5xxx. Will I be able to run TROM?

**lordadmiralhood** · June 22, 2011, 02:18 PM

The mod doesn't start, no messages, only that even with 30 minutes of wainting, no mod starting

**MKeogh** · August 12, 2011, 09:27 AM

I know this mod is officially finished, but I just feel like sharing my thoughts and experiences.

I've enjoyed the TROM versions of NTW and S2TW so I thought I'd finally give their granddaddy a spin.

Here's my experiences:

The BAD:

1) Unstable. I've experienced random CTDs with the battles. I have no other mods installed, but I'm still getting a random crash every third or fourth battle. Plus, I've had instances of a couple crashes on the campaign screen almost immediately following a battle. It's probably something with either the smoke effects or animations because it only occurs when the fighting is nearing its peak. It's very frustrating and disappointing considering how this mod is allegedly finished. Further, I've never experienced CTD's with NTW's or S2TW's TROMs or with the vanilla version of the BSM.

2) Cheap forts. Fort battles are the absolute WORST part of ETW. They were just horribly designed with their stupid ropes and the BAI's rush for the flag. So the fewer fort battles the better. However, it's not even 1720 in my game and almost every province is fortified. Yuck!

3) The British in North America. I love how TROM limits the number of militia units to avoid the AI spamming cheap militia armies. However, the British in North America are spamming tribal auxilieries (especially Native bowmen) for their armies. There should have been units limits on tribal units for European powers especially the British who historically shunned native military support. Seeing British armies filled with Native bowmen and a few tribal horse wandering around the Americas is a bit annoying.

The GOOD:

1) High upkeep, increased, building times, and unit limits keep armies manageable. Smaller armies emphasize the importance of each unit, ensures battles have meaning, and rewards players who use proper tactics to keep casualties low so you can fight again. Your soliders and ships are not simply cannon fodder.

2) The AOR. Allows the building of international armies of the type that would have been seen in the 18th century.

3) Battles are a massive improvement over vanilla.

4) Revised unit roster is very nicely done.

Overall, I like a lot about ETW TROM. In fact, I've put up with its instability simply because I'm enjoying my current campaign so much. However, it's a bit disappointing in comparision to its NTW and S2TW progeny.

EDIT:

THE UGLY:

I got a repeatable CTD in 1726 during AI Austria's turn. End of campaign. And end of my playing ETW TROM. Random CTDs is one thing, but repeatable CTDs are another. Sadly, this mod is a buggy mess on my PC. A shame.

**MKeogh** · August 05, 2012, 09:46 AM

It's unfortunate that the most recent post on this thread is my own which I posted nearly a year ago. This mod needs a lot more fan attention.

I've been playing a lot of ETW this summer and trying out its various "big" mods.

Darthmod: Terrific battles and some very nice features. However, it's campaign is the vanilla campaign with lot's of "stuff" added on top of it. One makes gobs of money and spams stacks.

Imperial Splendour: It has a unique campaign experience with its extended rosters and very individualized nations. However, it's hurt badly by its poorly balanced battles and the CAI's struggles to handle its very tight economy.

As shown by my post a year ago, my experience with TROM 1.69 was not a happy one due to random and/or repeatable CTDs. So, I had some concerns about TROM 1.70's stability, but I remember really enjoying my gaming experience when the mod worked.

Anyway, here are my observations after nearly 60 turns playing France on VH campaign/H battles. (Note: I'm not a "blitzer." I like to build up my economy and army and only expand gradually. Plus, I like the AI to get a chance to build-up too. Thus, my experiences may be very different from players who ruthlessly go after AI nations from the get-go.)

The GOOD:

Stable: With the exception of one incident of the game "hanging" during the CAI turn which was quickly resolved by a fix provided by Johan in the bugs thread, I have had no other tech issues. A very different situation from my last experience.

CAI: For ETW with all of its CAI flaws, its performance in TROM has been very impressive. Yes, there has been some passivity: after I bashed the Iroquois a couple of times they haven't returned to Canada in years and the Thirteen Colonies landed a large stack east of Quebec that then just sat there. However, the British are transporting powerful armies to the Americas, the Austrians are marching armies through Savoy to threaten Paris, the Dutch have tried several times to wrest the Guyanas from me with large invasion fleets, and my ally, Spain, has conquered Portugal, Morrocco, and the entire Barbary coast. The AI has also built several strong allied coalitions.

BAI: Initially, I was having an easy time of it: quickly researching fire-by-rank and a couple batteries of 12lbers had me stomping-out AI armies. However, my last couple of big battles have been darn close run affairs. The CAI has caught-up with me in the tech race and its army composition gives them staying power and punch. Due to relatively restricted unit rosters, the AI recruits lot's of heavy cavalry, grenadiers, and line infantry.

The BAI has also been assisted by what appears to be TROM's limiting the effectiveness of the square formation. Maybe I'm mistaken, but in vanilla and other mods moving into square almost always seemed a complete trump to any sort of cavalry. In TROM, I've witnessed a full strength grenadier regiment have its square broken by cavalry. (The BAI's mishandling of its cavalry has always been one of its biggest weaknesses, but it appears that TROM has found a way to make AI cavalry units something to fear.)

The BAD:

The Orange Menace of the East: I started trading with the Marathas on Turn 1. By 1719, they had conquered the Mughals and took almost complete control of the subcontinent. Despite "very friendly" relations, I knew that the Marathas upon conquering their only enemy would soon declare war on me. (I believe it's coded into the game.) Soon, fleets of 2nd raters filled with Sikhs, elephants, and camels would be menacing the coastlines of all my possessions. I HATE that! It just ruins the fun of the campaign. I want to fight the British for dominance of North America, the Dutch and British for the Carribbean, and various European powers for the continent. I don't want to fight against elephants in Canada and camels in Guyana.

This is not a TROM problem, but one caused by CA's failure to properly balance the struggle for India. Unless the player intervenes, then the winner of that stuggle will emerge around 1720 and morph into a global superpower with India colonizing the rest of the world because no AI Euro nation ever intervenes. It's a vanilla issue, but I wish TROM had taken some steps to drastically slow down the war for India.

Sadly, I admit that to avoid fighting the Marathas I took advantage of a huge exploit in ETW's diplomatic engine by granting them an indefinate right of passage agreement. The CAI cannot voluntarily break right of passage agreements and since it can't declare war on a country with which it has such an agreement it cannot ever go to war with that country. So upon their conquering India, I gave the Marathas access to my lands. And, a few turns later, as I suspected, a large fleet with an invasion army arrived off the coast of French Guyana. If I hadn't given them that agreement then they would have promptly declared war and landed that army. However, with the agreement in effect, that fleet and army have been sitting off the coast for years. Yes, it's an extremely gamey and cheesy tactic, but its my solution to avoiding the irritation of dealing with the Indian global superpower that always emerges in ETW.

Other observations and thoughts:

Giving additional techs at game's beginning was a brilliant idea. Yes, it's nice to have bayonets and cannister at game's beginning, but it definitley been a boon for the AI.

Limiting the Barbary Pirates enemies to mostly Mediterranean powers avoided the silliness of the British and Dutch conquering useless North African provinces early in the game. A very good idea.

The economy is tight, but not ridiculously so. I can build and recruit, but I have to make decisions as to what and where which is fun.

Not allowing militia bayonets is a nice touch. They're supposed to be militia, not slightly weaker regular line infantry.

Limiting the recruitable amount of Native auxiliaries has avoided the CAI recruiting gobs of native bowmen and tribal horse. Another good idea.

I'm using the submod "Shohk Hates Sieges" which was designed for the Darthmod, but works like a charm in TROM. It removes the ability to even build fortifications. The towns that start the game with fortifications retain them, but no other town can build them. It avoids the problems that the AI has with other "no forts" mods. Alongside imbalanced India and the broken diplomatic engine, siege battles are one of my biggest pet peeves about ETW. So, the fewer the better. I'm still fighting a siege battle here and there, but they're limited in number which is good.

I've definitely babbled on long enough and if you've read this far then thanks for your patience. However, this really is a terrific mod that deserves a far bigger audience. This new release wasn't even noticed on TW Center's homepage!?!? Yes, it doesn't have all the "bells and whistes" of other "big" mods, but it's gameplay rivals and/or surpasses those mods.

A big tip of the hat to the TROM team on a job very done.

**Johan217** · August 05, 2012, 01:31 PM

Thanks MKeogh for the kind words.

I am happy to hear your observations, the things you mention (like setting Barbary States to neutral) were exactly what I was trying to achieve.

I have to say I never play on VH, so our experiences will vary, but in the campaigns I played I found the war between Maratha and Mughals could go either way, and I did not see them expand beyond Persia. Trading with the Mughals rather than the Maratha seemed to tip the scales in their favour. Also, I found that with the increased prices the AI hardly upgraded its fortifications. I tried to balance the campaign so that the point at which the money streams in and you feel you are winning comes as late as possible. I realise it won't work for all play styles, but it seemed to work for mine.

As for popularity, v1.70 has about 200 downloads now and I usually assume 50% is actually trying/playing the mod. Honestly, with ETW being over 3 years old and the mod being out of the running for 2 years, I wasn't expecting even that much! At its heyday before the days of NTW we had about 500+ people playing. I suppose it's just bad luck that our release fell in between announcements of Rome 2

The TROM team as far as ETW is concerned is actually just me. And if you think that is impressive, think of poor Yarkis who does TROM NTW + TROM S2TW all by himself!

**MKeogh** · August 12, 2012, 09:53 AM

VH campaign was probably overkill in TROM, but the last ETW mod I played featured a CAI that was badly struggling to keep its economies in the black despite all the VH campaign bonuses.

I'm heavily outnumbered by my numerous enemies in Europe and only CAI flaws inherent to ETW have enabled me to manage a stalemate. I keep what I have, but cannot really expand on the continent. In the Americas things have been a lot more fluid. As usual, India is a complete non-entity except for those Maratha fleets off the coast of French Guyana still stymied by the inability for the CAI to cancel the right of passage between our countries and declare war.

I've played over a hundred turns. Obviously, I'm enjoying my campaign because I'm still playing it.

I did experience one "hang" during a sea battle, but that's been the only stability issue out of dozens of battles.

Overall, I'm still very impressed with this mod. However, sadly regardless of the mod everytime I play ETW I find myself simply wishing it was a better game. No mod or modder can cover-up ETW's inherent design flaws as to its diplomacy, agent system, siege battles, and, above all, its CAI. Although I do acknowledge how the CAI improved due to massive patchwork done, it's still awful especially compared to the CAI in S2TW. ETW with S2TW's diplomatic engine and CAI would have been terrific, but instead it was the "beta" that led to S2TW's development. I wish it had been the opposite.

Although this mod is "finished," here's a few suggestions:

Getting rid of trade ships and enabling all ships the ability to trade. Yes, it's a rip-off of a Darthmod feature, but great ideas deserve to be copied. The CAI mishandles trade ships and nodes badly: uses trade ships for combat and fills nodes with fleets filled with non-trade ships. Getting rid of trade ships would assist the CAI.

Improving the usefulness of fishing ports, weavers, and metal works by enabling each new level to subtract a tiny amount from recruiting/upkeep costs for navies and armies. This is a rip-off of an idea from Imperial Splendour, but it would increase the functionality of this buildings especially the virtually useless fishing port which the CAI loves to build.

A few observations:

The AmerIndian nations really, really struggled on both the campaign map and the battlefield and proved very easy pickings.

Britannia Rules the Waves? The Royal Navy has been surprisingly weak. In almost every ETW game that I've played from vanilla to the Darthmod to Imperial Splendour, the Royal Navy almost always develops into a fearsome force. But not in my current campaign. Despite building a dry dock early in the game and recruiting a 2nd rater, the Royal Navy never developed. I control the English Channel and the only British fleets around don't seem to have anything more formidable than 4th raters. Yes, it's made life easier for my France, but it is odd. Also, after initially sending a couple of strong stacks to North America, AI Britain has been pretty passive about transferring troops from its homeland.

General staff units? What's the point of this unit? I've spied a large British stack in the England that contains five of these units. Seems like a waste of a recruiting slot.

The Austrians have developed into a superpower. They destroyed Prussia and are currently gobbling up the Ottomans in Balkans. They and their allies (Bavaria, Hannover, Venice, and Poland) have been a war with me since before 1710, but we've barely fought. Hannover sends an occasional brig or sloop to threaten my ports and Poland has tried with tiny fleets to stop my commerce raiding in the western Meditteranean, but that's been the extent of the fighting. Austria has massive armies in Bavaria, but will not march through its ally, Wurtemberg, to attack me in Alsace. (I've kept Wurtemberg neutral through trade and stationing a 20 unit stack in Alsace to discourage treachery.) It stuff like this that gets me about ETW's CAI. A right of passage agreement between Wurtemberg and Austria and I'm in trouble, but the CAI won't do it. So, a nearly five decade long "phoney war" drags on.

**Johan217** · August 12, 2012, 03:52 PM