Feedback and suggestions

[Leon0216]

Yeah, I was 10 turns in, trying to create an artificial revolution in Rumelia when I noticed that the roads weren't there.

In any case, thanks for the reply, must say I really enjoy this mod and look forward to the content ahead.

While at it, I want to to ask you about some mod compatibility as well. I know you've implemented all-ranks fire, which makes line obsolete, but would WftE be compatible with Fire by Rank mod, made by Radious?

There is also the Imperial Destroyer Mod by LordSith which I'm sure you're familiar with. I have tried many times to make it work with your mod, but both are major overhauls so didn't work. If I may suggest, would truly be an immersive experience with WftE, as it adds new regions, factions, religions etc. which would go awesome with your Mod. Any chances of some aspects of Imperial Destroyer (new regions maybe?) making it into WftE in the coming releases?

All the best...

[Goutlard]

Yeah, I was 10 turns in, trying to create an artificial revolution in Rumelia when I noticed that the roads weren't there.

In any case, thanks for the reply, must say I really enjoy this mod and look forward to the content ahead.

Actually I have been trying to fix the roads problem. I couldn't find what caused it..
Even removing the modified rigidmodels for roads did not fix it. But I will experiment some more today.

While at it, I want to to ask you about some mod compatibility as well. I know you've implemented all-ranks fire, which makes line obsolete, but would WftE be compatible with Fire by Rank mod, made by Radious?

There is also the Imperial Destroyer Mod by LordSith which I'm sure you're familiar with. I have tried many times to make it work with your mod, but both are major overhauls so didn't work. If I may suggest, would truly be an immersive experience with WftE, as it adds new regions, factions, religions etc. which would go awesome with your Mod. Any chances of some aspects of Imperial Destroyer (new regions maybe?) making it into WftE in the coming releases?

You could try Radious' Fire by Rank Mod. There shouldn't be any major compatibility issues.

As for the new regions, actually I would love to integrate new regions in my mod! Especially since having that much wilderness in populated areas doesn't make sense. But I haven't been able to acquire an appropriate startpos that doesn't have stability issues.

I'm a bit afraid of touching the startpos too much myself, because it is quite easy to destabilise the game, and I hate nothing more than a campaign that crashes after investing 50 turns. For me, the game being stable (as much as possible) is a very high priority!

And I'm not that good at startpos editing.

[Leonardo]

As for the new regions, actually I would love to integrate new regions in my mod! Especially since having that much wilderness in populated areas doesn't make sense. But I haven't been able to acquire an appropriate startpos that doesn't have stability issues.

I'm a bit afraid of touching the startpos too much myself, because it is quite easy to destabilise the game, and I hate nothing more than a campaign that crashes after investing 50 turns. For me, the game being stable (as much as possible) is a very high priority!

And I'm not that good at startpos editing.

I wonder if you have read HusserlTW's StartPos and Hybrid tutorial yet. If not then perhaps it could give you a hint what you need to do in order to make your mod stable.

https://www.twcenter.net/forums/show...D-startpos-esf


Also, download the official mod files that CA gave the modding community 10 years ago and don't forget to check the modding index.

[Goutlard]

I wonder if you have read HusserlTW's StartPos and Hybrid tutorial yet. If not then perhaps it could give you a hint what you need to do in order to make your mod stable.

https://www.twcenter.net/forums/show...D-startpos-esf


Also, download the official mod files that CA gave the modding community 10 years ago and don't forget to check the modding index.

Thank you. I have already used those tutorial to enable factions and get rid of the fog of war problems. And our current startpos was created by HusserlTW .

However adding new regions seems quite complicated. I remember when a team of Russian modders discovered it and I'm not brave enough to try it myself.

[SanderP]

Please fix the street issue, kills the immersion pretty hard.
I would also rather not rename Great Britain.
It's not accurate that they were GB in 1700, but thats only for a year. And after that you gotta play with "England" and the GB flag for the rest of the game, not cool imo as well

[Goutlard]

Please fix the street issue, kills the immersion pretty hard.
I would also rather not rename Great Britain.
It's not accurate that they were GB in 1700, but thats only for a year. And after that you gotta play with "England" and the GB flag for the rest of the game, not cool imo as well

I found the cause of the bug for the invisible roads, it is fixed now (Release 14)
As for the England / GB ; I don't remember changing the name actually. Do you use the "Additional Units Mod" ? Since it uses the UPC created by Swiss Halberdier which combines a lot of unit pack names it might be the cause of the name change.

Otherwise, I'll check, maybe I changed the name many years ago and I forgot, in which case I agree that having an innacurate name for 1 year is better than having an innaccurate name for 99 years so I'll fix it!

[SanderP]

I found the cause of the bug for the invisible roads, it is fixed now (Release 14)
As for the England / GB ; I don't remember changing the name actually. Do you use the "Additional Units Mod" ? Since it uses the UPC created by Swiss Halberdier which combines a lot of unit pack names it might be the cause of the name change.

Otherwise, I'll check, maybe I changed the name many years ago and I forgot, in which case I agree that having an innacurate name for 1 year is better than having an innaccurate name for 99 years so I'll fix it!

Thanks for looking into the stuff

And fyi, I do not use any other mod, just a clean ETW Definitive Edition and your modification

[Goutlard]

Thanks for looking into the stuff

And fyi, I do not use any other mod, just a clean ETW Definitive Edition and your modification

I've found the entry that changed the name of Great Britain and fixed it.
It should be fine now ! I released the new file ;

Wind from the East - 2.7.3 (FULL) English (Release 15-w/fix)

[ThePioneer097]

Hello! I'm new to the TW Center so forgive me if I'm not updated or don't know any of the forum lingo.

I've been playing ETW for well over 500 hours now, and I had loved it since the day I first played it with friends in 2012. I've been looking for mods to enhance the experience and like many I started with DarthMod. However, as an Asian, I found the representation of the Eastern factions very poor and outright ridiculous at times, which led me to your mod.

I have to say that "Wind from the East" is by far one of the best overhauls I've ever played. Not only because of the added flavors to the cultures and their units, but also because of the game-changing campaign and battle mechanics. Playing and controlling your nation just feels so much more challenging and rewarding.

However, there are still of course, some problems with it, as I'll list here. DISCLAIMER: I critique this mod as a very passionate supporter. I only wish for this mod to get better and better through time. If I were not a student, I would actively support this mod and its production financially hahaha

A. BUGS AND RELATED CONCERNS

1) Line infantry textures
- as of the most recent patch (Apr, 2021) the line infantry textures for European factions are absolutely atrocious. While I love the textures for the Eastern faction units, the most common unit in the whole game looks terrible. This may be a bug or an oversight. I do not understand how this could have happened when AUM is integrated into your mod, perhaps there are files that are conflicting.

The line infantry models now have oddly placed wigs, and brown hats with a poorly pasted png image of a ribbon on it. I hope this can be rectified soon, as the respect for Eastern factions can only be well-appreciated if the Western factions are equally well done.

[That's actually my only bug-related concern at the moment, the game functions and looks very good otherwise.]


B. SUGGESTIONS

1) Sekban Janissary and other unit skins
- I've done some research on what the Janissaries actually looked like in the 17th-18th century, and while they certainly did wear turbans and go to battle at times with bare chests...I still do not think they look nearly as outlandish as the vanilla Janissary skins of ETW which you have chosen to use on the Sekban Janissaries.

I suggest that you get in touch with the makers of the Absolutum Dominum mod (if you haven't already) for their work on the extremely well-done Janissary (excluding the vanilla Beylik models) reskins and their entire reskin roster for the Western units.

2) Elite Melee Units are OP
- while the Cemaat Janissaries still feel reasonably powered given how long they take to recruit, some AI units like the Khevsuri swordsmen (Georgia) seem to only take 1-2 turns for the AI to recruit. Their battle performance is ridiculously good as even when fighting the Cebelu after receiving a perfect rear charge, they can still outclass the Cebelu thoroughly and will almost certainly defeat them in a 1v1. If the AI chose to recruit these swordsmen, it would be almost impossible to defeat them in the early to mid-game. While I understand the strength of these units, perhaps some adjustments can be made to make them perform more realistically.

3) Make difficulty changes and Reform technologies clearer
- going into Wind from the East for the first time, I was repeatedly surprised by the changes to mechanics and difficulty. Playing on Normal alone is quite a challenge already compared to Vanilla or any other mod for that matter. As such, perhaps it is reasonable for me to ask that you communicate these changes more clearly somehow as new players getting into this mod might have difficulty enjoying it if they don't have the patience to experiment. (To be clear, I love the difficulty level, I just wish it didn't surprise you so rudely).

- The Reforms for the Eastern Factions (Ottoman + Persian) are extremely vague. I did not understand their exact impact and did not expect the prices of buildings etc. to go down after researching them. Perhaps that can be communicated better. Not only that, these reforms lack any title whatsoever, so it is difficult to tell what these are and what they are meant to do other than the rather vague stat buffs/debuffs they give.

4) Long-term difficulty
- Once the aforementioned reforms have been researched, all the engaging challenges of the early game just fade away and it devolves into the old Total War world conquest slug fest. While it's not nearly as bad as in Vanilla, I would certainly like to see a mechanic change that would make domination a little bit harder even in the late game (also the Nizam I Cedid seem quite OP, as they sometimes can compare to elite Marines when they are only meant to be slightly better Line Infantry).

- the European Doctrine reform for the Ottomans should be a little more punishing as it was historically. -1 happiness and some clamor for reform hardly affect your gameplay if you're a competent player.


5) Long-term Changes
- I suggest returning Platoon and Rank fire for some added spice to the gameplay, but only returning these for the factions that historically used and produced them.
a) the UK and United Provinces (Dutch) will be able to use Platoon Fire on all Regular Infantry units (as they did historically) making them more challenging to fight against.
b) the French will be able to use Fire by Rank as they did historically (but do not benefit from the marksmanship bonus of the technology since this practice historically did not help with accuracy due to the smoke produced from quick and successive rank fire)
c) If it is somehow possible to do, historically correct volley fire would be appreciated (rank fire via countermarching as was used in Shogun 1 TW and Medieval 2 TW) and should apply to all other nations as this was the historical standard for sometimes before simultaneous three-rank volley fire was used. Otherwise the current mechanics work spectacularly.

That's all for now. Other mechanics not mentioned here are things I believe to function reasonably well already. Hope to hear from you soon!

[Goutlard]

Hello! I'm new to the TW Center so forgive me if I'm not updated or don't know any of the forum lingo.

I've been playing ETW for well over 500 hours now, and I had loved it since the day I first played it with friends in 2012. I've been looking for mods to enhance the experience and like many I started with DarthMod. However, as an Asian, I found the representation of the Eastern factions very poor and outright ridiculous at times, which led me to your mod.

I have to say that "Wind from the East" is by far one of the best overhauls I've ever played. Not only because of the added flavors to the cultures and their units, but also because of the game-changing campaign and battle mechanics. Playing and controlling your nation just feels so much more challenging and rewarding.

(...)
That's all for now. Other mechanics not mentioned here are things I believe to function reasonably well already. Hope to hear from you soon!

Bugs :

Thank you for the excellent feedback ! There are lots of great ideas.
I'm glad you enjoyed the mod that much. Indeed, I really tried to make the game challenging. It was very difficult to balance actually and keep the AI competitive since every change that impacts the player also impacts the AI so in my first versions the AI would end up bankrupt.

Regarding European textures, you're right there is a bug especially with Austrian line infantry.
I'll take a look at either the AUM Graphic Pack or the Absolutum Dominium mod. Both have many faction-specific models though the latter seems way more complicated to integrate and to get authorisations for.

Well, that's something I'll look into later. I'm extremely busy recently !

Suggestions :

1) Regarding Janissary textures, the uniform the beyliks have in Darthmod and Vanilla Empire : Total War is that of Ottoman marines (Kalyoncu).
Turkey, 1820 - ID: 416366 - NYPL Digital Gallery | Ottoman empire, Ottoman, Turkish soldiers (pinterest.dk)

Currently, the uniform of the Kapikulu Janissary is exactly that of a "Usta Yeniçeri" - a middle-ranking Janissary so it is historically accurate.

Karakullukcu.jpg (400×644) (wikimedia.org)

Similarly, the uniform of the Yerlikulu Janissary (eventhough it's a CA model) is similar to those of the Kara kullukçu Janissaries (low-ranking Janissaries) so I kept it as it is quite representative of what you could see historically.

*

2) Regarding OP melee units, I'll definitively look into balancing that. At the very least, good swordsmen should take a long time or be costly to recruit. I've been practicing swordsmanship myself for 7 years so I realise how much training goes into it.


Kevhuri swordsmen should be quite powerful. After all, they are armored swords specialists. But as you said, they are too cheap (especially considering they wear armor) and too easy to recruit in large numbers currently.

Though, if you don't do it already, I really recommend using guard mode against melee units when using line infantry. Often, your line infantry will keep shooting at them even as they're engaged in melee and be extremely effective at point blank!

*

3/4) Regarding difficultly I'll make it more visible in the mod's description that playing the Ottomans and Safavids in particular is really challenging at least to make the difficulty very clear.
For new players I'd recommend looking into chapter IV of the manual kindly made and translated by members of our team.

I'll also try to make the effects of those reforms more visible.

And you have a very good point, European Doctrine should be more punishing.

*

5) Regarding long term changes, my concern with platoon fire is that is that it might make the factions with access to it ineffective.

Regarding rank fire, if the French used it historically it would make sense that they are able to use it. I'll look into that when I have time.

Finally, there's no good way of implementing volley fire. The only thing similar to it in the game is fire-and-advance which is really buggy. I can't program a new firing drill :/.

-

Anyway, thank you for your feedback once again.
I'll be really busy this month. So I won't have much time to work on the mod. And recently I'm the only one left in the team still working on updating it.

But once I have free time I'll definitively look into your suggestions!

[ThePioneer097]

Excellent! Thank you very much!

I don't want to belabor you too much, but I do wish to reply to some of your points:

1) Janissary uniforms -- that's interesting! I've actually been trying to research on their uniforms in the 18th century myself but it is so difficult to do. Perhaps you would know a source where I can read up more on the Janissaries? The only units I'm familiar with are the ones present in ETW!

2) I didn't know Guard mode functioned in such a way! Will make sure to use it more often for my foot regiments.

5) I understand, I was just hoping that perhaps CA's mistakes could still be rectified, but alas. I feel that Platoon Fire should be quite effective though considering how fast units reload in this mod (however I do acknowledge that the vanilla AI did extremely poorly with this mechanic so perhaps it is indeed impossible or extremely difficult to rectify this problem).


Hope you never lose passion for this project and continue to get support. Certainly one of the best mods out there perhaps for any TW game. And good luck with your own endeavors!

[hessia78]

I want a suggestion I think the Ottoman capital should be renamed from Istanbul to Kostantiniyye which was its actual name during the ottoman era and it should start out with level 1 city fortifications at the start of the game to represent the theodosian walls even though they would be obsolete at this point they were still being repaired and maintained by the ottomans until the late 19th century

[Munchausen]

Great mod, really enjoyed it.

Is VDM https://www.twcenter.net/forums/show...ase-Mod)/page4 compatible with this mod?
Any instructions to make it compatible if it's not?

[2Shy]

Crash on the 8th turn with the Safavids. I was just getting into the campaign.

[ThePioneer097]

[UPDATED FEEDBACK]

Hello again! I have sunk in about 10+ hours into this mod now and have become quite familiar with the mechanics, etc. As always, positive points first.

POSITIVES:
This is still, by far my favorite Overhaul mod for ETW, perhaps, ever.
- The Battle Mechanics are not perfectly realistic, but are fun and challenging enough to really make you feel immersed in your role as a commander. Reload speed is great and the fact that your units actually manage to run out of ammo is welcomed.
- The Battle Effects, unit design and spacing could be improved but are for the most part, the best I've seen in any ETW mod.
- The depth of the campaign and how challenging it is to engage in ANY war is exceptional and I think is something that most mods just don't do. It was a risk to adjust the difficulty that you took and I am very happy that you did, as the challenge emulates (not replicates, which I think is good since Total War games are ironically poorly designed to replicate, and so emulating is a great solution) the difficulty of waging a real war.
- The naval combat is actually the BEST part of this mod. It is not as break-neck fast as vanilla, but not as ridiculously slow as other overhaul mods. Also, the use of different shot types and boarding is IMMENSELY important now and this is something that I wish more mods did. Other naval combat mechanics are also excellent, and I believe that the naval combat of this mod is the strong suit of this mod. The only issue I ever had with them are random CTDs (but they seem to be avoidable and may just be because of memory issues on my PC).

NEGATIVES:
1. Evident issues (need to be fixed ASAP)
- Unit textures for some units are bugged. I've only noticed these in two units so far, but it may be worth looking into other units as well. The units that have bugged textures are (a) Austrian Line Infantry, (b) Fusiliers (all factions).
- I tried using AUM for the mod, and during my 132nd turn, the Maratha Confederacy attacked me (Ottoman Empire) with 2 near-full stacks vs. my 1 full stack. The game is unable to load the battle and causes a CTD after a few minutes. Not sure why this is and if it's because of a unit in the unit roster of either of my armies. The battle was to take place near Tripoli, Tripolitania. The Maratha armies had some North African units, and I had one unit of the Elite Cairo Janissaries. All other units in the rosters never caused any CTDs in my past playthroughs.

2. Game design issues (2nd priority)
- I tried playing as Great Britain in one playthrough, and noticed that the Northwestern Territories region was underpopulated to the point that I could not recruit any units there. If this is intentional, that's okay. However, the GB units are almost incapable of fighting effectively against Native American units. This is not too big of an issue but I think it may be a bit unnecessarily difficult to maintain colonies since the Native American factions seem to be able to recruit very good melee units very quickly.
- I noticed that many cavalry units cannot utilize the diamond/etc. formations. Was this intentional? Ottoman cavalry in particular cannot use any of these and I feel this greatly detracts from gameplay.
- Factions that used to have colonies in India now seem to be overly obsessed with attacking in the European theatre and no longer have any interest in India. Maybe some script editing could change this? India is often left alone by the rest of the world in this mod and it feels greatly unrealistic.
- The Maratha Confederacy has become ridiculously overpowered in this mod (mostly vs. AI but they are not impossible to beat in battle). They almost always expand to an absurd scale. It may help to change up the Bargir Infantry in particular as they seem to be overly powerful (considering their armor, though I have not tested this thoroughly). Historically, the Maratha (and indeed, even the Safavids) were best known for their cavalry and light lancers. Perhaps you could add some cheap light lancer units (like the Musellems of the Ottomans) for the Maratha and make it easier to recruit cheaper line units and more difficult to recruit the Bargir Infantry? Perhaps the Bargir Infantry can become the elite units (+ some stat tweaks of course) for the Maratha while the Hindu Musketeers become their standard musketeers like the Yerlikulu /Albanian Besli and Sekban/Besli Yaya are for the Ottoman Empire.
- The Safavid Persians also seem to be overly interested in cheap militia units. While this is not exactly unhistorical, the Safavids (as you may know) were more of a cavalry-based military. The absence of a proper unit of Ghulams (or at least by name), Turcomen horse archers, and light lancers, and Qizilbashi cavalry makes it (a) very easy to defeat Persia in battle, (b) not very interesting to play as/against them. The Safavids also tend to not recruit the Tofangchis which would have been their standard musketeer unit at the era, instead often preferring masses of Fellahin and Sarbaz. I find this a little ahistorical, though this last point may be up to your discretion, as your research was likely deeper than mine.

3. Revamps and Reforms (3rd priority)
- If somehow you could edit the AUM mod to retain more of the realism of your "vanilla" Wind from the East overhaul, that would be great. The base WftE at times has too small of a roster for some factions while AUM adds some ahistorical units and messes with the more accurate naming convention you used for the "vanilla" WftE. AUM is needed to play realistically against European factions, but often at the expense of Eastern ones. An adjustment of this would be amazing for the longevity of this mod.
- European faction rosters are largely uninteresting compared to other mods. Perhaps this could be worked on in the future.
- Safavid, Mughal, Moroccan, Barbary and Maratha unit rosters need to be improved. The units available are still largely vanilla units for these factions and it is unfortunate since I had downloaded the mod with the expectation that these rosters would change as well as the Ottoman roster did. Nevertheless, this is not a "major" critique and I still had loads of fun without this in mind.
- Allowing the Eastern factions to use Light Infantry Tactics for their standard infantry (not modern units like Nizam I-Cedid) + adding some range + accuracy to them and reducing their reload speed would be more in line with how these units operated in contrast to Western style Line Infantry.
- 40 unit campaigns perhaps one day? 40 units makes battles far more challenging and interesting on the campaign scale, as armies in real life did tend to gather in large groups in order to reach more decisive outcomes (instead of 20 stacks constantly retreating, attacking, replenishing, etc.).



Overall, still the most amazing mod I've had the pleasure of experiencing with ETW! Hope you can work on these soon. I will be trying out other mods in the mean time, but I will always wish to return to WtfE in the end as I believe your work has the best foundations for the ultimate ETW experience.

[Anubis88]

Hi,

i want to start the mod, i love the idea behind it, but i think the horse textures are broken. It might be just some settings on my part, but i feel they look of completely wrong color. Any idea how to fix this? Or is it intended to look like this? I'm adding the screen so you see what i'm talking about; the same discoloration is present in most units, but less visible than on horses https://ibb.co/VMRMdC0

Thanks for the help!

[ThePioneer097]

Hi,

i want to start the mod, i love the idea behind it, but i think the horse textures are broken. It might be just some settings on my part, but i feel they look of completely wrong color. Any idea how to fix this? Or is it intended to look like this? I'm adding the screen so you see what i'm talking about; the same discoloration is present in most units, but less visible than on horses https://ibb.co/VMRMdC0

Thanks for the help!

Seeing your screenshot, it doesn't seem to be bugged from what I remember of how the textures look like. If I'm missing something important, just make sure to check that you have no other mods installed! My initial texture issues came from having conflicting mod files. Hope this helps!

[kaizerkat]

my mortars do not on enemy troops only the forts( what few there are),,is this by design or is a bug?

[Mike12096]

Hi there,

Why did you set the bayonet melee attack bonus and ring bayonet reload penalty to 0?
I find this both odd and frustrating whenever a unit with a bayonet fights another unit that isn't even equipped with one (ie. line infantry vs line infantry) to somehow last a bit too long and cause as much casualties as the other. As for Ring Bayonet it made sense as to why it has a penalty to reload as the bayonet itself blocked the scouring stick/ram rod from being used effectively. Hence why it's more effective to shoot one volley then charge.

Very minor visual question/suggestion, Why are Russian Line infantry the only line infantry unit with poorly_trained for their unit_training_level but Gorodskiye Streltsy given trained?
I find it odd that Streltsy (militia) are all more organized and neat in formation than Line Infantry seeing as how they weren't properly trained compared to even militias at the time. Considering that they weren't paid much and had mostly worked on doing any jobs to get a decent pay hence why they were disbanded around the time period. For being combat ineffective compare to Line Infantry.

Edit#1: Colonial Light Infantry have messed up texture faces and hats.

[Leon0216]

Hello,

Great fan of this mod here, been playing it since the days of OTO. Was just wondering, is it possible to add fire by rank to at least line infantry through PFM or something?? Have been playing around a bit however I can't seem to get my Nizam-i Cedit to fire by rank. They look majestic when they do that.

I'd really appreciate it if you let me know if there's any ways of doing that.

Keep up the good work, this mod is fantastic, it would be something out of a wet dream though with some elements of Imperial Destroyer in there.