Comments - Han-Thracios

If you have time, could you make one compatible with the Wind from the East mod?
I think it'd go well together, since WftE expands Georgia, Crimea and eastern factions! Adding Khiva would fit it perfectly.

Good luck !

(Edit : Okcular is correct, sorry I made a small mistake !)

I do have a small issue with one translation ; the word "Faris" in Ottoman Turkish (Feres) means "Female Horse / Mare" which makes their name a bit confusing for a Turkish unit.

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About Solak, they are very much "Praetorians" of the Janissary Order. It could be interesting to call them "Solak Guards" to refer to their Household Bodyguard status.

They are an unit that, like the Praetorians, guarded the Emperor, but also could overthrow him.

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About Serdengecti - I think it's a fascinating unit so they'd be a very good choice.

I can also suggest the name "Zihrli Nefer". I would like to make some precisions.

Serdengecti were Janissaries that volunteered, to make elite units, equipped with the heaviest armor, supposed to fight until their deaths if necessary. They were tasked with strategic missions. Saving a collapsing flank, being the first to enter a breach in the wall.

If they survived, they would be highly rewarded and promoted.

Zihrli Nefer were normal Janissaries, equipped for melee.

Here are illustrations of Janissary Armor :
I.pinimg.com (Heavily Armored - Early 15th Century)

Pbs.twimg.com (Early 16th Century)

Thank you for the detailed explaination, that does clarify it a lot for me. :)

I'll try to share some historical background that might be of interest.

- Ahdath being closed to Azabs depends very much on the era. Early "Azap" were a corps of volunteers with high status, below Janissaries yet sometimes in competition with them. They were mostly double-purposed both as archers and melee.

Much later, with the Hatt-i Serif (1839), they became conscript units that served as garrisons - as such more similar to the Ahdath.

I'm unsure of a name that would fit both Arabic and Turkish languages.

- Ayyarun : In that era indeed the "Ahi" (members of Islamic Brotherhoods) or "Dervishes" played an important role in the Turkish military.

If I am not mistaken, the word "Ahi" in Turkish comes from the word "أخى " (Ahi) in Arabic. So that word would fit both languages.

- Uqjiyya : I can't find a name that'd fit both languages regarding archers.

- Julban : I have found them as an unit in the Mameluke Sultanate, called Culban in Turkish. It's worth noting that the Mameluke system did not exist in the Sultanate of Rum.

For the Ottomans, and certainly many Turkish Principalties, an elite that preceded Janissaries by centuries were the "Nöker" (companions) - a system that found its roots in Turco-Mongol culture.

- Jarkhiyya : I found that crossbows were called "Tatar yayı" (Tatar bow. In this context Tatar refers to Mongols ; who brought that technology to Anatolia from China) by the Ottomans.

Earlier, Seljuks seems to have called them "Zanburak" - the same word that much later, refered to camel-mounted artillery in Central Asia.

Zanburak means, interestingly "wasp" in farsi.

- Midfa'iyya : I didn't know "Midfa" meant "Cannon/Firearm" in Arabic.

In Turkish, interestingly enough the words "Misket" (Musket - meaning "pellet") and Top (Ball - meaning Cannon) are used.

Though, Musketeers are, as you correctly found, called "Tufekci" ("Tufenkci" in old Turkish). Artillerymen are called "Topchu".

- Fursan / Tawashi: Interestingly, the Turkish word for Cavalry "Suvari" comes from Persian "Suvar" rather than from an Arabic root.

- Askari : I think that this name would fit well perhaps as "Noble Askari" or "Askari Nobles" as to highlight their "high" status.

I hope I could provide some interesting or useful information. :)

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EDIT : Sa'aliks I believe refers to sālik (Sufi Adepts in Arabic).

In Turkey and Persia, the same term (Dervish in Turkey, Darvish in persia) would be used. That term has also been adopted in Arabic Language as Darwish. So I'd suggest one of these terms.

- Rijal : I also can't find a common word between Turkish and Arabic. Typically, in Turkish the terms "Yaya" (Footman, actually coming from "Yay" - bow) or Piyade (from Persian) were used.

- Solak : They are an elite unit among the Janissaries, and very much direct bodyguards of the Sultan. They should be higher quality than regular Janissaries (Tufenkchi).

- Great job with making Janissaries and Solak that use Shields in melee. That's great attention to detail !

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It's completely unrelated, but I'm quite glad that you decided to use the term "Roman Empire" rather than the anachronistic "Byzantine Empire" :)

It does seem difficult to avoid generic names. I have looked into the current terms. Please note that I am a Turkish speaker, but I don’t know Arabic so I had to research to get an idea for the meaning.

Just for information, basically, I understood none of the names I mention at first glance.

- Adath were Fatimid units located in Syria, so they had no connection to the Sultanate of Rum.

- Rijal seems to mean “Men” in Arabic ? I’m not sure.

- Mutatawwi'a seems to be “Muttawa” in Arabic, religious police.

- Ayyarun seems to mean Warrios in Arabic.

- Uqjiyya (Uqji) is a strange choice. It’s just the arabic transcription of the Turkish word for archers (Okcu / Okchu) which you used for Heavy Archers.

- Julban : Honestly, I have no clue what it means.

- Jarkhiyya : Seems to mean crossbowmen in Arabic.

- Midfaiya : I also have no idea.

- Fursan : It seems to mean “Cavalry” in Arabic.

- Askari : It means soldier in Arabic. In Turkey, “Asker” is used for any type of soldier currently.

- Tawashi : I guess it might mean “position of power due to one's proximity to the king or sovereign" ? I'm unsure.

- Iqta’dar : It means “Holder of an Ikta” ; which were called “Timar” in the Sultanate of Rum, and Iktadar in the Seljuk Empire; as such they’d be called “Timarli” or “Timarli Sipahi” in Turkish

About suggestions ; the name Ghazi should be definitively present somewhere. It's a type of unit found across cultures that makes sense in Arabic too - and a core unit of the Ottomans which lost importance after the Janissaries appearing.

English for placeholder units seems like a good idea in my opinion.

In that era, Seljuks had a very strong persian influence.

Turks and Iranic people fled from the Mongol horde together into Anatolia. Iranic people for the most part adopted the Turkish language, but both cultures assimilated with time into Roman culture. (One good example is Rumi - Persian philosopher, moved into present-day Turkey and assimilated into Rum / Roman culture).

For that reason, it might make more sense to integrate Persian elements into Rum culture. For example, in the Ottoman military:

Piyadegan were Piyade (Infantry)
Tofangchiyan were Tufenkchi (Musketeers)
Aswaran/Savaran/Suwaruh were Suvari (Horsemen)
Sepahi were Sipahi (Horsemen)
Qollar among the Safavids were Kullar / Kapikulu (Elite)
Tupchi were Topchu (Artillery)

Thank you. I finally came to playtesting the mod and I'm surprised by the quality of the work. I'll definitively be keeping an eye on it.

There are a few more things I'd like to point out :

- The models of Kapikulu (Qapakulu) are rather off compared to armors Kapikulu Horsemen would've been wearing in the late middle-ages / early renaissance. (https://www.pinterest.fr/pin/376332112586874937/)

- It's a bit of a shame to have arabic names on the majority of units, such that Turkish-speakers do not understand what 2/3 of the units are by their name.

- The choice of the name "Rum" is very good. Not only is it historically accurate, Rum is also the "correct" name for the Ottoman Empire until the 17th Century.

The Ottomans called their state "Diyar-i Rum" (Lands of Rome) or even just Rum (Rome) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottoman_claim_to_Roman_succession#Roman_identity_among_Ottoman_Turks)

Great job, and I love the colourful textures rather than the all single-color ugly armors that were in Vanilla Medieval 2.

There are a few mistakes regarding units names in Turkish that I would like to point out. I would recommend removing the "-lar/-ler" suffix as it is just plural.

The one with "ler/lar" is just plural, but I included depending on your preference.

Koyluleri => Koylu / Koyluler
(-ler = plural, "-i = of", the of being just a grammatical mistake)
Solakar => Solak / Solaklar (the l was missing)
Okcular => Okcu / Ockcular
Tufenkcis => Tufenkchi / Tufenkchiler (the s is incorrect)
Sipahis => Sipahi / Sipahiler
Akincilar => Akinci / Akincilar

Qapakulu => Kapikulu / Kapikullari (the plural form is complex ; and Quapukulu is completely wrong orthography)

I have nerfed general's bodyguards, though I might nerf it evenmore in the next updates !

Roads are now visible :)

Thank you :).
Yes, because otherwise the AI did wonky things. For example the Native Americans buying regions in Europe...

Hangi durumda? Ordularda hangi birimler var?
Bir birime bagli bir sorun olabilir belki 🤔

The new content is described on our forum here :
Twcenter.net

In summary, there was a huge update of graphics :)
Though, as we received authorisation, we just released yet another update today!

No, this is an overhaul of the entire game, not merely the Ottomans, including new sound effects, a new battle system and so on. For that reason, it is incompatible with Darthmod.

The changelog is here :)

Twcenter.net

Twcenter.net

Here are the informations about the changes :)

Which unit are you talking about ? This was an issue with 2.5.6 but not 2.5.7 normally :o

God that's awesome :o, can you give us a link to that forum ?

Janissaries were indeed not allowed to bear beards in the military, as it was a symbol of high status ; only the commanders were allowed to. You will see that no Janissary units other than their commanders have beards.

In the same way ; the Cairo Janissaries have beards, but historically the Janissaries from the Barbary States were known for not exactly following the rules, and being even present after the dissolution of their order !

Other than that, I have no knowledge of other troops who were not allowed to bear beards. Correct me if I am wrong ! :)

Thank you for speaking of that issue. It is fixed since.
It was due to a corrupted release. :(

Might be because I included the user.empire_script that it doesn't recognize ?

Follow the tutorial found on the tutorial section on how to install the mod manually ! It seems the Mod Manager has encountered a bug.

Hello, my bad.
I've fixed the tutorial ! :)

It is made for Vanilla version :)

I have changed the gameplay significantly in that last update, in fact. Trying to make land battles much more difficult (because they were tremendously easy, due to ETW's bad AI) - They are still easy but the AI performs visibly better.

What I found most overpowered was canister shot, that could make troops rout in seconds ! So, it's power has been significantly decreased.

Realistic morale does not fit the gameplay. Units tended to rout too fast, so I've released two versions. One called "ARCADE" with very high morale (that I recommend if you want better battles), giving the AI an edge, the other being "Vanilla" or "Default" that has later routs than the previous version and stronger morale, but is quite close to vanilla ETW morale.

I've not yet touched the troop balancing, everything is as it had been made by the Ottoman Realism Team, but I'll work on it (as well as bugfixing on that update).

Fixed in the next version ! :)

Not possible to download it anymore..

Needs a little work, and will be one of the best AOE III mods ever !

I truly hope it will be ! :)

Great job, I really trust your team for this work :) it looks great

Great job. I really enjoy your mod, it is a great piece of work. Well we are still waiting here. :3

I don't want to sound as if I were complaining, because I really am not, yet I find this is a good opportunity to recommend some improvements in different areas ;

Indeed the Sode are often a little small, but also the armor color schemes are indeed very varied, which is great, but even to a degree where achieving a fully color-coherent armor is almost impossible, which is a little too much.

As a Kendo practitionner I can but be impressed by the work on the two handed animations. Indeed not perfect, if I were teaching I'd say to the man "relax your shoulders, when you take chudan after striking try to center your guard as not to have head opening, don't keep it too high as not to open your kote." and so on. But even getting there is an impressive job.

I found that Kengeki Gaiden also does a decent job on this, some animations are just on Kengeki use way too much arm power rather than shoulders and balance, making them indeed realistic for Kendo but extremelly terrible. Others, yet, are excellent Shomen Uchi strikes that show good technique and good tenouchi to stop the strikes. You have all ranges from very good to very bad. :P

I hope to see a similar result on naginata animations in the longer term.