Wow, so happy to see it, it looks much better now, really awesome work,
@Pavía and the whole team!
I'll leave another portion of feedback and proposals for Ukrainian lands. Far less this time
LOCATIONS
I'm very happy with the changes. A couple of locations should have correct spelling:
- Izyaslav instead of Iziaslav (for consistency, the letter Я is transliterated as YA, like in the very next location Zvyahel)
- Zavallya instead of Zavalye (for consistency, Ukrainian name instead of Russian transliteration)
Also I propose Ukrainian spelling for some locations, that now are in Poland or Belarus for dynamic spelling (see the map attaches, just for consistency, Polish names under Polish rule, Ruthenian names under Ruthenian rule
etc.):
- Kholm
- Krasnostav
- Hrabovets
- Pyskorovychi
- Lyubachiv
- Ryashiv
- Yaroslavl
- Peremyshl
- Bila Soroka (Ukr.) - Belaya Saroka (Bel.) - Belaya Soroka (Rus.)
Also as far as I understand, you did not review
Chernihiv and East Dnipro Bank areas, but there are some better names there:
- Oster instead of Starogorodskaya (a well-known important historic town instead of a small village noone knows about)
- Lubech instead of Ripky (a well-known important historic town instead of a small village noone knows about)
- Nizhyn instead of Unenezh (Unenezh was destroyed by the Mongols, then it was Nizhyn, the name relevant for the most of the game time frame)
- Hirsk instead of Horodnia (optional)
I hope that you'll fully include the Dnipro left bank region in another TM to have them properly reviewed
The map with the respective changes:
View attachment 1182693
PROVINCES
Looks very nice.
- I'd just suggest Ostroh instead of Rivne because it was much more important town back then. The first college in Ukraine was there.
- Zvyahel instead of Zviahel. Again YA spelling and to make it the same as the respective location
- Also Eastern Podolia is not actual Eastern Podolia So maybe better call it Rov.
- As well as with locations, Kholm and Peremyshl for dynamic naming when under Ruthenian rule.
- Pokutia should be spelled with a 'k', not Pocutia. I assume, spelling with a 'c' is Romanian/Moldovan (can be used for dynamic spelling).
- And Bukovyna instead of Suceava, but it will be in another TM feedback
View attachment 1185319
AREAS
Looks good. As a Ukrainian I like the fact that you use Ukrainian name
Podillia , but maybe for the consistency if you use westernised names for Volhynia, Polesia, Ruthenia, ..., then maybe it would be better to also use
Podolia. Or it can be just my exaggerated perfectionism.
View attachment 1182696
TOPOGRAPHY
I'm really looking forward to the professional review by
@Sulphurologist , but I have a feeling that you somehow ignored some hills in
Galicia and
Podolia and even some mountains:
View attachment 1182699
VEGETATION
Here I see some potential for better changes. I think you put
too much forests in Polodia and
too little forests around Kyiv and Chernihiv.
In Ukraine, according to every our geography schoolbook, we have three main natural zones – steppe, forested steppe and forests (apart from the mountains). They can be even seen in the modern satellite images:
View attachment 1182708View attachment 1182703View attachment 1182704
Even now it can be seen that
areas to the north of Kyiv and Chernihiv are quite forested. No way in 1337 there were any huge areas of grasslands up there, it was even more densely forested (farmlands around Kyiv are OK, maybe around other bigger towns too).
At the same time there should be far less forests in the forested steppe areas, I assume mostly a mix of woods, grasslands and just a bit of farmlands and forests. By the way, this is how forested steppe looks like in my region:
View attachment 1182714
Dense forests were stretching deeper to the south along the main rivers - the Dnipro, Buh, Dnister. The forest near Chyhyryn and Cherkasy is still alive and it was very important historically for cossacs, by the way.
Here I attach the image from
Kaplan et al. (2009). This is some kind of simulation, something between 1000 and 1500 could be used:
View attachment 1182705
So my rough proposal for Ukrinian vegetation map looks like this:
View attachment 1182706View attachment 1182707
CULTURES
I love it so much, great work!
The only thing is that there should be Halychian culture in the Pokuttya in the South, and to my mind Halychian and Ruthenian cultures should be expanded a bit to the south, at least to Bukovyna and mixed with Moldavian/Romanian/Wallachian.
And maybe a bit more mixed borders between them.
View attachment 1182697
RAW MATERIALS
Love all the changes, much more diverse now!
- As for the Ukrainian historical cossack Left bank locations around Lubny, Poltava, Sumy, Hlukhiv - it was a huge saltpeter production region since the early XVI century, mostly ruled by cossack colonels and nobles. They exported a lot of it to Muscovy. Actually as far as I understand, the Cossacks dug the remnants of Kyivan border settlements and fortifications destroyed by the Mongols as well as ancient burial mounds in the steppe, so the saltpeter production was far more efficient than represented by the saltpeter works building in the game. It can be really considered as RGO and represented by at least 1-2 saltpeter RGO locations.
- Also, the territories of modern-day northern Ukraine (especially Chernihiv, Sumy oblasts) were a known centre for fiber crops production since the Kyivan Rus times till now. So please add a couple of fiber crops RGO locations there instead of wheat too.
I think these changes are very relevant and would make this 'wheat-only' region more diverse
Unfortunately, both sources are in Ukrainian only:
View attachment 1184637
And
thank you for adding the Duchy of Chernihiv, Volhynia and other minors as separate tags.
The only note is maybe instead of Halychia use
The Duchy of Halych.
POPULATION
I think, that the town/city criteria shoul be not absolute, but relative within a certain region, so I would add a couple of towns in the region.
Here there is a link with approximate cities population:
View attachment 1197578
So I would add at least
Lviv (already had Magdeburg rights, by far the biggest city of Ruthenia),
Lutsk, Chernihiv and Sanok (got Magdeburg rights in 1339) as towns as local regional leaders.
Maybe also
Ostroh or
Belz if the game balance would require it, otherwise not.
View attachment 1197582
And once again, I am amazed by your dedication and work, thanks!
