I'd first like to say that, out of my 2,300 hours in this game, about a third of them have been invested into this mod. It's been a wonderful experience and the amount of effort the dev team has put into it definitely shows in how well it plays.

So for starters, thank you all so much for making this mod and putting as much love into it as you have :)

Since the most recent update, I noticed a couple of changes that have impacted my gameplay slightly, if not in terms of immersion.

Take as many of these suggestions as you'd like, if any, as they're mostly cosmetic, but they would definitely go on to improve the overall weight and feel of the post apocalyptic scenario.



1. Portrait Ethnicity adjustments
A number of cultures recently lost the West African (Mande) portrait textures in the most recent update, though that may have just been my download not working properly (I don't see a portraits pack for them either).

In the case that they're not, to better improve the colorful ethnic feel of the map, I propose these cultures have the Mande portraits as their primary ethnicity (as other cultures have portraits that can appear as well)

-Motowner
-Tuskegeean
-Gullah
-Haitian
-West Indian
-Bermudian
-Calypsonian
-Lucumí
-Creole
-Garinagu
-Miskito
-Kriol
-Raizal
-Baiano
-Melungeon
-Guyanese
-Sranan
-Cayennais
-Haitian
-Venteux
-Liberian
-Nigerian
-Ozlander

Of course these cultures, like any, would have other ethnicities mixed in (such as French portraits for Creole/Haitians, English for Bermudan/West Indian, etc.), but simply having these ethnicity changes would definitely better represent the African diaspora visually as well as culturally.



2. Brethren Adjustments

Being somewhat of a comically inclusion to the game, it would make sense that in the instance of a full collapse of society, many nations across the Caribbean would revert back to their roots as pirates and marauders. Recently, however, the introduction of the Pelagic religion has somewhat outshined the Brethren, especially as many of their provinces have had their religion removed.

To balance things out, I would advise changing the religion of much of the outer Caribbean islands to Brethren, while keeping their rulers either Santeria or Rastafarian. That way players would have the option to flip religions if they so wished to pursue their old traditions across the waves, or to serve as combatants for players seeking to bring the holy word of the Rastafari to them.

On a related note, several interesting Brethren characters, both long ago and recently, were removed for one reason or another. Re-including the following captains in a new update could potentially restore some of the flavor to the religion and promote playing the powerful pirate captains of yore.

These include the following:

-Captain Long Wang of the Channel Islands (being among the only non-Americans in the game, the Singaporean and his Cantonese wife were an interesting inclusion to the game and added some lore to the ever-expanding universe of California and the west)

-Captain Jeremy the Silent, also of the Channel Islands (another interesting character for the sake of his high martial and intrigue, but notably low diplomacy, reintroducing Jeremy as a captain, say, on Isla Guadelupe and/or Isla Soccoro in the far western Pacific would bring back yet another classic character)

-Captain Orlando the Mad, Panama (once the southernmost Brethren nation located on Las Perlas, this unique insane character added the possibility for a powerful Brethren state on both great oceans)

-Tampa (simply put, as much as I love this mod, the Orientalist religion and Neomoor culture were poor decisions at best and are based in no way upon pre-event tradition whatsoever. Bringing back this Gulfard Brethren nation would easily help bring back realism to this region)

Aside from these, characters such as Henry Morgan Axe of the San Andres and Marie the Wolf of the Madeleine Islands were small details that vastly improved upon the lore and gave any ocean-dwelling nation something to fear when leaving their rich provinces undefended.




3. Great works

One last feature I believe would add quite a bit to the desire to obtain powerful old world counties would be to add great works in addition to the modifier that indicates the presence of an artifact there. For instance, works such as the Space Needle for Seattle, the foundations of the Golden Gate Bridge for San Francisco, the Panama and Chicago canals, and Times' Square for New York would all be cool additions which would make these provinces that much more sought after.


That's all I have for now, once again, it's a wonderful mod on the whole that myself and undoubtedly many others enjoy, and I look forwards to seeing more come of it as it continues to grow in size and popularity.

Thank you for your consideration!