Enabling Two Rank Fire for Infantry

[Thoragoros]

Tutorial Purpose: To enable 'two rank fire' for Line Infantry Units. This means the first two ranks will fire at will as opposed to just the first rank. Not only is this more historical, but frankly, it is more fun to watch.

The process is very, very simple, but a little 'deceiving' since it is not an obvious route to getting the desired results.

Tools Required:

1) The PFM.
2) A proper graps on 1337 5|o3@|< for good measure. (j/k )


Step 1) Get acquainted with the PFM, there are multiple threads that can help you with this. Here is an excellent one by Erasmus777.

Step 2) In the units_stats_land_tables find the infantry you wish to give two rank fire to.

Step 3) Scroll over until you see a value titled 'File Spacing.' For line infantry the vanilla value is 0.8. Change this to 0.65.

Step 4) Scroll over a little more until you see a value titled 'Can Skirmish.' Change this from 'False' to 'True.'

Step 5) Save your mod.

You are done.

If you did it right, only the first two ranks will fire at the enemy. Since this is not fool proof, rarely the third rank or even further back will fire, but only if they have an LOS on the enemy, but then again, that is historical.

Credits,

JaM who told me how to implement this into my mod 'Total Combat.'

[T.C.]

I think that this is a very interesting concept. F.E. if we were able to change te spacing for "light onfantry behaviour", we could use that button as a means to switch between, say, 2 rank and 3 rank fire.
+Rep

[JaM]

just one thing - original values is 0.8, not 8

[Thoragoros]

just one thing - original values is 0.8, not 8

Amazing the difference a '0' and a '.' can make!

Thanks for the correction!

[GingerFish]

many thanks for this guide i have been asking alot of people on how to do this but no one says. many thanks.

[Thoragoros]

many thanks for this guide i have been asking alot of people on how to do this but no one says. many thanks.

No problem.

[Ciisar]

But How I can change it to three rank fire?

[Thoragoros]

But How I can change it to three rank fire?

To be honest, I don't think that that would be possible, as it stands now we are essentially 'tricking' the AI soldiers into firing they way they are firing through effecting their LoS.

Sometimes the third rank will fire, if it has an LoS, sometimes it will not.

You could try slightly increasing the file spacing to something like .7, but that will probably just result in the entire unit firing.

[T.C.]

But How I can change it to three rank fire?

Just give the units the mass_fire ability

[JaM]

Mass Fire makes unit spread, so if you have tighter formations, units will spread. plus major issue with mass fire is, that whole unit waits for everybody to releoad, so if enemy is slightly off the LOS, only few men will fire at him, but if you order whole unit to fire at enemy which is in LOS, entire unit will wait till everybody has reloaded, even if it is just one man.... and now imagine what will happen if your line get hit by artillery and lots of men will fell, until they get up and get back to formation, your unit will be not able to fire a single shot.... so if you are bombarded by artillery, your unit will not fire at all.... 2rank volley has no such problems....

[Ciisar]

But some guys have three fire by rank.

[T.C.]

But some guys have three fire by rank.

Then just enable fire by rank. But you will encounter the same problems as Jam has just described.

[Ciisar]

I just enable this and then I have it? Or I need to change somewhere else too.

[JaM]

nope, just change "can skirmish" from False to True and thats it...

[Ciisar]

Okay I will inform you, how it works.

[Unteroffizier Rizz]

Through PFM, is it possible to make Light Infantry to form squares??

[ETNT79]

Hi Everyone
Here is how to enable the fire by rank, as it was in empire total war
use the pfm and open the data.pack
go to the unit ability table(in the DB registry), on the row of rank_fire mark as false for the 3rd row (needs to be researched)
Then go to unit_to_unit_abilities_junction
select the unit you want to give the ability (IE inf_line_french_fusiliers, clone one row that applies for that unit and write fire_rank in the unit ability ID ref column)
Save the data pack and enjoy

[hardcore knight]

in the ''units_stats_land'' you see ''Melee skill'', ''Charge Bonus'' & Defence Skill'' etc. can we set the value of this so that unit will be better in melee or defence etc?
like a unit has Melee skill value 2, if we set this to 12 will they have those experience in custom and campaign?

[Zerosliver]

in the ''units_stats_land'' you see ''Melee skill'', ''Charge Bonus'' & Defence Skill'' etc. can we set the value of this so that unit will be better in melee or defence etc?
like a unit has Melee skill value 2, if we set this to 12 will they have those experience in custom and campaign?

That's the table you need yes.

Btw, why did you do file_spacing to 0.65 Thor? It messes up lines badly.

[JaM]

Btw, why did you do file_spacing to 0.65 Thor? It messes up lines badly.

how? whole point of placing soldiers into line was to get more men firing - they were as close as it gets - British infantry were trained to march and fire in formation where there was just 0.56m space for single men. so 0.65 is till more than their standard...


and from game perspective - tighter unit means unit frontage is shorter, therefore AI maneuvers with it BETTER. longer is the unit, more collisions it has, more stucked unit you will see.. whole reforming problem AI has on some map is caused by too long line vs size of map - frontage is just too big for that map, so AI reforms and reforms but never finds enough space... reduced unit spacing makes this less probable...

and last, if unit spacing is more open, more men in rear ranks will fire - so instead of 2-rank fire, you will end up with 4-6 or even 12 ranks firing (when in column)...