Fire_by_rank or not?

[Ataegina]

M2TW have this feature and for this time frame seems a good thing. but on m2tw besides this really go rank by rank each time one rank fires they stand up and run to the last line wich wastes alot of firepower and for awhile leaves your line in a mess and exposed to enemy fire.

Not using this feature, will improve the firepower and keep stable your lines, some things will remains and kneeling to reload and such.

So i brought it to you , fire_by_rank or not? wich is con's and pro's of wich ?

[Maltacus]

One good thing is that it is historical for some units and factions during the time. Possibly, it could offer interesting tactical opportunities - taking advantage of the lack of fire to rush forward and timing it during the "reshuffle" of the gunners.

Bad things are that it is very unhistorical for some units and irritating as in battles when the infantry never seem to fire.

I would definitely not use fire by rank - it is far too badly implemented in the m2tw game engine.

[jjja494]

IF you could find a way to tweak the Fire by rank so as to keep the men in place but change the way in which the men kneel or stand up than fire by rank would be a great idea, but I'm not sure if you can tweak it that much.

[Ataegina]

i've made little test, without fire_by_rank the units keep their lines/positions but the fire isn't syncronized (yet it fire by line by line), kneeling to second rank fire and than third, by firing more individualy instead of whole line seems the fire_by_rank despite the constant front to back run after firing, fire_by_rank firepower gives a bigger punch on the enemy lines, only setback is meanwhile your units turn their backs to run to the last rank they my get shot on the back by enemy units.

[Maltacus]

I have the same experience from using gunners. Being shot in the back wouldn't matter, would it? I mean, since noone is using a shield among the musketeers.

This is a little off-topic, but:
To simulate the "volley-shooting" used by the Swedish army for example, would it be possible to change a crossbow unit to fire with muskets? Since crossbowmen can fire all at once the whole unit could fire simultanously. The tremendous firepower would have to be compensated for in some way, maybe low ammunition or something.

The ideal outcome would be a unit that advances, fire a volley and then charges - reaching the target in time to take advantage of the shocking effetct of the volley. Standing still and engaging enemy gunners from a distance shoud be ineffective, so that a player is rewarded for using this kind of fire-melee approach.

In some mods there are units with "javelins thrown before charge" attribute. They don't work very well though, due to the slow throwing anmation, but maybe it is possible to do a similar thing with musketeers? That could make the ai use these units correctly.

[Sithenidon]

Well, both Call of Warhammer and Stainless Steel has a working fire-by-rank system where the first rank kneels after firing their volley and the second rank fires over their heads. Also, they fire volleys, not individual shots. It's the best musket system I've seen for Medieval 2 and it shows that it is quite possible to make a functioning system.