Improved Matchlock units V7

[Unahim]

Hey guys, I noticed there wasn't a (working) mod to improve matchlock infantry any more, so I decided to learn the very basics of modding and have a go at it myself.

Credit to Selahedîn, as this really is his ideas made compatible with patch 6(with a few choice changes.)

V7 Update: Something completely different this time. I've enabled the mass volley(as spearheaded by some other mods) feature for matchlocks, so that all rows can shoot whenever they can see a gap to do so. However, this proved to have some very serious balance implications, so I've reduced the range of the guns to 150, and lowered their stats compared to vanilla units. They are still superior to their vanilla counterparts. Historically, guns would have had more range, but this game is just not equipped to deal with it, especially the AI just goes nutters over it. I've left the V6 up for those who rather have 200 range and no mass volley.

V6 Update: Changed range of heavy gunners and mounted gunners to be balanced against the other matchlock units. Did not change any stats, since the PFM doesn't currently allow unit_stats_land for patch 7 to be loaded.

V5 Update: Fixed the Auto-resolve problem.

V4 Update: Increased base reload time slightly + decreased reload skill slightly

V3 Update: Made the mod avatar multiplayer safe.

V2 Update: Rank Fire ability added to Matchlock Monks.

-Max matchlock range increased quite a bit, to 200. Inaccurate at high range.
-Slightly increased projectile velocity.
-Imported Matchlock Ashigaru have been normalized with their Matchlock Ashigaru brethren, resulting in a slightly stronger statset for both overall. To maintain status quo, Matchlock Samurai and Matchlock Monks received small buffs of the same nature.(Small buff to accuracy and reload. I doubt anyone will notice, but still.)
Ikko Ikki Matchlock Ashigaru are still more numerous, but weaker than the rest, while Oda Matchlock Ashigaru are still stronger.

So, in short, for those looking to replace the Selahedin's mod since the patches broke it, you will find a very similar mod here, except the range part is slightly better, while there have been no buffs to melee.

I feel these changes approximate the historical truth more closely, make matchlock units more valuable in campaign(because really, if you need to spend that long researching them they damn better well be) without making them too overpowered

.

[Uszaty]

Works as intended, thanks.

I have a question. As you say, matchlock infantry is inaccurate at high range. If I changed their range to 150, does their effectiveness at, let's say 100 range, is affected by my change? In other words, is the loss of accuracy at higher ranges dependent on the maximum range, or on some other factors? Are my 150 range matchlock ashigaru as effective at 100 range as yours 200 range matchlock ashigaru? I'm just curious, I like both matchlock and bow units to have the same maximum range.

[W4lt3r]

Works as intended, thanks.

I have a question. As you say, matchlock infantry is inaccurate at high range. If I changed their range to 150, does their effectiveness at, let's say 100 range, is affected by my change? In other words, is the loss of accuracy at higher ranges dependent on the maximum range, or on some other factors? Are my 150 range matchlock ashigaru as effective at 100 range as yours 200 range matchlock ashigaru? I'm just curious, I like both matchlock and bow units to have the same maximum range.

What I've observed, the game adds more "inaccuracy" to a projectile shot, the further away the target is.
So at maximum range, the fire is extremely inaccurate.
With 200 as maximum range, I'd say every 30th shot or so has minor chance to land a hit.
When the bow units get into their natural 150 range, it seems fairly even fight, since both are able to cause casualties.

[Unahim]

I'm not 100% sure of this, as far as I know nobody has tested this in much detail for shogun 2 yet, but I do know that in older iterations of TW series(mainly ME2), the units would be just as deadly at 100 range, despite their difference in max range.

Reason for this being the deviations on accuracy are so that the shot gets increasingly "off" the further from the gunner you go, since this deviation doesn't change by reducing their max range, they should remain just as capable at 100 range as mine.

Velocity has a good part in this as well, the higher it is the faster(and more horizontal) the projectile and thus the farther it can go. It is actually possible to have units with a great range but low velocity, and then the projectiles will just fall short. In a way, velocity actually decides the range of the weapon, while range decides when the game actually lets the units shoot :p

So, in short, I don't think toning the range down should have any extra "nerfs" for your units, as I see range more as a limiter, and aside from that everything is the same.

I could be wrong, but this is what makes sense to me.

[Fluke]

Thanks Unahim!

[THE HIGHLANDER]

thanks dude your the mutts nuts.

[russelcoight]

Works as intended, thanks.

I have a question. As you say, matchlock infantry is inaccurate at high range. If I changed their range to 150, does their effectiveness at, let's say 100 range, is affected by my change? In other words, is the loss of accuracy at higher ranges dependent on the maximum range, or on some other factors? Are my 150 range matchlock ashigaru as effective at 100 range as yours 200 range matchlock ashigaru? I'm just curious, I like both matchlock and bow units to have the same maximum range.

Its a flat value i THINK.


Looking at the unit stats with PFM there seems to be 2 values i know of that relate to this.


First is ;

missile_distance_for_half_chance_hit_artillery (300)

missile_distance_for_half_chance_hit (100)

missile_distance_for_half_chance_hit_naval (300)

I assume this means you can make it so a missile that travels further than X amount has 50% chance to hit. Im not sure if this plays out in reality , or what units it specifically applies to.


Second is ;

Damage at range effectiveness. All it has in these sections are values like "high" "ap" "low" "effective_range_based".




Not sure if this helps. But as far as i know , its at a specific range that accuracy decreases. As to what range the op has set , if any , i don't know.

[Unahim]

Its a flat value i THINK.


Looking at the unit stats with PFM there seems to be 2 values i know of that relate to this.


First is ;

missile_distance_for_half_chance_hit_artillery (300)

missile_distance_for_half_chance_hit (100)

missile_distance_for_half_chance_hit_naval (300)

I assume this means you can make it so a missile that travels further than X amount has 50% chance to hit. Im not sure if this plays out in reality , or what units it specifically applies to.


Second is ;

Damage at range effectiveness. All it has in these sections are values like "high" "ap" "low" "effective_range_based".




Not sure if this helps. But as far as i know , its at a specific range that accuracy decreases. As to what range the op has set , if any , i don't know.

I've kept all those values intact, so that should mean that my previous answer rings true, and Uszaty should indeed have nothing to worry about.
Thanks for your insights in this, looking at those values might be interesting, but I fear the matchlocks would become incredibly OP if I changed their accuracy drop at range, so I think I'll leave it alone for now. :p

[Charsi]

Ikko Ikki Matchlock Monks need rank fire, it was mentioned elsewhere that they dont have the skill.

[Uszaty]

I am not worried about anything at all, but thanks for explanation to all of you guys, I've never really used PFM too much, just for minor tweaking of released mods
Keep the mod updated in case of another patch or two

[Unahim]

I have no plans to stop support for the mod in the near future :p

Also, Charsi, when I first read your post I thought "I'll do it tomorrow" but somehow I ended up trying it right now :p Trying, because as I said my modding skills are a work in progress ^^

Anyway, there is a Matchlock Monk and an Uesugi Matchlock Monk in the patch files, but no Ikko Ikko Matchlock Monk.
I don't know if this is purely a naming thing, or if I need to get the DLC first?(I'm getting it in a day or two, I swear xD).

Anyway, I (think) I've added the fire by rank ability to all matchlock monk variants I could find in that file, I hope the fact that there are only Ikko Ikki matchlock monks means the "matchlock monk" from the files is the Ikko Ikki variant.

Let me know if it works, as I can't test it myself? I think the modifications are fine as I used a mod that added ranked fire to bows to see how they did that, so if it worked for bows it should certainly work for this :p

[Unahim]

I just got the DLC today, and I'm pleased to announce the fire by rank ability mod is indeed working ^^ Updated the OP.

[Unahim]

Released version 3, there were some unnecessary changes before that just affected avatar multiplayer. I thought those needed to be in to affect custom battles, but I was wrong :p

[Rumpullpus]

got to trying it out and the matchlocks seems a quite a bit OP now. all i need is 3-4 of ashigaru matchlocks and ive auto resolved battles with 2k against 6k with no problem at all. wish i had the picture to prove it but its true. maybe tone down their range or somthing a bit?

[Unahim]

How are you even getting armies of 6k against you? Multiple stacks?

Anyway, I'll look into it, but I'm more concerned about balance on the actual playing field than during auto-resolves. With ashigaru I seem to get only about one extra volley in before the lines clash, and at extreme range that doesn't kill a lot.

Seeing as they were almost considered universally underpowered in campaigns before, that shouldn't matter that much.
But as I said, I'll do some more testing, but it'll have to wait since I'm gone 'till friday :p

I'll most likely run a few custom battles, as it's exceedingly time consuming to start a new campaign, work my way up to matchlocks and then hope I encounter a stack big enough to test it on.

[Fluke]

Yes, auto resolve is really out of balance now.

[Unahim]

I've reduced reload skill and increased reload time. This should put the matchlocks a bit closer to the bows, I found bows to still be competitive in attack scenarios(because during attacks your own charging troops act as a shield for the enemy if you have matchlocks) but the defensive advantage of the matchlocks was a bit much.

[Rumpullpus]

How are you even getting armies of 6k against you? Multiple stacks?

Anyway, I'll look into it, but I'm more concerned about balance on the actual playing field than during auto-resolves. With ashigaru I seem to get only about one extra volley in before the lines clash, and at extreme range that doesn't kill a lot.

Seeing as they were almost considered universally underpowered in campaigns before, that shouldn't matter that much.
But as I said, I'll do some more testing, but it'll have to wait since I'm gone 'till friday :p

I'll most likely run a few custom battles, as it's exceedingly time consuming to start a new campaign, work my way up to matchlocks and then hope I encounter a stack big enough to test it on.

yes actually hojo brought up 3 full stacks (and i have a custom unit scale at around 1.5) but i didnt find the matchlocks nearly as OP as the auto-resolve.

will try the new version and see if that helped.
on another note, i have been thinkin remember how in NTW and ETW militas would fire all at once? (all the rows) would that be possible to bring into shogun2? would give matchlocks a much bigger effect without having to touch the stats too much.

[anthegreat]

sorry guys,
but how do you 'install' this mod?

[Unahim]

sorry guys,
but how do you 'install' this mod?

Just drop it in the steam/steamapps/common/shogun 2/Data folder. That's all ^^