Hello, this is my fourth tutorial (this time i'll try to make my tutorials short as I noticed my others are long-ass in length). I'm going to finally reveal the method used to successfully achieve the most coveted feature for gunpowder units: Fire by rank.. Much like the musketeers in the mods Stainless Steel and Call of Warhammer and like the firearm units in the later Total War games. Example video: (thanks to noobmodder15)
This is mostly animation work, so I recommend you read this tutorial by me so that you have a general idea of how to make an animation in MS3D.
GOAT/GOAL 1.1 (I recommend 1.1 because it's the latest, and it's the version i'm using in this tutorial. If you're already using 1.01c for your models, you can still use 1.01c, but not 1.1, as it's not recommended to mix models between versions).
We'll be using the MTW2_Musket folder alot.. So I hope you have Caliban's animation pack downloaded and set up.
A Musketeer model (musketeers_lod0.ms3d).
====STEPS====
STEP 1: Animerge musketeers_lod0.ms3d with MTW2_Musket_attack_missile_hold.cas at 1 FPS. You should get a file called musketeers_lod0_animby_MTW2_Musket_attack_missile_hold.ms3d. Open it up in Milkshape.
STEP 2: Click on the "Anim" box. In the Max frame box and the Total frame box, change the values from (whatever it is in there..) to 3. If you don't know which is the Max frame box and the Total frame box, then you haven't read my tutorial, and I am dissapointed in you. The Max frame box is labelled (13), and the Total frame box is labelled (14).
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
STEP 3: Move to the third frame, and delete the keyframes for all the joints.
STEP 4: Exit animation mode, then save (don't change the name! If they ask for an overwrite, then click yes).
STEP 5: Animextract the new animation. It should be called something like MTW2_Musket_attack_missile_hold_modified.cas. Rename it to into something more meaningful (like MTW2_Musket_attack_missile_hold_quick.cas).
STEP 6: Go over to your mod's animations folder, and create a new folder there. I'd say we call it MTW2_Volley for now.. Take your new .cas file, and place it inside. While you're still in the animations folder, delete skeletons.dat, skeletons.idx, pack.dat, and pack.idx. Here comes the final steps..
STEP 7: Open descr_skeleton (It's in your data folder). Look for MTW2_Musket, and scoll down to the ";;;Attack" animations. Copy this line:
Make a new descr_skeleton entry under the MTW2_Musket entry. Let the type be MTW2_Volley, the parent MTW2_Musket, and the reference_points "siege_engines/UnitModelsRefPoints/Musckett_Ref_Point.modelReferencePoints". Now paste the above line we copied earlier, and rename it to suit the new .cas name and directory so that it is something like this:
STEP 8: Open the BMDB, search for the musketeers entry, and change the MTW2_Musket line into MTW2_Volley, and change the number before the words accordingly. Save and close.
STEP 9: Open the EDU, search for the musketeers entry, and remove the fire_by_rank attribute. Save and close.
STEP 10: Start up the game and test it. If you get something like this:
Then please note that you have followed my tutorial successfully, and your musketeers now fire by rank "perfectly".
If you find those unfortunate 1-5 gunners who don't fire their guns annoying, then I will extend this tutorial to cover that area and fix it.
Last edited by BM309K58SMERCH; February 11, 2013 at 12:31 PM.
Reason: Fixed step 1.
Oh, okay. I was under the impression that basically this was telling you to make a new anim, in which case the anim made in making this could have been uploaded. Sorry.
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=96522 are the CA unpacked ones you can modify to your heart's content.
The modified ones you will have to contact the respective mod for their permission to use them.
Hey. is it possible for i to change this so the european musketeers fire on after the other, and arquebusiers fire in a 3 by 3 formation (ie on rank couches and fires and the other fires after other)
Hey. is it possible for i to change this so the european musketeers fire on after the other, and arquebusiers fire in a 3 by 3 formation (ie on rank couches and fires and the other fires after other)