Rank Fire

**deadlyshadow187** · June 24, 2013, 04:30 PM

I would like to know what method u used to remove Rank Fire, Albeit I assume you used the DB Editor, simply i can't seem to figure out exactly how you took the action out of the game

, so inturn i could put it back, iv'e tried every way i can think of that i would do to take it out, but it has still not worked, so i'm thinking that there is something either really simple or really complicated to overcome my endeavor.

Any help with this would be of great help, I enjoy your mod immensely, and in so i want to customize it to my preference so i can better enjoy you're wonderful MOD, I hope you have a wonderful day.

**JaM** · June 25, 2013, 03:31 AM

Fire by rank is bugged. it causes a lot of problems and therefore it was removed. Plus, the way how it was done is completely unhistorical and wrong - In reality, rear rank fired first, so they could reload without being endangered by anybody.. In ETW, first rank fired, then had to wait until second and third rank fired to start the reload process... that would be just a big waste of time..

Anyway, FBR is very unreliable, causing a lot of AI issues, which result in "chicken dance" of units in front of player's units.. Also, with FBR, entire formation waits until everybody finishes the reload process.. so your unit will ignore the fact enemy is closing with bayonets, and will just stand there until some Jack in third rank finishes reloading... lots of time, enemy just manages to get into melee and your unit wont even fire at them...

Target acquisition is also very problematic with FBR - if enemy is on your flank, only men with direct line of fire will fire, which sometimes means just 3-4 men.. but if you order your unit to reacquire target in front of them, entire unit will wait for those 3-4 men until they reload their weapons..

Volley fire used in my mod is not plagued with these issues. Its the only reliable fire drill in game, therefore i wont abandon it.

btw, from historical perspective, no matter what fire drill infantry used, it was only used for first few salvos. after that chaos of battle was just too big for officers to effectively control their men, so each fire drill practically switched into voluntary fire system, where everybody fired as soon as he reloaded. Napoleonic French even adopted it as the only fire doctrine, other nations still used platoon fire, but with constrains mentioned here.. so having all units to keep fire drill entire battle is another unrealistic thing, i have avoided by using volley fire. If you want to have some fire control, you can micromanage your unit so it will only fire when ordered to - this way you can deliver mass salvos against enemy, anyway voluntary volleys will be just more effective..

**JaM** · June 25, 2013, 05:01 AM

forgot to mention - with FBR, if there is any soldier out of formation stuck somewhere, entire unit will not fire, until that single soldier gets back into formation. Sometimes you might have bad luck on some maps and soldiers get stuck behind some cart, or boulders etc.. and this small issue will make your entire unit just standing there...

**Dandelion** · June 25, 2013, 06:33 AM

JaM, he didn't want YOU to put FBR back into the mod - he just wanted to know how You did REMOVE it, so he can put it back in again to suit his taste. I guess if he wants to ruin it for himself, it's his choice.. isn't it?

**JaM** · June 25, 2013, 06:59 AM

it is... just wanted to warn him, because a lot of people have no idea how FBR is broken... anyway, what i did was i removed FBR from unit abilities. Also its removed from research tree, anyway if you do it right, you can have FBR active at the start with no research required.. but it will ruin your game... believe me

**deadlyshadow187** · July 08, 2013, 02:39 AM

Originally Posted by JaM

it is... just wanted to warn him, because a lot of people have no idea how FBR is broken... anyway, what i did was i removed FBR from unit abilities. Also its removed from research tree, anyway if you do it right, you can have FBR active at the start with no research required.. but it will ruin your game... believe me

Ty, I had completely over complicated it, I understand ur reasoning for taking it out, but at the same time, with the proper tweaking in Kv_Rules u can get it to work very nicely, as well as platoon firing, it almost is a machine gun, it's fun to watch, though i have been completely unable to fix fire by rank it's completely a graphical blunder, if they had made it more in the sense of fire while walking, or i.e moving it would of been completely more usable, but as such simply the idea as is I can upgrade an ability to so in better defeat an opponent, it makes the entire tech tree more overall usable, in the sense that it makes a overall change to combat, the same as is I love the way u changed the stats for boats to better make them feel more useful, as well as give them long term feel and usability, I wish to do the same, why simply take out something, instead of finding a way to make it of use, I think we can all agree to that, everything wants to be of use.

Though again I simply meant for my own play style, i very much like ur overall train of thought and goal in this mod, and i had no intention of saying otherwise, i aghain thank you for the insight, and wish you the very best on the future of this mod.

**JaM** · July 08, 2013, 02:48 AM

reagrding tech tree - in ER4 you have much more important Infantry research that have direct impact in game - there is entire Infantry training tree, which improved rate of fire and missfire rates (which were very rare in vanilla,but are extremly common in ER), as well as redesigned bayonet research tree. Also, there are pure technology upgrades like Light Fussils and improved muskets research which also increase reload process a bit, so there is a quite big difference between early units and late units benefiting from all this research.