Solution to the OP 2H axemen in the new BB?

[teenspeedy1]

I'm fairly surprise no one has noticed or brought this up yet. My older BB 4.30 version CTD during 2H axe combat which is why I just finally updated my mod. In BB 4.36+WUO 4.0+Battlemap CTD Fix, 2H axemen are significantly stronger compared to the older BB using Taiji's animations. Most 2H axe units are capable of routing elite sword infantry due to the conversion of the animations back to vanilla by the Battlemap CTD Fix. Without this fix, combat with 2H axe units will CTD. Other behaviors I've noticed is the return of the shuffling backwards and scattering of the 2H axe units during combat which Taiji has previously tweaked out.

It seems replacing Taiji's animation with vanilla isn't the answer. Perhaps integrating the current 2H sword animation into the axe might solve this problem or even just slowing down the vanilla animations if that's possible.

Overall, this beautiful and underrated mod has given MTW2 much life for me, maybe even far too much. No other mod or even newer total war game has captured my attention with the challenging campaign and battle AI. I feel this is a significant error in the mod as it detracts from the true vision of battlefield balance. This mod would be 100% complete if it wasn't for this overlooked balance problem.

[teenspeedy1]

Here's a easy fix for anyone interested. I simply compared Sandy's Battlemap CTD Fix with the battle_model file from WUO 4.0 using Notepad++. I removed the lines for vanilla 2H axe animation and replaced it with Taiji's 2H sword animation. This effects regular 2H axe units such as Mailed Foot Knight, Galloglaich, Varangian Guard, and Norse Axemen by significantly nerfing these units back to their intended strength. This also fixes the annoying shuffling backwards of units during combat. Some minor cosmetic side effects include stationary units holding their 2H axes like 2H swords, and an out of place combat fatality that slices the opponent. Other than that, these animations fit the units very well and essentially balances the combat.

It seems Taiji utilized the vanilla animations specifically for elite 2H axemen which I've only found so far to be used by Foot Knight Templar. This explains why regular 2H units were dominating in combat using the previous animations. I tested this multiple times through custom battle on VH difficulty and never experienced a CTD. This is meant to be a temporary solution until a more experienced modder can tweak Taiji's 2H axe animations from causing CTDs.

To install, make sure you have BB 4.36 + Western Unit Overhaul 4.0 and overwrite the battle_models.modeldb in DLV_ext/data/unit_models.

battle_models.rar

[G|I|Sandy]

Thanks for the fix, I will include it in the description.

Sandy