kneeling_brace for pikemen

[Adjudant-Major]

Hi,

I would like to bring back the secondary weapon for my pikemen (TATW, 3.2), and I can do that, add a sword, all works properly and fine - there's but one question left. I would possibly like to see some of the units using the vanilla kneeling_brace animations... the animations are there, the code for the units appears the same as for the vanilla pikemen, but only two front ranks brace and stand; how does this work, how could I bring back the kneeling_brace?

Edit: haha, it's the guard mode... please delete this :-)

[QuintusSertorius]

I take it you're aware that two melee weapons for infantry are thoroughly bugged?

[Adjudant-Major]

I've read here and there about what people call pikemen problem in this game, the pikemen switching too early for sword. I can perhaps switch it back if I find it's really bad, but so far I am rather fine with the system. Sometimes they hold, usually they do not, but it's much nicer to see the combination of both weapons within one unit in melee.

You say it's bugged, should I expect anything else but this rapid and often unnecessary switch for swords?

[QuintusSertorius]

There's no rhyme or reason as to when they use either weapon, they certainly don't use them appropriately. In general, they will rarely use their primary weapon (except when marching), which is why most mods have simply dropped the notion of giving any infantry unit two melee weapons.

[Adjudant-Major]

Thank you. Before I learn my lesson, one last question concerning the speed of animations. I've read, and it can be seen, that in M2TW the pikemen are too slow while in Kingdoms they are too fast, which is why people slow them down with the speed mod param in EDU. It brings two issues basically: 1) all their animations are slowed down, 2) their officers who use other than pikeman animation are slowed down too, and struggle to follow those still relatively fast pikemen.

Did anyone make a set of pikemen moving animations which would answer by their speed to the rest of the infantry? I doubt any one did. I am not sucessful in trying to revert my Kingdoms pikemen back to the M2TW animations, descr_skeleton does not seem to work for me in combination with "MTW2_Pike_Old" in moddb; and I always finish messed up when I try to repack the original animations and skeletons to replace the new ones. Is there a way?

edit: Of course there is a way; I figured out how to use the old animations, they do not offer the effect I thaught before, but I like them... now some tests and possibly I will get back to what experienced people decided years ago.

edit2: well so far, I would tend to keep the old system for a while, and I kind of like it. I did not see anythink like using swords prematurely. It depends rather on situations, without being 100% the same thing all the time, which is good. Combination of arms and their correct use is the key. It is nearly impossible to gather any data here, as the pikemen, just like anybody else, are not there to fight 1:1 on equal ground. But I have seen them using their pikes in a good charge, using pikes for a long fight with other pikemen, switching to swords in close combat... it all works just as I would expect it to work, and it brings different situations and risks. Together with their ability to hold well against cavalry they are a valuable asset to the army without being overpowered... let's see after a campaign or three.