English Longbows

[ChaosLondon]

I'm making a rather Anglo-centric mod at the mo, and I find it a little frustrating trying to recruit longbowmen.
In M2TW, certain bowmen only seem buildable in very advanced castles, whereas historically (as far as I know) there was some sort of law at some point which meant that longbow training was an important skill that every man able to carry arms was legally obliged to follow.
I'm trying to make longbowmen easier to build for the English.

Basically, I want English cities to be able to build bowyers & practice ranges etc from early stages of settlement - not just the castles.
How would I go about this?

Thanks,
C.

[green tea]

This idea is originally from Ryoken, I think, at least I saw it at first in his work. He made longbows recruitable from farms. And for that, you go in the export_describe_buildings.txt and cut and paste the relevant lines to the other building.

Edit: this seems to be the easiest approach. If you really want to change that (only) english cities can build ranges, you had to change much more. If you read a bit in the EDB, I think you will understand how it works, it is logical. But as I said, just to take an existing building for cities would be much easier. You could of course also take the city walls or the militia barracks instead of the farms.

The most important thing then would be to remember that you fill in the lines also in each upgrade of that building.

[ChaosLondon]

Thanks for that - yes, it makes sense that way.
I think I'll try tying it in with the city walls.

[Lonck]

in bold decides if building can be build in cities or castles

building barracks
{
    convert_to castle_barracks
    levels town_watch town_guard city_watch militia_drill_square militia_barracks army_barracks royal_armoury 
    {
        town_watch city requires factions { northern_european, middle_eastern, eastern_european, greek, southern_european, } 
        {
            convert_to 1
            capability
            {

remove that to make building buildable in both cities and castles.

[ChaosLondon]

Thats in the buildings export file is it?
- I'm writing this from the computer at work...

[ChaosLondon]

Is there anyway I can put a limit as to when units like Retinue Longbowmen can be recruited?
Say, only if a certain level of barracks has been built, AND a certain wall size?

Or is simplicity the key?

[green tea]

It is in the export_describe buildings.txt file, which is in your data folder (i assume you have unpacked your files?).

The wall size defines which barrack you can build- so if you say that retinue lonbows should omly be build in the last barrack(s?), then you have to build the last wall before. And since you don´t know by now what you will change exactly iwould say, yes, make it as easy as you can- so you can find eventual mistakes better if it does not work like it should. Change one parameter at a time, and then check if it works.

I don´t know if there is something like Ret.Longbows can only be built if Barracks Nr.3 and Smith Nr. 4 is there. I have never heard of such a restriction. But that proves absolutely nothing, of course, since I am just an apprentice hobby modder.