Possible changes

[eusKai]

Hello, first of all congrats to AlphaDelta for the great mod!!! I´ve played a few campaigns and it´s really good!

However there´s one thing i don´t like, it´s the way MTW2 handles the gunpowder infantry. The firing in ranks thing just doesn´t work as it should, the units get stuck, very slow when not in perfect line, etc...

How could i change this? Removing firing in ranks from de EDU seems the first step, but what can i do so the rear ranks still shoot? It´s the gunmen atribute, the gunpowder, the unit type...?
It would be good if i could make the gun infantry fire without switching ranks, with all the soldiers firing (no "first line out of ammo, so nobody shoots"), but not firing at the same time (that woould be basically archer attributes, but volleys would be much too strong). Is that possible??

Thanks for the help

[JaM]

just remove fire by rank - default animation is much better - they still fire by rank,just rank which fired will kneel and reload so second rank can fire, after they start reload,third will fire... etc...

[Titus]

Where in the EDU do you edit to do this.?

[Tharros]

just remove fire by rank - default animation is much better - they still fire by rank,just rank which fired will kneel and reload so second rank can fire, after they start reload,third will fire... etc...

Hmm will have to try that out :hmmm:

Where in the EDU do you edit to do this.?

../Medieval II: Total War/for_king_or_country/data/export_desc_unit.txt
I think

Then right down the bottom of the file is where the FKoC units are. Should be an attribute of the musketeers' ranged attack - just remove it. I don't know what effect it will have we will just have to take JaM's word for it.

[AlphaDelta]

If you disable fire by rank you throw game balance out of the window, musketeers become a lot more effective and battles become very short affairs. Also because firing synchronization is completely bugged without fire by ranks, the action of musketeers looks really wrong.

If you find the AI isn't firing by rank properlly, there's a simple way to fix it. Set yourself a house rule:

Dont fire until the AI has formed up into ranks. Once they have formed their ranks, and you start exchanging volleys, the AI is fine.

However, dont forget that this isn't just a fire by ranks bug. This house rule I suggested is absolutely critical for fighting battles in general. The AI is completely bugged, it can not form it's army under fire. If you give them heavy fire before they are formed the units will will run sideways, backwards, jiggle around. It's just another of CA's messes.

Cheers

[Rhio]

)PD: It´s about time CA fixed these bugs.

They're not going to...ever.

[AlphaDelta]

I have made a new thread about unit stats here :

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=196222

I will move out posts into that thread and would appreciate it if we can discuss the unit stats there.

Cheers

[Atterdag]

Another suggestion, will you keep the vanilla portraits? It seems rather strange to me to have guys in full plate armour in the 1640ies.

[leonn]

Another suggestion, will you keep the vanilla portraits? It seems rather strange to me to have guys in full plate armour in the 1640ies.

it was the fashion for men of quality from both sides to have their portraits painted in full or threequarter armour,some indeed wore it on the battlefield.ad"s depiction of this is fully in period.

[AlphaDelta]

Another suggestion, will you keep the vanilla portraits? It seems rather strange to me to have guys in full plate armour in the 1640ies.

Portrait painting is quite a slow affair. You can see I painted about 26 of them and the idea of painting another 15 or 20 purely for captains is not an idea I relish.

The vanilla cuirassier portraits are in my opinion not unsuitable for the period. You'll notice that almost every portrait of an ECW commander has him wearing cuirassier armour.



Thomas Fairfax dressed as a cuirassier.



Oliver Cromwell dressed as a cuirassier.

Cheers

[Atterdag]

Which reminds me of a question, what method did you use to make the new portraits? I'm trying to make some of my own to replace the full body armour (they just have too much of a mediveal feel to me).

[AlphaDelta]

I took a black and white portrait and cut the different parts (face, hair, facial hair, shoulders {armour and clothing}) onto different layers.

For the face;

I added a new layer in which I painted the hightlights and shadows the face. Highlights on the forehead, skin, nose and upper cheeks. You need to do this hightlight/shadow layer because you lose much of the detail when you brush the skin tone on.

Next I selected the face layer, took a light flesh tone colour and a 4 or 5 pixel brush with opacity set to about 20% and added the basic colour to the face. I did this 2 or 3 times each time giving the face a darker skin tone. I found it important to use darker skin tones on the cheeks, under the chin, above the eyes and around the face.

Next I added some light pink colour to the lips, and some blue or brown to the eyeball.

Lastly, I increased the contrast of the face layer, and at the same slightly desatured it.

For the hair;

I would decrease brightness, increase contrast. Then add a little bit of red, a little bit of yellow. Then decrease saturation. Sometimes if the original picture was speckled or grainy I would use the smudge brush to make streaks and lines in the hair.

For the armour;

Not much, I generally increased contrast and decreased brightness.

Cheers

[Atterdag]

Thanks a bunch, appreciate it. When I open the tga's in the folder I see that the area around the portrait is all dark, but in-game it is transparrent. Do you know what the deal with that is?

[AlphaDelta]

Portraits have an alpha channel which controls the transparency of the image.

Cheers

[Atterdag]

I feel like a dork for asking away, but would you mind elaborating on managing such alpha channels?

[AlphaDelta]

Probably the best thing to do is to read a tutorial like this one:

http://nicolaescher.com/tutorials/al...nel-primer.php

[Atterdag]

Hey thanks a buch!

I'm making progress (somewhat)..

[AlphaDelta]

Looks good!