changing fire behavior of gunpowder units?

[Zombimode]

Gunpowder units (gunmen, arquebusiers and musketeers) fire either in ranks or the first rank fires, kneels the the second rank fires, then first rank again and so on.
Both firemodes only work well if the unit uses a thin line formation. No problem for the player.
Sadly it IS a big problem for the AI. I have tried quite a lot of battle ais and in most if not all of them the AI puts all of its infantry ranged units in a long colum formation. While this is medicore for archers and crossbowmen, it renders firearm units almost useless, since only 10 men or so can fire their weapons.

The battle ai Im currently using is VERY good, so I dont want to change.
I feel it would be better to change the fire behavior of firearm troops to match archers and crossbowmen (that is: ALL men fire their weapons simultaneous regardless of formations.

Is there a way to do this and if yes, how?

[Moon]

You need to edit the export_descr_unit file, make a backup first.
Delete the red part.

type Arquebusiers
dictionary Arquebusiers ; Arquebusiers
category infantry
class missile
voice_type Light
banner faction main_missile
banner holy crusade
soldier Arquebusiers, 48, 0, 0.8
attributes sea_faring, hide_forest, can_withdraw, gunpowder_unit, fire_by_rank, start_not_skirmishing, gunmen

The attribute line should look like this after editing.

attributes sea_faring, hide_forest, can_withdraw, gunpowder_unit, start_not_skirmishing, gunmen

[Triumvere]

you didn't read his post. he wants the AI to spread the missile troops out into a double line formation. He said he didn't have a problem with fire by rank (though I will agree with you that gunpowder troops are better with out it).

(PS. Zombi, what Battle AI are you using?)

[axnsan]

Go in the edu, and in the formation line of all gunpowder units, change the starting lines to 2

formation        1.2, 1.2, 2.4, 2.4, 3, square

change it to

formation        1.2, 1.2, 2.4, 2.4, 2, square

This will make all gunpowder troops start in a 2 line formation.

[Zombimode]

@ Triumvere
Actually forcing the AI to use only double line formations for his firearm troops would be the most desirable solution. But that is in the realm of battle AI coding, and even IF I had the knowledge to work with that, its questionable if this could be changed at all.

Making firearm troops able to fire their weapons regardles of formation is less realistic but will help the AI, too.
To clarify:

F = soldier with firearm
Green = can fire
red = cannot fire

current situation:

FFFFFF
FFFFFF
FFFFFF
FFFFFF
FFFFFF

desired situation:

FFFFFF
FFFFFF
FFFFFF
FFFFFF
FFFFFF

I suspect this is hardcoded, but if not, let me know

@ axnsan
I suspect nothing will hinder the AI to regroop their units in colum formation

(PS. Zombi, what Battle AI are you using?)

According to the header in the config_ai_battle im using XAI V3.2F
But Im considering to switch to Broken Crescent 2.0 's battle ai
It seems doing pretty well but Im unsure how it will fare with polearm dominated warfare since Im playing a late era game.

[Triumvere]

I think - and this is just speculation - that this may have to do with firing angles... bowmen (and to a less realistically, crossbowmen) standing in the back rows can arc their shots, lobing their projectiles in mortar-like fashion. (I should note that this tends to be notably less effective than a straight shot, so the double or tripple line remains the ideal). Having the units start in a double line formation is an exellant suggestion, though it does not preclude the battle AI from allowing them to bunch up during battle (often a function of the skirmish mode, I find). You could conceivably try messing with the firing angles and projectile physics if you wanted to.