Fire By Rank

[Nacht]

So, would it be better to leave my gunpowder troops on fire-by-rank, or to take it away, what effects, list some pros and cons I would see by removing the fire by rank trait. Also, how do I remove the fire by rank trait completely?

[R3VAN]

Isnt thisfor empire? and why would you want to take it off?

[rebelyell2006]

It can be removed by going into the Export_Descr_Units.txt file and erasing the entry "fire_by_rank." Personally I prefer it because that was how it was done after the 1590s. Before, it was just the front rank firing, reloading and firing again.

[Nacht]

It can be removed by going into the Export_Descr_Units.txt file and erasing the entry "fire_by_rank." Personally I prefer it because that was how it was done after the 1590s. Before, it was just the front rank firing, reloading and firing again.

So it's better to leave it on? Also, what's the best anti-infantry artillery around?

[rebelyell2006]

If deployed correctly, I'd say serpentines are the best anti-infantry, given their recruitment and upkeep costs compared to siege artillery such as basilisk.

[Nacht]

If deployed correctly, I'd say serpentines are the best anti-infantry, given their recruitment and upkeep costs compared to siege artillery such as basilisk.

So is fire by rank better than free-fire, and also, I have the M2TW gold edition installed, if that changes anything.

[rebelyell2006]

Unless you modify the game beyond the vanilla M2TW, the only units that can "free fire" are mechanical weapons (javelins, bows, crossbows). Hand Gunners fire front rank only. Arquebusiers and Musketeers fire by rank.

And "gold edition" means your game came with both M2 and Kingdoms. Otherwise the files are all the same.

EDIT:
Personally I think firing by rank is better, because it is more orderly and it prevents ranged weapon units from becoming too powerful in the game.

[Nacht]

Unless you modify the game beyond the vanilla M2TW, the only units that can "free fire" are mechanical weapons (javelins, bows, crossbows). Hand Gunners fire front rank only. Arquebusiers and Musketeers fire by rank.

And "gold edition" means your game came with both M2 and Kingdoms. Otherwise the files are all the same.

EDIT:
Personally I think firing by rank is better, because it is more orderly and it prevents ranged weapon units from becoming too powerful in the game.

So, did patch 1.3 fix gunpowder bugs? Or at least most of them?

[rebelyell2006]

My game is patched to 1.3, and I don't know if the patch fixed the gunpowder bugs, but I never had problems with gunpowder units except on bridges. If they are stretched out into just two ranks, they behave normally about 99% of the time, but if there is intervening terrain pieces, uneven ground or other terrain aspects that prevent a pure, simple line of sight then they occasionally will get stuck reloading, or will cycle through their ranks without firing, but that is rare and usually when the battle is around a settlement or the ground is mountainous.

[PrestigeX]

Hey does anyone know enough about gunpowder units to tell me if I can reduce the gunpowder effects? My computer isn't that bad, but playing with large unit scale -- i usually go for lowest effects, and low or medium unit detail .. but whenever I use musketeers and especially camel gunners it slows my game down to a crawl a lot of the time. I want to take away the smoke or reduce it to maybe 1/4 of what it is

[The Source]

sorry but to reduce the unit size is the best soloution

[PrestigeX]

sorry but to reduce the unit size is the best soloution

yah but I never have any trouble with lag, except when I have like 6 units or more of muskets firing and then it starts to lag up. No trouble with anything but all that smoke they make, there's got to be a way to get rid of the smoke