Altered Fire by Rank mini-mod

[Sirlion]

For those of you who like fire by rank, and especially the act of the first three lines kneeling to shoot, I have created this little mod to enjoy a fast paced shooting session with FBR in a way that resembles, at the very least, normal mass shooting.

The reasoning: the first two to three lines of men shoot, and the others receive their muskets in turn, as soon as they finish firing, to load them properly and then pass them again to the first line. This was common practice from my understanding, to help the shooting process and make it faster. Since FBR in Empire (and Napoleon) is completely fubar, I have studied the way animations work to better represent constant shooting.

(follows technical stuff)

The facts: the COMBAT_READY stance in the animation tables uses several variations, alt1, alt2 etc, but what is interesting is that only the first animation mentioned is used during FBR and ranged combat. All the other alternate animations are used only by melee fighting stances.
Therefore, modifying this had no impact on melee combat and makes for a nice transition during FBR.


What this mod does:
- Introduces FBR;
- Reduces reloading time by 2/3 to permit FBR to become a fast paced shooting process similar to Shogun 2, but not as unrealistic;
- Changes the "combat ready" stance making soldiers in the farthest lines actually do something (reloading muskets for the first lines);
- Does NOT disable skirmish attribute, therefore soldiers not in line can shoot freely even if the formation is not fully complete;
- Changes the animation for "misfire" so the soldiers dont stand up like idiots, instead, they will have the "kneel aim" animation, therefore the whole line will stay knelt and nice looking

Known issues (unsolvable):

- When in square formation, the second row will reload indefinitely
- Even with the animation change, the game thinks the combat_ready stance must be used anyways, so you will see soldiers who misfire stand up for a split of a second before returning in a kneeling position.

Enjoy

[roy64]

Loving it, it's working fine & looks impressive.

[Steph]

Maybe you can add a few screens to the OP to show it in-game?

[Sirlion]

You are right Steph. Here, fixed. Thank you roy, glad to be of service

[Athos187]

Hey just to let you know, when I try to use this it makes my game crash.

[jg209]

I've just tested this. It's a good idea and I like it. However, when the 2nd and 3rd ranks fire, they fire kneeling down (dangerously close to other's heads) and they stand up and then kneel down after shooting which makes it look very strange.

[Sirlion]

I've just tested this. It's a good idea and I like it. However, when the 2nd and 3rd ranks fire, they fire kneeling down (dangerously close to other's heads) and they stand up and then kneel down after shooting which makes it look very strange.

And today we have learned a valuable lesson: people don't read descriptions.

[Sirlion]

double post.

[Dea Paladin]

compatible with latest version?

[cancan69]

Does it work with all units? Can you make it so it only works for ELITE/GRENADIERS Units?

[lonewolf90]

this looks awesome, thank you for your work sir sirlion

[cancan69]

Actually it would be perfect if he could emulate the "square formation" fire mode, first line kneeling, and 2nd and 1st line shooting indipendently

[el emperador]

Espectacular, excelente trabajo gracias.

[TheRomanRuler]

Awesome work! +Rep.
But i believe soldiers in this time period despised kneeling, they saw it as cowardly. There are many reports of soldiers disobeying orders, when generals ordered them to go lay down, they would refuse to do so. And it is not as stupid as one may think, at that time period muskets and weapons were very, very inaccurate. Other than that, standing up allows commanders to see how big portion of the unit is still alive, so they don`t send half dead unit in the battle. In WW1 there were situations where officers would command their soldiers to follow him, asking if they are cowards. Reply often was "we are not cowards sir, but most of us are dead". In battlefield, it is hard to distinguish dead from someone lying down, as was constantly seen in world wars where it was common.
So lying down may actually cause more casualties, if officers believe unit is at full strenght and lying down, he may send them to mission that turns out to be suecidal when most of the unit is actually dead.

You would think that standing up and marching in perfect lines is stupid - but people did it for hundreds of years for one simple reason: it worked. People tried other tactics as well, during Napoleonic wars there were masses of skirmishers, but it turned out that infantry column made up of fresh conscripts marching standing up in beautiful lines with colors flying and drums playing was actually what won the battles. Skirmishing tactics only caused casualties to both sides, while actually assaulting position routs one side, reducing casualties.

[Top_Gum_oca]

do l just unzip it to the Data folder or what , please explain installation

[Top_Gum_oca]

l put in data folder and the game won't even start just ctd. so far anywhere else l put it , units still fire the same, is this save game compatible, and is it for MOE. mod ?

[Sirlion]

Yes, just put it into the main Data folder. Problem is, this is for an old version of MoE, from around May 2015. Therefore I'm not sure it's still fully compatible - that may be the problem. I'll see what can be done.

[Top_Gum_oca]

thanks Sirlion for quick response, l always loved Fire by rank, sorry they ever took it out of the game. and yea l have latest version of MOE, hope there is a fix, thanks again for the effort

[Top_Gum_oca]

if there isn't a fix, do you have any idea which MOE update may have interfered with your mod that l could possibly remove or revert to the 2015 setting ?

[Sirlion]

There is a fantastic virtue in this world, one which everyone should be gifted of, but unfortunately many lack. It is called "patience". However, if you so wish, you can return to the previous db tables if you have a backup of the main MoE pack file, which I believe is called MOE_Main.