Replacing units

[Reimu Hakurei]

Allright.
Currently, I'm not making any project that needs this, but I plan on doings so, a mod for Medieval II Kingdoms which will cover a timespan from the late 16th century to the mid or early 18th century.
So, what I want is some sort of script that will allow me to make an event that replaces certain units with another.
Like... Matchlock Musketeers with Flintlock Musketeers, upon the triggering of the "Flintlock invented" event.
Why?
Sure, in real life, not everyone switched to the other type of gun, pirates continued using matchlocks right into the 18th century.
So, logically, a good player would disband all those matchlock musketeers, and train flintlock ones, right? Yes, but what about the dumb AI? The AI would never do something as that.
So, to somehow achieve realism, we have to "cheat", and force everyone to replace the units, instead of teaching the AI how to do that.

So, is it possible, or not?

[danny X]

the easy way would be to remove the units from the later tier buildings in the EDB.

[Reimu Hakurei]

the easy way would be to remove the units from the later tier buildings in the EDB.

Really?

I'm planning it something like this:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

recruit_pool "Arquebusiers" 4 0.7 6 0 requires factions { england, france, hre, denmark, spain, milan, venice, papal_states, sicily, poland, russia, hungary, } and not event_counter flintlock_invented 1
recruit_pool "Matchlock Musketeers" 3 0.5 4 0 requires factions { spain, venice, milan, sicily, hungary, hre, poland, denmark, scotland, france, england, } and not event_counter flintlock_invented 1
recruit_pool "Flintlock Musketeers" 3 0.5 4 0 requires factions { spain, venice, milan, sicily, hungary, hre, poland, denmark, scotland, france, england, } and event_counter flintlock_invented 1
recruit_pool "Skirmishers" 1 0.3 2 0 requires factions { hungary, hre, poland, scotland, france, england, } and event_counter flintlock_invented 1

(Btw, Skirmisher is an early sniper-type of unit, kind of a sharpshooting gunner)

[Reimu Hakurei]

So, there's no script that allows me to replace X unit with Y unit?

[danny X]

So, there's no script that allows me to replace X unit with Y unit?

I dont touch scripts im afraid.

[Reimu Hakurei]

I dont touch scripts im afraid.

Hmmm... then, apparently I have two options. Either just ignore the problem and laugh at the AI's failure to modernize it's army in the future, or wait for someone who is experienced with scripts and can explain.

The first one seems to be a more tempting option

[Withwnar]

There is no "replace" command such as this. All you could do with script is destroy all of the old ones...

destroy_units england Matchlock Musketeers

..which will wipe out every single unit of that type in that faction. So repeat it for the other factions.

You could then use script to spawn some Flintlock Musketeers into some settlements...

create_unit London, Flintlock Musketeers, num 1, exp 0, arm 0, wep 0

or 

console_command create_unit London "Flintlock Musketeers" 1

...but where and how many? You might be able to use some script to count how many there are in each settlement but it would be a lot of script.

[Reimu Hakurei]

Thanks
I know it's tedious, but then, I could just try to get a count script for all 199 settlements. That could work.

Or, I could just ignore the problem.
After all, the new event wouldn't allow for the training of outdated units, so they would be probably killed in battles, only to be replaced by the more advanced units.
Another way to get around this would be making Flintlock Musketeers stronger AND cheaper (yes, the same time) than Matchlock Musketeers. Combine it with the previous thing I wrote (disabling outdated units after triggering event), it would make a lot of sense on the long run to destroy your outdated units and train newer ones.

[Withwnar]

I'd just let the AI/player handle the creation of new units. Muuuuch easier.

To count units in settlements you can use I_NumberUnitsInSettlement (?) but it doesn't work if the unit Type contains spaces - which many do!

[Reimu Hakurei]

I'd just let the AI/player handle the creation of new units. Muuuuch easier.

Good idea.
At least we can laugh at them still using Matchlock Musketeers in 1750, despite the fact they can't even train or retrain them anymore

To count units in settlements you can use I_NumberUnitsInSettlement (?) but it doesn't work if the unit Type contains spaces - which many do!

I could handle that problem easily by replacing spaces with _s.

[Withwnar]

Good idea.

Oh, I thought it was your idea. I was just agreeing with you. If you did the destroy_units part then the AI might be tempted to create the new Musketeers sooner.

I could handle that problem easily by replacing spaces with _s.

That's right. I always do that for any units I create for this reason. I_NumberUnits... is a really handy condition, when it can work.

[Reimu Hakurei]

Oh, I thought it was your idea. I was just agreeing with you. If you did the destroy_units part then the AI might be tempted to create the new Musketeers sooner.

Too bad that Total War doesn't allow you to upgrade your units like that (replacing the outdated ones with newer ones)
So, all we can do is choose between the two.
Don't know about musketeers, but I'm definitely going to use destroy_units on Arquebusiers.

That's right. I always do that for any units I create for this reason. I_NumberUnits... is a really handy condition, when it can work.

Units in the original Medieval 1 Total War also had names with _s instead of spaces.

[ilmrik]

All units have 2 id's, their "EDU name" wich uses spaces and their "text_string" names that don't.
Various scripting commands don't always use the same name.

I'd just destroy all the old ones via script.
Disable the recruitment of the old unit, and spawn 3 of the new unit in all the settlements.

Personally I wouldn't bother counting and just blanket cover it all.
If you really want to have some differentiation either give more important regions some more and smaller ones less or base it on buildings in the region.

Alternativly you could give the matchlocks an armor upgrade that makes them look like low quality flint locks.

[Kiliç Alì]

Just remember to use the

if I_SettlementOwner [settlemnt] [faction]
and I_NumberUnitsInSettlement [settlement]
...
end_if

call for each spawn and you can have this for all factions in 1 monitor with no other counters.