Disabling skirmish

**Nestle** · April 20, 2012, 05:28 PM

Does anyone know how to either stop the AI from using skirmish mode on its ground missile troops, or to remove that ability for them? I find the AI is unable to use missile troops effectively with it on, and it's always on.

**k/t** · April 20, 2012, 11:15 PM

In the EDU, add

start_not_skirmishing

to the abilities of the units in question.

**Nestle** · April 21, 2012, 02:48 AM

I didn't work, I tested it in a custom battle, chasing around crossbowmen with infantry, and they still were skirmishing. I'm guessing the ability itself isn't removable, as it's not a 'special' ability, but does anyone know of a surefire way to stop the AI from skirmishing at all?

**k/t** · April 21, 2012, 11:48 PM

Add

cannot_skirmish

I didn't think the AI would know how to turn it on. It doesn't seem to know how to turn on Guard Mode.

Or change their type from "skirmish" to "missile". I think the first way is better.

**Nestle** · April 22, 2012, 02:47 AM

It worked! Thank you very much.

**rtizzy** · April 22, 2012, 09:00 PM

This seems like it's just gonna make them easier to kill. The AI doesn't know not to send its missle troops across the field unprotected. Skirmish is at least a rudimentary effort to make them not die, while if you take it off, they'll just stand there and get charged to death.

**Nestle** · April 23, 2012, 03:14 AM

I haven't tested it fully yet, I'll come back and report later. My thinking is that while it may be a disadvantage sometimes, I won't exploit it, and as it stands armies with lots of missile troops are totally pointless as all it takes is one unit being close and everything is disrupted. I think having them stand and shoot will do more than skirmishing.

Also I've only applied it to gunpowder and crossbow troops for now.

**k/t** · April 22, 2012, 10:01 PM

I hope the newest Germanicu5 AI will help with that.

**RollingWave** · April 23, 2012, 03:36 AM

part of the problem is also that light skrimishers are only very marginally faster than heavy infantries in most cases.. increasing the speed difference would go a long way into making skrimishers effective.

**k/t** · April 23, 2012, 12:48 PM

Gunpowder troops already don't skirmish.

In my RR/RC submod for TLK I made all skirmishers 1.05 speed in order to allow them to actually do their jobs. Perhaps 1.1 might be better.

Another problem with javelin troops is their long animations. PB said he made new ones that are much shorter. He also removed the loose formation from crossbow units to make sure they don't waste time rearranging themselves.

**RollingWave** · April 23, 2012, 08:27 PM

Originally Posted by k/t

Gunpowder troops already don't skirmish.

In my RR/RC submod for TLK I made all skirmishers 1.05 speed in order to allow them to actually do their jobs. Perhaps 1.1 might be better.

Another problem with javelin troops is their long animations. PB said he made new ones that are much shorter. He also removed the loose formation from crossbow units to make sure they don't waste time rearranging themselves.

aye, a faster animation for javelin (and possibly skrimish bowmen as well) would really help.