Trebuchet Q?

[CoeurDeLion]

A long standing pet peeve of mine has been the utterly useless and largely counter-productive "fling cows" ability given to trebuchets.

Finally, I had enough and changed the EDU, replacing the associated line for the trebuchet unit with the primary weapon of the mangonel unit. The result, is that I now have trebuchets that throw exploding barrels after exhausting their supply of boulders. I find this to be a net positive as it allows for a primary bombardment against the walls and towers themselves, followed by a secondary bombardment (combined with archer fire) against the defending units themselves.

My only gripe however, is that unlike with the cows, I cannot toggle this ability. I can still toggle flaming/standard ammo, but I cannot engage the barrel ammo until the unit runs out of rocks to throw.

Supposing I could overcome this, I feel it would effectively combine the trebuchet and mangonel units which would be a huge plus in my eyes. Though incredibly useful in sieges, I find their usefulness in field battles vastly inferior as is. Likewise, the Mangonel is great for field battles (certainly on the defensive or with favorable terrain) and although has versatility in sieges as well, is a unit space I'd rather devote to additional infantry.

So, what am I missing? Is there something else I need to modify?

[Andytheplatypus]

How did you swap out the barrel for the cow? In descr_projectiles?

[CoeurDeLion]

No. In the EDU I replaced the existing lines under the Trebuchet unit for stat_ter and stat_ter_attr with the stat_pri and stat_pri_attr from the Mangonel.

type NE Trebuchet
dictionary NE_Trebuchet ; Trebuchet
category siege
class missile
voice_type Heavy
banner faction main_missile
banner holy crusade
soldier NE_Trebuchet_Crew, 24, 2, 0.8, 0.30
officer northern_captain
engine trebuchet


attributes sea_faring, hardy, can_withdraw, artillery
formation 1.5, 1.5, 3, 3, 3, square
stat_health 1, 2
stat_pri 1, 1, no, 0, 0, melee, artillery_mechanical, piercing, knife, 15, 1
stat_pri_attr no
stat_sec 70, 3, trebuchet, 250, 30, siege_missile, artillery_mechanical, blunt, none, 0, 1
stat_sec_attr ap, bp, area, launching
stat_ter 80, 3, mangonel_shot, 200, 30, siege_missile, artillery_gunpowder, blunt, none, 26, 1
stat_ter_attr ap, bp, launching
stat_pri_armour 3, 3, 0, leather
stat_sec_armour 0, 0, flesh
stat_heat 1
stat_ground 0, 0, 0, 0
stat_mental 11, disciplined, highly_trained
stat_charge_dist 6
stat_fire_delay 0
stat_food 60, 300
stat_cost 1, 700, 250, 90, 70, 430, 4, 100
armour_ug_levels 1
armour_ug_models NE_Trebuchet_Crew
ownership england, norway, scotland, hre, france, denmark, portugal, spain, aragon, venice, milan, sicily, eastern_european, greek, papal_states, teutonic_order, jerusalem
era 1 northern_european, southern_european
recruit_priority_offset -10

I looked through descr_projectiles but I'm not sure I see a definition there that would affect being able to toggle it on/off. Maybe I am just missing something obvious though....

[Andytheplatypus]

In descr_projectile it says the following:
projectile cow_carcass

effect cow_carcass_projectile_set
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;NB: effects for cow cow_carcass are now handled in ae_cow_carcass described in descr_area_effects.xml;

I am guessing here because I have never messed with it but what you will have to do is change descr_area_effects.xml from an xml file to a .txt file that way you can edit the 'effects' for cow_carcass so it will be like the mangonel shot. That way it will be toggle_able.