Modding guns & Improving Musketeers | Medieval II Total War | Modding Guide

Fixing guns in Medieval II is a frequent request: soldiers don't shoot, they turn randomly and bumble around in strange fire by rank formations. I show you how to improve that here today.
Here is a full solution if you want to try your hand at animation: www.twcenter.ne...
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Some of my Medieval II Guides:
Basic Modding and unpacking: • Basic Modding & File U...
Fixing Diplomacy: • Fixing The Diplomacy B...
Fixing Pikes: • Fixing Pikes in Mediev...
Fixing the Passive AI: • Fixing the Passive AI ...
Colossal Unit Scale: • Colossal Unit Scale - ...
Add Units and design your own roster: • Adding New Units to yo...
Changing Cities and Castles: • Design your Perfect Ci...
Unlocking Cut Content: • Unlocking Cut Content ...
Unlock the Battle Map Editor: • How to Unlock The Batt...
Mod Religion and Culture: • Islamic HRE, Catholic ...
Modding Unit Stats: • Editing Unit Stats & U...
Mod Resources: • Adding Resources - Mod...
Permanent Stone Forts: • Permanent Stone Forts ...
Occupy, Sack, Exterminate: • Exterminate, Sack or O...
Improving authority traits: • Improving Authority - ...
Genetic Trait Bias: • Tier List | Genetic Tr...
Unlocking the Rebels in Custom Battle: • Unlocking The Rebels, ...
Unlocking the Saxons: • Unlocking The Saxons a...
Unlocking the Normans: • Unlocking The Normans ...
Unlocking the Mongols: • Unlocking The Mongols ...
Unlocking the Timurids: • Unlocking The Timurids...
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[@RocketHarry865]

The dance to the back line is actually what historically early gunpowder armed troops did as they rotate in and out to keep a sustained rate of fire. The whole kneel fire did not become widespread until the late 17th century

[@marcinolek817]

Kneeling was used during 17th century by Polish national Infantry. They didn't use countermarch and didn't fight pike & shot tactics. Their aim was to shoot as fast as they could to shock the enemy, not to keep constant fire. They were able to fight like that because they had strong cavalry support. Something on the manner of Swedish batallions in Breitenfeld battle.

[@thenoblepoptart]

In Total War: Medieval 3 all gunpowder units should fire the first rank and then move to the back like that, but they should shoot as quickly as reloading and movement can allow rather than this wait for them to reach the back bullshit. Later on in the tech tree you should be able to unlock fire by rank, where any more than three ranks deep is redundant but all three ranks can fire and reload as one increasing the size of each individual volley. Then, in the early game, you might have deep rank narrow width gun units hugging the sides of pike squares just like in history, and as your armies get more gun-heavy later on you could develop a wide frontage of gunners firing by rank like Gustavus Adolphus

[@ymmiag]

Early firearms from M2TW timeframe were simply too long and heavy to be reloaded from a kneeling position, plus there was still little experience with personal firearms and the tactical focus in this period was still on shock by heavy cavalry/pike infantry rather than fire. The fire drills, like rank or platoon fire, were made possible by later advances in firearms technology that not only allowed reloading from kneeling position, but also made muskets dominant on the battlefield, thus making such drills a necessity.

[@noraandersson7822]

Skirmish mode is definitely better aesthetically. I'm glad you can set that to standard without the retreating. :)

[@hannahneal1601]

It is.

[@ToNerdistoHumanTNH]

I certainly think so!

[@midshipman8654]

Iagree, though I think the standard is technically more true to how earlier arquibusier units functioned with the front rank retreating to the back.

[@playforbeer6491]

Removing the gunpowder_unit attribute does what it says: makes guns no longer be guns, having all ranks fire at once doesn't work because the front rows would get shot in the back of their heads. Intriguing, however, that the "no longer guns" behave exactly like TW Warhammer guns.

[@Luke-tt3dt]

I wonder if it works the same way as TW Warhammer guns in that you can have your gunpowder units 4+ ranks deep and they will still all be able to fire, essentially enabling you to put your units in checkerboard formation with squares of pikes in the front and squares of muskets behind

[@RedScorpion92]

My main issue with gun units in medieval 2 is that nations like Scotland don't have musketeers at all.

[@Volkaer]

That's where you field an army of mortars and watch the enemy dance XD

[@EineHauptmann]

You are reinvigorating parts of the game that should have been reasonable long ago. This and your pike fix make the late-era army truly viable; hope you’ve got something cooked up for 2H units, and thanks a bunch, bro!

[@olefredrikskjegstad5972]

Just buff their "defense skill" stat by two or three points. The real weakness of 2h units is how vulnerable they are to being stunned.

[@EineHauptmann]

@@olefredrikskjegstad5972 I thought being stun-locked was an animation problem rather than a stat one. If you’ve already made that change, would you say two-handers are effective in defeating their one-handed counterparts like feudals?

[@olefredrikskjegstad5972]

@@EineHauptmann Yes. It's good to bump the defense skill stat by as much as 3 or maybe 4 points to be safe, but once that's done, a unit of French Noble Knights can defeat a unit of Chivalric Foot Knights comfortably

[@ToNerdistoHumanTNH]

I will get to that little investigation too. Fear not. Defence skill should certainly help with the melee - it is needed to counter act their lack of shield. We shall see when I get to that fix :)

[@EineHauptmann]

@@ToNerdistoHumanTNH My respects, man!

[@rafaelambrosini7562]

Modifying musketeers will make them more effective, and faster loading? That would make them look like those that used the Americans against the British in North America.

[@ToNerdistoHumanTNH]

Just a little, but hopefully with the changes they will bug out less and get on with shooting with less interruptions.

[@GOGPlays]

I like this channel especially. Back in tw center days, we used to read to learn modding. You teach it here very clearly.

[@ToNerdistoHumanTNH]

Oh it's still a great place to search for answers when I'm stuck. And thanks for the compliments!

[@lucky-lu6tc]

PLEASE make a video how to improve the two handed units like you said, LOVE your videos :)

[@ToNerdistoHumanTNH]

It has indeed been on my list FOREVER! I do intend on doing it. :D

[@michaelaburns734]

This will be useful, I thank you for another informative guide Thomas my friend.

[@aisir3725]

6:35 14 years of progress, with 1 line change

[@sirpasta4927]

It really is a shame modern TW gunpowder units don't have a reload animation

[@tomzicare]

Hey, not sure if you still read comments on this video but today I noticed CA did in fact fix fire by rank for new units in expansion Crusades. Templar Gunners and Mamaluk Handgunners use fire by rank without skirmish mode being on. When I tried other gunpoweder infantry they however still don't. Not sure what CA did but if you didn't know about it yet, perhaps you could give it another gander. Templar Gunners and Mamluk Handgunners basically use fire by rank as they should've in the first place in Crusades.

[@ToNerdistoHumanTNH]

Hello! An interesting observation... I will look into it more! :) thanks

[@tomzicare]

@@ToNerdistoHumanTNH Cheers mate, I hope you can figure out what CA did for those two units to be working as they should've in the first place. Good luck.

[@josh8945]

I'll use this for my Thera redux Reich campaign. All my gun units seem to fire when only they're close up to the enemy and behind no unit, also only the front row reloads and shoots. Do you have a fix ? Plus dont get me started on sieges given thier the only missiles in the entire faction.

[@urban_hoplite7593]

Ok so. You go into the missile section and make them able to be fired at a higher angle ratio. You also go into the edu and remove the attribute 'fire by rank'. You're welcome

[@urban_hoplite7593]

And to fix the range just change the range stat. To find that use a guide for the edu, there's a good one in twcenter

[@ToNerdistoHumanTNH]

Urban_hoplite is right there! As a general rule, 'Fire by rank' is pretty much always taken away, whichever mod you use!

[@manschier0816]

Can I add Byzantine Empire , France and Poland at Musketeers Ownership ? ( Because I am curious on mine idea like this 🧐🧐🤔🤔 )

[@SrVain]

Hey TNH did you manage to find a fix for the two handed bug? I'm looking forward to replaying some campaigns with all your modded fixes!

[@yuxomgaming9824]

i cannot find the export_descr_unit.txt in mobile but other files from ur other videos exists

[@ryanpatterson5278]

One way I've found to make muskets lay down heavy fire is, keep them off skirmish mode and have fire at will on. As soon as the fire animation finishes, tell them to stop what they are doing (press backspace). They will kneel and reload and fire in unison again. This is the fastest in game non modded way to use muskets. A little micro heavy though

[@swedenownz123]

Is there a possibility of making a similar video for shogun2? Ie speeding up fire by rank in that game so its more reliable or allowing units in kneel fire mode to actually move? or even having some sort of fix for the tosa shuffle? Shogun 2 and fall of the samurai are amazing games but its sometimes very frustrating to always draw up your gun units as thin as possible to maximise firepower and then have them bug out and stop firing in FotS.

[@yurisc4633]

6:38 you made WarHammers musketeers 🤣 They all fire at once, ignore the men in front and dont reload.

[@juliovielma8703]

Jajaja literally I can’t imagine Upgrading the musketers like this on Americas campaign

[@Volkaer]

Wait - do they stop doing the weird "I'm going to break formation and spin around to line up at a random enemy on my side" thing if you remove fire_by_rank ? Because that's the most infuriating thing when it comes to gunpowder infantry (well that and the not firing at all fix you did here) EDIT: holy crap it does! You sir a genius!

[@bernatnadalnadal6127]

you will make a tutorial to how add new regions in campaign?

[@ToNerdistoHumanTNH]

It is on my list of jobs to do. 🙂

[@dukesagami9974]

do you have a smoke mod for this? I'm looking for a more smoke mod for the gunpowder units.

[@hardywatkins7737]

If you remove the 'gunpowder unit' ability i'm guessing the unit no longer instils fear the way gunpowder units are supposed to? Same for artillery? And also not benefit from gunpowder upgrades? With artillery the best way i can make them fire faster is removing almost all the animations ... the loading, stoking, covering ect animations ... basically leaving just the first animation for each action - in descr_engines, - it looks a bit funky but it sure speeds things up. And with the rocket laucher ... it only fires three volleys nomatter how much ammmunition you give it ... the best i could do ... apart from increasing the accuracy in descr_projectiles, was to halve the amount of rockets it fires per volley (in descr_engines) so from 36 rockets down to 18 per volley, so now you can get six volleys of 18 rockets. - I'm guessing you could get 12 volleys of nine rockets but i havn't tried it. Actually i have a question about artillery damage to troops. It seems in descr_projectiles a culverin for instance does '230 damage' (to buildings perhaps?) but only 30 damage to troops, whereas in export_descr_unit the culverin does 65 damage? I have read that 65 damage is some kind of cap for unit damage in export_descr_unit?

[@jackcanox4015]

Thanks so much! i will surely do this! i am sure everyone knows already but there is one gun unit that works well in the game...well pheraps even a bit too well ahahah, the fucking Camel Gunners of the Moors! ever tried them? no me neither and i have 1 k plus hours on medieval 2..until i did...and they are silly op!! they kill EVERYTHING in seconds! they melt infantry like butter they murder heavy cavalry and general bodyguard really fast and because they have stupid rates of fire and can all fire at the same time since the unit has proper spacing they even trade favourably against pavise crossbowmen it's stupid...you get 6 in an army and send them alone to harass the enemy and they will win the battle alone

[@ToNerdistoHumanTNH]

I barely knew they existed until I made this video. My follow up video in utilising gunpowder units disgusses the camel gunners more and indeed they are the most brutal of all! Staggeringly strong. More so than German reuters (the other main game gun cav unit). Apache mounted thunder braves are fun in thecanericas dlc if you can unlock them

[@saguntum-iberian-greekkons7014]

I have an issue, when I reached data, I double click and the only options that are available to me is : Animations, Cursors, FMV, Sounds and World. How to get access to Export_Descr_Units?

[@playforbeer6491]

I wanted to get my musketeers to fire slower, but couldn't get any results. Is it only achievable through animation work?

[@Prideace93]

I tried but won't work on definition edition

[@jamesreed4229]

Same issue here

[@nodubstephere1008]

Hi, how would you be able to extract the music from the DLC's and insert them into the base game. For example, Brittannia is added to the Northern Euro music, Crusades to middle East, etc.

[@manschier0816]

How to find the file ? I can't found it on data folder that you mention

[@Laucron]

06:46 check it out the guy made Warhammer in Medieval 2

[@dudee145]

First

[@TheGhostbuster1989]

And the last.

[@IceniTotalWar]

@@TheGhostbuster1989 1st in last out, turn off the lights when you leave 😁

[@ToNerdistoHumanTNH]

Acf plays the speed game, not the banter game ;)

[@lorenzocassaro3054]

I clicked the link, but I couldn't find the guide

[@mindbrain935]

Great! Thank you for your suggestions!

[@alejandrojosespinamendez5668]

Are these files available somewhere? 😳

[@drewdavies3010]

The dance is called counter march

[@andrecorreia2338]

Why add the officers?

[@ToNerdistoHumanTNH]

I was just highlighting that it's something you can do. No real reason. :)

[@Alister114]

9:04

[@BlackKingAmericaSerbiaTotalwar]

Nerd how to do in android ? Plis 😢😢😢

[@rafaelambrosini7562]

Second

[@ToNerdistoHumanTNH]

You'll have to be exceptionally quick to beat Acf! :P

[@harrysmith3988]

Oh I've been looking forward to this!

[@ToNerdistoHumanTNH]

It was promised and teased for a while...

[@Bambodscha]

Hi, how did you manage to get the grass to cover all the terrain?

[@ToNerdistoHumanTNH]

It's the custom battle map called 'grassy plain'. I assume that's what you mean.

[@Bambodscha]

@@ToNerdistoHumanTNH Thanks for the answer and your videos :) But i didn't mean the map, i meant the 3D grass you get from the graphics options. In my game its only visible in a small radius around the camera and i tried countles .ini tweaks to remove that display limitation. Did you tweak any settings, or is it just the map?

[@richardtaylor215]

Really helpful. Not sure I'll manage to pull off the animation stuff!

[@ToNerdistoHumanTNH]

No I felt that was a bit much so this will have to do!

[@ethanbrown7198]

this was perfect for modding. your videos are practically flawless.

[@ToNerdistoHumanTNH]

Glad you think so! High praise indeed. :)

[@esclavodelsistema9783]

why would I buy gunpowder units when can just spam archers or crossbowmen which are faaar better missile units

[@weakpc2215]

have you figured it out yet

[@ioioioioio6026]

@@weakpc2215 gunpowder units ignore armour and cause more morale damage