Modding Formations

Does anybody know how the computer decides which unit is "skirmish infantry" and which one is "missile infantry"?

Darth Vader's, Sinuhet's and even the vanilla descr_formations_ai.txt contain reference both types of units. I guess the AI reads this information in export_descr_unit.txt and my question is what attribute[s] make it decide this is a "skirmish infantry unit" as opposed to a "missile infantry unit".

Why I'm asking this is because I want to prevent the AI from putting the slingers behind the lines, since they're not good at firing over the heads of their comrades.

Also I'm curious to know how the AI decideds if a cavalry unit can skirmish or not. Is skirmishing associated only with weapons that are fired or thrown or is there something else?

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Originally Posted by Dromikaites

Does anybody know how the computer decides which unit is "skirmish infantry" and which one is "missile infantry"?

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Skirmish infantry missile infantry??? What do mean?

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Originally Posted by Dromikaites

Also I'm curious to know how the AI decideds if a cavalry unit can skirmish or not. Is skirmishing associated only with weapons that are fired or thrown or is there something else?

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Yep I'm afraid it is.
All units that have "missile" in their "class" part in ExpDescUnit.txt can/must "skirmish".

Look in modding answers, I wasted loads of time on this.

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Originally Posted by Ra-az

Skirmish infantry missile infantry??? What do mean?

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That's my question :). There are many misterious terms in descr_formations_ai.txt.

It seems "ranged_missile_infantry" means archers and slingers but how does the AI make the diference between archers & slinger on one side and the rest of missile troops on the other. And what's de diference between "missile infantry" and "skirmish infantry"?

Just a guess, you'll have to try it out yourself:
ranged_missile_infantry: any missile unit that doesn't have the thrown attribute
skirmish_infantry: any missile unit that has the thrown attribute
missile_infantry: includes both ranged and skirmish missile infantry

Note that missile units with the prec attribute are none of the above.

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Originally Posted by Dromikaites

Does anybody know how the computer decides which unit is "skirmish infantry" and which one is "missile infantry"?

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Have you tried the 'class' line in export_descr_unit? I believe that there were no units identified as 'skirmish' in vanilla, but mods (such as EB) have used it successfully in their formations. Have a look at the EB or Darthmod edu and see if any of them list the class as skirmish.

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Originally Posted by Dromikaites

Also I'm curious to know how the AI decideds if a cavalry unit can skirmish or not. Is skirmishing associated only with weapons that are fired or thrown or is there something else?

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It appears to be for all cavalry units which have any kind of ranged attack (unless they're on an elephant it seems). It's the same for all infantry units unless they have the prec attribute.

Yes, I've looked into the EB files and they've used indeed the skirmish class even though the vanilla doesn't have it.

Too bad there's no way to implement the "skirmish" for non-missile cavalry, unless I give 'em some ranged weapon with zero ammo. It's really annoying to see infantry catching up with cavalry.