Fire by rank is still bugged !

I've been testing it this morning in custom battles . The A.I. allways fires correctly with the first rank firing a simultanious volley , then the second and finally the third ; however the player controlled line or guard infantry spreads out and "ripple fires" by small groups of files down the line right to left and doesn't begin firing from the right again untill the idiotic "mexican wave" has finnished touring the length of the unit .

This gives the A.I. a massive superiority in rate of fire {asside from the "free" volleys the A.I. gets whilst the player unit is spreading out and then taking the extra few seconds again before even beginning to fire} , especially in larger sized units {which we're meant to be able to have !} .
Another problem is that when multiple units are in line and any spread out to fire by files it causes large numbers of freindly fire casualities {they shoot the men in units they overlap} which gets increasingly worse with larger unit sizes {modded to say 300 men} .





It might wok properly on small unit settings {the largest fire by rank units being 120 men for example or smaller} , but given that the "ultra" setting gives 160-200 men for line infantry and that furthermore the game is intended to be modded including much larger sized units , this is a bugged feature {and concidering just how much line infantry combat is an integral part of the game , a very bugged feature } !

There is absolutely no reason for fire by file as modeled {with a 4 man deep files firing} .
No sane commander would have used it unless He actually wanted his men to shoot each other in the back of the head ! Even the standard fire by rank system {in which only the first 2 ranks were supposed to fire and the third do the reloading which invariably degenerated into all three firing and doing their own reloading as an engagement progressed} caused as much as 25% of a units casualities in friendly fire ... fire by file as modeled would have done far far worse . It is a useless "feature" that ruins a good and needed feature .

Again , it nerfs the fire by rank feature to the point of virtual worthlessness {in large units , mass fire actually gives a greater volume of fire over any timescale !}




The C/A need to simply delete fire by file {or atleast make it a different fire mode that is toggled by a separate button} so fire by rank can actually work properly .