I am new to the mod, but so far I have found guns are amazing. So far, bows seem almost completely useless against high-end portugese and spainish troops. Crossbows barely do anything. Also, it seems that the AI has a higher accuracy with the guns, so gun troops seem pretty good. I started off with an archer based army and got sluaghtered when I ran into spainish troops cause the archers dealt 0-1 dmg per hit and got one shot by the spainish guns.

If you encounter the Gunsmith in a tavern you can pay him 5,000 for "training" over a three day period which will result in you being given a "Tuned Flintlock Pistol". Its a very powerful firearm... pretty much makes the other firearms pointless. Its a pistol with 90 damage, 90 accuracy, ~ a 45 reload time. Still single shot and takes awhile to reload, but if you also find a Book Merchant and buy the "Fire Drake Manual" which when read gives you +100 firearms skill... you can easily pick off targets that are at or beyond rifle range.

Also you can mod weapons atributes like this tutorial (there are better ones but I'm lazy now too):

It's in item_kinds1.txt, search for: itm_hunting_crossbow to get to the top of the list.
Quote

itm_hunting_crossbow Hunting_Crossbow Hunting_Crossbow 1 crossbow 0 6357001 5637160960 22 131082 2.250000 100 0 0 0 0 0 47 50 0 1 284 0
0

itm_light_crossbow Light_Crossbow Light_Crossbow 1 light_crossbow 0 6357001 5637160960 67 131082 2.500000 100 0 0 0 8 0 45 59 0 1 290 0
0

etc

Those numbers at the end are the damage. There is 256 for each type, 1-256 = Cutting, 257-512 = Piercing, etc. So just up those by 10 each (and 14 for the Siege) and there ya go.

From: Big_H on http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php?topic=102323.0

Or you can use a program like this http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/topic,27735.0.html

Thats because they're like real 16th century firearms. They're awful to use as a personal weapon but they're good in mass. If you have lots of musketeers you can still ♥♥♥♥ stuff up.

Originally posted by Filthy Russian Stink Serf:

Thats because they're like real 16th century firearms. They're awful to use as a personal weapon but they're good in mass. If you have lots of musketeers you can still ♥♥♥♥ stuff up.

I mean't as a personal weapon cause it seems a lot ot give up for a sword

As far as I am aware leveling up your firearms skill only increases the accuracy not reload speed. The guns are mostly matchlock which, like most pre- 1850s firearms, took quite a while to reload. If anything, it seems to me that the reload speed for many guns especially the pistols is far too quick. The guns are more effective if they are used en mass, that is, have your musketeers stand in rank then press f3 to bring up the firing menu, then f2 to have them fire at your mark, then f2 when the enemy is close to have them fire in volley. If you have double ranks of muskets, after the first rank fires, the second rank will step foreward and be immediatley ready to fire so just push f2 again.

OP needs to read moar about early firearms, since those *were* stupidly slow to reload. (Crossbows powerful enough to require mechanical assists to wind were no better incidentally.) Times I've seen quoted for matchlock long-arms, moreso without the benefits of the diverse shortcuts devised over the centuries to streamline the loading procedure (pre-measured flasks à la TYW-era "twelve apostles", self-measuring powder horns, prepackaged paper cartridges...), run closer to a full minute... 25 is generous in the extreme.

There's a reason cold-steel sidearms were standard issue.

Originally posted by Watchman:

OP needs to read moar about early firearms, since those *were* stupidly slow to reload. (Crossbows powerful enough to require mechanical assists to wind were no better incidentally.) Times I've seen quoted for matchlock long-arms, moreso without the benefits of the diverse shortcuts devised over the centuries to streamline the loading procedure (pre-measured flasks à la TYW-era "twelve apostles", self-measuring powder horns, prepackaged paper cartridges...), run closer to a full minute... 25 is generous in the extreme.

There's a reason cold-steel sidearms were standard issue.

And you need to check your spelling and grammar 'moar' carefully, and don't give me that I don't speak English crap. If you don't speak English don't reply to a question written in English.

I also knew muskets in real life took ages to load, but this is a game and for the fun factor in the game it would be a more viable option to speed up reload times.

Your Internet literacy is bad and you should feel bad.

Also, primitive firearms too slow and inaccurate? How terrible, don't use the damn things. Leave them to the rank and file grunts who can compensate with sheer volume of fire as in the real world.

Originally posted by Watchman:

Your Internet literacy is bad and you should feel bad.

Also, primitive firearms too slow and inaccurate? How terrible, don't use the damn things. Leave them to the rank and file grunts who can compensate with sheer volume of fire as in the real world.

Sigh,
Again read the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ question. I said does levelling up firearms increase the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ reload speed. THAT'S MY QUESTION.

Your question was already answered you know.

And, yes, it's eye-rollingly unrealistic that it doesn't. IRL one of the most important advantages experienced and/or highly-trained musketeers had over tyros was specifically knowing all the shortcuts to the reloading sequence and plain being able to go through the motions faster.

Im pretty sure muskets/arquebusses are accurate and arquebusses are short ranged muskets I dont know to much. Also if there are arquebusses in this mod ( I dont think there are any ) than please tell me if they have a chance to explode and kill you when you fire them its a rare chance IRL but its possible.

Originally (ie. around the 16th century) "musket" meant a particularly heavy and powerful arquebus, massive enough to more or less absolutely require the use of a musket-rest to support the barrel. (Arquebuses were typically in the .60 caliber 10 pound range, muskets .80 cal and 20+ pounds.) Being smoothbores firing ballistically terribad round balls accuracy was lackluster at best, but IIRC what I've read of practical experiments a skilled shot can hit a man-sized target over half the time at hundred meters.
Of course, most gun-armed troops were *anything but* skilled shots...

Also lethal bursting was mainly a cannon thing (and specific to *iron* guns, as bronze ones just split instead), personal firearms didn't pack enough powder for a chamber rupture to be seriously dangerous. Not that having the equivalent of a small fragmentation grenade going off next to your face is exactly healthy ofc.
Pretty sure no M&B mod ever is mean (and persnickety) enough to account for the assorted reliability issues of blackpowder firearms.