Fenix_120 said:
As others have said theirs a reason why this is called the "Pike&Musket" era and not the "Musket" era.
Matchlock muskets had to be loaded with a ramrod and you had to charge your priming pan just like with the later flintlock, unlike the flintlock however the matchlock also required you to light a match (hence the name), and people had yet to discover that the ball and powder could be wrapped up into one item, so yes reloading took even longer than during Napoleonic times.
If your having trouble fighting as a Musketeer its because your team does not have enough melee fighters on it, Two pike men working together can actually kill many bots before they are Zerglinged if they know what they are doing.
It's not so much that no one had discovered or thought of a way to put ball & powder together as a cartridge but that there was no standardisation in terms of bore sizes & calibre of balls. This is in the days prior to the 'shot tower' where thousands of lead balls pretty much the same size could be made in a single day in one tower. Be terrible to be halfway through loading your wheellock only to find that the bullet is too big for your guns muzzle and you have to hunt through all of your cartridges to find a ball the right size or have all your bullets be the wrong size. Once standardisation came into play, with the same firearm being used through the entire army (like the British army 'Brown Bess'), then standardised ammunition came into play in paper wrapped cartridges.
The time it takes to reload our matchlocks, wheellocks and snaplocks is far, far faster than in reality. It took 30 seconds to 2 minutes dependant upon conditions & capability. It's why formations of musketers fought in blocks 7-10 ranks deep - first rank fires, retreats to the rear to reload. Second rank fires, retreats. Third rank fires & retreats, all the way through the formation until the first rank comes to the fore again and can sight & fire on the enemy. Obviously this would be damned difficult to replicate in M&B and sitting there waiting for 2 minutes doing nothing is not desired by anyone. There is a fine balance, I think, that they've managed to find with firearms in the mod so far and I'd be worried about disturbing that.
Banned
