Disappearing bandidos

[grimjaw]

I am working on a small mod to create Mexican bandits in the southwest US and have them operated by a separate faction. Ultimately I'd like them to be able to move back and forth across the border, but that's down the road. For now, I'm creating them in Mexico to test their capabilities and I've run into an issue.

I've set up a scenario that creates a bandido unit on startup (a different .inc than the MEXstart.inc). I've also recruited bandido units at various towns in Mexico. I had to unlock all of Mexico at the start to pull this off. The bandido unit will respond like I expect for about two turns, maybe three maximum, and then disappears without a trace. I have error logging turned on and I can't see anything about it being tied to an event. It doesn't matter what year I create the unit, or where. There's no message in the in-game log that mentions they were disbanded. They're just gone.

I know there used to be a mechanism in AACW that would disband certain militia units if they weren't active. If that's operating here, I can't find the setting. I've included the unit and model file contents below if it helps, but does someone know if there's a time-limit setting of some type on units that says they'll only last for X turns? I can easily mod their files to match something closer to a CSA bushwhacker, but I don't know if that will correct the issue, especially if it's by design that they melt into the background. They are extremely inexpensive units (4 money/1 conscript).

One other thing, unrelated to the disappearance. The range for the bandidos is set at a mind-boggling 6. I have to imagine that's unintended. I don't know of any non-ship/arty unit with a range like that, and don't know any reason why the bandidos would be considered such monsters of range with small arms.

UID = 1016
NationTag = MEX
Name = Bandidos
Alias = uni_MEX_Ban
ForcePool = -1
ShortName = Bandidos
Text = $uni_txt_MEX_Bandidos
Color = $colMEXMilitia
ModelType0 = $mdl_MEX_Cav3|1
FamilyType0 = $famRaider|2
CmdCost = 0
Pillage = 100
CustomNames = 1st Mtd. Part.|2nd Mtd. Part.|3rd Mtd. Part.|4th Mtd. Part.|5th Mtd. Part.|6th Mtd. Part.|7th Mtd. Part.|8th Mtd. Part.|9th Mtd. Part.|10th Mtd. Part.|11th Mtd. Part.|12th Mtd. Part.|13th Mtd. Part.|14th Mtd. Part.|15th Mtd. Part.|16th Mtd. Part.|17th Mtd. Part.|18th Mtd. Part.|19th Mtd. Part.|20th Mtd. Part.

UID = 718
NationTag = MEX
Name = Bandidos
Alias = mdl_MEX_Cav3
TemplateUID = $mdl_CMN_Cav4
ShortName = Bandidos
Text = $mdl_txt_MEX_Sie
Family = $famRaider
ImageID = symbol_lightcav.png
Color = $colMEXMilitia
Portrait = mdl_Mex_Cav3.png
OffFire = 9
DefFire = 12
Initiative = 7
Range = 6
ROF = 1
Penetration = 0
Protection = 0
TQ = 6
Assault = 5
Hits = 4
MenPerHit = 15
HorsesPerHit = 0
GunsPerHit = 0
Cohesion = 55
DmgDone = 1
CohDone = 7
AsltDmgDone = 1
AsltCohDone = 5
Move Type = $MedHorse
Move Ratio = 70
CohMove = 25
AtrMove = 2
BaseCohLoss = 6
BaseAttrition = 6
DetectLand = 2
DetectSea = 3
Blockade = 0
HideValue = 1
Weight = 3
ProgRate = 20
Police = 0
Patrol = 10
Evasion = 8
CapturePerc = 30
IsSupport = 1
SupplyUsage = 2
SupplyStore = 6
AmmoUsage = 4
AmmoStore = 12
ShareSupply = 0
SupHitPen = 25
SupMovePen = 35
SupCbtPen = 75
Attributes = *NoCapture*|*Pillage*
Ability0 = $abiPillager
VPValue = 3
POLValue = 0
Money = 4
Conscript = 1
WarSupply = 2
Days = 15
UpkeepCoeff = 0
CustomNames = Bandidos|Bandidos|Bandidos|Bandidos|Bandidos|Bandidos|Bandidos|Bandidos|Bandidos|Bandidos|Bandidos|Bandidos|Bandidos|Bandidos|Bandidos|Bandidos|Bandidos|Bandidos|Bandidos|Bandidos|Bandidos|Bandidos|Bandidos|Bandidos|Bandidos|

[Pocus]

Try to change them to Light cav and see if they still disappear. If they do, remove their supply usage and see.

[grimjaw]

Thanks for the suggestion, Pocus. I tried changing their model a little bit but the units still disappeared. However, I think I found the setting that's causing it. It's in the Other_Factions_61.inc file that sets up the various factions. I believe it's this line:

SetRevoltersInfos = $uni_MEX_Ban;15;35;50

Every turn there's a 35% chance/turn that units defined as "partisan" (in this case, the bandits) will disband and a 50% chance that they'll convert, although convert into what I don't know. I'm not sure if they're disbanding or converting into thin air, but I'm going to try to zero both those percentages and see what happens for awhile.