Recruits Use Boomsticks

Turn your Recruits into an organized gunpowder formation.

Recruits Use Boomsticks is a Minecraft 1.20.1 Forge compatibility mod that allows Villager Recruits crossbowmen to properly use firearms and throwing weapons from Medieval Boomsticks and selected weapons from Epic Knights: Artilleries and Firearms.

Recruits can find weapons and physical ammunition in their inventories, perform real loading sequences, aim at enemies, compensate for projectile drop, fire native projectiles, coordinate volleys, use throwing weapons, and protect allies from friendly fire.

Version 2.0

Version 2.0 is the biggest update Recruits Use Boomsticks has received so far.

It adds:

• 18 supported EK: Artillery Addon firearm profiles
• 5 supported Artillery throwing weapons
• All 6 Medieval Boomsticks throwing weapons
• Real multi-step Artillery loading
• Physical powder and ammunition
• Native loading sounds and visible loading tools
• Ramrod and Iron Ramrod support
• Windlass Crossbow cocking
• Full 8-round Chu Ko Nu magazine loading
• Coordinated formation fire
• Ballistic compensation
• Mounted firing and reloading
• Improved aiming and recoil behavior
• Reload and lowered-weapon animations
• Weapons out! and Weapons away! company orders
• BetterRecruitFormations compatibility
• Dedicated-server support

Real Artillery loading

Supported Artillery weapons use their actual loading chains instead of receiving ammunition through a simplified transaction.

Depending on the weapon, a recruit may:

• Pour powder from a flask
• Insert physical ammunition
• Use a Ramrod or Iron Ramrod
• Perform weapon-specific bare-hand ramming
• Cock the Windlass Crossbow
• Load all eight rounds of the Chu Ko Nu magazine
• Play native loading sounds
• Visibly hold tools and ammunition
• Damage reusable loading tools normally

A recruit will not begin a reload unless it has everything required to finish it.

Coordinated formation fire

Recruits now coordinate shots against the same target.

They reserve expected volley damage before firing and keep those reservations active while projectiles are still flying.

This prevents an entire firing line from wasting ammunition on an enemy that the first few shots were already expected to kill.

A recruit with no useful shot left on the current target can instead look for another enemy that has not already been covered by the formation.

Weapons out! / Weapons away!

Version 2.0 adds two commands to the Villager Recruits combat screen.

Weapons out!

• Orders crossbowmen to draw a supported ranged weapon.

Weapons away!

• Stows the ranged weapon.
• Restores a Sword, Axe, or Crossbow when available.
• If the recruit owns nothing else, the weapon is carried in the off hand while the main hand remains empty.
• The combat AI automatically draws the weapon again when a fight begins.

Commands affect selected groups. If no group is selected, they apply to every nearby recruit owned by the player.

Supported Medieval Boomsticks weapons

Firearms

• Handgonne
• Arquebus
• Spiked Handgonne
• Arbalest

Throwing weapons

• Iron Throwing Knife
• Iron Throwing Axe
• Small Throwing Rock
• Large Throwing Rock
• War Dart
• Javelin

Throwing weapons use their native projectiles, speed, damage and sounds.

Recoverable weapons remain collectible. Durable throwing weapons also preserve their normal durability behavior.

Supported EK: Artillery Addon firearms

Version 2.0 supports the following tested firearm profiles:

• Arquebus
• Matchlock Musket
• Matchlock Carbine
• Matchlock Pistol
• Toradar Rifle
• Mini Pistola
• Tiller Gun
• Handgonne
• Taccola Handgonne
• Noble Handgonne
• Markmengonne
• Bronze Handgonne
• Harquebus
• Hackbut
• Windlass Crossbow
• Hand Cannon
• Chu Ko Nu
• Double Barrel Gonne

Every supported profile uses physical ammunition and its confirmed native loading/projectile behavior.

Only tested branches are enabled.

Unsupported ammunition branches, additional barrels, grenades and other unverified Artillery weapons remain disabled.

Supported Artillery throwing weapons

• Francisca
• Hurlbat
• Throwing Cross
• Javelin
• Throwable Cobblestone

Each successful attack consumes one held item and creates that weapon's native projectile.

Slow throwing weapons make the recruit move into effective range before attacking instead of repeatedly throwing into the ground.

Combat features

• Dedicated combat AI for supported weapons
• Physical ammunition is always required
• Native projectiles
• Proper server-side projectile ownership
• Coordinated volley fire
• Friendly-fire protection for owners and allied recruits
• Mounted firing and reloading
• Ballistic compensation for projectile drop
• Strategic-fire position support
• Improved aiming direction
• Recoil direction preservation
• Reload animations
• Lowered empty and reloading weapon poses
• Configurable global projectile damage multiplier
• Configurable per-mod damage multipliers
• Configurable minimum projectile damage
• Optional volley hurt-cooldown bypass
• Smoke effects
• Debug logging
• BetterRecruitFormations compatibility
• Recruits Musket Mod combat-goal compatibility
• Dedicated-server support

Installation

Minecraft: 1.20.1 Loader: Forge Java: 17

Install Recruits Use Boomsticks on both the client and server.

Required dependencies

• Villager Recruits: Claim and Siege Update!
• Medieval Boomsticks
• GeckoLib
• Epic Knights: Shields, Armor and Weapons
• Architectury API
• Cloth Config API

Optional dependencies

• Epic Knights: Artilleries and Firearms — versions 1.11 through 1.13.4
• BetterRecruitFormations
• Epic Knights: Addon — only required for Artillery's Steel Francisca conversion recipe

Important Artillery warning

Do not use EK: Artillery Addon 1.14 on a dedicated server with this release.

That Artillery release contains an upstream client-only class loading issue during dedicated-server startup.

Artillery 1.11 through 1.13.4 is the supported dedicated-server range.

Important

Only Villager Recruits crossbowmen use supported ranged weapons.

Recruits Use Boomsticks does not replace the original weapon systems. It integrates with their native projectiles, ammunition and loading behavior wherever supported.

Configuration

Forge creates:

config/recruits_use_boomsticks-common.toml

Available configuration includes:

• Medieval Boomsticks integration
• Artillery Addon integration
• Strategic fire
• Smoke particles
• Global projectile damage
• Medieval Boomsticks damage multiplier
• Artillery damage multiplier
• Minimum projectile damage
• Volley hurt-cooldown behavior
• Debug logging

Issues and feedback

Found a compatibility problem or watched a recruit do something spectacularly stupid?

Report it here:

GitHub Issues: https://github.com/iwosw/recruits-use-boomsticks/issues

Please include:

• Minecraft version
• Forge version
• Exact mod versions
• Whether you are playing singleplayer or on a dedicated server
• Steps to reproduce the problem
• latest.log when relevant

Links

Source code: https://github.com/iwosw/recruits-use-boomsticks

Issues: https://github.com/iwosw/recruits-use-boomsticks/issues

License: https://github.com/iwosw/recruits-use-boomsticks/blob/main/LICENSE

Credits

Villager Recruits, Medieval Boomsticks, Epic Knights, EK: Artillery Addon and BetterRecruitFormations are separate projects owned by their respective authors.

Recruits Use Boomsticks does not redistribute their assets or source code.

Recruits Use Boomsticks is free and open source under the MIT License.

Form ranks. Load. Aim. Fire.