Reply To: Morale system: Less "swingy"

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RusBear wrote:

But same time make some backgrounds and traits “dead” for game.

Yeah, this is the biggest problem I see with the need for higher resolve. Deserters with 20 resolve, guys with bad traits etc.

@mrbunnyban I told you how much resolve I have on my troops becasue the morale system is not swingy for me anymore. Yes, if your guys are all around 30-40 resolve at best you might get a huge snowball effect. They already implemented a way to counter this by moving fleeing brothers to the end of the initiative queue so you may rally them before they recieve any free damage.
Generally, a snowball-effect will only occur if your guys are already Wavering and Breaking. If only one guy turns Fleeing and the rest is Steady, their morale will only drop to wavering, unless the first Fleeing guys triggers another Breaking guy to also turn fleeing, which then activates another morale check, etc.
You can also use the Hold Out perk which removes the morale check for when an ally turns fleeing though I have never used this before.

The developers introduced these morale mechanics to make Resolve not such a “dead” stat. I guess Veteran Levels are supposed to make up for the additional points required. For me this is ok because my campaigns usually last long, but if you like shorter games and maybe retire after the first crisis there is no way to get enough points to level up all the necessary stats (Fatigue, Attack skills, Defenses, HP, Resolve).

I never had any shame or remorse using the 4 free attacks to my advantage. On the contrary, successfully snowballing a fight through breaking the enemy’s morale feels pretty good to me.

I would suggest to increase the base resolve for new hires across the board. Right now it seems the base would be around 30-35 ±5. I think increasing that to ~40 would be appropriate – or simply increasing the minimum resolve and keeping the maximum value would work too.

Also, increase the success chance on Rally the Troops for Wavering and Breaking morale status. I like the effectiveness on Fleeing brothers but getting them back to steady is really, really hard. I Sometimes need 3 rounds of spamming rally with 100+ Resolve next to the guy to get him from Wavering to Steady – usually it is faster to get a kill which triggers a positive morale check instead.

Again, I think changing the fleeing mechanic in the way you suggested in your original post would hurt the player more than it would help. The way you describe it, 2% of the time the morale mechanic works against you but much more often you take advantage of it.