Changes to morale?

[ironstar]

first post!

I was having some idle thoughts about the morale system in raids. as I see it, if enough raid members die (or if the raid takes enough damage), the whole raid breaks off their attack. I think it's a little silly that they would be so coordinated, and I think we could play with the system a bit more. so here's my not-so-well-thought-out suggestion:

if a person sees an ally die within x tiles, he has a 30% chance of getting the buff Adrenaline Rush, a 30% chance of getting the debuff Horrified, and a 40% chance of no mood change. these two moodlets stack, and do not overwrite each other.

• Adrenaline Rush: You attack 10% faster and are 10% more accurate. Lasts until the end of combat. Stacks up to three times.
• Horrified: You deal 10% less damage and move 10% slower. Lasts until the end of combat. Stacks up to four times. On the fourth stack, you become Broken and flee from the battle.

this changed moral system makes tribal horde raids a bit less of a threat so long as the player can kill tribe members quickly. think of it as a shock-and-awe campaign against cavemen. with enough firepower, if course they're gonna get scared and run away no matter how many bodies they have. I'm hoping that if well-trained and well-equipped colonists can make short work of tribe members one at a time, they'll be just as effective as a traditional killbox because of this morale system. a few guys wrapped in power armor and killing everyone around you with charge rifles would be downright terrifying! and I'm not a primitive tribesperson!

we can play with this system for a bit more fun:

• Stalwart (trait): Combat forges bonds in you that are stronger than friendship, family, or even death itself. Upon seeing an ally's death, you have a 40% chance of getting Adrenaline Rush and a 20% chance of getting Horrified.
• Heroic (trait): You would never willingly flee from combat while your allies depended on you. Upon seeing an ally's death, you have a 35% chance of getting Adrenaline Rush and a 25% chance of getting Horrified.
• Timid (trait): The prospect of combat is frightening, but even worse is the thought of seeing your allies succumb to their wounds around you. Upon seeing an ally's death, you have a 25% chance of getting Adrenaline Rush and a 35% chance of getting Horrified.
• Cowardly (trait): To you, combat is downright terrifying, and watching someone you know die would destroy your willpower. Upon seeing an ally's death, you have a 20% chance of getting Adrenaline Rush and a 40% chance of getting Horrified.
• Fear Suppressor: This body part (Brain) increases the chance of Adrenaline Rush by 10 percentage points, and decreases the chance of Horrified by 10 percentage points.

changing the morale system like this might not add much to the game. it might even make things a lot worse. this is just a fun thought I had one day. thanks for reading!

[Limdood]

This would make it nearly impossible to get pirates to flee.  Even against large colonies, pirates rarely seem to hit with more than 15, if that. 

On average, it will take 13 witnessed kills to make someone break.  And a minimum of 4.

In short, this makes pirates virtually fearless, while making massive tribal raids pathetic.

I think that the current system of X% of raiders dying = raiders flee is fine.

Pirates shouldn't be fearless - they've got a lot to lose, if anything, pirates should be a lot MORE oriented on gain, and MORE likely to flee after a certain goal has been reached or if its apparent they won't reach that goal.

Tribesmen attack in those numbers for a reason...they're outclassed in the weaponry department, but they kick your butt in the people department.  Those attacks bank on the fact that they can lose 20 of their 100 while they close the range gap, when their 40 remaining melee troops RIP APART your power armored charge rifle colonists, while 40 more bow and pila wielding savages turn them into pincushions.  This system just destroys the whole IDEA of the tribal raids. 

I have to disagree with your idea on the grounds that it would cause serious balance issues. 

However, I've had a few ill-thought-out suggestions on here as well.  Keep posting man.  This is all supposed to be constructive - i'm just criticizing in the interests of keeping the systems from being easily abusable or unbalanced.

[Pickle]

I don't think the change is relevant for the whole group of raiders, but I like the idea that so people act differently because of their traits.

Bloodlust people could get a rush and continue the battle even when everybody is fleeing.
Heroic could try and save their wounded friends.
Fearful people could drop their weapon to be take as prisoner before getting hurt, or ask to join the colony.

This way the combats will be a bit different sometimes.

[cultist]

I see a couple of issues with this. First off, tribal raids can become really big later in the game. 50 tribesmen all trggering adrenaline rush at the same time sounds kind of scary, especially because you mostly rely on range to defeat them.
Also, because of the RnG involved, the difficulty of each encounter would vary wildly. As raids get larger, it gets harder and harder to predict who is winning, as random buffs and debuffs keep triggering.

I'll admit it does sound kind of exciting, but I feel like this would be a much bigger benefit to raiders than to colonists, simply because of their numbers (some of them are bound to get several adrenaline stacks, making them extremely dangerous).

[Thane]

I see a couple of issues with this. First off, tribal raids can become really big later in the game. 50 tribesmen all trggering adrenaline rush at the same time sounds kind of scary, especially because you mostly rely on range to defeat them.
Also, because of the RnG involved, the difficulty of each encounter would vary wildly. As raids get larger, it gets harder and harder to predict who is winning, as random buffs and debuffs keep triggering.

I'll admit it does sound kind of exciting, but I feel like this would be a much bigger benefit to raiders than to colonists, simply because of their numbers (some of them are bound to get several adrenaline stacks, making them extremely dangerous).

So basically you are seeing this as a system best for Randy Random where his lording of the RNG could turn a raid of 100 tribals into a raid of 30 UBER tribals one time and 90  cowards another time. Sounds good. Life isn't predictable. Though pirates should probably break like they do now so they aren't completely suicidal.