Is the army "Morale" concept a good idea?

[wewso]

Hi guys

I'm making my strategic map right now and I want to introduce the "Morale" concept in it. Morale will be represented by the units mana and will greatly affect its battle efficiency. Morale depends on the way you treat your army. For example if you march for too long the morale will drop. Every organic unit in the map will have a maximum of 8 mana, which will be considered as morale. Units will have different abilities, that will boost their morale or decrease their enemies' morale.

Do you think that might be practical and easy to understand?

 

[ZiggyMcjoney]

Done well, yes.

Done poorly, no.

 

[wewso]

Any other opinions?

 

[Darthfett]

I would hate to have to make all my units stop moving because I made them move for too long.

However, abilities that lower/increase morale could make for a cool map, if done right.

You could try an option to pay your army more/less in a town hall type building, which increases/decreases morale too.

 

[wewso]

I would hate to have to make all my units stop moving because I made them move for too long.

I think ill leave this out, its also very hard to make.

Ill focus more on battles for example: If your hero dies, your army gets -1 morale and the enemy army gets +1 morale

 

[set]

My opinion this is great idea
But as Darthfett said only if done properly

Maybe add some items , like medals , and other armies type things that can increase and decrese moral

 

[R@i_no_Wyrm]

only 8? make it over 100.
Each unit has different morale levels, to make it fun.
When kills an enemy unit, everyone nearby will gain morale.
When an unit dies, decrease morale.

Get distance from capital n town to affect it.
Get numbers of allies around to affect it.
Also enemies ^

Give strategic times to lower morale, like 1st hit will decrease it, ambushes from behind will decrease it, town attacked will decrease it, etc etc.

 

[BlargIAmDead]

I assume that morale won't affect mechanical units?

 

[wewso]

Ofcourse it wont affect mechanicals

Get numbers of allies around to affect it.

The purpose of morale is to make the game-play in massive strategies more interesting. Its main idea is that its not important how many units you can train and send to the battlefield, but how well you can organize and treat your army, to get the most of it.

Your other idea is good>>

Unit dies >
-0.1 morale to Player units in 1000 range
+0.1 morale to Enemy units in 1000 range

Hero dies >
-1.0 morale to Player units in 1000 range
+1.0 morale to Enemy units in 1000 range


I am thinking about how will morale function and influence a batle

 

[Ghostwind]

Having lower morale should make it so the unit misses on some attacks, does less damage and attacks slower (because they are lazy, can't be bothered to fight if the morale is down)

 

[Ninja_sheep]

imo moral doesn't rly work in a 'normal' warcraft map. I mean, ofc you can do some cheap 'motivate' spell and a 'howl of terror' spell.
But cool it only gets if you don't control every unit manuel.
Imagine an army fleeing on battle field against your orders
or giving up

in warcraft you're so limited...
movespeed, attack damage, stupid pauses...

 

[Squishy]

Maybe you could make it so that if units morale gets low enough, they might swap sides.

 

[wewso]

imo moral doesn't rly work in a 'normal' warcraft map. I mean, ofc you can do some cheap 'motivate' spell and a 'howl of terror' spell.
But cool it only gets if you don't control every unit manuel.
Imagine an army fleeing on battle field against your orders
or giving up

in warcraft you're so limited...
movespeed, attack damage, stupid pauses...

I'm not talking about normal melee map. In my map there are many units involved and I emphasize on battles and tactics.

I have an idea>
Flee: When a unit is attacked if the morale of the attacking unit is more that the morale of the attacked unit the attacked unit has [(mana%of attacker - mana%of attacked)/4]% chance to flee from battle. (Its ordered to move 300 from the attacker and is removed from its owner's selection.

 

[BlargIAmDead]

Well...if mechanical units are unaffected by morale...then why should I bother with organic units at all?

For example, in "Dawn of War" -- there are other RTS games that use morale, but that's the one I'm familiar with -- you can't just pile up tanks because you can only have a few at a time. And there are some things DoW tanks can't do: namely, taking over the enemy's strategic points. So you have to build at least a few infantry squads.

What do organic units do in your game, that balances having to worry about their morale?

 

[thewrongvine]

Yes.

 

[wellwish3r]

but wouldnt morale, be sort of inbalanced?
i mean, as soon a a player has wiped out the army, or a big part of the army of another player, he will have more units, with a much higher moral than the other person... So he can just crush him.

 

[xtxChaosxtx]

Well, i believe that's the whole point of tactics. If both sides have the right tactics and strategies the players should be at a draw for a while until one gets some sort of advantage (ex. The enemy loses a source of resources)

 

[wewso]

What do organic units do in your game, that balances having to worry about their morale?

Well all units in my map are organic and they are the main part of the army. There are only 3 mechanicals: Catapult, Tribuchet and Balista so I wont worry about them, being imbalanced.

but wouldnt morale, be sort of inbalanced?
i mean, as soon a a player has wiped out the army, or a big part of the army of another player, he will have more units, with a much higher moral than the other person... So he can just crush him.

Morale will play its role only in battles and as soon as the battle ends if your units are in range from a Hero or Bulilding thier morale will start to recover slowly.

 

[Sajberhippie]

If you have Undead, make most or all immune to morale. I mean, they're already dead, and skeletons aren't that smart.
Also, I don't think you should stick to excactly 8 morale. Make Goblins have 5 (it's a frikkin' goblin, right?) and Heroes 25 for example... Give Orcs a quite low morale, but also a Rage ability that makes them temporarily immune to morale... You know, stuff like that.

I guess you've gotten the idea from Warhammer: DoW. Thic can get reaaaally good, if you do it nicely.
EDIT: Also, make some things outside the big battles affect morale. If one player uses assassins/snipers to kill off stray units and civilians (workers), that should really feel for the enemy's morale. That makes tactics even more important, where small skirmishes can turn the tides of battle.

If you have dragons, they should really make a negative impact on the enemy's morale. Like, big time.
Maybe most undead too, but if you make immune to psychology-undead that lowers the enemies morale, that might be TOO similiar to Warhammer (though fantasy).

 

[wewso]

My map is about ancient Europe so there will be only humans

http://www.thehelper.net/forums/showthread.php?t=90094

Do you have any ideas about how would morale affect the battles?