Alpha Centauri 2

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri & Alien Crossfire => Modding => Bug/Patch Discussion => Topic started by: Nevill on September 03, 2015, 01:16:48 PM

Title: How do we think morale (+) bonuses are supposed to work?
Post by: Nevill on September 03, 2015, 01:16:48 PM

I'll preface this post with Maniac's excellent Treatise on Morale: http://apolyton.net/showthread.php/145615-Treatise-on-Morale?postid=4195589 (http://apolyton.net/showthread.php/145615-Treatise-on-Morale?postid=4195589)

So, we know how does it work, and it is pretty much borked. However, the trickier question is, how is it supposed to work?

The question I'd like answered are:
1) What exactly is a (+) sign and what should it affect? (which is what this thread and poll are for)
2) What exactly is a (-) sign and what should it affect?
3) What should affect the number of (+)/(-) signs the units have?
4) What other bugs are there due to a botched implementation of morale, and what could be done about them?

Let's start with 1). Here is an excerpt from the Treatise:

Quote

For some units you will see there are one or more (+)'s behind their morale level. What is the meaning of those? Unfortunately there is no consistent rule for their effect. For instance, the (+) after Very Green morale level means a permanent +12.5% defence bonus in battle, both in and outside bases. On the other side the (+)'s received as a consequence of a positive SE Morale have a more limited effect. They only provide a +12.5% bonus when a unit is defending from attack inside a base. In the open the (+)'s have no effect whatsoever. Also 'Elite (+)' gives no extra bonus beyond 'Elite''s +50%.
And when we start talking about (+)'s received as a consequence of Children's Creches, there is little logic at all anymore to be detected behind the (+)'s.

And here is one that made it to Googly's Datalinks:

Quote

A unit with a "+" sign after its morale possesses a combat bonus from its location in a base with a $LINK<Children's Creche=100002>.

So, is there a consensus what a (+) should represent? Should they even have a common meaning?

I believe that, yes, they should,

You get a (+) under one of the following conditions:
1) As a part of choosing a positive MORALE settings to indicate a better ability to defend in a base.
2) As a part of being in a base with Children's Creche, which has a flavor text about parents defend their home to the death.
3) Automatically for Very Green units (which I believe is a bug - all Very Green units have a (+) that can"t be 'removed' from them - we'll talk about it later).

Does anyone else know the circumstances under which a unit gets (+) marks?

So from these I assume that (+) should confer purely a defensive bonus. Do you agree?