How do we think morale (-) penalties are supposed to work?

[Nevill]

Continuing from the previous topic.

From the Maniac's Treatise:

A unit homed to a base under drone riots gets a (-) morale modifier. What the exact effects of this (-) are, I have not fully and systematically researched. I did some limited testing though, and from this I can say:

Under positive SE Morale a drone riot gives a -12.5% (-) combat penalty.as you would expect.

0 SE Morale: in normal situations no effect, positive nor negative. Very Green units get a +12.5% attack bonus when in a base with a creche. But of course it's impossible to have very green units under +0 SE Morale.  Just a little test with the scenario editor on.

Under -1 and -2 SE Morale units homed to a base without a crèche seem to get a +12.5% attack bonus. They get it everywhere: in open terrain, in crecheless bases and in bases with creches (in addition to the combat bonus they already get from the creche itself)! Units homed to a base with a creche do not seem to get a combat bonus, but neither do they suffer a penalty.

When I did some limited testing under -3 SE Morale it became ever weirder. There units homed to a crecheless base got a 25% combat bonus both when attacking and defending. Units homed to a creche base got a 12.5% combat bonus both for attack and defense.

In short, the effects of drone riots on morale are even more bugged than the effects of children’s creches which you can read lower. There are even more factors influencing the effect of morale under drone riots, and more combinations possible, then there are when testing creches. So testing this fully would require lots of time. Seeing drone riots rarely happen, and considering I can imagine more fun or useful things to do with my time, I hope you’ll forgive if I leave it to the short conclusion mentioned above: it’s seriously bugged.

I'll be doing a bit of testing, but something can be interred straight away:

Under positive SE Morale a drone riot gives a -12.5% (-) combat penalty.as you would expect.

This is working as intended.

Very Green units get a +12.5% attack bonus when in a base with a creche. But of course it's impossible to have very green units under +0 SE Morale.

This is a part of the bug affecting Very Green units. It is impossible to get a (-) displayed for them, riots or no riots.

The bonuses from riots when under a negative MORALE modifier appear to be a bug. From Googly's Datalinks:

^A unit homed to a base under drone riots gets a (-) morale modifier.
^The effects of this modifier differ depending upon SE MORALE setting: (This is a {Bug})
^-3 SE Morale: Units homed to a crecheless base get a 25% combat bonus. Units homed to a creche base get a 12.5% bonus.
^-2 or -1 SE Morale: Units homed to a crecheless base get a 12.5% attack bonus. Units homed to a creche base get no bonus.
^0 SE Morale: No effect
^1 or >1 SE Morale:  -12.5% combat bonus (as expected)

So, there are 2 things to note: the effects of a Drone Riot are supposed to be felt by homed units anywhere on the map, and they are supposed to be affected by the presence of Children's Creche.

From what I can infer, the creches are supposed  to mitigate the effect, and are only behaving erratically due to a bug.

However, it is ambiguous whether one should get worse penalties from a riot if their MORALE SE is low. However, since higher MORALE does not appear to affect the malus (it is always 12.5% for MORALE 1 and up), why should a lower one matter? It might be a part of the bug with MORALE and (+) signs in general.