Topic: Introducing Morale

[Mike Bobbitt]

Folks,

I would like to introduce a new feature to the game: Morale

Your morale is a dynamic representation of how well your player is doing, and is affected by a number of actions and reactions. A new player starts with a morale of 10, and their morale is subsequently affected in the following ways:

• +2+broken fail streak   Complete a mission
• -(5+broken success streak)   Fail a mission
• +2   Add a proficiency level
• -40   Forgot to play yesterday
• +10   Played today
• +10   Cashed in an incentive
• +10   Capture an Int target
• -X   1/2 of Missed CR (to a max of 40)
• +1   Found some Int
• +10   Promotion
• +X   1/2 of lowered insurgency
• +5   Locked down insurgency in a location
• -1      For each insurgency point regenerated

Some of these may bear a bit of extra explanation. When you are successful with a mission, you gain two morale points. If however that successful mission broke a streak of (for example) 4 failed missions, you get an additional 4 morale points, for a total of 6. Unfortunately, the same thing happens for failures, and you get -5 with a further deduction for your broken success streak. (Let's face it, that sort of thing really is bad for morale!) If you miss CR, your morale will also drop by half of the amount you missed. In the plus column, cashing an incentive, gaining a promotion or finding int will all boost your morale, to name a few.

For the last few weeks I have been testing this setup to ensure it is balance. Everyone has been 'blindly' accruing morale, and without playing to that feature, the average morale remains neutral. So now that people understand how it works, I'm sure it will be easy to push it in a positive direction. (All test values have been wiped, and as of right now, everyone has the default starting point of 10 morale.)

Your maximum and minimum Morale is 100 + 2 times your Rank (positive for high morale, or negative for pool morale). So for example, a player that is Rank 68 will have a Morale range from -236 to +236.

Effects of Morale

Morale can have a significant effect on how much experience you get from conducting Missions or taking down Int targets. A higher morale will really give you a boost, but a low morale can slow you down. The effect Morale has on your player is shown below:

• +400 to +500   +10% CE
• +300 to +399   +8% CE
• +200 to +299   +6% CE
• +100 to +199   +4% CE
• +26 to   +99   +2% CE
• -25 to +25   No effect
• -26 to   -99   -2% CE
• -100 to -199   -4% CE
• -200 to -299   -6% CE
• -300 to -399   -8% CE
• -400 to -500   -10% CE

The observant among you will have figured out that in order to gain the maximum benefit, you need to be Rank 150 or higher.

There are also two new Medals for achieving high and low Morale, as well as new daily challenges that may appear if randomly selected.

As always, feedback and suggestions are welcome!


Cheers
Mike

[PuckChaser]

Sounds like an awesome feature, it's already working for me!

One question: If you use an incentive to gain equipment proficiency levels, does that count towards your morale? Example: I use +1 proficiency level and I have 90 pieces of equipment, would that give me +180 morale?

[Mike Bobbitt]

Good question, but no... incentives are 'stand-alone' in this regard. Morale has to be gained the old fashioned way.

[Larry Strong]

Yeah a bit of a shock was loving it till I lost a mission and a streak It looks like a great feature.....now to figure it out.

And more medals  Come to daddy my precious ones.........need a Gollum smilie

[Captsapper]

Sounds like a well thought out feature, you are correct to say that failing a mission has a tremendous effect on morale,  mine has been crushed a couple of times in the last few days.  This just adds another wrinkle to the strategy and complexity of this game. 

[JohnTBay]

This sounds a bit confusing, but I'll figure it out

[Mike Bobbitt]

I have a knack for making something simple sound very complicated.

Essentially as you play you can watch your morale bar go up and down based on what you're doing. The higher it is, the more CE you will get for various tasks.

[Larry Strong]

I might not have read things right. Besides the breaking of a streak, does going on a streak/run, be it complete mission/fail affect morale?

[ArmyVern]

I have a question regarding the "streak" too; at what point will it be considered to be "a streak"? 2 X winning missions in a row and then a fail will see a -5 deduction? etc??

[Mike Bobbitt]

Larry, you read it right. Streaks only affect morale when they're broken. Vern, 2 in a row is a streak, so 2 successful and 1 failed will actually net you a -7 hit to your Morale. (-5 for failing, -2 for breaking a 2 success streak.)

So yeah, streaks can turn the tables pretty quickly.

[PuckChaser]

Larry, you read it right. Streaks only affect morale when they're broken. Vern, 2 in a row is a streak, so 2 successful and 1 failed will actually net you a -7 hit to your Morale. (-5 for failing, -2 for breaking a 2 success streak.)

So yeah, streaks can turn the tables pretty quickly.

No kidding: Mission Failed: Locate and destroy an old Soviet munitions dump (-193CR, -47 Morale)

[Shamrock]

You forgot the one essential one:

* 0 - Posted to Gagetown.

[jeffb]

Good addition Mike! Have you thought about having missions (take a shower, call home,  etc.) that are purely morale boosts without any CE?

[airmich]

There are also two new Medals for achieving high and low Morale, as well as new daily challenges that may appear if randomly selected.

Along with the new medals, I see that you now earn Morale Points as rewards for both the Initiative and Insurgency incentive medals.  I knew there was a reason I hadn't cashed in some of those yet!

Mike, can you please explain the second part of your blurb that I quoted.  The "randomly selected" for a new daily challenge.  Will we notice, or be notified, if we have this new challenge?  Does that mean there could be a 4th challenge available to us? 

Oh, and thanks for adding something new to stepping up the game!  Me thinks your wife needs to give you more chores over the holidays, doesn't sound like you're busy enough at home.  Although I'm not sure why you would want to play AO too much anymore...those consistent failed missions of yours have got to be hurting your morale 

[Oh No a Canadian]

Is the moral bonus already included in the stated CE gain for a given mission?

[PuckChaser]

Lists at the bottom in the mission summary, separately. You should be getting "Morale has added Experience (X CE)" when you complete missions.

[Oh No a Canadian]

I mean before one does a mission, on the main Ops page I guess you could say.

EDIT: Answered my own question by doing a mission. On a related note it would be nice to have the CE bonus listed somewhere, perhaps when you put your mouse over the mission or just the percent listed on the moral bar

[Larry Strong]

Dammit that sure changes things. I can't hammer risky missions anymore as it drops you down fast......

[Mike Bobbitt]

Mike, can you please explain the second part of your blurb that I quoted.  The "randomly selected" for a new daily challenge.  Will we notice, or be notified, if we have this new challenge?  Does that mean there could be a 4th challenge available to us?

Mich, actually today is a good example of the randomly selected challenge... in addition to all the daily challenges you know and love, acquiring positive or negative morale is now also possible as a daily challenge.

Not only that, but there are also daily challenges for earning or losing specific amounts of CE as a result of a morale boost (or drain). I.E. earn an additional 150 CE as a result of a high morale, or have 40 CE chopped off from having a low morale. So don't worry, even sad pandas will benefit from some daily challenges!

Me thinks your wife needs to give you more chores over the holidays, doesn't sound like you're busy enough at home.  Although I'm not sure why you would want to play AO too much anymore...those consistent failed missions of yours have got to be hurting your morale 

Zing! Nice one mich! Hey somebody's got to test all the fail cases...

Jeff, that's not a bad idea... I'll see what I can do about that.

[SevenSixTwo]

Hey Mike, I tried the +200 morale incentive and it didn't work at all. Any chance I can get the medal/MP back?

[Mike Bobbitt]

Hmmm... the code looks good for that, but I'll do some testing. In the mean time I boosted your morale by +200, if that works for you.

[PuckChaser]

Is it possible to add AORs into the equation for morale? Gives us another way to build it up.

+1 for every percent lowered
-2 for every percent regenerated
+5 for locking down.

[Mike Bobbitt]

Good idea, I modified the numbers a bit but it's now in place. Thanks!

[PuckChaser]

What are they modified to?  Just so I can update the Game Mechanics FAQ.

[ArmyVern]

I have a suggestion as I got nailed this morning by "missing CR" (I had an appt to go to). Came home to find myself down to the negatives.

If we are losing morale for "time spent not playing", should we also not be gaining morale for time actually spent playing? IE 1 morale point per 15 minutes etc. I do realize that (again) distinctly advantages those who use automated ways to have their computer "play" for them vice actually playing themselves ... but I think they are the minority and I take their stats for what they're worth (& for me - that's not much).

Also a question, just how far into the negative can we go for for missing CR (ie not online)??

Just wondering how far into the negative I'll be after travelling to sandbox sans online access for two weeks on the recce, and how badly that will affect my trying to dig myself out of the fallout negative "CE return" on my missions as I won't be getting the full value. I think this has a huge negative impact upon players at the top who find themselves with no access from work computers or actually no internet access ... it's already taking some of us 300+ CR to fight a mission with a +2 morale ... ie can fight 2 or 3 missions a day to "earn" that morale. Of course, we could always just do the low value missions instead, but then we can't level up and thus earn those +10 morales (because we need 30 or 40K worth of CE to level up) when we are way down into the negatives and trying to dig our way out. That just seems off to me.