New in SEOW 3.1.0: Dynamic Morale

[IV/JG7_4Shades]

Supply and Morale
There has to be a point to getting supplies to all your units in SEOW, right? Well, yes, there is a point. If you don't supply your units often enough, they will run out of supplies. If a unit runs out of supplies, several things happen:

1/ The unit stops moving - stops dead.
2/ The unit stops fighting - it is a defenceless target.
3/ The unit's morale declines.

If items 1 and 2 aren't bad enough, then 3 is the real killer. But before I tell you why, here is something background to Morale in SEOW.


What is Morale?
Morale is a measure of how motivated and committed a unit is to the aims of the campaign. Units with high morale will fight on regardless of enemy numbers and regardless of their own proximity to safety. On the other hand, units with low morale may simply give up. Good commanders keep their forces at high morale levels.

In SEOW, each unit can be in one of 5 morale states:

Code: Select all

Morale State         Internal Morale Value
Excellent                     4
High                          3
Average                       2
Poor                          1
Desperate                     0

The starting morales for Allied and Axis forces are set at campaign initialization time using DCS options new in SEOW3.1.0. Thereafter SEOW tracks the morale of each unit individually throughout the campaign. Morale information is displayed inside each unit's tooltip (see Supply Tracking thread).

How Does Morale Change?
Morale can only drop under two circumstances:

1/ The unit is out of supply.
2/ The unit is close to a civilian party that is in distress.

Alternatively, morale can increase under three circumstances:

1/ The unit receives supplies.
2/ The unit is close to a friendly leadership (or morale influencing) unit.
3/ The unit is close to a civilian party that is feeling positive.

The method for calculating the morale update is as follows:

At the end of each mission, each unit is allocated a morale increment of zero (0). If supplies are needed, each unit searches for nearby supplies. If it finds some, no matter how few, the unit's morale increment goes up by +1. If no supplies are found, and the unit is completely out of supply, -1 is added to its morale increment. Then all nearby friendly units are polled to find out if they are leadership units. If any leadership units are found, the morale increment is increased by the Morale_Influence value for that unit type. Then, morale is changed according to whether any civilian parties are found nearby. For each civilian party found, a die is rolled. Eighty percent of the time, the civilian party is feeling positive and its Morale_Influence value is added to the unit's morale increment. The other twenty percent of the time, the civilian unit is deemed to be in distress and its Morale_Influence value is subtracted from the unit's morale increment. Finally, after all that, the total morale increment is scaled back to -1, 0 or +1, and added to the unit's previous morale state. No unit can change more than one morale level up or down per mission.

Let's try an example. Suppose a T-40M tank platoon has morale state Average (morale=2). It finishes a mission with 23% fuel capacity, and is near 2 GAZ buses (civilian parties), a GAZ-M1 Kommissar car, another T-60 platoon, and an 85mm Flak gun. The default SEDB31 Object_Specifications table lists the following Morale_Influence values (these can be edited for campaign designers):

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Object_Type             Morale_Influence
T-40M                         0
T-60                          0
GAZ Bus                       1
GAZ M1                        1
85mm Zenit                    1

Starting with a morale increment of 0, the T-40M platoon searches for supplies but doesn't find any. That's bad, but it has morale of Average, so it keeps its chin up after this setback: morale increment still equals 0. Next it seeks leadership influences from friendly units around it. The T-60 platoon has a Morale_Influence of 0, no help there: morale increment still equals 0. Next the GAZ bus, a dice is rolled and it comes up 13%, so the bus is in distress! The T-40M platoon sympathizes: morale increment drops to -1. The second civilian GAZ bus gets a die roll of 35% - perfectly happy state: morale increment is raised by one = 0. Looking for more leadership, the T-40M finds the nearby GAZ-M1 Kommissar who waves his pistol and rallies the T-40M platoon further: morale increment = 0 + 1 = 1. Finally, the T-40M sees the heavy flak unit nearby, always an encouraging sign: morale increment = 1 + 1 = 2. The morale increment is finally +2, so the T-40M platoon will raise its morale state. Noting that morale state can only raise or lower by one level at the end of any mission, the T-40M achieves a final morale state of "High" (but it's fuel state is a matter for concern).

The process is repeated for every other undestroyed unit on the map, including civilian and leadership units. No unit can influence its own morale.


Here is a list of hard-coded civilian units in SEOW:

"Bus_US", "GAZ_Bus", "Germany_CivilTrain", "USSR_CivilTrain"

Here is a list of default leadership objects (with non-zero Morale_Influence values) in SEOW:

Code: Select all

Object_Type	Verbose_Names_Allies	Role_Description
Bofors_40mm_UK	40mm Bofors UK	Artillery: Anti-Aircraft
Bofors_40mm_US	40mm Bofors US	Artillery: Anti-Aircraft
Flak18_37mm	37mm Flak	Artillery: Anti-Aircraft
Flak18_88mm	88mm Flak	Artillery: Anti-Aircraft
Flak30_20mm	20mm Flak	Artillery: Anti-Aircraft
Flak38_20mm	20mm Flak	Artillery: Anti-Aircraft
Maxime4	4x7.62 Maxime AAA	Artillery: Anti-Aircraft
StBofors_40mm_UK	40mm Bofors (UK, Stand)	Artillery: Anti-Aircraft
StBofors_40mm_US	40mm Bofors (US, Stand)	Artillery: Anti-Aircraft
Trip25mm_JA	3x25mm Flak	Artillery: Anti-Aircraft
Twin25mm_JA	2x25mm Flak	Artillery: Anti-Aircraft
Type88_75mm_JA	75mm Flak	Artillery: Anti-Aircraft
Type94_37mm_JA	37mm Artillery	Artillery: Anti-Aircraft
Type98_20mm_JA	20mm Flak	Artillery: Anti-Aircraft
Zenit25mm_1940	25mm 72-K AAA	Artillery: Anti-Aircraft
Zenit3K	76mm 3-K AAA	Artillery: Anti-Aircraft
Zenit61K	37mm 61-K AAA	Artillery: Anti-Aircraft
Zenit85mm_1939	85mm 1939-K AAA	Artillery: Anti-Aircraft
Germany_CivilTrain	Passenger Train	Rail: Civil Train
USSR_CivilTrain	Civil Train	Rail: Civil Train
Germany_CargoFuelTrain	Freight Train	Rail: Transport
Germany_CargoTrain	Freight Train	Rail: Transport
Germany_CargoTrain/AA	Freight Train	Rail: Transport
Germany_CargoTrainA	Freight Train	Rail: Transport
Germany_CargoTrainA/AA	Freight Train	Rail: Transport
Germany_CommandStaffTrain/AA	Staff Train	Rail: Transport
Germany_EquipmentATrain/AA	Freight Train	Rail: Transport
Germany_EquipmentBTrain/AA	Freight Train	Rail: Transport
Germany_EquipmentCTrain/AA	Freight Train	Rail: Transport
Germany_FuelTrain/AA	Freight Train	Rail: Transport
USSR_CargoFuelTrain	Cargo Fuel Train	Rail: Transport
USSR_CargoTrain	Cargo Train	Rail: Transport
USSR_CargoTrain/AA	Cargo Train AA	Rail: Transport
USSR_CargoTrainA	Cargo A Train	Rail: Transport
USSR_CargoTrainA/AA	Cargo A Train AA	Rail: Transport
USSR_CommandStaffTrain/AA	Staff Train AA	Rail: Transport
USSR_EquipmentATrain/AA	Equipment A Train AA	Rail: Transport
USSR_EquipmentBTrain/AA	Equipment B Train AA	Rail: Transport
USSR_EquipmentCTrain/AA	Equipment C Train AA	Rail: Transport
USSR_FuelTrain/AA	Fuel Train AA	Rail: Transport
USSR_MBV2	MBV-2 Armoured Train	Rail: Transport
USSR_MBV2/AA	MBV-2 Armoured Train AA	Rail: Transport
Coelian	Coelian 2x37mm Flak	Tank: Anti-Aircraft
Nimrod	Nimrod AAA	Tank: Anti-Aircraft
Wirbelwind	Wirbelwind	Tank: Anti-Aircraft
ZSU-37	ZSU-37 37mm AAA	Tank: Anti-Aircraft
HaGoRadio	Ha-Go Radio	Tank: Standard Armor
GermanyCarsColumnC	Armoured Staff Column	Vehicle: Engineers
JapanCarsColumnB	Engineers Column	Vehicle: Engineers
RussiaCarsColumnC	Engineers.Co	Vehicle: Engineers
USACarsColumnC	Co.HQ	Vehicle: Engineers
Bus_US	Bus	Vehicle: Transport
Chevrolet_medic_US	Chevrolet Ambulance	Vehicle: Transport
Chevrolet_radio_US	Chevrolet Radio	Vehicle: Transport
GAZ_55	GAZ-55 Medic	Vehicle: Transport
GAZ_Bus	GAZ Bus	Vehicle: Transport
GAZ_M1	GAZ-M1 Emka	Vehicle: Transport
GermanyCarsColumnA	Staff Column	Vehicle: Transport
GermanyCarsColumnB	Engineer Colum	Vehicle: Transport
GermanyCarsColumnD	Scout Column	Vehicle: Transport
GermanyCarsColumnE	Supply Column	Vehicle: Transport
JapanCarsColumnA	Staff Column	Vehicle: Transport
JapanCarsColumnC	Supply Column	Vehicle: Transport
OpelBlitz6700A_medic	Opel Blitz Ambulance	Vehicle: Transport
OpelBlitz6700A_radio	Opel Blitz Radio	Vehicle: Transport
RussiaCarsColumnA	Staff Column	Vehicle: Transport
RussiaCarsColumnB	Supply.Co	Vehicle: Transport
RussiaCarsColumnD	Artillery.Co(Katyusha)	Vehicle: Transport
RussiaCarsColumnE	Artillery.Co(BM-13N)	Vehicle: Transport
USACarsColumnA	Supply.Co	Vehicle: Transport
USACarsColumnB	Engineers.Co	Vehicle: Transport
ZIS5_medic	ZIS-5 Ambulance	Vehicle: Transport
ZIS5_radio	ZIS-5 Radio	Vehicle: Transport

Any non-flying object can be set to have leadership properties in SEOW simply by editing the associated Morale_Influence field of the Object_Specifications table. Values must be positive integers or zero. Lastly, the measure of "nearby" for assessing morale increments and supply proximity is the normal radius of control.

What Happens to Desperate Units?
The last thing a commander wants is a desperate unit (morale=0). Desperate units are liable to either desert, which means "spike their weapons and run away, never to return", or even surrender, which means "spike their weapons and give themselves up". Both outcomes are devastating for the friendly commander, as all equipment is lost, even whole ships.

In technical terms, after all resupplies and morale increments are made, SEOW cycles through ALL desperate units and calculates the number of non-desperate enemy units within the normal control radius.

If there are NO nearby non-desperate enemy units, i.e. the desperate unit is not under threat, a die is rolled to determine whether the desperate unit will desert. The critical die roll percentage depends on the desperate unit's fuel state. An unthreatened desperate unit will desert with a chance of approximately 10%.

If the desperate unit is threatened, it will surrender more than 50% of the time. The more non-desperate enemies nearby the higher the chance of surrender.

To sum up, the whole point of morale is to simulate the effects of combat stress and lack of supply on fighting forces. Keep your forces in good supply and close to leadership units and flak support. If you fail to do so, your forces will lose heart, stop fighting and then desert or surrender. Then you will be a failed commander, joining the list of those forgotten commanders who have failed to maintain their own supply lines and troop morale before you.

Best of luck!

4Shades