EAW Game Design: Rewards, Enlarged Interactvity, Balanceing

[Darkmark]

I can do without morale to be honest. I dislike the idea of your units fleeing (or defecting, whatever you wish to call it) in other games, so I would always be against seeing it in EAW. It always seems to me to be a little superfluous and detrimental to gameplay. It puts the emphasis on one battle, because if you lose that one battle your forces end up being so considerably weakened you lose the ability to fight back with any commitment or without futher defecting losses. I would I be disappointed if they put it in instead of other things, because morale really isn't a necessity. Not only that but you want a seperate Loyalty system?

 

Stellar suggested:

 

Loyalty based on:

attrocities, morale, defeats,

 

Morale based on:

combat experience, low loyalty, or defeats.

 

Well, 2 of those both cancel each other out, otherwise you just end up with two scales for the one. Defeats=Defeats. Moral=Loyalty (They link to one another, so will drop and raise at the same time). So you end up with Morale based on EXP (Yet another non confirmed scale...) and loyalty based on attrocities? How does the game determine an attrocity?

 

Like I say, I can do without the hassle of having to deal with all these in game. Unit exp alone and I'll be content.

[DarthCycle]

I have two interviews in the final stages. One at Ubisoft for Game Designer and one at JAMDAT for "Assistent Project Manager" something like that. Probably next month I will be in the industry so my presence here will drop a little.

 

Good luck with your interviews! Another good fellow that crosses the path to the other side of the gaming world.

[Stellar_Magic]

Well, 2 of those both cancel each other out, otherwise you just end up with two scales for the one. Defeats=Defeats. Moral=Loyalty (They link to one another, so will drop and raise at the same time). So you end up with Morale based on EXP (Yet another non confirmed scale...) and loyalty based on attrocities? How does the game determine an attrocity?

 

What would classify as an atrocity... Lets see, blowing up a civilian space station, blowing up civilian facilities, bombarding a civilian population...

 

Examples...

 

Say you're attacking a rebel base on Naboo and the rebels have blockaded your only way into the base in the streets of Theed. So you call in an orbital strike and blow up the roadblock as well as a couple blocks of civilian buildings around it... that would be classified as an atrocity.

 

Okay here is exactly how I'd work this out.

 

Combat Experience:

First, there are 5 experience levels. Greenhorn, Seasoned, Veteran, Elite, Ace. The amount of experience required to level up is exponentially larger then the previous level. Experience affects accuracy, severity of morale and loyalty changes, and a unit's maneuverability. (Turns faster)

 

Experience Value increases when a ship fires its batteries or takes damage.

 

Experience Value decreases when a unit is repaired. (This is because the replacement personnel aren't as good.)

 

Morale:

Troops and ships start out when built of a morale value of about 1/2 the maximum amount of morale or 50%. Morale directly effects the rate of a unit's acceleration, rate of fire, and loyalty of a unit.

 

Morale Value increases when an enemy unit is destroyed, it fires its own weapons, a friendly ship fires its weapons, an enemy surrenders, or a planet falls under the player's control.

 

Morale Value decreases when an enemy fires its weapons, loyalty drops to critical levels, a unit is forced to retreat, over time, and when a planet falls.

 

Morale Value can randomly increase or descend (Though usually decrease), when a friendly vessel is destroyed, or when a ship is damaged.

 

Loyalty:

Troops have the same amount of loyalty as the planet which created them, while ships have a twenty percent loyalty bonus upon their creation.

 

Loyalty increases when engaging pirates, a planet falls to their side, and when the enemy kills civilians.

 

Loyalty decreases when a planet falls to the enemy, morale is critically low, and when their side commits an atrocity.

 

Why are Morale and Loyalty seperate... this is why.

 

Say an extremely loyal starship is engaged by a massive enemy force, its morale drops to critical and the ship cannot escpae. Instead of surrendering, the ship is scuttled.

 

Say a moderately loyal starship is engaged by a massive enemy force and can't escape, its morale drops to critical levels and it surrenders.

 

Say a disloyal unit is engaged in a firefight in a city between the enemy and your own forces. They're morale remains high but when one of the civilian's is killed their loyalty drops to critical and they switch sides.

 

Say a disloyal unit is engaged in a firefight in a city between the enemy and your own forces. They're morale is low, and when one of the friendly units kills a civilian, the unit surrenders instead of defecting due to low morale.

 

For a unit to defect they have to have medium to high morale, and also have very low loyalty. Pride and the belief that they're better then to commit such atrocities is they're primary motivation. If they aren't proud of themselves they'll merely surrender instead of defect.

 

God, a game like that would rock...

[Ghostly_Substance]

indeed it will This would make battles more interesting

[Vader89]

I can do without morale to be honest. I dislike the idea of your units fleeing (or defecting, whatever you wish to call it) in other games, so I would always be against seeing it in EAW. It always seems to me to be a little superfluous and detrimental to gameplay. It puts the emphasis on one battle, because if you lose that one battle your forces end up being so considerably weakened you lose the ability to fight back with any commitment or without futher defecting losses.

 

I have already stated my position on this and agree with whats DarkMark is saying, so you lose one battle and your overall morale and strength go down, then you perform worse in the next battle and lose, etc. Its a vicious circle.

[Ghostly_Substance]

Not if you plan better and crush their weak spot.

[Vader89]

Well thats true but i dont like the idea, and besides i very much doubt it will be in the game so im not gonna argue over it.

[Darkmark]

Still not convinced Stallar. It sounds better when you put it that way and explain it a little more, but still looks like a hell of a lot of programming involved for very little gain. I also think if it could be done with the one scale, multiple scales are annoying. As Vader89 said, not in game so no arguing about it from me from this point on either.

[Foshjedi2004]

Switching sides may be a problematic subject as Stormies are unlikely to do this and the Rebels are all Imperial soldiers anyway so they have been imbued with a sense of Loyalty.

[Ghostly_Substance]

loyalty and cause for their loyalty for staying with their faction leader. Its not the Stormies that leave its the officers But that might or might not happen

[Foshjedi2004]

How can you be so sure G_S there is still so long till the final release date, lots of balancing and polishing may be able to completely change the ideas we currently have.