Danmacsch's (Damasc's) civilizations

[Danmacsch]

So just updated the mod to version 3. Only thing changed in the mod is that now Units in the Capital gets +2 Morale per turn and +1 per turn in other Cities.

However, I've talked to JFD and he's agreed to support the mod with a small change to his Unit Panel mod. This will let Morale be displayed as a Unit stat like Strength and Moves. Until he updates the mod, however, you can use the attached files. Just copy and overwrite the files in the \JFD's Rise to Power - (2) (UI) Unit Panel (v 1)\Lua\UI\InGame\WorldView.

I'm reaching out to the Community Patch team to see if they are interested in providing support as well.

 

[Stef09]

Thanks for the update! Yes, with this temporary fix it works now for me...

Below some first feedback but haven't played through far yet, so cannot really comment on balance yet. First impression getting until turn 80 is that despite quite some variables it overall appears quite balanced.

Anyway, below a combination of issues/bugs found and other ideas/suggestions:

Issues/Bugs:
- Ranged units are not showing the Morale as Unit state, since they have Ranged Attack on that line
- You see AI's floating notifications through fog of war, which obviously is not desired as you can see where all AI units are.
- Floating notifications only appear for the larger values, so not really consistent not showing smaller values.
- Also am thinking that late-game when there are many units, you can get a lot of these floating notification that may turn out to be a bit annoying. As you're already showing the unit morale on the unit panel, I'm not sure it's really needed to show these floating notification anymore... Otherwise perhaps remove the word "Morale" from the floating notification to reduce visual effect, as it already shows the icon (so similar to other yields)
- Barbarians are still using the promotion
- In the Alhambra text, there's a double point at end of sentence (Morale..)
- Suggest to rename the vanilla Morale promotion
- In promotion Morale Boost make "Consume this Opportunity" green like in "Heal Instantly"
- In Battle Screen, is it possible to rephrase "combat bonus" to "bad/poor/good/great Morale"? Just "combat bonus" is bit generic.
- Please see screenshot & logs: for naval units it feels that there are a few promotions that are meant to do the same thing and are relating to health. Do you by chance happen to know where the TXT_KEY ones come from (believe from other mods)? I'm only using HR, EE, CD and RtP as other gameplay mods. Think best of those TXT_KEY ones are removed by wherever they come from, since through Morale and it's bonuses you already indirectly have the effect of health.

Ideas/Suggestions:
- Saw the suggestions of a resting point and quite like it. You could have certain wonders or policies that influence it, which deepens the mechanic again a bit more. However, I think it would need to come with a complete overhaul of current values just to have sufficient impact then.
- Would do something with Heroic Epic, as seems like THE wonder that would be closest connected thematically.
- Remember the Attrition effects in JFD's ExCE which decreased Health in snow, desert, etc.. If that ever comes back, that could work nicely with the effect on Morale through Health as a secundary effect.

You have currently quite some variables that impact Morale and am thinking it may actually be a bit too much to all factor in as player but also to find right gameplay balance. Imo especially the actions/location/status relating to the unit and combat should impact its Morale and not so much other 'external global influences', since it keeps the design leanest and otherwise might also snowball certain effects. In that context:
- Suggest to remove the impact from (negative) happiness since that's already reflected through a specific combat modifier so it would otherwise have a double impact.
- Suggest to remove the impact from a Golden Age since that's more of an effect on a macro-level.
- Bit undecided on the effects of being in other territories; need to do few playtests to see how that works.
- Perhaps add -1 Morale when on pillaged tile?
- Add +1 Morale when on/next to Natural Wonder?
- Similar to the Great General, provide +2 Morale from the Great Admiral. Don't think that naval units get the +2 from Great General now, which would make sense if Great Admiral is also setup.
- For Barbarians, give +1 Morale when next to encampment or something? Otherwise, think they will quite quickly end-up with very low Morale.

 

[Stef09]

- A worker got a pop-up to choose a promotion. Had just the Morale Boost promotion in it. Attached the logs.

EDIT: Suspect this is relating to a worker being built in a city with a barracks. Also, the Morale Boost promotion stays as a visible promotion on the worker as oposed to for military units where you 'expend' the promotion.
EDIT2: Really weird. Just built Cargo Ship and Work Boat and they are getting the same option to select the Morale Boost promotion.

 

[Stef09]

Turn 190 and with just 1 war & bit of fighting barbarians, almost all my units are at 100 Morale. To my earlier suggestion, would remove the +2 from Golden Ages both for thematic as well as balancing reasons. Also feel that bonus from getting promoted/upgraded could be lowered to +2 / + 3 or so.

Regarding being in friendly & enemy territory, perhaps you can do something with capping this? May be a bit more complex, but currently the units basically can get maxed out to 100 Morale without doing anything other than just being in your own territory. Perhaps restrict the impact from being in friendly territory/cities to stop improving Morale when already at 80, and similarly for enemy territory to stop reducing Morale when already at 20?

 

[Danmacsch]

Thanks for all the feedback. Am working on the update, but likely wont he out until tomorrow or the day after.

Re morale increase/decrease in owned/enemy territory, I'll give it some thought.

Actually, since I'm incorporating the resting point idea, maybe I could do something like being in owned territory increases the resting point by 10 and in enemy territory decrease by 10.

 

[Danmacsch]

...

Almost done with the update, but have a few questions u might be able to help with.

Do u think it's important to have enemy morale visible to the player when attacking?

If I were to remove some of the ways on turn changes to increase/decrease morale, which ones do u think would make the most sense?

The resting point now works like this: units have a resting point for their morale, which per default is 50, with +/- 10 in owned/enemy territory, and further affected by wonders/buildings/policies. Now, if a unit's morale is above the resting point, their morale decreases by one, and vice versa if below. But the morale may still increase or decrease over/under the resting point under the right conditions such as having a nearby general or admiral (for naval units), being stationed in a city, being on a pillaged tile, etc, etc.. these increases/decreases are added on top of the +/- 1if the unit's morale below/above the resting point. Makes sense?
Further, morale may - as before still be affected by city captures, nearby units killed and such.
So my question with this - which ties into the previous one as well - should I just drop having the per turn increases/decreases and just have morale change via events (killed units/city captures, etc)? If so, then some of the existing per turn changes, could be translated into increases/decreases of the resting point perhaps..

Hm, writing my thoughts down on this has actually helped me answer some of my own questions I think. Your input is still appreciated ofc.

 

[Stef09]

Almost done with the update, but have a few questions u might be able to help with.

Do u think it's important to have enemy morale visible to the player when attacking?

Great to hear, can't wait to see the update!

Bit undecided on this one tbh. Don't think it's critical information, but similar to combat strength modifiers, health, etc. it does give information about the unit that's potentially valuable in strategizing. May need to think this through bit more in next gameplay perhaps, but if it's an easy implementation than it definitely will not hurt to have it.

Almost done with the update, but have a few questions u might be able to help with.

If I were to remove some of the ways on turn changes to increase/decrease morale, which ones do u think would make the most sense?

Would remove the triggers that are not specifically linked to the unit or its location. See my earlier comment on Golden Ages for instance. A WLTKD could already be different since that's about a specific city/location. Many of the ones you had in make sense to me.

Almost done with the update, but have a few questions u might be able to help with.

The resting point now works like this: units have a resting point for their morale, which per default is 50, with +/- 10 in owned/enemy territory, and further affected by wonders/buildings/policies. Now, if a unit's morale is above the resting point, their morale decreases by one, and vice versa if below. But the morale may still increase or decrease over/under the resting point under the right conditions such as having a nearby general or admiral (for naval units), being stationed in a city, being on a pillaged tile, etc, etc.. these increases/decreases are added on top of the +/- 1if the unit's morale below/above the resting point. Makes sense?
Further, morale may - as before still be affected by city captures, nearby units killed and such.
So my question with this - which ties into the previous one as well - should I just drop having the per turn increases/decreases and just have morale change via events (killed units/city captures, etc)? If so, then some of the existing per turn changes, could be translated into increases/decreases of the resting point perhaps..

Hm, writing my thoughts down on this has actually helped me answer some of my own questions I think. Your input is still appreciated ofc.

Everything you stated until "makes sense?" makes sense to me... To your question, think you may need to keep the per turn increase/decrease since otherwise the resting point logic is only semi-functioning and could theoretically stay at the same value for long period of time if the unit does nothing (if I understand it correctly). Sounds like you have already applied sufficient possible modifiers to the resting point through wonders and social policies, which would be appropriate and consistent with other civ-mechanics I feel.

For the rest, I wouldn't throw too many additional triggers into the resting point logic, so therefore I would keep most of the current inputs using the per turn increase/decrease logic. Think that's the core of the Morale logic and fitting the action/location relating to the unit each turn. The resting point should just be to provide a balance point in case the Morale moves too strongly in 1 direction.

 

[Stef09]

Just noticed in a game playing as Tibet (MC) that the Imperial Mausoleum from The Tanguts was showing as a building in the research 'bar' (top left corner) when researching Theology. Normally you wouldn't see uniques from other civs when researching. However, when Theology was researched, I was able to build the Garden as normal and Imperial Mausoleum wasn't showing as a buildable building.

While on The Tanguts, would suggest to set Mahayana as their HR preference instead of Theravada.

 

[Danmacsch]

Unit Morale updated

Changelog:

Spoiler :

BALANCE/EFFECTS:
- Added a Morale Resting Point towards which Morale will automatically converge each turn (default 50, but can be increased by certain Wonders/Policies/Conditions - see specifics in Mod description).
- Added Morale increase (+1 per turn) from adjacent Natural Wonders.
- Made Morale from Golden Ages optional, disabled by default.
- Removed Morale decrease from Unhappiness, as that's already reflected through a specific combat modifier so it would otherwise have a double impact.
- Added Morale increase (+2 per turn) for naval units when near a Great Admiral.
- Decreased Morale from promoting and upgrading units from 5 to 3.
- Barbarian Units receive +1 Morale per turn while in a Barbarian Encampment.
- Added a Morale decrease (-1 per turn) for Units starting their turn on an owned pillaged Improvement.
- Removed Morale decrease from adjacent owned Units with Bad/Poor Morale.
- Changed Morale increase from adjacent owned Units with Good/Great Morale such that it will only increase if the Unit has Morale below the Resting Point.
- Changed effect of finishing the Honor Policy Tree to it increasing the Morale Resting Point by 10.
- Changed effect of the Heroic Epic Building to it increasing the Morale Resting Point by 10.
- Changed effect of Himeji Castle to it increasing the Morale Resting Point by 10 in owned territory.
- Changed effect of Pentagon to it increasing the Morale Resting Point by 10 in enemy territory.
- Changed effect of Brandenburg Gate and Terracotta Army to increase Morale from Kills by 3.
- Changed effect of Statue of Zeus and Alhambra to increase Morale from City Captures by 3.

NOTIFICATIONS:
- Removed floating notifications for non-human units, since they would show up through the FOW, which made it possible to see where all of the AI Units were.
- Removed the "Morale" word from the floating notifications.
- Tried to make the increase/decrease info of Morale through notifications more consistent (now also shows on city train, city captures, etc). However, I've chosen NOT to display the Morale change per turn, as this would definitely clutter the screen with floating notifications.
- Added option to completely disable floating (HEX) notifications in the DMS_UnitMorale_GameDefines.lua file.
- Added option to completely disable low morale warning (LOW) notifications in the DMS_UnitMorale_GameDefines.lua file.

MISC:
- Alhambra text, double point at end of sentence ("Morale..").
- Renamed the base game "Morale" Promotion to "Heroism" (since coming from Heroic Epic) and relevant references to it.
- Made "Consume this Opportunity" green in the Morale Boost promotion (like in "Heal Instantly").

NOT FIXED:
- In the Battle Screen, the Combat Strength Bonus/Penalty isn't shown as from Morale, but as far as I can tell, this isn't possible to change, unfortunately.
- Got reports of Workers, Work Boats and Cargo Ships getting the Promotion pop-up containing the Morale Boost Promotion as the only option. This is obviously not intended, but I have yet to figure out what's causing this. Alas, it shouldn't impact anything, but is still annoying.

JFD's Rise to Power compatibility files can be found here. Link is also supplied on the Steam Workshop page.

EDIT: To install the compatibility files, just copy the content of the archive into ur mod folder and choose Yes to replacing files. Should be 6 files in total. Ofc the JFD's Unit Panel is required for it to work.

 

[gersteingoon]

thanks for the updates to Morale, DMS! I was wondering - did Valdemar's Denmark disappear? i can't find it in the workshop anymore.

 

[Danmacsch]

thanks for the updates to Morale, DMS! I was wondering - did Valdemar's Denmark disappear? i can't find it in the workshop anymore.

It did unfortunately, as I accidentally uploaded the Valdemar mod with the new Frederick build. But I am working on an update for Valdemar, which will include new colours and a couple of fixes. Might be done tonight or tomorrow.

 

[gersteingoon]

It did unfortunately, as I accidentally uploaded the Valdemar mod with the new Frederick build. But I am working on an update for Valdemar, which will include new colours and a couple of fixes. Might be done tonight or tomorrow.

ah, I follow. well, it's great to hear it's getting another look - new art or some compatibility touch-ups are never bad (though I did notice you already did give it a significant update relatively recently so this is EXTRA appreciated! )