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« on: January 17, 2017, 01:08:01 AM »
This is an extension of a post I made in another thread about CR.
Currently, Combat Readiness encompasses both how well the ships' systems are maintained, and the ability of their crews to maintain them. Thos is currently simulated with a flat timer, which in turn degrades Combat Readiness upon expiring, eventually leading to malfunctions.
The reason I see this as an issue is this is a poor emulation of the factors that actually feed into the effectiveness of any team in carrying out their respective tasks. Of course, spending any length of time in combat is going to be stressful, but the degree to which it is stressful, and to what degree that stress affects performance, will change throughout the course of any action and is based on innumerable factors.
The proposal is to separate Crew Morale from Combat Readiness, and make Combat Readiness a dynamic factor in combat, rather than a constantly degrading variable. This would result in CR being simply an aggregate of the following factors, and more than anything else, define the performance of, and chance of malfunctions on a given ship.
Let me preface this by saying I'm well aware of how game-changing this'd be, not to mention the effort it'd take to create or that there may be technical constraints making much of this unfeasible. This is just how it'd ideally go in my eyes, and as I've said before, ideas come cheap, so why not throw it out here?
So, without further ado, I'll break it down.
Crew Morale is defined by:
Crew Veterancy*
Crew Numbers ("Many hands make light work")
Officer Veterancy
Leadership Skills
Supply/Fuel status
Equipment (Eg. (D) ships have a negative effect)
Fleet Size
Time spent travelling without docking
Recent victories/losses
Crew Morale is affected in combat by events within combat, AKA Combat Stressors:
Incoming/outgoing fire
Maneuvering
Flux overloading
Hull Damage
Crew Deaths
Enemy vs Friendly fleet composition (Incl. Ship destruction/retreat)
Enemy fleet disposition (Ie Unprovoked attacks on neutral fleets would reduce morale)
Crew Morale defines Combat Performance (AkA CR), ie:
Speed of combat repairs
Weapon Fire Rate/Reload speed
Auto-fire weapon accuracy (Leading)
Maneuverability
Malfunction Chance
Combat Performance is affected in equal measure by Morale factors, and hull damage.
Furthermore, a fleet's overall Combat Performance will determine its likelihood of retreating or attempting to disengage to begin with
*Plainly, the morale of veteran crew members will be affected less by any factor, positive or negative. A green crew member on his first mission would be much more emboldened by the destruction of an enemy ship, for example, than the dusty old bastard who's seen it a million times before. In essence, the greener the crew, the more malleable their morale.
So, let's go with an example.
Your sizeable fleet's crew has high morale, as you're collectively well supplied, experienced and equipped, and have many ships in the fleet. They feel as though they can't be easily defeated, especially off the back of destroying several pirate fleets.
You enter an engagement with a slightly weaker enemy fleet. They have less, worse ships than your fleet, so your crew's morale is unaffected - The enemy fleet's green crews however are *** themselves - inexperienced and panicking, some of their ships already suffer the odd malfunction simply jockeying for position.
During the opening engagement of the battle, your ship is hit by a torpedo. This immediately kills some crew members, but since your crew are veterans of countless battles, this doesn't phase them too much - there is additional stress on the ship's systems however, due to the mere fact that there are less members to perform tasks. Malfunction chance increases slightly (On top of the large increase caused by severe hull damage), as does the time it will take to repair those malfunctions. More than enough crew remain at high enough morale to keep the ship functioning optimally however, so engine speed, weapon and flux efficiency are unaffected.
In turn, you destroy the frigate that fired the torpedo. All your fleet's crew gains a slight morale boost, but it is very slight as again, they're all veterans who've seen it all before. Furthermore, it is only the one ship out of the 30 fielded by the enemy in this battle.
It drags on for much longer than anticipated. After your fleet suffers a few losses of its own, the enemies are emboldened, gaining them some morale, while your ship and its crew have been slugging it out for a long time, with their morale diminished as they and the ship are pushed to their limits. You opt to pull away from the line, giving the crew some time to recover, during the course of which a further pair of enemy ships are destroyed.
After a minute, you join back in and help destroy the enemy's flagship. This breaks the enemy's morale and they retreat.
Fleetwide, the effect this battle had on morale is mixed. It was a protracted engagement which ultimately resulted in victory, but not a crushing one and losses were suffered. However after some time, morale returns to roughly the state it was in beforehand, as the factors that defined it at the start are more or less the same - You still have a large, well equipped and experienced force who are in good supply.
The bottom line is this would increase the risk/reward factor of both conservative and aggressive strategies, as well as lead to a more natural development of battles. In essence, your performance in a battle will define your ability to continue performing in a battle, rather than being forced to disengage because an arbitrary timer expired.
It'd also give utility to items like domestic/luxury goods and recreational drugs. The former are amenities that your crew could do without, but would probably prefer to have. The latter could be used for a short-term morale boost at the expense of degrading it over a long time.
