[jimbob]

What a great thread!
Morale is such an important strategic component of real politics & war, and yet almost no strategic games include it!

If any or all of the ideas mentioned so far could be included, that would be great. I especially like the idea that destroying ships with legendary status would affect morale more... destroying key enemy ships (like the Bismark, WWII?) should definitely affect morale. This would greatly increase the importance of precision strikes and sneak attacks through cloaking, etc.

A morale rating should definitely affect the likelyhood of ship mutiny. Whether each ship gets it's own rating (taking into consideration things like shore leave and supply levels) or there is an empire-wide rating doesn't even matter, if the morale is high, why would they mutiny?

The only thing I would really add to the discussion is the concept of "civilian" morale. If a tiny planet/low population planet is captured by an enemy, there should be some degree of change in the empire-wide morale (presumably a negative effect). If a heavily populated planet is captured, there should be a much more significant morale change.

If on the otherhand a planet or system is glassed by an opponent, there should be a very significant change in morale! If 2 billion of your citizens are utterly vaporized in combat, I think that would result in a change in moral. Perhaps this type of genocide would act to increase the morale of the defenders' empire! (incensed by the atrocity?)

Just some thoughts.



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-Jimbob