Adding a National Morale balance sheet?

[mdsmall]

Bill and Hubert,

One of the best features of the WW1 game is the critical importance of National Morale. The cumulative erosion of National Morale (NM) is what ultimately determines which side wins. However, for players it can be hard to understand exactly all the factors that go into determining their NM levels each turn. You can of course look at the graphs in Reports and see the trend-lines for National Morale for each power. The game engine does tell you immediately if your side has gained NM by destroying an enemy ship or a land unit that is below 5 supply. You also get notifications when NM event scripts fire e.g. due to the capture of key resources or the surrender of friendly or enemy powers. But the cumulative NM effects each turn from capture or loss of regular resource hexes and from combat losses are invisible to players. So, the interplay of all the factors that go into determining NM can be a mystery.

I wonder if you would consider adding the following option to the game, modelled on the MPP balance sheet that pops up at the end of each turn. A similar balance sheet could pop up listing the changes in NM level for each friendly Major. There could be a line for each category of NM effects for each Major, which could look something like this:

Germany:

Change in resources: +120
Loss of unit strength: -300
Enemy land/air units destroyed at low supply: 0
Enemy naval units destroyed: +500
Enemy NM hexes captured: +1000
Friendly NM hexes lost: -500
Blockade effects: - 220
Boost from spending MPPs: +50

Net change: +850

Given that the game engine makes all of these calculations anyway, my thought is that it might be possible to write a script that reveals these calculations to players. Similar to the MPP balance sheet, I would suggest that this NM balance sheet would only give the detailed breakdown for your side. To figure out what is driving enemy NM, you would still have to look at Reports and work it out for yourself.

I can see the argument being made that it is unrealistic for players to receive this more granular picture of what is driving their side's National Morale - after all politicians and generals in the midst of a war do not usually have a very accurate reading on the level of public support the war effort enjoys. If that is an issue for some, this could be an optional setting that players could chose to turn on or off at the start of a game - just like the Fog of War settings.

I appreciate this would probably be a big job to add to the game, but I thought it was worth suggesting for your consideration in the future.

Michael

[BillRunacre]

Definitely worth presenting the idea Michael, thank you.

[archmache]

Yup I agree - coming here from WiE I get the sense that NM play a really big factor into the game, whereas in WiE its essentially irrelevant. If we could have a "detailed NM" that would show what NM G/L at the end of each turn (and from where) that would be helpful.

[Elessar2]

All I am concerned about is the effect NM has on the combat effectiveness of my units. Add that to such a tally (or, even better, give me the ability to change the key constant in the relevant formula in the editor), and I'd have no complaints.