Inspiration

[fbastos]

Gentlemen,

After much perspiration on the inspiration issue, I'm still stuck with this question: what is the problem about describing on the manual what Inspiration really does???

"Inspiration is the Leader’s ability to influence those under his command. The higher the value, the more effective those under him will be."

What is "influence"? increase the combat odds/improve a stat/improve the rolls??

What is "under his command"? attached to/within command radius/attached-and-within command radius?? is that for command HQ or corps HQ or task forces or unit commanders??

What is "effective"? inflicts more damage/suffers less damage/resupplies faster/recovers moral faster/searches better/aims the torpedoes better/flies better??

I can't believe that there is so much imprecision in just one phrase. It's appalling. How do they want me to have fun on doing something I don't have the slightest idea what effects its going to have, much less learning the game if the result of every action may or not have a random component based or not on an inspiration thing that I don't know what it is??

The rest of the game is excellent; the "inspiration" thing is awfully frustrating and unnecessarily aggravating.

[rogueusmc]

Under his command means...under his command.

Inspiration effects things like pushing through odds that the troops wouldn't have tried without 'Inspiration'.

Lt. Joe Schmuckatelli says, "charge that gun position!!!". The troops say, " f***you!"

Lt Dan Daly says, "charge that hill!!!" The troops say, "If you say so sir!"

[denisonh]

Maintain and recover morale better, I think is the best way to look at inspiration effects.

Not sure how that affects ships though....

[fbastos]

Hello, rogueusmc!

Not sure if I got the "under command" yet... . Say that my ground unit is attached to Southeast Asia HQ, which is 30 hexes away, and is guarding Chiang Kai-Chek's palace, which is zero hexes away. Which one's inspiration will be checked? Or none of these?

Also, what you described is what I thought "aggressive" was. If I get a destroyer with one working gun and half a torpedo, with a careful commander with inspiration of 70, and he sees the Yamato ahead, will he push on the attack?

Thanks in advance!

[rogueusmc]

Aggressiveness would be the rating where he tells them to do it in the first place, inspiration is the factor that makes them do it for him.

'Under His Command' is the troops that he is in charge of...that is effected by his decisions. If he is the HQ commander, that means the troops in his radius of influence, as far as the game is concerned. I see inspiration as more of a factor in smaller units, but McArthur could tell his troops to attack machine guns with knives and they would think about it...that's inspiration...

[fbastos]

Hello, denisonh,

That was the very first thing I thought too. Then I did this test (just re-did to be sure): I set an unit's morale to 1 via the editor, and gave that unit a leader with leadership=50. Then I tested its morale recovery with that same leader inspiration as 1 and 99; I got during 4 days:

inspiration=1 morale=1, 1, 2, 2
inspiration=99 morale=1, 1, 2, 2

Exactly the same results! It doesn't seem to me that inspiration affects morale recovery in any way. By the way, the unit is on a base with plenty of supplies.

I also tested the effects of the leader's inspiration on ship repairs, and it doesn't seem to change anything either.

Trying to figure out a way to test rogueusmc's information on the soldiers really doing what they are told by a leader with great inspiration. Not easy to devise a good test for that. Tough cookie.

I'll appreciate your further thoughts on that! Thanks.

[denisonh]

Extreme morale values such as 1 should be difficult to recover from in anycase.

I have made the observation from my years playing UV that units with lower inspiriation tended to have lower morale over time than those with leaders of higher inspiration. (No empirical data to support it)

I would tend to beleive that your test is not quite "comprehensive" enough to prove or disprove that assertion.

I would prefer to chronicle a unit(s) over a month in similiar conditions, and compare the average morale values over time.

Difficult, but a much better test IMHO.

ORIGINAL: fbastos

Hello, denisonh,

That was the very first thing I thought too. Then I did this test (just re-did to be sure): I set an unit's morale to 1 via the editor, and gave that unit a leader with leadership=50. Then I tested its morale recovery with that same leader inspiration as 1 and 99; I got during 4 days:

inspiration=1 morale=1, 1, 2, 2
inspiration=99 morale=1, 1, 2, 2

Exactly the same results! It doesn't seem to me that inspiration affects morale recovery in any way. By the way, the unit is on a base with plenty of supplies.

I also tested the effects of the leader's inspiration on ship repairs, and it doesn't seem to change anything either.

Trying to figure out a way to test rogueusmc's information on the soldiers really doing what they are told by a leader with great inspiration. Not easy to devise a good test for that. Tough cookie.

I'll appreciate your further thoughts on that! Thanks.

[fbastos]

Hmm.. that's true. Perhaps the initial morale of 1 messed the test. I tested the same unit for 2 weeks now, starting with a morale of 40. Both results seem very very similar (with the high inspiration one actually lagging behind a bit, probably by bad luck).

It seems to me that morale recovery rate seems to be the same. Perhaps the value where it will cap will be higher for the high inspiration leader? That is, even if they recover at the same rate, the one with 99 inspiration will end with say 80 morale while the lowly leader will get the troops with say 50 morale?

They definitely should detail inspiration better somewhere...

....... INSP=1 INSP=99
8/09 40 40
8/10 40 40
8/11 41 41
8/12 42 42
8/13 43 42
8/14 43 42
8/15 43 42
8/16 43 43
8/17 43 43
8/18 44 43
8/19 44 43
8/20 45 44
8/21 45 44
8/22 45 45
8/23 45 45

(duh.. my formatting was lost... the middle column is the morale for the troops with an inspiration=1 leader; the right column is the same troop with an inspiration=99 leader)

Regards!
F.

[denisonh]

Now the last test is to start at the high end and see if the high inspiriation leader maintains a morale better.....

ORIGINAL: fbastos

Hmm.. that's true. Perhaps the initial morale of 1 messed the test. I tested the same unit for 2 weeks now, starting with a morale of 40. Both results seem very very similar (with the high inspiration one actually lagging behind a bit, probably by bad luck).

It seems to me that morale recovery rate seems to be the same. Perhaps the value where it will cap will be higher for the high inspiration leader? That is, even if they recover at the same rate, the one with 99 inspiration will end with say 80 morale while the lowly leader will get the troops with say 50 morale?

They definitely should detail inspiration better somewhere...

....... INSP=1 INSP=99
8/09 40 40
8/10 40 40
8/11 41 41
8/12 42 42
8/13 43 42
8/14 43 42
8/15 43 42
8/16 43 43
8/17 43 43
8/18 44 43
8/19 44 43
8/20 45 44
8/21 45 44
8/22 45 45
8/23 45 45

(duh.. my formatting was lost... the middle column is the morale for the troops with an inspiration=1 leader; the right column is the same troop with an inspiration=99 leader)

Regards!
F.

[fbastos]

Rogueusmc,

I've been thinking about what you said, so here's some more perspiration on the inspiration issue. 3 leaders (unit, corps and command), all with land skill=50, leadership=50 and aggressiveness=99. Change the inspiration and see the results of several attacks.

It looks like you got it on the mark: the leaders with higher inspiration will change a 2:1 combat odds to up to 11:1. Perhaps there is some effect on morale hits, disruption and fatigue, but the data is too variable to conclude anything.

Other folks reading this, be advised: Inspiration seems to have **DRAMATIC** effects on combat!

I nevertheless can't explain why a high inspiration unit commander with a low inspiration corps commander regularly outperforms a high inspiration unit commander with a high inspiration corps commander. I'm thinking of posting this a bug, as it doesn't make any sense - the high inspiration corps commander should cause better performance of the unit.


Command HQ Inspiration=1
Corps HQ Inspiration=1
Unit HQ Inspiration=1
- Combat odds 2:1; 36 casualties us; 79 casualties enemy;
Morale 41, Disruption 23, Fatigue 8

Command HQ Inspiration=1
Corps HQ Inspiration=1
Unit HQ Inspiration=99
- Combat odds 9:1, 88 casualties us; 130 casualties enemy; enemy retreats
Morale 40, Disruption 44, Fatigue 19
- Combat odds 11:1, 166 casualties us; 56 casualties enemy; enemy retreats
Morale 40, Disruption 9, Fatigue 10

Command HQ Inspiration=1
Corps HQ Inspiration=99
Unit HQ Inspiration=99
Combat odds 5:1, 94 casualties us, 50 casualties enemy
- Morale 40, Disruption 9, Fatigue 14
Combat odds 6:1, 91 casualties us, 27 casualties enemy
- Morale 43, Disruption 3, Fatigue 13

Command HQ Inspiration=99
Corps HQ Inspiration=99
Unit HQ Inspiration=99
Combat odds 9:1, 64 casualties us, 299 casualties enemy; enemy retreats
- Morale 40, Disruption 24, Fatigue 23