Fatigue/Morale

[Fluffy Fishy]

Having played a fair few games over the years and having a fair amount of experience playing NA too, I feel like something that is really lacking from the game is a system that represents morale and fatigue of the crew, its long been a staple of other titles, its something I feel would really benefit naval action. There are quite a few games that do these two functions really well, with Creative assembly's Total war being probably the best known use of these type of mechanics, where fresh soldiers fight better, and low morale soldiers trying to run away. The best example I have personally come across using these types of mechanics are probably the Close Combat! series by Matrix Games, and while its not really something that is applicable in the same way to NA, it shows what you can do with a decent system to enhance the game, where low morale soldiers won't take orders and in extreme examples will do their own thing to survive the battle, whilst fatigued soldiers will act more slowly and perform worse in combat in general.

It would be really cool to see Fatigue having an effect on crew efficiency, extending the time it takes to do basic tasks like reloading guns and changing sails ect, it should also have a minor effect on reassigning crew, meaning you have to think a bit more about long drawn out fights, picking your shots more carefully not spamming and tiring out your men quickly. It would be good to see it recover but at a slow pace.

Meanwhile morale should be a bit more influential on other things like reluctance to board, it should deplete slowly with damage, and take a big hit when you get sent into shock for whatever reason, once it reaches 0 it would be good to see the ship automatically surrender itself, leaving a more realistic environment where combat rarely ended in a sinking, making battlefields not only a more interesting place where you have to manoeuvre around surrendered ships rather than them just sinking and going out of the way but also enabling up potential for fight results similar to HMS Speedy vs El Gamo.

It would be great to see Morale or Fatigue make it into the game in a more serious iteration than the current system where crew are endless batteries filled with limitless energy and morale only mattering in boarding action.

 

[Cmdr RideZ]

I like the moral idea but how would you implement it?

The game is about ganking at the moment, very few good battles in OW or none, which is sad.  For example 2vs4 battle, fatigue would make it more difficult for these 2 to win the battle.  Personally I would not introduce features that make it even easier to gank people.  Devs though seem to love ganking so maybe fatigue/moral has its place as it is improving it.

Fatigue will also make battles to last longer as it decreases damage output.  Do we want longer battles?