Warrior General Games

How will this affect the thick skin VA, and will it make it more important ?

Has anyone said that if a score hasn't been made against the D-line by the O-line in so many minutes (eg 10 minutes) that it's not necessarily a bonus for the o-line for driving down field, or either for the d-line for stopping them? How is this distinguished from a good old cancelling out of each other by each team? Granted scrapping in another first down on the 3rd and 3 can be seen as a slight o-line bonus, but can it be reflected in the d-line for restricting the long plays?

My other thought was whether the ST's will be killing hte game with their morale spiral TD-athons?

How will this affect all the morale SA? Aura of Intimidation was a pretty good SA in the pre-season. Now, with the sim reverting back to old morale, it has been pretty lackluster.

Originally posted by Staz

You're assuming that morale will be the same "mechanic" as it is now. There shouldn't be morale spirals, imo. Players should get worn down, mentally, sure, but I don't like the spiral concept.


the morale spiral is a factor the the negative feedback loop. The only way to stop it is to use a non-linear morale drop, so you can drop fast from 100 to 70 the slowly to 60 and almost never make it below 50. There was some talk about this kind of mechanism in the post.

Originally posted by Staz

In a close game, a big play can pump everybody up. Can get the blood flowing of the team that made the play, and gets the fans back in the game. A big play when there is obviously no chance of winning is sort of a "Oh, cool." moment. Perhaps the momentum gain could be greater for the team that MADE the play than the momentum loss is for the team that gave up the play. That way, there isn't such a dramatic swing. Perhaps morale loss for "giving up" the play = 40% of morale gained for making the play.

That sound smart to me, if momentum is similar to the current morale. So having high morale is no advantage, but having low morale is a problem.

I think the key would be to make morale/momentum easy to gain with a few good plays, especially with higher confidence. I like the non-linear morale drop, too. The higher your confidence, the quicker your morale losses "level off", and the harder it is to lose momentum.

As for high morale having no benefit, I'd rather see momentum start at 0, and either go up or down from that with it slightly affecting your rolls. That would allow for individual as well as team momentum to come into play, but the effects would have to be "small enough" to be overcome to prevent the spiral situation.

solid

Have a compounding scenario, like in "The Drive" link I showed. One completion, no biggy, like a 1 gain in moral. But, then 2 completions, is a 1+2, moral boost. Then on 3rd and 1, the RB gets the first down, now you got a 1+2, and a +3. But then on 1st and 10, there is a sack, So, it resets and the team loses 5. So, at that point, you got 1, a 3, a 6, and a -5. So, your at a +5 moral gain.

And, then it starts all over on the next play, unless a negative happens again. Then maybe tack an extra point or two onto the loss of moral, for the O. An incompletion shouldn't register a loss or gain.

But, your gonna have to have a bracketology for these moral scores. Close games, should net higher gains/loses. One play is all it takes to make or break at times. Blow outs, maybe not even score em.... who cares.

Playoff race games, should net even more. Home field advantage games should net even more.

I'd love to see an option to specifically target a weak link on a team, for the QB's.

"if this dude is on the field, target his WR" type of thing. Ya, ya, ya, it's an exploit.... but it happens in the game of football also....

"no, I wont throw to Randy Moss to in the game for me, especially if he is covered by Donte Whitner"....... ya, that never happens.... LOL

Let me say first that if anyone understood why morale worked in the first place the Yankees would win every World Series and the Raiders would win every Super Bowl. That clearly doesn't happen. Making it simple, for me, allows the brainniacs in this audience just another thing to lord over us that aren't so smart.

Morale now is....ummm...not what I ever expect it to be. Take three QBs for instance, Joe Montana, Payton and Fran Tarkenton. Different QBs in different eras that all are or will be HOFs. They throw a pick they know is their fault, they go back to the bench pick up some resource and figure out how not to throw it again. Pick three other QBs Donovan McNabb, Phillip Rivers and Jay Cutler. Good QBs in their own right but the skill set changes...but also these guys are more emotionally plugged into the game. Their head rocks with the ebb and flow where the upper group tended to be more business-like.

Reading Kirghiz remarks that tuba clipped: ( I like the list but here are my thoughts )
Game Events:
Touchdowns: 10 intensity team wide, and 10 intensity for the player that scored it or directly gave it up. (Big event late as the game progresses but early on everyone is just trying to sit on the other team's head)

Fum Loss: 6 Team Wide, 8 individual that lost it, 10 player that forced it and recovered it. (Big event for the ball carrier and guys sometimes guys just let the ball fall out. It doesn't always have to be forced out. I do believe that 10 for the guy recovering, that depends. Higher confidence guys think it's their job so they wouldn't hoot and holler about it. But again late in the game this can kill morale.)

INT: 6 Team Wide, 10 Player that made the INT, 9 QB that threw it, 5 receiver it was intended.. (Big event for the QB if he threw a bad pass. And if you think a WR is going to be impacted by the QB who threw it, that's a bad assumption. Most WRs are so conceited that they believe the QB deserved to throw a bad pass/pick. But again late in the game this can kill morale.)

4th Down Conversion: 8 team wide, 5 individual who converted [y](HUGE event for a low morale team, but this is a team thing and most guys get that, the individual, I think it depends, if he's carried the ball once in 5 games, it'll be big, if it's a huge bruiser he just expects it.)
4th Down Stop: 10 team wide, 10 for player that made the stop (depends on the placement, at the goal and late in the game, which this game NEVER does (just sayin), then it could swap player morale from one team to another)

3rd Down Conversion: 6 team wide, 4 individual who converted, (2 for QB if a pass) to me no effect unless the team is down by 14
3rd Down Stop: 8 team wide, 4 individual that made the stop to me no effect unless the team is down by 14

4th Quarter any conversion of a 1st Down: 5 Team Wide umm...depends if the ball is in FG range, I think

Any First Down Conversion no Q4: 3 Team wide

Field Goal: 3 team wide, 10 for K

Missed FG: 3 Team Wide, 10 for K

Missed tying or go ahead FG: 10 team wide, 10 for K

Safety: 5 Team Wide reallly depends on the score, morale pick up from a safety usually is huge for the guy making the safety and the D Coaches...anyone else it depends on the score

20+ yard gains: 4 team wide

Any Gain of 5 or more yards: 2 team wide

Punt Inside 20: 3 Team Wide, 8 for P

Punt Inside 10: 5 Team Wide, 10 for P Bort allows this all the time now even in the level 4 leagues...which is absurd, so the Punter would have like 120 morale all the time

20+ Yard Punt Return: 4 Team Wide, 6 Returner

30+ Yard Kick Return: 4 Team Wide, 6 Returner The game has to put the hammer down on 'good' returners before this happens. Way too many 30 returns happen today.

My point is this morale take and gives a bigger portion in MOST games as though the game has a fixed value, teams take it away from one another but not all formulas apply. It is not linear it's geometric because if a team that is down by 7, on defense and the other team goes for it on 4th down inside the other team's 5! If the down by 7 team gets a stop, that's a HUGE momentum change and we all know it but the game has never reflected it.

For team morale it is a fixed value that swings like a pendulum and it moves very slowly from team to team based on events, but moves more quickly as the game moves on and is closely tied to game time remaining and score. For a player morale is more like a going up and down stairs, but it's closely tied to player confidence and event, but has a bigger impact when the guy hits the locker room. So if the event happened in the first half, it could follow him into the locker room.

Fixed value numbering for event isn't a total solution.

Originally posted by REDAZZ
Adding a Morale substitution setting similar to that of the energy settings might be helpful. Providing that morale can increase during a game like a player's energy level.

Contracts should have a position/playing time rider that effects the morale of the player. Whether its a percentage of plays promised or starting spot, compared t o a back up or special teams spot. Failure to meet that criteria would lessen the morale of the player. The % of plays played could be a game by game criteria.

+1 this would be great but I imagine very difficult to code into the game

Originally posted by jdros13
I'm glad this is being discussed. My only comment on morale/energy that I'm not seeing mentioned (might have missed it) is that special teams needs to be far less debilitating than it currently is. You are basically sacrificing a dot if you use them on ST's in most cases right now, both in terms of the morale hit and the energy drain.

just re-stating this....I really think it would be positive for the game from both a coordinator and agent standpoint if ST's dots had their energy usage and morale hit cut substantially.

i see here (http://test.goallineblitz.com/game/game_list.pl) catch has been testing morale and possible morale changes

any updates to what is going on here with discussion on this on the test servers?

thanks

Originally posted by eaglesfan20
i see here (http://test.goallineblitz.com/game/game_list.pl) catch has been testing morale and possible morale changes

any updates to what is going on here with discussion on this on the test servers?

thanks

The summarized discussion ended. It is being reviewed by the Admins now, I think.

Originally posted by tuba_samurai
The summarized discussion ended. It is being reviewed by the Admins now, I think.

What are the chances that it will be ready this season? Just want to know if I should hold off on renegotiating my guys or not.

Haven't heard anything yet. As soon as i do, I will post.

TL;DR:

Confidence is the ability of a player to play well despite low morale. Morale goes up and down at a fixed rate based on events (other people have made great sugeestions for these events and the possible impacts). Player rolls for morale modifier at the start of each play based on confidence. Confidence rolls are harder to make based on the situation. Great confidence rolls allow for one play bonus above current morale.

Basis of my suggestion:

Confidence = the ability of a player to play with low morale with minimal effect on his performance instead of the ability to gain/lose morale.

Assuming:

That 'Morale Events' give a flat bonus and penalty to the affected player.

Examples:

Player with 125 morale gets a morale modifier of 1.25 (to whatever morale modifies... I'm not saying this should equal a 25% increase in stats or abilities fwiw).

Player with 100 morale gets a morale modifier of 1.00 (no modifier).

Player with 50 morale gets a minimum of a 0.5 morale modifier. (Confidence roll allows him to play anywhere from a 0.5 to a 1.0 for that play or perhaps higher in a specific instance).

So let us say that the player's morale roll is done prior to the snap. Dots who have morale going into this play + their confidence = morale modifier roll below 0.3 get a blue sad face. Dots who have a morale mod roll of 0.5 or lower get a yellow sad face. Dots with a morale mod roll of 1.0 or higher get a happy face.

Some instances will give an immediate drop or increase to morale. These need to be major things like a pancake, a fumble, a missed tackle, or a pick. These will affect the dots immediatly and confidence will not be able to bring the morale modifier back up until the next play. Touchdowns, sacks, etc end the play so would obviously not do a mid play modification.

I like a lot of the discussion going on in here about how confidence is used as a save roll to morale loss, but I think it starts to get way too complicated. Morale should go up while on the bench or while in the dressing room between halves. Once coaches are implemented, they will be able to raise player morale further while players are on the bench or dressing room at some fixed rate (topping up at 100).

Making big plays on the field should be the only thing that gets your morale above 100 and I would say that 125 or 150 might be a good number to pick.

Situationally:

In situations that matter the most (close games: last two minutes of the half, last ten minutes of the 4th quarter, all of overtime, 3rd and long, playoff games), the confidence roll should be more difficult to make; however, a player with a very high confidence roll in these situations may get a chance for a 'hero' play to happen. When this happens, the player may not be rolling simply to negate the morale penalty, but will also be able to able to get a one play bonus to the morale modifier roll.

Example:

It is 4:30 left in the 4th quarter. Team with posession of the ball has a 3 point lead. High confidence QB rolls a confidence roll above the 'hero' threshold. QB shows a happy face before the play and his abilities are increased for this one play only. This does NOT increase his morale for the next play, only the outcome of the play will determine morale for the next play.

In order to get confidence really high, he is sacrificing his other abilities (throwing, strength, vision, etc.), so the odd chance of obtaining a hero roll in a tough situation (and showing it via graphic) is a just reward.

Possible VAs that might associate:

Confidence reroll chance (situational).
Hero roll modifier or reroll chance.
Morale restoration bonus from sitting on the bench.

Again, the confidence roll requirements should be based on player age or level because obviously a Pee Wee player isn't going to have nearly as much confidence as plateau player.