About the Mood

[Bantak Kor]

There was a lot of discussion going on about the new Mood system and especially the fact that Mood is constantly drawn towards Dissatisfied was critizised.
Although I still think that Content would be more appropriate I also realised that it's apparently not that big of a deal as I and probably many others initially thought, the problem is not that we want our men to be constantly euphoric for the bonusses but the expectation that 'if I can't keep my men content they will desert me' the symbol is a yellow smilie, yellow is for 'do something or ♥♥♥♥ is gonna happen' so the constant drag towards Dissatisfied creates pressure and panic that every moment everything might be subject to collaps for no reason at all.
Now that I have had a couple of Dissatisfied people for a while, lost some more men got others crippled the initial panic is gone but the question remains... at what lvl of dissatisfaction do your men leave you and how easily is it achieved?
To know that might put the whole "fix the Mood system"-debates into a new, maybe even obsolete (although fullfillinf contracts even if they didn't involve fighting should give a little boost :P) perspective.

[Caveira]

I have only experienced desertions when my mercs reachead the angry mood and that was after 3 days without food and payment

[Muscarine]

It's a problem because a big roster capitalizing on reserve eventually after 80+ days is next to impossible to get to good mood, even if you only win, drink like addicts multiple times a day, and never suffer any deaths.

For reference dissatisfied makes your characters unable to reach confident moral, that's where it hurts.

[Lord Stuffington]

Originally posted by Muscarine:

It's a problem because a big roster capitalizing on reserve eventually after 80+ days is next to impossible to get to good mood, even if you only win, drink like addicts multiple times a day, and never suffer any deaths.

For reference dissatisfied makes your characters unable to reach confident moral, that's where it hurts.

Well I have been running around with 18 guys, hence 6 constantly in reserve, for a hundred days now and it's actually manageable. The use of taverns, food diversity event and finishing ambitions buff ( although it tends to get rarer for me) can keep everyone slightly above content without any combat. With combat, the "felt useless in reserve" debuff kicks in, so I try to swap people in the battle line who are happy with the least statisfied in the reserve every few battles, as long as the formation, enemy types etc. allow it.

Now if nothing bad happens, most of my mercs are in good spirit up to being euphoric and the rest, usually 2-6, are at least content which is fine. If something bad happens, like fleeing combat or someone dying, two or three drop to disstatisfied but it goes away after a couple of battles.It might be harder to keep that mood standard if I had full 20 mercs, though.

I must say though, it's kind of annoying to swap around the reserve so much when I normaly wouldn't need to but since everyone is getting experience now, it's at least not a waste to do that albeit being tedious micro managing.

[Muscarine]

Yea that about sums it up.

[Papa Pasda' Ⓢ]

check new update about smoother mood.

[Muscarine]

Thank you i just saw, this goes to show it's not open beta for nothing :)

[Pringles™]

Im glad to finally hear that you can get men out of the dissatisfied thing, I thought it was the ultimate mood everyone would end up to. This will still unnecessarily pressure you to play a certain way: constantly do something nice. I dont see a reason why Dissatisfaction exists, really, apart from forcing you to do nice things all the time?

I wish it was tied to events or something instead, if it must exist. The mood system works fine without it, Im sure :p

[Muscarine]

Originally posted by Puttiis:

Im glad to finally hear that you can get men out of the dissatisfied thing, I thought it was the ultimate mood everyone would end up to. This will still unnecessarily pressure you to play a certain way: constantly do something nice. I dont see a reason why Dissatisfaction exists, really, apart from forcing you to do nice things all the time?

I wish it was tied to events or something instead, if it must exist. The mood system works fine without it, Im sure :p

The idea is that mercenary life is sh*t which makes sense.

Problem is it didn't work well combined with reserve.
That's a personal opinion of course but i believe managing a big reserve already comes with its problems - expensive, need massive amounts of food for barely a few days of autonomy - so there's no need to double fine the player for it.

[Pringles™]

Originally posted by Muscarine:

Originally posted by Puttiis:

Im glad to finally hear that you can get men out of the dissatisfied thing, I thought it was the ultimate mood everyone would end up to. This will still unnecessarily pressure you to play a certain way: constantly do something nice. I dont see a reason why Dissatisfaction exists, really, apart from forcing you to do nice things all the time?

I wish it was tied to events or something instead, if it must exist. The mood system works fine without it, Im sure :p

The idea is that mercenary life is sh*t which makes sense.

Problem is it didn't work well combined with reserve.
That's a personal opinion of course but i believe managing a big reserve already comes with its problems - expensive, need massive amounts of food for barely a few days of autonomy - so there's no need to double fine the player for it.

But the dissatisfaction makes the use of confident morale pointless and removes that feature entirely, right? It's not fun gameplay-wise, because everyone likes rallying their men and charging with aggression and high moods, right?

Wait, the dissatisfaction applies to battles and world-map moods alike, doesnt it?

[StartedOffSolid]

I hate how quickly the moods of my merc deceases. I'm paying you and feeding you, shut up and do your job. How is it okay for them to get bad moods upon receiving injuries but no good moods for recovering or getting treated at a temple? I'm unsure if it's time or battle, but getting bad moods from being in reserve happens too quickly. Unless I left you there for a week or like not participating in 5 battles, there's no reason why they should be annoyed. I would understand it if they have the bloodthirsty trait and need to murder, but nope.

Also, I don't know if it's in game because I haven't gotten any famed items in this build. However, a merc wearing/wielding a famed item should increase their mood. Like seriously, that thing costed like 15,000+ crowns, that's more than what they'll make in their lifetime.

[Bantak Kor]

Personally I'm pleased now that it is dragged towards 45% instead of 40%, I know it's just 5% but it's a white shield not a yellow one, it FEELS more like "things are alright as long as you don't do ♥♥♥♥♥♥" ;)

[Pringles™]

Originally posted by Bantak Kor:

Personally I'm pleased now that it is dragged towards 45% instead of 40%, I know it's just 5% but it's a white shield not a yellow one, it FEELS more like "things are alright as long as you don't do ♥♥♥♥♥♥" ;)

Seconded. Overall Im getting an unpleasant vibe from the entire mood things. The soldiers seem too discontent with things.

I hope, at least, that if we keep doing fine and winning battle after battle, and all the mercs reach lv9 and beyond, they shouldnt be prone to deterioriating morale much anymore, since they wouldve spent several months with each other at that point, forging an undying brotherhood and friendship between then. I hope dissatisfaction becomes null to these legendary warriors at that point..