What defines morale after township completion?

Suggestions
1

This suggestion is about what scores (which I will call morale modifiers) define the morale score when you have reached the township status.
First I’m going to talk about the system I propose, and then about why I think it makes sense to have it.

Before township status:

  • How “Morale” is defined currently, by
  • “Food”
  • “Shelter”
  • “Safety”
  • All have the same impact on the “morale” score (I believe “morale” is the mean of the three modifier scores)

After township status:

  • High impact modifiers

  • “Food” when really low

  • “Shelter” when really low

  • Normal impact modifiers:

  • “Privacy”: Improved by hearthlings having their own home and bed to retreat to.

  • “Security”: -> “Safety”: already in the game. (maybe having a city wall can improve this as well, just a thought)

  • “Cohesion”: improved by hearthlings having more time to socialize, and by celebrating festivals.

  • low impact modifiers:

  • “Food” when not very low

  • “Shelter” when not very low

Justification:
It makes sense to worry about food and shelter if you are in the survival mode, it is very real that you won’t have it, and thus it will greatly affect your morale. However as soon as you have a township status, food and shelter generally are quite abundant, and hearthlings (if they are a bit like humans) will focus on other needs, such as privacy, security and (social) cohesion.

What do you think about this idea?

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2

I like the idea of a harmonious town contributing to the overall morale/happiness score.

Tying into that idea about time to converse and socialise, I’d like to see the hearthlings have some idea about being over-worked once they get to a township status. Like with food shortages, long working days and hard labour are things you expect in a frontier settlement. However, as the camp stabilises and evolves into a town, there should be a lot less requirement to frantically run between tasks and work every waking hour.

So, I think it would be good to have “work hours” where the hearthlings will work diligently and with high spirits; but if the work carries on past those hours (for the sake of simplicity and keeping it intuitive, I’d say that dusk is a good time for the threshold) then the workers are a little less diligent (i.e. less likely to pick up a new task), less creative, and there’s a counter which will cause a negative reaction (i.e. a complaint and the associated morale penalty) if it ticks up too high. That way, one or two jobs after dusk aren’t a big deal; but having to work late into the night is both less productive and annoying or frustrating for the workers.

This could all fit under the “tranquility” category in the current morale system; since it only kicks in during tier 2 it’s basically a sign of a productive and well-organised down (as opposed to a chaotic one where workers are up all night trying to catch up on their jobs.)

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I am not aware of the tranquility part in morale. Sounds intresting, would you like to explain.

4

At the moment, it’s basically: “did I get attacked today? No? Great, that makes me happier!”

The messages in the town journal speak about productivity and having time to think/reflect/relax, and they’re all grouped under “on Tranquility”, but there’s no place in the “big three” happiness model (food, shelter, safety) for productivity so I’m guessing that it all comes down to whether the hearthling was attacked or ran from an enemy. In other words, “tranquility” just operates as the opposite of “peril” here.

I’d love to see that expanded upon though, so that encouraging harmony and productivity will increase the tranquility level. It’s much the same as how improving privacy and comfort improves the overall shelter level – currently Shelter is just “do I have a bed? Great, that makes me happier. Is it a nice comfy bed, or a mean bed? If it’s a comfy bed, that makes me even happier again!” I’d love to see that take into account more advanced question, like “is my bed inside a room or out in the air?”, “did I eat sitting on the ground or was there a chair and/or table to sit at?”, and so on.

In the same way, in a second-level town the questions for Tranquility could become “did I have a conversation today?”, “did I get any work from my job done today?”, “did I get a chance to relax today?”, even “did I notice the natural beauty like wild animals or big trees today?” – so there are benefits to having them work a little every day but not too much, giving them time to socialise, and not completely destroying the natural environment.

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5

So instead of adding new morale modifiers, you suggest making them more complex as you get to township, by adding more questions?

So shelter could get an extra question at tier two : “Do I own a bed?, if yes, that makes me happier”

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Pretty much. Rather than just introducing a bunch of new considerations for higher tiers, the more basic considerations can get more demanding. At tier one, just having a bed will make them happy; but at tier 3 they need a comfy bed and a modicum of privacy to be happy. Of course, that’s on a per-hearthling basis, so having a few hearthlings in a cheap inn or a boarding-house won’t destroy your morale… but getting the basics covered for everyone means that you’ll keep up the significant boosts you get in the early-game to combat the, well, combat (and the starvation) which tend to drain your morale pretty heavily.

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