Killing zombies boost morale

[Reaper]

I do not know why it was not initially, but to kill a zombie - it’s fun, right?

[Binky]

I like the sound of it if it could be tied to sort of ‘defeating insurmountable odds’ - so if you kill like 3-4 zombies once surrounded you’d get a boost. If you got a boost for every single one you killed it might become a bit much.

Also, a bit more abstractly, I’d like to see you starting off with getting slightly negative morale for killing them (as it disturbs you) but which gradually goes up. This would add an interesting early game balance aspect I guess, although it might become an annoying obstacle to have to overcome each game.

[Iosyn]

How about a ‘crusader’ trait? Bonus morale for killing abominations/zombies etc.

[Mr_Lolz]

^ AWESOME

[Binky]

Awesome idea for a trait!! Could it be integrated into a ‘crusader’ profession as well? That’d be awesome for role-playing!

[iceball3]

Trait: Sadist. Prerequisite: Heartless
Get morale boost for killing enemy in most painful way possible/most hits.
So burning an enemy to the ground or picking them apart with a pair of scissors would be more satisfying than using a rocket or headshots?
Also repeatedly tazing the same enemy could offer morale boost too lol.

[Reaper]

That is, the game assumes that if a person likes to kill zombies - that’s not normal?
I think spereal trait is not needed. Zombies are dead, and the world became silent cleaner - it should be happy anyone.

[halberdsturgeon]

A “normal” person would probably be disturbed by actually having to face and kill hordes of undead people.

That aside, if you gained morale every time you killed a zombie, morale would become even more trivial than it is now.

[Fniff]

Actually, killing zombies would be fairly horrible as an experience.

You’re basically killing humans. Your mind may be able to tell the difference, but your subconscious would be going “This is a human. I am murdering a human.”. It’s why people always hesitate in their first kill in zombie movies. You’d have to be either utterly convinced that they are monsters (Hence the crusader trait) or already be a psychopath (Sadist trait) to have a positive reaction to murdering them.

[Reaper]

morale would become even more trivial than it is now.

I think you're right, but +10 morale not affect much.

Your mind may be able to tell the difference, but your subconscious would be going "This is a human. I am murdering a human."

First time, of course, yes, but if crowd of zombies almost killed me two times, is it not convince me that they are, monsters? Traits too can include in game, just effect from them be much more.

In result:
If killing zombie
Drop morale to -15, if sombies never hurt you.
to -5, if zombies sometime light hurt. (0%-15%)
+5, ----//---- moderate. (15%-40%)
+10 —/--- heavy (40%-80%)
+15 —/--- very heavy (80%+)
+20 if zombies kill you friend
(-5 per kill/+3 per kill - don’t more/less limit)

crusader get +2 per kill
-ignore drop morale
Sadist +1 per 10 damage at the same time
-ignore drop morale,
-drop morale if long sitting idle
(Hit for 34 damage, for example, give +1, hit for 6 dmg -0)

Traits boost morale without limit.

How about it?

[halberdsturgeon]

I can’t speak for you, but I would find it horrifying actually having to kill reanimated human corpses, not fun. I imagine most people would. That’s why zombies are traditionally an element of horror stories.

[iceball3]

[quote=“Reaper, post:10, topic:1428”]Sadist +1 per 10 damage at the same time
-ignore drop morale,
-drop morale if long sitting idle
(Hit for 34 damage, for example, give +1, hit for 6 dmg -0)[/quote]I honestly think sadistic should depend on how many times you hit an enemy, rather than how much damage dealt.
Serious hardcore sadists aren’t the kind of people to deal a coup de gra on their opponent, rather they would probably draw suffering out as long as possible.
I can forsee a seriously high sadism bonus for beating a zombie to death with a plastic bag, yeah, simply for how many times you have to beat them with it. Sadists probably won’t be entertained at all if they just blasted the opponent to pieces in a single high power attack.

[vultures]

I sincerely think that the idea draws roots from the simple fact that there are factions of survivors about.
I was a cold-blooded hitman, didn’t care much about the needs of others, but now I joined the BlahBlahs and they suggest that we wash the Earth of all impurities.
To go berserk - well, that’s “hate Zombies” or “picks on Spiders” trait…

[DeadWeight]

I swear killing child zombies drops morale, I killed 8 and then my morale went to I don’t know if this was a coincidence or a fact. But it makes sense, killing small children would make anyone sad… well it SHOULD make anyone sad.

[Reaper]

iceball3
On the other hand crusader gets satisfaction from the fact that the dead attain peace. The more and the faster, the better.
halberdsturgeon

not fun

Then, feeling relieved that they will not kill you. Everyone wants to live. (Well, almost everything)

[Fniff]

Feeling happy is not the same as being relieved. You can still feel shit and be relieved.

[Reaper]

The man just could not die and that he is alive. I think it will not feel like shit…the first few times at least accurately.
On the other hand, you’re right.
Over time, you can stop to enjoy the most. And suffer from grief too…

[kevin.granade]

I’m considering adding something like this as part of a larger framework that tracks likes/dislikes/fears over time.

So you’d lose morale (or possibly gain fear, which may be distinct) for being surrounded by monsters (based on how afraid you are of them and how close they are), and gain morale/lose fear for defeating them.
Long-term, defeating monsters would decrease how afraid you are of that monster, and taking damage or debilitating effects from them would increase how afraid of them you are.

Also with this would be likes/dislikes for food/drink/entertainment, etc that would also tend to change over time.

Sadisim is a seperate issue, which yea would probably provide a morale boost per hit (only ones that cause damage of course, so the platic bag approach wouldn’t work), but it’d be quite a bit less than 1 per hit, that would end up being a rather absurd boost to morale.

[Binky]

I think fear and morale are good, but sometimes they can become a bit annoying to players, especially if they think ‘well I wouldn’t lose morale/be scared in that situation!’ or if it’s ‘game-able’ (like going out of your way to kill x amount of child zombies to make sure you don’t lose morale or eating 20 MREs so that it becomes a ‘like’)

[LazyCat]

I do not know why it was not initially, but to kill a zombie - it’s fun, right?

Nice idea. I just got it implemented in my mod, made it work like this:

• You get morale boost only if you kill two or more monsters in a row (one turn in between the kills)
• Kill bonus multiplier starts at 1 and increase by 1 for each next monster killed, maximum = x10
• If you don’t kill anything in the next two turns kill bonus multiplier resets to 1
• Maximum morale boost you can get with this is 100, considering to make it 200

So you kill a first monster and you get no any bonus, then you kill another in the next two turns and you get morale bust of monster_size x2, and the message says: “You’re glad those monsters are dead (x2).” Then if you kill a third monster in the next two turns you get morale boost of monster_size x3… and so on. When you reach x10 multiplier it stays there and you get morale boost of monster_size x10 for each next monster until you break the streak. Since in my mod turns pass and everything moves while targeting/moving aim this feature has whole another dimension of difficulty to it and makes for very entertaining challenge. I’ll upload it by tomorrow until I play-test it a bit more. Thanks for the idea!