Morale: How To
From OPU Wiki
In Single Player: Morale is always active In multiplayer: Morale is active by default, but can be disabled by checkmarking the "Morale Steady" box. This will keep your morale at 75 permanently.
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Benefits of Morale
The biggest benefit of morale is that all units and buildings build faster with a higher morale. Reserch also goes at a faster rate. However, the exact opposite can be said with low morale. Excellent morale can only be acheived with morale unsteady, unless it is scripted to be excellent, and it never is. Research also suffers and is slow. In addition to this, people die off at a slower rate at higher morale, and they also reproduce faster. Again, the opposite is said at lower levels. The minimum for colony growth is to have over around 250 colonists, or at least Fair morale for continued growth. After you are over 250 colonists, roughly, the colony will still grow even at Terrible. Unfortunately, research and construction suffer greatly from this.
Penalties of Morale
You will always have fewer colonists with active morale. This can make startups very slow, and it will result in slower research because fewer people are available to be trained into scientists. Improper management of your people will result in your death, so you have to be careful.
Note: A very detailed and extensive analysis of the actual formulas used to calculate morale effects can be found in the following thread on the Outpost Universe Forums: http://forum.outpost-universe.net/index.php?showtopic=2170. Some passing familiarity with computer programming is recommended.
How to please your pesky Colonists
There are many factors that affect morale.
1. Housing demand
2. Medical Center demand
3. Recreation Facility/Forum demand
4. Active GORF
5. Consumer Goods Factory
6. High idle colonist percentage
7. Disabled Building Ratio (idled structures are not counted)
8. Colonist Death
9. Colonist Training completed (scientists, workers) child birth
10. Too many scientists
11. Scientists as Workers
12. Reserch
13. Disasters (I'll go in more detail on this later)
14. Battle Losses
15. Battle Victories
16. Destroying "Good" structures
17. Destroying "Bad" structures
18. Building Construction/Destruction
19. Food
1. Housing Demand:
Housing is the very base to keep your people happy. It is very difficult to keep morale up without any houses. Keep demand under 100% at all times or morale is adversely affected. (overcrowding)
2. Medical Center Demand:
Medical centers are very useful for keeping morale up. Without medical centers, keeping morale steady at excellent is a little more difficult. Medical centers also come with the added bonus of slowing colonist death rate and increasing birthrate, thus benefiting your morale even more. Keep demand under 100% at all times or morale is adversely affected.
3. Recreation Center/Forum Demand:
While not necessary, they can help keep morale steady at a specific level. Forums have a higher capacity then recreation centers. (Plymouth Only) Keep demand under 100% at all times, or morale is adversely affected. Does not affect morale until you reserch it.
4. Active GORF:
Reserching Metals Reclamnation makes the GORF available. You then must build a GORF. Failure to do so results in a minor penalty to morale. It needs to be active in order to negate this penalty. Does not affect morale until you research it.
5. Consumer Goods Factory:
Big bonus to Eden, this lets you buy morale. Each item that is built in the factory raises morale by a certain amount. Luxury goods are the most expensive and are slow to build, but also provide the biggest benefit, while Impulse Wares provide a small boost, but build quickly. This building does not directly affect morale just by its existence, only by what is built there.
6. High Idle Colonist Percentage:
Having too many colonists that are not employed in research or operation of your structures adversely affects your morale. The more idle colonists you have, the worse it affects morale. Try not to go higher then about 6%.
7. Disabled Buildings Ratio:
Ratio of your disabled buildings to total buildings. Disabled buildings will negatively affect morale. Idle them immediately to lessen morale impact. Idle buildings are not counted, and thus your morale will not drop.
8. Colonist Death:
Each colonist death negatively affects morale. Colonists that die from whatever reason, including the destruction of a building can greatly hurt morale. Natural death is unavoidable. Do not worry, the situation will fix itself surprisingly quickly. To prevent deaths from building destruction, try idling buildings that are in the immediate path of any Vortexs, landing location of meteors, or are within a good half screen distance of an earthquake (Be sure to allow a few seconds for the colonists to leave the building, if you idle it at the last minute you may still lose them). If a volcanic eruption occurs, idle EVERY building on the black terrain, chances are thats going to be submerged in lava. NOTE: Command Centers cannot be idled unless you have a second one active somewhere on the map. It is a good idea to idle buildings once their healthbar reaches red, both to prevent them from becoming part of the Disabled Buildings ratio, and to prevent colonists from dying if the structure is destroyed. In most cases you will not lose anything by idling a building with a red health bar, since it will be disabled anyway. The one exception is Smelters, which can still store ore when disabled, but lose the ore when they are idled.
9. Colonist Training: (scientists, workers)
Whenever a new worker is available, or scientist training is completed, morale goes up. However, so does your total unemployed colonists! Quickly employ these people in whatever tasks are necessary to avoid any morale penalty. Child birth can also improve morale. For this to occur you must have a Nursery and University active.
10. Too many scientists:
Your workers are always the greatest number of your total colonists! However, they don't want to be reminded of their lesser intelligence! Thus, too many scientists lower morale. Be careful how many scientists you train, I rarely have more then 15% of my colony as scientists (50% children, 35% workers) This may not go for every game however. Note also that scientists only contribute to the birthrate half as much as workers, so the more you have, the slower your population will grow.
11. Scientists As Workers:
Scientists hate being given the work of the lowly worker, so they whine and complain about it until you resolve the problem or another worker is ready. The percentage of Scientists serving as workers has a negative effect on morale.
12. Research:
Completing a research topic will give you a morale boost! You can use short research topics strategically by saving them for when your morale is low. Just be sure it is not a topic like "Leisure Studies" that gives you a whole new morale requirement to fulfill!
13. Disasters:
Disasters have major effects on your colony. If a disaster occurs anywhere on the map (whether it hits you or not) and your colonists had no warning of it, morale will drop. Thus, disaster warning technologies are a good idea to have. The advanced warning they give also gives you a chance to idle structures in the path of these disasters, thus saving lives, and preventing a disabled building ratio from appearing if the buildings are left in the red.
14. Battle Losses:
Units you lose in battle negatively affect your morale. Optimally, you want to keep unit losses at a minimum. All units are included here, combat or not, so be careful with them! Buildings that are destroyed as a result of enemy or disaster activity will negatively affect morale as well.
15. Battle Victories:
Every enemy vehicle you destroy improves morale. Therefore from the morale standpoint, it is better to win a battle through superior weapons technology than through superior numbers, since it will result in fewer losses to your side.
16. Destroying "Good" Structures:
Your citizens will react negatively if you destroy certain enemy structures. Things like the Agridome, the Residence, and the Medical Center are examples of good buildings. A good rule of thumb is that your combat units will not automatically fire on these "Good" buildings when they get close, as they would with other buildings.
17. Destroying "Bad" Structures:
Destroying some enemy structures will increase your morale. Guard posts are one example. Beware of structures that explode when destroyed, or the morale benefit from destroying them may be offset by the negative effects of losing units in the explosion.
18. Building Constructions/Destruction:
Building buildings will raise your morale. This is very useful to know. For example, building a Command Center grants you a small morale boost. Not all structures do this. Destruction of buildings lowers morale, so be careful! Idling structures will slightly lessen the amount of damage they take from disasters or enemy fire. Deconstructing buildings with the ConVec has no effect on morale.
19. Food:
This is fairly simple. Surplus food raises morale, while diminishing food storage lowers it. No food effectively kills morale, as well as killing off your colony. Watch those food levels!
Morale Facts
Plymouth has a morale bonus of +10% over Eden. Plymouth gets the Forum which has a higher capacity then that of the Recreational facility, but takes 2 workers. Eden gets the Consumer Goods Factory, allowing them to easily increase their morale. However, it is expensive to run, eating away at your common storage and takes 2 workers.
Final Notes
Important colony information can be found in the Resources Menu, in the morale information screen and the colonist counts. Hotkeys are: Alt+C, Alt+M Alt+F, and for the general overview, R. C= Colonist Report, M= Morale Report, F= Food report. These 3 reports are invaluable for telling you everything about your colony.
