Could morale be implemented this way I wonder? (a) Implement the head-shot system as the only way units can be killed. (b) Treat the life bar as a morale bar. (c) Have the new "morale bar" start at 100 for all units. (d) Reduce the "morale bar" by 1 point only for each standard weapon hit. Don't permit the "morale bar" to reach zero. Set a floor at 1. (e) At a given point, say 50 morale, the unit's minimum fighting distance is increased to a value larger than its maximum range, in fact probably about 1,000 for all units. I know that doing (e) in the unit parameters makes units run away, stand off from battles and refuse to attack. But you can march them back to base for example (or anywhere there are not enemies). The new "morale bar" would probably mean drummers, officers and flag officers would have to possess "heal"; that is they could restore morale slowly. Even units themselves could have a very slow "heal", that is to say morale recovery. I don't know how to alter the minimum range parameter dynamically in battle or if this can even be done. That's what it would hinge on. I will have a look and see what I can find.
I'm working on a mod atm but I could help you when I am finished, just finding time is the hard part for me.
Morale replacing the health bar? I haven't thought of that but it's a pretty uh, strange and interesting idea to say the least. I always thought it would be a 3rd bar (under the health and reload, or in between them). But have you actually thought about how implementing only head shots being able to kill units would work with explosive weapons like cannons and howitzers and also melee, or are they just given a possible headshot percentage? I'm asking since I don't know if it's possible to assign a headshot percentage to another weapon apart from shot such.
It's easy enough to assign head-shots to any weapon you want and to exclude buildings from being head-shotted (which was in the code anyway). First you assign like this; var bCanHeadShot : Boolean = ((weapkind=gc_obj_weapon_kind_arrow) or (weapkind=gc_obj_weapon_kind_bullet) or (weapkind=gc_obj_weapon_kind_pike)) and (not TObjProp(pobjprop2).bbuilding); Then you can experiment with different headshot rates for different weapons in an attempt to balance unit clashes. var headshotchance : Float; headshotchance := 0.3; // This is just a test default for shot and arrows because I slow firing rates down if (weapkind=gc_obj_weapon_kind_pike) then headshotchance := 0.02; var bHeadShot : Boolean = bCanHeadShot and (random<headshotchance) and (not bFastHorseBullet); I think artillery is fine with this as it just delivers a lot of damage anyway, but not tested that yet. Mind you, this idea would work in a strange way with unit upgrades. Attack and defence upgrades would then become morale upgrades in essence or you could just drop upgrades altogether. If you kept them, they would need renaming to "Increase Attacking Morale" and "Increase Defensive Morale"... something like that. But I have not yet figured out how to increase the minimum attacking range dynamically for a unit or a formation during battle. I admit my suggestion is odd. I was looking for a simple way to do morale. Maybe this idea is too simple and therefore unworkable. It is actually very hard to balance formation clashes for kills with only the head-shot parameter to play with. Tests show that clashes with head-shot balancing only are vary random and variable. And with upgrades dropped, you could no longer depend on upgrades to win clashes though upgraded morale (if could be made to work) would help. Throwing equal formations (in quantity and quality) against each other becomes a total lottery with headshots only. Results can be very variable. But I imagine throwing equal forces blindly at each other was always a big gamble historically. This would force the careful player to avoid battle until he could maneuver to get local superiority of numbers. Other tactics might be enhanced, like using artillery and skirmishing to reduce enemy numbers locally before committing major formations.
