Voice of Reason

Sorry I've been ignoring this thread; I've been in the middle of moving. In response to Scook, the essay was based entirely on the manual and analysis of the equations; I didn't check it with actual gameplay data.

I will consider making a Cliff Notes version, but for now I think I've used up my procrastination quota!

In a sustained fit of total insanity, I analyzed the combat/supply/morale equations of SC2 and wrote up the results (with diagrams and graphs!). You may or may not find it useful, but you probably will find it amusing. It is, if nothing else, a shining symbol of my ability to waste time. It may not be the Great Pyramid of procrastination, but it's at least the Washington Monument. If you want to check it out, go here: http://s3.amazonaws.com/voiceofreason/Science-of-SC2.pdf I make no guarantees as to accuracy. Use at your own risk. Void where prohibited by law.

Thanks for the clarification and advice. I still think it's strange that if your unit's strength is far enough below its morale level, having a higher supply actually hurts you, i.e., makes your morale drop faster than if you were out of supply. Intuitively, it seems to me that being in supply should always help, but I suppose the conditions under which it hurts are relatively rare and short-lasting.

I really like SC2, but I find it difficult to extract strategy-critical details from the manual. The worst problem so far is the equation for morale (p. 35), and it is difficult to make effective plans without knowing how morale is determined. I hope someone knowledgeable (ideally, the game designer) can clarify this. Here's the problem: The equation contains 3 variables: old morale (I'll call it 'M'; range is generally 0-100), unit strength ('Str', range 1-10), and unit supply ('Sply', range 0-10). Here's the equation, as I understand it: new morale = 0.75*M + (Str-0.75*M) * (0.1*Sply) * (0.01*M). The first term is fine: in the absence of supply, morale decays exponentially, losing a quarter of its value for every turn out of supply. But the second term is impossible. The reason is that Str and M are of different orders of magnitude (Str ~ 0.1M); thus this second term will almost ALWAYS be negative and Sply > 0 would actually cause morale to drop FASTER than Sply = 0. Obviously, that does not happen. One solution would be to multiply Str by 10 (or divide M by 10). That removes the overt absurdity, but the equation remains pretty damn silly. This is because--as far as I can tell--10*Str can still be less than 0.75*M under reasonable conditions, and under those conditions, supply would still act to ACCELERATE morale loss, because (10*Str - 0.75) < 0. I can't figure this out. Please advise.