Flyright

This is the kind of attitude I just don't get. Sure, it is a bit frustrating that the game is a little late, but why make a big deal of it? Who in hell is going to slit their wrists just because CMSF2 is late? Are you locked in a padded cell with nothing else to do? Have you no social life that you regularly involve yourself in? I don't mean to sound unsympathetic if that is the case and I genuinely hope that it is not. But it is edging awfully close to leaving that impression. I have to tell you that if you are depending on BFC to bring you happiness, you are leaning on a broken reed. It is what it is and can provide a nice complement to a satisfying life for certain kinds of personalities—of which I am one—but it is far from being the whole party that is life.
Michael

The Relationship between Soft Factors, Morale & Fatigue 
 
Preface
Hi all, I'm pretty new to the BFC forums but I've been milling about over at the FGM for a little over a year. I recently created the below post and it received a lot of positive feedback to the point that it has now become one of the sitcky threads over there.
I have been prompted to post the thread here and after a conversation I had in another thread on this forum, I thought that by placing it here, then non-FGM members can have a read through without me having to copy and paste snippets from the original post at the FGM.

Introduction

Whether selecting unit attributes in a quick battle or whether in game wondering if you should use your +1 Leadership squad or +2 Motivation squad to assault a farmhouse. it can be difficult to make an informed decision due to the fact that there is not a lot of information in the manual which explains how the attributes of Experience, Leadership, Motivation and Fitness (hereby collectively known as the 'Soft Factors') affect certain game concepts such as Morale, Suppression, Firepower and Fatigue.

The forums can be slightly misleading as some posts describe exactly how something works whilst others are more how people feel something is working and it can be difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff.

The information below is based on a painstaking process using the editor to separate out the impact of different factors by isolating them and testing them under different conditions. By isolating and testing these factors, the mechanics behind the concepts of Morale, Suppression, Accuracy, C2 and Fatigue start to reveal themselves and after several red herrings, dead ends and lots of repetition the information below has been teased out from the game.
2 videos accompany this post to explain some of the findings, however all of the findings can be backed up by video evidence.

The editor used was the one for Fortress Italy v2.00 Engine 4.0.

SPOILER ALERT - if you prefer the murkiness of not knowing how the Soft Factors affect gameplay then please stop reading.

Having said that the following information does not quantify the game concepts affected by the soft factors but instead generalises as what is likely to happen within a certain concept under certain conditions to units with high and low values for the soft factors.


Morale

Before being able to explain the characteristics of the 'Soft Factors', it is imperative to understand how Morale works in the game.

Morale reflects the psychological state of a unit and determines its ability to respond to orders and fight.

Morale states from highest to lowest are;
 
Ok > Cautious > Nervous > Rattled > (Shaken) > (Panic) > Broken
States shown in brackets () are temporary states.

The states Ok through to Nervous are simple gradations and a Nervous unit will not behave differently from an Ok one.

Rattled troops which become Pinned (or highly suppressed) will dash for safety, even if they are stationary when they become Pinned (or highly suppressed).

Shaken troops will cower in their current position in the hope that the pressure will ease. They will not respond to orders or fire their weapons.

Note: Shaken troops observed running for cover have been Pinned (or highly suppressed) in the Rattled state prior to becoming Shaken.

Panicked troops will try and run away from the perceived threat to save their own hides. They will not respond to orders or fire their weapons.

Shaken and Panicked states are temporary and will eventually revert back to one of the other persistent states depending on the situation and the Experience, Leadership and Motivation of the unit.

Broken troops will respond to orders but are 'Brittle' and will quickly become Shaken or Panicked if fired upon. Broken troops will remain Brittle for the remainder of the battle irrespective of their Experience, Leadership, Motivation and Fitness.

Morale is affected by 2 conditions of the battlefield and each of these conditions impact on Morale in different ways.
 
1. Combat Stress

Combat Stress has a persistent impact on Morale and is caused by casualty build up.

Casualties sustained reduce the Morale of the unit for the remainder of the game and is therefore known as a persistent effect.

Morale affected in this way cannot be regained (except under one specific condition - see Leadership). The impact of Combat Stress depends on the number of casualties sustained over time and the Experience, Leadership and Motivation of the unit.

Not only does taking casualties effect the Morale of the unit directly impacted, other units organisationally closely connected are also affected in the same way but to a lesser extent. The persistent Morale effect of casualty build up only effects other units via organisational connection regardless of geographical proximity.

Example 1 - 1st and 2nd Sqd of 1st Plt are separated by 500m. As 1st squad sustains casualties and suffers a persistent Morale impact, 2nd Sqd will also suffer a persistent Morale impact even though it is 500m away and has no LOS to 1st Sqd.

Example 2 - 1st Sqd of 1st Plt is within 10m of 3rdSqd of 2nd Plt. 3rd Sqd of 2nd Plt receives incoming fire and half of the unit is wiped out and the Sqd is instantly Shaken. 1st Sqd of 1st Plt receives no impact to their persistent Morale state due to the fact that they are in a different Platoon. 2nd Plt would have to take far more casualties before any of 1st Plt become affected.

The way that Combat Stress is distributed to other units is vertical between different platoons and companies although it is horizontal between units of the same platoon.


2. Combat Shock

Combat Shock has a temporary impact on Morale and is caused by suppression.          Suppression has a temporary impact on Morale and the affect is removed once the suppression is lifted.

         The duration the unit remains suppressed for depends on the amount of incoming Firepower, the immediate casualties sustained, Experience & Leadership of the unit.

         The temporary impact on Morale of being suppressed depends on the amount of incoming Firepower, the immediate casualties sustained and the Experience, Leadership & Motivation of the unit.


Suppression Indicator

The Suppression Indicator is not merely a measure of incoming fire, more accurately it represents the units perception as to how much danger it is in based on the incoming Firepower, the immediate casualties sustained, and the Experience, Leadership & Motivation of the unit.

Inexperienced, poorly led and unmotivated units suffer the greatest Morale impact from being suppressed whilst inexperienced and poorly led units can remain suppressed for sometime after the last shot was fired in their direction.
 
Pinned

If the Suppression Indicator becomes full the unit becomes Pinned. Stationary Pinned (or highly suppressed) troops will return fire but will not respond to movement orders until the suppression has reduced.

Troops which become Pinned (or highly suppressed) whilst moving to a waypoint will attempt to dash for cover. If no cover is nearby, they will hit the deck.

Rattled troops which become Pinned (or highly suppressed) will dash for safety, even if they are stationary when they become Pinned.

Experienced and well led troops recover from being Pinned quicker than inexperienced or poorly led troops.
  C2 - Command & Control

C2, or Command and Control, reflects the effect of having a unit being able to receive orders from and deliver information to its HQ team.

Being within a C2 link does not provide resistance to the persistent impact on Morale caused by Combat Stress.

Being within a close C2 link (Close Visual/Voice) does provide resistance to the impact on Morale caused by Combat Shock - troops within C2 range of their HQ unit are less affected by the temporary impact of suppression upon Morale as they are less stressed by being shot at and the immediate impact of seeing team/squadmates killed & wounded is reduced.

More experienced units pass on information to their buddies and superiors quicker than less experienced units. This includes verbal, visual and radio communications.

The range of visual and audio C2 is fixed for all Soft Factors, Morale and Fatigue states but will vary by terrain. In open ground;
: Voice range < 50m (unless the HQ is hiding in which case voice range drops to <25m)
: Close visual range <100m

  Experience

Experience reflects the amount of training and combat experience the unit has.

Experience levels from least experience/training to most experience are;
 
Conscript > Green > Regular > Veteran > Crack > Elite
Experience has 6 characteristics which impact on the unit;
 
1. Spotting - troops with higher experience are able to spot enemy contacts sooner than less experienced troops.

2. Firepower - higher experienced troops will engage at longer ranges and have greater accuracy than less experienced troops. They therefore tend to cause more casualties to the enemy than their less experienced counterparts during a firefight.

3. Resistance to Combat Stress - more experienced troops are less affected by the psychological impact of losing team/squadmates.

This characteristic is cumulative with Leadership and Motivation. 

4. Resistance to Combat Shock - experienced troops are less affected by the temporary impact of suppression upon Morale. They are more used to being shot at and better desensitised to the immediate impact of seeing team/squadmates killed & wounded than less experienced troops.

This characteristic is cumulative with Leadership and Motivation. 

5. Suppression Recovery - experienced troops recover quicker from being suppressed (including being Pinned), they realise when the incoming fire has shifted away from them sooner than less experienced troops do.

This characteristic is cumulative with Leadership.

6. More experienced units pass on information to their buddies and superiors quicker than less experienced units. This includes verbal, visual and radio communications.

Leadership

Leadership reflects the quality of NCO's or other team leaders in the team or squad to organise and support the troops. Leaders can be of varying quality.

Leadership is shown as a simple modifier ranging from;
 
-2 > -1 > 0 > +1 > +2 Note: A Leadership modifier only applies to the unit with the Modifier (like all other modifiers). In other words it does not filter down to sub-ordinate units (see HQ Leadership Modifier Example).

Leadership has 3 characteristics which effect unit behaviour under duress;
 
1. Resistance to Combat Stress - better led troops are less affected by the psychological impact of losing team/squadmates.

This characteristic is cumulative with Experience and Motivation.

2. Resistance to Combat Shock - well led troops are less affected by the temporary impact of suppression upon Morale. The NCO's are better at encouraging the troops under fire and getting them to remember their training when faced with the immediate impact of seeing team/squadmates killed & wounded.

This characteristic is cumulative with Experience and Motivation.

3. Suppression Recovery - well led troops recover quicker from being suppressed (including being Pinned), they realise when the incoming fire has shifted away from them sooner than poorly led troops do.

This characteristic is cumulative with Experience.  Unlike the characteristics denoted by Experience, if the Leader of a team or squad is incapacitated, the Leadership value of the unit will change to that of the next most senior member who steps up as the Leader. This value can go up as well as down, for example, a unit with a +1 Leader incapacitated and replaced by a -1 Leader will suffer a hit on Morale which may be enough to cause a persistent drop in the unit's Morale state. Similarly however, if a -2 Leader is incapacitated and replaced with a 0 Leader, the unit will receive a boost in Morale which may be enough to cause a persistent increase in the unit's Morale state.

Note: In Engine v4.0 manual page 68 it states that a Leadership bonus will help "direct fire to be more effective". However, this has not been possible to reproduce using various tests. Whereas the difference in accuracy between Crack units and Green units is repeatable and obvious, the effect of Leadership on accuracy is not apparent.

  HQ Leadership Modifier Example

Reading some posts, there is a lot of confusion over how this Modifier works with HQ units. So I will clarify it here.

The Leadership (Ldrshp) modifier for all units (from Btn Hqs through to Plt Hqs down to squads and teams) only effects the unit that the modifier is for, in the same way that a -2 Fitness modifier only effects the fitness of the unit that the modifier is for.

In fact, it helps to think of the Leadership modifier in the same was as the Fitness modifier. An unfit Plt HQ does not make all of the squads in that platoon unfit aswell.

So a squad with a -1 Ldrshp modifier is not offset by the +1 Ldrshp modifier of its Plt HQ. The squad will still suffer the penalties of having -1 Ldrshp.

So how does having a Plt HQ with a poor leader affect the performance of the Platoon?

This is best illustrated with an example;
  Lt Bike is the Plt Leader of 1st Plt. He has a Leadership modifier of -2. All 3 of the squads in 1st Plt are Regulars with average ability NCO's so no Ldrshp modifiers for the squads. For reference 1st Plt HQ is also Regular.

1st Plt are on a patrol and 1st Squad makes contact with an enemy force. After a couple of minutes, the casualties from 1st Sqd begin to mount. Not only does this have a persistent Morale affect on 1st Sqd, it also has a persistent Morale affect on the other 2 Squads and the Plt HQ because of their close organisational link.

However, because the Plt HQ has Lt Bike with his -2 Ldrshp modifier, it suffers a greater impact on Morale than 2nd or 3rd Sqd does from the build up of 1st Sqds casualties.

After another minute of combat, the persistent morale states of the Platoon are;
  Plt HQ - Rattled
1st Squad - Rattled
2nd Squad - Nervous
3rd Squad - Nervous As the combatants manoeuvre for position, the Plt HQ comes under fire. As the HQ team is already Rattled, it doesn't take much suppression to drop their Morale state temporarily into Shaken.

Now that the HQ unit is Shaken, the C2 link between the HQ and the 3 squads is cut. This makes the squads more vulnerable to the Morale effects of suppression (see C2 - Command & Control).

As 1st Squad is already under suppressive fire, its Morale state instanteously drops from Rattled to Shaken because of the loss of the C2 link (see C2 - Command & Control).

The HQ will take longer to recover from the supression than it normally would for a Regular unit because of its -2 Ldrshp modifier, meaning that as a consequence, the C2 link is broken for longer.

So we now have the following situation after 5 minutes;
  Plt HQ - Shaken
1st Squad - Shaken
2nd Squad - Nervous
3rd Squad - Nervous If we rewind the clock and give Lt Bike +2 Ldrshp modifier, then re-run under exactly the same circumstances the situation would have been after 5 minutes;
  Plt HQ - Nervous
1st Squad - Rattled
2nd Squad - Nervous
3rd Squad - Nervous This is because the Plt HQ would not have been so affected by the casualty build up of 1st Sqd so that when the HQ came under some suppressive fire, it was still in a high enough Morale state not to become Shaken by it and therefore the C2 link between the HQ and the Squads and the benefits it brings (see C2 - Command & Control) would still be intact.



Motivation

Motivation reflects the units dedication to the cause and their willingness to sacrifice themselves for their squad mates and commanders.

Motivation from best to worst ranges as;
 
Poor > Low > Normal > High > Extreme > Fanatic Motivation has 3 characteristics which effect unit behaviour under duress;
 
1. Resistance to Combat Stress - better motivated troops are less affected by the psychological impact of losing team/squadmates.

This characteristic is cumulative with Experience and Leadership.

2. Resistance to Combat Shock - highly motivated troops are less affected by the temporary impact of suppression upon Morale. They are less psychologically affected by being shot at and better desensitised to the immediate impact of seeing team/squadmates killed & wounded than their less motivated counterparts.

This characteristic is cumulative with Experience and Leadership.

3. Resistance to Panic and Breaking - highly motivated troops can be Shaken but are less likely to Panic and try to run from the fight to save themselves. They are also more likely to recover to a positive morale state after being Shaken than less motivated troops and are less likely to become Broken and Brittle.

Fanatic units will not surrender.
Fatigue

Fatigue is the physical effect of running around and using up energy.

Fatigue states best to worst are;
 
Rested > Ready > Tiring > Tired > Fatigued > Exhausted
Tired troops cannot Fast Move.

Fatigued troops cannot Fast, Assault or Hunt Move.

Exhausted troops cannot Fast, Assault, Hunt or Quick Move.

More tired troops do not move slower than less tired troops moving at the same movement command, ie Unfit troops moving at Fast Move, cover distance at the same rate as Fit troops moving at Fast Move, they just won't be able to keep up that pace for as long.

Keeping troops stationary recovers their fatigue relatively quickly. Hiding troops has no additional benefit.

Troops will recover fatigue whilst at the Move but it is at a slower rate.

Experience, Leadership and Motivation do not effect Fatigue states or recovery times.

Fatigue has no effect on Morale either from Combat Stress or Combat Shock.

Fatigue has no effect on accuracy nor the range at which targets are engaged at.


Fitness

Fitness represents a units physical resistance to Fatigue.

Fitness states from best to worst are;
 
Fit > Weakened > Unfit  
Fitness has 3 characteristics which effect unit behaviour under physical exertion;

1. Fitter troops tire less quickly from Fast Move (sprinting), Slow Move (crawling) and Quick Move (jogging).

2. Fitter troops recover from tired states sooner than less fit troops.

3. Weakened and Unfit troops recover fatigue on the Move extremely slowly.  
Closing

All of the conclusions made above have been arrived at through thorough isolation and testing procedures which can be backed up by video evidence.

There is more stuff in the CMx2 engine to dig up than what has been uncovered here but for now I'm unable to go further into this rabbit hole.

Hopefully the information presented here clears up some of the historical confusions that have been around on the various forums. It may also affect the way in which unit purchases are thought about, and hopefully it allows players to make better informed tactical decisions and enhance the way their game is played.

Josey Wales updated 24/09/17

Yes, BF, is no Flybynight :-)

Yep, I used that, as well as:
 
anon., The 8th Armoured Brigade (Hannover, Germany, 1946)
anon., 82nd Airborne Div, Field Order No.11, 13 Sept 1944
anon., The story of the Twenty-Third Hussars, 1940-1946 (Husum, Germany, 1946)
Beale, Peter, Tank Tracks, 9th Battalion Royal Tank Regiment at war 1940-45
Bellamy, Bill, Troop Leader, a tank commander's story
Blacker, Gordon A., Iron Knights, the U.S. 66th Armored Regiment in WWII
Boscawen, Robert, Armoured Guardsmen
Bouchery, Jean, The British Solder, vol 2: Organisation, armament, tanks and vehicles
British Army of the Rhine, Battlefield Tour, Operation Neptune, 43 (W) Division, Assault crossing of the River Seine, 25-28 August 1944 (June 1947)
Delaforce, Patrick, The Black Bull (p.134-168)
Delaforce, Patrick, Monty's Marauders
Delaney, Douglas E., Corps Commanders
Ellis, L.F., Victory in the West, vol I (p.465-476)
Ellis, L.F., Victory in the West, vol II (p.1-29)
Essame, H., The 43rd Wessex Division at War 1944-1945
Forty, G., The British Army Handbook
Guderian, Heinz G., From Normandy to the Ruhr with the 116th Panzer Division in World War II
Hargreaves, Richard, The Germans in Normandy
Hills, Stuart, By tank into Normandy
Hinsleym F.H., British Intelligence in the Second World War, v.3, pt.2
Holborn, Andrew, The 56th Infantry Brigade and D-Day (p.163-186)
Horrocks, Brian, Corps Commander
Jary, Sydney, 18 Platoon
Kite, Ben, Stout Hearts, the British and Canadians in Normandy 1944
Leakey, Rea and Forty, George, Leakey's Luck.
Luck, Hans von, Panzer Commander
Ludewig, Joachim, Rückzug, the German retreat from France, 1944
Meyer, Hubert, The 12th SS, the history of the Hitler Youth Panzer Division, vol 1
Meyer, Hubert, The 12th SS, the history of the Hitler Youth Panzer Division, vol 2
Middlebrook, Martin, Arnhem 1944, the Airborne Battle
Moulton, J.L., Battle for Antwerp
Nafziger, George F., The German Order of Battle; Panzers and Artillery in WWII
Peters, Mike, and Buist, Luuk, Glider Pilots at Arnhem
Picot, Geoffrey, Accidental Warrior, in the front line from Normandy till Victory
Reynolds, Michael, Sons of the Reich; II SS Panzer Corps; Normandy, Arnhem, Ardennes, Eastern Front
Reynolds, Michael, Men of Steel; I SS Panzer Corps; the Ardennes and Eastern Front, 1944-45
Roberts, G.P.B., From the Desert to the Baltic (p.200-212)
Stanton, Shelby L., World War II Order of Battle
Zetterling, Niklas, Normandy 1944
 

CM's dichotomy is that while WeGo removes your ability to unrealistically micro units when you are wearing the hat of Platoon commander or above the player is quite often wearing the hat of a Sergeant, Corporal, or even Private. In those cases wego is unsuited to the situation.

At the top of the minute a fireteam spots five tanks and a platoon of infantry crossing a ridge. 9 times out of 10 that fireteam isn't going to sign their own death warrants in reality, but in CM those four men have no conceptual understanding that they are massively outgunned. That Corporal will have to wait an entire minute before telling his fireteam to do anything reasonable like crawl away or hold fire. Instead they'll fire a few rifle rounds before being pulverized. 
An RPG team fires a rocket and then, against all logic, proceed to not move and get plastered by return fire. 

Etc...

Neither WeGo or Real-Time is always realistic or unrealistic. They just happen to have moments where they are the most realistic choice and some where they are not.

You can do this already with the existing orders. MOVE : 10 Second PAUSE w/ Anti-Armor Cover Arc: MOVE You can do this already, just place the BLAST waypoint in the action spot the engineers are already located, they will blast the wall and then stay put. Group select all units, place a cover arc. Done. Granted, a Shift-Click combination would be nice, but it's not a critical piece of the puzzle. Adjacent units share ammo already. If you need to resupply a squad, split off a scout team and run them over to an ammo source. Acquire ammo and run back. That's how it works in reality too. For machine-gun teams, use the ammo bearers to run and get extra ammo, that's why MG teams use the ammo bearers ammo first, and the native team ammo second. OR: You could stop using so much ammunition. OR: You could pass out extra ammo at the start of the game, especially for HMG's and SMG's. I don't want to be a dink about this, but by far the most common complaints I've seen on the forums have long since had answers to them.

Indeed. I still remember the consternation I felt when Steve announced Shock Force was going to be a real-time game with an optional "turn based" mode which basically paused the game automatically every 60 seconds. It didn't even have the blue bar pre-processing of it's predecessor.
However, things are not quite as bad as all that, you just need to train yourself to think in 60 second chunks. I.E. "For the next 60 second, this unit will do this:" and then plot your orders accordingly. Need a linear smoke screen? Check the wind speed and direction then fire away. Wait a minute or two for the smoke to spread out, then plot new orders.
Need to shoot and scoot? Move forward, place a cover arc, pause for ten seconds, then reverse.
Are you a scaredy-cat? Okay, just pause for five seconds instead...
Having split-second fine control of your troops is pretty darn unrealistic, despite the fact one believes they can play in a MORE realistic manner by micromanaging excessively.
Honestly, I think one reaches a greater enjoyment of the game by just rolling with the punches when they come, and using your superior "big picture" ability to win the game, rather than fretting over the exact proper placement of smokescreens, or making your tracer bullets fire in pretty patterns.

Well the rolling back of the driver worked!
Played solo, no problem and just completed a small map with my brother on the net, perfect.
Thanks to everyone for an absolutely terrific thread. Lots of ideas discussed and good feed back.
Worth noting that after I rolled back the driver the custom NVidia profile was reset. I did not update so in the end, at lest in my case, it had no impact.

My brother & I just back to CM after 7 or 8 years, was really enjoying ourselves until game started crashing. This morning installed the changes recommended on Lethaface post. Helped but no cigar. Will try the older drivers. Disappointing as it is really a great game (you all know that) but an even better way to connect with my brother. Will report back results.

If you do downgrade pick one before December 2017. What worked for me was simply turning off shaders, its  ALT-R .