Morale system

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(This is an idea that I'm not sure would actually add anything, but I guess it 
would be fairly easy to implement and it's fun to think about anyway)

A system where each soldier has a Morale value (1.0 by default) which is NOT 
primarily dependent on his/her own ability, but on the squad as a whole. The 
morale number then acts as a multiplier to all/some of the soldier's stats.

Most obviously, the presence of any non-wounded officers in the squad would 
influence everyone else's Morale positively. This would reflect the officers 
experience and tactical ability. The higher the rank, the bigger the boost.

Morale might also be boosted by killing aliens. I don't know if there should be 
any negative Morale effects, maybe the game is hard enough as it is. Possibly a 
soldier getting shot could give a negative effect, until the alien that killed 
him/her was taken out? Also, Morale might be lowered slightly by each alien 
that is spotted, although the minus it should be smaller than the bonus for 
eliminating one.

Other ideas, that may be too complex, could include calculating each soldier's 
morale from the distance to other members/officers/aliens (or line of sight?), 
number of kills, wounds, etc. There could be a minimum morale, which, if 
passed, causes the soldier to drop everything and run away (back to the drop 
shop, presumably).

Having soldiers that are more valuable aside from their fighting ability would 
make it more important to keep your best soldiers safe, which would hopefully 
add some interesting dynamics. Of course, the effect shouldn't be huge, so it 
could be ignored if the player doesn't want to bother.

The intention of this mechanic would be to give a slight extra dimension to the 
game without changing it very much. It would probably be most meaningful in 
combination with the ability to move troops between bases, so that you could 
boost e.g. the squad of a new base by sending one or two highly ranked officers.

Original issue reported on code.google.com by [email protected] on 20 Nov 2011 at 3:43