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fear [2022/02/27 04:32]
loggy Removing some info I now know to be wrong, needs more work but it's a start |
fear [2023/06/27 20:12]
loggy updated for the post-overflow fix change |
| ====== Fear ====== | ====== Fear ====== |
| {{abilities:fear.png?20&nolink}} Fear is an [[auras|aura]] with the fear value affecting the rate at which nearby squares are stuck. Friendly units are unaffected by the fear aura. Enemies hit by a fear effect will get a cumulative penalty to their morale, to a maximum penalty of -5. Being hit by a fear effect may cause the victim's squad to make a morale check next round, though at most one morale check may be triggered each round regardless of how many fear effects were suffered. | |
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| The morale debuff is halved every round, rounded towards 0. | A fear effect temporarily lowers [[morale]] by its damage value, to a maximum penalty of -5. This penalty is halved every round, rounded towards zero. Additionally, it adds to the hidden "morale problems" value of the unit and all units in the same squad. |
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| Famously not even Illwinter knows the exact mechanics of how Fear works. | Fear effects come from a variety of sources, including weapons, spells such as ??Frighten??, and the {{abilities:fear.png?20&nolink}} Fear [[auras|aura]] unit ability. The fear aura ability rapidly fires off invisible fear effects that target nearby squares, but cannot affect friendlies. Fear auras follow the same mechanics as the other [[auras]]. |
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| === Mechanics === | Regardless of the number or strength of fear effects and the morale problems values of units in the squad, any given squad may only make one morale check every turn. |
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| Fear acts identically to other [[auras]] when determining which squares are hit, and how frequently; however the lack of visual effect or logged messages makes seeing its effects significantly harder than other auras. The manual states that the value of fear affects the area of effect, but as with other auras, fear cannot reach further than one square from the origin until it reaches a value of 25 or higher. | ==== Fear effect mechanics ==== |
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| Fear comes in two forms. Both versions apply the cumulative penalty to morale, but differ in their ability to force morale checks. The weaker version is used only by the Howling Bows wielded by ??Ancestor Vessels??, and adds 1 to the "morale problems" value of an affect unit's squad, and the affected unit gains an additional +1 to its morale problems. | Fear comes in two forms. Both versions apply the cumulative penalty to morale, but differ in their ability to force morale checks. The common, potent version used by all other effects adds 1000 morale problems to all squad members, and then adds a further 1000 to the morale problems of the affected unit. The weaker version is used only by the Howling Bows wielded by ??Ancestor Vessels??, and adds 1 to the "morale problems" value of an affect unit's squad, and the affected unit gains an additional +1 to its morale problems. |
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| The common, potent version used by all other effects adds 1000 morale problems to all squad members, and then **sets** the morale problems of the affected unit to 1000. | A squad is guaranteed to take a morale check if any member has a morale problems value that is 10000 or higher. Lower values may cause checks but are subject to more requirements. |
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| A squad is guaranteed to take a morale check if any member has a morale problems value that is 10000 or higher. Lower values may cause checks but is subject to more requirements. Because the checks are done in sequence, it is impossible to force the morale problems value of a squad of nine units high enough with a single fear effect such as one cast of ??Panic??. | Notably, the morale problems addition is independent of the strength (or damage value) of a fear effect, which determines how much temporary morale penalty to add. As such, once the threshold of 10000 morale problems is reached on a squad, further fear effects will serve only to lower the squad's average morale making its check slightly more difficult. |
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| | === Aura considerations === |
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| | Despite what is claimed in the manual, the area of effect of a fear aura is hardly changed over the feasibly obtainable range of fear values. Like all other [[auras]], it requires a value of 25 or higher to hit further than a single square from the origin, and values instead alter the expected number of squares hit per turn. |
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| | However, as hitting any member of a squad 9 times with a fear effect is sufficient to cause the squad's morale problems value to reach the 10000 threshold required to unconditionally force a morale check, additional fear effects beyond this point will serve no purpose besides to lower the average morale of a squad, making additional benefit minimal on an effect which is typically fairly difficult or expensive to stack to high values. |
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| | As the number of enemy troops per square is variable, the amount of fear effects required to reach this threshold of diminishing returns is somewhat variable. Additionally, fear pulses themselves are generated at random intervals, and then they may randomly be "wasted" on friendly squares or the user's square. Because of this, the probability of reaching the 10000 morale problem threshold cannot be calculated for general cases. |
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| | FIXME There are probably ways to calculate the probability of hitting 10000 morale problems in some situations, like lines of troops, or a lone thug surrounded on all sides by enemies, which may be interesting and add some useful insight to this article |
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| {{tag>unit-abilities}} | {{tag>unit-abilities}} |
