Newbie question on morale

[Urban Legend]

See pg 88 for the morale chart.

Units created with +4 morale facilites will be commando. But if I run SE -2 morale, they turned out to be "hardened". According to the amnual and game SE -2 morale = to -1 morale with half modifers. So this is incorrect, in the actual game it took away 2 morale?

Worse, this -2 morale cannot be nullified. If I switch to SE +2 morale, which gives a benefit of +1 morale and bonus for defense. A hardened unit created under the SE-2 morale should gain a total of +3 morale and be an elite but they only gained a +2 morale, they became commandos.

Thus my troops created under wealth are not elite when I switched over to power. It would be better to avoid wealth and go for simple or knowledge instead.

Any comments? Am I mistaken? What does the + sign after morale mean?

[Verrucosus]

I have often wondered about this myself. My theory is as follows:

The morale increase resulting from a Command and Bioenhancement Center is applied to a unit at the time of its creation. If, because of a negative SE setting at the time, this increase is halved, it will not be doubled as a result of subsequent SE changes. (A switch from Wealth to Power will not retroactively improve the training of the comfort creatures that left the barracks when "Wealth" was the dominant social value.)

By contrast, the -1 morale penalty will apply to all units, even those created before the adoption of "Wealth", for as long as there is a -2 Morale setting, but vanish when "Wealth" is abandoned.

This would explain why a switch from Wealth to Power causes unit morale to increase by only two levels: one level because the Wealth penalty has disappeared, one level because of the +1 bonus resulting from Power.

However, according to my theory new units created under Wealth in bases with both Command and Bioenhancement Centers should - in the absence of other modifiers - be "disciplined" rather than "hardened": The morale increase from training is halved from +4 to +2 and, in addition to that, the -1 penalty should reduce effective morale by one level. This is contrary to your observations, so maybe there is something I haven't thought of.

The (+)/(-) signs seem to indicate different morale modifiers. Sometimes they reflect that a unit's morale level is different from what it normally would be because of SE choices. Sometimes they refer to situational morale modifiers like Faction Headquarters, Childrens Creches or rioting home bases.

From a strategic point of view it is true that "Wealth" has a lasting effect on military efficiency, because units that were trained under "Wealth" will not become great fighters simply because your society becomes more militaristic. Given Wealth's nice effects on Industry and Economy (particularly for Morganites), avoiding it altogether is too radical a solution for my taste, but switching it off during a period of 10-15 turns of heavy military buildup is perfectly reasonable.

Regards,
Verrucosus