Dev diary diving deep into the morale mechanics in Kaiserpunk
September 19, 2024
[This unedited press release is made available courtesy of Game Developer and its partnership with notable game PR-related resource Games Press]
Overseer Games :
Such wonderful topics, don't you think? Let's dive into the depths of Kaiserpunk, far away from the hardships IRL and see how these work in the game.
Morale
All your citizens have Morale. It's a general overview of how they feel about you, your reign and your capital. There are some simple rules to remember:
If Morale is low, so is your tax flow.
If Morale is high, you're good to fly.
Wow. So proud of this -_-... Anyway, the above, as silly as it is, is actually true. Good Morale means everything (or most things that are of concern to your people) is working smoothly. Low Morale clearly means you're in trouble, or about to be. Repercussions of low Morale don't happen immediately. It takes a bit of time for it to take effect. This is primarily so you, as the reigning governor, have time to address the problematic issues.
An important aspect directly impacted by morale is Immigration. Immigration is the primary way for you to gain more citizens and you’ll need them for your might machine to remain functional and grow. If a certain citizen class in your capital is miserable, don’t expect more of them to decide to join you.
Several different parts or mechanics feed into Morale, so Morale is basically an aggregate result, an average let's say, with several wildcards slapped on top just to make things more interesting.
Needs
Your citizens have basic needs, meaning food. It's up to you to supply this, either by organizing the production of said goods (which is of course preferable), or by purchasing the resources from free traders or via trade deals. If the supply is sufficient, your citizens will be happy. Keep in mind that you don't need to deal with the distribution. Your people will handle this on their own. You just make sure you have enough in stock. What needs those are precisely depends on the citizen class. Each higher class has all the basic needs of the class preceding it and then two more added like a cherry on top.
Laborers
Vegetables – The most basic food there is, besides picking berries in the woods. Vegetables are easily produced (grown) on Farms.
Bread – While not the most nutritious, and with dubious health effects, it does fill the stomach. Getting Bread will take a bit more work. Plant Wheat on Grain fields, refine it into Flour in Flour mills and then bake the final goodie in the Bakeries.
Manufacturers
Fish – Lakes and seas are your sources of Fish, as expected. Organizing the production isn't complicated, but you do have to (surprisingly :P) build Fisheries on the coast.
Meat – Ranches are your go-to place to produce fresh, tasty meat.
Water – Unlike Laborers who get by, Manufacturers expect to have running water in their homes. Fresh drinkable water is pumped from Water deposits by building Water pumps (surprise!) and then distributed via Water towers. So we're adding a bit of complexity here. Not too much though.
Technicians
Fish soup – These guys aren't big on cooking. They're more interested in having stuff premade, just for them. Fish soup is produced in Soup kitchens.
Juice – A nice vitamin injection in the form of fruit juice, produced in Juiceries. You'll also need Orchards to produce the Fruit.
Electricity – We could hardly call them Technicians without them wanting electricity. Similar to Water, Electricity is first produced (in power plants, that also require fuel to run like coal or diesel) and then distributed via Power substations.
Specialists
Sushi – Yup. Sushi. Guess what resources you'll need for that? Fish and Algae (produced in Algae farms).
Pie – Here's an unexpected wildcard to satisfy the specialists' sweet tooth. Pies. Baked in bakeries from fruit and flour.
One of the things you'll be able to notice is that even waaaaay further down the line, the same basic resources (flour, fish...) come into play once again. It's something we didn't want to lose along the way. Higher, more posh classes want better goods, but these are still mostly produced from the same basic resources.
A very important thing to remember about Needs is that if you don't have enough, your citizens will start leaving the capital. The world is ravaged and horrible, but if you can't even supply them with the fundamentals... then they have nothing to lose and will seek their fortune elsewhere.
Luxuries
Nope, not talking about luxury cars and Steam Decks. Luxuries in Kaiserpunk are more down to Earth. As with needs, each citizen class takes over all the luxuries of the previous class and adds a few more on top.
Laborers
Clothes – Sure, they have their work clothes, but what about another set? Two even? Without holes? Maybe a different dress or trousers? Take cotton, make cloth and sew some clothes at the clothier.
Newspapers – Gives them a lot of topics to talk about. Refine wood into cellulose, use it to produce paper and the rest is handled by the Printing press.
Manufacturers
Ale – Something to take the edge off after a long day of work in the factory. Another use for wheat, only this time at the brewery.
Gramophone – For those rare vinyls they find laying around. Appliances factory can get you hooked up.
Radio – Can’t beat the good old radio waves. Produce the boombox in the Appliances factory.
Technicians
Telephone – Technicians like to talk to their relatives. Mothers-in-law likely.
Fine garments – Only the best clothes for them, made from the finest silk.
Specialists
Wine – When ale just can’t flush the horrible away.
Jewelry – Fashionable doodads made from silver and gold.
TV – A television set, no smart functions… barely any functions at all, but it does show the moving images.
If you’ve read this far, congratulations and thank you. I didn’t write it in vain. You might be asking “Luxuries look really similar to needs. What’s the actual difference?” Unlike needs, not having luxuries will not make your citizens leave. It does, however, have a big, almost the biggest impact on the amount of taxes you collect from the citizens. The more they spend on luxuries, the more money you collect.
Public health
Or simply Health, represents how your citizens feel about the state of public health in the capital. This isn’t a complex matter to handle but can be expensive. To make Laborers and Manufacturers happy and of sane body and mind, build enough Clinics near them. Technicians and Specialists also require a Hospital to be nearby.
Public health is not to be trifled with! Lousy health services will cause disease outbreaks and that can quickly get out of control.
Public safety
Everybody wants to feel safe. Especially in a place that they call home. And that’s the whole point (well almost) of public safety services in Kaiserpunk. There are several buildings involved in this morale segment. The approach is the same as with the other segments. A higher class of citizens want the same as the previous class and then some.
Laborers
Fire station – Reduces the chance of fires erupting in your capital, keeps the Laborers happy and jumps into action when a fire eventually does happen.
Manufacturers
Police station – Reduces the chance of a crime wave happening and keeps the Manufacturers happy. In case of riots, police crews are dispatched to handle the situation. If left unchecked, riots can cause a lot of damage and even escalate into full-blown rebellions.
Technicians
Prison – Technicians are all about rehabilitation. Or maybe they just want the criminals to be taken somewhere out of sight. Prisons are good for that, which in turn is good for Technicians’ mental health. Prisons, however, can become hotspots for riots and opens up the possibility of prison breaks.
Specialists
Courthouse – Specialists are keen to handle grievances in the court of law, even just for appearances. I guess when you have everything in your life taken care of, litigation is the only thing left.
Public safety, as noted is just a part of Morale, but it should never be disregarded as unimportant. Your capital can succumb to rampant crime and rioting rather quickly if left to its own devices.
Education
The final Morale category is Education. You’re building a new nation in Kaiserpunk. Education is an important part of that. Your citizens know this as well and are of course interested in quality public education. Again, to emphasize, if they’re left with substandard, poor or even no education, they won’t exactly leave just because of that, so you have ample opportunities to make it right, but don’t recklessly dismiss education as non-essential. Low education can cause tremendous problems in your scientific development. Just as high education can lead to breakthroughs, lousy education can go the other way and have a negative impact on how fast you’re researching and developing new buildings, upgrades, units etc..
As is the case with Safety, there are several buildings linked to Education, one for each citizen class.
Laborers
Elementary school – Basic education, but still important. Laborers won’t be looking for more than that. As an added mechanic, you can use Elementary schools to convert Laborers into Manufacturers. Comes in handy if you’re having problem getting Manufacturers the standard way (through immigration).
Manufacturers
Highschool – Manufacturers are interested in making that step forward in their knowledge of the world. High schools have the added ability to convert Manufacturers into Technicians.
Technicians
University – A nice almost top of the ladder for Technicians to aspire to. A nifty bonus mechanic of universities is Research funding. You can allocate funds (cash) into different development branches to speed up research in those areas. This offers a direct control of boosting development in your capital.
Specialists
Research center – Specialists have already achieved university-level degrees. What they want is to apply their knowledge on exciting new projects. Research centers, along with satisfying Specialists’ thirst for education, can produce breakthrough points. You can use breakthroughs to quickly boost development of a research branch of your choice.
Boosters
One additional segment in the story of Morale are the so-called Boosters. These are special buildings that can directly help improve Morale of a citizen class. Or to be more precise, these buildings primarily exist to offset or delay some negative effect impacting your population morale. For example, if a long-running war is being severely detrimental to your citizens’ morale, these boosters can help. They cannot completely offset the negatives, but every little bit helps…
Laborers
Record label – A simple building, used to distribute records to eager vinyl fans.
Manufacturers
Radio station – Listeners all over your capital can enjoy the best and latest tunes.
Technicians
TV station – A good television drama in black and white can occupy time and minds with ease.
Specialists
Jazz club – This is the place for the discerning customer to take the weight of his chest, have a great enjoyable night and forget about the worries of the world.
As is usually the case in Kaiserpunk, for every positive, there is at least one potential negative. The buildings noted above can become the epicenter of great stories… which includes tragedies as well. Radio and TV stations are perfect entry points for enemy propaganda for example…
Unemployment
No, I haven’t forgotten about the last two. Unemployment is a tricky bugger. You need citizens, workers if you wish. You need them for the capital to have any chance of working in an organized manner and at full capacity. You also need citizens to be recruits and form your mighty armies. Taxing citizens is also your primary income… That said, you can have too many citizens. Apologies for the crassness. Remember… it’s just a game 😉.
So, what happens when you build a bunch of houses or residential buildings and a whole lot of people move into your capital? You’re pleased, taxes are coming in, the treasury is filling up nicely. Great… Have you considered what all those folks will do? No? Congratulations! You’ve just created a problem from nothing. You’re an absolute wizard!
Your citizens generally want to be employed. They want to work. If there are no opportunities for them here, they will of course leave. But they won’t leave quietly. They’ll ransack your capital first, make some nice bonfires, trash the place and then leave… maybe. Maybe they don’t. Maybe, for example, Laborers with a general hypothetical unemployment of 40% look at the Technicians with a 3% unemployment and think “Hmmm… seems to me that the governor’s been pumping cash into their jobs, but not ours. We’re going to take what should rightfully be ours…” which causes bloody clashes between the individual classes… And last but not least maybe, just maybe, the rioters decide YOU are going to leave instead.
Unemployment is not a joke. Remember that and plan accordingly 😉.
War weariness
With this subheading, we arrive at the final component of morale in Kaiserpunk. War weariness: the feeling of being tired and overwhelmed by the constant war happening in the world, war that for one reason or another, involves your fledgling new nation.
People get tired of war. Winning or losing, they get tired, weary if you wish. And make no mistake, the I’m tired of this c*** starts accumulating the moment a war ensues. It will take time, but ultimately, it will come to bite you. It’s war for god’s sake! People die in wars! Who wants wars to last eternally!?
You might be asking “Is there anything I can do about it?” and the answer is, of course; you’re the governor. Propaganda is your primary tool. Regions that are on the front lines of a war get destabilized. Unstable regions make war weariness grow much faster. Losing battles cause a massive hit to war weariness. Well, a boost, not a hit. Losing an entire region… don’t even ask what this does to the perception of war in your capital…
All the things noted in the previous paragraph also work the other way around. Winning will slow down the accumulation of war weariness. Winning battles, conquering regions, stabilizing your regions etc.. This all helps, but as I’ve said before, this will only postpone the degradation of morale in general. Perpetual war is not a viable or at least a desired state.
To conclude
The gameplay focus in Kaiserpunk is on efficient production and keeping your citizens happy or at the very least content is an intricate part of that. You can’t have a functioning war machine or a society in general if your folks are miserable. Kaiserpunk will remind of you that every step of the way.
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