[kylania]

Originally Posted by CCIP

So the bottom line is, crew without morale just fails to do anything. I understand why they weren't reporting contacts - apparently they feel so crappy they've become blind with depression.

From the Jan 2010 Dev Interview here's the Devs talking about morale:

Subsim: The crew morale, I've been reading some of the questions about it, there are ways to improve the morale, like success out in the battlefield, long patrols can harder on the crew--can the crew morale force the captain to end the patrol before all the torpedoes expended? Usually in these games, the player plays until they run out of torpedoes, or fuel, but usually torpedoes, then he returns to base. Can crew morale have that impact?

Dan: Not that drastic, but you would definitely feel a problem if you stay at sea too much, and when you don't have success. So yeah, the idea is for you to do your objective and keep doing so to keep your crew happy and if you stay too much at sea, the crew will not be performing so well because of the morale. So you can tell if your crew is not serving you so well even though they will do their job. They are a military crew, they will always do their job, it's not a question if whether the submarine operate or not. But in order for your crew to excel, they will need that morale to be high, and the longer you stay at sea, the lower the morale will be.

Subsim: Dan, will the capacity for more crew morale grow over several patrols? Usually these games have what they call the green crew, the veteran crew, the elite crew, and if you're successful over several patrols, will the crews morale improve at a higher level?

Dan: Yes, it will.

Guess not?