I've been having some trouble figuring out what our ships' actual morale and population values are. The various components we have do some combination of the following:

• Increase or decrease Morale/Population

• Increase or decrease maximum Morale/Population

• Add to or subtract from losses of Morale/Population

I'm not sure how to do the arithmetic here. Are increases or decreases in Morale/Population actually different from maximum increases or decreases? Does it matter if something says it increases or decreases morale or population permanently? Do I apply the modifiers from stuff like crew reclamation facilities or death cults to regular increases and decreases, or also maximum increases or decreases?

Ok, I will try and sum up what your asking with an example:

I have 3 componets that affecct my crew Morale; Pressed Crew Quarters (-2 Morale), Temple (+3 Morale), Ancient Life Sustainer (+2). So if I do the math

-2+3+2=3 so my Morale is now at 103%, and yes Morle and Population can go above 100%. Same thing applies to Population

One thing to remeber about RT is that its a game of MODIFIERS. So lets say that the Flying Dutchman gets hit with a nasty broadside and I take say 4 Points of Hull Damage, I will at this time reduce Hull by 4, Population by -4 and Morale by -4. So my Hull is at 66 Integrity, Population is down to 96% and Morale is down to 99%, makes sense?

Ship: The Flying Dutchman

Hull: Lunar-class cruiser

Dimensions: 5 km long, 0.8 km abeam at fins approx.

Crew: 95000 crew, approx.

Speed: 5 Manoeuvrability: +20 Crew Quality : 30

Detection: +25 Hull Integrity: 70 Crew Population: 100

Armour: 20 Turret Rating : 2 Crew Morale : 103%

Space : 75 Power: 75

Weapon Capacity: Prow 1, Port 2, Starboard 2

Essential Components: Modified Jovian Pattern Class 4 Drive, Ancient Life Sustainer, Bridge of Antiquity, Strelov 2 Warp Engine, Warps Bane Hull, Multiple Void Shield Array, Pressed Crew Quarters, Deep Void Auger Array

Supplemental Components: Teleportarium, 2 Port Mars Pattern Macrocannon Broadside, 2 Starboard Mars Pattern Macrocannon Broadside, Prow Starflare Lance, Cogitator Interlink, Barracks, Munitorium, Trophy Room, Cargo Hold and Lighter Bay, Compartmentalized Cargo Hold, Ship’s Stores, Augmented Retro-thrusters, Temple-shrine to the God Emporer

Oh and Population and Morale always start at 100% before applying any modifiers, components and what not.

Thanks for the detailed reply! So Pressed-Crew Quarters + Temple-Shrine to the God Emperor + Ancient Life Sustainer make sense to me, just as you said …

Pressed-Crew Quarters: "Decrease Morale permanently by 2"

Temple-Shrine to the God Emperor: "Increase Morale permanently by 3"

Ancient Life Sustainer: "Increase Morale permanently by 2"

… but what if I have a Death Cult on board, and a Crew Reclamation Facility?

Death Cult: "However, reduce all Morale loss from any source by 2, due to the crew's unwavering faith."

Crew Reclamation Facility: "Increase all losses to Morale by 1."

Do those instructions apply to the loss of morale from Pressed-Crew Quarters? or only to morale losses during the game, like when the bad guys hit our ship?

Only applies to morale losses in-game.

Thus, with those components you should have a maximum morale of 103%, and say you're hit with a decrease of 8 points of morale loss. The actual morale loss would be 8-2+1=8-1=7 which puts your morale at 96%.

Morale can go down during Space Travel, Combat and other sources. Your Death Cult would reduce the loss by 2 and then increase it by 1 due to your turning hurt/dead crew members in to servitors. Once again, its a game of Modifers, just got to know when and where to apply them.

In a sense, there are 2 types of modifiers. One affects you maximum morale. The other affects changes to your morale.

Imagine that Morale is HP. You have a ring that gives you "+1 HP" and you have a shield that gives you "reduce all damage taken by 1." Morale functions in the same way.

Your base Max Morale is 100.