Berserk

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Revision as of 05:17, 31 May 2008 by MikeTheRed (talk | contribs) (Adding more info so the results can be understood better)
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A state of mind which is a harsh reality for soldiers in dangerous conflicts. Derived from the Germanic word "Bear-Clad", it is a rage named after Viking warriors dressed in bear furs, intoxicated by mushrooms and spirits, engaging in frenzied combat. Today, Berserk is sometimes synonymous with blind rage or uncontrolled frenzy, as a soldier mindlessly fires off his weapon, regardless of proximity of friend or foe.


Testing when aliens are at 0 Morale shows that totally demoralized aliens berserk (as opposed to panic) ~36% of the time:

                                              Min     Ave ±  SDs    Max
  Count of aliens berserking, out of 16        1     5.72 ±  1.78    10      Across 118 tests of 16 aliens. 118 x 16 = 1,888 tests.
  Percent of aliens berserking, out of 16    6.25%  35.75 ± 11.11%  62.5%    Same numbers as previous line, times 100/16

Each test is the number of aliens that berserked (instead of panicked) out of 16 aliens at 0 Morale. There were 118 tests of 16 demoralized aliens (raw N 675/1888). My (MTR) guess is that the true value for this number (X-COM's target value) is 35%.

As you can see, there's a lot of variability. With a rate a little over one third, it's fairly common, too.

Percent berserking may or may not differ if Morale is significantly higher than 0 (but this takes more work to test).

See Also