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Might need to modify it. Privates (rookies) are troops with no battle experience with your organisation (or training). They are liabilities in combat since they cause morale penalties (no-one knows how they will react).

Corporal is like squaddie. A base trooper rank.

Just some re-naming (or adding another lower rank) required, otherwise it sounds okay.

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Fixed a few misleading things. Rookies come in as Privates. The first promotion is Corporal. It looks like there will be a way to train rookies and promote them to Corporal before they see battle.

So, #02 in my list of ranks is actually the first promotion, with Captain being the 8th and last promotion.

Edited by 81dB
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Nah I still prefer my idea. I think it's a lot more intuitive. The only benefit that rank gives is a bonus to morale of the troops around them (and a corresponding morale drop if a high-ranked soldier is killed). I think we're overcomplicating it a bit here. Having a high-ranked soldier is good because he'll steady the nerves of the guys around him and give them a boost to psi-defence. Everything else comes from actual battlefield experience and stat increases.

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I would try to make it as simple as possible. Letting the player choose promotions and dual tracks seems like it might be too much micromanagement and wouldn't really be all that fun when you're dealing with 50-100 soldiers.

However, I would like the troops to earn medals like they did in Apocalypse. Medals could be granted for such things as kill count, time in service, "valor in battle", etc. Each of these medals could convey a bonus, or just be there for aesthetics.

As for what each rank would be called, I would just use some combination of US and UK enlisted and officer ranks such as:

Brigadier

Colonel

Lieutenant Colonel

Major

Captain

Lieutenant

Second Lieutenant

Sergeant

Corporal

Lance Corporal

Specialist

Private First Class

Private

I don't think it really matters what they're called, as long as it makes sense to most players. I wouldn't use ranks like "rookie" and "squaddie" though.

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As for what each rank would be called, I would just use some combination of US and UK enlisted and officer ranks such as:

I don't think it really matters what they're called, as long as it makes sense to most players. I wouldn't use ranks like "rookie" and "squaddie" though.

But why? I think Xenonauts should use whatever they want, really, they can make up anything and it'd be legit. And rookie and squaddie are excellent hark backs to the original, a nice little homage

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But why? I think Xenonauts should use whatever they want, really, they can make up anything and it'd be legit. And rookie and squaddie are excellent hark backs to the original, a nice little homage

Well I just remember playing the game when I was a kid and thinking: "What the heck kind of rank is a squaddie?", since it's apparently British slang.

I wouldn't care if Xenonauts used it's own ranks, it just might not be as intuitive to a new player which rank is better if it's something they've never heard of before.

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I came across this rank list in a forum dedicated to some kind of SWAT role playing game (actual role playing, not a video game).

1. Private

2. Sergeant

3. Lieutenant

4. Captain

5. Major

6. Commander

These have been mentioned a lot of times by now but this list just seems simple, practical and clutter free. It's recognizable, makes it very easy to identify who stands where in the hierarchy (things like lance-corporal and such would probably be a bit confusing to most) and it's free of the "uber titles" like general or marshal or whatever. Also there's six of them like in X-Com.

This is the source if anyone's curious: http://s1.zetaboards.com/Swat_Forums/topic/718599/1/ I removed the vice-commander because he's simply not needed.

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That just takes us to a list of ranks. Nothing on the correct order of ranking up. Oh and they're all American, so kind of a moot point. Interesting, but I don't know what you meant to say when you quoted me with that...

United States uniformed services comparative ranks

Here is some info on the US ranks if someone is curious.

Enlisted start at E1 and work their way up to E9. Officers start at O1 and work their way up to O10. The Warrant Officers (W1 to W5) are special ranks that allow an enlisted person to become an officer, without the college degree. Typically achieved by a specialist in a particular field with a lot of experience. When a particular person went from an Enlisted rank to W1 can vary.

Unlike the abstract way Xcom handled ranks, enlisted don't normally promote up to an officer rank. Enlisted and Officers are two separate paths. It can take a 25 to 30 years to get to be an E9. Once you are an E9, you stop gaining rank. You don't go from an E9 to an O1 or something silly like that. For an enlisted to become an officer you either get a college degree and then get accepted to officer school, essentially starting your career over as an officer, or you become a Warrant Officer. There are exceptions during wartime with people getting battlefield commissions, but that is not part of the normal promotion system.

All the O ranks are above the E ranks, with the W ranks falling between the two. However a smart O1 or O2 will listen to the advice of his E7 to E9s. Who have tons of experience compared to the fresh officers just out of college and officer school.

Edited by DrunkZombie
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Interesting, but kind of complex, no? I think X-Com did it that way for simplicity, and it worked well. The other option is to remove the majority of the 'officer' ranks, and just have more specialised ranks, imagine if E went to 15, instead of 9 say. AFAIK, not many officers are on the front lines these days

Well, I wasn't implying that the game should use a system like this. It was just meant to be informative. For the game I like the idea of the player controlling the ranks.

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While promoting individuals may be nice it just feels like it could be a lot of work.

If you have 50 troopers you could end up having to manually choose each and every promotion for all of them.

Maybe instead you could choose a priority for your troopers?

Say select a priority between 1 and 10 for anyone you wish to (not compulsory).

If you have a few people ready for promotion to limited slots in the next rank the higher priority troops get the job first.

At least then if you fancy pushing your favourite troopers up the priority list you can while not bothering with the others.

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How about a switchable tag that says which path your soldier will take? You could click it when ever (before the critical promotion) so it isn't quite so much micro management (having to wait for the right time to choose the path) and even select batches of soldiers and select their path at once. It could cycle between many paths on the button... if there are more than just 'officer/enlisted' choices.

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