Medal Types?

[Chris]

So, I'm thinking about implementing the medal system if the Kickstarter fund goes to plan, so I'm taking a moment to sketch out how the system would look if it were to be implemented.

The basic idea that I have is simple; the soldiers earn medals automatically for causing (or surviving) particularly memorable events on the battlefield. These would give small stat boosts (perhaps +1 Bravery for each medal?), and would be displayed next to their portrait on the Soldier Equip screen.

These aren't intended to make massive differences to the stats of the soldiers and they're not intended to be something you farm. As such, soldiers shouldn't necessarily be able to collect that many of them. They're just little distinctions to help you get more attached to your soldiers.

I've got a few ideas for medals which I've listed below, and I thought it'd be good to throw the floor open to suggestions on what else might be worth a medal.

Purple Heart - Wounded in action (below 50% health after a mission)
- Kill 5 aliens
- Kill 3 aliens on a single mission
- Win an alien base attack mission
Saviour - Win a terror site mission
Sole Survivor - Only surviving soldier from a victorious mission

There's probably loads more, see if you can think of any. I might remove the alien base / terror attack victory medals as they're going to be very common and could devalue things somewhat, but we'll see.

[anotherdevil]

Might I suggest some alterations to the ones you have, just to make them more extreme
Purple Heart - Wounded in action (below 25% health after a mission)
Bug killer - Kill 5 aliens
One man army - Kill 3 aliens on a single mission
Defender - Win an alien base attack mission
Saviour - Win a terror site mission
Sole Survivor - Only surviving soldier from a victorious mission (should probably get a lot of bravery for this one)

Possibly need some better names

But then some more (some of these are better than others):
Grenadier - kill 2 or more aliens with one grenade
Pistol marksman - kill an alien at over 50 feet with a pistol (this can then apply for all other weapons)
CQB specialist - kill an alien in close combat
Legionnaire - have your combat shield break after absorbing the full amount of shots
master and commander - reach top rank
Stunning - Stun an alien with a stun baton
Breach and clear - stun 2 or more aliens with a stun grenade/rocket
Ninja - killed the enemy commander before any of his men
Down but not out - survived a fatal wound
I in team - killed all the aliens in a UFO by yourself

And I'm sure others will have more and better ones

[Chris]

If people want to suggest names, they should be more like 'medal' names rather than 'achievement' names if you see what I mean. Anyways, keep the suggestions coming

[TheTuninator]

I think Purple Heart works pretty well for 50% or below, as the actual Purple Heart is given for any battlefield injury, not just serious ones.

Also, I think we could maybe crib decorations from various nations in order to reflect the Xenonauts' nature as an international organization. Either that, or generate our own original names and decorations, which might be a bit more difficult. Maybe names themed after various Earth locations?

Anyways, here's some early efforts using international medals that can no doubt be greatly improved upon and refined. I've tried to have at least one medal from each region of the Xenonauts map.

Wounded in action (50% health or below) -> Purple Heart.
Kill 5 aliens -> Order of Glory
Kill 10 aliens-> Military Cross
Kill 15 aliens-> Honorarius Crux
Kill 20 aliens-> Star of Gallantry
Kill 5 aliens in a single mission -> Medal of Honor
Survive for X months (where X is a suitably long time)-Long Service Medal. Ireland's also got a "Service Medal" which sounds a bit better and could also work.

There should also be at least one medal for capturing aliens, as capturing aliens is both more dangerous than killing them and more valuable to the Xenonauts. No ideas on that at the moment, though.

Also, it strikes me that since Xenonauts is going to have an actual air combat system, a medal or two for aircraft might be cool in order to help players get a bit more attached to their planes.

[Gorlom]

Isnt purple heart a very american type medal? might want to call it something else (or remove it completly)?

I forgot how much Bravery points does a soldier start with? I want to kow how much 1 bravery is. (im baisicly against medals giving bonuses but bravery works if its a very miniscule ammount awarded so you need to stack alot of medals before it makes a difference)

PS. AD why would you award a soldier attacking an alien base a medal/achivement called "defender"? DS.

Edit: I didnt read tunnilators post. I guess if you suppliment it with other nations medals purple heart name might work.

[TheTuninator]

Yeah, it might be better to just brainstorm original medals, but if we want to go with preexisting ones it'd be quite thematic to pull a whole bunch of different ones from all over the globe.

Here's some more medal ideas:

Fighters:
-Flying Ace-Destroy 5 UFOs
-Double Ace-Destroy 10 UFOs
-Triple Ace-Destroy 15 UFOs
and so forth. I don't know if it'd be possible to give any kind of bonuses for these, but I think they'd be cool to have anyways; making people get a bit more attached to aircraft strikes me as a good idea. There's a person in there too, you know! :P

Dropships:
-Xenonauts Campaign Ribbon-Carry out 20 UFO ground assault missions.

Troopers: (original medal names this time)
-Survive for X months: Xenonauts Service Ribbon/Medal
-Capture 5 aliens: Bronze Gallantry Medal
-Capture 10 aliens: Silver Gallantry Medal
-Capture a leader/navigator: Gold Gallantry Medal
-Survive a mission with 50% or less health: Crimson Heart
-Sole Survivor: Survivor's Ribbon/Medal
-Kill 5 Aliens in one mission:Medal of Heroism
-Kill 5 Aliens: Merit Star
-Kill 10 Aliens: Distinguished Merit Star
-Kill 15 Aliens: Outstanding Merit Star
-Kill 20 Aliens: Exemplary Merit Star

Also, I'm not sure if this is something the game could readily recognize, but if it could:

-Clear a UFO of medium size or larger by yourself: Order of Earth

Bravery bonuses for most of these sounds good; the Crimson Heart could potentially come with a very small health bump as well, although that's something that would have to be closely examined for balance purposes.

[anotherdevil]

PS. AD why would you award a soldier attacking an alien base a medal/achivement called "defender"? DS.

Totally read that as defending your own base =p

Ok so some more medal like names...

Grenadiers Ribbon - kill 2 or more aliens with one grenade
Marksman's Ribbon - kill an alien at over 50 feet with a weapon (this can then apply for all other weapons)
Victory medal - kill an alien in close combat
Legionnaire's Ribbon - have your combat shield break after absorbing the full amount of shots
Distinguished Service Award - reach top rank
Bolt's Cross - Stun an alien with a stun baton (commander/leader) (named after this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captive_bolt_gun)
Specialists Ribbon - stun 2 or more aliens with one stun grenade/rocket
Sedgwick's Cross - killed the enemy commander before any of his men (named after General John Sedgwick, who's last words are reported to be: "They couldn't hit an elephant at this dist...")
Star of St. John - survived a fatal wound
Victorian Cross - killed all the aliens in a UFO by yourself

Things like killing aliens should probably have more mediocre names, since all your soldier will be doing that, so maybe making them 'badges' or 'ribbons' or the like. That way the exemplary feats of survival/skill really stand out more

[Gorlom]

AD isnt those things more "achivement" oriented? I'm afraid that it will lead to farming medals.
If medals are going to provide a small bonus you cant ahve too many of them or they will break gameplay. either it will cause problems when soldiers doesnt have enough and they stand no chance against endgame attacks or your soldiers will be able to ignore those endgame attacks because they stacked too many medals.

If you are going to award medals for things like "killing 2 aliens with 1 granade" (dont think any army or organization would award a medal for such things) you're going to have to either remove the bonus or award a bonus for every 5-10 medals the soldier earns. (Edit: or possibly a cap on the number of medals one soldier can earn)

[IceVamp]

I was thinking more of a honourable feel to the stun an alien one. "For distinguished service in the interest of the Xenonauts." I.E. capturing an un-researched alien. Darwin's Cross? Cross of Galileo?

Anyways, I agree that these shouldn't have "achievement" names, even if the feats required would often garner one in games that have achievements.

How about one for healing? After a total amount of health healed.
Apollo's Service Medal - 200 hp healed

Some rare ones would be cool too, and with a bit vague descriptions so people won't "go for them" as easily.
Star of Sol - For extraordinary heroism in action. (Not panicking even once, after 3-4 squad deaths, each with higher or equal rank)

If you are going to award medals for things like "killing 2 aliens with 1 granade" (dont think any army or organization would award a medal for such things) you're going to have to either remove the bonus or award a bonus for every 5-10 medals the soldier earns. (Edit: or possibly a cap on the number of medals one soldier can earn)

One could make ribbons have no bonus, until you have a set amount, upon which you are given a medal which carries the bonus. But yes, I agree some of those aren't what would "normally" warrant a medal.

[xracer]

Hello all, long time follower finally decided to join.

About the medals, for consecutive medals such as
5 kills
10 Kills
etc...

would it be better if instead of making them separate you simply add a marker like they you in the military

5 Kills = first award = Ribbon
10 Kills = second award = bronze star on ribbon
20 kills = 3rd award = 2nd bronze start on ribbon
it coudl be made that every 20 kills you get a bronze start up to 3 in a ribbon once that is reach the next award will be a silver start so
at 80 Kills = silver start
then like at 250 kills = a gold start and you could get like 3 gold stars

something to that effect after all you want ribbon but also want to keep a control for example maybe 20 ribbons or medals each of those can have several awards, as we know almost all every award can be achieved at least once.

the of course as people have mentioned have really special ribbons for something that is not usual.