Another soldier trait suggestion thread

[Zhe Dong]

Hi, as a swe myself I know that in most time its hard to implement even a smallest change to game engines. However, a game is less addictive if lacking some customization and collection elements.

Some traits to make soldier more versatile and unique is a popular feature in a lot of games. So we want to have some traits that not too trivial and does come into consideration when players trying to train and deploy them. I listed a few as they will be good candidate that they are desirable in several cases.

Backgrounds:
Military: bravery trains up quickly (auto +1 per operation).
Doctor: ignores heal cap when using medkit; when present in team, knocked down xenonauts has 50% better chance to be revived.
Scientist: counts as one scientist in lab. Give a small research boost if brought to operation as able to collect data on crash site.
Engineer: counts as one engineer in workshop. Increases inflicted C4 damage.
Civilian: no benefits

Physical:
Strong: strength trains up quickly (auto +1 per operation). Increased damage inflicted by shock baton.
Tough: hp trains up quickly (auto +1 per operation). Has a better chance revived if knocked down in operation.
Swift: -5% cost on all fires.

Mental:
Bullheaded: Immune to panic/flee but more likely to go berserk
Calm: Get only 1/3 effects on all morale events
Slippery mind: drops weapon whenever controlled by alien.
 

Skill
Lighting reflex: can reaction fire as long as TU is not negative. The extra TU needed will be subtracted from next turn.
Eagle shot: hit chance has no cap.
One handed shot: can equip shotgun/rifle by one hand, with a punishment on hit chance.
 

So these are just some possible ones. Many of the idea comes from other games or MMOs. Again I know some of them are very hard to fit into game engine. However, having a tailored list of desirable/undesirable feats that soldier can have will add some replay value to the game and people will spend time to research their team composition and stare at the monthly refreshed recruit list.

[RustyNayle]

I am definitely a strong supporter of the various backgrounds idea, I have discussed it on some of the other threads as well, but I'm not so much a fan of some of the later things you mentioned.  I think in a "secret war" game, the Xenonauts should be a very small tight knit team, and it would be great to bring scientists, engineers and medics along for the ride - a bit like Star Trek, but definitely akin to Stargate.  Combat skills of such specialists would start out much less, but they would learn in the field and in the training room over time.  I just don't think a standard military soldier would have the xenolinguistics / computer skills to hack into UFO security and open a door, let alone let a virus loose in their system to prevent it from automated self destruct or remote return to base, so a computer scientist in the field would be essential.  Some of the more experimental tech being developed would also require a combat engineer or doctor to operate it. Whenever the Xenonauts activity gets exposed in the field, there would be the possibility of having to capture / gag / rescue a reporter, intelligence agent, or even an average joe bloe, or they could actually be recruited instead.  This would make the Xenonaut recruit pool quite varied, and many of them would start off with very poor combat skills, which actually explains the traditional beginning gameplay nicely.  To recruit a soldier with combat experience would be very expensive, but should be possible.  They just won't have any training in XCOM gear, etc

Edited May 26, 2018 by RustyNayle