Default spawn rate for female soldiers

[TheUbiquitous]

... should be roughly, I'd say, roughly equal to, if maybe a little higher, the rate of female soldiers in 1979. Rationale: Such an anachronism for it to be 50/50, as it appears to be by default.

This should also be freely adjusted in the final build through the options menu.

This is, of course, a minor edit.

Edited August 12, 2012 by TheUbiquitous

[thothkins]

40% at present in my gameconfig. You can always adjust it as you see fit there.

[Jean-Luc]

40% at present in my gameconfig.

You're such a slut thothkins.

[thothkins]

if you've got it, flaunt it

[Gauddlike]

If you haven't got it, wait in the Chinook until someone brings you it?

[Chris]

Naturally anyone equipped with notepad is able to adjust this to their liking

[thothkins]

Can't wait for the first screenies of the Amazonian and Misogynist Xenonaut squads

"Goddam aliens! stop attacking us so we can go back to persecuting our own kind!"

[TheUbiquitous]

Not a matter of persecution. Issa matter of setting. Fact of the matter is that 1979 weren't so ... keen ... on women in the armed forces as folks today, and even today the U.S. Army is only 15 percent female. Of those, 85 percent of the cadets don't want to go career, and none of these ladies are combat troops. (Wikipedia isn't helping me find the stats elsewhere.)

Whatever your opinions on what things should be like, anachronisms like this violate any sensible application of the Rule of Fun to setting. If you have a setting, it had better be immersive. For an immersive historical setting, it'd better be diligent about little flavor things like this.

And note that this is a question of the "Default" starting value. I know I can change it afterwards. It's a matter of what the game should play like.

Fact is, the default values make the game feel a little more like the SCA and less like a tense, Cold War Alien Invasion. It reminds me that this thing is a game.

So ... this is bad.

Edited August 14, 2012 by TheUbiquitous

[Gauddlike]

The problem with the spawn % for me is that it doesn't alter over time.

I see a world under attack by aliens as relaxing its views that women shouldn't fight, especially as we start to get beaten.

Needs override ideas like that in a desperate situation.

It would be nice if you could have the numbers increase over time between a couple of pre set values.

[thothkins]

Not a matter of persecution. Issa matter of setting. Fact of the matter is that 1979 weren't so ... keen ... on women in the armed forces as folks today, and even today the U.S. Army is only 15 percent female. Of those, 85 percent of the cadets don't want to go career, and none of these ladies are combat troops. (Wikipedia isn't helping me find the stats elsewhere.)

Whatever your opinions on what things should be like, anachronisms like this violate any sensible application of the Rule of Fun to setting. If you have a setting, it had better be immersive. For an immersive historical setting, it'd better be diligent about little flavor things like this.

And note that this is a question of the "Default" starting value. I know I can change it afterwards. It's a matter of what the game should play like.

Fact is, the default values make the game feel a little more like the SCA and less like a tense, Cold War Alien Invasion. It reminds me that this thing is a game.

So ... this is bad.

Having a polite poke of fun following our mighty Why Female Soldiers thread.

That pretty much covers the same territory. Possibly due to overplaying X-Com, the game didn't feel right to me without female soldiers, and I was only too happy to suspend my disbelief. That was very much in keeping with the rule of fun for me. Your mileage clearly differs on that one.

[Max_Caine]

Y'know, sooner or later some journo is going to pick up on this "storm" of "controversy" (or other such beautifully misleading headline on a slow news day) and it's going to make problems for everyone who has weighed in on this subject. Real this-won't-go-away problems as these posts and the people who made them get picked over with a fine-tooth comb by the people who need pageviews competing to create the most emotional articles either in defence of realism or against perceived mysogeny.

FOR. FUCK'S. SAKE.

We can have as few or as many men or women in the game as we want, and the only way anyone can tell they are either is by the character portrait! It doesn't matter! Irrelevant! People, please, either let this subject DIE or be hoisted by your own petard when your words are used by someone with an agenda and a need for pageviews!

[thothkins]

Tsk! tomorrow's headline:

"Foul language in forums corrupts our young!"

- Chief Reporter Muck Raker of the Daily Alarmist

[TheUbiquitous]

Didn't know there was a history. I'm not here to cause problems, dude.

[carnesaur]

is it me or do the ingame models look the same. the portrait shows a female but on the battlescale they look the same?

was this overlooked or is it just something not included in the alpha?

[Khall]

I don't think there are any plans to add female models. It's a lot of work for little gain and would only really be applicable for basic armour (the rest of them would be too bulky to see any real difference)

It's one of those things that would be nice to have but when weighed against other things the time could be spent on...

Edited August 16, 2012 by Khall

[Gorlom]

It's not an oversight, it's intended as making female sprites would double the sprites for xenonaut units. And that is a LOT of sprites.

Having only portraits and names distinguish females from males was the only way to implement female soldiers at all as the other options would have cost the team too much time.

[Gauddlike]

Vaguely remember Chris saying they were working on female basic armour models as they are slightly less bulky than the others.

All other types of armour are to be the same.

It just wasn't financially viable to double the number of sprites in the game to show the minor differences that would be visible at this scale.

That was why I was initially against the idea of adding them, I would have preferred an extra few tilesets over a whole new set of practically identical armour sets and I felt they just wouldn't look right with the same sprites.

Now they are in though I think it does give a more rounded (no pun intended) feel to the game in a very x-com way.

[Jean-Luc]

Vaguely remember Chris saying they were working on female basic armour models as they are slightly less bulky than the others. All other types of armour are to be the same.

Pretty sure that only refers to paper dolls.

[Gauddlike]

Could well be, as I said, the memory is vague