postm00v Posted October 20, 2013 Share Posted October 20, 2013 (edited) Is there a way to prevent my soldiers from promoting en masse? I found a way past the starting squad (which starts with an all corporal squad, which drives me insane. I modded the game to give me an extra 100k so I could dismiss everybody except one Sarge, and then hire 10 rookies. First mission, gameplay is fine, I actually enjoy it. I defeat the aliens and the debrief comes on my screen. EVERYBODY gets a promotion. Literally every rookie gets promoted to corporal. WTF! I know the original had a requirement for promotions. IIRC it had something to do with the total amount of soldiers f.e. if you had 20 soldiers, someone could be promoted to Captain. This is a good way to prevent an all corporal squad imo. I know this sounds a bit like a rant, but I can assure you, it's not. I love XCOM games, and XCOM remakes. I highly appreciate the time and effort put into Xenonauts. It's just positive criticism. Edited October 21, 2013 by postm00v Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max_Caine Posted October 20, 2013 Share Posted October 20, 2013 First of all, you might want to put some on to help you focus. Then open gameconfig.xml (use something like notepad), and scroll down when you get to the soldier development section, helpfully listed "soldier development variables". Are you to your music? Then find the <soldierranks> section. Ranking up is base upon number of characteristic increases they get, so if you want troops to rank up slower, all you have to do is increase the number of characteristic points they have to get before reaching a particular rank. Would you like to know more? Then take a look at War Games' mod for inspiration. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tobbzn Posted October 20, 2013 Share Posted October 20, 2013 (edited) To be fair, WG doesn't cause any bigger spread in soldier ranks as long as you take care to grind TU, Str and Accuracy every mission. Promotions could be handled somewhat differently, of course. For example, you could have a more standard progression based on stat points ++ in the following way: 5 xp for each earned stat point 15 xp for each alien kill 20 xp for each alien reaction kill 20 xp for each stunned alien 20 xp for each successful mission 100 xp for each medal With an optional soldier-based restriction on promotions and stat limits for each rank, thereby giving ranks a recursive pseudo-measure of a soldier's capabilities, as well as possibly countering the "1 mission = +1 to every stat" effect, encouraging soldier rotation. That being said, it's not exactly my biggest gripe. Certainly not something I'd preface with "I'm really trying to love the game" Edited October 20, 2013 by Tobbzn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gorlom Posted October 21, 2013 Share Posted October 21, 2013 (edited) Or Mr postm00v could solve his problem in another way. He could rename the ranks to be free of officer or chain of command ranks. Simplest is to name them X1 X2 X3 etc and alll of a sudden the ranks only indicate how experienced/good the soldiers are. None of those pesky cannotations of leadership or command being split between half the squad. Coupled with Max_Caines suggestion to slow down the rankups. Edited October 21, 2013 by Gorlom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tobbzn Posted October 21, 2013 Share Posted October 21, 2013 Or, rename all the ranks " " and do manual promotions when you think they deserve it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gorlom Posted October 21, 2013 Share Posted October 21, 2013 (edited) Manual promotions as in renaming the soldier? Nice idea. Edited October 21, 2013 by Gorlom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
postm00v Posted October 21, 2013 Author Share Posted October 21, 2013 (edited) First of all, you might want to put some on to help you focus. Then open gameconfig.xml (use something like notepad), and scroll down when you get to the soldier development section, helpfully listed "soldier development variables". Are you to your music? Then find the <soldierranks> section. Ranking up is base upon number of characteristic increases they get, so if you want troops to rank up slower, all you have to do is increase the number of characteristic points they have to get before reaching a particular rank. Would you like to know more? Then take a look at War Games' mod for inspiration. Yeah I thought about that, but I don't think it'll solve my little gripe. When soldiers reach a certain amount of XP, they get promoted, resulting in a squad composed of corporals/sergeants etc. Also, and this might be a shock, my actual name isn't postm00v. So you don't have to call me Mr. Also, it makes me feel old, so stop doing that EDIT : Manual promotions seem like a good idea. Going to try that now! EDIT 2 : When I tried putting on the relaxing music, Youtube gave me a commercial. Goddamn commercials. Edited October 21, 2013 by postm00v Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gorlom Posted October 21, 2013 Share Posted October 21, 2013 Is the problem that the squad is made up of all the same rank or that it is all real ranks that suggest a chain of command? Does fictive ranks all subordinate to the commander in the sky fix the problem or still pose a problem? Does Tobbzn's idea of manually giving them ranks in their name fix your problem? (Personally I like to have my squad full of the same rank even if it is the highest available) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
postm00v Posted October 21, 2013 Author Share Posted October 21, 2013 (edited) What I'm trying now is renaming all ranks to X0-X7, because what you said made a lot of sense. Then I'm going to give my soldiers ranks by editing their names when I feel they deserve it. I know this sounds really OCD, but you'll just have to forgive me for it. EDIT: Okay, I found another thing that irritates me. I deleted the ranks (X0 just didn't look right), but the images remain. I want to try and make all the ranks use one image. Is that possible? Edited October 21, 2013 by postm00v Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max_Caine Posted October 21, 2013 Share Posted October 21, 2013 \\\\postm00v//// While listening to some space-ish (I click the 5-second skip), by reading the mod list I found a mod I suggest you look at if you want eXes. I'm certain that by looking at the solider mods, you'll be able to imagine the shape and form of the structure you find desirable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
postm00v Posted October 21, 2013 Author Share Posted October 21, 2013 Yeah I know how to rename the ranks, that's not my problem. I'm onto rank images now. I'm trying to let all ranks use one image, if that's even possible. All help is appreciated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max_Caine Posted October 21, 2013 Share Posted October 21, 2013 .... .... .... The best help that I could give you is to show you the work of other people who successfully did things like... replace stock rank images with custom ones. And ask obvious questions. Such as. Have you considered having the same image but naming it rank.private, rank.corporal, rank.blahblahblah? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gorlom Posted October 21, 2013 Share Posted October 21, 2013 Yeah I know how to rename the ranks, that's not my problem. I'm onto rank images now. I'm trying to let all ranks use one image, if that's even possible. All help is appreciated. That mod has replaced images as well.. here are the instructions for that bit (assuming that you have downloaded the images) For the images, replace the "rankimages" folder in the assets with the "rankimages" folder in the package. Then, in the "gui" folder, replace that "rankimages" folder as well (two different folders, same name. I didn't make the game, not my fault. ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
postm00v Posted October 21, 2013 Author Share Posted October 21, 2013 Oh my, I can't believe I didn't think about that myself. Thanks, that might actually work. EDIT: Yes, it worked! Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crusherven Posted October 21, 2013 Share Posted October 21, 2013 Honestly, the vanilla ranks bug me, too. Having a lot of officers that actually shoot and do stuff in combat is nonsensical enough; having everyone eventually hit Colonel is... blah. It really makes me roll my eyes. I like a lot of the work they've done on this game, but I really don't like this decision. If you're going to use real ranks, use a real rank structure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gorlom Posted October 21, 2013 Share Posted October 21, 2013 Having a lot of officers that actually shoot and do stuff in combat is nonsensical enough; having everyone eventually hit Colonel is... blah. Mine start at major, promotes to commander, 1 star general, 2 star general, 3 star general, 4 star general, president of the USA and finally Supreme Defense Fleet Admiral of all Earth Defenses! ^^ PS: I'm totally fine with having 8 American Presidents on the ground in the same squad at the same time Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tobbzn Posted October 22, 2013 Share Posted October 22, 2013 I prefer my Valkyrie squad of 16 God-Emperors of Mankind. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Commissar Pancakes Posted October 22, 2013 Share Posted October 22, 2013 I prefer my Valkyrie squad of 16 God-Emperors of Mankind. HERESY!!! There is only ONE God-Emperor of Mankind! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tobbzn Posted October 22, 2013 Share Posted October 22, 2013 HERESY!!! There is only ONE God-Emperor of Mankind! He is everywhere. Including 16 times in my dropship. Or, sometimes, 14 times. Got to make room for one of the machine spirits. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aspen28570 Posted October 22, 2013 Share Posted October 22, 2013 I'm confused why everyone being Corporal is a problem. it wouldn't be unheard of especially when the Xenonauts are supposed to be these hand picked elite soldiers. considering Corporal is three ranks higher than private. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gorlom Posted October 22, 2013 Share Posted October 22, 2013 HERESY!!! There is only ONE God-Emperor of Mankind! I belive that is the joke, yes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Commissar Pancakes Posted October 22, 2013 Share Posted October 22, 2013 *points pistol at Gorlom* Do I see the spread of heresy before me...? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gorlom Posted October 22, 2013 Share Posted October 22, 2013 *points pistol at Gorlom*Do I see the spread of heresy before me...? Why does that make me want to make a joke about Goatse? *shudder* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Posted October 23, 2013 Share Posted October 23, 2013 Yeah, the rank thing does annoy quite a few people but we're primarily using rank as an easy way of sorting soldiers by combat experience. It's not realistic but we feel it makes the game more accessible. And, hey, as the OP discovered - you can always mod it out if you'd prefer it to work another way Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.