Personalizing your troops

[Skitso]

Adding a nation flag after soldier name in GC hud could be an easy way to personalize your troops more, which is a bit lacking at the moment. The units all seem pretty samey and I don't attach to them that much. BTW, are you still adding more portraits to have more variation?

If you have any other easy methods to personalize the troops more, put them here.

[Chris]

There's already about 60 possible soldier portraits so we won't be adding many more - maybe a few of the custom backers that give us permission and we think would suit the style of the game.

The reason why the soldiers feel samey is because they are...in game terms at least. I'm working on a set of balance changes which I'm hoping will make the game a bit more exciting and bring back some of the feel of the OG, and one of them is allowing a much larger range of starting soldier stats. At the moment the variation is so small that the troops are essentially interchangeable, so there's no reason to get attached to them or remember them.

[Skitso]

Good to hear you have identified the problem.. You actually seem to know what you are doing! So, what about the nationalities? Could a flag be added? I kinda liked that aspect in the Firaxis' XCom...

[Skitso]

Is it easy to mod all custom backer faces to be in the game? I find most of them very suitable for the game and would cladly have all of them.

[Mooton]

There's already about 60 possible soldier portraits so we won't be adding many more - maybe a few of the custom backers that give us permission and we think would suit the style of the game.

The reason why the soldiers feel samey is because they are...in game terms at least. I'm working on a set of balance changes which I'm hoping will make the game a bit more exciting and bring back some of the feel of the OG, and one of them is allowing a much larger range of starting soldier stats. At the moment the variation is so small that the troops are essentially interchangeable, so there's no reason to get attached to them or remember them.

Back in X-Com I picked my rookies by firing accuracy and reactions, but also keeping in some of the rejects to fill out the skyranger.

Many times I had some of the worst rejects become some of my most reliable soldiers.

In Xenonauts there is absolutely no room for rejects, everyone has to start with 58+ TU. I only go down to 57 if I've had a really bad month.

[thothkins]

I pick pretty much the same troops each play through. Although it's the difference of a few points, some are easily tagged as Sniper, Heavy Weapons, Scouts, Assault and Shield soldiers.

Some of those roles change depending on how they do during the missions. I like that the troops are versatile and can go on to excel in other areas, compared to someone who's so clearly a sniper from the start, that there's no other real equipment option for them.

So, this isn't something I've had any issues with really. In fact, I'd argue that having to monitor the soldiers early development that bit more, helps to make them stand out.

The flag thing came up before the current UI was in place, and didn't make it. Neither did a little player notes field to capture the story of each soldier, while I'm going off on a tangent to the Land of Whine.

[Valentine]

There's already about 60 possible soldier portraits so we won't be adding many more - maybe a few of the custom backers that give us permission and we think would suit the style of the game.

The reason why the soldiers feel samey is because they are...in game terms at least. I'm working on a set of balance changes which I'm hoping will make the game a bit more exciting and bring back some of the feel of the OG, and one of them is allowing a much larger range of starting soldier stats. At the moment the variation is so small that the troops are essentially interchangeable, so there's no reason to get attached to them or remember them.

I am looking forward to this Chris - IMO I think that whilst soldiers improving their abilities as the game goes on based upon what they do is a great part of the game, I do think that naturally soldiers should have varying abilities that remain pretty standard. I.e. if you are naturally the strongest member of the team then you will normally remain the strongest member - likewise with sniping or speed. One of the worst parts of the original was ending up with a team of soldiers that had nearly 100% stats for all attributes.

[Skitso]

As Chris said above, there's some 60+ portraits in the game, but I still seem to get the same faces again and again.. Some nationalities are more common than others, so are some rarer faces only possible with certain nationalities or why am I not seeing half of the available portraits?

[TrashMan]

There's already about 60 possible soldier portraits so we won't be adding many more - maybe a few of the custom backers that give us permission and we think would suit the style of the game.

The reason why the soldiers feel samey is because they are...in game terms at least. I'm working on a set of balance changes which I'm hoping will make the game a bit more exciting and bring back some of the feel of the OG, and one of them is allowing a much larger range of starting soldier stats. At the moment the variation is so small that the troops are essentially interchangeable, so there's no reason to get attached to them or remember them.

I was under impression that solider ARE interchangable because...well, they are.

No human is THAT special.

The reason poeple get attached to troops is because of shared history. You remeber Bob not becuse Bob has a STR of 99, but because Bob was hte one who headshotted the aline that nearly wiped out your team. Bob was the one who threw a grenade that bounced back and nearly killed him. Bob was the one that did X in monent Y.

Personalizing the troops is something that adds a bit more visual recognizabiltiy, but that is really not an option in Xenonauts. Maybe in Xenonauts 2, when you can can have them look a bit different on the battle map.