Soldier Descriptions

[Guest drewid]

Another thread has suggested it would be a good idea to have extra fields in the soldier description for speciality and grade. (eg. sniper, expert)

 

Obviously we're having the stats that were in the original.

 

I like the idea of having a history dossier which grows as the game progresses. It has to be easy to generate and stick in a database.

 

name Fred Bloggs

dob 27/03/65

Nationality: British

rank colonel

specialism heavy weapons

grade 3

 

joined 03/03/2003

missions 4

kills 7

 

mission history

07/03/2003: terror mission, Oxford

kills 1 sectoid.

injured.

 

etc etc.

 

what else could go in either as background, biography or history?

[GrandMof]

You could add a reason that each soldier joined the x-com squad (ex: family was killed by aliens, religious reasons...ect).

[GreatGold]

Hey -

 

We sorta hit on some of this earlier. I'll post a link to the whole thread, should you be innterested in viewing it:

Operative X-Net Entry Ideas...

 

But, to spare you the time, heres a quote of one of the more complete lists in the thread

I really have very little graphics skills though, so I'll try to put something together, but it takes me forever. To begin, heres a list I think should be in the Dossier:

 

Name

Nationality

Date of Birth

Previous Military Service

-GS9, CIA, Secret Service, SWAT, Delta, FBI, Army, Marine, Navy, Air Force, to name a cery few possibilities

Previous Military Rank

Date of X-COM Enlistment

Detailed Carreer/Mission Report

-missions, kills, injuries, time healing, etc

Stats

-all that are currently in X-Com, as well as "intelligence" if that is implemented

Kills

-broken down by species

Accuracy

-perhaps broken down by weapon, perhaps kills per weapon

Most Used Weapon

Current Base

Current Aircraft Assigned

Psi Training

what else?

 

These are just some basic ideas, I'm sure there are more in the thread.

 

Gold

[Deimos]

I think we should have a section for the Job description the soldier does. What's it called M.O.S. ?

 

It should be modable like the name field so that the player can change their job in play. IE Say a heavy weapons specialist turns out to be a top notch Psi-Op. The player should be able to change that to represent what job they do.

[GreatGold]

Hey -

 

Ya, I was thinking something like like. Furthermore, I was thinking that in the X-Net Database, or X-Net Operatives Database if that idea is used, that there be like a "scratch-pad" area...so that you can jot down little notes about a soilder. If you think hes got Psi potential, or want to train him/her in a specific direction, make a note of it...

 

Gold

[Deimos]

I like the scratchpad idea.

[Guest Jim69]

I think we should have a section for the Job description the soldier does. What's it called M.O.S. ?

 

It should be modable like the name field so that the player can change their job in play. IE Say a heavy weapons specialist turns out to be a top notch Psi-Op. The player should be able to change that to represent what job they do.

I think a good idea would be to have the game give a designation to the soldier automatically, would save some time looking at the stats as well, just look down, say, and see he is a master at Psi. Would probably be blank or a default value when soldier joins tho.

[Kenshiro]

I got my hands on a list of just about all the cream-of-the-crop special units there are amongst the world's governments and pared it down to the ones listed in the X-Com funding list. They're sorted by country, so one could pick one at random from the country each troop originates from. That way, George Jones from USA randomly got his start in Navy SEALs, Ranger, Combat Control, CIA, etc, whereas Abhijit Kapoor from India hails from National Security Guards (yeah, I was amused by the name too until I read about these guys) or The Indian Parachute Regiment Para-Commandos.

 

Anyway, I passed the list onto Micah, but I figured I should post here about it in case anybody wants it for dev. And then I whapped myself in the forehead, realising I could attach the file right to this post.

 

Ta-

[Kenshiro]

Or this one. Foo.

Elite_Units.txt

[GreatGold]

Kenshiro -

 

Absolutley excellent! Would you mind posting this in the X-Net Operatives Database thread? I would like to keep it all in one place, if everything gets spread out we'll lose something or another.

 

This could be easily added to the database structure, which would add a nice little touch with the "Previous Military Branch" entry.

 

Gold

 

ps - if someone could move this thread to the UFOpedia forum it would be great.

[Guest drewid]

I tell you what. Thats a great idea. but you missed out the Ghurkas. They are very scary...

[GreatGold]

Hey -

 

I was just looking over the list, and how coll would it be to be reading about your soldiers past history, and discover he/she was a USAF PJ... This would be a great touch, like I said before, really excellent Ken !

 

Gold

[Kenshiro]

I'll add Ghurkas and repost over in X-Net.

[warhamster]

I was thinking about the recruiting system. Xcom is supposed to be the best of the best, right? So why is it that you get soldiers that are extremely useless when you recruit soldiers? Plus when you fire someone, that's just another someone who knows something about the most secret organiztion in the world.

 

Here's my idea. How about every start of the month, we get a roster of availabe soldiers, complete with dossier and stats? that way we get to screen off the soldiers before we actually pay for them. I think this we'll achieve a few things this way. 1)we're forced to take care of our greenies since we have a limited number of recruitables each month. 2)It saves the player of having to mark down which soldier he wants to fire. 3)It's simply more logical when you think about it. Even the cops don't pull off any bugger from the street and ask them if they want to join in.

 

What dou you guys think?

[GreatGold]

why is it that you get soldiers that are extremely useless when you recruit soldiers

 

Hey -

 

I know this has been discussed to death before. The general concencus is that, undre battle conditions against an ALIEN foe, it doesnt matter how "hardened" a soldier is. Whne he first arrives, he/she is as green as it gets.

 

That said, I really like your idea of selectingnew soldiers, instead of randomly selecting them. Perhaps a v1.0+ thing?

 

Gold

[Nickisimo]

I'm not so sure about the MOS deal...I usually give my soldiers tags like Sct or Snp just to remind myself of their most useful stat, but often my guys just do whatever needs to be done, sort of a vanilla army like that. MOS's would be good if they gave specific bonuses based on job, like +20% TU's to scouts, +20% accy to snipers, etc, but that sounds like a V1.0+ thing...maybe I'm wrong.