That sounds totally crazy and out of left field
But I think it should be possible to adjust "the cut" for what kind of soldier talent you're looking for. If only the overall quality of their roster sheet.
I look for basically 3 stats when looking at a soldier's sheet (in this order) - Firing Accuracy, Strength, Time Units.
Guys with Firing Accuracy in the 40s or strength of 22 or less I immediately sack and hire another soldier. Either that or they go to one of the backup "storage" facilities to just stand guard in case of a base attack (standard outlay for those bases is 10 soldiers + 4 HWPs).
I do think you should be able to set a slider (maybe 3 levels) of training quality for soldiers, with an initial Signing Bonus for those who are gifted. Then basically out of the box you have a soldier who might be advanced as if he had already gone on 3-5 or 5-8 missions already.
* Normal - As per default
* Intermediate - +$30,000 signing bonus, higher expectations (most stats will be decent or good for a starting squaddie, they dont have any dump stats).
* Professional - +$100,000 signing bonus. Highest standard, most stats near the highest likely in each category for a starting soldier under normal conditions (TU near 70, good reactions, firing accuracy near 70, strength near 40, etc). You still get a random amount though, and you cannot control psi strength (because who would know such a thing exists?)
So you would really be paying through the nose for a soldier who will likely die from being shot once, but at later points in the game when you have $10 Million or more, and you really need those guys to hit their targets and carry alot of crap . . . its more than worth it to hire GOOD soldiers who can get the job done.
This in contrast to ordering an HWP for the price of ten soldiers, which will not gain veterancy, and has such a big bullseye on it that it will be the first to go down even though it has good armor.
