[Lore] Where do Xcom agents get recruited from, exactly?

[Marrik]

This may be kind of an odd question, but I was wondering.

It seems like when you're starting out, Xcom is some kind of quasi-law enforcement agency, and then over time it morphs into a paramilitary organization that can operate anywhere and build bases anywhere from Washington DC to North Korea, but most of your recruits seem to be pretty terrible as far as basic combat skills, and they are just as likely to come from central Africa as from major powers. Is there any kind of in-universe explanation for that?

[Kozinsky]

Why do you think agents have terrible combat skills? In most cases, their minimum combat skills are slightly better than civilians (you can easily see that by examining the relevant files of mod).

I think agents are recruited from former cops, military, guards, and just physically tough people. About the same way agents are recruited in the movie "Men in Black" - "the best of the best of the best":

[Juku121]

Why do you think agents have terrible combat skills? In most cases, their minimum combat skills are slightly better than civilians

I think agents are recruited from former cops, military, guards, and just physically tough people.

Random civvie:
      tu: 35
      stamina: 65
      health: 30
      bravery: 40
      reactions: 30
      firing: 30
      throwing: 50
      strength: 20
      melee: 15

Survivalist:
      tu: 55
      stamina: 56
      health: 44
      bravery: 50
      reactions: 30
      firing: 33
      throwing: 35
      strength: 38
      melee: 40

Tough guy:
      tu: 40
      stamina: 65
      health: 30
      bravery: 50
      reactions: 30
      firing: 40
      throwing: 40
      strength: 30
      melee: 45

Police:
      tu: 54
      stamina: 48
      health: 35
      bravery: 50
      reactions: 40
      firing: 50
      throwing: 30
      strength: 30
      melee: 35

Bodyguard:
      tu: 52
      stamina: 75
      health: 40
      bravery: 50
      reactions: 45
      firing: 43
      throwing: 30
      strength: 40
      melee: 50

Garden-variety army grunt:
      tu: 50
      stamina: 70
      health: 35
      bravery: 60
      reactions: 35
      firing: 50
      throwing: 44
      strength: 36
      melee: 35

Special forces:
      tu: 58
      stamina: 85
      health: 45
      bravery: 80
      reactions: 45
      firing: 57
      throwing: 50
      strength: 44
      melee: 50

Average X-Com hire:
      tu: 50
      stamina: 52.5
      health: 30
      bravery: 35
      reactions: 45
      firing: 55
      throwing: 45
      strength: 30
      melee: 40

Agent reactions and firing/throwing are good. TU and melee are almost on par with other hardened individuals. Strength is so-so. Stamina is pathetic. Health somewhat less so, but still poor. Bravery? ROFL

Conclusion: Agents are hired from among medically discharged veterans (for physical or mental health).

How the heck X-Com gets its soldiers has been a long-established trope in X-Com fanfiction, with various more or less silly explanations getting offered.

The personnel article makes it sound like they're mostly recruited from among active-duty police detectives and intelligence people. Which really doesn't explain why they are out of shape and cowardly, but crack shots (comparatively, that is). Maybe all the ancient and modern conspiracies get every detective who's too slow on the trigger and not paranoid enough, but running away is useless?

[Saad]

From the X-COM: UFO Defense manual, it states that X-COM is a "multi-national" covert organization, and that they were "equipped with the world's finest pilots, soldiers, scientists, engineers, working together as one multi-national force". Remember that this is an international initiative, all nations are involved, as the aliens are a global threat.

Of course XCF, changes that slightly, by beginning small, but it eventually reaches what the manual describes.

Now for the matter of agent/soldier stats and abilities, well they would obviously have "the best of the best of the best", but in-game ..? I think it's just for game balance, it helps with the feeling of beginning small and gaining experience alongside your agents/soldiers, and also makes the player feel vulnerable against threats.

After all this game is meant to be challenging but fair, if you train your recruits and make sure they survive, then they'll (eventually) become the best.

[Fomka]

Let me add 2 cents. Recruits are picked mainly from the ones who have encountered paranormal activity and strictly from the ones who are loyal to governments and can handle top secret data. So I imagine that being a physically outstanding brave athlete doesn't grant you the recruitment offer. Being an ivestigator in good shape that works for FBI or CIA in the US or for FSB or GRU in Russia does. Such investigators, I imagine, spend much time beside the table working with evidence, some time at a shooting range and rarely go for field work.

X-COM Files Ufopedia's states "Our field operatives are normally recruited from various government agencies that focus on investigation or intelligence. Most natural candidates are those who were already exposed to paranormal activity in their previous employment. As professionals, they are trained to work in top-secret environments and were deeply screened for loyalty..." See X-COM Personnel

[Jimboman]

Recruits are picked mainly from the ones who have encountered paranormal activity

Sort-of like in the old film 'Them!' where a local policeman sees the giant ants and gets drafted into the unit that sets out to destroy them.  Or maybe like Daniel Jackson and Rodney McKay in the Stargateverse, who are scientists with no previous military experience and are inept with guns at the start, but in later episodes of SG-1 and Atlantis you see them using weapons quite efficiently to fight off the enemy.

[Solarius Scorch]

Yeah, something like that.

[krautbernd]

Judging by the stats either police force or military that didn't quite make the cut.

Judging by those who actually show up when you hire agents? A mix of special forces, civvies that lied on their application forms, homeless guys that randomly wandered onto the premises - and Cleetus who wants to avenge his abducted cows but can't hit the broad side of his own barn with a rocket launcher and is afraid of the dark, apparently.

The issue is that only the players units are generated with (a range of) randomized stats, while alien stats are fixed. I would love to see randomzied stats on aliens as well as "randomized" stat caps for soldiers, but as far as I can tell this would be a hell to implement.

[Juku121]

The issue is that only the players units are generated with (a range of) randomized stats, while alien stats are fixed.

I don't think it's a problem as such. It's an asymmetric solution to having a progressive variety of units on both sides. Aliens and other enemies have different types/races, X-Com has 'leveling up'.

I would love to see randomzied stats on aliens as well as "randomized" stat caps for soldiers, but as far as I can tell this would be a hell to implement.

Random stat caps for soldiers/agents already exist via scripting. Probably takes a bit to balance it for XCF, but doesn't look that hard.

But I wouldn't really like even remotely the same stat randomisation for enemies. Then visuals would lose a lot of their usefulness and e.g. the line between the different human conspiracies would blur to the point of quite a few of them being practically reskins of each other.

[Mrvex]

I would like randomization for human enemies too, not aliens cuz they are pretty much clones. Robots are products so they should be copy and paste to each other. Monsters could be randomized abit too.
Like cultists should vary excessively in their quality, i dont expect random hooligans, drug addicts and hobos to fire as well as trained police officers. Some of them would be better with a knife than a pistol instead of all 10 of them being average at both. Having tougher cultists with more HP, but being the first one to panic etc...

That being said if its even possible to have it for enemies ?

[Ranakastrasz]

In vanilla XCom, I would say Recalibrate your Expectations. We don't really know how long a turn is, and so it might be that you have an extremely short time to aim before firing. Given that a failed kill results in an alien spinning around and blasting you in half, it probably isn't very long.
Past that, Morale wise, I don't think most people are able to just ignore being shot and and seeing their friends, or teammates die easily and be uneffected, no matter how much soldiers are thought of as robotic, emotionless killers.

In The Xcom files, you have comparisons possible, but largely to Military, and Genetically/Psionically enhanced Cultists and Aliens. So again, hard to say if it is entirely accurate.

This being a turn-based game might make it feel like people have seconds to line up shots, especially with Aimed shots. However, that is a result of the Turn-based format, and so isn't accurate.

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I don't think variable enemies are possible, except maybe morale, via scripted morale damage, but I am not a modder for Xcom, so am only guessing.

[Juku121]

Having tougher cultists with more HP, but being the first one to panic etc...

How would you tell the difference? If not, how would it even matter while playing?

That being said if its even possible to have it for enemies ?

With scripts, probably? Sanity and flashbangs already do similar things.

[expectations]

My favourite explanation for the vanilla game is that a) alien anatomy is different and b) there's some techno-magic (genetically engineered thousands of years ago, maybe?) that makes even hardened humans freeze up when confronted with aliens. Can be adapted to once you know what it is.

Not really applicable to XCF, but we also have the gym now.

Past that, Morale wise, I don't think most people are able to just ignore being shot and and seeing their friends, or teammates die easily and be uneffected, no matter how much soldiers are thought of as robotic, emotionless killers.

Tell that to the Taliban. They had an entire cheerleading culture for getting shot up by American firepower. Humans are very adaptable and resilient.

In The Xcom files, you have comparisons possible, but largely to Military, and Genetically/Psionically enhanced Cultists and Aliens. So again, hard to say if it is entirely accurate.

You have a lot of civilian types to compare to as well. I just did so above. X-Com is still in a weird place, lore-wise, especially when it comes to stamina and bravery. Maybe it's intended, maybe it's just how things shook out.