As we had the discussion about color schemes for different alien ranks here
https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php/topic,737.0.html
I always wondered how even the dumbest Rookie who had never seen an alien before could easily identify it's rank as soon as he was standing over a stunned one.
My suggestion:
A) give the different ranks some differences in color (only partly explains how the rookie could identify the rank of an unknown alien species)
B) treat stunned aliens like alien artifacts - as long as they are not researched only the species should be displayed in the inventory screen - like in corpses.
This would make it harder to catch the desired ranks as you'd only know what you caught after completing the mission.
I know replying to a topic 6 months old is kinda stupid but I want to put my $0.02 to the point and this topic fits the theme perfectly.
Basically I also wondered how on earth the soldiers/scientists manage to identify the alien ranks without even without taking a closer look at them before. Have the aliens written their ranks at their foreheads? Or is an unconscious alien repeating its rank constantly in human-understandable language until it wakes up or dies?
My idea would be that the aliens should have their ranks hidden no matter whether researched or not. This is because the rank is stored in the alien's mind and you can't simply peek into its mind without special equipment.
To identify the rank you would:
1. Use a Mind Probe. This peeks directly into the mind of the alien, allowing it to extract the rank out of it.
2. Mind control the alien. This also extracts the rank out of the mind of the alien (Psi-Amp also acts as a supercharged Mind Probe of some sort).
Once identified the alien rank would remain known until your soldiers lose sight of the alien. Once they lost their sight from the alien, they would have to identify that alien again (by using Mind Probe on it or mind controlling it).
Additionally, the scientists would require the alien rank to be already identified on the field in order to perform the rank specific part of their interrogation. An unidentified rank would give only information about the alien species and nothing more.
I believe this would finally give the players a reason to research and use the Mind Probe in the field. I personally felt the Mind Probe to be pretty underused.
