[Answered][Question] Should the soldier bonuses stack?

[Juku121]

2. Same tier "Master of %weapon%" and "Bane of %race%" commendations do not stack

I would like to re-raise this issue. Doesn't seem to have been answered, at least not in public.

[Meridian]

I would like to re-raise this issue. Doesn't seem to have been answered, at least not in public.

Soldier bonuses of the same type (regardless whether from transformations or from commendations) currently don't stack.

Not exactly sure if that's a feature or a bug. (I'll need to dig deeper in history)

Opinions?

[The Martian]

Soldier bonuses of the same type (regardless whether from transformations or from commendations) currently don't stack.

Not exactly sure if that's a feature or a bug. (I'll need to dig deeper in history)

Opinions?

I would like them to stack if possible.

Although to keep support for mods that already are using this feature and count on them not stacking, perhaps there could be a toggle for how they operate?

[Mathel]

Soldier bonuses of the same type (regardless whether from transformations or from commendations) currently don't stack.

Not exactly sure if that's a feature or a bug. (I'll need to dig deeper in history)

Opinions?

The current situation is rather confusing.
They do not stack when they are the same level, but do stack when different levels.

I think they should always stack, and it should be up to the mod maker if they include the option of having several commendations of the type.
But never stacking would still be better than the current mess.

[The Martian]

They do not stack when they are the same level, but do stack when different levels.

Do you mean that a bonus of 2 will not stack with another bonus of 2, but a bonus of 2 will stack with a bonus of 4?

If so I'll take any stacking I can get so that is welcome.

[Meridian]

They do not stack when they are the same level, but do stack when different levels.

Soldier bonuses don't have any levels.
And they never stack.

What you see just looks like stacking. But it's different soldier bonuses corresponding to various levels of soldier commendations.

The current situation is rather confusing.

I can definitely agree with that.

[Juku121]

Well, right now we have what's essentially certain commendations sometimes stacking and sometimes not stacking, depending on whether they reference the same bonus or different bonuses (due to being the same/different level of a "multi-commendation", for lack of a better term).

Personally, I would prefer that bonuses remain generally unstackable, but this specific case where you can define a whole family of commendations in one go would also automagically create a corresponding family of no-longer-identical sets of soldier bonuses.

[DoxaLogos (JG)]

Would it be better to add a rule to a commendation that can specify which commendation it supercedes (i.e. Commendation B supercedes Commendation A, so don't stack A+B)? 

If no rule is specified then commendations stack by default.

[Meridian]

but this specific case where you can define a whole family of commendations in one go would also automagically create a corresponding family of no-longer-identical sets of soldier bonuses.

Yeah, we have enough headaches with automagical commendations.
I'm not going to do automagical soldier bonuses... that's the very last option for me.

My preference would be to just stack them.
We do keep full track of them in the save file since the beginning, they can be duplicated (both via transformation and commendations).
The "non-stacking" happens when we calculate and cache the the bonuses per soldier (we didn't do that at the beginning, it was introduced later for performance reasons).
It could be that they stacked initially, I'll check the history tomorrow/later.

[Meridian]

Would it be better to add a rule to a commendation that can specify which commendation it supercedes (i.e. Commendation B supercedes Commendation A, so don't stack A+B)? 

If no rule is specified then commendations stack by default.

Please forget about the commendations, adding anything there will not solve the issue.
Soldier bonuses can come from more places than just from commendations.

We need to solve it on the soldier bonuses level.

[Juku121]

Yeah, we have enough headaches with automagical commendations.

If so, then full stacking seems preferable.

Did a modder ever use the non-stacking functionality?

[Mathel]

If so, then full stacking seems preferable.

Did a modder ever use the non-stacking functionality?

Dioxine used it for the Nepotism soldier bonus in XPiratez. A gal can get nepotism any number of times, costing you money each time, but it does not stack.

[Meridian]

Soldier bonuses of the same type (regardless whether from transformations or from commendations) currently don't stack.

Not exactly sure if that's a feature or a bug. (I'll need to dig deeper in history)

I checked the previous implementations, and can confirm they never stacked.

Also found the original specification, which states they don't stack:

Soldiers can now collect bonuses.
Bonuses can be manually awarded by the player via soldier transformations; or automatically awarded together with a soldier commendation/medal.
Bonuses of the same name/type don't stack.
(Different bonuses changing the same attributes do stack.)

[Juku121]

Well, that answers the question whether it's a bug - it is not. It still remains open whether bonuses should stack, unless I'm missing something?

Right now, it seems far, far easier to split something like this Nepotism into two bonuses, one that can be stacked (heh) and doesn't give a stat bonus, and one that cannot and does give that intended-to-be-nonstackable bonus... than it is to manually create differently named and thus stackable bonuses by item/enemy names for all the gazillion weapons/enemies around, one by one. Which is the one way I can see the current state of the game allowing stacking weapon bonuses, and I don't think any big mod is going to go with that.

[Meridian]

The original question/report is answered and closed.

The new question whether it should be changed is open.