Okay so my initial idea was to try and implement a class system (aka heavy/scout/medic ect)
so my immediate idea was stat buffs through armor, not enough to make a massive difference to survivability, but stats that help gear a soldier toward a certain style... heavies get extra strength to equip the weapon and ammo and still move around, that kinda thing.
so here's what i've got so far.
Assault kit: +15Reactions/+10throwAcc/+5Bravery trained and equipped for breaching/ambush tactics
maybe +15 reactions is a *tiny* bit OTT... but the idea is more to prevent reaction fire when entering through doors or corners... good for alien ships or terror missions where there's a lot of tight spaces and close quarters and stuff. or set up ambushes of your own. the throw accuracy gives it the option of being a grenadier aswell/instead.
heavy kit: +15Strength/-25Reactions/-10TU trained to handle heavy weapons and equipment
+15 strength is more than enough to heft around anything and a reload... its probably OTT but it's a good starting point, things can always be tweaked. The drop in reactions is probably more personal preference, but the idea is it stops the soldier taking risky reaction shots with a rocket launcher and potentially killing himself, his team mates, civilians... and anything else unfortunate enough to be in the radius. the minus TU is purely a movement balance, since low TU's dont affect shooting cus it uses a percentage.
scout kit: +20TU/+30Stam/-10Reactions trained to move through terrain and quickly cover ground
the idea here is the extra tu's give the unit the option to either use tools like a medkit or scanner. or cover more ground, allowing you to decide if you just want a recon unit or to be a medic, the extra stam makes sure he is able to move for longer before having to take a break. And a drop in reactions hopefully offsets the pretty big TU boost.
sniper kit: +20acc/-20TU trained for long range interdiction. The trade off here is you give up a lot of TU's, making this class pretty static and preventing you from just pumping up a soldiers acc and running it off into battle.
Kevlar kit: +15HP/20armor/Resist AP20% standard issue kevlar protection
A basic kit for if you'd rather just have extra protection. I feel the problem with early game armor is it's either OP or pointless... when compared to alloy armor I mean. so I thought adding a little extra health instead might make the difference between surviving an early plas shot long enough to use a medkit. and the AP resist is more a counter measure against friendly fire... again, it won't stop you dying, but you'll survive a shot or two (probably... hopefully...maybe...) since early game psi aliens can force your rookies and psi weaklings to run off and commit regicide... thats mainly what the AP resist is for o_o
I also had the idea of adding alloy armor variants that basically give the same stats, but with added armor.
The problem with this is not being able to identify classes on battlescape. each class would need spritework. the xcom jumpsuit has a red/blue patch on each arm. I was thinking each class could have it's own patch colour, red/blue/green/black. the same could be done for alloy armour too.
I don't really think there should be power armor versions since all that armor+flight is more than good enough on its own. Plus by that point you should have a decent amount of trained soldiers
The current ruleset's attached, thoughts? ideas? criticisms? improvements? help?? O_o
I know stats on armor isn't new, neither is the idea of classes, but as far as I know, it hasn't been implemented.
EDIT - I've just started messing with the inventory images, so far I've got the jumpsuits prepped, changes the patches on the arms from red+blue to red, blue, green, brown, yellow and blank. They show up very nicely. it's a small change but since this is new ground for me... I feel particularly pleased >.>
