Sodier specialisation

[evoron]

Can you imagine tactical simulator without military specialisations? Yes, you can. It's XCOM: UFO Defence.
Guys, common! It's year 2014.
We must have
1. Sniper (operative with fine accuracy and, WOW!, a Sniper Rifle!  SVD or AWP.
2. Support (operative with LMG-MMG (like M60 or PKM) and tons of cartriges.
3. Assault (operative with Assault Rifle like AKM (AK-47) or FN FAL).
4. Medic (operative will treat wounded soldiers).
AND
5. <insert Your terminator here>

We don't need even "classes" like Battlefield or Baldurs Gate. Just apropriate weapons and equipment. Just like Jagged Alliance games did.

[Falko]

i have specialisations :
boom-maker = blaster/rocket-launcher [+grenade launcher if i use this mod]
supporter = mindprobe/psi/highrank keeps in the back of the battlefield
spotter = rookie - only rifle
attacker = laserrifle/heavy plasma/ grenades
psi fodder =  no weapons/medikits let the aliens control them
[i tried a sniper mod but found it unbalanced for me]

they are not your specialisations but still specialisations

[Solarius Scorch]

No thanks, it's not an FPS

[niculinux]

No thanks, it's not an FPS

yep

[Sturm]

Any soldier with a few high skills and other medium/low is a specialist.

One thing that would be nice would be ability to define equipment sets and quickly assign them to soldiers.

[Solarius Scorch]

One thing that would be nice would be ability to define equipment sets and quickly assign them to soldiers.

Hmmm... If we could link equipment presets with Warboy's Statstrings, it could work. Not a bad idea.

[Arcalane]

Linking it to statstrings? Sounds awkward, and also not ideal for folks who either don't use them, or people who use their own unique designations and aren't interested in figuring out how to make the custom statstrings play nice with their own preferences. Why not have Save/Load Preset buttons off the Soldier Equipment/Inventory screen that can only be seen when using the Hangar/Craft loadout function?

Hit either button and it pops up a little screen/list like the save menu where you can create/delete/overwrite equipment profiles.

[Muukalainen]

Luckily OpenXcom does not limit you how you can equip your soldiers. You are free to make them specialize in any way you want.

[Vulgar Monkey]

Yep, I've always liked the idea of specialisms being down to an open interpretation of their stats by the commander. It's just one other thing you need to think about, and I like thinking.

What I will say, however, is that I personally never bothered with statstrings, and for purely cosmetic purposes it'd be nice if you had a separate UI element to indicate an assigned specialism, just as a nicety. To some extent the new abililty to colour-code armours may fill that role.

[El Yahpo]

Any soldier with a few high skills and other medium/low is a specialist.

One thing that would be nice would be ability to define equipment sets and quickly assign them to soldiers.

This sounds like the idea behind the soldier equipment templates.

[Muukalainen]

Yep, I've always liked the idea of specialisms being down to an open interpretation of their stats by the commander. It's just one other thing you need to think about, and I like thinking.

What I will say, however, is that I personally never bothered with statstrings, and for purely cosmetic purposes it'd be nice if you had a separate UI element to indicate an assigned specialism, just as a nicety. To some extent the new abililty to colour-code armours may fill that role.

Yes. This could be good idea. Let's say we had a collection of icons to select from. Crosshair, red cross, skull, brains, star... and these were shown with the soldier name.

Now I tend to put "a" for people with good reactions and "s" for accurate ones and it does look a bit silly.

[Hobbes]

Now I tend to put "a" for people with good reactions and "s" for accurate ones and it does look a bit silly.

"If it looks stupid but it works, then it ain't stupid"

I use A for reactions, S for firing, H for strength, R for TUs/Stamina, G for grenade tossing and C for cowards. So my soldiers can end up being "John Doe HSARGC"

[yrizoud]

IMO the experience system of UFO and OpenXcom works contrary to class specialization :
Put your more accurate soldier on sniper duty (heavy laser), and he'll get 1 or 2 shots per mission, no more.
Put your faster soldier in UFO entry duty, and he'll auto-shoot sectoids at point-blank range.
Over time, the second soldier will catch up and become a better sniper than the first.

[Muukalainen]

IMO the experience system of UFO and OpenXcom works contrary to class specialization :
Put your more accurate soldier on sniper duty (heavy laser), and he'll get 1 or 2 shots per mission, no more.
Put your faster soldier in UFO entry duty, and he'll auto-shoot sectoids at point-blank range.
Over time, the second soldier will catch up and become a better sniper than the first.

I looked at my soldiers. I did not see too much difference between my best snipers and assaults on how much they gained accuracy.

You probably need to snipe more Take the high ground, the best positions so they can at all situations provide support fire. Well not even support. They should be the main fire power you use as your assaults and scouts need to save time units for reaction fire if the aliens counter attack. Well at least that is my basic tactic.

Heavy laser? I can't remember using that too much on my snipers as it has lower accuracy than rifle or laser rifle.

On UFO duty soldiers don't live long and I rather send in my rookie assaults than the more experienced ones first, so I can have at least some experienced assault/scouts on the outdoors duty alive.

[yrizoud]

On the contrary, if I put even more soldiers on "sniper" role, they will get on average even less shooting experience - because there's still the same number of aliens in the open with no hard cover. The assaulters will have even more aliens to kill, and if they use rapid-fire low-damage weapons like pistol and laser pistol, they easily maximize shooting experience. If I follow the figures on Ufopaedia, such assaulter will progress 800% faster than a sniper who shoots twice and gets 2 kills (which is already pretty good for an average-size mission).