Really basic soldier skills. Is this possible?

[kikimoristan]

Playing XCom Enemy Unknown/Enemy Within I wonder if is possible at all to create a set of simple soldier skill for OpenXCom that will help them in battle.

Could be something really basic like stat strings.

For example when they advance or have a skill over a certain value they get certain abilities.

For example health over a certain value they bleed out for 3 turns first time they get killed and need to be stabilized with a medkit instead of dying right away.

TU over a certain amount lets them look around for free.

Reaction time over a certain amount will make them always ignore fist shot.

A strength over a certain amount will make heaviest item in hand  become  0 weight.

Bravery over a certain amount will make nearby allies not panic or will pacify panicking soldiers.

Throwing accuracy over a certain amount will make grenades cost less TU to prime and or throw.


...and so forth

[Shoes]

Possible yes, but it would require a significant amount of work I think. The game simply doesn't have anything like this built into it, so you would need to create everything from near scratch.

[kikimoristan]

I see. I mean I don't know how if skills are really worth it or not and would be worth that much wok at all. I guess is not possible at this time. I mean it is possible with a custom exe.

[Solarius Scorch]

This looks extremely gamey and not at all in the spirit of Gollop's system, which is smooth and scalable. I'm afraid it isn't a good idea.

[kikimoristan]

You're right. It was inspired after the new xcom.

[Solarius Scorch]

You're right. It was inspired after the new xcom.

But it's more of a jRPG-style game, way more abstract/puzzle. The original X-Com is a tactical squad game.

I'm not saying any of these is inherently better, I like puzzle games and jRPGs too, only that some solutions would not work in X-Com. I think.

[kikimoristan]

I just like the idea of having smaller teams more skilled and special soldiers . Makes the game a bit more tactical.

Even if the soldier gets roles like heavy, infantry , medic, engineer just like aliens would also be kinda cool. Like soldiers with high  certain skill heal 4 points more than regular soldiers. Soldiers with high TU get to fire their weapons at -5% TU cost. Soldiers with high accuacy get +5% ACC bonus on all weapons etc. Soldiers with high stamina get 1 TU cost per turning.

Or could even be when they get promoted they become certain roles medic engineer infantry and each role gets certain bonuses ?   That way you can make smaller teams etc

That way you kinda wanna match your skills with the equipment used.

[Solarius Scorch]

If we went down this road, I think it would be best to follow Jagged Alliance 2 as well as UFO: Aftershock and give everyone the entire skill list, just with different values (effectively enlarging the already existing stat screen). However, in these games there were some dependencies between stats/skills, for example both firing accuracy and medicine are related to manual dexterity, while dodge is related to agility... I doubt we could have this skill system without general stats. The X-Com model doesn't need them, because there are no real skills nor stats (only a clever mixture of both).

[kikimoristan]

oh yea jagged alliance so good. but then is no longer xcom is jagged alliance.  i really enjoyed playing JG 1 so much fun.

[kikimoristan]

here are some basic do-able skills off the bat  that apply to all units in the game. for aliens they spawn with these skills. xcom units have a randomly picked rank that  shown and enabled after first promotion.

soldier
doubles stamina energy recovery

engineer
priming grenades cost no TU

medic
doubles heal uses

navigator
bonus night vision for xcom
bonus day vision for aliens

leader
no penalty for dual wield

captain
doubles panic save rolls

etc ...just ideas. I kinda like the way game is right now  tho.

[Arthanor]

Most of those could be useful. I especially like the grenade and stamina ones.

More healing charges is kinda pointless though, I've never had a medikit run out (and you can always have other soldiers carry one). Dual-wield for leaders is also a bit weird and officers already grant a bonus to bravery.

Something like "lose less TUs from being overloaded" for a heavy might be cool. And "when using two pistols, firing one automatically fires the other with the most similar shot type possible" would be awesome for a gunslinger (there is currently little benefit to 2 pistols, except quickly switching weapons if you face vastly differing enemies).

[kikimoristan]

Hmm . I want these abilities to benefit anyone but not change the game dramatically. Only works for units with rank. Does not work on civilian, no HWP and no terror units.

Here is a different approach. Some units get team bonuses.

Soldier (same)
Stamina energy recovers twice as fast.
LOGIC: aliens already have pretty high stamina won't affect gameplay much.

Engineer (same)
Priming grenades costs 0 TU.
LOGIC: aliens usually use guns and don't really go tactical on grenades but don't have that many grenades to spare usually one or two per battle. Should not affect gameplay that much.

Navigator
Team can spot enemies shooting at  it from the cover of darkness. Enemies spotted that do not move stay spotted.
Is automatic if there is at least one navigator left in the team.
LOGIC: Sending troops to see where enemies are will now spot the enemies when they reaction shot . Will not affect gameplay much either as aliens already see 2 times better.
 
Medic
Team will patch fatal wounds once per soldier  per battle 4 turns from getting the wound.  It simply stops them from bleeding out and dying once per battle. But if they get fatal wounded again they are dead unless medipack healed. Health or morale loss or panic or any other effects still happen.
Is automatic if there is at least one Medic in the team.
LOGIC: Aliens are immune to fatal wounds and this will in fact make the aliens stay longer with Aliens suffer from fatal wounds option bringing it back to vanilla. Not much gameplay change. Huge gameplay change for XCOM though.

Leader
Team spends 0 TU on turning around. 
Is automatic if there is at least one Leader left in the team.
LOGIC: This would be useful when ur low on TU to face the enemy as front armor is best. You spend regular TU on everything else so is not that big a deal. You get a few bonus TU .

Captain
Items in hand cost no weight.
LOGIC: Aliens don't care about weight but XCOM does. Affects XCOM a lot! Makes you able to carry more items. This is the heavy.

Aliens that spawn in the above ranks get those bonuses.
XCOM have a random hidden stat that is revealed and enabled when they get promoted fist time. Their qualifications is denominated by alternative promotion insignia.

This is a mockup just thinking about it. What do you think?

[Solarius Scorch]

All these effects can only be called "magic".

New psionic powers maybe?

[kikimoristan]

haha. 

the ability to define your own psionic attack would be cool for sure.

[Yankes]

haha. 

the ability to define your own psionic attack would be cool for sure.

What kind of attacks? Some are possible in my Extended version. Psi-amp can do normal weapon damage and weapon damage can have some interesting options.
You can create psi-amp that can stun aliens, or freeze them (remove energy and current TU). Alternative you could put them on fire if you really want.

With attacks that consume energy you can create basic magic system.