4. Soldiers

[Fnurg]

Index :

• 4.1 Levels
  
• 4.2 Attributes
  
• 4.3 Skills
  
• 4.4 Training
  
• 4.5 People (Soldier templates)
  

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4.1 Levels

 

A soldier's level is increased every time he gets the experience required. Experience is collected during missions and it is not known how the game calculates it. The level serves as a number of points that gets distributed over the soldiers attributes. The minimum level is 11 but the game subtracts this number from the level before it presents it.

 

Files:

 

\tactical\configs\game\listofexplevels.txt

This file holds the experience values for each character level

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4.2 Attributes

 

A soldier has six attributes, the physical attributes are strength, agility, dexterity and the mental attributes are willpower, intelligence and perception. ow good a soldier is at an attribute is represented by a value, each value has a name which is described in the table below.

 

0 Awful

1 Poor

2 Average

3 Good

4 Very Good

5 Excellent

6 Heroic

7 Super Heroic

8 Ultra Heroic

 

Ultra Heroic is never used for attributes, only for skills.

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4.3 Skills

 

There are 14 skills, actually there's 15 if you include melee, but melee is never used in the game. The skills describe how well a soldier is at a certain task. The skills are represented in the same way as attributes, so the above table is used here aswell. A soldiers skill is calculated from his attributes and his trainings, we'll get to the training later on. The formulas are very easy as you can see in this table:

 

(i will fix this table later)

Strength	Agility	Dexterity	Willpower	Intelligence	Perception	
Marksmanship    0.25	0.5 	 0.25	
Rifles 	 0.5 	 0.5   	 
Handguns 	 0.25	0.75     	 
Launchers	0.75     	 0.25 	 
Throwing	0.5	0.5       	 
             
Psi Power     	 0.5	0.5 	 
Hit Points	0.5 	 0.25	0.25   	 
Speed	0.25	0.5	0.25     	 
Dodging 	 0.25	0.25   	 0.5	
             
Observation       	 0.25	0.75	
Stealth   	 0.5   	 0.5	
             
Aliens       	 0.75	0.25	
Medical 	 0.25   	 0.75 	 
Capcaity	0.5   	 0.5    

So for example, a soldier of very good(4) agility and heroic(6) willpower will have a rifles skill of: 4*0.5 + 6*0.5 = 5.0 = Excellent. If the soldier instead had excellent agility he would have had 5*0.5 + 6*0.5 = 5.5, now this number needs to be rounded to an integer value, the rounding method used in the game rounds 5.5 to 5, NOT 6. So the soldier would still have an Excellent rifles skill.]

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4.4 Training

 

There are 7 trainings available in the game, every skill trains the soldier in 4 skills, however a soldier can only be trained once in every skill. This table describes what trainings effect what skills.

 

	Marksmanship	Rifles	Handguns	Launchers	Throwing	Psi Power	Hit Points	Speed	Dodging	Observation	Stealth	Aliens	Mecical	Capacity	
Sniper	x	x             	 x     	 x	
Soldier 	 x	x     	 x	x           	 
Grenadier     	 x	x 	 x           	 x	
Psionic         	 x   	 x	x 	 x   	 
Scout           	 x	x 	 x	x     	 
Medic               	 x 	 x	x	x 	 
Scentist       	 x       	 x 	 x 	 x

 

From this table it is easy to see that every training except scientist trains at least one skill that no other training also trains. It also makes you wonder what it is about a scientist that makes him good at throwing.

 

The skills also have certain predefined attribute limits that must be met before the soldier can have that training.

  Strength	Agility	Dexterity	Willpower	Intelligence	Perception	
Sniper     	 Average (2)	Average (2)	Good (3)	
Soldier	Average (2)	Average (2)	Average (2)     	 
Grenadier	Good (3) 	 Good (3)     	 
Psionic     	 Good (3)	Very Good (4) 	 
Scout 	 Good (3)     	 Very Good (4)	
Medic   	 Good (3) 	 Average (2) 	 
Scientist       	 Very Good (4)	Good (3)

 

Files

 

tactical/configs/game/listofskills.txt

How the skills are calculated from the attributes is defined here.

 

tactical/configs/game/listoftrain.txt

The prerequisites and effects of trainings are defined here.

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4.5 People

 

There is a pool of people within the game from which a random entry is selected depending on location every time you get a new recruit.

 

The file is strategic\configs\listofpeople.txt and it is formatted like this:

 

LIST_OF_PEOPLE
 PEOPLE
   NAME "<string>"
   CALLSIGN "<string>"
   SEX {FEMALE,MALE}
   NATION {CH,FR,GE,IN,RH,RU,US}
   REGION {AF,AM,AS,EU}
   AGE <real value>
   TYPE {CPL,DIR,DMB,GRU,SCI,SIL,TEC}
   ACCENT {AFR,AUS,CHI,FRE,GER,IND,RUS,USD,USH}
   HEAD <>
   UNITTYPE {FEMALE,MALE,RETICUL}
   ARMOUR <armour string>
 END_OF_PEOPLE
 ..
END_OF_LIST_OF_PEOPLE

The armour field is only used for the two reticulans that you rescue on a mission.

[Aralez]

If you add entries to the listofpeoples.txt file you have to use a special pattern to make sure they will have voices ingame

 

e.g.:

 

PEOPLE

NAME "Malcolm McLean"

CALLSIGN "Malcolm"

SEX MALE

NATION US

REGION AM

AGE 25.0

TYPE DIR

ACCENT USH

HEAD "man14"

UNITTYPE MALE

END_OF_PEOPLE

 

The names of the soundfiles for the above soldier would start with US for the nation, then comes DIR for a type of class entry, then M for male, then USH for the accent. So all sound files for the soldier above would start with us_dir_m_ush_*******.wav

 

The two guys from the tutorial mission seem to have fixed positions in the listofpeople.txt-file. You can change every entry for them except the names, when you decide to do so, the tutorial mission will be started with two guys and no-one to pick up.

 

Atm (v1.2) you can't add "sound-patterns" because you will get the infamous head-template 109 error. I tried this with my cyborg-addon. The only workaround for this is to edit a savegame manually.

 

If you decide to add reticulans to the list: They only will show up in the "rescue of the grey" mission and will be used randomly.

 

You can add humans with reticulan heads in the listofpeople.txt, BUT you have to use males as body , because the reticulan models don't have a female version and as a result the reticulan head on a female body will be "misplaced" and seems to float nearby the body then. This fits with other armours, too. I tried to put a female head on a TUMOUR body and had the same problem.