Historian

I was thinking of ways to improve the experience/level system. I always thought that the programmers didn't make it as good as it deserves. So this is what I've come up. First of all, There is another rank in Stats: Superhuman. Soldiers are not able to reach a stat in Super-Heroic or Superhuman normally, they must use cybernetic implants. Now, each time a soldier levels, he gains his normal point, but that point does not provide the usual increases. Rather, the soldier must choose a training course in order to use that level. Thus a soldier may train ONLY after he's gotten a level and only once per level gained BUT he can take the same training course over many levels (Becoming a great sniper or medic) and this is actually a prequisite for the Advanced and Elite Trainings. There are three types of Training: Basic, Advanced and Elite. -Basic Training is easy and quick. It just focuses the soldier's recent experience in practical stuff. Basic Training takes only 6 hours and doesn't have high prequisites. -Advanced Training is a bit harder, forcing the soldier through rigorous exercises and demanding a very good knowledge of his subject. Advanced training takes 12 hours and has Basic Training level prequisites and need some good stats. -Elite Training is only for the best of the best. Few Soldiers ever achieve the mental and physical state required to take even one course and fewer even understand them. Elite Training takes one full day and has high Stat and Advanced Training prequisites. As you can see below, Each Training is followed by it's prequisites, and then by the bonuses it gives. Obviouly the pluses don't take you from say "Poor" to "Average" but rather give you, a small tick in that line you see when you go up a level. The Cybernetics Implants are a small exception. They don't have any prequisites but they have two limitations a) You need to manufacture an implant before it is used by a soldier B) "Training" for an implant takes many days (For the soldier to recover from the surgery and get used to his new powers) Also, Cybernetics must be researched before they can be used and there may be a research that improves the cybernetics with Alien Technology. Training Programs Basic Training --- - Soldier (Avg Dex/Avg Ag/Avg St): Rifles +1, Handguns +1, Hit Points +1, Dodge +1, - Scout (Avg Per/Avg Ag/Avg Int): Stealth +1, Observation +1, Hit Points +1, Speed +1, - Scientist (Avg Will/Avg Int/Avg Dex): Aliens +1, Medical +1, Hit Points +1, Dodge +1, Advanced Training --- - Grenadier (Good St/Good Ag/Soldier 2): Stealth +1, Throwing +2, Speed +1 - Sniper (Good Dex/Good Per/Soldier 2/Scout 2): Markmanship +2, Observation +1, Aliens +1 - Grunt (V.Good St/Soldier 1): Launchers +2, Capacity +2 - Medic (Good Int/Good Will/Soldier 1/Scientist 2): Medical +2, Speed +1, Handguns +1 - Psionic (V.Good Will/Good Int/Scientist 4): Psi Power +2, Aliens +1, Dodge +1 - Ranger (Good Ag/Good Will/Scout 2/Scientist 1): Medical +1, Capacity +2, Rifles +1 - Urban Training (Good Int/Scout 4): While in Urban Terrain - Speed +4, Stealth +4, Observation +4, Dodge +4 - Can only be trained once. - Biomass Training (Good Int/Scout 3/Scientist 1): Same as above but for biomass terrain Elite Training --- - Black Ops (Heroic Will/Ext Ag/v.Good Dex/V.Good Int/Psionic 4/ Soldier 4): Psi Power +2, Rifles +2, Capacity +1 - Psi Resistance +10% - Marksman (Heroic Dex/Ext Will/Ext Per/Sniper 4/Ranger 3): Markmanship +2, Aliens +2, Speed +1 - All non marskman weapon ranges increased by 50% - While using a markmanship weapon, opponent's resistance is at -20%. - Tough (Heroic St/Heroic Will/Grunt 6): Capacity +2, Hit Points +3 - All non-psi Resistances +5% (max 80%) Cybernetic Implants - Biomechanical Leg Muscles: Agility +1, Speed +1, Capacity +1 (4 Days Training) - Biomechanical Arm Muscles: Strength +1, Throwing +1, Capacity +1 (4 Days Training) - Cybernetic Eye: Dexterity +1, Observation +1, Markmanship +1 (4 Days Training) - Biomechanical Heart: Hit Points +3, Speed +1 (3 Days Training) - Nanotech Nerve Enhancement: Perception +1, Dodge +1, Handguns +1 (3 Days Training) - Titanium Enhanced Skeleton: Capacity +2, Hit points +3 (6 Days Training) - Nanotech Brain Stimulants: Willpower +1, Intelligence +1 (5 Days Training) - Nanotech Pain Killers: Hit Points +2 (2 Days Training) All these are just a sample, we could easily have dozens of these. Well, what do y'all think? I think this game has just too much potential. Having cool R&D with customizable killing machines was always cool. Even if Altar doesn't make it like this is the sequel, do you think we can make a mod for this? I certainly would like to try my hand on it. Legend: St = Strength Ag = Agility Dex = Dexterity Per = Perception Int = Intelligence Will = Willpower Lvl = Level Aw = Awful Avg = Average Ext = Excellent

Make transgenant Research giving extra damage potential against researched trangenants except just telling you their armor or/and a Trangenant Training, giving soldiers trained extra damage against trangenants you've researched (Requiring V.Good Perception, Good intelligence and Good dexterity) Anti-Alien Armor Weaponry Special weapons designed to short circuit the alien armor and make it damage the user. More effective against more advanced alien armors and completely innefective against trangenants Power Armor Heavy Armor utilizing the shield technology of the alien armor. (Looks like a living Heavy armor.) It is highly resistant to almost anything but it takes ages to manufacture and is very heavy and cumbersome Biomass/Urban/Wilderness Training Gives extra observation,stealth and speed while on that terrain (Requires Average Intelligence, V.Good Agility and Good Perception) Make Psi Control Weaker and Psi Damage better. Alien missions get VERY easy once you manage to take control of Aliens. Furthermore, Psi Stingers, Psi Rifles and Psi Crushers don't do enough damage and don't have enough range to be useful. Make it so that it gets back to shooting the opponent rather than just controlling every alien you see and disarming it. Make Soldiers to have to undertake special Training in order to be able to use psi weapons. Add a recon option to missions. When a new mission is announced, the player has the chance to perform a recon. It takes some time (like about 12 hours) but when it is complete it gives a difficulty for the mission (easy-medium-tough). Easy would be something that you could delegate and have something like a 70% success. Medium is something that Delegate would find it hard but it would be normal for your special squad. Hard is unlikely to succeed if delegated (something like 5% success) and quite tough for your team. You could then have more research and technologies (like researching better recon procedures, develop sattelites or spy planes etc) and they would increase the chance for the recon to succeed and/or reduce the time it takes. Leadership. Allow units that gain much experience to become leaders. You could assign leaders to bases to give bonuses, and leaders would give bonuses to rookies around them. For example, a high Level scientist would be assigned to a research base, increasing its output. A high level soldier would give +1 combat bonus to all units of level 4 or less. Garrisons. Give more recruits to the player and have him make garrisons at his bases. If a ufo attacks, and the squad does not arrive very quickly, the garrison must fight alone. Otherwise it will help with the ensuing battle. Cybernetics. Have another field of research and manufacture. Cybernetic implants. You will have a vary basic technology at the start of the game that you could evolve with research and alien power sources etc. You could then manufacture cybernetic stuff and equip them to your soldiers (Or have them as training options). The Trick is, that cybernetics are one time only. You cannot remove a cybernetic, you may only uprgade it. Androids. Since the game lacks tanks, how about Andoids? Have a research field that deals with this technology. Then you would be able to "Create" soldiers. These would be very tough (With something like innate +60% Resistance to Soft and 40% to hard, invunerable to psi etc) but they would gain only 20% exp (increased with more research on AI) and would only be able to walk...And they would be expensive as hell to make. Base Configuration: One of the few things i'd like to see imported from Xcom. Have the ability to customize your bases, even a bit. Things you could customize to a base would be: Turrets: Construct turrets that are placed by you in strategic points around the base that automaticaly shoot aliens that come in view (Many different types of turrets too) Teleporters: Have the choice to place the teleporter(s) yourself. (If possible) Full placement of Research, Development and Hangar rooms a well as radars, Storehouses, Alien Containments etc (But that may be just too much to ask for)