Hi,
TBH I like the idea of a specialization but not the idea of a personnel file. They are only expendable grunts, after all. Besides, I don't like eye candy that gets in the way of game play because I'll eventually start to ignore it.
You know, like the advisors in Civilization... useful when you're starting out, but intrusive if you know what you're doing; any serious long term player turns them off.
When I was first playing UFO:AI I researched weapons that I never, ever tried out in the field, simply because I was trying to learn too many things at the same time. I had workshops and labs on the go, missions to do... I just didn't have the time to figure out through trial and error, if it's worth my while giving that rather phallic-looking heavy plasma weapon to my machine gun totin' Rambo dude, or should I give it to my rocket launcher dude instead.
That is why I was talking about the Equip screen iterating through a character's stats, finding the highest one, then iterating through the list of weapons available for everything with a fire method that best fits that skill, and sticking the list on a "Recommended" tab.
You don't have to be anal retentive about explaining the fire mode: "look mate, this guy's a sniper, so here is a sniper rifle, TIP: don't use the sniper rifle like a baseball bat.". I'm sure they can figure out which fire mode is best, once they're on a mission. The problem's not figuring out the fire mode, it's knowing if I've got the right guy for the right weapon.
What weapons should my favorite arsonist upgrade to, once he's got bored with his flame-thrower? God knows, so he's still using that while everyone else is on alien-inspired tech.
Even now I'm minded to ask, what the heck do you need to fire the plasma ball, because I've given that weapon to everyone with every skill rating in my elite squad and not one of them can hit a building at ten paces using that fire mode.
Maybe I need to hire a different grunt to make it worth having...
