I read through a few posts that almost fit the concept of what I have in mind. But instead of necro-ing an old thread and derailing it, I decided to start a fresh one.
Similar to what szopen mentioned about wanting more "personality" in soldiers instead of indistinguishable grunts, how random traits for each soldier with a 1% chance of a second random trait (elites). I'm still trying to figure the appropriate values based on what I've experienced so far and trying to keep it balanced.
Possible traits:
Triggerhappy - Reduce TU cost of shot by 10%. Reduce accuracy by 10% and hard cap at 80%. (Can be crouching behind an obese Ortnok in broad daylight and still only have 80% accuracy) NOTE: Not sure if a fixed value for TU cost reduction might be better than a percentile. E.g - reduce TU cost by 2 as opposed to reduce TU cost by 20%.
Ford tough (or ironman) - Reduce total TU by 20%. Take damage proportional to HP but hard cap at 80% reduction. (less HP, less damage taken)
X Specialist - Extra 5% accuracy and XP gain with weapon X. X=Close, Assault, Heavy, Snipe, Explosive
Fragorphile - Extra 30% damage with explosive weapons, less 30% damage with everything else. (Latin: fragor=explosion phile=lover)
PhD (suggestions welcome for this one) - Reduce TU cost for medikit by 25%(or 5 TU). Reduce XP gained by 50%. (because 10 TU reduction would be borderline broken IMO, unless medikit system is changed)
Athlete - Extra 20% XP gain for primary stats (Str, Speed, Mind?) and less 20% XP gain from weapon skills.
Emo - Access to special sound files when hit with examples like: "Why ME!?!", "Always the little guy.", *frustrated groan*, *whimper*, "So... dark.... "(death)
OK, that last one was a joke but I needed a change of pace.
Fast learner - Extra 5% XP gain all round.
Pyromaniac - Extra 20% damage with the flamer. (Would be kinda OP if it included incendiary grenades) Less 20% damage with everything else.
Hyper - Increase total TU by 20%. Increase morale adjustments by 40%. E.g - normal soldier loses 10 morale for getting hit, a Hyper-trait soldier would lose 14.
Brute - Extra 25% damage with melee, less 20% accuracy with ranged weapons.
Femme fatale - Extra 10% accuracy with sniper and close. Less 10% accuracy with heavy and explosive.
Here are some of the ideas I pummeled out of my head. To be honest, I'm not even sure if they can easily be coded in so feel free to whap me upside the head if they're too much work.