Training Room

[LuckyLindy]

After thinking about it, I wanted put Baldur Prime's request for a training room for soldiers in its own topic.

[H-Hour]

Training room has about a dozen of its own topics.

[Gren]

Training room has about a dozen of its own topics.

Tried to search on this but not finding very much... what's the decision on a Training or Skills Development utility for soldiers? Any links to a discussion would be cool.. thanks 

[H-Hour]

This forum template automatically searches in your current location, so you're probably just not searching for "training room" at across all the forums. Here are a few.

[Gren]

  Cool - Interesting topics..

Thanks H-H... 

[Ichthyic]

all of those are old topics HH.

it's time for a new one; hell, even the most recent one of those hasn't had anything posted in 4 months!

I had a similar set of building ideas for training, but each would be limited to one type of training regime, so people would have to choose carefully how much space to devote.  All would be 2 space buildings (like workshop).

1.  Obstacle course (or climbing wall):
   -trains 1 point of strength and speed per month for troops stationed at that base.

2.  Firing Range:
   -trains 1 point of accuracy per month for troops stationed at that base.

3.  Boom Room:
   -trains 2 points explosive skill per month for troops stationed at that base.

4.  Dojo:
   -trains 2 points close combat skill per month for troops stationed at that base.

5.  Rooftop:
   -trains 2 points sniper skill per month for troops stationed at that base.

6.  Tank Busters:
   -trains 2 points heavy weapons skill per month for troops stationed at that base.

etc...

one might take the time to actually build a base mostly devoted to training, and rotate troops through for a couple months stay for example.

[Gren]

Wasn't really thinking of anything quite so elaborate Ich... perhaps an extra tab on the Employees page of a base labelled 'Training' and maybe an option to commit soldiers to training on one of the skills for short period. Once committed, the Soldier is not available for other duties, like missions or base defence. Something like this may cut down selection time too at each month-end when your new recruits come on-line. 

Maybe your list could be used for the skill selection to be trained on, but to try building extra buildings for training, I guess would be a little OTT. 

[Hertzila]

Wasn't really thinking of anything quite so elaborate Ich... perhaps an extra tab on the Employees page of a base labelled 'Training' and maybe an option to commit soldiers to training on one of the skills for short period. Once committed, the Soldier is not available for other duties, like missions or base defence. Something like this may cut down selection time too at each month-end when your new recruits come on-line. 

Sounds a lot like Jagged Alliance 2's training system while in the map screen.

[Gren]

Well it's not a new idea.. I don't really remember now, but perhaps it could have been used in the original UFO? 

[Nutter]

Icht:
 Not really sure but your suggestion kind of makes it sound like a bit of a waste of precious space.
 Though I guess you could shorten the periods to a week and combine it with Grens idea by giving an intensive training option at the employees screen.
 Say up to six or eight troops per room at a time. For a price, of course.
 They'd get somewhere between 1-2 points per week at everything in the standard version and about 3-5 in the intensive training. Heh you could add a specialised training option that'd give them a large gain at a particular skill too. All major values depending on sheer (bad) luck, of course.
 Of course both intensive and specialised would take them off mission duty for the duration of the training.
 Come to think of it, one could add skill degradation that would degrade at a slightly smaller rate as standard training would increase it. Of course, that'd mean troops stuck on permanent guard duty would simply have to have that thing. Especially since at least the folks I generally pick for that aren't really shining examples of PHALANX personnel to begin with.

Sounds a lot like Jagged Alliance 2's training system while in the laptop.

Wait, you can train them with the laptop?

[Hertzila]

Wait, you can train them with the laptop?

Sorry, I meant the map screen.

[Nutter]

Ah, Okay. Don't matter much anyway but yeah, you can give that order on the tactical as well anyway.

[TrashMan]

Sounds a lot like Jagged Alliance 2's training system while in the map screen.

And that system was awesome. Your elite soldiers would actually train less experienced ones.

[DarthLuca]

The benefits of training your troops are many:-
(Over and above 'Psi training' which is coming at some stage anyway - I believe)
It gives the player more choice (so adds depth) and they can improve what they believe will help his/her particular game or squad.
It would also make the player more commited to caring about his soldiers.
The character is away for several weeks and will miss missions thus giving other choices to be made.
They will cost money which can be adjusted for difficulty.
Training needn't cost space in the base either as soldiers could be sent on courses run outside of Phalanx. This would also be fairly simple to implement as far as I can see.
Training courses - Courses last between one week and a month and soldier is off base for the duration. Going on a course does not guarantee success or an increase in stats, especially once an individual starts to go beyond the 'norm'.
Available courses should include: Fitness (increases strength and/or Speed), Weapons training (Increases accuracy and or skill with specific weapon), Psych training (Increases mind).
Could also include: Medic (Increases ability to heal others).

[hitch-22]

Come to think of it, one could add skill degradation that would degrade at a slightly smaller rate as standard training would increase it. Of course, that'd mean troops stuck on permanent guard duty would simply have to have that thing.

I have to say that feels a little forced and more annoying than anything else, as there would likely be very little decision making and a ton of micromanaging. Running every soldier's regular training really isn't a job for strategic command. Seeing as our local version of SWAT spends 75% of their regular hours on training as a matter of course, I'd have to imagine this special force can manage such routines.

Of course, the game already totally breaks with reality in the sense that field experience gives such huge bonuses to weapons handling etc. I think we all realize that special forces snipers for example are first chosen from gifted marksmen and then trained to within an inch of their lives, so the game mechanism by which they become two times the shooters in a couple of months of active fighting is.. shall we say tolerable only because it's fun that our paper dolls gain skill points.

As for some guys being "weak", I like to imagine they're only weak compared to the other cream of the crop that's sent to this vital force defending THE ENTIRE PLANET, and actually they are all the "super soldiers" of their respective armed forces.

It might be a good idea to have alien and "new tech" weapons require special training, which would give using otherwise "free" alien weapons & ammo a cost - but that would be a major thing affecting balance and gameplay in many ways, so.. maybe not in the next 5 years?