Soldier training

[LV476]

Thanks for making this game - I've been playing it for a month now. In the original X-Com wasn't there training options for soldiers? In the present game whenever I get new recruits they are pretty useless in skills -usually Mediocre or Average at best. Are these the best troops around??? I'd like a training option and /or some kind of displayed potential for each to see what each soldier may be best at.

Secondly, is there an accessible file for inputting my own random soldier names or do I just have to change the names when they arrive? Is there any way of adding music tracks to game play?

[geever]

Training facility is a planned feature but not implemented. It is not the highest priority now, rather a side feature so probably it won't happen soon (TM) (unless a volunteer pop up and do it).

Soldier names: You can create a directory named ufos under the base directory of the installation folder (where you find some.pk3 files) and put a modified version of this file under that. (Use the same filename to override the packed version). To find your installation directory check our FAQ.

Musics: Like soldier names create music directory and put your files inside in OGG format. MP3 will NOT work most probably.

I hope I could help.
-geever

[jcjordan]

Not to totally hijack the thread but I've been thinking of making my own name file & have a question. Can you make it where certain names come from certain countries based on countries the recruits come from when they come into the pool?

[geever]

Not to totally hijack the thread but I've been thinking of making my own name file & have a question. Can you make it where certain names come from certain countries based on countries the recruits come from when they come into the pool?

Nope, sorry. There is a FR about that on the tracker for ages IIRC. But it is just such a small detail it never got to the top of the queue..

-geever

[cevaralien]

Thanks for making this game - I've been playing it for a month now. In the original X-Com wasn't there training options for soldiers? In the present game whenever I get new recruits they are pretty useless in skills -usually Mediocre or Average at best. Are these the best troops around??? I'd like a training option and /or some kind of displayed potential for each to see what each soldier may be best at.

Secondly, is there an accessible file for inputting my own random soldier names or do I just have to change the names when they arrive? Is there any way of adding music tracks to game play?

I solve the soldiers bad stats modifying it at ufo files. In fact, it is supposed that Phalanx uses trained soldiers from the eigth countries of the world, so, a soldier with bad stats is improbable.

[TallTroll]

>>  In the present game whenever I get new recruits they are pretty useless in skills -usually Mediocre or Average at best.

Earlier versions did have "specialist" and "elite" recruits who had improved scores for some or all stats. I think that still exists in the game files, but currently it is set to 100% "average" recruits. If you dug around and found the files, you could resurrect the other types, and set their chance to spawn etc. Pretty sure there are some old threads on it *somewhere* on the forum, but I couldn't immediately find them, sorry.

As an aside, I have suggested a "Requisition Points" system, where the player would gain a bit more control over what mix of resources they gained at month end (ie in the late game, trade all the now useless pilots and rubbish recruits for 2 or 3 actually good ones, or ask for extra cash one month because you want to finance a new base more quickly, at the expense of your manpower, etc), but I never wrote it up as an FR or anything. I dunno, maybe I should

[anonymissimus]

My nations are all exuberant and I still get mediocre recruits too. There seem to be more recruits, but not better ones. There's definitely a difference to 2.4 in 2.5. The most annoying skill is strength, even colonels still can't wear a power armor most of the time. Unless they wield a lightweight weapon such as a laser rifle.
However, it seems that a few missions are enough to train a recruit to a soldier that can wear the nanocomposite armor, a medkit and a few grenades, as it seems they increase their stats more the lower they still are. There are some maps which are ideal as training missions, "Country Desert" and "African Desert" for instance, which don't have any civilians. Carrying more stuff increases strength more is written in the help (should I overload them ?), and using several shots to kill something that can be safely killed that way should train more than using a single shot.

[Sarin]

I found that you need to keep a close eye on who you recruit. I filtered the pool every month (you can permanently dismiss a soldier by right clicking on the hire/unhire checkbox) and kept only soldiers that had 32+ strength, 20+ speed and accuracy and 30+ mind, and chose my teams from that. First few months were tight on soldiers, but then I had a good selection of soldiers that quickly grew into kickass colonels. But I agree, strength is definitely most problematic skill.

[anonymissimus]

Instead of dismissing any soldier, it's better to let sheevars waste their plasmablades on them. Evil tactics, but cannonfodder  tactic is much more reliable than reaction fire for saving valuable soldiers.
I've read somewhere that the mind stats determine how quickly they improve. Say, a soldier with mind 50 gets 2 additional points of strength for a kill and one with 30 only gets 1 or so. But I couldn't observe such effect yet. On the other hand, a soldier with starting strength 39 seems to improve strength as quickly than another one with starting strength 30 at the beginning (so it appears to be based on what strength they already got by experience, not what they had originally).

[Sarin]

Yep, the speed of improvement is determined by mind stat and difference between current and starting value. Best observed when you change soldier's weapon type after he gained decent mind and weapon skill, you'll see the second weapon skill improving faster.