In the original XCOM, I found the ability to alter names very helpful. As my soldiers progressed, I would add things like an * to their name when they hit 50 in Bravery… or + to their name when they hit 50 in Time Units. This let me look quickly at the roster when manning my squad and see who was best to fight against mind attacks, who had best mobility, etc. Much easier than opening each soldier’s skill chart to see who had what.
The same in XCOM2. I change callsigns around to reflect who is best for what and against certain threats.
Will we have the freedom to change names and/or callsigns?
I would expect so, yes. As for adding “markers” to soldier names, I think it will be better to come up with a set of useful stats to display near the soldier name when viewing the roster.
For those who don’t remember… here is the select squad screen. Adding “markers” made it easier to know each soldier’s abilities/skills without having to go to the roster screen and look individually.
Maybe something like a mouseover popup screen. Instead of having to close out of the roster select screen and then look at the soldier stat screen, when you hover your mouse pointer over an optional soldier a mini-screen popup appears showing all the stats and abilities for that soldier.
That popup is a really nice idea, but I do like also being able to rename my soldiers - It allows you to add a degree of personality once ‘Bumpy McSquiggin’ is on the battlefield.
But it was already confirmed that there will be many ways to customize your soldiers, changing names (as most basic one) included. Check FAQs, there are many interesting things Julian shared with.
