It doesn’t even need to be a deep feature. I just want to be able to have more of a chance at controlling the random personal trait selection for my soldiers. A training center that exchanges one of your random three, for a different one, for a cost. This is just an example. The actual implementation can be ANYthing at all, that Snapshot feels is fair, to allow the player the ability to exert a measure of control over those abilities. It can even be something you enable and disable in options, if it’s implemented with that in mind.
I know that such a thing is probably considered too much of a player advantage by many. But lets face it, I restart a new game dozens of times just to get ONE guy that I’m eager to try a soldier build on. I’ve also reloaded new recruit generations quite a few times, but that’s just painful in the extreme. And in the end, this game is single player. If this improves my enjoyment of the game as well as many others’, isn’t that the point? I’m even more likely to buy those expansions, and/or rate the expansions and the game as entirely worth purchasing.
I play the game on Legend, so allowing me to set the random personal traits of some of my soldiers, especially if there’s a tangible cost assicated with it, will not break the game balance-wise. It’s brutal at that level, no matter. And I really don’t feel it’s going to ruin the setup at other difficulty levels either. But, of course, that’s my opinion.
To speak further regarding the motivation for a request like this; you may think I’m just trying to min/max the game. Maybe that’s why some people would want to be able to do this, and I guess to a small extent that’s what I would be doing also. The truth is though, for me and I think many others, it’s entirely a roleplay thing. I’m FAR more emotionally invested in the soldiers I build with a goal in mind. And the first step in that process involves having the proper baseline from which to begin. Mostly, I don’t get that. I just work with what I get. And there’s some huge appeal to that, especially in a storyline like Phoenix Point. But that’s why I say, maybe it would work out just fine, if there’s a method that incurs a big cost. Again, whatever Snapshot thinks is fair. I just want the chance to do it.
Even with that option there, I’m still going to grow the organic, otherwise random troopers I get into the most effective fighting force I can, without controlling specifics, most of the time. But for those soldiers I go to great lengths to keep alive and growing, I’d love to be able to control the baseline setup, from the start.
Not only would this greatly increase my enjoyment of the game, while reducing some frustration, I would gladly pay for it to boot. I work hard for my money, and sometimes I worry about making ends meet (the point being I don’t just have money to throw away or something). But when I relax with a game, that’s hard earned money well spent on excellent entertainment, and the less frustrating that experience is, the happier we all are, I’m sure.
At any rate, thanks for listening. Have fun watching those Festering Skies!