This is mostly a cosmetic issue, but I feel it could add quite a bit to the game.
Create a new system for assigning soldiers to “squads” from the strategic game layer. A “squad” has its own callsign (i.e. “Fireteam Lightning”), insignia, and motto (“Repensum est caniculum (Payback’s a b****)”), very similar to havens. Once a squad is created, it has a persistent record throughout the game; every mission completed under that squad is tallied, all the aliens each member of that squad has killed is counted up together, and so on. The time the squad was made and all the time it’s been active is also shown. The end result would look something like this:
Name/callsign | Insignia | Motto | Kills | Missions | Created | Active |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
XCOM | A five-pointed shield painted orange, with images of men covered in various bionic enhancements | Mutare ad custodiam (“To change in order to protect”) | 47 | 12 | March 1st, 2047 | 4 months, 12 days |
Having a squad allows you to more smoothly select who to bring on the transport when you take a mission. Instead of choosing soldiers individually, you can choose the squad by its callsign, and then every member of that squad that’s available enters the selection. All squad members can adopt cosmetic touches to show their squad callsign during battle, such as patches on their arms or paintings on their armor. Squad vehicles can likewise receive these cosmetic touches.
I think this will give a very wide breadth of customization ability to Phoenix Point. We don’t have to be bound by only modifying individual soldiers; we could also create persistent squads, and use those over the course of the game. It would add flavor to the fact that we can’t just have an “A” team responding to every mission; we need a “B” and maybe a “C” team, as well. What do you guys think? Good idea?