I may ramble off a bit, and stretch this idea out, but the search didn't turn up anything at all on this topic. This whole thing is based off of one comment in all the interviews and videos I saw. To paraphrase: a soldier who is critically wounded and revived will receive a hit to their Will stat. Honestly, I have no idea what will is, but it sounds a bit like Bravery in this context.
I ask, is it a permanent hit? Where is the growth and faith in human resiliency? Skip to the end to read my suggestions rather than read all of my reasoning.
When separated from friends, family, and familiar places and placed in a war zone the people you lean on first and most are your comrades, compatriots, your battle-buddies. Time off mission is spent on leisure and maintenance. Maintenance includes equipment maintenance and personal maintenance (I did a little cheer when I saw soldiers running on the treadmill in one of the video clips). Sometimes, however, using your buddy as a sound board isn't enough and professional guidance is sought after.
I could go into the history of priests and warfare, but it I'll move on. Modern US military chaplains are officers with at lease bachelor's degrees from accredited colleges, who are also clergy endorsed by an accredited body of their faith. Importantly, they also receive training in non-secular counseling.
Psychologists are hired by the military for a range of reasons. A former special forces (aka Green Beret) sniper talked to me of clinical psychologists trying to emotionally manipulate him in mental evaluations, but I digress. Many psychology degrees have at least a familiarization with counseling. How cool would it be if your shrink was also a practicing xeno-psychologist, a xeno-neurobiologist, etc?
Chaplains and psychologists would serve the entire base, but their would be special attention to the soldiers. Much of the time it would probably be quick informal sessions about stress management teams, and sometimes formal sessions to-get this- help the individual help themselves.
If you've gotten this far you are probably wondering what this has to do with XCOM. In an interview a dev said critically injured they would or could take a hit to their Will. Coming face-to-face with your own mortality is harrowing, it will take time, maybe even professional help, to process it in a healthy way. It not even just cynical but pessimistic to assume that traumatic experiences only destroy a mind; given time and perhaps some guidance a person can turn a traumatic experience into growth.
Also, the fear of failure and love, yes love, even platonic brotherly love of fellow warriors, can be stronger than fear of death and pain. Men dive in the way of bullets for brothers-in-arms, cover grenades with their bodies, and crawl to the wounded grinding their own blood into the sand.
In conclusion, what about a perk that must be earned that makes the soldiers fearless in normal circumstances? By earned I mean taken a nearly fatal hit and lived, been on so many missions where fellow squad members die. And by normal circumstances I mean with the exclusion of psychic attacks. Even then, through hard experience a soldier might develop some inoculation from the brunt of future attacks. In the end it might be possible to have acquired a team where every member would not panic even if he/she was the sole survivor and under fire, fighting efficiently to the end. The flip side would be anyone without a similar perk would be devastated by the loss of that member, taking an extra hit to moral.
Edit: also a scientist (or two) can be permanently assigned to be the base shrinks. Soldiers might slowly acquire non-combat arms skills or bonuses of a mental health nature.
Thoughts?
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Originally Posted by tazong
