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[Lightningfalcon]

Got the execute ability for my commissar class working. The commissar pulls out a pistol, shoots at a friendly squad member, and that squad member dies.

[Twinwolf]

...How is that useful? And can you choose who he shoots?

[Lightningfalcon]

...How is that useful? And can you choose who he shoots?

You can choose just like you can when using an ability like stasis. And right now it isn't useful, but I plan on adding a stat bonus to it. End goal is that a commissar with a squad of rookies, while not as good as an actual team, will be able to pull through a mission. If I can I will also add a mod that gives you soldiers as a resource, so you could bring along an extra four guardsman, or you can throw down a flare for reinforcements.

[RAM]

So, what? You pull a "for the motherland!" and trade a half-dead paralysed rookie for a reset of panic and +20 will for the whole team? Can you add permanent buffs from abilities? It might be fun to give the Commissar +5 will permanently for every field dismissal.

[Toaster]

NO RETREAT!  NO SURRENDAARRRR!

[Lightningfalcon]

So, what? You pull a "for the motherland!" and trade a half-dead paralysed rookie for a reset of panic and +20 will for the whole team? Can you add permanent buffs from abilities? It might be fun to give the Commissar +5 will permanently for every field dismissal.

Still not sure on the exact details. The challenge is going to be making sure that all the different abilities will avoid overlapping to much, and that they don't become overpowered. For example, I want one ability that can be used to give each soldier in the squad an extra action. But I don't know if I want to attach it to the execute ability, so that the price is a life for each activation, or if I should make it a stand alone ability, with one use per mission, or if I should do both. I also want to make a solace like aura around the commissar, because who wants to panic around that guy when panicking will get you killed more effectively then enemy fire? But then I run into the problem that that would overlap with the commissars execute ability, which at its base would give a will bonus and a clear to any mental effects.
My rough plan for now is to make the base execute ability clear any mental effects along with a will boost for the rest of the mission. Then at corporal you can choose between an offense or a defense bonus, which would both give +20 for two or three turns. Miscellaneous abilities would be a squadwide inspire ability, and an aurora that would remove panic. The lower ranking abilities would be what you would use on a squad of rookies and squaddies, powerful bonuses that turn what was otherwise a code black into a victory- at the cost of a life. Higher ranking abilities would be one that you would use to support an actual squad, with passive bonuses and abilities that aren't as powerful, but don't require an execution. That way the commissar would be relevant as more then a joke soldier. Suffering lots of casualties and can't get a good squad together? Train up a commissar, get him one or two ranks, and give him a squad of rookies, and while you won't suffer casualty free missions, you will get a couple soldiers through it alive with promotions. Later on, he'll still be relevant, just not what you base the squad around.

[misko27]

Got the execute ability for my commissar class working. The commissar pulls out a pistol, shoots at a friendly squad member, and that squad member dies.

My first thought was "I have great respect for the skill necessary to do that"
My second thought was "Could I try it out? I want to see how you did it"
My third thought was "Why would you do such a terrible thing?"
My fourth thought was "I want a Commissar now."

People use phantom in mp? That seems like it'd be useless, unless theres concealment or something.

Having taken a Phantom on all of my teams, I can assure you concealment works in Multiplayer. I wonder what would happen if I just hid in a corner of the map, would the game try to punish me in some way?

So, what? You pull a "for the motherland!" and trade a half-dead paralysed rookie for a reset of panic and +20 will for the whole team? Can you add permanent buffs from abilities? It might be fun to give the Commissar +5 will permanently for every field dismissal.

Still not sure on the exact details. The challenge is going to be making sure that all the different abilities will avoid overlapping to much, and that they don't become overpowered. For example, I want one ability that can be used to give each soldier in the squad an extra action. But I don't know if I want to attach it to the execute ability, so that the price is a life for each activation, or if I should make it a stand alone ability, with one use per mission, or if I should do both. I also want to make a solace like aura around the commissar, because who wants to panic around that guy when panicking will get you killed more effectively then enemy fire? But then I run into the problem that that would overlap with the commissars execute ability, which at its base would give a will bonus and a clear to any mental effects.
My rough plan for now is to make the base execute ability clear any mental effects along with a will boost for the rest of the mission. Then at corporal you can choose between an offense or a defense bonus, which would both give +20 for two or three turns. Miscellaneous abilities would be a squadwide inspire ability, and an aurora that would remove panic. The lower ranking abilities would be what you would use on a squad of rookies and squaddies, powerful bonuses that turn what was otherwise a code black into a victory- at the cost of a life. Higher ranking abilities would be one that you would use to support an actual squad, with passive bonuses and abilities that aren't as powerful, but don't require an execution. That way the commissar would be relevant as more then a joke soldier. Suffering lots of casualties and can't get a good squad together? Train up a commissar, get him one or two ranks, and give him a squad of rookies, and while you won't suffer casualty free missions, you will get a couple soldiers through it alive with promotions. Later on, he'll still be relevant, just not what you base the squad around.

Maybe some of those abilities could be upgrades to execute? Like how snipers get Long Watch, which is a buff to squadsight.

[Lightningfalcon]

Got the execute ability for my commissar class working. The commissar pulls out a pistol, shoots at a friendly squad member, and that squad member dies.

My first thought was "I have great respect for the skill necessary to do that"
My second thought was "Could I try it out? I want to see how you did it"
My third thought was "Why would you do such a terrible thing?"
My fourth thought was "I want a Commissar now."

Trust me. I didn't look at the code, figure out how abilities work, and then write it out. I pretty much looked at the different classes, and copy and pasted large chunks of code until it worked. And it took a LOT of ctrl-c and ctrl-v to make it work. And many, many loads of a couple different saves to see that "Yep, still not working"
Let me see... I took the target condition code and accuracy from the advent captain's marking ability, the ability cost from hail of bullets, the camera code from lightning hands, ability trigger from something else, the trigger code from lightning hands, the HUD info from deadeye, and the localization info from a mod. Pretty much the only thing I custom wrote was the two lines of code that kills the target.

Maybe some of those abilities could be upgrades to execute? Like how snipers get Long Watch, which is a buff to squadsight.

That is part of the plan. Going to have to play around with that tomorrow. Still haven't made sense of the code for the two part abilities, and I don't know how much I can do with that.

[Egan_BW]

Make it so they take free automatic overwatch against panicking troopers, and if they kill you get the same bonus as execute.

[Lightningfalcon]

Make it so they take free automatic overwatch against panicking troopers, and if they kill you get the same bonus as execute.

I thought of it. Would be fine for making a pure joke character, but would be enough to provoke a rage quit if a pectoid panicked your star grenadier in an ironman game.

[Egan_BW]

That's xcom baby. And maybe make it depend on the rank of the panicking soldier.

[Urist Imiknorris]

It would make mind shields useful.

[Egan_BW]

Yes, alternatively, you're required by imperial law to bring a commissar on each mission.

[Rolan7]

Loving this commissar discussion.

I'm finally playing again, and I'm save-scumming like hell.  And this is a good illustration of why:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=633370361

Shouldn't that be a safe move?  My phantom ranger is *right there*, seeing nothing.  But no.  That move reveals a pod, up there in the upper-left.

Bad luck, perhaps.  (really bad - it's two shieldbearers who take cover behind the fragile mission objective, a codex, and a lancer)
But I don't feel at all bad about this particular savescum.  In my situation, every rank-up is precious.  My soldiers rarely get beyond Lieutenant.  Yet I invested in a scout-ranger, and let him advance first.  And yet, just like in OldCOM, absurd LOS BS fucks me over.

[Toaster]

Did the ranger move in from the same direction; specifically, did they step on that tile and the tile down-left from the marked tile?  Behind that pole there's a tiny blind spot which might have last-tile LOS from the marked spot.  Certainly, sure, that'd be an obnoxious reveal.