I gave it a think. Here's what I came up with after looking at Grunts and a few other things.
1. We introduce GLORY as our universal experience system. GLORY (not glory, GLORY) is given for any positive action, such as completing goals, killing enemies, saving comrades, etc. Sometimes GLORY is given to individuals (such as for killing enemies) sometimes it is given to everyone on a mission (For completing mission goals). The amount you get varies depending on the magnitude of what you do.
2. GLORY is used to buy various things and is the way we'll handle advancement rather than just basing it on surviving a mission. It will mean rewarding merit, both individual and of the group so long as they complete their objectives.
3. Here's the crap you can buy with GLORY:
- Training: This allows you to increase your skills by +1 each time. It costs more each time you do it.
- Promotions: these are upgrades that give you active abilities to use in the game.
- Requisitions: Let you get permanent items that "refill" after every mission. Requisitioning an item is like buying it with GLORY, the more valuable it is, the more GLORY you need.
- Medals: Medals can be both bought with glory and handed out for particularly meritorious actions. They provide minor, passive bonuses.
4. Spent GLORY is gone and if you die you lose what you bought with it. HOWEVER, you can chose to Bank GLORY instead of spend it. This banked GLORY will carry over between characters. Think of it as life insurance; an investment towards future actions at the cost of immediate advancement.
Opinions? If this is accepted I'll probably rebalance some of the starting classes. Since things like the commander's flare will be more of a promotion power than anything.