it's neat idea, but units all go through the same training, so they are all pretty much equal in skill, and really only differ in their roles, so you wont likely find a varience as such where one shoots better than the other, perhaps only when someone is handed a weapon without any training and expected to fight.

The real difference comes with experience, veterans have more experience, and as such can read and predict a battle better than a "noob" in order to make the better judgement calls on the field with the right tactics, but then it only affects the tactics used since the lesser experienced may probably not think 2 or 3 steps ahead.

So really, I can't say I am in favour of variety of skill since it will really differ so minimal, that it wont really be worth doing.

The rank markings however, VBS has that, and it isn't a bad idea. If you could somehow determine who a squads leader is and gun him down, you could break the squads moral and performance, as well as their ability to work well together, then again, there will be someone else next in line to take charge, so it should weaken the squad none the less since it's lesser experienced members taking over, but i dont know if it will really be worth implimenting that much since you could pretty much wipe a squad out before they even realize what happened.

As far as the skill level goes, i think that is pretty much worked in already. However it would be neat if th player could be locked to a skill level instead of being a jack of all trades. Disregarding basic stuff, the special role skills is what I am on about. Say if for example I am support gunner, it shouldn't really be possible in game to now be able to fly a chopper, or pickup a sniper rifle and wipe out an entire squad as if I am a sniper, or heal my team mates as if I am a profesional medic. Agreed it shouldn't be rocket science to be able to pickup and operate a sniper rifle, or AT launcher, or bandage a team mate, but I think the player should be penalised somehow for stepping out of their role, and the impact must be negative enough to force the player to play the role he was assigned to do, but also not too negative to make it seem impossible.

Well thats my 2c worth.

To say that units all go through the same training is a bit off in my opinion. IRL you have a small percent (app 10%) that are combat units, while the vast majority are support soldiers. Then within that tenish percent there are those that have seen combat and those that haven't, and also some have had different specialized training.

That aside, I was more just suggesting that there shouldn't just be one skill lvl for all AI as it is unrealistic in my eyes.

I like your idea about the dampening of abilities if you move out of your selected slot while in game. You should start a thread about that.

When i said they had the same training, I am referring to basic training, ignoring their specialized roles because I specifically mentioned how that they differ in their roles, they are all pretty much equal when they all are handed a basic assault rifle or side arm, and this I am also referring to those you are bound to meet on the battlefield, i am excluding support roles that aren't there on the battlefield necessarily pointing a gun at you, though even they probably have gone through basic training. So let me just clear that up =)

In that regard, they all are pretty much the same skill level, as they all go through weeks if not months of the same training. If you bring in specialized roles now, obviously a sniper would be more accurate than a support gunner, and this isn't really limitation on skill per role as it is the weapon.

So hopefully that is much clearer now. But to achieve what you want, best bet is to have AI moral and bravery affected after taking out their strongest unit, which would be squad leader, but I think that already is something implimented, perhaps not exactly like that though, but those characteristics are there.

As for opening another ticket, I have been highly demotivated doing things people suggest I do, the last time someone told me hey you should make a seperate ticket for that, it got closed for being a duplicate, and honestly it isnt always easy to find exactly what you looking for if you dont have the right words. So i rather not =) I am sure the devs will read this portion anyway, and if they think it is worth doing, maybe they will, or maybe i will come accross a ticket that is bringing up said issue, after all I have read others who also felt this was too much like CoD so for all I know, that ticket does exist..

The game already lets the mission creator adjust idividual AI skills:

http://community.bistudio.com/wiki/Mission_Editor:_Units#Skill
http://community.bistudio.com/wiki/setSkill
http://community.bistudio.com/wiki/setSkill_array

Users can adjust all AI skills in the difficulty tab.

Related to #3639

As ceeeb points out, this is already possible. Certain other AI issues already have tickets, so this one can be closed.