I just got this great idea from reading one of DonMegel's posts. Why not make the infantry selection screen more like the tank customization screen? You could make a couple slots for weapons such as a 'Primary Weapon', 'Secondary Weapon', and 'Equipment' slots. Then you have your armor slot where you can put what type of armor you are using in there. (These would tie-in with the proposed infantry researches.) Certain researches could be made to increase the amount of slots you have so, for example, you could get another 'Equipment' slot, or another 'Primary Weapon' slot. Let's say the BE Heavy Assault Rifle requires 3 'Primary Weapon' slots, but you only begin with 2. That would mean the commander would have to research increased slots to allow riflemen to utilize that weapon. There could also be a skill screen where you drag-n-drop what skills you want from the skill box into your skill slots. Some more-powerful skills could take up more than one slot so you cannot get them until a certain rank; and if you decide to have them, you cannot hold as many other skills as you normally could.
I would think that the number of slots would tie in better with your skill lvl instead of research. I can see research giving you different armor or ammo types. (I want regen ammo that basically grow new ammo for your gun over time
Infantry customization would definitely be a good thing. But I'm not so sure about slots tied to research. Sure, tie the items to fill them with research (like someone said, regen armour or whatever) but having to research slots would just make infantry too weak at the start of a game, and research take too long. It'd also require a much larger pool of weapons. But infantry armour type selection (light, anti-infantry, anti-tank) is still one of my favourite ideas. And with equipment, things like night vision goggles would become possible too.
this would be pretty good, but i think weapon choices should be research, not promotion level. it wouldn't really make much sense that certain people can use a weapon and others can't. personally, I don't really agree with certain players getting an advantage over others.
After the 4th promotion you should be able to change skills and receive them straight away. It's like this: 5th promotion -> 1st skill changes immediatly when you change it, after changing it once you need to wait an amount of time before the skill can be changed again. 6th promotion -> 2nd skill changes immediatly when you change it, after changing it once you need to wait an amount of time before the skill can be changed again. 1st skill can be changed faster. It goes on like that, but there's always a limit for each life you have and a minimum time between changing.
I think the slots for weapons should be tied to what class you are, with diffrent slots for explosive and non-explosive primary weapons. so the grenadier could have a weak smg or somthing and a rifilman could have a light anti-tank weapon, if you chose to customize it that way.
you could alway use this system for a newclass say a heavy demo, you have slots for special weapons say a railgun but its effect decreases your speed/accuracy by 50%
I like any and all customization; I would personaly like the level system tied in more closley to the game; as right now, I am rarely eager to get that 2nd or 3rd slot open... After the first promotion which you get from a squad; the rest are like: "Meh, another slot open"
There could be more powerful skills that could greatly increase your effectiveness in one specific area, but they would require multiple skill slots so that unlocking your fourth skill slot to get something like an advanced repair upgrade or something that is 2x as fast as the regular repair upgrade would be something to get exited over, but you couldn't take any more skills if you decided to pick that one. That means that you could build things MEGA fast, but you cant make lvl 3 turrets, cool your vehicle, get extra health, or any of the other upgrades while you have it.
