Holy shit this is a good ideaSteelflame wrote:I'm not a fan of removing the faction classes either, and infact wanted to go all in on faction classes, as such that there wasn't just the 3 faction classes, but infact 6 faction classes (Shinobi moved to Reapers, Ranger to Skirmishers, and Psionics to Templars), as well as reworking the Technical class itself into a Spark class, and rework the Grenadier to have a salavaged Flamethrower as their primary weapon, with a few perk tweaks to support that. I'd even enjoy a 4th faction that has a new variant of the specialist (melee-stealth focused, with either a stealthy anti-robotics hacker path, or a melee skulljack-ish path, balanced accordingly), as well as the specialist class.
I'm absolutely fine with the idea of overlap between the faction and normal classes, and this actually makes each faction be known for a unique strength they bring to the Xcom group once you have recruited them (Reapers bring stealth, Skirmishers multi-shot action, Templars the Psionics branch of powers, and that hacker group... well hacking.)
It would help ease the feel of duplication as well. Shinobis already feel like reapers, and psionics feel like weaker warlocks. The ranger has the same core ability as the skirmisher (fire and move in any order or fire twice)
I'd merge grenadier and technical, rather than spark. I'd love sparks to get some love, but making them the explosives experts IMO is a bad thing
I'd rather merge grenadier and technical, giving them the choice of a grenade launcher, a rocket launcher or a flamethrower for their secondary