6. Better Class Skill Trees
Class based branching skill systems are a bit of a mixed bag. On one hand, they allow players to craft characters that have a diverse set of abilities that alter the dynamics of combat. On the other, a lot of these systems often do a bad job at making both branches equally compelling, leading to uniform character builds. Unfortunately, XCOM has a lot of skills that are rendered useless by the game itself. For example, the Assault Classs Lightning Reflexes ability, which makes the first reaction shot against that soldier miss, is infinitely more valuable than Close & Personal, which gives an Assault soldier up to a 30% higher chance of getting a critical hit on a target. Because the games Overwatch signs fade about five seconds after the aliens activate the ability, a Lightning Reflexes equipped Assault soldier can trip the enemys Overwatch and allow the rest of your units to move freely. The Heavy soldiers Rapid Reaction ability (a second reaction shot if the first Overwatch shot hits) is another one that no one would ever pick, because Heavies have the worst accuracy in the stock game. How can Firaxis improve the class skill trees? Getting suppression off the Heavy and Support skill trees would be a good start, opening up two slots for better abilities. Making new skills with fewer drawbacks and/or tweaking the game mechanics so that players arent forced to choice one skill all the time would also work.