Experience

A soldier earns experience during combat. After the mission, the soldier will then earn a random amount of stat increases based on what experience the soldier acquired during combat.

Experience

The list of experience that a soldier can earn during combat are:

• General Hits
• Melee Hits
• Successful Psionic Hits
• Number of times a unit panicked
• Number of times reaction fire was used
• Number of times objects were thrown

General Hits

General hits take count of how many times you hit an enemy target with any shot or any area effect weapon such as rockets, grenades and stun bombs. General hits make up the bulk of your stat improvements.

The more hits, regardless of shot type, the better. Therefore the power of your weapon is inversely proportional to how many hits you can earn. To get better accuracy, fight with weaker weapons.

Note: Be aware that these only count towards hitting enemy units. Hitting scenery, friendly and neutral units and other static objects do not count. So firing at random into your nigh indestructable troop transport's wall or at innocent trees do not count.

Influences: Time Units, Energy, Health, Strength and Firing Accuracy.

Melee hits

This covers how many times a melee attack (eg Stun Rod) succeeded against an enemy target. For Terror From The Deep, this also includes Vibroblades, Thermic Lances and Heavy Thermic Lances.

Influences: Time Units, Energy, Health, Strength and Melee. Melee is a "hidden" variable. You don't see it in the statistics screen, but it does increase when melee is done.

Successful Psionic Hits

How many times a psionic attack succeeded against an enemy target. It doesn't matter if it's a panic or a mind control attack, as long as it works. Failed attempts do not get counted. The Mind Probe, being a non-combat tool, will not affect this counter.

Influences: Time Units, Energy, Health, Strength and Psi Skill

Number of times Unit has Panicked

How many times the unit suffered from severe morale loss (i.e. panicking or going beserk when Morale < 50%).

Influences Time Units, Energy, Health, Strength and Bravery.

Number of times Opportunity fire was used

How many times a soldier performed a reaction shot. This not only influences Time Units, Energy, Health, Strength and Reactions, the shot, if it hits, is counted as a successful general hit. Basically this stat has the potential to do double the work.

Influences: Time Units, Energy, Health, Strength and Reactions

Number of times objects were thrown

This experience counter is the simplest of the lot. It counts how many times the soldier has thrown an object. It does not have to be a grenade, and can be any object that can be picked up.

Influences: Throwing Accuracy only

Regarding Strength

A soldier CANNOT increase strength by being overly encumbered. It can only increase through the above listed methods. You will only receive the encumberance penalty on start of turn replenishment of time units.

Regarding Kills

A soldier does not necessarily get more experience from the number of kills that are made. A soldier with 16 one-shot kills will have the potential to earn just as much experience as a soldier who killed one alien with 16 shots.

A kill is synonymous with a single hit, however it is not synonymous with how much effort were put in - i.e. many shots were actually required to kill the alien. This is a very good reason for soldiers to hang on to weaker weapons such as Pistols and Laser Pistols- if only for training purposes.

Misc Notes

• With the exception of Psi Skill training in the Psi Lab, all stats can only be trained through combat experience.

• Any combat experience earned will influence promotions. The soldier with the highest amount of experience in total will have the best chance of being promoted to the next rank. Yes, panicking counts towards a promotion as well.
  

Determining Promotions

Who gets what promotion depends entirely on the existing ranks and whether there is room for promotion. Promotion to squaddie for a new recruit is automatic as long as the soldier acquires some combat experience in battle. Ranks beyond this have specific criterea that need to be met before they are offered - namely, having a certain number of suboordinates of the previous rank.

In an equal environment, say all you have are new recruits, the soldier that obtains the most experience in battle will be in the best position to be take on the best available promotion above squaddie that is up for grabs. Every action a soldier performs in battle that is recorded will be tallied at the end of the battle and the one with the highest gets the best promotion, the next highest the second best promotion and so on.

If there is one position available but two eligible soldiers have an identical amount of performance, the game will randomly pick between the two.
It is unfortunate to note that panicking does indeed count towards this tally. It is also unfortunate that once a soldier has been handed a rank, they can continue to rise in the ranks even if they do nothing and are surpassed by other soldiers. First come, first serve, as they say.

More information to follow, and the content to be reorganised apropriately