Smokeskin wrote:

How about trying to make something like Jack Bauer? Extremely loyal, uncorruptable and compassionate regarding ends but absolutely stone cold in terms of means and making sacrifices for the greater good. That could go wrong in so many ways.

In a time when you can sleeve someone into a Reaper or a Fenrir and every enemy killed can be resleeved within a day, unwavering fanatical loyalty may be the most vicious weapon.

Noble Pigeon wrote:

On another note, he has definitely shown interest in the Lost generation but would prefer something similar to the Halo Spartans.

Lost were not made to be combat machines, they were supposed to be the future well-rounded version of humanity. There is no one to say that other factions have not dabbled in accelerated learning environments or fast-growing morphs. Battlesuits are expensive (20,000 credits at least) but not unattainable. If he wants to be a biomorph, he could sleeve into a Remade or, for the more conservative type, an Olympian kitted out with shiny gear (akin to a Fury); maybe multiple personalities or multi-tasking (more mental action). Then dump on Edited Memories and either neural damage or a mental disorder to represent the mind hacks. Don't forget drugs: Kick, MRDR, Grin, Phlo, Comfurt, Drive, and Neem (because no one wants to feel guilt for unloading a machine gun on a target in a crowded habitat). The thing is, the controlling organization could decide that the project has gone wrong. The supersoldier egos are single-minded monsters. They turn to plan B: wipe their back-ups and send the recruits on a suicide run. Your supersoldier PC survives and discovers that his Faction has ousted him—but he cannot cope with that (Comfurt) and decides to act as a deniable asset beyond the boundaries of his superiors who may well want him dead. The motivations would show this the most. +(Faction) would be a must. +Fanaticism, +Loyalty, -(Opposing Memes), +(Faction Memes), -(Opposing Faction) are all good choices. Something makes me feel that a Jovian TAHI officer would suit this quite well (Rimward, 42).

I concur that it would be more of a mental modification than physical. I imagine some sort of linked mind structure, similar in effect to the Replica soldiers of the FEAR games. I would play it as perhaps shackled AGIs programmer for combat effectiveness, utilising a highly advanced enhanced tacnet software. Sleeve them in combat morphs, and you get a platoon of indoctrinated killing machines that instantly perceive each others movements. You also get a ripe situation for a new seed AI to develop, searching for it's wayward "brother".

When asked about how to make supersoldiers in an interview for Gamespot (!) I suggested going for speed, intelligence and technological ability - a bit like a gamer. In EP this is likely even more true: you can sleeve them into something suitable, but they need to be able to react fast, cleverly and deal with new technology all the time. Obviously issues of mental stability and loyalty are important too. People are working on anti-PTSD treatments for real, and it might include either selecting naturally immune people, pre-treating so they do not get traumas, or post-trauma treatments. I can imagine EP programs aiming at boosting WIL and LUC, perhaps even giving resistance from Trauma checks. Maybe this would be a bit sociopathy-inducing, but another take on it is "mental fixedness". This one is from a PC in another game who has the literal superpower of not being permanently affected by *any* mental powers, traumas or other horrors... which is not quite healthy, since he is essentially totally unchanging as a person, with no potential for personality development. The PC is aware of this and deeply hateful of the condition (god help the responsible NPC if he ever catches her), but it makes him 100% reliable. Many people have talked about manipulating empathy for soldiers. In general you don't want sociopaths in your military, since they are not loyal and not safe to be around. You might want to reduce empathy with enemies *during battle*, but in peacekeeping operations it is a distinct asset and you might want to boost it. So maybe you have a time/situation dependent level of empathy. You also want strong team spirit and a smart loyalty to your side's overall goals, not blind loyalty to whoever gives order (easy to exploit, increases risks of coups). So my take on the supersoldier experiment is somebody with a bunch of conditioning that allows shifts into several mental modes: a focused, hyperalert and selective empathy combat mode, a patient, social and loyal on duty mode, perhaps a truthful, neutral and relaxed debriefing mode, and so on. Essentially a split personality... which might by now trigger at the wrong moments. And thanks to the mental fixedness hack it is very hard to do anything about.