When you first start a game, and you go to buy something, there is the soldier with the gun and the digger already prepped to buy. I NEVER buy this, so is there a way to change what units the game sets as the default "first purchase"?

If not, a mod that gives this utility should really be made. I have a basic soldier with a machine gun and a rocket launcher that I always get, and doing this would get him on the field that much faster. Any help out there?

I think that thing is hardcoded, and I'm pretty sure changing that is pretty impossible.

And I also dislike that thing, an empty buy menu or a save-able preset would be a lot better.

Well, I went looking through some of the configuration files in base.rtf. Never found anything related to it, but it seems like it would be simple to change, if I knew where it was. I mean, it has to be coded somewhere!

It is, no doubt about that, but I suppose it's hardcoded.

Hardcoded as in coded in a place hard (impossible by normal means) to modify.

Hypothetically you could rename an actor, gun, and tool to those three items, and replace the standard buy menu preset, but that might not be worth the effort, and could potentially screw up something else somewhere along the lines. Or just make those three things not suck.

Nope, those are all loaded before mods, so you'd have to edit vanilla files.

I went looking through the .lua files in base.rtf, and I found where the preset cargo purchase is determined. (I think) In each activity file, there is a bit of code that looks like this-
Base.rte\Activities\SkirmishDefense.lua(158): actor[x]:AddInventoryItem(CreateHDFirearm("Medium Digger"));

I will see what changing that around nets me.

That only applies to skirmish.

You cannot alter the default buy menu content at the present time, however if you remove the object itself, it will no longer be there. So you could, if you so felt like it, adjust the presetname all three of the items in Coalition.rte and Base.rte respectably to change this.

That can ♥♥♥♥ up a lot of maps though.

I meant to keep it within vanilla, but now that you mention it, that's a really good point. Didn't even occur to me to include mods. Not that one could do so, of course.

Basically, there are a lot of reasons why this isn't possible. If it really bothers you that much, give the SMG an infinite-round mag and make the Soldier Light made of test material. It'll break the game, but they're simple changes that should be amusing the first time or two you play with them. If you're into that sorta thing.