[0.983] Trained units

Trained units are limited by production, technologies, resources, starting traits, wages, army size, death. Why you don't love trained units so much? Where is fun in strategy game? In battles, various battles involving cavalry, archers, spearmen, etc. But we need units to make some battles. We need viable units asap. Imho production costs should be lowered, research should be accelerated. Resources don't work properly. Again too many limitations: you should find resources, build improvements on them, accumulate resources. Accumulating resources is excessive. It spends too much seasons if you want to build decent units. Alternative solution from Civ 5: metal/crystal mine instantly gives X points of metal/crystal. So you can support army that requires no more than X metal/crystals. Starting traits is another limitation of trained units. Maybe trained units should gain a trait once per 3 levels.

P.S. I would make things even simplier:

Level 1 city allows to use all Common weapons/armor/items for trained units.

Level 2 city - Uncommon items.

Level 3 city - Rare items. All high-end items would be Rare.

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For example, Defender unit requires Leatherworking and Training techs and costs 250+ production. It is more than the double cost of pioneer, which costs 114 production. It is not worth it. Imho fair cost of Defender is 150 production. Techs can go faster as well. Training Yard, Barracks, etc training discounts can be nerfed or removed.

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I agree with your over-arching concern that troop production is still being missed...not necessarily the way you attempt to deal with it.

Imo, the techs, resources, and traits are what give your troops the uniqueness they deserve, and the edge you'll need to defeat other factions. I wouldn't touch that.

I do agree that production costs are still too high, but the problem goes deeper than that: The city queue only has so much room and at the moment, troops are at the bottom of that long list: Pioneers (50%), Resource Improvements (30%), City Improvements (20%), City Idling , and finally troops (0%). (okay, I tossed city idling in there....I have no idea why cities ever want to idle...).

Just recently in my Pariden game, for the first time, I have had oppertunity to build troops on occasion. I was able to shift city queue production to the following: Pioneers (20%), Resource Improvements (30%), City Improvements (30%), Troops (20%). The reason? Arcane Monolith. Essecially, I didn't need to build the gobs of pioneers required to construct outposts. This is the right approach to solve the problem, or at least a good chunk of the problem. Now, I'm not saying that each faction should have access to Arcane Monolith because you also need the mana to go with it....and Pariden loves some Meditation. But I am suggesting that another mechanic be used for building outposts. The ideal percentage ration I'm aiming for is: Pioneers (5%), Resource Improvements (25%), City Improvements (25%), Troops (40%), Scouts building Outposts (5%)...see below.

In other threads I put forward the idea that Scouts pick up the task of building outposts. Scouts are a really cheap, expendable, and currently very useless, unit. Why not have a purpose for them? After the 'scouting' portion is complete and some valuable resources are found, why not allow them to stake a claim to them through the building of an outpost? True, scouts still take some time on the queue, but being separate from the pioneer, Stardock now has specific control as to how much time that amount takes. They are naturally cheaper than Pioneers to begin with. Obviously, oupost

Alas, the idea was not put into fruition, therefore another solution needs to be found. Still working on it...

One idea that I've been toying with is giving each faction a unique way of building outposts outside of the city building queue. The problem I've been having is that there are only so many ways to build outposts. Mana...gold...production...crystal....metal....influence...that's about it. Toss in the balancing problems and it's not looking up to be a successful idea.

Anyways. Those are my thoughts on the lack of troops production.

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I like to have an inexpensive trained unit lead my forces into a major battle. The AI will always attack them first and they will always die but they buy me time to organize my forces and I usually get a free shot before the real engagement begins. For combat troops, henchmen are awesome. A torch bearer with heal and fire dart is a major asset. They are available early, don't cost a lot, seem to level up quickly and can be equipped the same as Champions so you have a home for the surplus gear you find in goodie huts and lairs.

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I think a solid 50% reduction in the cost of gear is about right. Add to that a total of 50% trained discount once you have Command Post. I would give 25% from Barracks and 25% from Command Post. Also could be 25% from Fortress and 25% from Barracks to make it a little easier to get early on.

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Is there any good reason why not to re-implement a second build queue for Units separate from the building queue? I don't really understand why it was combined in FE from E:WoM.

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Imho resource costs should be reduced too. To prevent fractions in Unit Design we can double resource income and reduce resource costs in diplomacy by half.

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