New Unit Upgade Window

Giving this a big +1, have assumed it is not WAD, otherwise the "Done" button is pointless.

Good point.

Just add a button next to Done - Upgrade ALL.

I'd like to be able to pick what to what items i'm upgrading for every slot.

I think at least magic items should be seperated from non magic items, and robes should be grouped seperately from armor.

+1. I'm all for this suggestion. At this point, it's just extra clicks that slow me down.

The thing is, regarding accidentally upgrading from boots of initiative to better defense boots - don't pick the upgraded boots in the unit design window, because you know they are the only pair of initiative boots that are available, and if you want that initiative boost (minor and meaningful in early game, useless later on) then you want those specific boots.

The way it works now it gives you full control on which upgrades you want to apply to the unit, and this makes perfect sense and should stay, but as I said in a previous post, adding an Upgrade all option should be enabled (of course a check must be made before enabling this option, that the player has the required amount of resources).

This unit upgrade option is long overdue.  We the people say YAAAAY!

Anyways, to streamline the suggestion above, treat each upgrade as a 'check box', instead of an 'execute' box, and then add an 'apply selected upgrades' box to the bottom.  You could have an 'upgrade all' box next to the 'apply selected upgrades' box as well.

Also, a 'drop down menu' to the left of the check box, showing all available upgrades might be nice, so if for some reason you wanted to upgrade to a lesser weapon or armor to conserve gildar, resources, or whatever, you could do a lesser upgrade.  Or choose those initiative boots instead of the armored boots as mentioned above.

This would get tricky with special items (rings, amulets, etc.).  I'm thinking, to keep things simple, you only be allowed a single item upgrade at a time (choose one from the dropdown menu).  Yes, if you wanted multiple items this would take longer/multiple rounds with the upgrade window, but the alternative is to give each item it's own line, which might clutter up the upgrade window a bit much in the later stages of the game.

So, the buttons at the bottom might be:

[Exit Window] [Apply Selected Upgrades] [Apply All Upgrades]

I strongly prefer a check box next to each possible upgrade, and a closing buttion that says 'upgrade checked items'  Some current upgrades don't make sense.  Consider armor, taking the def +3 /dodge +5 overall garment (not a cloak) and 'upgrading' it to a +1 leather armlet makes no sense, and wastes lots of crystal. SO I strongly oppose an 'upgrade all' button.  "Upgrade all checked', yes!

You are not losing the monk robe when you get the armlet. It's added to your current set

The icons are misleading at times. For any armor upgrade they show on left side the LAST item you upgraded (like monk robe in your case) and the icon of the new item that will be added to the set.

Is easier to understand for weapons and group upgrades since there is only 1 item that is upgrading

I don't think so. I don't understand why the upgrade box can't be expanded to fill more of the screen as your upgrade options become greater. It would allow you to customize what you really want to upgrade even more, and after all, isn't that the point of it? To allow us more choice and customization in our upgrade choices?

ah, so you are saying that the armor upgrade isn't always a replacement (like it is for weapons) but sometimes is adding a piece of armor?  Thats worth checking out.... thx

+1

It's a bugger having to go back to this window each time, for each upgrade, then each time for each unit.  That's 630 clicks, my finger has a blister on it.

Yes, FE/EH has lots of click fests.  Diplomacy... oye.  And why are all the screens placed so far apart, all the time.  Wish I could drag the parts closer together when I am doing lots of diplomacy, and when done, drag them back to sides of main map.

For Stardock who are largely interface designers I'm always troubled by the lack of thought put into their game UIs

I really hope this is fixed in the next patch (hopefully soon!). I'd also through the troop management screen into there as well. Every time I try to use it- CRASH!

I don't like the armor upgrade process. I would like to be able to pick what slot I want to upgrade to what item to be able to manage upgrade costs and preserve or get other stats besides defense.

It would be nice to do incremental upgrades and choose to go to each level instead of only to the highest version. There are times when I might not want or be able to go to the highest level but should be able to do a partial upgrade. So the upgrade window could look like:

club -> war hammer -> lightning hammer

and you could choose which one you wanted with the price reflecting each upgrade.

That's more of a feature request, but at least in the interim if we could get the Upgrade screen fixed so it doesn't close each time you use it, that would be a great improvement!

You can always design new troops Late in game your troops already start at medium levels and you can cast spells to increase all army levels as well etc.

Starting units will never make it to end game upgrades, sure you can upgrade their armor and weapons and group size, but you can't give them mounts or accessories, nor add / modify traits.

yeah they probably won't be as effective as new units, but in some games i had some legacy units that survived the whole game and got rather high levels. the starting spearman upgraded to a company of pikemen with 200 HP is still useful as a meatshield. plus it would be really heartless to disband your most loyal followers

Disband them no, but upgrading them is tricky / costly compared to producing new units. Easiest upgrade is for units / group size. Then weapon (usually costs metal & gold, then enchanted ones add crystal). Then we get to "HORROR MOMENT" armor. Geeeez! With almost most trees completed research (still left 1 branch on each before repeating infinite ones) upgrading a basic defender group of 6 weapons to lightning maces and top notch armor costs me no less than 1400 gildar, 92 crystals and 400 metal. Holy Batman? And they still don't have any accessories, no mounts, no boosts from fortress bonuses and city buffs.

So let me tell you what those guys will do, they will sit in a city that is not on my borders and hang out with the city militia, pop some drinks and share tales of their glorious past

hehe yeah, i guess champion armor is the killer here. i don't think i ever built a unit with armor upgrade in mind since they changed the rules. early units usually get the +1 init boots and finesse (rather cheap and pretty good at that stage - bumps spear damage from 5 to 8  vs. most enemies, or daggers from 6 to 9 - for just 6 labor cost), so designing them with an armor trait would just mean that they have one unused trait now, and another (mostly) unused trait later (the init penalty of the armor pretty much kills the finesse condition unless you counter it with a warg and or/ +init jewelry - which isn't available for design when i build the units initially). the mid tier defense units just get chain proficiency instead of iron skin or finesse, damage dealers keep their leather stuff (no point wasting metal on slowing them down - their job is to flank the enemy units and slaughter them before they can fight back). by the time i get to plate, i either already won the game or i stop playing (don't really like the very late/endgame)

Another thing that could be wrong is the increase group size upgrade cost. 

In my games it always costs 30 g no matter what equipment the group has. I think that allows for some exploits, build a small size group that costs only a fraction of the crystal mounts and production time then upgrade it for a measly 30 g.

Maybe group size upgrade cost should be dynamic and/or the other upgrade costs should be reduced.

That actually makes sense. So instead of building a group of 3 paladins for example, then upgrading it to 6 for just 90g, you should also pay for resource costs to add additional units, in crystals and metal. Supporting this.