This diagram seems very simple yet effective. I do wonder however will there only be four areas of customization (weapons, armor, helmets, and training) or will the player later on have the ability to add boots, magic rings, amulets, and pendants? Can we assume equipment creation is a similar process? Either way I really like how simple and straightforward the process seems to be from your diagram although I would hope for more options later in the game. This answers some of the questions i've had in my Super Weapons & Units thread, thanks for the info Brad . 

Will this be like in GalCiv2 where the default ships are really pathetic compared to what the player can build?  Or will the default ships be able to hold their own?

I was wondering, how many components can each unit be made up of? Weapon/Armour/Helmet doesn't leave much room for customization, especially if body armour all comes in one complete set. The real fun of body armour is to mix and match components of complementing strength.

I think it would be totally awesome if the unit build screen looked just like that!

Ok, Frogboy. I know that there has been some people around "complaining" about the game's art/graphics but come on, you are totally heading into the very wrong direction with those. Nothing against old school art/graphics but i think you should have stayed with what you had. Or maybe that's how the game is seen in lower end machines...

In any case, i like the idea altough about that "quick build"... not sure. Could we have "quick build" for weapons and armors too? So if i need some weapons asap, i could pay extra (even you could add some penalty to that batch of weapons because of being rushed).

The picture implies that training will give extra hp, which is a simple and effective way to show combat training.  But can training do anything else, like supplying special attacks/qualities?  Could I train archers to be able to hide in woods and make ambushes to make a "rangers" unit?

Wintersong,

My thoughts exactly about the graphics  

The concept seems reasonable enough, except that one hopes for a slightly more interesting combat model than just ATT / DEF / HP.

What about the effect of ranged missiles? Shields are MUCH more effective against ranged missiles (from the front) than armor. Experience is important in combat, but not as a target of ranged missiles. The good and the great get hit just as easily by arrows as the untrained.

What about formations? Macedonian Pikemen were not that well armored, but had an excellent formation (for some purposes). 

Unless there is sufficient complexity in the combat model, the battles are likely to be not too interesting.

Hunter

Don't forget the mounts also.  Where would you assign a unit a horse, etc thus creating a mounted unit?

I assume mounts is one of the things that would be in colomn 3 with 'sword' and such.  (wintersong's joke about low-end machines seeing the game as pen-on-graph paper is funny to me.  +1 karma for joke)

I like how each piece has its own production time, so if it is easy for you to pump out swords, bam you have swords.  If it is easy for you to train bears, you can have a lot of bears.

This is really awesome.   I think it makes a lot more sense now that I've seen a concept sketch of it.  Certainly it has room for improvement like how to pick what goes in colomn 3.   I can see just a list showing of all the things you can make, but that would quickly get to be an overwelming wall of text you'd have to sort through to find the items you want.  So if there is going to be a list of things to include, there should be a good filter system and the ability to have it sorted certain ways (by default as well as on the fly).

I would hope that the game comes with a laundry list of saved generic units that were created by stardock so that players can jump right into the action without having to design units on 1st go (you know, your generic 'archer with leather armor' and 'knight on horse' should be pretty standard and should be there when the game is 1st installed)

I can honestly imagine UI that would be related to what is scetched appearing in MoM or Civilization.

I only show 3 items to equip your units as an example, it's not meant to represent the entirety of how one builds units. 

I don't think any of us want me trying to draw a horse.  

oh I beg to differ.    I'd love to see you try to draw a horse.

I made an edit to my earlier post about the column 3 idea... I thought I could sneak it in before anybody would respond.   So if you didn't catch the mention of a filtering system, you might want to glance again.

Like GalCiv, we will have templates. Like GalCiv: Twilight of the Arnor, those templates will automatically update as your tech and such gets better.

The tech trees are differnet in Elemental than in GalCiv. They're a lot more like MOO 1 actually (a lot of parts of the game are more like MOO 1 (not 2) than GalCiv so it's not about researching "Super swords" or something but rather investing in a type of sword and it gets better and better over time which is automatically inherited by the units.

To use a GalCiv analogy:

Imagine if ship weapons were missiles, phasers, and photons.  Those are the only 3 weapon techs.  You then put your research into those 3 weapon techs and over time, they get better and better and thus your ships get better and better automatically. You don't have to redesign your units nearly as often as a result.  We might throw in flavor text on the latest tech names but they won't be different components like they are in GalCiv II.

So while you may have a Cutlass versus a Long sword versus a bastard sword (for instance) you won't have Super Cutlas, Super Duper Cutlas, etc. That you have to research and then equip all your units with.  You'll simply research Cutlass and over time the Cutlass will get better.

The reason for this is because we want players to customize their units and there's a lot more opportunity in Elemental to do some cool stuff in this area than there was in GalCiv in some ways.

Are the swords going to get better in a material sense versus a percentage sense? Because being able to make stronger sharper swords allows you to do other things versus "just more damage". The more flexible you can make your blade the more it can bend before it breaks. The harder you can make the sword the better it will hold an edge (but it will be hard to sharpen). Stuff like that.

Also, draw the horse! We promise not to laugh.

Much.

yeah, and you can/should put your horse into the 'draw your mount' thread started by flyguy.   I mean we have a scribble that I think is a bear, and I cannot imagine that your horse is not at least of that quality.

I don't think we're going to get into that kind of detail with regards to units. Remember, these are just units. These aren't your heroes. 

A weapon does X damage in Y time is likely as complex as it would get.