Well, at the same time I don't think the idea is to have 4x Sims.

So you are asking for model randomization then ? Something to avoid clone armies with ?.. something which i would agree with btw

or something else ?

This is an intersting thing to think about, and i'm really curious how they will make the troop "building blocks" work. I have a strong feeling we will get a better idea if we take a look at galciv's ship creator, or maybe if there is general customization in their latest game (forget the name haha). I never saw what galciv2's grew into with expansions, but I have a feeling that'll be the base for where this one will take it. In some ways, you saw how you'd slap an engine on the ship somewhere, and the engine you put on it was something you had researched.

I think they are seeing this apply the same way to game. You take a base chasis, in this case, might be a man. You apply a +1 sword in his weapon slot, you put chainmail of the titon on his chest, and swift boots on his feet... stuff like that. I think getting that to work visually, esp with animations, is going to be tough, if that is the level of animation they want. I mean, it is one thing to mount a laser on a ship, and have it fire out the front and hit an object, and another to have a sword that could be somewhere between 1 and 4 feet long swing and hit something.

So, I would wonder too, how much variety will you have here, which I think is what the poster is asking. I am with him I totally love hot female warriors and would love to do a game where you just pick all women as your "base". But I think also, the question is, how much vareity do you get, can you make a horse body with a human toroso? Do you get base elf models? Could I add a griffon mount to the guys, do I have pieces that only attach to the griffon? Could the griffon have bat wings?  How robust will the system be?

I have a strong feeling that it will be like galciv. You can make a troop and stick as many cosmetic pieces on the guy as you want, but there will be a set of rules for the pieces that add stats to your guy, so you don't end up with a guy walking around in 15 sets of plate armor cobbled together for extreem defense.

But again, I guess that depends on how the game is going to get executed and the engine. Again, I think making ships all wacky and crazy is believable, but making "people like" things we all like to have in fantasy, and look GOOD, is going to be a tough job. I don't evey the art guys

Agreed.

Multiple body types would be useful for cosmetic reasons. 'Undead' would be a useful base model to have as well.

I would suppose some basic body types needed for the campaign and some extra few for us to play with in sandbox. So i hope to be able to play amazons, Valkyrjur and/or Battle Maidens (all of which are just female models with handpicked names and with different equipment chosen by me), just that not in the campaign (maybe?).

Total War's unit variation system, which plugs together different bits to keep units from looking homogenous, works very well.

Other than that, there are so many similar character customization tools around now, it should be trivial to licence one. And if you're not interested in going through all that fiddling around with cheekbones for every unit, just grab a high rated community character off t'internet and stick your own equipment on it.

I imagine this will turn out exactly like GalCiv only with body parts instead of ship parts.  I don't, however, think that we'll be able to make many customizations that will be like "Sporn" or something.  They'll just be like traditional RPG character creation features only you do it as much as you want instead of at the beginning of the game.  It's definitely a cool idea though! 

Yes! Please put in genders, body types/races customisation, different hairstyles, age etc. Very important for me also! If i am going to create my own race/people/civilisation whatever (and i will) i really need these options. How else can i have my flying panther riding warpriests of Quicksilver supported by a cohort of all-female winged spellcasters?

Btw this post is not sarcastic. I am serious.

edit:

also "themes" for civilisations -oriental, steampunk, gothic, egyptian, ...

I really want to be able to see my units in kimonos / samurai style armours and my keeps be something suitable for edo period.

also would be neat to fight someone just out of the first/second "Mummy" - Movie.

Movie-Imhotep is a kind of channeler if i think about it...

Quicksilver was not a reference to a company which... tried... to make a moo2 successor, but a pnp character of mine, the first one to reach immortality in a very long running Dnd 2 edition campaign. Way before the word "Quicksilver" came to be associated with less enjoyable matters.