Consider this post me making a fuss about this if thats what is needed. Like sethai says this really would make a huge difference and it is a recurring request on the forums with many new players counfused as to why it isn't possible and if they have missed something. If intuitively people expect a feature and are suprised by its absense it would seem like a good idea to add it in most cases.

What i noticed in the game is that you cannot manipulate equipment on soldiers, that stands out much more than upgrading! It sends us all a message loud and clear that soldiers are intended to be a dead end creation in the game.

I would assume this is because soldiers equipment is manufactured, not purchased and Stardock must believe it important to game balance that players should not be able to manufacture their own equipment. I would agree with this in the context of earlier game versions where guilder is much harder to come by, but now with the latest game versions, guilder is much easier to earn, so i do not think it is needed to prevent players manufacturing their own weapons anymore.

Soldiers should be configured the same as hero's but without the attribute selection, and all units should be able to form squads and leave squads at will.

Agreed on the need for an upgrade option; it's a basic TBS feature, made even more important in a game where even normal units gain experience and level up. There are several ways it can be implemented - say an instant resource cost, possibly discounted by old unit's value, possibly adding an extra gold fee, or needing to 'train' a new unit from the old one using the city's production. I'd prefer taking the time to train the unit rather than paying extra resources for an instant upgrade; I hate the situation in GC2/Civ/many other games where new units cost one resource (such as production) but upgrading units cost another (such as gold), so you can mass produce new units but not have the gold to upgrade a single veteran old unit. But really there just needs to be some way to carry over your old unit's experience into a new one at an appropriate cost, not picky about the details.

For that matter we should get a refund for disbanding units in a city - obviously the lost production time can't and shouldn't be recovered, but the metal/materials/crystal at least should be recoverable, maybe a portion of the gold.

I don't think SD has anything against upgrading, it just wasn't added, like a lot of other features. I completely agree with all stated sentiments, whether it is an equipment swap like that for champions, or re-training through the city queue. I am constantly disbanding obsolete units with lvl 5 or 6 experience. Such a shame. I think a global equipment locker would be in order, that's sometimes called an armoury.

Would also be cool if particularly heroic units had a chance to spawn a hero who could become a new Champion for you.

Great ideas.   Could be a bit like Great Generals in Civ, except the Generals would have more character.

Yes to Generals that affect combat performance on several levels, and yes to General units that arise out of sufficiently experienced regular units!

Best regards,
Steven.

Still worth bringing it up though, as an option for units with a lot of experience.  And since they are remaking the game, its worth bringing something like this up.

Best regards,
Steven.

This would be cool.

I also agree with some kind of upgrade system, but I would like it to be something of value. In the civ series, the player spends money and a turn to change a old unit to a new unit, with the benefit of the unit keeping his experience and bonuses. The problem with this kind of upgrade system in Elemental is that the only bonus a unit got from leveling was some extra hp, and even so, an old unit in Elemental even with upgraded weaponry would have no chance against 12 troop units later on in the game.

What Elemental needs is an upgrade scheme which feels more like rpg leveling. So the idea would kind of be as follows:

- You start the game and recruit a single club guy. No Armor, limited health, and a club between him and his foes.

- This dude starts to fight and win, gaining levels. Each level this dude not only gains hp, but would also gain stat points based on his equipment. So in the case of our club guy, he might get some strength and a small amount of dexterity. As his skills increase, this guy also gets access to special abilities which are based on his stats. So maybe, now our club dude at level 2 can now use a club smash, and then at level 5, he gets a disorienting strike, etc.

- Now, our club guy has fought several battles, and has hit a milestone level, perhaps every 2 or 3 levels. At the milestone level, the unit would get not only his stat bonus, but can now choose one of a few items. For instance, he could get the next tier armor, the next tier weapon ( so now his club becomes a mace), an additional troop for his unit, a magic item, or an additional stat increase.

- As the game progresses, our club guy with no armor slowly morphs into a 12 unit lord hammer dude with great stats and a host of interesting abilities, due simply to players grooming this unit towards one strategy or another.

This entire idea would give allow players to hone their troops while still researching and producing better and better new troops, without simply taking the unit and magically making them better because their economy was simply churning out resources to make them better. So players who turtle and only have units defend while blasting through the tech tree would eventually be capable of building awesome veteran troops, while players who build troops and rotate in new troops to fight monster or go on quests with their champions would be rewarded for these RPG efforts with strong well trained troops as well.

I agree with TeamM on this one. And take it from another angle. These troops you are wanting to upgrade were not trained to fight with those weapons, armor, or groups. The only way you should be able to combine them like this is if they were Penelized with a "retraining" Period probably equal to half the training time of a new unit.

The core difference between Champions and normal units is not simply that one upgrades and one doesn't. Champions start with special abilities, they can be customized when leveled, and they can change equipment. As I said, in my previous posts, I do not want to see standard units get leveled up directly nor be able to change their weapons at a whim. However, I think it is more than reasonable to make the difference between a level 1 peasant and a level 2 peasant be more than just HP and accuracy. The best idea would be to allow units to expend some kind of level up points ( like in civ ) to select a weapon which is similar to their current weapon. A good example would be club->mace-> battle hammer->lord hammer. This would give players more reason to love their normal units, while not taking away anything from Champions who could still specify their skill improvements, buy and trade items, and get initial special abilities. In Fact, I think that if they change normal units to have a bit more in their level up scheme, then it would make sense to give champions a bit more as well. For example, champions could be classed and have customizable skill trees like in other rpgs.

I have to say, me too.

Best regards,
Steven.