Chevrons and promotion

[Carltonus]

Basically, all units with chevrons should be the ones that can promote after some number of experience points. Imperial centurion should have a star instead of three chevrons as their icon. Edit: Centurion and other commander-related units.

The scouts, mercenaries, and a few other units (with icons but do not promote) should have their chevrons removed or must have the ability to promote. If the scouts can be promoted, they could be like the Athenian hippeus or other mounted swordsmen.

Edited May 3, 2020 by Carltonus

[wowgetoffyourcellphone]

3 hours ago, Carltonus said:

Basically, all units with chevrons should be the ones that can promote after some number of experience points. Imperial centurion should have a star instead of three chevrons as their icon.

The scouts, mercenaries, and a few other units (with icons but do not promote) should have their chevrons removed or must have the ability to promote. If the scouts can be promoted, they could be like the Athenian hippeus or other mounted swordsmen.

I agree. Perhaps this can just be a standard thing applied to the base game?

[Carltonus]

14 minutes ago, wowgetoffyourcellphone said:

Perhaps this can just be a standard thing applied to the base game?

Absolutely. Recalling correctly, the only unit in the base game with this issue is the Skiritai Commando, which has already at three chevrons at recruitment.

Delenda Est also has Triarius (Republic) and that pilum thrower (Imperial) starting at the same rank.

[wowgetoffyourcellphone]

2 hours ago, Carltonus said:

Absolutely. Recalling correctly, the only unit in the base game with this issue is the Skiritai Commando, which has already at three chevrons at recruitment.

Delenda Est also has Triarius (Republic) and that pilum thrower (Imperial) starting at the same rank.

I guess I am disagreeing then. I don;t think Elite units should have their chevrons removed. The chevrons tell you their current rank, not whether they can promote to the next rank or not. Maybe I am misinterpreting you. I agree that there needs to be more icons available for certain types of units.

[Carltonus]

Of course you're misinterpreting: what I mean to say is, the Skiritai, Triarius, and the imperial pilum thrower (former in main game, latter two in DE) were already in Elite rank at recruitment. They should have had their chevrons already removed before (technically, they can be called "citizen champions"). But that is not the issue.

The issue is that scouts and mercenaries have chevrons but no experience bar, and therefore cannot promote. If they are intended to never rank up, the chevrons should be either removed or replaced by differing icons. My suggestion would be to allow them to be promoted like normal soldiers (by experience or manual upgrade).

[fatherbushido]

@Carltonus: there is also the case where a unit can be trained as basic or as advanced or elite depending of the building producing it. In 0ad alpha 23 b, it's like that for the roman spearman (I don't know if it's on purpose or not).

For the Skiritai, your concern is more obvious, as it exists only at the rank 3. It had always had "champion" in its actor name. It's even renamed spart_champion_infantry_runner.xml for the unit template. Now as he has a gather ability, one can think it's better to made it a citizen elite or to made it a champion who can gather, I guess that's a matter of taste.