I'm not sure I understand your concerns.
1 - Buffs are bland and unimaginative and associating costs to them is only a bandaid fix.
2 - Lower unlocks unlock too many units.
3 - Upper unlocks are too descriptive--we should make descriptions easier to understand by simplifying them (i.e. Tank Reapers - ATGs gain better penetration and range).
4 - Being able to mix and match doctrines is bad; we should revert to rigid trees.
5 - If we continue to make players pay resources for unlocks, we should increase the MP pool (which in effect does the same thing as making everything free, relative to the old system).
Do I have that right? I would like to point out that it took almost two years of work with a team of 2-3 of us to get us to where we are now. To demand basically reverting the entire system and overhauling it with "no stat buffs", "no prices", and "simpler descriptions and effects" would drown me--not a team, but me--in another year or more of work. What you ask is functionally impossible.
Just to say i didn't mean to criticise the steps EIR has taken and the excellent work Tank and now you are doing to keep this mod alive. I'm really grateful for that, as is everyone here I'm sure and I'm by no means advocating for a drastic overhaul. Just wanted to highlight some of the areas in which I feel there's some room for improvement still.
1, 2, 3, 4. I think the salad bar approach is fine really. If we ever get a chance we should ideally just change the graphics so it's clearer that there's no longer pathways and a distinction between the top and bottom table. I would suggest spreading some of the unit unlocks out, to replace some of the more bland stat buffs. And with all doctrine unlocks having a cost, there's no reason why we cant have more powerful stat buffs at least - either permanently or on cooldown (though again I just want to stress it's really important these buffs are visible in game, i.e. either through a special icon or a clear ability effect indicator)
5. I think increasing the base resources somewhat is easy to do - i seem to remember there was a link to do just that in the SQL. Worth considering at least. Perhaps from say 8k to 9K starting manpower. In the old days we also used to have resource bonuses on top of that, but it's just better to have everyone with equal resources from the get-go anyway
Beyond that, with a possible steam launch ahead of us, it's also really worth thinking through all changes from a "new player accessibility" point of view. That was never EIR's strong point to begin with but if we want to ensure the mod's longevity we definitely want to ensure all game systems and launcher functions are as easy, straightforward and streamlined as can be.
