Here are some ideas moving forward:
SAME for all classes- Air Sea and Naval. (Just used infantry units for examples.)
UNITS
Units and the equipment they carry -
The games have a natural progression for upgrading units through the war/campaign, based on year. '41 Marines, '42 Marines, '43 Marines...'44 Hellcat....'45 Hellcat...etc etc.
What if that were scrapped and instead you had a training budget, manpower budget (recruiting) and an equipment budget?
Training budget would allow X number of units to be upgraded (trained) before the start of scenario. Need Paratroopers? Need SeaBees? Some of your Marines need jungle training? Need to learn to make a def. position? Amphibious landing training? Teach your destroyers to sink subs, aircraft how to land...hehe! Need to train yourself, Capt Sobel???
"Pvt Tigersnack! You have just lost your weekend pass for that insult!" (tinkles in Sobel's coffee)
Manpower Budget would affect replacements and new recruits. What level of recruit? Great soldier material or old men and boys? Manpower should affect industrial power, even with Rosey the Rivoter added.
Equipment Budget- Which infantry unit gets the new bazookas, or M1 Garand rifles, or the .30 cal Brownings? Need a Ranger Battalion...You need top troops and then outfit them well. Upgrade that Sherman with a 76mm AT gun? Get rid of that Buffalo and get a Hellcat? "Sir, we have enough budget to equipment 3 HW infantry units with pea-shooters and 5 infantry companies with clubs and rocks!"
Self-sealing gas tanks, upgrade from .30 cal to.50 cal, sonar, radar, gunnery radar- Bazooka Charlie adding Bazookas to his Piper recon plane, etc etc. I added Bazooka Charlie to my fictional campaign im working on...slowly
NATION INFO This is a long shot and some of this is already in the game as specialization points =)
You could even make a few country wide entries. Ive played Pacific Theater of Operations 1-2 and I loved the monthly conference to vie with the other branches of the Military and Government for the national resources.
OK..the Army has 5000 Budget set last week. Where do we allocate this budget? Training, Manpower or Equipment? Or...maybe something else cool, like technology development, industrial priorities, spy programs, electronic programs, civilian morale, etc etc. "Are your citizens happy or ready to string you up, Mussolini?" Better spend some budget on National Morale!!!
What about having a hand in weapon development and design? "I TOLD you already! That Sherman needs a 76mm...not that crappy 75mm!! Get out of the way. Im installing a 76mm!" I would love to put my fingers all over NEW design and development. "New tanks to review, SIr. Type A, Type B or Type C?" Review the stats and notes without knowing what the equipment is. Sometimes you come up with a great weapon and sometimes you come up with a complete dog!
P-39 (As a high alt interceptor, was....not good!, The Mosquito, build of wood, was a resounding sucess!)
LEADERS-
Why not make them RPG style so as the leaders gain experience, they get to adds points to their stats?
"Lt Jones gains 2 points to spend on stats. Lt Jones has added +2 to infantry defense"
I think each unit should have a leader but players should only get to control a small amount at a campaign start while gradually gaining control over more leaders. Leaders should get promoted through the campaign...or demoted...or worse! Captured Leaders should have the chance to cause an overall adjustment of player forces. "Lt Jones cracked under torture and told them everything about the current plan! All units on Player side gets -1 to offense and -1 defense"
- I created a "Rocket Barge" the other day and added one of these to some amphibious landing scenarios. Used nebelwerfer as the attack.
- Would LOVE to see new or updated unit graphics!!!
- WANT SKINS for ALL units. That would cover the above sentence!
- More auxiliary buildings! Give us another 20 or so please. A Hospital, the famous Tractor Factory, Giant Church, A large bridge that can span over water (or something like the Florida Causeway to the Keys), a University, etc etc. This would add spice and variety for User-made scenarios.
- Some simple interaction with a Leader would be great! We can give them commands: Hold at all costs - Fighting retreat - Dig in -guard this - Take that town! - scout - rest when you need - R-R time - etc etc etc "General Player 1, my men have been fighting all day. They cannot go any more today! My Tanks are 100% ready for combat." Just give you simple general messages about their unit