I remain unconvinced. I mean for most of the problems I've brought up, the solution involves adding complexity, adding sliders, etc. I still think people will be really confused as to what goes into their equipment score, and then having sliders that affect priorities on a system that is vaguely defined and hard to keep track of just makes that problem even worse.
Also, you are treating this as if everything is going to be a free market, which is fine, but not necessary. It needn't be a total iron-grip situation, either, but people buying their own weapons would decide what kind of weapons to buy based on a combination of cost and usefulness. If they are aware that most of the opponents they might face will be mounted, pikes would be in higher demand even if they cost more. Additionally, if you want to extend your anecdote further - what is there to prevent me from maintaining stockpiles of certain types of weapon or armor that I can then hand out to my peasantry at need? Think of the Battle at Helm's Deep, for example, where everyone capable of fighting was equipped from the armory.
Regarding the lumbermills in particular, that might be me misunderstanding what lumbermills do. I can't actually build cities in the current beta without the game freezing... If lumber mills are a building that you build next to a source of lumber, which then provide lumber as a resource - then ok, I see where you're coming from.
The idea of having a handful of peasant templates that can only be edited outside the game is definitely not something I'd like to see. Whether I decide to focus on a small professional army or a horde of peasantry, I want to be able to customize them.
But really, the more 'fleshed out' this idea becomes, the less appealing it becomes to me... You keep saying all my concerns have been addressed in previous posts, but they haven't been.
Well, you keep criticizing the idea on the grounds that it doesn't give the player as much meticulous control as professional soldiers. But that's sort of the point. And the whole point of the idea to begin with is that you don't and are not supposed to have complete control over your citizen's behavior. Not all of them are arming themselves so that they can fit snuggly into their sovereign's army, which is why not all of them will answer the Call to Arms. Many are arming themselves for their own private protection, prestige, or in case their ruler gets out of line and they need recourse. With what they arm themselves with likely involves convenience. When you are declaring a call to arms, the whole point is that you are getting whatever reinforcements that are available: not manicured professionals who are tailored before hand to your every strategic need. Now, before you begin shouting the pejorative of the hour ("Random, Random!!!) take note that there are plenty of ways to influence them, but not completely control them to a T.
So if you need mostly spearmen, but you also get a regiment of axmen that don't fit into your strategy quite as well, it still takes strategic savy to decide how they can be useful. If you've had the foresight to click muster a few times and notice that a few regiments of axmen kept showing up, then you've probably already thought of one. Besides, an extra axman is better than no extra axman. You may not like it because it doesn't ratify some personal compulsion to tailor an hand paint every part of your army, both methods require a lot of strategy. And to be frank, mine is simpler.
But the general idea that I'm putting forward is what matters. The idea isn't complicated at all, as you claim. As a matter of fact, it's better than simple: it's intuitive. Sure, if you look at the wall of text I've devoted to retorts and clarifications it will look complicated, but let's look at it from the ground up, as it would be explained to a new player.
---your general populace will fight for you in time of war, and they have an equipment score that represents their privately owned armaments. That score grows whenever you have both unused resources and weapon smiths.
---what kinds of weapons are in their hands is implicit in the equipment score and depends on the resources you have, with certain resources being favored to certain weapons. You can click a button to see what weapons your citizens will bring to battle with them should a war occur.
---you also have a calibur score. It makes your citizens better at fighting. It grows when you have free barracks buildings.
And that's the extent of it. If I want more spears, I know that gaining access to more lumber mills gives me more spears so I construct more lumber mills. Now, you were demanding to have extra features tacked on to this idea to satisfy your personal taste to meticulously customize every unit in your army, to which I added a few more easy-to-use features. I'm not going off on a limb when I say a few slider bars in an empire management screen isn't complicated, especially for a core game feature. You were the one that was suggesting a storage interface for each type of weapon in each city, so I don't see how you could find a few slider bars on your empire city mentally taxing.
Yes, we can always demand that a game could use more customization options, but customization begats complexity. For instance, I could demand that there be storage for every resource in every city and demand that every one of them can be transferred to other cities at my command. Would you get more control out of it? Of course you would, but it would be insanely tedious. And just because you don't have 100 percent control over something, doesn't mean that there is less strategy involved. Because you don't have complete control over a Call to Arms, there is actually strategy involved with trying to gain the outcomes that you desire.
With the current system, if you wanted 3/4ths of your militiamen to be spearmen or swordsmen, making it so would be pretty intuitive, even without the sliders. If you have the compulsive need to personalize every single one of even your levy soldiers, then accomodating you specifically to consumate that compulsion is only going to do the game damage.
