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Description
I have been pondering on consepts for a real time strategy game where you simply go from normal infantery up to starships in space.
Not going to reveal too much, but this is basically what I had in mind on the normal unit creation\upgrade process.

The key part to the game is intense customisation.
There are basically 4 different levels of customisation avaliable for each unit you create, from the first basic infantry, up to "godlike" infantry, up to huge battleships. (the 4 levels are defined as "tech" and within each level, you can upgrade the avaliable items even more, giving a more advanced item the status of "sub teched".

I made a short digital paintbrush image of what I immagined the menu to be. Mind you it is only the layout, or the abilities. The general menu I had in mind was a sleak industrial mechanic interface. A bit futuristic looking with most of the important information avaliable. By clicking various buttons, holographic images, or aditional mechanical interface would pop\slide\animate into exsistance with aditional info.

Now a little explanation of this part at least. Mind you the general layout or any other aspect might change as I develope this idea further:

1:
This the basic unit creation window (simplified). This is what you see when you select a unit for creation, or for control.

1.1:
The unit window, shows an image of the unit you have selected, or are about to create from whatever produces said unit. It is idealy supposed to be an animated 3D model of the final outcome of what you create, or an image showing the unit you created. It will include graphics for each of the three upgrades avaliable.

1.2:
The weapon part of the unit creation\upgrade screen. Currently it shows what kind of weapon you have created for the unit. Moving your cursor above the window will show the different stats of the weapon. By clicking this icon (Only avaliable on creation) you will gain access to the weapon upgrade menu (figure 2)

1.3:
The armor part of the unit creation\upgrade screen. Currently it shows what kind of armor the unit is wearing. Moving your cursor over will show the various armor stats. Clicking this icon will gain access to the armor upgrade menu (figure 2)

1.4:
The medical part of the unit (Or the interior on ships). It will show what kind of internal augmentation(s) you have on your unit. By moving the cursor over, you will see the stat bonus the unit gains. By clicking you may alter\upgrade the internal abilities of the unit.

2:
The Weapon\Armor\Interior menu is now selected. This is what appears.

2.1:
This is the main menu for the upgrades or the items avaliable for construction. To gain access to items you may research them, tech your way up or discover various artifacts. Hover the mouse over one of the items and you will be given the stat bonus. Click and you will select the item for the spesific unit.

2.2:
The button for closing the window

2.3:
The current tech level of the avaliable technology. To gain a tech level you have to construct or upgrade structures. The structures are linked, so various upgrades are required to gain a tech level.

2.4:
The button for the menu where you select what tech level you wish to use. The current selected tech level is the brightest (tech level 2), the unavaliable is dark (tech level 3), and the unselected one is in between (tech level 1)

3: (3.1)
Here the button described in 2.4 is clicked, and you may select the tech level.

3.2:
Tech level 1 button

3.3:
Tech level 2 button (Currently selected)

3.4:
Tech level 3 button (Unavaliable)
Forgot to edit the graphics for the unavaliable button. More darker, or a normal button with a mechanical like lock on... Ill explore more as I begin to more seriusly draw the interface.

4:
One of the avaliable items are now selected.

4.1:
This is where the fun part starts. This part is only avaliable when you create the unit. This is simply the selection screen of aditional upgrades avaliable for the item. Thats right!
Taking an example of a weapon. The low tech weapons have 1 or 2 slots. and up to 2 matrixes in size. Theese slots can be used for smaller tweaks on the weapon. Like a sniper scope\targeting system\laser for more hit %, a cooling system for faster fire rate. or perhaps a computer system that boosts all of the mentioned attributes, ammongst others. In this example the item has 3 slots avaliable for upgrade, and each slots are 1 matrix big. The matrix size varies from 1 to 5 matrixes. The items avaliable for upgrade will be visible in another menu I have not bothered to think out yet. But it is basically a drag and drop scenario.

4.2:
Item slot 1 (They are numbered because I had other stuff in mind, but changed my mind as I wrote this)

4.3:
Item slot 2 (They are numbered because I had other stuff in mind, but changed my mind as I wrote this)

4.4:
Item slot 3 (They are numbered because I had other stuff in mind, but changed my mind as I wrote this)

5:
Basically to show you do not need the tech level menu selected to get the item slot menu up... meh, pointless, I know...

Now to set it all together with a little creation history with a thought up scenario for an infantry:

1:
You have selected an infantry unit to be created. This is the window you see (1.1).
You click on the weapons tab (1.2) and the weapons menu appear (2.1). The current tech level is one, but you have tech level two avaliable. So you click on 2.4 to gain access to the tech level selections (3).
You select tech level 2 by clicking 3.3. Now some new weapons are shown in the menu below. You have a choice between a subachine gun, an assault rifle and a sniper rifle. You select the sniper rifle and the aditional slot menu appears over the item selected (4.1).
The sniper rifle has 2 avaliable upgrade slots, both of them are two matrixes big.
You now drag and drop items from another menu into the slots (Not avaliable yet). The items you select are a better scope that takes 2 matrixes which fills one of the slots. And a silencer that only fill one matrix. But you are not able to put two items into the slot even if it has two matrixes and only one matrix is used.
The sniper rifle is now complete and added to the unit. The cost of the unit is determined by a combination of all items selected, the weapon and the items in the weapon slots are added to the final cost.

You then select the armor tab (1.3) and a list of armors avaliable appears (2).
You are currently on tech level two, and do not wish to change.
The armors avaliable are Kevlar Plating and Detachium Plating. The difference are the armor value and the avaliable slots. The kevlar plating has only one slot avaliable for upgrade, and it is two matrixes. The Detachium Plating has two slots where one is one matrix, and the other is 2 matrixes. However it is also heavier, making the unit run and sneak slower (but walk in the same speed as the Kevlar). You select the Kevlar as it is important for your sniper to move fast from one area to another.
In the upgrade slot you fill in an armor patch to give the unit more armor without affecting the speed.
The armor is now phurcased and is added to the final cost.
You then select the interior tab for aditional genetic options (mind you different races or factions have different menues or names, one has genetic, another has mutations and a third has technological attributes, or you can have a mix of them all)
You switch back to tech level one, as no tech level two augmentations are avaliable. You have a genetic augmentation that gives a boost to speed, and one that gives a boost to vision range. You select the vision and phurcase the upgrade.

The unit you have now created is named by you.
An example of price:
Infantery base cost: 100
-Weapon 50
---Scope 10
---Silencer 7
-Armor 40
---Armor patch 10
-Augmentation 20
---No aditional qugmentation tweaks avaliable
Total price of unit: 207

Armor, weapons and augmentations are optionable, if nothing else is selected the basic armor and weapon is applied and the unit gains no augmentations.
The unit created will then be withou any weapons or augmentations, but it will have a basic armor... cant have em walk around naked.
I guess the basic premise of creating a blank unit would be to use it only for piloting a vehicle.

When the unit is created you can start to produce them the same way you would normally.
You can create aditional infantery units with different weapons, armor and augmentations as well.

The same process is applied to every unit and even structure you produce, all down to the tinyest detail, which creates a very wide spectrum of strategy and skill involved to control the armies. Just immagine having a carriar located in space. This carrier has all the tinyest tweaks you have applied to it, from defence systems to offensive systems to cargo space.

Wow... that was long. Well... you get the idea of the thought behind it.
Sure, there are already many games that give this option to people. In adition you may pick up armor, weapons and ugmentations as well as spesific slot upgrades on killed units or crates. Which gives a close RPG feel.

I will come back with aditional info of the game...

And before you ask... no... I am not making this. It is just a relief to get it out of my mind after being pondered on for a long time. And yes, I will draw the interface the more I ponder on how the general layout and the look of it will be.

Questions?

Description
I have been pondering on consepts for a real time strategy game where you simply go from normal infantery up to starships in space.
Not going to reveal too much, but this is basically what I had in mind on the normal unit creation\upgrade process.

The key part to the game is intense customisation.
There are basically 4 different levels of customisation avaliable for each unit you create, from the first basic infantry, up to "godlike" infantry, up to huge battleships. (the 4 levels are defined as "tech" and within each level, you can upgrade the avaliable items even more, giving a more advanced item the status of "sub teched".

I made a short digital paintbrush image of what I immagined the menu to be. Mind you it is only the layout, or the abilities. The general menu I had in mind was a sleak industrial mechanic interface. A bit futuristic looking with most of the important information avaliable. By clicking various buttons, holographic images, or aditional mechanical interface would pop\slide\animate into exsistance with aditional info.

Now a little explanation of this part at least. Mind you the general layout or any other aspect might change as I develope this idea further:

1:
This the basic unit creation window (simplified). This is what you see when you select a unit for creation, or for control.

1.1:
The unit window, shows an image of the unit you have selected, or are about to create from whatever produces said unit. It is idealy supposed to be an animated 3D model of the final outcome of what you create, or an image showing the unit you created. It will include graphics for each of the three upgrades avaliable.

1.2:
The weapon part of the unit creation\upgrade screen. Currently it shows what kind of weapon you have created for the unit. Moving your cursor above the window will show the different stats of the weapon. By clicking this icon (Only avaliable on creation) you will gain access to the weapon upgrade menu (figure 2)

1.3:
The armor part of the unit creation\upgrade screen. Currently it shows what kind of armor the unit is wearing. Moving your cursor over will show the various armor stats. Clicking this icon will gain access to the armor upgrade menu (figure 2)

1.4:
The medical part of the unit (Or the interior on ships). It will show what kind of internal augmentation(s) you have on your unit. By moving the cursor over, you will see the stat bonus the unit gains. By clicking you may alter\upgrade the internal abilities of the unit.

2:
The Weapon\Armor\Interior menu is now selected. This is what appears.

2.1:
This is the main menu for the upgrades or the items avaliable for construction. To gain access to items you may research them, tech your way up or discover various artifacts. Hover the mouse over one of the items and you will be given the stat bonus. Click and you will select the item for the spesific unit.

2.2:
The button for closing the window

2.3:
The current tech level of the avaliable technology. To gain a tech level you have to construct or upgrade structures. The structures are linked, so various upgrades are required to gain a tech level.

2.4:
The button for the menu where you select what tech level you wish to use. The current selected tech level is the brightest (tech level 2), the unavaliable is dark (tech level 3), and the unselected one is in between (tech level 1)

3: (3.1)
Here the button described in 2.4 is clicked, and you may select the tech level.

3.2:
Tech level 1 button

3.3:
Tech level 2 button (Currently selected)

3.4:
Tech level 3 button (Unavaliable)
Forgot to edit the graphics for the unavaliable button. More darker, or a normal button with a mechanical like lock on... Ill explore more as I begin to more seriusly draw the interface.

4:
One of the avaliable items are now selected.

4.1:
This is where the fun part starts. This part is only avaliable when you create the unit. This is simply the selection screen of aditional upgrades avaliable for the item. Thats right!
Taking an example of a weapon. The low tech weapons have 1 or 2 slots. and up to 2 matrixes in size. Theese slots can be used for smaller tweaks on the weapon. Like a sniper scope\targeting system\laser for more hit %, a cooling system for faster fire rate. or perhaps a computer system that boosts all of the mentioned attributes, ammongst others. In this example the item has 3 slots avaliable for upgrade, and each slots are 1 matrix big. The matrix size varies from 1 to 5 matrixes. The items avaliable for upgrade will be visible in another menu I have not bothered to think out yet. But it is basically a drag and drop scenario.

4.2:
Item slot 1 (They are numbered because I had other stuff in mind, but changed my mind as I wrote this)

4.3:
Item slot 2 (They are numbered because I had other stuff in mind, but changed my mind as I wrote this)

4.4:
Item slot 3 (They are numbered because I had other stuff in mind, but changed my mind as I wrote this)

5:
Basically to show you do not need the tech level menu selected to get the item slot menu up... meh, pointless, I know...

Now to set it all together with a little creation history with a thought up scenario for an infantry:

1:
You have selected an infantry unit to be created. This is the window you see (1.1).
You click on the weapons tab (1.2) and the weapons menu appear (2.1). The current tech level is one, but you have tech level two avaliable. So you click on 2.4 to gain access to the tech level selections (3).
You select tech level 2 by clicking 3.3. Now some new weapons are shown in the menu below. You have a choice between a subachine gun, an assault rifle and a sniper rifle. You select the sniper rifle and the aditional slot menu appears over the item selected (4.1).
The sniper rifle has 2 avaliable upgrade slots, both of them are two matrixes big.
You now drag and drop items from another menu into the slots (Not avaliable yet). The items you select are a better scope that takes 2 matrixes which fills one of the slots. And a silencer that only fill one matrix. But you are not able to put two items into the slot even if it has two matrixes and only one matrix is used.
The sniper rifle is now complete and added to the unit. The cost of the unit is determined by a combination of all items selected, the weapon and the items in the weapon slots are added to the final cost.

You then select the armor tab (1.3) and a list of armors avaliable appears (2).
You are currently on tech level two, and do not wish to change.
The armors avaliable are Kevlar Plating and Detachium Plating. The difference are the armor value and the avaliable slots. The kevlar plating has only one slot avaliable for upgrade, and it is two matrixes. The Detachium Plating has two slots where one is one matrix, and the other is 2 matrixes. However it is also heavier, making the unit run and sneak slower (but walk in the same speed as the Kevlar). You select the Kevlar as it is important for your sniper to move fast from one area to another.
In the upgrade slot you fill in an armor patch to give the unit more armor without affecting the speed.
The armor is now phurcased and is added to the final cost.
You then select the interior tab for aditional genetic options (mind you different races or factions have different menues or names, one has genetic, another has mutations and a third has technological attributes, or you can have a mix of them all)
You switch back to tech level one, as no tech level two augmentations are avaliable. You have a genetic augmentation that gives a boost to speed, and one that gives a boost to vision range. You select the vision and phurcase the upgrade.

The unit you have now created is named by you.
An example of price:
Infantery base cost: 100
-Weapon 50
---Scope 10
---Silencer 7
-Armor 40
---Armor patch 10
-Augmentation 20
---No aditional qugmentation tweaks avaliable
Total price of unit: 207

Armor, weapons and augmentations are optionable, if nothing else is selected the basic armor and weapon is applied and the unit gains no augmentations.
The unit created will then be withou any weapons or augmentations, but it will have a basic armor... cant have em walk around naked.
I guess the basic premise of creating a blank unit would be to use it only for piloting a vehicle.

When the unit is created you can start to produce them the same way you would normally.
You can create aditional infantery units with different weapons, armor and augmentations as well.

The same process is applied to every unit and even structure you produce, all down to the tinyest detail, which creates a very wide spectrum of strategy and skill involved to control the armies. Just immagine having a carriar located in space. This carrier has all the tinyest tweaks you have applied to it, from defence systems to offensive systems to cargo space.

Wow... that was long. Well... you get the idea of the thought behind it.
Sure, there are already many games that give this option to people. In adition you may pick up armor, weapons and ugmentations as well as spesific slot upgrades on killed units or crates. Which gives a close RPG feel.

I will come back with aditional info of the game...

And before you ask... no... I am not making this. It is just a relief to get it out of my mind after being pondered on for a long time. And yes, I will draw the interface the more I ponder on how the general layout and the look of it will be.

Questions?