[Wesnoth-dev] Three level units

[James Barton]

First up, hello everyone. I've just been added to the developer mailing 
list, but as most of the discussion so far has been on technical 
matters, I haven't spoken up yet.

The purpose of this post is to address the unit lines currently present 
in the core build of Wesnoth. The vast majority of units have three 
levels - Elvish Fighters, Orcish Grunts, etc, etc, etc. A few units 
have four levels - most notably the Great Mage line. Monsters usually 
have just one. The remainder of units have two levels, and there appear 
to be assorted reasons for this.

Personally, I would prefer a game where all units have three levels - 
it feels more "natural" to me that way. However, there are sound 
objections to this philosophy, and they don't need to be debated 
further. What I would like to do is make sure that every unit which 
SHOULD have three levels DOES have three levels.

The following is a list of all units which cannot advance to a third 
iteration, broken up into categories.


--Level One Units, from Level Zero Units--
Goblin Impaler
Blood Bat
Soulless

Does anyone believe that these units should have a third level?


--Drakes--
Drake Gladiator
Drake Slasher
Drake Warrior
Sky Drake

Adding third level Drakes could prove difficult without Neorice, as he 
has a very distinctive graphical style.


--Level Two "Branch Units"--
Lancer
Javelineer
Troll Rocklobber
Deathblade

These units have been deliberately added to a tree as a "trade-off" 
branch - more utility in the short term at the cost of long term power.

--Outlaws--
Outlaw
Trapper
Bandit

Outlaw units (with the exception of the Thief->Rogue->Assassin line) 
supposedly do not have three levels to reflect their "not proper 
soldier" status. However, several user campaigns include third level 
Outlaws, and I believe that the third-level Outlaws are widely enjoyed.

--Others--
The following are the most interesting cases, as far as I'm concerned, 
as many of them are worthy of a third level. As such, I'll go annotate 
them individually.

Dwarvish Beserker (Neorice has created some good graphics for a third 
level beserker. I think we should include it)
Goblin Pillager (Should this be a "branch" line? I'd rather like to see 
a Goblin Firestarter or similar)
Duelist (Francisco drew concept art for a Swordmaster, and I think the 
Duelist definitely deserves
Gryphon Master (I have some graphics ideas on this score)
Saurian Icecaster/Soothsayer (Didn't Antwerp create three levels for 
these guys? I'd like to see them in use)
Ogre (A third level "Battle Ogre", anyone? ;-)
Orcish Crossbowman (The "Slurbow" has both graphics and support)
Orcish Slayer (See my recent thread in Developer's Discussions)
Necrophage (Whatever happened to the Gorger?)

I'm currently working on a few pieces of art for Asa's campaign, but if 
artistic support is needed to implement any of these units, I could 
probably provide it - Jetryl is rather busy right now, as I understand 
it.

So - opinions on the highlighted units? Should any of them definitely 
be implemented? Should any of them definitely not?

James
a.k.a. Sangel