Model design inertia

[Eretzu]

Currently I can create a light tank with 25mm howitzer, 100mm armor and heavy diesel engine. Then I can redesign it to use 60mm HVG, 5mm armor and light diesel engine with no issue.

My suggestion is that there is some kind of inertia with designing. Specifically one should be able to move only one step in each category at once (changing from howitzer to HVG should be considered one step so in above example the gun should stay at 25mm.) As an alternative, the design could just cost more depending on how radical of a change one wants to do.

[Soar_Slitherine]

The current ease of swapping model components definitely seems a little odd. Why does swapping in a laser gun to a tank chassis based on the first one to ever roll out of our factories give the full Weapon Design benefit from the last 10 years of experience iterating on ballistic guns? The current system heavily incentivizes sticking with only one line of each model type the whole game, since it results in a hefty stat bonus and still gives complete freedom to upgrade it with late-game components.

The number of model iterations required between the start of the game and getting late-game techs is not large enough to make the escalating cost for further developing the same model line a serious issue. When we develop an entirely new model type, the first iteration usually sucks, but completely new technology added onto an established design is always super-effective for some reason. I always thought that swapping in a new component should at least cause the respective design value to be rerolled, rather than guaranteeing the same or better value.

[BlueTemplar]

Indeed, see also this discussion :
https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=4983405