Why, if a game has no use for it in the intent of the designers?Even if "playability" issues have to be met, A historical OOB should be presented.
Well, personal interpretation is most of how games are designed, what features and functions are considered relevant to ACW tactical warfare and which are not. You state that personal interpretation has no place and in the following sentence state exactly that when expressing your opinion about troop quality ratings.Personal interperatations have no place in a product that can boast the detail and sofistication this system offers. As far as Statistics on different units go, a 0-9 scale is too wide a range to rate units.
I have a perfectly sound need for 0 quality troops thank you very much and I'm designing a scenario now based around that rating.
Again, personal interpretation. I disagree. A wide range of unit qualities is needed by scenario designers.All units should be rated 4 with variations of + or - 2. Because each battle is different. Let the player beat an equal, not an inferior unit.
Modders also need a wide range of possibles extremes when using the base game for other periods. There is no way that French National Guards of 1815 were +2 or -2 distant in quality from the Old Guard of about 1809.
Likewise I consider that there's a case within ACW tactical simulations for allowing the player to beat poor troops with good ones or to try and hold a position with poor ones against good ones. History shows us many instances where different units displayed different qualities from elite to execrable and its a central function of game design whether or not to accomodate such features. Again, personal interpretation is what it is all about.
I agree that there are rough edges to some of the SoW maps, but with 100s of hours of work needed to create one and the law of diminishing returns stating that the last few small details will be the most time consuming to attain, and having constructed 3D landscapes myself in different disciplines (railway simulations) I can relate to a developer who draws the line at a certain point. Its not perfect but if it was I doubt the game would get published because development costs would grow too close to sales income.