Well then, this is just awesome. Hope its too much hardware dependent
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About your poll. I dont want to choose any of them. And i would totally remove the forth choice. I know its probably the less time consuming one but its also the worst :/
I can sure tell you what kind of unit customization aka build options i would like to see.
What i would like to see includes both 1 and 2 options and ill go in detail to explain more of my suggestion.
Regarding items and
Inherit class Skills/Talents (passives and actives)
I suggest open-itemisation system. Which means, for example an archer would be able to equip ANY kind of weapons/armors BUT for example will never be able to wield a Shield as good as a melee unit or even better, a tank type unit.
The way i imagine u can do this is by adding passive skills (inherit skills, with which units born/start) to every unit type. The reason i suggest inherit passive skills for the units is so that each unit is truly unique by default/start. For example, a hypothetical unit called Shield Master, will be born with the below passive skills:
+100% chance to block with Shields (shield types could vary).
+50% chance stun a target with a Shield.
+20% dmg when using skills that do dmg with Shields.
Ofc i dont know how exactly your combat or even stats system will be, but again, what i suggest here (hence the general idea) is to make each unit unique, with its own CONS and PROS. So that they can differ by
birth.
Also the amounts and percentages u see are examples. Ofc they will depend on the balance of the game.
And to bring this back to the Archer. The Archer compare to the Shield Master will not have any
Inherit/
By Birth shield related passives. But will be able to carry a shield if the players wants that for some reason (hence open-itemisation system).
Again, the Archer and the Shield Master are two quick hypothetical units of mine just to explain you my suggestion on
Itemisation and the
first part of the skill system.
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Talent system related
There is something i really really would
not like to see, and that is a system like old wow expansions had for talents. For example,
spend 5 points on the first row of the talents to get access to the next row of the talents. That kind of system isnt really free, it just
forces build options.
The better system is the system like the current wow (Legion) has for talents.
The above being said, there are many types of talent/skill systems you could add.
1) A system similar to wow-legion.
2) A system where units have their own (or learn by NPCs? dunno) active/passive skills and talents
level 1. And as your unit lvls up, it gets a limited amount of skill points which you can distribute on the talents/skills you are interested in. The points must NEVER be enough to enchant all the existing skills/talents. If for example a class has about 10 skills/talents, there will only be enough points for 3-4 talents/skills. Because if they can enchant all the skills then the build options system loses its point.
3) A system where you can enchant your existing skills/talents with other stats/effects. You could do this by creating magical runes, gems (or whatever) that drop from monsters/bosses or players buy from shops etc. These runes/gems will have many different stats/effects (maybe even with negative stats/effects?). There will be only one slot of enhancement for every skill (is my guess). But that can change as well, you can make it 2 or 3, dunno

And ofc this system can be applied on items as well and as u can see its inspired by Diablo 2 like games.
4)and most probably other systems or tweaks on the systems i suggested that i cant think right now
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Sorry for the long thread. I hope my point of view explained clear enough.