I'd like to suggest a small tweak (bolded below) to the Logistics components for ground forces.
Logistics are a significant demand on ground forces construction, as for any serious (planetary invasion) ground combat campaign logistics requirements are on the order of ~10% of the total force tonnage (see
my post in the Mechanics subforum for details on how this can be estimated). As the cost of building so many logistics elements is significant a savvy player will seek to limit this cost as much as possible without compromising tactical or operational (i.e. mouse-clicking) capability.
Presently, the logistics situation is such that we have three options available to us: INF+LOGS (10 tons, 100 GSP, 0.2 BP), INF+LOG (50 tons, 500 GSP, 1.0 BP), and LVH+LOG (62 tons, 500 GSP, 2.48 BP). The distinction between INF and LVH logistics is that the INF logistics can only resupply the formation they are elements of, while the LVH logistics can resupply any formation in their subordinate hierarchy. However, with the 1.12+ changes adding replacement functionality this benefit of LVH is no longer as important, as long as a formation has enough INF logistics to stay supplied for a construction cycle the replacements system will work just as well as LVH for a fraction of the BP cost per GSP. In the past, the ~2.5x BP cost for LVH logistics was a necessary evil as manually replacing logistics elements in large armies was untenable, but now it is unnecessarily expensive since we have a cheaper option that still reduces micromanagement to tolerable levels.
Additionally, the large logistics modules are largely inferior for INF logistics. The smaller modules are cheaper to research, more resilient to enemy fire due to being more numerous, and a bit more flexible if you want to fill out tonnage to boot. The large LOG module for infantry could probably be omitted with no real change in the game.
Thus my suggestion is as follows:
Double the GSP value of the large LOG component (but keep the size the same at 50 tons) and make it LVH-only.In this case we have two options: INF+LOGS (10 tons, 100 GSP, 0.2 BP) and LVH+LOG (62 tons, 1000 GSP, 2.48 BP) which are in roughly equal balance with each other.
This as discussed makes no real difference for infantry, but would make LVH-based logistics more feasible. There is still a +25% premium in BP cost per GSP due to the LVH mount + light vehicle armor, however for that +25% premium the player retains for example the option of not including infantry logistics in front-line formations. At the current +150% premium that option is really not feasible when ~10% of the total force tonnage is needed in logistics units. My suggested change presents an interesting strategic choice to the player which is between more effective frontline formations at greater logistical expense versus frontline formations with greater non-combatant tonnage for the benefit of cheaper overall logistics
and slightly lower transport requirements for LOG elements.
EDIT: As pointed out below the transport requirements under this proposal are less for LVH logistics (60% more tonnage-efficient). Admittedly I am not sure if this is a significant balance issue or not. If so, the size of the LOG component can be tweaked until Steve feels the balance of strategic factors is reasonable.