The Problem: Unfortunately the current system is not only very inaccurate in that (A formation with a single infantryman will be trained in a single construction cycle, talk about express training), it punishes the player for making large formations, despite the fact that after construction those formations can be merged without any penalties into a larger formation identical to one that would have been constructed by just a single construction complex.
So the optimal play is to create very small construction formations that you then merge into formations of normal size, and the only cost is your own frustration, time, and hand pain.
The argument that it shouldn't be possible to train a 1 man formation in a day, makes sense, is totally realistic, and I feel it is completely irrelevant to a game like Aurora. Yeah, it's silly to be tossing out 1 man formations that fast, but it also doesn't matter, and I don't see the point to moving to a more complicated model just to add realism.
Similarly, I don't really agree that larger formations punish the player, at least short of a very specific situation like an ongoing war in a multi-faction start where the difference between getting 1/5th your forces out in a month verse all your forces in 5 months actually matters. And to the extent that it does matter, I think the best solution is found in the followup post:
Honestly all I want is for:
a - Ground force facilities to be aggregate like every other factory, or
b - Allow STOs to be trained using relevant ground components available in the stock pile, subtracting the consumed components cost from the training BP cost.
These, on the other hand, I both really like. While it's not true that all other factories are aggregated (Shipyards being the obvious other exception), I can definitely get behind aggregating ground force training centers. They don't need tooling, after all, and while it does contribute to the unrealism of training formations in a single week as noted above I don't really have an issue with that in Aurora. I don't think this is a super important change but I do like it as a nice simplification that reduces micro for minimal loss.
I also really love the idea of using available components for STOs, not necessarily because of training time, but because it opens new strategies. Historically gun batteries to defend ports were often built using outdated weapons off warships when they were scrapped, because it was cheap and you cared less about your stationary defenses being top of the line. STO units with old guns from warships you no longer care about wouldn't be that useful, but they'd be cheap, and the reduced maintenance of ground units in Aurora makes that an actually tempting option for colony defense.
I'll add a third idea I'd really like to see: Some sort of tool for planning multiple formation hierarchies and building them at once. This is admittedly less of an issue with the removal of ground command rating on officers, but I'd still really like the ability to, say, decide that a Planetary Defense Force Division has 3 Planetary Defense Brigades (each with 4 Infantry Regiments and a Towed Gun Regiment) and 1 Orbital Artillery Brigade, and so on, and then say "Build a PDF Division" and have it queue up all the formations and set them up in the appropriate hierarchy when they're done, so I don't have to drag them around.
I think it will be nearly ideal to have 3 stages:
1. Equipment production (with Ground Armament Factories instead of GFTF)
2. Recruiting (relatively quick process with some cost)
3. Training (without facilities, just morale/readiness buildup)
Equipment can be produced on other planet.
And I just cannot beleave in training facilities.
Let's please not turn this into adding complexity for no real gain. Aurora isn't Hearts of Iron and a detailed process for creating ground units just isn't needed.