There should be a jealousy component for solders where they want better weapons and armor to mach there comrades. This could incentivise the player to standardize their army and could work well with the new development on emotion. The trait would give hearthlings more depth and personality. Keeping it rare and randomized would not only add a farther element of individuality and personality to hearthlings it would also prevent the trait from becoming too annoying to the player. Just a thought keep up the good work.
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This is a so funny idea ! But I wonder if this is suitable for wised civilized hearthlings ? (OK for kobolds).
I see multiple problems with that:
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Low level units cant equip high level stuff. Would be kinda unfair for the player if the soldiers moral drops because he is jealous of a piece of equipment he cant even wear.
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How do we define which piece of equipment the soldier wants more? There is the 1h+shield and 2h option for footmen and different arrow types for archers
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Once the devs will introduce rare weapon types, there will probably be many different weapons with different stats/effects/benefits and how do soldiers decide which is better/worse?
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Furthermore about the rare weapon types, it would be unfair if you have one super rare strong weapon and all the other become jealous of that one soldier because he got a super strong weapon (which you probably wont get a second time).
It’s a nice idea, but I can’t see how it really helps and it could be quite annoying if it is wrong implemented like I have shown here. 
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Low level units could gain a buff from higher level warriors that would inspire them to be more like their higher up this could help avoid the first issue. Second there could be a system of a higher up/role model that hearthlings would look up too this would be based on a respect modifier that would be gained based on the number of hits dealt in total (not damage to avoid exponential growth as the heathling gains more powerful weapons) in battle will gain respect from their comrades. This respect would case other hearthlings jealousy buff to slowly go away as the range of respect grows until at some point heathlings residual buff would go away. Once a certain range is reached hearthlings with superior weapons/armor would offer these items to the respected hearthling. This buff would be class specific to prevent your hearthlings from wanting weapons they can’t use. Also along the line of the role model idea a hearthling could have a passion for a certain class and this ambition could give buffs for a slight experience gain modifier (if the player wanted the hearthling to be a different class than the passion the hearthling would be less slightly efficient and grumpy at first but as their skill grows and valor grows the negative buff would go away completely). Hearthlings could gain a valor buff that would be dependent on number of hits dealt in battle. This would be a type of personal confidence and could cause minor buffs or a slight experience gain modifier. Hearthlings could gain respect from heartling that do not share their class but the the respect would not trigger the transference of weapons. Two hearthlings with a very close respect score who also have low respect for each other (low respect could be based on valor to give a sense of over confidence or cockiness, or something else like a more complicated feud system between hearthlings). As for the second issue you brought up hearthling would want equipment that could use for example if you have two level three soldiers and one has a level three equipment piece but the other doesn’t the lesser equipped hearthling would want a weapon of the same level/tier. Thank you so much for putting the time into giving feedback. I feel that many ideas need further development before they are refined to an optimal standard and I would like to continue this conversation. I feel that this idea could add a lot of depth to hearhtlings and I hope that this conversation continues.
I think this would get to complicated for players. I mean, right now you have suggested: Inspire, respect modifier, jealousy, experience gain modifier, valor buff, interpersonal respect between specific hearthlings, over confidence/cockiness. And this was just for the first problem I have brought up.
The thing about stonehearth is, that the devs need to watch out for a depth-balance between combat and building. Neither of them should be TO complicated or have to much depth, since both things should stay equally important and also easy to learn. And with the things you just suggested, the game would gain many “hidden” mechanics for combat that the player need to learn and keep their eyes on if he wants to have effective military units. I’m not really sure so if that really fits into stonehearth. I could imagine that being a really nice mod for people who want a heavier focus on combat, but otherwise it could be problematic for the normal stonehearth.
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