Originally Posted by
Tredlador
Perhaps a mod where the kingdoms/empires of history that were strong and famous, become or start as dominant factions. Maybe dropping the New Carthage faction, and giving all their turf to Carthage-proper for the player after the Roman experience to fight them, like the emergency it was. It's kinda weird, for me, to see some faction I have never heard of, take the joint over.
Maybe limiting how much far-away-factions might expand would be a good idea too, so it doesn't turn into a bore to have to endlessly fight the same faction by the time you get there, but that can be fun too.
Another idea might be where tribal factions would be more aggressive with each other, but don't actually take each other over, so there's a chance to survive if your playing a tribe, or a chance to have various barbarians to dispatch as a powerful faction. Suebi are everywhere in one campaign I have going, but the Cimbri and others are all dead. Aw God! The First Reich stretches from Sarmatia to Celtica! Yawn...
Would spawning small ambuscades of locals as a player invades be fun? Probably not, but it might make entering a new territory like it would be, Oh God! We've annoyed the locals! Without some recon going on, you might get too mauled to even reach an objective let alone be strong enough to win the battle when you get there. Nothing wrong with the right kind of frustration or the odd bit of fatal error.
Also, perhaps if the tribes of an area (e.g.: Gaul/Germany/Africa/Iberia, etc.) are invaded by a different culture belonging to a powerful nation the tribes could band together a bit more, staving off the mutual enemy, and you might have a couple more armies to chop up in a single battle, or get bounced by a gang of tribes... like the underdog type of jobby; or conversely, barbarians worth separating from each other so that they can't give you as hard a time as they would when working together. I noticed they do this in the game, but not nearly enough really...
Also, I don't notice any pop up info on the wonders and features on the camp map, though there is an icon of a wonder in the province menu box - still, it's kinda easy to miss, - nothing pops up for the Colossus at Rhodes nor the Zeus's temple at Olympus, and other places. Be nice to see hover info.
I was also thinking pop up names for rivers and mountains and mountain ranges might be cool, and volcanoes, maybe forests too. It would not bring any more action to the map, but it would make it interesting to see the old names of places easily, and maybe add a little spice when entering an army into some dreadfully named wilderness. Spooky, or perhaps giving a false sense of security.
Oh, and here's a far out idea: the occasional army of mythical beasts or a singular monster to bash in battle, that you accidentally bump into on the camp map. Trrrrippeh, right? Maybe dress up an elephant as some myth-monster, or enlarge a dog, give it three heads and oh idk... ^^
Is there any way to recreate heroes on the battle map - could the champions stand in for master choppers like the sword masters of Shogun? That would kinda really rock.