Every time somebody comes up with these ideas, I cant help, but think they must be high..
Same goes about me I guess..Ive even thought of a completely other kind of look for the game. One where all the mountainous areas and wood forests are interactive by having some resource value and help constructing bigger fortifications like a wall over the whole kingdom, scouting tower, bastions or put loads of traps on the map tiles between you and the opponents so basically its kinda possible to intercept the incoming attacks and maybe slow them down and hvae some choice in the battleground, where the are some certain terrain effects come to play like teutons having some bonus fighting in wooden areas , romans in mountains and gauls on near clay plus also the troops movement is influenced by the way map is built like its harder to cross mountains and impossible crossing those little watery areas without a ship harbor.
Right now there only 1 way to make a mark thats visible on the map and thats the village that occupy certain tiles..why not make possible to have the sides of these tiles used, like every village can make a wall on 1 side so many villages in a row can have a wall that starts to border a kingdom. Then have another side, where a road can be made so the some highways through kingdom can appear that have faster resource flow from forests around the kingdom towards inside, where troops are made and troops can move faster to the edges of kingdoms where most fight are made and troops can be held present. Id like to see it possible to cultivate the tiles near crop areas and burn down those farmlands that enemies hold if you have broken through their walls. Id like to see sieges that can cut away the food sources of enemies and slowly starve them if they cant fight themselves out or get help from allies.
Id like to see it possible to change troops home town the way hero can right now and get faster traveling times from nearer spots to enemy...maybe by having a king to make some common rally points outside kingdom borders with a castle extra protection for tho troops there. Maybe by every player being able make some spot outside his own village where he can place certain amount of troops and make smaller, but faster skirmishes against opposing kingdoms possessions.
The more I play travian, the more i keep imagining what more can be added to the game..I really think this sort of tiled map gameplay packs a lot more potential than there is right now and I hope there will be a day where a next version of travian comes out and surprises us all again, because this style right now has certainly bored me out a bit and the fun I get from it is being replaced by boredom, frustration and the thoughts on what if...what if the game implements more of the various options that real life battling offers.