If you were to create your own TW style game, what features would be crucial for you? What do the hardcoded features of TW games lack, apart from functional diplomacy / AI intelligence?

Personally, I'd add the following features:

- founding settlements: the player can found settlements on his own and thus create new provinces. He can also destroy existing settlements thus eliminating the province, giving the soil to a neighbouring one

- technological progress: by building appropiate building (schools, temples), the player can amass "progress points" like in Civilization. When a given amount of points is reached, your faction could benefit from new / better units and buildings

- disloyalty: your nobles can revolt and form a faction to wipe you out (dunno if this is already implemented in M2TW). The bigger the empire, the more difficult to keep it together