updated again - good suggestions Monsieur Alphonse, Didz & Fisherking - i particularly like the idea to include privateers... i think more subterfuge related economic warfare is definantly needed - it is Total War, but an intelligent leader softens his target up before he strikes and/or harms those more powerful than him as best he can without their knowledge

a few notes: I left out the Diplomacy and How Goes the War suggestions because if I remember correctly one of the daily updates said they were already testing something like that for the next patch... we'll see how well it works - I was under the impression that the status of your relations was displayed during diplomacy in the bottom corners - I guess I need to pay attention to see if it happens always, but so far I've always seen alliances falling apart when someone attacked me and their ally refused to join in - for Building Seeker you can filter the Building Browser various ways and 'by Type' is one of them - and for the last three, if I remember correctly CA has said they plan on releasing a set of mod tools eventually... I guess we'll see how well that happens too