Sometimes the AI presents me with interesting choices. I love that Wilding with the coal embers ability. Once, the game offered me a Troll/Ogre, and I went with him as well. But yeah, some diversity/additonal choices might be nice. I've had the 'two sides of the same coin' decision a few times now.
But yeah, I very much miss the old 'Heroes wandering in the wilderness' mechanic. Sure, a handful are hidden in goodie huts, but it isn't the same. And I think the heroes/units earned through quests are definitely worthwhile.
The E:FE convention of heroes being anchored somewhere on the map, while probably better for game balance issues, never really did it for me. I like having them wrapped up in quests, instead of 'hey buddy, ya wanna leave your abode here an join me? Here's some gildar...' that E:FE kinda implied.
Mind you, I don't really have an issue with 'paying for recruitment', but seeing a Researcher walk by in EWOM when I was broke, and then having to hunt him/her down later when the gildar replenished, and hoping that they were still available at that point was a lot more intriguing...
The lore mechanic was a great way to seed more heroes (and monsters) randomly onto the map, with each kindom/empire triggering their own 'seed' of monsters and heroes onto the map, adding to the overall map population. This encouraged other players to 'keep up', and also gave 'lagging' kingdoms/empires the opportunity to snag higher level heroes 'let loose' by the research of other kingdoms/empires.
Perhaps the Fame mechanic could replace the old Lore mechanic in this regard. In EWOM, various Lore techs triggered events (Level 4 monsters, heroes, goodie huts). So, instead, when your Fame crosses various thresholds, this 'seeding' would occur, in small bits as each kingdom/empire crosses those thresholds. So, for example in an 11 Player game, there would be 11 'Level 2' seeding events. New monster lairs might be placed on the map, usually within some radius of that player's capital, but far enough out to potentiall affect other empires as well as their own. And same for goodie huts/quest locations. To keep it interesting, these thresholds should have slightly different trigger values, so that you don't have heroes, monsters, quest locations, and goodie huts all appearing on the same turn.
I actually liked the Lore Research mechanic, and wouldn't mind seeing it back, but that boat sailed with E:FE, so I don't see it coming back. If it could return, the 'techs' could probably use a little more love, but I digress.
I'd recommend this be optional, as well as having options r.e. 'quantity/density' of this seeding, so that players looking for the Mono a Mono experience versus other empires could just have that, but for those of us looking for the 'People versus the dark forces of the Cataclysm' could have that experience instead if we wanted.
So if we could have a blend of earned heroes, heroes acquired via quest, and a few more 'at large' heroes available for hire, I think that'd be a little more interesting. The 'at large' heroes could have some interesting requirements - think Bacco the Beggar-like, or 'Kitty' like triggers. Of course, the overall 'seeding' of heroes would need to be adjusted, although personally I absolutely loved having LOTS of heroes in EWOM (I'm in the minority, I know). Of course in EWOM, heroes were a lot more generic than they are now...
This is Legendary Heroes, after all! More heroes, less units... 
On another note:
Something I wouldn't mind seeing is each faction having a specific 'lieutentant' that either starts with the Sov immediately, or when the first city is established/or when the tower of dominion is built. Think Relias and Janusk, but with a different selection for each empire. I haven't read the Elemental book, so I have no idea who Porcipinee's, etc. second hands were, but you get the idea. This could be optional, so if you want to start with some random dude instead of the 'historical' second, that could be an option during scenario setup:
[ ] Use Lieutenants (check for yes)
If yes, select 1: [ ] Preselected [ ] Random [ ] Custom
Said second hands should probably have pre-established professions/paths of course, in keeping with the 'storyline'. And I would think that they probably offer something that 'run of the mill' hero choices usually won't, at the expense of combat power I would think. I.E something along the merchant/researcher/sage/etc. line, as a complement to the Sov's abilities. They could even have a unique 'quest' or set of quests bundled in with them, so that each Sovereign has their own unique 'quest/lieutenant issue' to deal with, encouraging replayability.
Example: 'Janusk's tells you of something he heard from his grandfather, that he kept secret from the family until he was on his deathbed. A valuable family heirloom was taken from your grandfather by the Syndicate, and he was too ashamed to admit this to the family. Janusk would like to retrieve said heirloom. Said Syndicate Boss is rumored to have a cache of ancient weapons...' You get the idea.
The use of Lieutenants should probably bump the Fame requirements for the first hero up a bit, as the lieutenant shows up immediately, thus this would add 10-20 points to the fame required at each Fame threshold. So this might mean 22/35/60/110/210/410 etc., instead of 12/25/50/100/200/400 etc..
Of course, this would involve the need for choosing/making customized lieutenants for the custom factions, (and hence another interface window) and is probably an idea best left for expansion content.
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