The ability to convince rivals to work together in a bit of teeth clenched teamwork would be awesome. The end of the world does have a habit of bringing people together. Even if they absolutely hate each other.

to keep this game unique, i think we should stay with the RPG theme the game has.

what RPG stuff i'd like to see:

more dungeons:

have the dungeons contain multiple floors.

each dungeon will have a boss at the end.. maybe a sorcerer king General/Lieutenant.

have the dungeons be easy at the beginning but get progressively harder by the end.

allow the player to exit the dungeon anytime, but the quicker you do, the less the reward.

you only get one chance at the sorcerer king boss. 

the doomsday counter goes up if you exit too early.. either by 10 if you exit just the first couple floors..  by 5 if past the halfway point.. doesnt go up if you make it to the final floor.. goes down by 10 if you beat the boss.  if the boss defeats you, the doomsday counter goes up by 10 IN ADDITION to any other doomsday counter penalties (like when your hero dies).

the higher the doomsday counter, the tougher the dungeon.

apologies if something like this occurs already.. i havent seen anything where there are MULTIPLE floors for the dungeon.. just single floors.

more emphasis on dragons:

have the dragon be kind of like a dungeon boss, except it's outdoors.  have a whole section of the map be a theme - or realm for the dragon (kinda like how each of the gated areas of the campaign have a theme).  each dragon realm will contain uniquely themed mobs and environments.. so maybe a frost themed dragon, shadow themed, cold, lightning, etc.

to access the dragon realms, you must construct a relic which will open the gate.

each relic recipe can be found in random chests on the map, as a quest reward, or in a dungeon.

the crafting components for the relic can be found primarily in dungeons or as rare drops in chests.

sometimes if the sorcerer king is "generous" he might offer a relic recipe or relic crafting component as a "gift".  if you accept the recipe, the doomsday counter will go up by 10.  if you accept a crafting component for the relic, the counter goes up by 5.

if you kill the dragon, it will cause the doomsday counter to go down by 10.

if the dragon defeats you, the doomsday counter goes up by 10, IN ADDITION to any other doomsday counter penalties (like when your hero dies).

the dragons get tougher when a crystal is destroyed.  the difficulty only goes up a small amount if the crystal is outside the dragon's realm.. however,  the difficulty goes up considerably if the crystal destroyed resides in the same realm as the dragon.

each dragon has its own set of gear to collect.  you get the recipes right away, but you can only find the crafting components in the realm where the dragon presides.

update:  there is only one dragon realm per playthrough which is randomly generated.  this is to create some variety and some replayability.

talkin 'bout.

Currently, I think the game is a lot of fun, but to reach it's full potential, I think a lot more focus should be put on the RPG side.  In it's current state, the building blocks are in place but based on the way the entire game is tied together, the RPG side takes a back seat to the kingdom building/unit spamming side of the game.  Here are my top 3 suggestions.

1) Make every unit a single unit, not a squad (do away with groups of 3, 4, etc), to make them more of an individual.  Let them equip any weapon, armor, shield, etc. you want.  Give every unit a random bonus trait (or in rare occasions, more than 1) so there is a random aspect and some individuality to each unit.  This way the game rewards you for carefully equipping and leveling up units rather than just spamming the most powerful units.  I understand this is a big change and will require a lot of re-balancing, but currently, I just don't find any reason to do anything other than just spamming knights (or other powerful units) and giving them all the bonuses (because there are 3 of them, every attack bonus I give them is multiplied by 3).  My heroes just don't matter next to groups of 10 or more knights.

2) Give us the ability to create our starting hero, and create a LOT more heroes.  I would even prefer unlimited random heroes rather than a few carefully crafted unique heroes.  It makes the world feel bigger, less scripted, and in my opinion, the fun is in taking lower level common nobodies and turning them into powerful heroes over time, creating their own strengths and weaknesses as they grow.

3) Randomized loot and much more loot drops.  I think in addition to the equipment that's already in the game, there should also be randomized equipment to keep it fresh.  The same equipment quickly gets old and boring after a few games.

I think these things above would change the focus of the game away from just city/unit spamming (typical 4x), and more towards taking groups of adventurers out to recover powerful artifacts needed to challenge the sorcerer king.  Currently, you can do that now, but I just don't find a reason to as the path to victory lies with city/unit spamming.