[SwordMage]

Intriguing list, some of which I agree with.

I don't have anything specific to add about PvP; however, the way things stand right now, the lore doesn't really admit to an even separation of the races into factions. Perhaps a new continent could be discovered with rival holding companies vying for the land.

Verbal emotes is an interesting idea as long as it can be subtle enough not to drive others slowly crazy -- some kid standing next to the broker, barking constantly for hours on end because its "fun".

The diplomat developer has said some form of user-defined strategy banks is on his(?) short list of things to do.

As far as increased civic buffs, I am not sure that wouldn't be overpowering for the game. As it, it takes a large crew or higher level diplomats to maintain multiple buffs in the same area given the decay rates so you do get a natural increase in buffing for more effort/skill.

There seems to be a lot of content in Halgarad. This game is set up so that you move away from the cities to find higher level adventuring content. Diplomatic content is an acknowledged weakness that the devs are planning on addressing. Content in any game of this size is an ongoing part of development; EQ2 to give one of your unnamed examples probably doubled the number of low level quests (and cleaned them up as well) in the first two years.

IMHO, the cities should be a focus for diplomacy and crafting and a starting place for adventuring (they have the shops, after all). Having the bartenders, or some such, provide level appropriate rumors/gossip about places to adventure would be a plus; however, I would rather see them point the way to a quest line starter more local to the action than require people to start the line there.

Player owned cities are also in the works and they may lead to some further abandonment of the cities by high level players. This isn't necessarily a bad thing as long as there are focal points for players to get together to interact.

On my own "wouldn't it be nice" list, is some venue for player interaction, as there was in SWG. At least the buildings here are on a big enough scale to support a crowd, which is the first step. There also needs to be an excuse for people to gather (other than guild meetings and the like), I hope that some form of Social Sphere can be developed in a future release to bring players together.