Modding Idea List

[DrPraetorious]

How to instantly generate inspiration for a mod. Match one or more nations from List A with a hook from List B. Optionally, choose a cute game mechanic from list C.

Okay, what is missing from Vanilla?

List A: -- Nations and Cultures --
Russians. Jotunheim is the closest match to Russia among the existing nations - the Hags are rather Baba-yaga like.
East Africans. Ethiopian (especially Coptic) culture has a rich body of folklore. There is some coptic influence in Machaka but it is mostly west african in character.
South Africans.
Tibetans.
Koreans. LE T'ien Ch'i is very Manchurian, and LE Jomon is Japanese, both of which are very similar to Koreans, but not the same.
South-east Asians. Present day Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand.
Central Asians. Present day Georgia, Armenia, Khazakhstan.
Mongols. Again, LE T'ien Ch'i has some kinda-Mongolian stuff.
Persians. The Abyssians and Caelumites both include some Persian folklore already (or a foreign perspective on Persia, in any case.)
Incan / Nazca. Think "cities of Gold".
Levantines (Arabs, Jews). There is some mention of Anakim and Nephilim in the flavor text of the reserved nation slots, so this might be remedied.
Note: I'm not suggesting a straight-jacket. You can replicate a historical nation fairly closely (as Ermor does Rome) or you can just draw inspiration from their folklore (as Caelum does Persia). Personally I think each nation should be thus-treated-twice.

List B: -- Fantasy Hooks --
Felines. There are no cat-people. You could go the anime root, or hardcore Kzin.
Insectoids. There are no insect-people. You could go for classic klackons, or the high fantasy route and have people with butterfly wings.
Frog-people. Deep ones are kinda like frog people, and frog people are not that different from lizard men. Still, there are no frog people, as such.
All Homonculi. How about a nation composed entirely of artificial people? Examples from fantasy literature: the Serviles from Geneforge are kinda neat. The Orcs from the Ultima games and the Trollocs from the wheel-of-endlessness are both explicitly artificial monsters. Make them all magic beings and give their enemies strong anti-magic-being spells to create a built-in rivalry.
Dwarves. There are some dwarves around but there's no nation of little people, or whatever.

List C; -- Cute Game Mechanics --
Resources Only. Your units (possibly all of them, possibly including heroes) cost resources only. This is a significant advantage (depending on how much they cost) since you can then spend your money on independents, fortresses, etc. This doesn't presently exist.
Free Spawn Units, Hire Leaders. You can't mod free spawn nations as yet. However, you could modify the leaders so that the leaders all have domsummon (and simply don't give any national units otherwise). This can be an advantage or a disadvantage depending on how much you pay for your stuff. It will tend to make you strong later and weak early. This doesn't presently exist either.
All Mages Summoned. Your national mages are all national summons, you can't recruit them. This is a significant disadvantage, unless they are excruciatingly cheap, even in high magic resource games. You could combine this with Resources Only for the units, for example. LA Ermor has this disadvantage.

Please feel free to expand the list! Eventually I'll class mods according to how they fit into this scheme.