I know it’s probably waaay too much to expect that every individual villager in our town have individual traits and personalities, but it would be nice if there was a way by which some of them could distinguish themselves, and becomes ‘leaders’ or pillars of the community. Currently, the game doesn’t have much or any depth with regards to how villagers live and how we as the player relate to them. Having villagers who distinguish themselves and become leaders would allow us to connect with our villagers beyond seeing them as a generic workforce, and give a bit of emergent storytelling to each play through. For example, in the event of a raid, villagers may prioritise the protection of their community leaders. Having a community leader working in a particular industry may increase its efficiency. The death of a community leader could have a significant impact on happiness and lead to mass loss of morale. The house of a community leader might have some extra flair and desirability bonus.
Community leaders could have individual traits that have, depending on their configuration, different impacts on other villagers that they interact with. Maybe some leaders have more charisma and diplomacy skills so are better at mitigating extortion attempts by raiders. Some might be beloved bards and storytellers who boost entertainment while suppressing pub violence. Some could be war heroes, who’s bravery inspires other soldiers to greater military feats. Their traits would emerge from the generic villager baseline organically in response to the gameplay, and a new leader might emerge out of every 100 people, so a town of 1000 might have ten… which is very manageable.
This is a very half baked idea right now but hopefully you get the point. It’d be nice for the game to have more depth when it comes to villager life and relations, and to expand a bit beyond merely economic solutions for everything.