Neutral Gold
I have noticed, in bot games at least, that the map is extremely defensible, and each side is given a set of resources. The exception to this rule would be the purple resources in the center. I find that many of my bot games come down to finding ways to defeat the gold guardians rather then interact with my opponent. Wouldn't it be interesting to have neutral gold expansions. In this way there is more struggle over resources and opportunity to deny the enemy resources or capture some of your own. I would love to hear others thoughts on this.
Comments
I too found myself ignoring the "Titans" and just waiting for gold and fighting over gems rather than coordinate with my (bots) allies and get increased gold. Having a couple less guarded expansions and moving them into the mid area might make for a far more interesting game - forcing the player to move his army in a defensive forward position
There is a natural expo you can take right away and a third that is lightly guarded that you can solo. They don't take much time at all. You just have to micro and draw them into your tower.
Gold winds up being very important in PvP games. It doesn't feel dramatically important vs bots because they tend not to expand as aggressively as human opponents.
I find that while it is possible to take an enemy's expansion, the map is designed in such a way to discourage this play. I thought that it may be interesting to have expansions that are shared by your opponents, in this way there is conflict with your opponent over resources, rather then conflict with non-player characters.