[Kaninen]

I really think assigning "experts" to the game would make it stand out from the crowd.
Besides assigning citizens to research, you could have:
- merchants to improve bonuses from trade or give you extra trade slots.
-doctors to improve nations health.
-taxmen to improve tax revenue.
-military officers to strengthen your armed forces.
-and..?
The number of experts available could be a simple percentage of your overall population.
Prioritizing one would give you a loss in the others, allowing you to balance your output to suit your needs, but at the same time balancing the game so you can't choose one thing, without taking a loss on others. I really think it would help make you feel like you were more in control of the game.

I like the idea that some techs take actual time to research, besides costing something. I think it would make the game feel more realistic.