I think one of the most frustrating things to do in the late game is collecting Pearls, rehitting up the reactivated unspoiled ruins, and driving out the lowlevel roaming armies that run around the world. What I'd like to talk about is possibly implimenting more unit automation like the Explore option for troops.

Patrols are like Explorers in that they roam the land automatically, however the differences are two fold. Instead of seeking out every grey hex on the map, they seek out enemy armies. the second difference is that they're region locked to the region you issued the command in. This way, they roam the Region and protect it from the small roving bands of minor faction armies as best they can, doing so until they are defeated or the command is toggled off.

The second automation I had in mind was for Collectors. Collectors are more similar to Explorers in that they're not region locked. However, unlike Explorers, they seek out Pearls, and unlooted Ruins. 

I think it would be useful for pearl collection, but the others I don't think are necessary. 

I want to be able to decide how and when I take on random minor faction armies and they just aren't common enough to justify automation.  Same thing with ruins.  It's just not common enough to justify the effort it would take to implement.

However collecting pearls would be well worth the effort to automate for 1-2 scouting units, but the automated units would need to avoid pearls in other empire's territory.

I find both collectors and patrols a nice idea ^^

Hi ! 

Great idea ! It would save time, which is a must in online game, Pearl collector should be added. About Patrols i think it can be useful on late game, and huge empire, especially to scare those forgotten off. 

However, it could also be a way to just gather xp without doing too much. Just put a patrol in a neutral region with several minor villages. And, there will be some time when a patrol just run in a much bigger army that decimate them. And you'll be sad, and later one is going to ask to be able to set specific behavior for our patrol... ect.

So Patrols seem useful but maybe too much of a hassle.

But Pearl Collector, yeah definitely. Have to see what Amplitude team can do about that