I'm not sure about the details of it, or how I feel about the specific suggestions mentioned, exactly, but in general terms, I REALLY like where this idea is going!



It took me (admittedly too long) to even realize what the "academy" was. I saw some techs that gave academy boosts, but I couldn't figure out what it was. Only later, when I had reached my hero cap, wanted more and started looking for a way to raise the hero cap did I put two and two together (I'm a bit slow...).



Point being, I feel that the Academy is something that could really grow into a very nice feature, and I'd love to see a variety of options pertaining to that.



Already, the heroes are one of the things that distinguish Endless Space from similar games. Building on that aspect would not only make the game more interesting in general, but also serve to define and clarify ES' "personality and individuality", which is always a good thing.



I'm not sure about changing classes though... I mean, I'd like that (there are definitely some classes I prefer to others), but I can't but feel it might make things a bit too easy. In a way, part of the fun is making do with what you have; you don't necessarily have exactly the heroes you were hoping for, but it's up to you to make the best of what you have.



At the very least, hero class-changing should require much more from you than just waiting 10-20 turns (I'm thinking more like 50--it's a pretty major thing). But if done right (i.e. costly enough, yet still tempting), I think it could definitely be a good idea: you have to weigh the high costs vs. wanting that new class.



The Academy could also be used to "switch" learned abilities to others you wish you had taken instead, in hindsight (10-20 turns would fit better with this, I think). Either to correct mistakes, or even to switch strategies later on. For example:



Say you give a hero a combat-focus early in your game because two neighbors declared war on you almost at the same time, and you need all the help you can get. Once that's cooled down (maybe you've managed to defeat one, and the other war is more manageable now), you'd like to refocus one of your heroes to be more of a system governor (say one's an administrator, and now you'd like him to "administrate" better).



I also really like the idea of tying certain things available to the Academy being tied to things you have to research. This could be adding new techs, adding new things to existing techs, or a mix of both.



Another idea: you could select "advanced training" for you hero or something. This would basically give him a steady xp "income", but upkeep would be higher while you do this. Maybe you could even select different levels of classes. The more basic ones (maybe the hero gets 1xp/turn) would be relatively cheap (double upkeep), but there would be more advanced classes that would give more xp and cost more upkeep.



These different types of classes is an example of something that you might have to research. You wouldn't start with any of them. But by late game, you'd have a way to give new heroes a couple of easy levels (at great cost; cost might not even be tied to upkeep, since low-level heroes have very low upkeep).



Nothing else comes readily to mind... but I don't know... maybe something to bring the heroes to life more? They all have biographies, they all have personalities (kind of)... it would be cool if that could be built on in some way...