Okay, the release of 1.11 is imminent, so I want to quickly outline what 1.12 will be about so everyone is on the same page and we won't see so many suggestions tackling elements that will be obsolete soon anyway. We can talk about the specific aspects in more detail until I start working on them. In rough order of priority:
1. Removal of the mercenary system
The current implementation of the mercenary system is immensely time and memory consuming and often doesn't really make sense in my opinion. I also think that it's mostly unnecessary in this mod, so it will go with no special mechanic to replace it. Instead there will be an early civic that allows to rush buy units with gold, which I think is a sufficient approximation of both the historical role of mercenaries, serves the same gameplay purpose (get an army while production poor but commerce rich) and is much more elegant because it uses already established core game mechanics.
2. Civic redesign
I know that I've done this so often already that this time is probably annoying, but I feel it's necessary. Too many things do not make sense and in many cases the choice is too easy, so I'll attempt a more balanced selection of civics. Another thing is that the expansion column will be removed (see point 3) and replaced by a new column, and I also have to get in the mercenary civic mentioned above somewhere
3. Stability redesign
This is probably going to be the big change of this version. People told me about the way srpt changed things in RFCCW and I really liked it. In short, periodic stability calculations and checks for collapse will be removed. Instead of an integer value for your stability you only have a stability level (collapsing, unstable, shaky, stable, solid). Effects from bad stability will be more gradual and not only involve complete collapse. The direct effects depend on your stability level and the category in which your stability is worst (expansion, economy, diplomacy, domestic, military) and can range from secession of a city, deserting military units, destroyed economic buildings, some turns of anarchy, forced change of civics, respawn of a civ on your territory, collapse to core to complete collapses. As you can see, this is a huge thing and will require lots of testing, which is why I finished the last version as soon as I could to do this at the beginning of the next one. The goal is to get rid of all the nonsensical stuff in the current system, cut down the required time per turn by a significant amount and hopefully provide a greater variety of consequences that reflect the actual sources of your instability.
4. Event cleanup
I will work through the whole event defines file to get rid of undesired ones (barb events) and redo others that have become obsolete by other previous changes. This especially includes the civic-related events. If I have the time and good ideas (there will be a thread to suggest stuff) I might even create some new ones.
5. Trade mechanics
I think currently city size and culture doesn't have enough of an effect on the yield of trade routes (small underdeveloped cities are often too good at trade). I have no concrete ideas what to change, but it's something I want to address.
6. Congresses, Apostolic Palaces and the UN
Congresses are another thing that's likely to receive a complete rewrite simply so that I understand exactly what it's doing. I also hope to reduce the excessive amount of time that Congress turns take. Also, I think Congresses should be changed in purpose to reflect post-war congresses (like the Congress of Vienna) or colonial congresses (like the Berlin Conference) better instead of just the current "try to grab random cities" game. Maybe I can also induce more late game colonialism in Africa this way.
The AP and UN need a rebalance and should become more interesting. Most obvious is the "Never!" reaction which is happening way too often and prevents them from having any effect at all.
7. AI wars changes
Currently the AI wars module simply starts semi-randomized wars from time to time, even though it's possible to assign war plans to the AIs to allow them to build up before instead. I'd like to experiment with that because this could possibly make the AI much more effective.
8. Add BUG mod
Adding K-Mod was a failure but that was mostly because of the AI changes. DoC with BUG mod looked amazingly good, so I still want to make that happen.
That's it so far. As you can see, it's a lot. Also, it's 0% content and "new stuff", and instead lots of game design and mechanic improvements. I feel the mod really needs it after several rounds of adding mostly shiny new features while certain core mechanics still have the dust of base RFC on them.
Nothing here is definite of course, especially the order. I also might move some of this stuff into the following versions depending on the time it takes.
1. Removal of the mercenary system
The current implementation of the mercenary system is immensely time and memory consuming and often doesn't really make sense in my opinion. I also think that it's mostly unnecessary in this mod, so it will go with no special mechanic to replace it. Instead there will be an early civic that allows to rush buy units with gold, which I think is a sufficient approximation of both the historical role of mercenaries, serves the same gameplay purpose (get an army while production poor but commerce rich) and is much more elegant because it uses already established core game mechanics.
2. Civic redesign
I know that I've done this so often already that this time is probably annoying, but I feel it's necessary. Too many things do not make sense and in many cases the choice is too easy, so I'll attempt a more balanced selection of civics. Another thing is that the expansion column will be removed (see point 3) and replaced by a new column, and I also have to get in the mercenary civic mentioned above somewhere
3. Stability redesign
This is probably going to be the big change of this version. People told me about the way srpt changed things in RFCCW and I really liked it. In short, periodic stability calculations and checks for collapse will be removed. Instead of an integer value for your stability you only have a stability level (collapsing, unstable, shaky, stable, solid). Effects from bad stability will be more gradual and not only involve complete collapse. The direct effects depend on your stability level and the category in which your stability is worst (expansion, economy, diplomacy, domestic, military) and can range from secession of a city, deserting military units, destroyed economic buildings, some turns of anarchy, forced change of civics, respawn of a civ on your territory, collapse to core to complete collapses. As you can see, this is a huge thing and will require lots of testing, which is why I finished the last version as soon as I could to do this at the beginning of the next one. The goal is to get rid of all the nonsensical stuff in the current system, cut down the required time per turn by a significant amount and hopefully provide a greater variety of consequences that reflect the actual sources of your instability.
4. Event cleanup
I will work through the whole event defines file to get rid of undesired ones (barb events) and redo others that have become obsolete by other previous changes. This especially includes the civic-related events. If I have the time and good ideas (there will be a thread to suggest stuff) I might even create some new ones.
5. Trade mechanics
I think currently city size and culture doesn't have enough of an effect on the yield of trade routes (small underdeveloped cities are often too good at trade). I have no concrete ideas what to change, but it's something I want to address.
6. Congresses, Apostolic Palaces and the UN
Congresses are another thing that's likely to receive a complete rewrite simply so that I understand exactly what it's doing. I also hope to reduce the excessive amount of time that Congress turns take. Also, I think Congresses should be changed in purpose to reflect post-war congresses (like the Congress of Vienna) or colonial congresses (like the Berlin Conference) better instead of just the current "try to grab random cities" game. Maybe I can also induce more late game colonialism in Africa this way.
The AP and UN need a rebalance and should become more interesting. Most obvious is the "Never!" reaction which is happening way too often and prevents them from having any effect at all.
7. AI wars changes
Currently the AI wars module simply starts semi-randomized wars from time to time, even though it's possible to assign war plans to the AIs to allow them to build up before instead. I'd like to experiment with that because this could possibly make the AI much more effective.
8. Add BUG mod
Adding K-Mod was a failure but that was mostly because of the AI changes. DoC with BUG mod looked amazingly good, so I still want to make that happen.
That's it so far. As you can see, it's a lot. Also, it's 0% content and "new stuff", and instead lots of game design and mechanic improvements. I feel the mod really needs it after several rounds of adding mostly shiny new features while certain core mechanics still have the dust of base RFC on them.
Nothing here is definite of course, especially the order. I also might move some of this stuff into the following versions depending on the time it takes.
and I'm like this: 
