I like to use my various hires for exploring, and after a while they get a long ways from home. I'm not sure if you can shop at other faction's cities once you form an appropriate alliance, but it'd be nice if there were some random/travelling merchants out in the wild that you could buy some wares from (food, weapons, etc.). Perhaps at a higher cost, to make it worthwhile to shop at home instead. Perhaps trade caravans could perform this function as well?
Or maybe Inns could perform this function? That'd give a reason for inns to remain on the map after whatever quest is completed.
