Knights of Honor eh?    is that a strategy game.   What about it did you think worked so well exactly?   (I mean, can you give specific examples as to what the caravans and traders did to make it feel like a living world?)   

Stardock seems pretty intent on making the world seem alive, so I'm not too worried.   I remember seeing in one of the screenshots a bird flying, and it made me think "is this game going to have wild creatures walking about that have no real effect on gameplay?   if so then this is going to be a believeable world"   so...    yeah.   living world, I hope we have it.

Ah... I don't really want eye candies (like birds flying) that have no effect on the gameplay, as long as the game does not look ugly.  Having weather effect/living terrain is more interesting/important IMHO.  There should always priorities above eye candies.

More detail about Caravan/trader is needed..

well there is more to 'eye' candy than just that.  For example, in Metroid 3: Super metroid, the live was very much more alive than it is in any of the other games.   You had things like insects clearing out the rooms when you first arrive on the planet, showing just how dead and bare it is.  You have in one of the rooms another bounty hunter dead in a corner being eaten by parasites.   I mean, they have no real purpose, but its one of the things that holds it higher than the rest of its series (I use that example just because I feel the contrast is much more evident than is other examples that come to mind).    There is more to eye candy than just the sweetness of graphical depth.   

In elemental, such 'eye candy' is what might make the contrast between a dead world (pre-channeler influence) and the end game world so apparent.  It may not really have a gameplay function, but having that kind of thing is important to making a game memorable.

the thing i liked most about Knights of Honor was the diplomacy. Often times leaders from other countries would just react to your actions and either warn you or give you something even just congratulate you on a job well done. i never really had that immersive feel in another game. i wish it would be implemented as well in the Total War games. However, KoH was very flawed in other respects. personally i hate the limit on leaders/army size. they should do a new one and iron out the shortcomings to make it feel truly epic.