I mean no offense to the Diplomacy modders - they did a good job, and I like what they do. But, I wouldn't say without their mod that things couldn't have come naturally. The stuff it changes are things I think a lot of people wanted in native to begin with. Lack of diplomacy (in the game, not the mod) has been something I think has always been missing and greatly wanted. I'm glad someone stepped up and tried to do it, but it hasn't been updated since March 2012, or at least that was the last time it was uploaded to M&B Nexus. Latest version of the mod was released March 2010 (4.2 for 1.143). Alternatively, the latest update for M&B was for Warband and Napoleonic Wars, which was May 22 2012. There is a two year gap of updates to WB that haven't been patched into the mod. And, for the most part, WB runs pretty smoothly in native, but there are still a lot of bugs I see in Diplomacy, which kind of turns me off.
I know the Diplomacy guys can't sit there forever and update their mod. They do it for free and because they like the game, but then interest wanes and it kind of just gets sidelined. What I really want is for TW to pick up where they left off and continue to update their native version of their game with the great ideas that have already been put forth by the Diplomacy guys. M&B has always just kind of strived to be a "cool battle simulation", but lets face it; fighting battles over and over can eventually get boring. There are other things to do in the game, but then there are other things that should be there too.
This game is only missing what Diplomacy did. If TW did that, I'm saying this game will be perfect - not bug related or anything like that, because bugs happen, but it would be a step in the right direction for finishing off a great title. M&B can simply be more if it wanted to, but TW just kind of leaves it in the modders hands, which I wish they wouldn't do. They are paid to do the job and make their game great, whereas modders can easily pick up and move on because they aren't paid anything. There is no incentive to keep their mod up and running, and even less if they aren't playing the game anymore or took a break.