Uhm... actually, there will be gloves
and a seperate armor slot for gloves. Unfortunately we'll have only a pair of leather gloves for the time being but ipek promised to produce more glove types after we move into the office (she's busy packing stuff these days)
Another new feature will be being able to reload lighter crossbows on horseback (I wanted to implement some more suggestions before release). However, as Cataphract said, most of the new features are internal to the game engine and will not really be noticable (except for modders) Still, they are very important new features, and will open up a lot of new possibilities for both modders and our own future development.
I'll also experiment with new balancing decisions. For example, every two points of intelligence will give a skill point now. And most importantly you'll be able to upgrade troops that are up to 5 plus your level. So you will not be able to train knights at the beginning of the game. Well, we will see how it will turn out...