Ok, here it goes,
I waited all week to write some feedback, but always some stuff interfered. Like work, *yuck*. Or people, *shudder*.
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Exploration general
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I'd suggest dividing exploration/the map into:
a)close neighborhood
b)surroundings
c)far reaches
a) Close neighborhood means the area immediately surrounding your city. Resources (like the gold mine event already in, a source of timber, clean water, farmland, etc.) are discovered and interacted with via events and the greater game (resources for military, building stuff etc)
b) Surroundings is land more far out, but still easy enough to traverse. It includes other minor factions (like frost giants or ewoks) and events handle diplomacy, trade and so one with these factions.
c) Far reaches are places really far away, or really hard to get to. Like Tarsh(sp?) in KoDP. A land very far away, with completely different rules. You only catch glimpses of it and while there may be an occasional traveler or small group visiting one from the other there really is no possible way of grand scale interaction.
Its a place of strangeness, of secrets of treasure and dangers.
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Exploration - actually doing it
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One of the McGs (sorry, can't tell you apart properly yet... ;) ) mentioned that AHD is supposed to be people focused and not map focused. Which makes the single hex discovery doubly misfitting.
==> Explorations is handled via missions. The player assembles a mission profile, a hero and available resources, and the hero then tries to fulfill the objectives to the best of his abilities.
The first missions would be simple "uncover the map" stuff. But even then, how should the city know where it ends? You don't explore by putting a finger on an empty part of a map and say "go exactly there".
Instead you give a reliable explorer resources, people and an aim, point in a general direction and hope for the best. If he finds good sources of food he might go for longer than expected. He might use the terrain to his advantage (a river for faster travel for instance). He might be distracted by something interesting and depending on his own initiative decide to check it out. He might not succeed in the ultimate goal but return with information or provide preparations for future expeditions with the same aim.
Instead of a starcraft-esque probe-scout that goes exactly where you want it on an unexplored map you have little Bartholomew Diaz' and Marco Polos and perhaps even Pizarros serving your interest and their own in a hands off way.
Later, once the map is "uncovered" these missions change in content.
-You then send a hero to a place in your close neighborhood to establish an iron mine(event chain like the rats quest).
-You send one hero to the Frost Giants living in your "surroundings" to do trade with them, paying your regular tribute but maybe also exchanging a few goods on normal terms (Like the end feud mini events in KoDP, where your emissary negotiates with them, not as simple as the KoDP "we made a small profit" trade missions).
-You send a hero to some hills you have known for some time, but only recently you got information that there might be an abandoned Kraken Outpost there.
-You send a hero to the Ewoks to take away their precious ancestor-hair embroideries by force of arms (that's the pizarro :D).
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Sorry if I got carried away there a bit and the coherence suffered. :D
to summarize:
-player creates mission profiles
-events and/or hero personalities determine how the mission goes. no plain "65% success" rate or "we made a profit of goods worth three cows".
-map divided into three "zones", which offer different mission profiles
=> exploration = events
Uncovering the map is a side effect and only a small part of the reason you might want to send out an expedition.
