Let's face it, commander is going to be underutilized without tangible benefits. The passive effects are nice, but turned out not to work out so well in practice. I think these additions would help:
-Mandatory flag spawns above commander of the team flag. Visible by both teams.
-1 buff in the vicinity of the commander
-The commander himself does not receive this buff and killing him removes it.
-An extra tick of 1.5x XP and gold if the commander wins, 0.75x XP and gold if he loses
-When a poll starts, show the commander's W/L ratio only for rounds where he was the commander
-If the commander loses the poll, he cannot raise another for 1 map (maybe 2-3 would be better).
Extra:
-Make round 1 a quick intermission for 10-30 seconds to choose the commander + warm up + horse around, allow the autobalance to function for the first actual round, and help late map loading spawners.
-Handle commander during teamswitch / round 1->2 scenarios. Never let 2 commanders be on 1 team.
-Option to relinquish leadership during the first minute. Only allow commander polls during the first minute of a round.
Why?
Incentive to use the commander system and sticking close to him with appropriate risks to applying for it.
I would like a choice of these buffs:
-Might: +1 PS
-Swiftness: +1 ATH
-Defense: +5 head, body, and leg armor
-Cavalry: +20% charge. Area of effect for buff x5
-Ranged: +15 bow+xbow+throwing wpf
I feel that this would work better than a more general buff.
There will be class wars, but choosing who gets commander will be a strategy by itself. Think of the buff as both a morale boost + the commander leading the troops more effectively to see a rise in a certain area. The other team may be disadvantaged by having no commander, but it won't really matter if the commander is inept.
Of course, I doubt many of these will be added, but I hope it gives devs any neat ideas or even add 1 or 2 things up there.