About the last point about generating content, I think it's extremely likely that this leads us down the path of Voxels and Procedural Generation. Both those techniques together would help us at least get a starting point for an environment that's generated from certain chosen parameters, and then the "least effort" becomes modifying that environment for your game needs.
I mean, if you can have a procedurally generated jungle with a huge mountain in the middle and a river cutting through the jungle, all you need to do really is to cut through the mountain for your secret underground base, create a couple of roads, camps and checkpoints and you've got a better remake of FarCry 1 (yeah I'm extrapolating of course but you get the idea).
I mean, if you can have a procedurally generated jungle with a huge mountain in the middle and a river cutting through the jungle, all you need to do really is to cut through the mountain for your secret underground base, create a couple of roads, camps and checkpoints and you've got a better remake of FarCry 1 (yeah I'm extrapolating of course but you get the idea).