1)Unit limit cap is just dumb. I will remove it entirely.
2)Well they should be less useful against cities now ! More seriously archer are cheaper but they shouldn't really be useful beyond killing barbs and warriors. CBs are the go to unit against Spearmens.
3)If CB hit Swords too low then I agree it's a problem since they are supposed to be contemporary. Same goes with Crossbows against Longs/Musket. Crossbows seem to do decent damage based on my recent playthrough.
I haven't made a pass on UUs and Deity is a little crazy right now. So I'm not really surprised to hear stories of someone getting rolled by these UUs like cataphracts or legions. UU balancing will have to wait as there are a lot of them.
The AI may lose some free techs if it reaches some techs too fast for the player to do anything at all.
Regarding archer line weakness I think their melee tankiness is justified. They should get wrecked when undefended. That's probably the only thing Beyond Earth got right. On the other hand if they do pitiful damage then yes it's a problem. I felt it was okay but if necessary I could see giving them a ranged damage bonus on hills and when garnisoned.
AI seems to be now willing to start a war against me after stealing few workers and a quick peace which is welcomed but it can also be bribed with nothing against each other which seems rather odd at first but I don't mind it.
This doesn't sound right unless they hate the other person a lot more than you. Which sounds ok. Bribing someone that want to kill you should be a lot harder than it used to. Try bribing Theodora in the previous game for example.
I feel the archer line, UUs aside, do their support role relatively well against similarly advanced units. They are supposed to get wrecked when no melee are there to block. Probably one of the only thing I like about Beyond Earth by the way.
But with more testing from my part I'll see if a change to cover or ranged strength would be needed. A possible change could be to buff ranged units ranged damage on hills and/or garrisoned and/or in forts.
Negative modifier from settling comes basically out of badly placed capital and anything beyond that which supports hiding in a corner and an early caravan is far from guaranteed DoF which is fine.
I do not understand what you mean by this.
One question still which has always bothered me. Is there any way to influence the CS allies' actions when a war breaks ie is it possible to order one to go & kill and telling one to only defend which would later affect the diplo modifiers if a CS got conquered?
Not without heavy coding which is beyond my current capabilities.
Edit: After reviewing my code there is indeed a way to reach -100% modifier to bribes when the target is viewed as Unforgivable and the AI already plans to attack it.
Considering the bulliness of the current AI I can reduce those modifiers or make them multiplicative rather than additive.
For transparency here is how it works:
Base bribe values goes from 500 to 1250
Modifier for opinion of target (for or friend) -50% to 50%
Modifier for attitude toward target (war or peace) -50% to 100%
Modifier for opinion of asking player -25% to 25%
Modifier for attitude toward asking player -25% to 50%
Modifier for warmongers -50% to 50%
The 50% is transformed into 100% if the asking player has a weak army
All these are additive and negative value are a diminution of the cost of bribing.
I'll probably make these multiplicative rather than additive. So that two 50% modifier decrease it by 75% rather than 100%.