First impressions: Wonders still suck (big time).

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One Wonder that definitely seems out of place is the Ansible (leaf tech, outer ring), which lets you gain Affinity faster, but by that point you're likely to have either won or gained as much Affinity as you need.

Ectogenesis Pod seems overnerfed as well, the bonus would be better as 1 Food per 6 population or so, but across all Cities you own. This would play into a wide playstyle specifically, when a lot of the redesigns favour tall.

Holon Chamber is possibly too expensive (5 Floatstone), but the bonus is considerable and lategame-oriented. The only problem there is by then you're likely to be doing very well at Science output if you grabbed the right Virtues. Maybe with a pass on Virtues to not make Knowledge a great midgame strengthener (Prosperity into Industry is the best early-game, obviously, sometimes with a couple of Might pickups) might improve this situation because with a couple of the right mid-tier Knowledge Virtues (and Academies) your Science output rockets.

Tectonic Anvil doesn't seem worth the Geothermal cost, especially given how rare Geothermal is on all maps barring Taigan (I don't think any others have such an abundance). That said, settling near Canyons is now worth it given the Production yield.

Crawler got a hefty resource cost (5 Floatstone again?) but also a buff to its effects (+25% for Buildings as well as Wonders). Mass Driver is also a good defensive Wonder now especially for an already-strong City, but seems a bit out of the way of any strong tech path.

Drone Sphere is . . . interesting. Very low Floatstone cost, but the effects seem situational (especially as how limited Expeditions are as the game goes on).

Nanothermite seems very, very interesting on paper but I'd need to confirm what Ranged and Air attacks it buffs; all of them or just units stationed on that City. Still a unique design direction, which is decent.

Stellar Codex is useless so long as Orbital Coverage is stupidly easy to get. Maybe useful for extremely specialised strategies especially considering early availability. Xenomalleum seems interesting. A lot of resources, but it doesn't do much else and is on the outer ring. Perhaps a clutch lategame pickup assuming the game drags on.

Armasail has the ridiculous Floatstone cost but also has a very potent defensive benefit, especially in Domination games (for your Capital). Again, placement in tree restricts availability but nothing should be an easy pick.

New Terrain Myth is better than it was before in terms of benefits, and also incentivises City trading instead of Station trading (especially given how potent Station trading can get with the Industry Virtue tree). However, is also dependent on those routes. Bonus could also be increased given cost (and sitting on useless tech) without balance concerns. Deep Memory is also potentially useful, but has an excessive resource cost once again (Firaxite this time, on a Purity tech. Possibly to make a use for Firaxite in a solely-Purity playthrough?).

Human Hive is decent. Low resource cost as well. Not much more to say there. Promethean is good on high-population Cities, but possibly doesn't go far enough otherwise.

The Resurrection Device and Xenonova are possibly my favourite redesigns. The existing problems of outer ring availability also persist, but at this point that's probably an intentional design choice. The entire tech tree is never going to be available or even viable at the highest levels of play. It can't be given how large it is. The aim should be to maximise potential coverage, which requires more work from Firaxis. But back to the Wonders; each of them reward a particular playstyle by a moderate / large amount. This is good design. The resource costs are also acceptable, low Geothermal and moderate Xenomass (as that tends to come in larger deposits).

Xenodrome seems a bit niche, but given the changes to Aliens this patch may also be viable again screaming Alien hordes. Problem is levelling up Affinity also handles Aliens (by smashing them sideways) and also Alien Ethics is a far-out tech to research.

Archimedes Lever also seems a bit out of place, as well as lacklustre for cost. 10 damage a turn isn't going to help a rush when it only takes two to three turns of dedicated damage to bring down a City. Then again it wasn't much good previously either. I prefer the new design, but the benefits are underwhelming.

Quantum Computer is interesting, but delays Weather Satellites (and possibly others) like the Space Russians do. Balance / design pass on Orbitals required at this point. Memetwork is interesting, but doesn't go far enough. It's also wasted on Wonders as as far as I know no Wonder has an Affinity requirement.

Cynosure is interesting, and of obvious benefit to a Supremacy player. Nice to see something that strengthens specific Affinity gameplay, though at this point Harmony is starting to be left behind. That said, Bytegeist looks to be a decent pickup, especially as Virtue Synergies can stack up pretty damned nicely. As the game progresses into midgame this would unlock a significant amount of Synergies quite a bit faster (considering scaling Culture cost - you wouldn't need the fifth out of five Virtues, a.k.a. the most expensive one).

Master Control is solid, accessible rather early (especially considering necessity of Computing). Rewards intensive Worker use and even synergises with Gene Vault. Panopticon kept the important effect of its design, which I find very useful especially against well-entrenched enemies. No complaints there, and prevents easy Satellite deployment against that City. Solid Wonder.

Markov Eclipse is also similarly accessible and now has a fantastic effect. I loved the Bushido rule for Japan in CiV, and here it is on a Wonder I can obtain regardless of my playstyle (and especially on a Contact Victory). Possibly my third favourite redesign out of all of them.​

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