146 Questions

I've been using Thal's mods almost since the start of the game and I pretty much always play on level 4 and go straight for GL. I've started a couple games with 146 and the GL always gets built before I can even start it. I make writing my 2nd or 3rd goal and previous to 146 almost never got beat to the GL but now it's 3 times in a row I've not even gotten close. Also on the last game I played as French and built Scout, Scout, Monument (got Settler from Policy) and just as I finished the Monument I got a report on policies researched for everyone and I was last at 2 with several civilizations already having 4 or 5 which seemed really odd since I had the culture bonus. That just seems like a complete change in balance from the previous versions of the mod on both counts.

I started my game as French, Pangeia, 4, standard size, which is what I do most of the time so I'm pretty familiar with the balance and progression with this start.

A minor strange thing is a civilization not even close to me will complain about me building in their area and I'm still on my first city or haven't built anything remotely near them.

I've noticed both the GL building and the complaining about settling (although that one has been around since 142.8 I believe).

I should note that 137 was the last update that I really spent any time with. I downloaded 141.2 and 143 but didn't have much time to play on those.

I've been adjusting early game balance recently, and it's still a work in progress. Something I did for v146.2 is ancient ruins cleared around AIs no longer give science/gold/culture. It basically works like this:

1. Check all tiles in a range of 7 around AI start start locations.
2. Reveal those tiles.
3. Remove any Ancient Ruins.
4. Provide the AI with yield-per-turn bonuses in their capital. The quantity depends on difficulty level.

The change from ruins bonuses to per-turn bonuses is to make the very early wonders a little more accessible.