1)Merchant Confederacy: +1 Gold from trade routes with city states.
Indeed terrible.
Suggeted fix: +2 gold and +5 science from trade routes with city states.
Another 1) because it's a tie. Wagon Trains: +2 Gold from all your Land Trade Routes.
Indeed not too great.
Suggested fix: +1 trade routes, reduces the cost of caravans by -50%.
1) (yes, ANOTHER tie) +3 gold from trade routes with other Freedom civilisations. Another horrid thing mostly because it all depends on enemies taking this ideology, and +3 gold at this stage isn't much.
Yep, also not great.
Suggested fix: +3 extra
and
from these trade routes.
2)Trade Unions: Maintenance paid on Roads and Railroads reduced by 50%.
Actually not that terrible because roads and railroads a very powerful tool for your military, esp. when on defence. With this policy you can build more of them to create short transport routes, create backup routes during war time and construct more brigdes across rivers. Building a road around your city can be a powerful tool for the defender if the enemy should attack it.
But a slight buff might be okay, so how about: "Removes maintenance cost from harbours"?
3)Professional Army: Gold cost of upgrading Military Units reduced by 33% and construct Barracks, Armories, and Military Academies 50% faster. - how many cities will even have XP buildings? One? Two? Gone is the great +1 happiness for defensive building from honour, replaced by... This?
I like the -33% upgrade cost reduction. That can save you a lot of money (esp. during the early game where it is really tight). Faster XP buildings can also be nice, esp. for nations that have UB based on them. Not great, but certainly not that horrible.
4) Entrepreneurship: Great Merchants are earned 25% faster. (requires Wagon Trains) - that's a horrible policy for everyone except Venice, for which it's a reasonable one. As all other civs you DON'T want to get Merchants. Ever. Only double gold/influence of MoV makes them worthwhile. If Venice didn't exist, this one would be another tie for nr 1 because it makes it more likely to get something that actually hurts you more than it helps by delaying the good Great People.
Well, probably not great and relative to playstyle, but a diplomacy player might find merchants quite useful to get some early city state friends. Again not great, yes, but THAT horrible? Hm...
5) United Front: Militaristic City-States grant units twice as often when you are at war with a common foe. - it's not horrible, but too situational. Militaristic city states shouldn't be depended upon much.
Situational, but not that bad. A free unit during a war is a free unit.
6) Treasure Fleets: +4 Gold from all your sea trade routes. Requires Merchant Navy. - at least it works on the superior routes, but still. 40 gold very late game IF you got collossus AND petra, 80 if you're Venice (which swims in money so much it doesn't care a lot).
As suggested above: "+1 trade routes, reduces cost for cargo ships by -50%". Fixed.
7) Religious Tolerance: Cities with a majority religion also get the Pantheon belief bonus of the second most popular religion. (requires Organized Religion) - okay, it's usable, but they're Pantheon beliefs. Most civs will take a pantheon because of their surroundings - you have 4 stones near the capital, good, take Stone Circles and get a guaranteed religion. Most other cities won't benefit from it, because they don't have the resources/luxuries the pantheon works with.
Indeed quite weak. Would be nice if it was pantheon AND follower belief(s).
And, yes, futurism is terrible...
