Delnar_Ersike
Prince
As an offshoot of this thread, I wonder how a lot of less useful or desirable Unique Improvements or improvement mechanics could be tweaked to make them more viable without being overpowered.
These are the ones I'm thinking about specifically:
Brazilwood Camp, Chateau, Feitoria, Kasbah, Moai, Polder, and Japan's Fishing Boats bonuses
c5culture: and Samurais). I hope we can all agree that Inca's Terrace Farms are powerful as they are.
Here are my proposed ways to fix each one, and I implore others to try to keep it simple when proposing their own changes:
Brazilwood Camp
Changes: Unlocks at Iron Working, +1
base yield, +1 after Aesthetics, +2 
after Machinery, +1 after Chivalry.
Reasoning: Brazilwood Camp's main problem isn't its yields, its how late it unlocks, forcing you to deal with near-useless jungle tiles for almost half of the game. The changes just let Brazilwood Camps unlock earlier, have them produce earlier so as to differentiate them from Trading Posts, and spread out their yield over two techs to make sure they aren't instantly better alternatives to Trading Posts.
Chateau
Changes: +1 after Flight, +1 after Architecture, +1 after Economics, +1 
from being built on fresh water, +25% defense bonus instead of +50%, does not remove features when built.
Reasoning: Chateau's problem comes from its high opportunity cost in addition to how late its real bonuses kick in. By not having it remove features when built and having it give +1 from fresh water, players will be able to afford building Chateaux on the few tiles where they can without having to give up +2 
from jungles or good farm spots from freshwater tiles. Shifting the extra yields to earlier techs helps make sure Chateaux hit their prime by Industrial Era, and so the bonus from Flight is no longer mandatory.
Feitoria
Changes: Can be built by Scouts in addition to Workers, connects any resource on the tile, pillaging it when it is in allied CS territory does not anger the CS, CS workers who are allied to a player other than Portugal will not repair it.
Reasoning: Feitoria's two biggest downsides are that you need to out a worker in danger to build it and that it will be removed by the CS's workers if the tile ends up uncovering a resource. These changes address both problems: note that land-based Feitorias cannot be built by Scouts alone, since you still need a worker to build the road it requires. The two extra changes related to pillaging and repairing Feitorias allow other players to counter Feitorias once they are built instead of having to declare war on the CS just to deny Portugal its luxuries.
Kasbah
Changes: Unlocks at Currency. +1 +1 base yield, +1 
after Chivalry, +1 after Economics, connects any resource on the tile, +25% defense bonus instead of +50%.
Reasoning: Kasbah's problem has more to do with Desert tiles being bad overall than with the yields themselves. The fact that they unlock earlier without their hammer yield lets players start using them much earlier instead of having to rely on bad desert tiles before Chivalry. The extra gold after Economics puts them on par with Trading Posts gold-wise, and even with Free Thought and Commerce finisher, the extra and make it more useful than a Trading Post. Letting them connect resources lets you build them on flat Desert incense tiles without having to sacrifice the luxury. The lower defense bonus represents me making them a sort of better Trading Post versus a better Fort.
Moai
Changes: Unlocked at Masonry, gives +1 from each adjacent water tile up to a maximum of +5, has no base yield and does not give from adjacent Moai.
Reasoning: Moai's problem lies with how situational its bonus is: you need to find a group of 3 adjacent, coastal tiles that do not have any resources for Moai to really be worth it, 4 tiles if at least one of those tiles is a freshwater tile and we consider the opportunity cost of not being able to build a farm on it. Unfortunately, this means that Moai on non-water-based maps are nearly useless, with the average Polynesia player earning more culture from Holy Sites with Piety than from Moai. My change lets Moai be more useful on more map setups, does not significantly worsen the overall culture yield from the current, best-case scenario Moai setups, and actually improves on Polynesia's theme of settling islands (Easter Island would be represented by a 1-tile island in most Civ5 maps). Unlocking at Masonry instead of Construction means that players might be able to make use of Moai culture much earlier (the tech jump from Ancient Era techs to Classical Era techs is huge) and is also consistent with their theme.
Polder
Changes: +1 +1 base yield, +1 after Civil Service, +1 after Economics, +1 from Marsh (negates Marsh's -1 ), can be built on any non-hills tile with fresh water in addition to Marshes.
Reasoning: Polders gave ridiculous yields, but could only be built on very few types of tiles. It was two extremes: you either had Polder spots and got ridiculous yields from them or you did not have any Polder spots. It was also inconsistent with Netherlands' theme, as the best type of terrain for Polders (desert floodplains) cannot be found in the Netherlands. My changes normalize the extremes and are more thematically consistent. Polders now basically act like farms that also give +1 +1 and can be built on Marshes but cannot be built on hills tiles or on non-freshwater tiles.
Japan's Fishing Boats
Changes: Embarked Workers can now build Fishing Boats, embarked Samurai can no longer build Fishing Boats.
Reasoning: Samurais are units that are unlocked at Steel, a non-vital tech, and become obsolete incredibly quickly after Gunpowder. By the time you research Steel, you also will have already improved most, if not all, of your sea resources. My change of shifting the ability to embarked workers lets Japan make use of this bonus over the course of the entire game instead of during 1-20 turns in the middle of the game. Note that you still need work boats for Offshore Platforms.
These are the ones I'm thinking about specifically:
Brazilwood Camp, Chateau, Feitoria, Kasbah, Moai, Polder, and Japan's Fishing Boats bonuses
c5culture: and Samurais). I hope we can all agree that Inca's Terrace Farms are powerful as they are.Here are my proposed ways to fix each one, and I implore others to try to keep it simple when proposing their own changes:
Brazilwood Camp
Changes: Unlocks at Iron Working, +1
base yield, +1 after Aesthetics, +2 after Machinery, +1 after Chivalry.Reasoning: Brazilwood Camp's main problem isn't its yields, its how late it unlocks, forcing you to deal with near-useless jungle tiles for almost half of the game. The changes just let Brazilwood Camps unlock earlier, have them produce
earlier so as to differentiate them from Trading Posts, and spread out their yield over two techs to make sure they aren't instantly better alternatives to Trading Posts.Chateau
Changes: +1
after Flight, +1 after Architecture, +1 after Economics, +1 from being built on fresh water, +25% defense bonus instead of +50%, does not remove features when built.Reasoning: Chateau's problem comes from its high opportunity cost in addition to how late its real bonuses kick in. By not having it remove features when built and having it give +1
from fresh water, players will be able to afford building Chateaux on the few tiles where they can without having to give up +2 from jungles or good farm spots from freshwater tiles. Shifting the extra yields to earlier techs helps make sure Chateaux hit their prime by Industrial Era, and so the bonus from Flight is no longer mandatory.Feitoria
Changes: Can be built by Scouts in addition to Workers, connects any resource on the tile, pillaging it when it is in allied CS territory does not anger the CS, CS workers who are allied to a player other than Portugal will not repair it.
Reasoning: Feitoria's two biggest downsides are that you need to out a worker in danger to build it and that it will be removed by the CS's workers if the tile ends up uncovering a resource. These changes address both problems: note that land-based Feitorias cannot be built by Scouts alone, since you still need a worker to build the road it requires. The two extra changes related to pillaging and repairing Feitorias allow other players to counter Feitorias once they are built instead of having to declare war on the CS just to deny Portugal its luxuries.
Kasbah
Changes: Unlocks at Currency. +1
+1 base yield, +1 after Chivalry, +1 after Economics, connects any resource on the tile, +25% defense bonus instead of +50%.Reasoning: Kasbah's problem has more to do with Desert tiles being bad overall than with the yields themselves. The fact that they unlock earlier without their hammer yield lets players start using them much earlier instead of having to rely on bad desert tiles before Chivalry. The extra gold after Economics puts them on par with Trading Posts gold-wise, and even with Free Thought and Commerce finisher, the extra
and make it more useful than a Trading Post. Letting them connect resources lets you build them on flat Desert incense tiles without having to sacrifice the luxury. The lower defense bonus represents me making them a sort of better Trading Post versus a better Fort.Moai
Changes: Unlocked at Masonry, gives +1
from each adjacent water tile up to a maximum of +5, has no base yield and does not give from adjacent Moai.Reasoning: Moai's problem lies with how situational its bonus is: you need to find a group of 3 adjacent, coastal tiles that do not have any resources for Moai to really be worth it, 4 tiles if at least one of those tiles is a freshwater tile and we consider the opportunity cost of not being able to build a farm on it. Unfortunately, this means that Moai on non-water-based maps are nearly useless, with the average Polynesia player earning more culture from Holy Sites with Piety than from Moai. My change lets Moai be more useful on more map setups, does not significantly worsen the overall culture yield from the current, best-case scenario Moai setups, and actually improves on Polynesia's theme of settling islands (Easter Island would be represented by a 1-tile island in most Civ5 maps). Unlocking at Masonry instead of Construction means that players might be able to make use of Moai culture much earlier (the tech jump from Ancient Era techs to Classical Era techs is huge) and is also consistent with their theme.
Polder
Changes: +1
+1 base yield, +1 after Civil Service, +1 after Economics, +1 from Marsh (negates Marsh's -1 ), can be built on any non-hills tile with fresh water in addition to Marshes.Reasoning: Polders gave ridiculous yields, but could only be built on very few types of tiles. It was two extremes: you either had Polder spots and got ridiculous yields from them or you did not have any Polder spots. It was also inconsistent with Netherlands' theme, as the best type of terrain for Polders (desert floodplains) cannot be found in the Netherlands. My changes normalize the extremes and are more thematically consistent. Polders now basically act like farms that also give +1
+1 and can be built on Marshes but cannot be built on hills tiles or on non-freshwater tiles.Japan's Fishing Boats
Changes: Embarked Workers can now build Fishing Boats, embarked Samurai can no longer build Fishing Boats.
Reasoning: Samurais are units that are unlocked at Steel, a non-vital tech, and become obsolete incredibly quickly after Gunpowder. By the time you research Steel, you also will have already improved most, if not all, of your sea resources. My change of shifting the ability to embarked workers lets Japan make use of this bonus over the course of the entire game instead of during 1-20 turns in the middle of the game. Note that you still need work boats for Offshore Platforms.
