Sorry Thanerion, I missed your post. Great stuff as always.
@Gazebo:
Thus, they should have a way of blocking science somewhat and encourage exploration more. Cultural civs, in theory, do this by promoting civil unrest via ideology (though we all know how it works and how hard it is to accomplish).
Agreed, but I don't know that it falls within the scope of this mod. The best way, I think, is to nerf Rationalism and spread the scientific love around throughout the rest of the policy tree. Perhaps add a science-related perk to each tree, then make rationalism focus solely on GS generation, research agreements, gold from science stuff, sped up science production of buildings, science from strategic resources, etc. In short, the best way to fix the science victory is to force players to reach out and interact with the world. I'd be particularly interested in seeing a few rationalism perks focus on the acquisition of luxury/strategic goods instead of just passive % boosts to BPT.
Regarding ideological unrest, I think the impact of tourism simply needs to be buffed. It is too easy to ignore 'revolutionary waves' at this point. On a side note, it might be fun to make a new patronage policy, at some point, that gives a player bonus tourism from trade routes/alliances with city-states.
@Gazebo:
As for the "try-to-be-helpful" part of the post, I'd add:
Improving era-scaling for Great Merchant is something I'd heavily consider...Also, many wonders which up to this point were super-awesome for diplo win (Collosus and The Great Lighthouse) will be significantly weaker, because they will provide useless GPP points.
I boosted the GM in 15.2. I may boost more once I see how gold levels increase during the game. Gold is still useful, mind you being able to buy buildings and units w/o wasting production is great, and the AI knows how to do it now as well.
@Gazebo:
As for the quest / condition improving diplomat pops and spy action, I think it is still needed (but far from required) - baseline Civ has "For X turns, gold gifts are better" and "Give gold for bonus Influence to influence you already get" - diplomats are cool, active way of playing diplomacy, and not all CS should be hard to get - some may just make it easy (or easier) via quests that are simple to do like the old "give gold to get more"
You and I were on the same page with this one - I started work on this last night (and finished up this afternoon). Works well, seems fun.
@Gazebo:
I think diplomatic victory shouldn't be that hard - getting rid of cheesy stuff is a good way, and the execution is awesome, but there are really few "active" quests that one can pursue - you won't do bullying, you won't destroy anyone (or you would do it anyway and the fact that it pops a quest is just a bonus, not the deciding factor by far), and most are passive - you gather culture, faith and science anyway. Most "active" and engaging quests you can find is share faith (which, most times, you want to do anyway) and send a trade route (like that is really "active"), perhaps give a unit or destroy encampent (the last one is actually the best, but increasingly rare as the time passes). We could use more "active", engaging ways that make allying a CS-of-opportunity easier.
I agree, though in the vanilla game the diplomatic victory is essentially the 'time' victory. I wanted it to feel a bit more heated, thus CSD. I think CSD strikes a nice balance - in many test games I completely ignore diplomatic units (even as a science civ) and the AI takes everything. This prevents me from having any say in the world congress which can be unforgiving at times. I think, however, there is a certain level of 'power gaming' we have to watch out for. Players that seek the 'beeline best-strat 1800AD science win' are going to play the game much differently than anyone else. They are out to break the game, essentially, by ignoring the vast majority of mechanics. Most players dabble in all victory types, focusing on one a little more than the others. CSD fits somewhere in-between.
@Gazebo:
Resolutions you have created are awesome, and they are very cool on most map sizes - but on Large or Huge, they are sometimes (not always) not worth the "slot"...I wouldn't put too much money on World Congress as a tool of CS manipulation, as it's efficiency and power in that regard is extremely map-size dependent.
This is, unfortunately, a byproduct of the game's core mechanics. The more players you add, the less swing weight any single player has. I think the world congress could be stronger - the current resolutions are fun and potentially-game-changing, but they happen too infrequently (esp. during the renaissance/industrial ages). I think reducing the delay between congresses will buff it.
Let's see how 15.2 does. I'm very happy with the changes, and I think CSD is better than it ever has been.
G