I believe the game was pretty much planned like this right from the start and then stuff was cut off - et voila: Expansions. Features of civs that were related to mechanics from the Expansions then had to be given a quick replacement (like France or Arabia ) and also some stuff looks like it was specifically made to suit for e.g. Trade Routes (Glory of Rome). I'm thinking that only the expansion civs in detail weren't already decided/made at that point.
But anyway, game feels pretty good the way it is now (minor tweaks here and there maybe).
My real concern is: How are they ever going to sell a Civ 6? Is anyone going to buy a civ 6 vanilla that comes out without all the features that we have now in Civ 5 BNW? If they go the same route and cut features off for future expansions again, that is... I don't know about you guys, but that will not work for me.
I agree with this in full.
I find it difficult to believe that they weren't already contemplating Religion as a key feature before development of the base-game, given that Civ 4 launched with Religion and that Civ 5 vanilla already included temples (which easily could have been called something else and given a different stock portrait).
As for BNW, I imagine that they also had planned on corporations or some economic expansion of the game, too, from initial development. Gold-yield along rivers and on coasts always seemed a bit stop-gap to me, as under that system you really didn't interact much with other civs for gold other than in lump-sum trades for luxes.
The omission of Religion in the Civ 5 base-game was hard to stomach. Especially so because it wasn't receiving too major of an overhaul when we heard what it would be in G&K: add a faith-resource, throw in some buffs, add several buildings, and wa la, a fairly basic system akin to Civ 4's. Effective, but not anything that needed months and months of planning. The omission of corporations was more acceptable because it had appeared in Beyond the Sword anyways, an expansion.
Why this all matters is: Civ 6. If Civ 6 comes out once again without Religion, that will be the 2nd game in a row where I'll be fairly close to not getting the base game until the first expansion. What led me to get Civ 5 right away was the hub-ub about hexagonal mechanics and the new ranged-unit system. Barring that, I'd probably have waited and played Civ 4 until Civ 5's first expansion.
If anyone at Firaxis happens across this, I hope to convince them of one thing: include virtually all the basic features up front, and sell expansions off the basis of new civs and wonders. I bought the Wonders of the Ancient World and found that perfectly acceptable. I bought every DLC civ, too. And I'd even have been okay buying an expansion that included some never-before-seen feature in civ (space-travel, etc.).
But at the end of the day, not including a better diplomatic system and trade system in Civ 5's base game seemed short-sighted and a bit of an issue, and not including Religion was a massive disappointment. I know companies need to make money, so I have no problem with DLC, even if DLC civs tend to be the better ones (Inca, Korea, Babylon). But there's a significant chance that I will not immediately get Civ 6 if it debuts, once again, without either (or both) interactive, fleshed-out trade or some system of religion.
All that said, Civ 5 finally feels complete. There's now enough interaction in peace-time such that I am not simply clicking through turns very often to get to a key tech/unit (for war) or to finish a cultural victory. BNW I find, thus far, the better of the two expansions, adding competitive projects, trade-routes, world-congress, a new cultural victory, and the most interesting civs I've seen in any of the games as far back as I can remember. These changes bode well.
