I totally agree about terraforming.
I'm an old school Alpha Centauri player as well as FfH and Orbis where you can use magic to upgrade tiles.
While it can be a pain some times, I really think the game is better if there are delays built into how you can improve tiles. I always like the Rise of Mankind mod in how it did that. My suggestion is something like this.
Tile Improvement progression: Early farms produce minimal food. Later with a tech like crop rotation (or some tech from about that time) allows farms to create more food. Same with mines. A mine dug in 1800 BC is going to VASTLY different from one dug after the 1800's to say nothing of the modern era. Taking an idea from Alpha Centauri (or the Civ IV Planetfall mod) later modern/future tech could have tidal energy producers. (I can't remember the exact name) which can be built in cost tiles.
More ways to improve tiles: Instead of just farms, be able to plant orchards which produce less food but more gold. This allows another way to focus one's empire. I would also have wind farms later in the game. Good for desert tiles.
Personally I think the space race victory is too easy. I think it should require one to develop a space station national wonder as well as a special facility that can only be built in a city w/ice in it's city radius to simulate testing the tech needed to build a city in harsh conditions. The tech that allows this would come in the future era.
More than anything else I think the game needs a Militia/National Guard system where units are expensive but once built they can be made 'inactive' where they cannot move out of the city they are in. To reactivate them costs a turn, gold and a
bonus to represent the disruption due to the deployment.
Then there is a two related problems. The AI MUST be better at upgrading it's units! This absolutely must be done. I've noticed later in the game it is often easier to attack a large Civ with plenty of older units (say crossbows and steel swordsmen) with your riflemen because the city-states are fielding infantry! This makes no sense!
Related to this, units need to be able to be built much, much MUCH faster. Too often it takes so damn long to build units that by the time you build more than a few they are completely outdated. I keep playing games where I just run over my enemies because I have tanks...and they are still fielding musketmen because they don't have the time to build tanks even though they might have gotten the tech only 10 turns before. I mean w/o the AI upgrading their units, all you need to do is get a tech advantage, save up gold, upgrade to newer units and run over the opposition.
I mean what is up with 20 turns (!!!!) to build a canon? I'd rather have it where units are expensive but quickly built. That way you can build up an army, keep most of it inactive till needed and still be able to crank out units in a hurry if you need it. Then you have to make a choice after the war because you simply can't afford to keep those units. Those people who can't bear to part w/units with promotions will suffer the economic cost.
