Few things that need to be added in with future patches in relation to money:
Social policies need to do more for money. Money generating/cost cutting measures are very weak in the social policy trees. Even commerce leaves much to be desired.
Unit maintenance needs to be fixed. It's too high. Not only does it prevent me from having a big enough army or ever even wanting to make one, but it keeps the AI from building massive armies as well. This game was supposed to be having good combat but I've gotten by with early war/barb fighting. If the AI isn't declaring war on me once one Prince level, the game isn't about war. I'd like to see unit maintenance costs cut in half. Double the troops seems to at least make a chance for some good tactical combat. I shouldn't be paying 100 gold per turn for a few workers and what I'd consider a small army.
Trade routes. Now, I have no problem with the cost/benefits. The problem I have is that if I don't build my capital on the ocean, I can't build a trade route with a harbor. On a large map with a spread out empire it seems almost impossible to generate much income at all via trade routes if you didn't start on the ocean.
Puppet states. They need to not be so idiotic in their production choices. Now I know we're not supposed to be able to control them and this was one of the reasons that we should want to. But the game has put such negative incentives on annexing a city that you almost have to puppet most cities if you ever want to get any more social policies and not be in horrible unhappiness. Or you could raze, but frankly a Civ game where all cities except capitals are razed seems very bland to me. The map should fill up with cities as the game goes on. Not clear out. This isn't just a realism issue, it's a game play issue....Anyway, since puppets never build units, why do they keep insisting on building military buildings like forges are barracks when they haven't built a market yet and I'm at -2 gold per turn? If you don't want us to control them, at least let us give the governor a general idea of what to do. Or fix the governor so he's not so wasteful and stupid. OR best possible, fix happiness so that it's not so horrible to have lots of cities.
Wonders. Most of the economic ones do things to cut expenses. Reducing tile purchases, etc. Outside of Colossus, do any of them actually increase income? If patching doesn't cut it for this, at least add some DLC wonders that boost income.
Barbs. The gold they provide needs to scale with their unit level. At least then they wouldn't become such a waste late game. Golds value scales to the time in the game. Early game that 30 gold is huge. Late game, you can potentially add or lose 30 gold per turn simply by what units you build/lose. I'm not suggesting anything drastic. Maybe a 25% increase in gold from barb encampments for each "era" they advance. To go along with this, consider slightly cutting the boost the Songhai get from barb encampments. They are already overpowered.
If I forgot anything feel free to add.
