These are the ten fixes needed for the Fall Patch. Period.
You're starting off with a lot of bluster. Your list includes some things that would require a lot of work for the first post-release patch (new mechanics and new art for new resources). Your list
doesn't include a couple of fixes that
I think are incontrovertible no-brainers, like:
- changing the "+1 gold from trade routes with city states" social policy to do something not so completely absolutely laughably trivial (how this one made it to release, I have no idea)
- tweaking the balance of merchants vs. the other two great leader types some more.
- AI should value lump sum gold more than gold per turn, and not agree to give the player a zero-interest loan
10. Piety Opener Should Provide Culture - Tradition, Liberty, and Honor openers all provide culture. Piety opener should also provide culture making it a more useful tree to open early in the game.
I agree that the Piety opener could use a buff so that it's actually plausible that you might choose it first. I would say "free Shrine or Temple in first 4 cities" would work nicely. I don't have a strong opinion over whether the Piety opener provides culture directly, because many Pantheons do, but it might be nice to add a bit of culture to one of the first-tier Piety policies.
9. Improve Denmark - The Denmark unique unit "Ski Infantry" is useless, stupid, and a complete waste. It should be replaced with a "Viking Longboat" melee naval unit that has a bonus vs. cities and a bonus with amount of gold generated from attacking a city. Coastal cities should be terrified of Viking invasions.
Don't care. I haven't played with Ski Infantry but the concept amuses me.
8. Lower City Attack Strength When No Melee Units Are Garrisoned - Cities should be easier to conquer if they have no defenders or have only ranged defenders. This will increase early warfare and buff the Honor policy.
I like it. My gut tells me that cities are annoyingly strong. I think it's weird that I plan my entire invasion of a country around trying to minimize how many of my opponent's cities will have a unit to shoot at on their turn. I consider it more than fortification and flanking. Those cities take huge chunks out of an attacker's HP every turn.
Maybe the attack should be stronger in adjacent tiles than in distance-2 tiles?
On the other hand, I think one of the late-game improvements (Military Base or maybe even Arsenal) should extend the city's attack range to 3.
7. Add New Luxuries and New Bonuses - Civs should be encouraged to settle far flung colonies for new luxuries and bonuses. Where are Tea, Coffee, Apples, Mangos, Rice, and Corn? More luxuries and bonuses will buff Wide players.
Don't care. The game has a million luxuries already.
6. Make AI Calculate 1 to 1 Luxury Trades for "We Love The King Day" Bonuses - I have Pearl but I need Silk for a WLTKD. Alex has Silk but needs Pearl for a WLTKD. Even trade is clearly reasonable if we are Friendly with each other.
Don't care. This isn't even in the top 5 things that is broken or annoying about trading with the AI.
5. Lake Victoria Is Not A Mountain - Seriously. C'mon. This is just ...
Ha, yea, I guess so, but I don't care very much.
4. Ending Unit Turn On Top of Enemy Caravan Should Auto Plunder - I shouldn't be required to station a unit one hex in front of the caravan or land on a caravan with an extra movement point to plunder the trade route. If the trade route auto plunders when a caravan runs into a unit, it should auto plunder if I end a unit's turn on top of an enemy caravan.
I agree. But then, the mechanics of plunder are weird and annoying and I'd actually like to see a bigger change there (like giving a trade unit some HP so it takes 2 hits to destroy).
3. Archeological Digs Shouldn't Destroy Great Person Improvements - Wonderful. My Academy was unknowingly built on an ancient artifact. Now I have to keep an Archeologist perma placed on top of my Academy or the AI will destroy it.
I agree. Also, probably more importantly, if I don't yet have a place to store an artifact, I shouldn't be forced to create a landmark, I should be able to hold the artifact in storage, or AT LEAST the Archaeologist should be able to pause his dig until my next Museum finishes building.
2. Add More World Congress Abilities - We need more interesting choices with the World Congress. How about forcing the liberation of a City State or dead civ city? How about banning a certain unit type? How about buffs to trade routes, unit abilities, or buildings?
I agree that some more World Congress action and mechanics would be great.
1. Improve Diplomats and Improve Spies - Diplomats should boost trade offers beyond World Congress voting. You should be able to trade tech, buy defensive agreements, and trade resource bonuses. Also, the AI should understand how to use Diplomats to buy World Congress votes. All foreign diplomat locations should be visible to the player. Spies should be able to assassinate Diplomats, conduct attacks on cities, and give bonuses to military units attacking the city.
I agree that Diplomats and Spies could use a bit of work -- I would still love at least one kind of "sabotage" operation, even if it was weak -- but this might be a lot to ask for the "fall patch." At least I'd like to make Diplomat hopping a little more feasible. Right now it just seems like the opportunity cost of Diplomats is too high (unless going for Tourism victory).