And I've upset T-brd a few times, doing in now too.
You're not upsetting me directly but it IS upsetting me how upset you're getting. I did not mean to make you feel discounted or to make you feel as if I didn't believe you. However, that said, I can see how the impression could've come across since I didn't have time for a much more involved post in two cases today.
When I asked 'Are you really that squeezed on Gold' I was honestly asking if you were in a game that was! Because if you ARE, which your crossed out post does indicate, then we're seeing some tremendously different results and it leads me to try to figure out why.
You can't point at one of the smallest adjustments in the game and say that's the problem just because it's the most recent adjustment. What you're experiencing is much the same as what I was experiencing both before I made an adjustment to make animals cost half the normal support cost and before I started using the animal teleport option. I was having to build gold to keep the nation from collapsing.
Since your civic upkeep adjustments and those two changes, I've seen a massive glut of gold like I've never seen before in the Prehistoric so obviously, my thinking is, you've got a different condition or set of conditions in your game than I do and we need to discuss what that difference could be rather than taking aim at a change simply because it wasn't one you would've made.
IF that was the culprit of imbalance then discussion would show it and at that point, I would concede that there was cause for making another adjustment there. But since the game I'm testing is in surprisingly positive gold amounts, I doubted that could be the issue you were truly struggling with. Make sense? This is not an emotional battle but a discussion with the goal of finding the actual problem rather than assuming the perceived problem IS the issue.
Instead of harping on gold in the mod why not streamline some of the other very prolific areas, like Promotions? Or the need to add more units when we had units that did basically what these new ones are supposed to do now.
1) I'm not harping on gold. I'm, like you, seeking to figure out how to improve its balance. Unlike you, I'm not jumping to a particular conclusion yet as to what the most dramatic cause for an issue is.
2) I realize you're lashing out here but with promotions, it had seemed you'd adjusted to understanding their roles and benefits and where they fit into the strategic picture so I thought that 'problem' was behind us. There's a few promos that still imbalanced and kinda random so could be eliminated or re-envisioned so I don't think we're actually in complete disagreement there. I realize you have issue with the promos that have a primary focus on manipulating the unit's capture and capture resistance values but would you not say capturing units is perhaps the most powerful strategy there is in the game right now and thus there is justification for there being the ability to manipulate these values on a unit? We'd probably have to break down the promotions you have 'beef' with.
3) As with promotions, my feeling about your objections with the units recently added is usually that they stem from not seeing a bigger picture. If you truly feel that the new units don't fill gaps that needed filled then I can understand that from the perspective that much was not apparent to you that was to me and wouldn't have been to me without a rather deep analysis process. In otherwords, I really don't blame you for feeling that way. There are actually a lot of powerful nuances that have been infused into these structures that cannot be simply explained and what they amount to is preparing a player to have many 'ah hah!' moments the more the game is experienced. If it looks like nothing but chaffe, all I can say is you've got a lot of 'ah hah's' ahead of you if you don't just attack the structure as designed but rather take further time to experience and consider it. I'm far from trying to say you're slow or daft... I wouldn't see these nuances easily myself without knowing I'd injected them for players to gradually realize.
3)
But we gutted them and then neglected them to the point of irrelevancy.
If you want some of the basics of how some of the plans for those units came about and how they are actually more... FAR more powerful and useful than they previously were, you should read the thread I posted yesterday for YOU SPECIFICALLY - the Warlords and Barbarian Mercenaries discussion. There's a LOT said there. I explained the thinking in depth because its obvious there's no appreciation for the structure by some and I can ONLY believe this is primarily due to not understanding the problems that have been solved by these adjustments. Not all players will see a problem where some will but that doesn't necessarily make them not a problem.
I better stop now. I'm treading dangerous waters and I already feel like I'm drowning.
Know that I'm not attacking you. I know we still share the same goals of improving the mod in general. I know we have differing perspectives as much as some differences in opinion BUT I do believe your heart is always in the right place. So I'm not angry. Just frustrated. I simply ask that you take the time to understand the reasoning behind a new structure that doesn't immediately make itself obvious how or why it would be an improvement before criticizing it. Emotional blurts of 'don't like that' get nowhere in an uplifting, problem-solving discussion, wouldn't you agree?
/turn, rather quickly and the research slider was dropping too. Soon I was at 0% research slider and fighting to get the treasury from going completely bankrupt. As I got groups of animals back and used them up Immediately I could stay away from going into Strike. And my Capital city and later 2nd and third cities after tribalism, have only 1 wisewoman, 1 enforcer, 1 or 2 story tellers and once achieved 1st dog units, and 1 to 2 city defenders. I have 5 tracker/upgraded to Hunter groups, Tracker/ hunter paired with spiked club or axe. And have to ferry animals along the chain. I got plunked down on a long narrow peninsula to start. And Starting position in a game Greatly affects the treasury of Player or AI. (Not everyone gets to start with 4 open directions for hunting around their initial and maybe even 2nd or 3rd cities.)
slider above 90% until the late Ancient Era when I start to get enough income to keep my units updated and 
and the Crime given went down from +5 to +3? And the other changes I've made? Yet crime early is still a factor. Disease is still rampant early and when you hit city size 4 and above Pests kick in and these 2 get magnified.
for a new city I build merchants if I want 
I build food merchants.
