Thank you for this absolutely amazing mod that is clearly a work of love. I spotted a few bugs and issues while enjoying the game, and would like to offer suggestions for fixes that could help further refine it.
Assets/Modules/Thunderbird/Traits/C2C_TB_CIV4TraitInfos.xml
Excessive currently grants an
increase to the birth rate of Great Statesmen, which seems like a bug. Excessive is supposed to be the counterpart of Efficient, and Efficient is what gives an increase to Great Statesmen birth rate, so Excessive should provide a decrease, not an increase, to the rate of birth of Great Statesmen. Applies to all 4 variants of the Excessive trait.
Assets/Modules/Cultures/Cultures_Cultural_CIV4UnitInfos.xml
UNIT_BALLESTER (Catalonian cultural unit) seems strictly worse than its non-culture-specific counterpart: the only difference seems to be the increased cost of the Ballester. I suggest giving it at least one free promotion.
Difficulty-based crime and education effects seem to be seriously messed up, with some difficulties currently having the opposite of their intended effect, among other issues.
Assets/XML/GameInfo/CIV4HandicapInfo.xml
Current (weird):
| Difficulty | Crime | Education |
| Settler | +1/pop | +1/pop -3 |
| Chieftain | +3/pop +2 | +2/pop -3 |
| Warlord | +2/pop | -1/pop |
| Noble | +5/pop +2 | +3/pop -2 |
| Prince | +3/pop | -2/pop |
| Monarch | +7/pop +2 | +5/pop -2 |
| Emperor | +4/pop | -3/pop |
| Immortal | +9/pop +2 | +7/pop -2 |
| Deity | +5/pop | -4/pop |
| Nightmare | +6/pop | -5/pop |
Suggestion (standardized gradual increase in difficulty):
| Difficulty | Crime | Education |
| Settler | +1/pop | -1/pop |
| Chieftain | +2/pop | -1/pop |
| Warlord | +2/pop | -2/pop |
| Noble | +3/pop | -2/pop |
| Prince | +3/pop | -3/pop |
| Monarch | +4/pop | -3/pop |
| Emperor | +4/pop | -4/pop |
| Immortal | +5/pop | -4/pop |
| Deity | +5/pop | -5/pop |
| Nightmare | +6/pop | -5/pop |
Assets/XML/Buildings/Regular_CIV4BuildingInfos.xml
Ancient Embalmer should probably
not have "Burial Tradition: Fire" as one of its potential requirements. Embalming ashes might be difficult.
Assets/XML/GameInfo/CIV4CultureLevelInfo.xml
The Larger Cities without Metropolitan Administration option grants 3-tile-wide work radius much much earlier than Metropolitan Administration would. I suggest increasing the influence requirement for 3-tile work radius with this option. With Realistic Culture Spread also enabled, this could just mean changing <iCityRadius>3</iCityRadius> to be granted at a cultural level of, for example, Impressive rather than Influential.
Assets/XML/GameInfo/CIV4HandicapInfo.xml
Receiving a full tech from a goody hut is insanely valuable. This contributes to the issue of a tech snowballing effect during the Ancient Era, where researching Sailing first (on any difficulty lower than Nightmare) means 2-5 free techs (!!) from grabbing numerous goody huts with explorer-type ships. This is the point where many of my games end because I gain an insurmountable tech advantage over AIs even on high difficulties. I suggest replacing all instances of GOODY_TECH above Settler difficulty with GOODY_HIGH_RESEARCH, which seems like a much more balanced option for providing a significant but reasonable research boost as a reward.
Buildable Cultures that grant access to unique Hero units as well as cultural units are generally a lot more valuable than those that only grant access to cultural units. This is because unique Hero units not only have military applications but can also provide significant long-term country-wide benefits via Achievements or joining cities. I suggest ensuring that the production costs of cultures that do
not grant access to unique Hero units are lower than same-era cultures that grant access to unique Hero units.
The AI seems far too reluctant to declare war overall. I saw no wars being declared by any AI ever over two games (Long speed, Small maps, 8 rather than 6 starting civilizations, Immortal difficulty, Prehistoric start, ended by Classical Lifestyle due to my overwhelming economic lead). In particular, I saw a militarily strong AI being unable to expand due to a militarily weak AI bordering it and boxing it in, but despite bad relations due to religious differences, the small but strong civ never declared war on its large and weak neighbor, allowing the larger one to catch up economically and overtake it. I suggest increasing the opinion malus from close borders and/or increasing the probability of declaring war on a neighboring non-friendly civ while having a clear military superiority.
The AI does not seem to know how to save Great People to trigger Golden Ages at the right time to avoid Anarchy while changing civics. This means that AIs spend dozens more turns in anarchy than an astute player, the economic effect of which compounds over time. Teaching AIs how to time civic changes with triggered Golden Ages could be one option, but would probably be difficult to implement. As an alternative, I suggest a rule change that both helps level the playing field between players and AIs, and makes some historical sense: no civic changes during Golden Ages. The justification for this is that Golden Ages are times when society functions especially effectively; it is not a time when sweeping changes that upset the established order and upturn the fabric of society are occurring.
During the Prehistoric Era especially, AIs seem less efficient at collecting Folklore rewards than human players can be, which can make AIs gradually fall behind in terms of tech. To mitigate this issue, I suggest slightly increasing the research produced by tech-related buildings, slightly decreasing the research produced by Folklore buildings, or both.
Burial Tradition: Fire seems like a much worse option than the Earth or Air burial traditions. With flammability a serious issue early game, it is rarely if ever a good idea to take it, both for players and especially for AIs, who are not very good at dealing with flammability. I would suggest increasing its bonuses to make it a bit more competitive while retaining its distinctiveness.
Is Tech Diffusion affected by diplomatic treaties like Right of Passage and Open Borders, and/or border-related Civic choices? It would be cool if it was: it would present additional strategic options, like closing borders to try and preserve a tech lead, or opening borders and signing treaties to gain more tech diffusion while behind in research.
