Yeah their is a lot to do balance wise, the basic 'aim' that I am going for is that everything is 'bigger' in a smaller way. Their is obviously a lot still to do balance wise and also display wise. I intend to do a lot more work with resources to make them more important, but that is a good point about geckoes.
At this point civics are just 'conceptual' I was experimenting with what everything actually does, but the plan I am going for is to make civics very 'specifically' purposed, so that you will need to keep changing them to fit with your current situation,war,cash, etc. The wealth one is mega long
One of my intetentions as the game is developed is to make a lot of 'user friendly' pedia entries, so for example with the civics the historical/description part will give an overview of what the civic will actually impact and what to think about before choosing it. So something like "Wealth will focus your people on making money, making merchants highly productive as well as helping to increase the emergence of great people, but beware! Your soldiers will want a slice of the bottlecap pie and military expenses will go sky high, along with a reduction of skilled generals. etc. etc." So that when you go to pedia you can get a sense/feel or what a specific doctrine will do, then you can dig into the 'stats' to get a more detailed understanding.
In terms of display it has been a one step forward two steps back kind of battle...
It was a problem that right before proper testing began all my testers got busy, so play feel and balance and all that are being discovered more slowly and also getting the numbers 'right' is a trial and error, I also tend to play on marathon and long speeds so at first the starting game felt really empty and slow so I think I might have 'over compensated'
I wanted to make everything about the 'scale' of things feel more literal, so like a size 13 town is actually only about 130 people (In my head) It is now just getting all the numbers and mechanics to line up right, but like a mine (which does need to take longer to build, again still experimenting with the numbers) would represent a fairly major productivity boost and a major boon for a town. (I am also thinking of moving the mine along the tech tree to a later point, as it represents a fairly sophisticated undertaking.) I also want to introduce a lot of 'levels' to improvements, but I am waiting for red keys future version of his superforts mod that (hopefully) add tech checks to upgrading improvements so that the improvement won't upgrade until you get the right tech. (Like in some other mods out there)
Then there is things like the time scale, because the game is weekly rather than multi-yearly, I wanted to get the numbers to feel right, so like a guy with a crowbar wouldn't take all that long to pump out, like a week (1 turn), but a more professional soldier would take about 3 months of basic training (12 turns) I also want to add in a -1 pop. per unit system (I have the code, I just need to work out how to rewrite and adapt it to what I need) so that every unit that is built reduces town size, thereby off setting the growth situation (again those health/consumption numbers need to be looked at, same with upgrading costs)
In terms of what things do, I do want to increase that across the whole game, especially in regards to bonuses/resources and wonders, the map will change a lot to support this as well, so that 'viable' tiles are much rarer and a lot of land will be unusable until the necessary research and improvements are unlocked, basically a lot more wasteland, so getting a town next to that gecko will feel much more important, rather than just going anywhere and being fine right off the bat as large amounts of land will be desert 'oceans' with islands of usefulness. Then as your tech/infrastructure/economy develops, you will be able to go back and 'fill in' the wasteland as towns become more interdependent and supportive of each other. It may well be a personal preference kind of thing, but I love seeing the 'big' output icons on the city screen, so I just love the big numbers
I just need to balance the impact more. In terms of wonders, when I get them in I really want them to feel mega! so that when you build them and get the boost you can really go 'PHWOAR!!! check me out!!' hehe.
I also intend to add a lot more 'Negativity' to the world, lots of unhealth and unhappiness to make those buildings and such 'not all that amazing' and then increasing the impact of resources. (at this moment I don't know if it is possible to increase and change the 'tradeable' bonus from resources, and what options there are, I have had a few ideas in my head about how to make resources more valuable, at the moment it is mostly just the 'military' resources that have a big impact) So as a possible example, geckoes would give access to 'gecko trappers' which would in turn give access to 'gecko skin tailors' which would then give a health/happy boost and people can look snazzy and keep warm when it's cold as well as giving access to better cuisine options for the people giving access to other food based buildings giving more access to growth and health and happiness, so geckoes would give a much larger bonus overall compared to the 'poop shack', with a fully developed economy it could be something in the realms of +10 happy/health per town which would be enough (at the moment) to offset the negative impacts of a human testing program!
I also lost a lot of momentum and 'line of thinking' because of long periods of unsuccessful bug hunting interspersed with being ill, so I am also having to 'get back' into the thinking of what needs changing (which is why feedback like yours is great) I also now have some good guys on board helping with bug fixes and generally knowing what they are doing (unlike me!), so I can get back to the task of design/development (YAY I hate coding!!)
I want to make the players decisions to feel much more rewarding/damaging, especially with civics(doctrines) so choosing human testing before you have the muscle to back it up could see your whole empire crumble into anarchy and rebellion! But at the right moment could see you sore through the tech tree like a bat out'a hell!
I also really want to make the game 'different' from how BtS works and plays, from everything from making the civilizations much more diverse and unique, to the impact of resources/buildings and wonders, the dream would be to make anyone who tries to beat the game with tried and tested BtS strategies are left weeping as it all goes wrong
MUAHAHAHAHA!!
But that is a big goal that will take time
So in summary, Great feedback! I hope that the Future Plans I have, as I implement them, will reduce and devour your current concerns