My first game with .34 b, playing as Ilians. Two issues I've noticed.
First, on turn 569 the wait while the AI takes its turns shot up from the usual 30 seconds or so to three and a half minutes or more. Now, about a hundred turns later, wait times are up to eight minutes. Given that my turns typically last about 10 seconds, I'm finding things a bit tedious. I've thrown in the towel. My first guess is that the Sheiam, who own most of that Very Large Continent Across the Pond, have a zillion units to move around. Doesn't quite explain why turn 569 is the hinge though. I have a save if Kael & Co. would like to poke around.
Second, the Ilian ritual "The Deepening" didn't do much. The 'pedia gives the impression that the terraforming is instantaneous and more or less complete. I pictured a kind of Genesis in reverse. But upon completion very few tiles transformed. Looking around in the worldbuilder, I noticed that Plains remained plains, grasslands remained grasslands, deserts remained deserts all over the map. Most, possibly all, of the center city tiles around the map did indeed transform, but the rest of the city fat cross did not, whether or not they were worked. There was one spot near the south of the other continent where a big ol' swath of tiles transformed to ice, but this area was largely uninhabited. Even within my own borders, very few tiles transformed. Is this how the ritual is supposed to work?