Proposed Balances

[Iberian]

I guess I don't like the science penalty because I like runaways, even if it is the AI. I like to see the best built civilization. One of the best features of Civilization was watching the end game replay of your color (or the mongols...) dominating the map.

Instead of arbitrary penalties I think there should be game play that makes it hard to run away. More of an active than a passive approach to developing the game. Instead of science % modifier make it easier to get involved in wars of aggression. e.g. If Shaka attacks Gandhi allow me to send a "Peace Keeping" team in 1 turn of say 5 units to his territory without forcing me to declare war and limiting my forces to Gandhi's territory to be returned in 10 turns.

Or some tools to control AI and human expansion. Still the game shouldn't be who can build a small civilization. The great empires are Greece, Egypt, Rome, Mongolia, England, Russia, China, etc none of those were small.

 

[Ikael]

1 # Nah, a big part of the trade route mechanics genius is the fact that the bigger it is the easiest is to pillage, thus creating a "high risk, high reward" type of mechanism

2# Sounds actually pretty good to me a higher diplomatic penalti the bigger your empire is would add an interesting balancing mechanism against runaway AIs

3# Hell no. History is chockfull with ruinous big empires (China during the XIXth century, pre-communist Russia, Congo, etc) and powerful smaller ones able to punch much above its weight (Holland, Japan, Chile, etc).

4# Hmmm, we need more intelligent agression, rather than agression per se.

And now, for my own suggestions:

- Replace the Dutch UA with some trade route related UA

- Tear down and redesign Germany, Japan, America and the Ottomans while you are at that, please. They were bland and horribly designed since the days of Vainilla CiV, and they have become even more so on this latest iteration due to the introduction of new mechanics and civs

- Autocracy, Honour and the Exploration SP tres are in dire need of a bonus, the lot of them, there are also some really weak SP policies in the Commerce and Order tree too

- Balance the late game trade route gold output. I think that making their yield more dependant on distance rather than popullation per se will do wonders in order to prevent the late game gold explosión and encourage more distant and risky trade routes

- We need more slots for early great writting and great musician pieces, really

- Great musician's concerts not sucking balls in the early eras so you have an actual hard decisión to make regarding how to spend them

- I am yet unconvinced of the whole "artists guilds" mechanics. It looks like a far too samey, predictable type of affair. It will need to be addressed at some point

- Moar great Works, MOAR

- Can you give the Great Admirals some kind of use, pretty please?

- And early tourism as well?

- The diplomatic victory needs a rework, me thinks. Either that, or make it easier for other civs to vote you for world leader. Making them ask you to pass some of their pet peeve resolutions first in order to agree to vote for you (and then the game forcing you to comply to such a word) would make quite a lot of sense, me thinks, it would even work in multiplayer since you will be pondering the advantages of having X resolution passed VS the risk of the player winning a Diplomatic victory (since you cannot be sure of how much more people they have bribed too)