Gameplay Performance/ Balancing Issues:
1.The Byzantine UP is kind of silly, plus one espionage doesn't do much for you, especially when most players (such as my self), ignore EP completely. (...)
2. As for Georgia's UB, the Ikonar's Studio, I thought that was Byzantine, when you think of icons you always think Byzantine. (...)
3. I was kind of confused by the Ayyubid UP, you get +2 attitude from each civ? Is it like the French UP, where civ's are nicer to you? Personnaly I feel that the Ayyubid's should get the power of Religious Tolerance over the Fatmids, especially since Saladin, never massacred any of the Christians or Jews during the Crusades, and was farely tolerant to them. And even when he recaptured Jerusalem, he didn't wash the streets with Christian blood, but rather he purified the city with rose water. But if you can prove to me that the Fatimids were more Tolerant, I guess its fine, but when I think of Tolerant and ""Liberal"", I always think of Saladin, and the Ayyubid's.
4. Who exactly are the Ak Koyunlu, I've never actually heard of them, and I think there are many different civs you could add, before them, but if you think they are so important, I guess they can stay, its just that after looking on wikipedia, they look liked the vassals of Tamerlane, and should therefore be unplayable like the Zengids, and instead just start off as the vassals of them, I think that would be better for them.
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6. More Byzantine cities are needed from the beginning of the game, (see picture, for the two extra cities that should be added, and where they should be added). The problem is that Anatolia is not fully covered, and it looks quite bad at the beginning, so adding a 2-3 more cities would be a good idea
7. The Byzantines should start off with the Civic Empire (...)
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9.Although I understand that later in the game, more cities spawn, and the map gradually fills up, I would have to strongly advice you to add more cities, especially for the Abbasids, who by the 8th century, were still on the advance, rather than a few cities in Mesopotamia, just look at their empire in 850AD, a hundred years after the start of the game, and their still large and grand:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Abbasids850.png
I would suggest that you give the Abbasids more cities, and let them have control of all the independent cities (or most of them anyways), from Alexandria to Jerusalem, to Mecca, all the way into Persia, including Antioch, as they controlled 3/5 of the patriarchs of the Holy Church. And slowly, when the empire starts to fracture, and the Turkish nomads invade, then let their empire slowly disintegrate into just a few cities in Iraq, rather than disposing them to this fate from the beginning. In fact on the score board the Abbasids should be above the Byzantines by a long shot.
10. I would also encourage you to allow the Byzantines to have 2-3 more workers, especially considering how big their empire is, it would also help in building plantations, to get rid of the money burden.
11. Just like in real life, barbarians, shouldn't be able, or at least, shouldn't want to actively capture cities, (as they knew they wouldn't be able to hold them), but instead were more interested in the plunder, of pillaging the countryside, harrasing workers, and if you could code this, it would be cool to see the Barbarians plunder a city, (reduce culture and population), but have the city remain in your hands.
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12. Constantinople should be better defended, I think they should get 2 archers at least, and the swordsman can be removed (or relocated)
13. The Makurians should start off with an extra settler, especially since the Sudan, is so barren, they could use the boost.
14. The Armenians are a bit too hostile to the Byzantines at the beginning of the game(see "Other Ideas" #5)
15. What happend to the mighty Byzantine fleet? They should AT LEAST start off with a few war ships (just 2)
16. Rebel Cities, should be better defended, (more archers at the very least) they are currently WAY too easy to be taken, and I would implore you to add more of them, and give some to the Abbasids.
17. The Seljuk's should start with more settlers, once again (2-3) more settlers should spawn with them, since Persia tends to be quite barren, and they never really get close to their historic expansion.
18. The Armenian settler map, should be adjusted, they expanded a bit too fast, and to far for my taste, they should be stopped from doing that, as its very unhistorical for small Armenia to expand like that. (see photo), I mean them settling Edessa, was pushing it a bit TOO much.
19. Add Nicaea and Iconium, to the list of Byzantine cities, I am very surprised they are not represented, especially since they were so important in the Byzantine history, and later became the capital's of the Sultanate of Rum.
20. The Ayyubids should start of with one extra settler AND archer; they should also start off with 1-2 more Sunni Imams, or else there is a risk they will convert to another religion. Also and most importantly, the Ayyubid's NEED to start off with a larger army to counter the gigantic army which the Crusaders have. I would suggest having a large army with trebuchets, cavalry and heavy spearmen, spawn right next to the borders of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Also Damascus, needs to be better protected from the Zengids. Its strange too, since, by the time Saladin had come to prominence in Egypt, the Zengids were in rapid decline, so I don't know why they spawn such powerful armies at all, although, I understand that when they first spawn around 1127, they SHOULD have a large army (and spawn a few more later on), by the time the Ayyubid's spawn, they should be disintegrating, read this: (...)
21. The Persecution civic needs a bit of a boost, it doesn't do much, and I don't know why you would pick it. To boost this civic this is what I would add, (you don't need to implment these specifically, but I would still suggest you boost the civic some other way)
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22. Egypt does not have ANY horses OR iron?? I think this is probably the BIGGEST problem, out of EVERYTHING else, you should AT LEAST have one source of horses and one source of iron in Northern Egypt for all the Egyptian dynasties, or else they are hopelessly weak!