[This report meant to go in the old bug reporting & feedback thread, but the new one is for bug reports only, and this is not exactly a bug. Please move my feedback to another thread if this is not the proper place for it. Thx]
Feedback regarding latest update 1035
Suggest moderating some of the modifiers. When I allowed the game to recalculate modifiers on a saved game (version was about 4 months old), the effect was crippling for my economy. I understand that starting a new game can be recommended. I am giving this feedback to show the contrast between the old modifiers and the new.
Some details on the game save:
No mods except RoM:AND. Renaissance era advanced start, revolutions enabled, barbarian civs, multiple religions spread, great commanders, no tech brokering, no tech diffusion, multiple production & research, unlimited wonders.
My civ has 31 cities. The next largest civ has about 8 cities and the AI civs keep splintering off rebellious cities. It's turn 398 and I'm only researching my 5th tech in the game; the next-closest competitors are Cleopatra who I believe is on her 3rd tech.
My research slider is on 45% and I'm bringing in +264 gold/turn, getting Humanism in 7 turns.
Second savegame (AD-1920-Summer2): After the modifiers are recalculated, research still at 45%, but now I'm bringing in -202/turn and still getting Humanism in 7 turns.
If I turn the research down to 25% I'll get +215/turn (and Humanism in 8); at 20% I can get +316/turn and Humanism in 8 turns.
My main point is that the modifier changes seemed to have drastically affected something, probably maintenance costs. Also (of course, since multiple religions spread was affected by the changes), I have a much harder time with the new revision when I try adding additional religions to my cities using missionaries. That's not a big deal (I'm glad to see multiple religion spread toned down), but the effect on research is a big concern for me.
So...question: is there a way to undo a game version update after it has been installed? I really hate the crippling new modifiers, and I was really enjoying that game.
[Side feedback 1: the AI doesn't seem to know how to deal with Revolutions; 7 or 8 cities is about the max it can handle. I tried playing as long as I could without using Ctrl+W, but finally broke down and used it around turn 300 to give some help to the AI civs to prevent so many revolts for them. The way I have learned to survive the revolutions is 1) keep a well-developed Great Commander in each of my revolt-prone cities; 2) Garrison these cities with only a Spy and a Longbowman or Crossbowman with (at minimum) Medic & March promotions; 3) Keep a stack of 8-12 units next to each of these cities that I move in only when I'm told to prepare for war; 4) Give March promotion to these units where possible, and only use units in that vicinity that I want used against me by rebels (for example, if I have only one War Elephant, the rebels will have several; if I have none, they'll get none. I don't think it's reasonable to code all that for the AI's revolutions strategy, but that's an idea of what it takes to hold together a huge empire on a large map, even when using all of the unrest-reducing civics available except pacifism.]
[Side feedback 2: I understand that Civ4 is notorious for slow research on late-era starts, even with advanced start. Is there any way to improve this other than increasing game speed? For example, can you increase the amount of starting points players can spend (by default, I know you can manually give more starting points to spend) when placing their advanced start cities? On normal speed with a regular start in the prehistoric era, by the Renaissance era I'm usually completing techs in under 25 turns. But even with all the points given in advanced start and loading up 3-5 cities with every available improvement, I still see my first tech taking over 100 turns to research. Or, is there a way to reduce the first few techs' costs for late-era starts and then have the costs gradually increase to the normal cost within 50 turns?
My interest in late-era starts stems from wanting to use the very cool features the AND team is adding for late-game. When I start from the prehistoric era, I usually don't get past the Renaissance era before my game starts having too many CTDs to keep going, or I'm so overpowered that continuing to play becomes a bore, or (if I chose a faster game speed so I could get to the modern era faster) I'm taking under 1 turn to build things and 1-3 turns to research techs, so I'm not really getting to enjoy the features. I'm looking for a middle ground where I can start on the Renaissance or Industrial era, have stiff competition from the AI, and not take forever to research techs (since that's one main route to getting to try out all the interesting features I'm hoping to experience).