In my mind, there's a distinction between 'design' and 'implementation', although it's a fuzzy line to be sure.
I really struggle to find any problems with Civ 6's design. Most if not all of the design is awesome. Indeed, it's a major reason I can't bring myself to play other games. Most if not all of the other 4x or strategy games I see just don't have as good design.
Implementation - or perhaps I mean the real nitty-gritty of design - is where I have trouble. Lots of it is really good - e.g. Districts overall are good design, but so to is the real nitty-gritty of their adjacemcies and buildings etc. But where it's not it really drives me nuts.
On
district scaling: I'm okay with the current system, but agree it's not quite right. Not sure what the better approach is - I haven't seen any suggestions I like better. It's also complicated by how district costs interact with chopping and overflow and other things.
- I'd really like to see the value of chopping not increase so much over time. It should perhaps only increase when certain techs are researched and or by using certain policy cards.
- I don't think harvesting food should give food. Currently you're better harvesting food resources to bump pop than farming, avoiding both the need to build farms and carefully grow your cities and the need to build housing. I think it would be better if harvesting food gave either gold, faith or production.
- Overflow probably needs to be got rid of or nerfed. But at this point I assume it's here to stay.
On
England: sigh ... I don't think I can write any more about Vicky. I've stopped playing Civ, and can't bring myself to buy R&F because I am so disappointed. I'm very worried that Vicky will be 'un-nerfed' in a later patch, but in a way that misses the point and leaves her soulless. It's all First World Problems I know, but Civ is a great escape from the daily grind, and I miss playing.
What really gets me down is that I think Vicky is indicative of a wider problem. Many of the Vanilla Civs, and a few of the new ones, need a full review or another deep pass / rework. Not so much for 'balance', but to ensure they are all a 'fun' or as 'interesting' as can be. The tweaking done to Vanilla Civs post R&F was too shallow and in many places not thought through.
A good bench mark is Rome - yup, Rome is 'powerful', but hardly OP. But it's design is excellent. It's bonuses all synergise well with each other and other general gameplay mechanics, and they have lots of great strategies. The changes to aqueducts a few patches back, and to loyalty / monuments, have just made things better. And overall they just feel like 'Rome' which is awesome. Aztechs are a great example of good design of a more 'gimmicky' civ (versus a more economy driven civ like Rome). I love how they start with their unique warriors. I love how their bonus to districts synergise with Ancestral Hall. I love how the changes to Colloseum and Entertainment Complexes have indirectly given their unique building a bit more life.
There's some links in my sig to the sorts of tweaks I'd like to see. But for example, and without wanting to stray into topics for the ideas forum, I think
Norway would really benefit from a small boost like maybe +1 faith to fishing boats. Not a huge change. But it would give them a small buff which I think they need. But also: it would incentivise Norway to build coastal cities and tech shipbuilding; the extra faith would get them a pantheon faster, which feels very Viking to me; it would encourage fishing boats generally, which I think fits with Norway modern strong fishing industry; it would synergise well with the stave church; and the extra faith could be later used to purchase berserkers offsetting their extra cost.
...and sorry for the long post. The words 'England ' and 'Nerf' seem to rile me at the moment...