I get what you mean, I'm sure you are doing what you think is right in fighting for something you care a great deal about. I just want to point out that not everyone agrees with you. Your opinion that the game is a "debacle" and needs to be rescued by modders is not a fact, and to state it that way comes across as a bit arrogant IMO.
There are several fundamental problems with civilization V. Yes, that's right.
Fundamental. Meaning, the game is bad from the core; built upon a rotten foundation; built upon sand; not as a good as previous games in the series.
So I shall begin:
1UPT is the biggest problem with the game, a fundamental and major one at that. Everything revolves around it. And it is an extremely flawed mechanic. Combat is not anymore tactical than in cIV. Stacks of doom were not really tactics friendly, but hey, the focus of the game is to build an empire, not wage war. War is but one piece of the puzzle. Everything else (buildings, wonders, economy, culture, science, improvements, etc) is just as important as combat. An improvement in combat would be nice. When I say this I mean
it would be nice if 1upt actually was an improvement and did not have to drag down all of the other components of Civilization.
Civilization is built on a large scale with large empires. Many troops are produced. But now, they cant all fit into the map if you produce enough of them. If too many are produced the entire map gets filled with these things. Therefore, the only logical step is to reduce production costs so that such large numbers of units (as seen in previous civ games) are not produced. Early game combat works out nicely. However, as the game progresses the player will acquire more troops, this is simple enough to understand. Everyone's empires get larger, logically you will need more troops to conquer these empires. This is when carpets of doom emerge. They are no more tactical than stacks of doom. The only difference is that you have to personally move each and every unit at a time. Incredibly time consuming! Traffic jams form left and right. It is tedious, annoying, overbearing, and cumbersome. Think about what happens every time you run into a mountain or a hostile troop. What about the treacherous naval invasions?
This is not merely my opinion. It is a statement based on the subject of human nature. It is
not fun to sit there each turn slowly moving forward unit after unit. It is tedious and overbearing. 1UPT is a fundamental problem. And profoundly and negatively affects the whole game.
Buildings: Because troop production is reduced, so must building production. Yields are reduced and building maintenance is introduced (if the players are able to build all of the buildings then they will have more time to build troops which will result in the map being clogged up). Maintenance costs are implemented on everything (including troops) as another way to try to reduce production.
Yes, in this game it is more beneficial to build nothing than something! It ceases to become a question of "what will be best for my empire?" and becomes a matter of choosing between the lesser of two evils.
Cant build that! It will destroy my economy.
Cant build that! It will destroy my economy.
Cant build that! It will destroy my economy.
Ooh. This won't harm me too much. Let's go with this.
This is a direct result of 1UPT. Everything in the game must be altered and sacrificed to make room for 1upt.
AI: they are very bad using 1upt. The only solution to this problem would be the emergence of the fabled super patch that will fix all woes regarding the subject. I dont buy it. Simply, enough the AI cannot handle 1upt. Problems which were covered up with stacks of doom were placed in the spotlight with 1upt. The solution to this problem is only mythical.
So much had to be given up for 1UPT. It largely consist of the rotten foundation on which the game is based.
The next piece of the rotten foundation is global happiness. In Civ 1,2,3, it was corruption. In civ 4 it was maintenance (a feature which was effectively the best of these limiting factors out of any of the games. Corruption would always be over powered because regardless of how many poorly placed cities you had, a city would still be of use no matter how corrupt they were. In cIV, maintenance mandated that civs could not expand too quickly. If you did, your economy would stagnate. Rather, each city was an investment. Eventually, they would be paid off and late game empires would still be huge.
Maintenance.). In ciV, that limiting feature is global happiness. Global happiness is a failed mechanic. What global happiness tries to do is make sure that no civilization will ever have more than a handful of cities. If you play the game according to the mechanics which regulate it, your empires will never be huge.
They will be small and so will the feeling of the game. However, you can bypass this. Spam cities. Keep them small. Build a coliseum and some wonders. The mechanic does nothing in effect, besides ensure that your empire is composed of a bunch small, unhappy, cities. Many others will simply be puppets. This is a flaw. And to go further it is not a
fun mechanic either. Being forced to either have a tiny little civ or a sprawling, sparsely populated country is simply not fun.
Of course, not to mention the ever so many penalties (again) you get. If you try to build a real empire all that happens is that you get stuck in one of those depressing unhappiness depressions. Yes, your entire empire literally becomes depressed. Everyone is unhappy. You're unhappy and your virtual people are unhappy. Why must it be this way?
These fundamental problems cannot be worked around. The only solution is to tear the house down and start fresh.
Oh yes, their is nothing more deep and compelling then stacking a bunch of units up and sending them to fight to their deaths with a single longbowman garrisoned in a city. Or Monty declaring war on you when you don't convert to Buddhism.
