The following is a huge problem in my opinion:
If you view any game in debug mode, any map, any size, any difficulty, the first thing the AI does is set its capitol to build a settler. For some capitols this can be upwards of 22 turns, and for some it may be much less. For those that is it much less if the biggest concern, cause the Civ then sits there for many additional turns waiting for thier city to grow to size 3 to produce that settler.
This is why agricultural AI civs do so well. Most Civs will be waiting for a settler with one turn left to produce, but it still takes 7 more turns for thier city to make it to size 3 from the time they are one turn from producing a settler, but Agricultural Civs have a lower time to grow to size 3 then normal Civs, especially if they get a lucky initial placement, thus they get a big head start on expansion over other Civs.
I understand this must be hardcoded AI REX bahavior but it is so wasteful. They should be programed to build two warriors then a settler (or maybe a granary or worker then a settler) or to do something logical, not just build settler and just wait or hope thier starting location was good enough to finish building the settler at the right time.
What would be best, is if you made it so the AI had a series of If/Then statements it must use to deciede what to build first, and hell, throughout the entire game. I now suddenly have no problem playing Monarch or Emperor that I had before, my problem being that I hated for the AI to get free starting units and insane bonuses, but since they could have 3 warriors easily by the time they make thier first settler, I don't feel so bad letting them have 2 or 4 free warriors right off the bat, that is, as long as I turn off barbs so they don't get all the free techs from huts while I am actually producing my warriors that will be used to explore.
Anyway, please do what you can do fix this, it seems like it is such a huge enormous big deal that affects the entire game as the first 50 or so turns are so important and wasting god knows how long waiting on thier town to grow, or hell, building a settler first is just plain dumb, at least hardcode a different build order, one recommended by some of the best players, rather then just a settler of the bat.
Please consider this change for the final patch that is due this summer, as I can't see it being too difficult to at least change the initial build order, let alone making a few if/then statements to determine a dynamic build order instead of using a plainly bad static one.
I'm going to post this in its own thread, hopefully it will get some attention.
