Battlehelm043
Warlord
First post here. Here's my wishlist:
1. Rebalance AI so they don't get bribed as easily, and they are more aggressive to civs with fewer cities and less aggressive to civs with more cities. Currently, turtling is too strong on higher difficulties (at least on immortal) while playing aggressive is way too hard.
2. Allow AIs to "cry for help" if they are being wiped out by another civ; also allow Ais to bribe the player or another AI to go to war (but in the form of "if you capture that city and give it to me, I give you XXX").
3. AIs only surrender with tributes after suffering actual damage.
4. Make cultural victory slightly easier to achieve. Currently, cultural victory does not snowball like the other paths (e.g. the more science you get, the easier it is for you to get science and defend yourself, hence the snowball effect). Right now with CV, after unlocking 4 branches, you basically just sit and wait to unlock another branch which does not really help you much (because you already have tradition, freedom, piety, and patronage; you most likely will just be skipping every turn until you have finish your Liberty/Honor while they do not add any real bonuses to you). I am thinking:
a) After unlocking X branches of SP, every extra policy gives you some extra bonuses beyond what the SP itself gives (think Eiffel Tower's effect without the need to build a wonder);
b) After unlocking X branches of SP or unlocking a particular policy, allows you to activate conflicting policies (e.g. Freedom + Order) at the same time.
c) Nerf Rationalism so even if someone goes for Piety he can still get reasonable amount of science.
5. Social policy balance:
a) Nerf Patronage's Ascetics + Pledge to Protect.
b) Buff Autocracy.
c) Nerf Rationalism opener (see above).
6. Science balance:
a) Gunpowder slightly deeper so you don't almost immediately get it after Steel (makes Longswordsman more useful).
b) Great War Infantry and Infantry are too close in tech.
c) Spaceship tech (Nanotechnology and Partical Physics) should be at least twice as expensive so the player has to think more carefully if he should spend the time to go toward science victory or get some more military units to defend himself)
7. Religion balance:
a) You receive your first great prophet as soon as you get 200 faith, instead of having a chance to receive one after 200 faith.
b) Ceremonial Burial gives +1 happiness for each city following this religion with 3+ followers.
c) Reliquary, in addition to +50 faith when a GP is expended, also gives an extra 50 faith per each era beyond the medieval era (e.g. renaissance era +100 faith, industrial +150 faith, etc.).
d) Religious Unity, instead of spreading to friendly CS at double rate, spreads to friendly CS at double range.
8. Civ balance:
a) (Japan) Samurais do not require Iron
b) (Byzantium) Dromon is Galleass replacement instead of Trireme, but becomes available with Sailing.
c) (Sweden) Sweden receives 15% boost to GP generation for each DoF, up from 10%.
d) (Germany RNG fix) instead of 25% chance of getting a barbarian unit, when a military units clears a barbarian camp, the unit gains 30 exp (exp halved for every subsequent camp cleared by the same unit).
e) (Spain RNG fix) instead of getting 500 gold as first finder of natural wonder and 100 gold otherwise, gains a flat 250 gold after finding a natural wonder regardless if Spain found it first.
f) (Maya) Pyramids give +1 science, down from +2 science.
g) (Ethiopia) Steles give +1 faith, down from +2 faith.
h) (Celts) Each unimproved forest adjacent to a city gives +1 faith, up to +3 faith per city.
i) (Austria) Diplomatic Marriage costs an extra 200 gold per city for each era beyond the medieval era.
Seems to me that you are having trouble with higher difficulties and certain civs. I do feel that samurai should remain iron dependent. If not then while you're at it remove the legion iron dependency or iron from the game entirely. I'm going out on a limb here an going to figure that you prefer a large empire Autocracy policy; so domination or space race victory and you have been burned several times. That's perfectly fine we all have on one or two occasions but this seems like certain particular civs and policies which I have heard very few complaints about are being targeted. Yes I agree turtling is a little over powered but still legitimate. Think Switzerland.... On another note the CV is fine because if you make it easier you'll have people popping cities without thinking about repercussions on their culture. Lastly if we are gonna start changing major values for civs why not nerf the French, their culture before steam power allows them to get too much land too fast with fewer cities. Is there room for improvement... always but these are seemingly for the most part a list of nerfs that favor one aspect of play. I for one based on the civ set a goal from the beginning and go for the VC I choose an that will determine how my empire will look in my minds eye.