Very fresh few impressions after the first (and only so far) complete game on Civilization difficulty:
The cultural pace seems way too fast compared to the technological pace. On a related note, the year count in BC/AD is total fantasy, completely disjointed from what's on the map. Too drawn out in the beginning, too compressed later.
Buyout prices are a bloody daylight robbery: very soon they become unfeasible and irrelevant. A bit of overcompensation, in comparison with Victor. However, flogging your people to death to get things built seems just way too good. Apart from very temporary and minor depopulation, no other negatives, like a stability hit or anything else revolt like?
Too small a sample to evaluate diplomacy changes, but isn't AI a bit too tame? I had only one early war: I was a defender after being attacked. I feel that AI was kinda sparing me. They burned down one of my luxury improvements just over the border twice, I burned down their harbour, then I defeated a couple of their stragglers, and after a while their war support was 1/100 and mine about 67/100 or so, and they offered a surrender. They had an army at the gates of my border region city which was stronger than my garrison, I think, yet I accepted their 1600 gold in reparations the same turn. At least they did not offer to become vassals, like what happened in Victor. No more wars, I ignored a million grievances. Btw, the final screen showed the war fought not with the culture at the time (Aztec), but with their culture at the end of the game (Zulu).
The reward of curiosities being showed in the acknowledge menu cards is a blessing, big thanks for that!
On a general note, I do have some problems in finding some identity in my rivals. Can those emblems be made more, I don't know, relatable, relevant, exciting or something? I mean, a horse head, a bear head, a rose, a ram head... who cares? They are so neutral, random, bland... They mean nothing. Like the avatars and their names. They are just nobodies and their names are not something to take note of. Change of wardrobe doesn't do much.
Also the colours, could they be made customizable for every civ? I have some colour blindness problems, so some colours seem too close to me to be easily told apart.