I was surprised how disappointed I was with all the influences begin equal in the early game (before founding the 2nd city). I knew it would happen of course, but I think it had more impact on the game than I expected.
I'm on the fence what to do about it, but here are a couple of ideas.
Give each team a natural bonus on their area of influence. (The cultural team gets a bonus to cultural influence, etc).
Give each player some influence points to spread around the five areas as they like. (A player could decide to spread his influence equally, or to sacrifice some cultural influence to get more scientific influence, etc). This could be interesting and gives players a pretty meaningful game decision to make, but adds some complication. Perhaps there could even be ways to earn additional influence points throughout the game.
Both!
Neither! Simplest is best. The problem goes away with the second city anyway.
I'm on the fence what to do about it, but here are a couple of ideas.
Give each team a natural bonus on their area of influence. (The cultural team gets a bonus to cultural influence, etc).
Give each player some influence points to spread around the five areas as they like. (A player could decide to spread his influence equally, or to sacrifice some cultural influence to get more scientific influence, etc). This could be interesting and gives players a pretty meaningful game decision to make, but adds some complication. Perhaps there could even be ways to earn additional influence points throughout the game.
Both!
Neither! Simplest is best. The problem goes away with the second city anyway.