I agree completely with Morbius' view on APCs. Mechanized Infantry is infantry with APCs/IFVs; Motorized Infantry is infantry with trucks. APCs/IFVs have a small combat value, trucks have none. I too would prefer these as transportable units, not transports.
I also agree with bshirt re navies and the LWC mod. Until DyP .795, I played the LWC mod and there were great naval battles, really starting with the Age of Sail but even earlier the AIs projected some sort of naval power. Now it's canoes and the occasional trireme/galley into the Industrial Age (which is where I am now in my first .84 game).
The .84 version is significantly better than .795 wrt AI expansion. (240x226, continents, wet, warm, 4B years, emperor, 10 random civs, random map (just don't get the attraction of playing on a World map)). All AIs, except the Persians who got locked onto a small isolated island, have expanded pretty well. The world is almost full, with a land grab occuring on the last bit of unsettled land north of China on the Asian continent. Pretty well everyone is on the same Tech level. It is 780 AD and five civs, including mine, have just entered the Industrial Age with everyone but the Persians likely to join us in the next 10 turns or so. So the good news is that the AIs expand more aggressively and keep up technologically (in fact, their tech trading makes it a matter of keeping up with them). As well, even though there are still lots of older AI units around, there are also lots of Dragoons and Arquebusiers.
I am in first place (6000+ points), the Americans 2nd (4000+ points) and the Germans, Indians and Chinese are all in the mid 2000's. I have 103 cities (all founded/none by conquest), the US and Germans probably 60-70 and the Indians and Chinese 50-60. The US and Indians build a fair number of city improvements, the Germans lag a little and everyone else has squat. There are a lot of size 8+ AI cities (so they have aqueducts because most are not on fresh water) that have not had their first cultural border expansion!! So getting the AIs to build improvements still requires work. The other problem is that the game is still too easy with DyP. I raised the tech multiplier to 320 but have still got techs at 30 or 40 in 3 turns since the early middle ages. With luxuries at 10, I have over 1000 happy citizen units, 1 content, 0 unhappy (I do have 6 luxury resources). Trade is still largely impossible. Only the Persians have built ports (they have actually built pretty well everything they can - but then they have been stuck on their 8 city island for 5000 years, they had to do something to pass the time). And with taxes at 50, I am running a 2000 gold per turn surplus. Part of the Civ challenge is guns or butter and my 500 unit army, massive navy (in case those canoes go beserk), wildly happy citizens and prolific scientists means that I have guns and caviar, no tension there.
I raised the tech multiplier, raised the upkeep of some buildings, converted one of the tax/luxury improvements to a production building ('cause there are an awful lot of improvements to build, as someone said, very reminiscent of CTP). I also called natives 'barley' and made them/it a prerequisite for breweries not slave markets, but that is a personal thing which chooses to ignore historical reality. I will tweak this stuff some more, probably raise the troop support cost, and balance the game better for me/my style but I can't address the AIs 'refusal' to build navies or improvements - which also limits their building of Wonders - I have 15 of the Wonders from the first two ages and expect to get any of the next two ages that I want. This is a great mod, but at this point I think that the human players like it better than the AI does.
