Well I tried the new version and was quiet surprised. I (of course) firstly played with the Ottomans. But as I saw that there was water on the tile I started, I couldn't hinder thinking I am at least one turn behind from other teams because I has to build my city on the nearby tile and make a choice whether I will be on Europe or Asia. I made my choice on Asia and went to the tile that had Dye. So at the start it was a negative but I thank you Italicus for the realism of the map (and perhaps Rhye?). But as I said before, you could had bind the two continents together with Istanbul if you gave the Ottomans a starting location there. So Istanbul would be the connection point between them. I would prefer that...
The new (big-gigante in italian right?) map is awesome. I looked with the world builder feature and saw that it has indeed wine in aegea but not wheat in Konya (that's your choice- I'm completely at your side), Oil in the desserts of Arabia etc...
Because the new map is gigantic, my computer was slower in every turn (maybe 10-20 seconds). But that was not a problem for me, I use to play while I'm watching TV..
Buddhism in Romania... Well eerr... this is not very realistic is it? Can you imagine Count Dracula (Draculia - Drakulia???) to be a Buddhist, monk? Heheheh!
In my opinion the religions Buddhism, Hinduism, Conficianism, Pasifism should be changed. But it is your game and if you want to keep all possibilities, it is your choice...
Starting locations... I also played with Greeks. Greeks have a very powerful starting location while Istanbul cannot even collect 10 hammers!!! As the second Roman capital - Istanbul should have a more "working" tile in my opinion.
The same bug that I mentioned about the "Name - Name" instead of "Nation - Name" in the diplomacy screen also applies to Bismarck and the red colored guy (I forgot the name)...
As for the Roman subject, I see the Italians to be the grandson of the Roman Empire - as Musolini had said it (no offence Italicus). But that makes Italicus not fascist. Because since the Roman Empire has passed, both the Germans and French wanted to have that title for themselves. It was an honorable title and surely it is nowadays. We are also the heir of the Ottoman Empire but that makes me not fascist but loyal and truehearted.
With peace...