Kailric
Jack of All Trades
Native Diplomacy:
Could it be something like the fixing of vassals, you siad at one point they were acting as the same faction, or different factions, something like that, which was why things like taxing were not working properly.. could it be some kind of knock on effect from that?
As noted in the bug thread this has something to do with the delayed responses, refer to that for more info.
Stone Roads:
Could this be some kind of glitch with the fact that stone is now removed until discovered? Like it has broken the 'stone prereq' for stone paved roads and now they are just there?
It is possible I discovered the tech needed without realising, as you don't get a tech splash screen like bts, but I don't think I have.. like I said I thought it came after you get stone..
Look at your Tech Screen, stone roads will be marked as Cataloged. If they are not and you can build them then there is another kind of bug happening there.
Noble food:
It seemed to be so, I looked in one city and it went from +4 to +1 when I added a 'Recruit' to the city, something else may have been at work, but I don't think so. I haven't tried it with more units in more cities yet though.
I looked and they are set to 2 food, so something else was a foot. When you add a unit to a city the AI will shift around units if they are not locked so this may have happened. However, Nobles costing more food would be a good idea, especially under Feudalism Civic, and other Units could be looked at as well for this.
Civic Scaling:
I definately think the prices are good for the early game, I have just gotten to the point of activating all 5 civic types, I am at 1050ad-ish. (Normal Speed)
I don't know how it will effect me going forward, I have about 7-8 cities I think. I only really have plans to build one more which is my Nothern Trade Harbour(Unless South is closer/better) Any other city would just be for the sake of building the most massive empire I can(Oh and I need an Outpost for war engines). (I am still really bad at making Garrison Troops.. That is what I am trying to focus towards now.)
Well do keep this in mind. You can tinker with all the settings yourself in the CivicInfos if you feel it needs rebalanced and give us feedback on any changes you think works best.