I loaded up the save. Some thoughts:
(1) Low production in your capital has slowed your start dramatically, combined with the fact that your lux resources are sea based. This is just luck of the map (or bad luck in this case). I'm guessing that because of the low production you had very long build times of things like work boats, settlers, workers, archers, etc. which is why you haven't built any important buildings (like granaries, libraries, water mills, etc. ) yet. Your capital is very low pop for T118 and your science rate is dreadful. Remember that pop = science, and science is extremely important for all victory types, except for when you are going for a domination win before turn 130 with something like horse archers (Huns). In almost every other case, science = win.
=> I did have some lux resources that were land based, I just didn't develop them to begin with = error on my part. It's true that production is very low in my capital, didn't realize that until you mentioned it. ALso I didn't really consider that pop = science, I'll keep that in mind from now on.
(2) It looks like you have used a large number of hammers to build a huge comp bow army rather than building infrastructure in your cities, however, you have not used the army to conquer neighbors so they are basically dead weight at this point and are just costing you a lot of maintenance. With an army like that you could have conquered at least one or 2 neighbors by this time. If conquering a neighbor is not your strategy then a smaller defensive army would suffice (but you need science to keep them upgraded and not obsolete).
=> Ok!
(3) You are building coliseums everywhere, but have excess happiness. The precious hammers could be put to much better use at this point. You have some decent secondary city sites but they are underdeveloped because of poor build order (those unnecessary walls probably took forever to build in your El Dorado city, for example).
=> You're right
(4) You have taken both Liberty and Tradition policies. I would suggest one tree or the other. I highly recommend Tradition for newer players as you will have a much easier time if you have a strong capital. In my mind, Liberty is a more advanced strategy. Read the thread on the standard 4-city Tradition start. The problem is that Liberty seduces new players with the free worker/settler. However it is much more difficult for new players to learn to manage growth, happiness and gold using Liberty. Stick with a smaller/taller empire at first to really learn the basics.
=> I will read the thread on 4-city Tradition start and then try to focus on that instead of on Liberty.
Suggestions: I'm sure the game is still salvageable at this point, but I would recommend re-rolling and trying standard 4-city Tradition. Good goals to aim for would be settling 4 cities total and building a National College before turn 75. Researching Education by turn 100. Building universities in all cities and staffing science specialists before turn 150 (this will require growing your cities to a high enough pop to support the use of specialists - at least 10 pop per city and more is even better of course). Once you can pull off this strategy and still manage to defend against early AI aggression (build a sufficient sized defending army of comp bows/pikes) then things will get much easier for you and you will be playing at Emperor level with ease.
=> Those are excellent and very specific suggestions. I will do exactly that - restart the game and then set up those aims you mention for myself.
and moreover (b) you have -18gpt?
