General Recomendations for Improvement

[SavioursSamurai]

I want to say that of all Civ mods I've ever played, this is my absolute favorite. It is the only mod that I never get tired of. The work that went into this is amazing.

However, these are a few things I noticed about the game that could use improvement:

Austria -

I can never win as Austria. Between the Hungarians, Polish, Germans, and Venetians they just aren't powerful enough to pull off a historical victory. Also, I can never build Stephansdom. Even if I cheat through world-builder to give the Austrians patronage and provide some production improvements/buildings, I still can't pull it off. The problem is, it is very easy to research Patronage and build Stephansdom 100 years before Austria even shows up.

Venice -

Venice is too overpowered when it comes to building Wonders. They just churn them out left and right, and a later spawning civ often just can't compete.

Kieven Rus -

Kieven Rus should start with cities flipping to them, especially since the barbarians spawn at such high rates. Novgorod definitely should flip (unless it becomes it's own civ, as I've seen discussed), as well as some of the others. I like the Mongol challenge though - very difficult, but very fun.

Genoa -

Genoa should get a production boost. To try and expand as much as they did, while maintaining stability, building a military, and building wonders, is extremely difficult. Venice almost always winds up building Genoan wonders before I can.

Vikings -

I think the Vikings should get a major settler, city, or city-flipping boost, at least in Russia. I would love to be able to settle the river valleys of Russia/Ukraine like the Swedish did, but it's impossible the way the game currently runs. The tricky part is, how could this be accomplished without economic or stability collapse on the one hand, and becoming overpowered on the other. Though the Russian cities could flip to Kieven Rus and/or independent powers once you get to the 10th and 11th centuries.

Naples -

Make Naples more important to the game. While Spain and the Byzantines often go there, I think the Arabs should too, and the stability penalty for Spain and the Byzantines be reduced.

Byzantines -

This is more of an overhaul suggestion than just an improvement recommendation. In the mid 6th century, Byzantium controlled almost all of the Mediterranean. I think that either a) Byzantium should start the game with all of those territories, and start losing them pretty quickly to revolt and and invasion, or b) start with more territory and a large army poised to capture cities throughout the Mediterranean. This would a) make things much more historical and b) add a LOT of dynamic to the early game. I find that in most civ games, even mods, the early game can be pretty boring, at least as warfare goes.

France -

France is impossible to win as unless you save/reload a bunch of times, and sometimes even then is impossible if the barbarians spawn the wrong way. Half the time Augsbourg is razed by barbarians. The barbarians in Germany need to be toned down or else France given more cities and/or a bigger army. I think that France should start with more settlers/cities in the core area, allowing them to expand more, and Bavaria and possibly Austria should be included (Bavaria might be already, I can't remember) as territories to be controlled. Finally, Luebeck needs to flip to either Germany or an independent once Germany spawns - it's strange that France continues to hold it after Germany appears.

Allow vassals to count toward controlling a province -

For some civs (Poland and Lithuania, Austria and Hungary, maybe others), it makes since to have one vassalize the other instead of totally eliminating them. Perhaps allow vassals to count toward controlling provinces. If this makes things too easy, maybe restrict it to certain civs (such as Poland and Lithuania) and/or have certain tech/building requirements be met.

Wonder building -

As you can see, a lot of my comments deal with wonder building. I think there should be some kind of boost for wonder production if a wonder is being constructed in its historical location - perhaps a boost based off the province the city is located in?

 

[SavioursSamurai]

Oh, also, I forgot this one:

Crusades -

I like how there is the option to join a crusade, toward which you have to contribute units (most of the time - sometimes I don't). But I REALLY, REALLY would appreciate it is you could choose WHICH units go - the computer almost always goes for my best units, which I almost never get back.

 

[Jorad]

I recently picked this mod up again and am having a lot of fun.

Byzantines were fun, but I managed to win their historical victory on the first try on average difficulty. Abbasids were not a big problem. I let the cities flip, built up the military a bit more and conquered them back.
Seljuks were actually more of a problem. I settled north-eastern Anatolia for the win condition, but those guys spawned and I didn't manage to hold on to it. I actually had to reconquer/resettle that area over the next hundred years.
Then I had a lot of fun with the Plague and the Mongols one after another. Shortly followed by the Turks spawning. I eventually managed to beat them all back, but the game was already won essentially, because I only had to hold on to my treasury.

Then I tried France. Oh boy. I've now managed to beat the first victory condition, but it was really really close. I did reload a bunch of times. Mostly to see whether I could take a city with the two units next to it or whether I had to wait for others to catch up. I pretty much only built Châteaus, barracks and lots of Swordsmen and some Archers to garrison cities. Bordeaux and Toulouse were taken with the free wins at the start.
I really had to count the number of turns I had left and how many units could reach their targets in time to be able to do it. Right at the end, when I had 2 turns to take Calais, two vikings landed there who make mincemeat out of swordsmen. I had to ignore them to take the city and lost 4-5 units to them in the process. Luckily it doesn't matter if you lose the city after 840.
I think it could be a bit easier.

 

[DC123456789]

The first French UHV is actually kind of insane and luck-dependent, but there isn't really another way to do it without buffing France later on- and I don't really think we need to do that, given that France is already pretty powerful overall.

 

[SavioursSamurai]

The first French UHV is actually kind of insane and luck-dependent, but there isn't really another way to do it without buffing France later on- and I don't really think we need to do that, given that France is already pretty powerful overall.

Well, I'm assuming that France would lose half to two-thirds of its empire as cities flip. And reverting back to indie states works too. That would also give other empires a better start and thus pose a threat to France.

 

[PegazuSHZ]

so, when we gonna see a new improvement? this mod is awesome, just think that the byzantines are cool but easy to achieve victory... perharps a harder UHV? with most territories like italy and All north africa? or even more enemies

 

[SavioursSamurai]

Ok, so, like I said above, I can never win as Austria. I tried once more, and this time Poland was weak, Venice was totally gone, and Germany wasn't aggressive. And I STILL could not do it without adding a whole stack of units through worldbuilder, because a weak Poland meant that Hungary was even more powerful. Oh, and I also cheated to reduce the affects of the plague. I'm playing on Monarch. I would say that Austria needs double the units, at least, and to start with Patronage and a huge boost toward Stephansdom.

Also, I forgot to mention above - Crusades. Please, please, PLEASE allow the player to choose which units go on Crusade. I'm sick and tired of having to load or else use worldbuilder because my prime unit, or even an ARMY (great general unit) left on Crusade. And what makes it worse, any promotions, including great generals, are lost, so so having such powerful units go on Crusade is pointless. I think a better option is that the player is forced to send x-number of units, but they have the options of WHICH units.

 

[Swarbs]

I really had to count the number of turns I had left and how many units could reach their targets in time to be able to do it. Right at the end, when I had 2 turns to take Calais, two vikings landed there who make mincemeat out of swordsmen. I had to ignore them to take the city and lost 4-5 units to them in the process. Luckily it doesn't matter if you lose the city after 840.
I think it could be a bit easier.

France is a whole lot easier if you found Paris 1NE of your starting location. That way, if you spread Catholicism to it straight away and build a pagan shrine before anything else, you get 4 culture per turn, and will cover all Picardy with culture before Calais can spawn around 800AD. Gets you the victory condition and means you don't have to deal with the crossbows, although you will need to buff the defences in Paris, or hoard gold to spam mercs, as the Vikings will still spawn and go for Paris instead.