See, far wanderer, it sounds like the key problem is that you don't like the agnostic or terrain changes >_> not that there's a good reason to combine them. I don't feel agnostic civs detract from the game one bit, and I like the way some civs change the terrain to make it their own.
I think the only reason people champion combining the Mazatl and Cualli is that the Cualli are weak on uniqueness. The Mazatl aren't though, so that's more of a localized problem.
Actually, it's that I don't like agnostic civs or civ-specific terrains
and therefore I have good reason to want them combined. I thought I was fairly clear on that.
I also want to be clear that I am not against the concept of agnostic civs or civ-specific terrains entirely, I simply think there are
far too many of them and a Mazatl/Cualli merge would cut down on their appearance without removing any actual content.
As to the Cualli lacking uniqueness, the fact that you and I consider that an accurate statement is yet another reason why they should be merged. They have a unique road, a completely unique art style, a unique way of handling their hero, a unique tech, a unique improvement, a unique civic, a unique leader trait, a unique "religion", and a pseudo-unique terrain feature. The only reason they aren't considered one of the most unique civilizations in the game is because another civ is using all of their tricks. The fact that two of the four most unique civs in the game need further complexity to differentiate them from each other is a sign.
I would be perfectly fine with some civs reshaping the land provided that 1) the AI understood terraforming, so formerly occupied lands would actually get used, and 2) they didn't all look the same. It's very boring to wander into lizardman territory and see that
every tile has become Marsh/Swamp/Jungle. The Scion's purple hazed plains are no better. The Illians at least punctuate things with some occasional trees and a diversity of improvements.
Agnostic civ's I'm not okay with, however. Agnostic means several things, each of which by itself detracts from my games a lot.
- The odds of an AI founding a religion in this game just went down even further.
- This civ will not care what my religion is. They will not like me if I agree with them or dislike me if I don't.
- There are at least six fewer ways to play this civ. One of the big claims of FFH2 is that every civ plays differently under every religion. Agnostic civs can't do that, unless something else is added they only play one way.
- This civ will never change alignment. See 2 and 3.
Now, I can understand that it's a lot of work to create a new religion, so I'm accepting of Agnostic as a placeholder, but it's not a substitute. The reason this irritates me so much more with the Mazatl and Cualli is that they already follow existing religions under different names. They don't need new religions, they just need their current unique units and buildings to replace existing religious ones.