This means that most civs in the game would use representation as much as possible, and thus the game was focused tech. After the nerf, Represenation is still the #1 tech civic, but it is generally less powerful than Universal Suffrage, and so it is only chosen by a handful of civs; and thus the late-game tech rate is slowed significantly.
Representation is not the central element in teching more quickly as the game goes on. The central element is the availability of widespread multipliers and the tendency for empires to have enough time to build the infrastructure by then.
Unless you're rocking something like merc + statue of liberty (both which carry considerable costs in their own right), the contribution of representation to raw science output late game is actually *far less* significant than it is early game (where snaaty demonstrated that pure HR can beat mids based rep). Consider:
1. Representation only boost specialists, and specs are only run en masse' to a meaningful extent when you're packing bio farms late game. When running SP workshops or towns (the other 2 popular flatland super improvements late game), rep's bonus is marginal...often less than 100 beakers/turn when you're pushing 1500+.
2. Note that ironically, one can make up much of this deficit via the commerce on farms in bio via serfdom, so if the intention is to nerf late-game farm based research, it's barely happened
3. Rep carries the risk of being forced out.
4. Depending on the situation, the only civics in that line that don't have a higher POTENTIAL benefit to
are US and the default.
5. A much larger portion of late-game research is also trade routes, given city sizes and availability you can be throwing down 40+
in every city with them.
Now, I also fundamentally disagree with tech pace late game. As it stands, culture is already faster than space, and space is already impractical compared to conquest/domination generally. I call into the question the goal of slowing down the late-game itself, although if you truly want that goal, simply raise the tech costs of late game era techs and leave the civic balance alone.
As it stands, the single most fundamental tradeoff of building the pyramids got SEVERELY nerfed (unlike late game, early game rep
are meaningful).
Having players lean towards a single civic is not a bad thing. Most civic paths have a late-game tendency to have 1 favored, with possible variance for war. However, upsetting the balance early on to no gain I don't understand.
In my experience, it is still viable. I would say that Universal Suffrage is now the stronger civic in most cases
Remember, the "bottom" civics were made good but USUALLY not the BEST in their categories at high levels for a reason.
The tech rate issue should be treated separately from civic balance, especially since I feel we need to break down the typical sources of beakers from late-game empires; it ain't rep unless one is straight up farm spamming...and that was HARDLY too strong before!
To toss another argument into the discussion: Representation slingshot via the Pyramids. It's a strategy that has its risks, and the Pyramids are expensive, so it definitely should pay off. But managing to build them and get Representation early is almost a game winner.
The problem with this statement is that it is WRONG. Snaaty discussed an experiment he did on the German forums where he and another deity player each tried to hit constitution fastest. The civ had stone. Snaaty got there first by skipping the pyramids.
A wonder that can actually slow your total tech rate when you have its specific resource readily available is HARDLY a "game winner". The closest wonder to a "game winner" in the base game is, by far, the great lighthouse on most scripts. Great library and oracle were also already stronger than mids pretty consistently.
By nerfing rep, you basically make building early pyramids to secure it a non-viable option; even with stone the benefit isn't worth the cost sunk into doing it! Consistently!
And for what, to MAYBE remove 1-2 turns of late-game tech rate? Give me a break
.
