Hello, and firstly thank you for creating this great mod!
Secondly, feedback:
Toltecs (3000BC, Marathon, Monarch, on the version from June 1):
They provided a nice, puzzle-like playing experience. OTOH in my game the Aztecs never spawned (as is probably intended), and after conquering maya lands and beating back the european conquerors, the area became very quiet. A few thoughts:
1) the independent city to the south-east took cultural control over the southern corn, which felt somewhat odd and complicated the 10 pop UHV
2) the culture for the UHVs does not yet scale with game speed. (i.e. I had 100 turns for 200 culture, which is completed by the palace alone)
3) Atlatl had a very strong feeling, quite easily beating all barbarians, and together with catapults and few light swordsman beating the Maya and conquerors
4) the UB feels very thematic, but maybe an additional artist slot could replace the +3 exp?
5) I did take a few looks in WB and most of the civs were doing well. The exception being Spain, which wildly expanded (maybe partly scripted?) to Cuba and the Phillipines, only to collapse to their core (around 1300, presumeably due to overextension). Effectively this lost them all colonies, Cordoba, and the cities on the Meditaranean cost, leaving them crippled the entire game.
In this game I then switched to the Dutch, conquering 3 Toltec cities on Caribbean islands, thus having a presumably above average start. I will try a few real Dutch starts soon. My thoughts on this part of the game:
6) with the trading company I could run my slider at about 95% while having 20 cities. This seems a bit strong, but not too much ahistorical.
7) Portugal did not contest southern Africa at all (unlike in 1.17)
8) The effect of Brooklin Bridge (free polders in each city) feels even more OP for the Dutch than in 1.17 due to having more cities. Maybe this could be reduced to only cities placed along a river?
9) As a consequence of all these I could run away with the game, reaching Globalization ... around 1800.
10) The Zoo becomes available after obsoleting Ivory, Fur and Whale. I guess the intended effect is for preserves to generate those resources, but this does not yet work.
11) I was very impressed by the performance of a few AI, most of all the Moors and to a lesser extent Portugal. Both were amongst the most scientifically competitive Civs. OTOH especially the Moors will have benefitted a lot from a dissapointing Spain.
12) I found France to be doing very well, expanding into Italy, Spain and later Germany, being the strongest AI. Their performance against me was disappointing, with them only launching single Gribeauval against Amsterdam.
13) The trading company military expeditions are in effect significantly weaker, due to there being more cities. In this game the Mugals succeeded in beating both the French and English invasions, even with them happening almost simultaneously. Maybe the trading company effect could be increased to 4 cities?
14) England does seem very well-balanced, being slow to expand initially and getting continously stronger. They were on par with France at around 1800.
I am currently playing a game with the Malays (3000BC, Normal, Monarch, on the version from June 1) they are interesting to play, with lots of interaction with others. I am up to around 1300. A few thoughts:
15) Java seems to be quite aggressive, in one failed test game they DOW'ed the Khmer within a few Turns of spawning.
16) UHV #1 can be achieved by pure city spam, whipping a useful thing (Settlers, Granaries, Aqueducts, UBs) whenever a city reaches 4pop. I my game China is still alive and accounting for about half my trade route commerce, should they collapse I would need about 15 cities instead of 10. This may make this goal somewhat luck-dependent.
17) UHV #2 One can acquire 7 luxuries easily with cities (Ivory, Gold, Spices, Dye, Gems, Pearls, Incense) and trade for 5 (Jade, Silk, Opium, Tea, Cotton). That leaves 2, which seem complicated: Trading for Silver is basically out of question, since each Civ only controlls one. It would be possible to settle one in Australia, this is concievable. Fur would need to be settled in manchuria, which seems very ahistorical. For Wine one can only hope, that Arabia controls the two in the levant, or that France can be reached and is willing to trade it. Coffee may be traded for if Ethiopia is alive, else one would need to conquer it, again ahistorical. Amber from Poland may be possible too. In Summary Wine, Coffee and Amber are very luck-dependent, Silver can be found in Australia, and one can go insane and grab Fur. I did also rule out new world resources.
18) The UB and UP are very nice. Together with the UHV this is a really thematic civ, the theme being a big trade hub. I would not like to break this theme to go conquering for UHV #2.
So far both of these UHV seem very luck dependent, and for #3 Islam spread is needed, but I am not there yet.
), but with the USA, you're caught in a vicious cycle. Every time I hooked up a new luxury resource, the city's population would increase, and there'd be very little net gain of happiness. I don't know if this is commentary on the USA's rampant expansionism in the 19th century or not. Very funny that the AI copes by switching to monarchy! I think the USA's UP could use some fine-tuning...
