The game is pretty good overall.
What it needs is some balancing, polishing, and fleshing out.
Most of the things I’d like to see are in my signature. But, a few key things.
- I don’t actually think the AI is a priority. Yes, I wish it was better. And it has some big gaps, like using planes. But it’s okay for now. It really is. I certainly does okay in the early game, and is still challenging in the mid game if you play on higher difficulties and don’t cheese the game too much (eg found a religion, don’t use overflow). At the moment, I think the AI would just benefit from some more freebies as the game progresses, rather than just at the start. eg some of their unique units for free, and or anti cav when you declare war on them, or knights when they declare war. And no more settling wihout coast or fresh water.
- Balance. Some Civs need a big overhaul because they’re rubbish or boring (England, America, Georgia, maybe India (Dharma is awful)). But lots more need a little buff to make them shine. It’s good for some Civs to be more powerful than others. But they should all be fun. This is the one thing that’s really putting me off at the moment, although is something maybe I could mod (sigh... but I don’t really want to play a modded game...).
- Spears and Pikes, Heavy Cav, Walls and Rams need another look too. Agoge was a big step forward, for Spears and Pikes but cost to damage ratios are still not quite right. Military Tactics also needs to be more meaningful. So do all the unique Medieval Melee unit’s.
- Polish. This seems to be happening slowly, eg joint wars and CBs. But there’s lots of stuff. Aerodromes need another look - there needs to be some connection to tourism. Holy sites need to be able to boost artists (maybe a policy card). There should be some more city buildings, like the water mill, but for other bonus resources (eg stoneworks for stone). Take another look at adjacencies: eg IZs should maybe give bonuses to Harbours and CHs. Cities on foreign continents should be more valuable. You shouldn’t be able to see the names / faces of other Civs Governors - just a generic image and their title. Amani looks like a clone...
- Top of my list for polishing though are the Tier 1 Government Buildings. They just seem random and all over the place. See my signature: they should all have some unified qualities (eg they all give + / - to loyalty in some situations), and they should give you an extra legacy card rather than a permanent ability (eg. a Tradition, Liberty, or Honour Legacy Card).
- Fleshing out. This is stuff I’d want to see in an expansion. You should be able to recruit religious people throughout the game. Court Houses, a Palace Upgrade, some sort of Village so you can sprawl your city more. World Congress fits here.
- Top priority: filling up the map. Maybe city states could settle one or two satellite cities if there’s space near them. Maybe barbs could spawn free cities, and these cities could join up with other free cities. Even in the late game, there is too much empty space. And the battle between great powers doesn’t feel that great when there isn’t enough smaller people to push around. I’m not sure what something like this would do to turn times though.