First off, I'd like to encourage high excess happiness strategies by making Golden Ages a bit more imporant, so I would lower the increase in points required between Golden Ages by about 25%, and give them a +25% to all yields on top of the +1 Gold on all tiles producing Gold.
Additionally, they would give an additional +15% Production bonus for World Wonders.
Finally, excess Happiness for the next Golden Age would continue accumulating while a Golden age is ongoing.
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It seems a bit odd that Great People punish you for getting them and almost pigeonhole you into focusing on one of them, and your change would be a pleasant boon to strategies using high amounts of specialists.
Personally, I'd prefer it if Great Person points added to a national progress bar rather than a city-specific one, since the current system makes using specialists in newer, smaller cities feel less rewarding.
The Great Person could then be generated in the Capitol or have a percent chance of spawning in each city relative to how many points they contributed.
Those changes might require making the first few Great People a bit more expensive, though.
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I'd like to see Ranged units be a little less strong against cities and Melee units be a lot better.
I'd also like to see a historic "starve them out" tactic, where units deny every tile immediately adjacent to them from being worked by enemies.
With this, units could make a ring around a city to keep them from working all but the tiles immediately around the city, outside the range of the city's attack.
(More practically, they would deny the most valuable tiles rather than a complete ring.)
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Why the change of Arts Funding to Science Funding? Is Arts more popular with the AI for some reason?
In theory, they should be roughly equal when all civilizations are averaged.
The Bronze reward for the Xcom project seems a bit too low: perhaps give them just one Research Agreement, while Silver would get an additional Research Agreement and two Xcom Troopers.
I'd also give a Science, Production, Great Scientist and Great Engineer boost to Gold's Xcom Headquarters.
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America
Manifest Destiny:
Settlers cost 25% less to produce and Gold purchasing buildings in newly founded cities costs 25% less gold. Upon adopting an ideology, these bonuses are replaced with +25% Empire-wide Gold.
All land military units have +1 sight.
50% discount when purchasing tiles
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I love the less damage to a captured city change to Professional Army, but I would try to encourage more military infrastructure on top of existing bonuses.
Discipline would reduce the buidling time of defensive buildings by 50% and give them 1
and 1
each.
Warrior Code would reduce the building time of experience buildings by 50%, remove their maintenance cost, and give them +2
Military Caste would remove the maintenance cost of garrisoned units, while Tradition's Oligarchy would lose that bonus and instead provide a +15% bonus to Great Person production in the Capitol with its city defense bonus reduced to 25%.
The Finisher would give Citadels +2
and +2
, and give +5
from each Great General in the Empire.
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I'd go a step further with Piety and change Religious Tolerance to grant a bonus Pentheon belief of your choice that is not restricted from already chosen beliefs and doesn't restrict others from them.
I'd also remove Enhancer beliefs, and instead give Mandate of Heaven +20% religion spread range and +20% religion spread speed and a +20% bonus to yields from Religion.
This would be on top of the current bonus, to help secure Peity empires as dominant religiously and get rid of the race to the best Enhancers.
Since the opener would give +1
and +1
to Shrines and Temples, Organized Religion would give a later-on bonus of +1
from Temples and +4
, +4
, and +4
from the Grand Temple.
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For Aesthetics I'd like your Fine Arts bonus Culture increased to 100% of Excess Happiness change, but I would also make it a bit less about spending Culture to get Culture and a victory condition.
Cultural Centers: +1 Gold from Monuments, Amphitheaters, Opera Houses, Museums and Broadcast Towers in addition to the construction bonus.
Flourishing of the Arts: +1 Happiness and Gold from World Wonders in addition to the existing bonuses.
Artistic Genius: Expending a Great Artist, Writer, or Musician grants a We Love The King! Day in a city of your choice in addition to the existing bonuses.
Cultural Exchange: Grants bonus Gold equal to 25% of your Tourism output.
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I'd add this to your Commerce changes, but without the trade route in the opener, which would be too easy to grab with minimal investment.
Commerce Opener gold bonus moved from Capital to the city with East India Company.
Commerce Opener also extends Empire-wide Trade Route length by 25%.
Entrepreneurship now gives +1 Gold to all Specialists.
Mercenary Army now gives Double Gold from Plunder promotion to all Melee/Gun units.
Big Ben now gives an extra Trade Route.
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Treasure Fleets: Gains a 20% boost in yields from Sea trade routes instead of +4 Gold.
Finisher: Legendary World Wonders (Solomon's Mines, El Dorado, ect.) are hidden for players who have not finished the Exploration tree, and their yields are doubled.
Hidden Antiquity Sites are converted into one of a set of Great Landmarks and Great Artifacts, which depend on which site was unearthed.
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Agreed on your Rationalism changes.
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Religion:
Holy Warriors Follower removed, Religious Ferver Reformation renamed to Holy Warriors, and works on units of all eras.
All Enhancer beliefs removed: the Piety policy branch will now be the most significant way to boost religion spread.
God King renamed Demigods- +1 faith, gold, culture and production to every great people improvement and palace.
Sacred Waters now gives +2 Food to Lakes and Oases.
New Pantheon: Sacred Isles- +2 Gold and +2 Culture for Atolls. +1 Happiness for each Atoll within your Empire's borders.
Cathedrals no longer have a Great Work of Art slot.
Religious Building Yield Rebalance:
Cathedrals- +4 Culture +2 Faith +1 Happiness.
Mosques- +2 Culture +6 Faith +1 Happiness.
Pagodas- +1 Culture +1 Faith +2 Happiness,
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