Now that I've actually finished a game (a few unsuccessful multiplayer trials), I'd like to make a few suggestions about the game.
Buildings in late game. This becomes really tedious later on when there are so many buildings to build. I would suggest some national wonders that grant the earlier buildings for new/conquered cities. Like obelisks, carnivals, later on, inns, etc. On the other hand, the cost for some buildings is a bit weird. Machinist shop costs 200 hammers, but only gives +10% and only to military production? A city would have to produce about 3000 hammers worth of units to break even (assuming it already has about +50%), which translates to 38(!) champions. Also, the wonder that gives a free obsidian gate, for it's obscene power in mobility, only costs twice as much as an obsidian gate itself. Cheaper to build than merely 3 obsidian gates and allows gating to newly conquered cities.
Victory conditions. Victory seems a bit vague... Tower of Mastery seemed to be the best bet I had, unless I really wanted to rampage across the map and conquer 4 more players, but I never noticed any of the individual towers available for building. This was a bit confusing.
Technology. It would be nice if researching one technology made other categories of technologies more expensive. This would encourage specialization and make playing the game a very different experience each time.
Guilds. I really have no idea how they are expanded, but I do like the aspect of spreading corporations for personal gain in Civ4: it would be nice to add that into FFH. Like, perhaps for the guild of hammers, it "missionaries" out to different cities, giving them a slightly better forge (even if it has none, replacing the free forge effect it has currently), but costs a bit of money to maintain (and generates money to the Guild's headquarters). The mercenary guild might dole out a point of XP every so often (again, at cost) or spawn a free unit every 75 turns or so. Something that would want players to have it spread to their cities.
Resources. Ties in a bit with above, corporations added in a benefit for having more than one of a resource. Perhaps guilds could consume resources to determine their benefit? For Guild of Hammers, this is easy, but I'm not sure what resources other guilds would use.
Religion. On a similar note to guilds, I never really noticed religion in the particular game I played. I mean, when it spread there weren't any extra buildings to build. Is state religion required? In one of my previous games, I noticed I could use acolytes to spread religion, but this isn't well documented in the interface.
Tooltips. This is an area I can offer my expertise, as it's merely an interface improvement (I'd be willing to help with the programming in other areas, too), but FFH could due with a few tooltip improvements, like mentioning what the training yard makes available, that breweries can only be built on rivers, etc. Likewise, a "description" tag can be added to buildings and wonders to explain some extra effects about what they do, so a mouseover on the building in the civilopedia would save from having to click it.
Culture. I know culture is pretty weak in default Civ4, but there's not a whole lot to build in a newly conquered city to regain some borders, or even to compete peacefully with other civs. Obelisks, carnivals, and theaters seem to be it. Of course, and then there's my whole cultural model that started my mod...
Buildings in late game. This becomes really tedious later on when there are so many buildings to build. I would suggest some national wonders that grant the earlier buildings for new/conquered cities. Like obelisks, carnivals, later on, inns, etc. On the other hand, the cost for some buildings is a bit weird. Machinist shop costs 200 hammers, but only gives +10% and only to military production? A city would have to produce about 3000 hammers worth of units to break even (assuming it already has about +50%), which translates to 38(!) champions. Also, the wonder that gives a free obsidian gate, for it's obscene power in mobility, only costs twice as much as an obsidian gate itself. Cheaper to build than merely 3 obsidian gates and allows gating to newly conquered cities.
Victory conditions. Victory seems a bit vague... Tower of Mastery seemed to be the best bet I had, unless I really wanted to rampage across the map and conquer 4 more players, but I never noticed any of the individual towers available for building. This was a bit confusing.
Technology. It would be nice if researching one technology made other categories of technologies more expensive. This would encourage specialization and make playing the game a very different experience each time.
Guilds. I really have no idea how they are expanded, but I do like the aspect of spreading corporations for personal gain in Civ4: it would be nice to add that into FFH. Like, perhaps for the guild of hammers, it "missionaries" out to different cities, giving them a slightly better forge (even if it has none, replacing the free forge effect it has currently), but costs a bit of money to maintain (and generates money to the Guild's headquarters). The mercenary guild might dole out a point of XP every so often (again, at cost) or spawn a free unit every 75 turns or so. Something that would want players to have it spread to their cities.
Resources. Ties in a bit with above, corporations added in a benefit for having more than one of a resource. Perhaps guilds could consume resources to determine their benefit? For Guild of Hammers, this is easy, but I'm not sure what resources other guilds would use.
Religion. On a similar note to guilds, I never really noticed religion in the particular game I played. I mean, when it spread there weren't any extra buildings to build. Is state religion required? In one of my previous games, I noticed I could use acolytes to spread religion, but this isn't well documented in the interface.
Tooltips. This is an area I can offer my expertise, as it's merely an interface improvement (I'd be willing to help with the programming in other areas, too), but FFH could due with a few tooltip improvements, like mentioning what the training yard makes available, that breweries can only be built on rivers, etc. Likewise, a "description" tag can be added to buildings and wonders to explain some extra effects about what they do, so a mouseover on the building in the civilopedia would save from having to click it.
Culture. I know culture is pretty weak in default Civ4, but there's not a whole lot to build in a newly conquered city to regain some borders, or even to compete peacefully with other civs. Obelisks, carnivals, and theaters seem to be it. Of course, and then there's my whole cultural model that started my mod...
