Well I'm sorry I missed this post here, but TBH, why are you posting feedback about CPL on CFR? If you wanted to help us make the place better, post on our Discord...
To address your points, yes we know that games in CPL are not always easy for new players, we are very aware of that. Which is why there is a Novice area on our server, and Ghost and Zaty each run weekly novice games for that segment of the league. But during prime hours there is no reason Novice players can't just jump into Staging Novice and play a game...more experienced players are not allowed in novice games unless voted in by the novices.
As far as player dynamic in games, that is human dynamics, not our rules or policies. We have 3 types of games, Diplo, Diplo+ and Always War, and by far the most popular is D+ were everything has to be in the open. And this is MP, people do develop friendships, and good or bad reputations, that is going to affect who you trust in a game and who you don't. IMHO this is not a new player vs vet issue, it's just players seeing who is around them, and making the best calculated risk on who to ally with, who to attack early etc. Things like Congress votes do tend to be negotiations as well, but in the end you are free to do what you want.
And as far as players "making demands on were you settle etc" sure that happens...not limited to top players...anyone can do that...and if either do what they want in the name of long term diplomacy, or risk war with them, this is real people you are playing with not the scripted AI.
Not to be too critical, but most of your post is really about social dynamics of playing real people, and they are not "top players" they are vets of the league yes, but the average skill is still 1500-1600 in the average FFA. Yes there is a gap between even our average players and new/novice players coming from SP. I'm not sure if you have played random lobby MP games....but the crap that goes on their with no rules is 100 times worse than at Civplayers, we punish players for quitting, cheating, being toxic, and offer a very organized way to play games in our discord with our vote bots, and ranking system for those that like comparing their skill to others.
The solution is to play novice games until you have 30 games or so, or try out our PBC games, or even try the CPL Challenge save games.
Cheers CSA
