- Either make Cavalry upgrade to tanks, or have Gunships weaker and eairlier. As it is, Cavalry post-Infantry become useless moneysinks until Gunships much further on.
I am a little worried that this change could be abused. Cavalry are already a very strong unit, and used extensively by some experienced players. Tanks are a very powerful unit and having already powerful cavalry ready to be insta-upgraded to a very powerful unit could cause more unbalance. I always thought it good that tanks could not be upgraded from anything so an empire would have to have a good production base to be able to build many of them fast. With an upgrade option from cavalry, a large army could be built using mainly gold multipliers rather than the production buildings that come at the same time as tanks.
Also, the horse units get the xp from the stable. This makes it slightly too easy IMO to get 5xp tanks very quickly (though at a slight premium in gold cost).
- Chichen Izta gives Walls in all cities and a boost of 10% until Gunpowder. Walls are underused, Castles rarely built as a result.
This is a big change. Now that castles have +25% trade this might be a bit over the top. And I feel at this point that it might be a change the AI doesn't understand, making me hesitate further. The AI could build it despite having walls in every city already.
- Castles give +1

for Industrious leaders, maybe?
I assume you think the changes made to walls and castles so far are not enough? Castles are already a powerful building IMO, even without the changes made with this mod. Is there a reason you suggested this for Industrious leaders? You think they are now slightly underpowered, with the changes from this mod or not?
- Increase the range of Paratrooper drops.
Sounds alright as an idea. Maybe by just 1, for now. This will go in v0.2.
- Make Sentry available with Woodsman II or Guerilla II. Explorers are made more useful.
I'm not sure of a way to do this without making sentry available to melee units etc. at W2 or other units like gunpowder and archery at G2.
I agree it would boost recon units but is it consistent to allow a promotion prerequisite line only for one unit combat type and other combat types must go a more difficult promotion path?
- Explorers can be built with and earlier tech, and are slightly cheaper, OR make Compass cheaper. I never build them because by the time I have Compass the scouts and chariots have explored the entire continent, and on a New World-type map it's better to send a cavalry unit, since Explorers die too easily.
The problem with improving explorers too much is you could use them in early combat more. Their cost is 40

and they get G1 and W1 free. With W2 they are staight away a 8

defender in forests, and with 2 moves they could end up being used as chokers or something like that.
What I would suggest is reducing their cost to 35

.
- Create a new later-game recon unit called the Scout, rename the one you start with to 'Hunter' or something. Give it move-3, strength-8 or so, and come with Mil. Science or later, starts with Woods II/Guerilla II like the Explorer. Upgrades to Marine.
At the moment Marines aren't as versatile as their stronger counterpart Mech Inf, and I think this would give them some more utility.
I'm really ripping into your ideas now.

Honestly, I think that is too significant a gameplay change. A unit with 4 free promotions is very risky. Again, using a recon type unit in regular combat (those 4 promos make it an awesome defender in many situations). Allowing that upgrade to a marine would just make uber-promoted marines possible. With 5xp your marines would be G3 and W3, meaning 50% withdrawal chance and +2 first strikes.
To tweak the marine, I think something else could be done. I had considered adding 10 or 20% chance to withdrawal, but I don't think this works from attacking amphbiously from a boat anyway.
I also considered a +25% vs infantry, but then that's probably too powerful as well, as using them non-amphibiously comes quite effective. They cost 160 hammers vs. infantry costing 200 hammers.
Adding 1 first strike maybe? This will make the damage they deal at low odds a lot more substantial. They will still regularly die attacking amphibiously but will rarely fail to hurt the defender like current marines sometimes do.
This would probably mean the navy SEAL gets 2-3 first strikes instead of 1-2. This doesn't seem too bad IMO, but 2-3 inherent first strikes for a unit is pretty significant.
Still, at this stage I reckon I'll put +1 first strike on the marine in v0.2.
- Pacifism gives +50% War Weariness but +1

.
Pacifisim is an under-used civic? +50% war weariness is pretty harsh IMO. It already has higher unit upkeep making it unnattractive as a war civic.
Also, I'm not sure how this change would be made in the game files.
- Serfdom gives +1
and +1
for Workshops.
What about just +1 commerce to farms? Serfdom is a cheaper civic than caste system and the bonus to workshops could send workshops overpowered...?
+1

to farms will again give another boost to financial because of river-side farms.
What do you think of +1

for farms under serfdom?
As it is, it's useless compared to Slavery, and personally, I go straight from Slavery to Emancipation unless I have a Specialist economy
With the above change, it would be a cheaper civic to run than slavery, and the extra commerce could be worth the sacrifice of slavery production.
- Caste System is Low Upkeep.
I'm not keen at this point on a change to CS as I thought it was a decent civic aleady. Do people consider it underpowered?
- Take away the 10%
bonus from Free Religion, make it No Upkeep.
- Add in a Religion civic Secularism, comes with Scientific Method, give that the 10%
bonus and the No State
.
You feel Free Religion is over-used? I would prefer to avoid making more civics 0 upkeep unless really necessary, as it nerfs the Organized trait.
As it is, there's everything to model a modern country except the Free Religion thing. Some countries definitely don't have religious freedom but are not Theocratic. Also, it's a no-brainer in gameplay terms to switch to FR unless you're still enjoying the military benefits of Theocracy.
Organized Religion is not exactly a bad civic either. At this point I don't agree with changing Free Religion.
As for Secularism, I wasn't intending to increase add a new civic. Too big a change IMO.