SirPleb
Shaken, not stirred.
We're not talking about eliminating the rush, just hoping to get a tweak which makes it less clear cut that this is THE way to win a tough game. Tweak it so that deciding which way one should proceed in a game is not as clear cut, and thus make the game more rewarding.
About increasing the power of other governments: Personally I already find that Democracy is very highly powered. The power of cash in this game is enormous. You can even buy happiness! And if you like rushing, don't forget Communism! In one deity game I was losing (my favorite kind of game, it was on a knife's edge whether I had a chance in it all the way up to modern times), I finally switched to Communism and started rushing Modern Armor in a few cities. That turned my losing position around. If you play a religious civ (the Egyptians are a great choice for this) you can flip back and forth between Democracy and Communism casually in the later part of a game.
There's also a problem with asking for "a reason to get out of despo" - that's not something Firaxis is likely to consider in a patch. It isn't specific enough and whatever reason one finds, it is likely to be a big overhaul. I think that the best we can hope for is to ask for another patch and to ask for the simplest, most specific, and thought-out changes we can. We have to work with what we have (CivIII with 1.16, which is great already!) and try to ask for things which are readily doable within the framework of an already released and play-tested game.
