Doesn't it heavily depend on the game's speed though? When I play on 0.5 it's pretty slow but STILL enjoyable (those games have tend to extend for far too long so it might not be suited for me though), when I play in realistic or higher speeds (haven't played the fastest though) it's cool and not what I'd exactly call "slow" either, and the pace between techs feels good as well as the time at which I get them, same for AIs.
Personally I think early game is as varied as middle and late game, I think they just have so different scopes/approaches that it might seem that they're very different, and they are different, but equally enjoyable.
Yes, but it isn't helped by the fact that RI is much slower than vanilla by default. While I agree that there is a certain kind of player expecting the whole game to last 1-2 hours, which is probably not the intended audience, I can also see how the slowest-paced part of the mod, being the very first one new players get to experience, can adversely affect their perceptions.
Still, it’s not entirely historically accurate - there was only about a one-century gap between their founding dates in this run (Christianity in the 5th century, Islam in the 6th).
Well, strictly speaking, that isn't too implausible in the historical context - both started as reform movements of the old Abrahamic faith, and were propelled to the status of a major religion by their specific historical contexts, which arose when they did in our history, but in a theoretical parallel history could occur with a completely different time gap. Even in "our" history, I could see the rise of Islam happening at a different opportune moment - say, if the prophet lived during the Crisis of the Third Century, Islamic conquests would have been just as plausible.
Speaking of your mod's resources, your mod provides too little res in the map scripts when its the mod where having Timber or stone means youre behind or ahead. By alot.
And god forbid you start with iron/copper starvation.
Allowing myself to quote myself from before, a resource that everyone has is a resource that might as well be removed entirely. Resources exist to exert pressure on players to procure them.
At that point, I will go with letting Walter choose his favorite difficulty / speed settings / map size and adjust the research amount to whatever feels the best for that. Then if you want to go with a bigger/smaller map, or highest difficulty, you just have to forget about the IG calendar.
That's inevitably already a big part of the approach. I cannot simultaneously test a broad variety of settings; I have to stick to one "model experiment", and only after that one runs according to my expectations, I go out and adjust all the other variables, inevitable with far less testing (as I simply do not have time to run dozens of hands-offs on each different map script, scenario, game speed etc). My "model experiment" is a large fractal map with the default settings and speed.
... And if Walter ever choosed to do so, I think it could be a valuable tips for the loading screen, so players know what a "standard map" is supposed to looks like. I'm pretty sure I remember him saying that the Noble difficulty (which is supposed to be the normal one, being the one at which the AI plays at) is not the one is working with for RI.
Not a bad idea; I'll do a major revision of the tips closer to the release date in any case.
I've realized there was tech cost balancing. Is it intended to have only 63
for first tier techs (researched in 7 turns with 9
per turn) and 77
for second level (8 turns), third level Animal Husbandry 107
(11 turns). Those numbers appear pretty low for me compared to previous games. You can complete AH in 18 turns basically, with a worker not being finished in that time.
Yep, the earliest techs have been sped up rather significantly, relatively speaking (though nothing in excess of 20% save for the very last tier). Basically, it affected the earliest and the latest techs the most. Also resulted in a smoother overall progression (though most of these "spikes" were already ironed out pre-3.72.
Note that despite almost all tech price revisions being downward, there were also adjustments to overall tech rates, so that doesn't mean that all techs necessarily get researched quicker.
Questions about culture: Since you can't build temples etc of non-state-religion, what is the best way to get a cultural victory- build lots of wonders? And if you aren't going for a cultural victory, what does culture in your "interior" cities do for you?
My take would be to emphasise artists and works of art. And wonders, of course. As for "interior" culture, if you're playing with separatism on (not by default), it's important to keep your empire culturally homogenous. Otherwise, basically the same logic as in vanilla - or rather K-Mod, which increases the cultural "strategic depth", by making the culture of the cities not immediately on the border but still adjacent to it more impactful for the border pressure.
This may have been asked before, but I don't recall ever seeing this in the past: could someone explain to me what this fist icon indicates in the Military Advisor? Were new features from BUG imported any time in the past year or so, to have incorporated this?
Seems to have been explained nicely without my involvement.
As to checking the military advisor, I agree, though I wonder if the "Threat Index" there is an accurate amalgam of whatever factors are considered relative to you, even if you can't see this meter between third parties?
It's a rather obscure metric added by BUG mod, but in reality it is rather simple: the power ratio adjusted by relations, by a couple of other factors (such as having a defensive pact) and by the very same WHEOOH (the above-mentioned "fist"). I'm not sure whether it has much real utility, but it's there and it looks nice, so why not let it stay.
yeah it happens to me that sometimes some advancements are made a bit before (rarely after) the right date, but that's alright for me because syncing it perfectly would take a lot of effort and probably compromising other things.
if I'm at the end of the tech tree I know well I'm in the late 1990s and 2000s AD even if the time would say were in the 3000BC. Time only really starts to take importance with the ahead of time setting, and even then it still feels grounded to me, because whether we like it or not time goes on so the penalties will eventually turn off, besides, if you feel you're going wayyy too fast, perhaps it's about time to change the difficulty! 
, and warband now arrive at the tail-end of the era, making warriors, militia, chariots, axemen and spearmen shine and take the stage much more frequently as viable options to build and use. The early exploration, land grabbing, religion founding, early wonder race and first rushes for conquest feel properly fleshed out and alive and well to me. Just curious, but what are you feeling is missing out on the "just getting started" sentiment?
), K-Mod disabled this particular bit of BUG mod. I went and reenabled it now, so this should be back in the next SVN.
