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Prince$s
It's not necessary to nerf Wonders much. Just make them obsolete sooner. Take for example The University of Sankore in DoC. Its effects are very OP, but it obsoletes with Education (it's available with Paper, which is 1 tech before Education).+1
Another key problem IMO is the overpowered bonuses from the wonders
They get stacked up, especially for the human player, thus making the game way too easy
Right now I'm working on this
New wonders will be added, but overally the wonders will be nerfed. Many of them by much
I agree with the rest of your post. Especially about the priorities. Many of the problems in RFCE can be traced to the research scaling. However, I don't think getting rid of it entirely is a good idea, especially in the very early game where only a few civs are alive and not in contact with each other (which means highly unpredictable outcomes, for example Bulgaria killing Byzantium or vice versa). Perhaps decrease the effect of scaling (up to +300% instead of up to +900%), and increase the effect of other tech balancing factors, such as how techs that your neighbors have will cost less.
Another tool is the standard "only your best 10 cities count towards your research" trick, aka research costs scale upward with number of cities. This will slow down HI France or Byzantium a bit, for example.
We could also reduce the effects of tech scaling by era. I feel that in Early/High Middle Ages, the scaling could be more severe, whereas in later eras it shouldn't be so severe.
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Finally, on an unrelated note:
Been playing Byzantium on SVN. Really like the new soundtrack. Except the RobinHood song. I like Robin Hood - he's a lovable rogue and a hero. But why would anyone think "Down, down, down down down down" is good lyrics? It's like Lady Gaga's "Pa-Pa-Pa-Pa-Poker Face", except it manages to be annoying without being catchy.
I had to delete that song. It's so annoying.