Leyrann
Deity
I'm close to finishing my first real game and while I really liked many features so far, I'm not sure if and how my motivation is keeping up for following games. The more I play, the more the game feels extremely on rails. Gone are the theme park ideas, now you have the same goals in every game for every nation. Due to the nature of the victory conditions, there is really only one way to play.
In Civ 5, you could for example do a 3 city culture victory with India. Or a sea-focussed game with England. A heavy eary rush game with the Aztecs or a strong midgame with Arabia. You could go for a diplo victory with Greece. Or a domination one with Shaka.
Now everyone is doing the same. Playing tall? Good luck, you still need to find and colonize the distant world. You lose 50% of the victory conditions if you don't do that. This feels like the Devs gave us one way to play. So you better stick to it.
So what you're saying is that you could still do a culture or science victory in the Exploration Era just fine if you don't want to go to distant lands?
Also a 3 city culture victory sounds like a perfectly possible thing in this game. Several leader attributes even provide bigger bonuses if you're at 3 or fewer cities. And a sea-focused game sounds to me like you're emphasizing distant lands conquest/settling. Early game rush? Did that in my current game. Strong mid game? Also my current game - I picked Mongolia for a reason. Diplo with Greece? Turns out city states provide a lot of benefits in all kinds of areas at the same time! I got to experience all those benefits in my previous game. And domination? Yup, no issues. I've had a game with 30 cities and even higher settlement cap.
I think you're wrongly interpreting the legacy paths as a necessary thing to pursue. View them like you view culture in a previous game. Sure, you can pursue a culture victory, but you can also ignore it entirely! Just pick whatever you want and focus on that.