Okay, this is going to be a pretty huge post so excuse me for that :
1)
I suggest trying the mod on Noble difficulty to start with
I have played most of the mods on the Emperor difficulty and feel capable of wining the AI(you probably got my point wrong and though I was bragging about the difficulty which is not, I just like to know where my opponent's power comes from)
2) I decided to investigate the issue using this cool WB and here are results of my more in-depth research :
Here are the AI tech cost compared to mine
And jsut in case you are not convicted enough :
Another AI... just in case ( There is another problem I would like to disccus about this image later)
3) Now I went on and made exatly the same sized map on PREVIOUS game speed which is SAGA and guess what ? Yes, you are right :
I haven't checked the production rates yet, but the research rate of the AI opponents is clearly not Marathon but on the Saga level, which means we are playing different games... I am absolutely okay with the fact that Ai always had slight advantage on this field but this one is just absurd.
4) Now I want you to look closely at this two images and explain to me how is it possible :
That's the Egypt opponent which recently lost it's capital with 3 wonders(one is gold generating religious wonder) and 3 other citites 2 of which were the most developed cities in his whole empire. Now , on the screenshots you can see his gold production and his actual empire which is reduced to the level of bunch of villages with high upkeep cost due to distance(well, if this apply to the AI at all ... because I started to question if this mechanics works with the AI in this mod).
Here is another AI( the most advanced "empire" in the world ):
And his gold production...
I jsut hope he got all his techs from the tribal villages, right ?
Now, with all this images in mind you might aswell want to chek my empire with 2 religous gold generating wonders :
Sometimes I start to feel that AI doesn't get affected by the overxpansion penalties from city maintananse - half continent empires at 600 BC is competing but feels wrong(maybe you want to implement some kind of limitations like in c2c ? If I recall correctly there are happines penalties for overexpansion)
I am attaching the savefile in case someone can adjust my tactics to match the AI mastermind, or jsut want to check all this numbers with his own eyes.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2Ug-yCzdPLsLUxPNGtLV1JJMWs/edit?usp=sharing
P.S. I hope you don't take any of this as the critics or diminishing the coolness of the mod , I jsut like to play my game knowing HOW is the enemy playing. I hope you take a look on this arguments and take a note, because I feel like it is an importan issue.