Excellent scenario looks very professional and well rounded - I just had 2 goes at this with Minoan Crete & 1 as Egypt on Diety. Lost all 3 times so there's a good challenge there.
The Positives - There's plenty more civs on the map so the extra warmongering turns up the heat quite a bit. The poor citystates get eaten alive everywhere so that is funny to see.
The Negatives - Well all-in-all I don't have any major complaints. That said if you're still going to make another patch there's a bit more balancing that might make things a bit better.
Firstly - Minoan Crete
These guys have a very situational start. There starting dirt is generally pretty poor even with the Mt Thera Wonder so they really need to settle adjacent to a sea resource to be competitive so they can work the Lighthouse improved tile immediately - without that it's pretty much a guaranteed loss for them.
The human player can manage this a bit but the AI really struggles. They also suffer because they can't get City Connections easily and have to tech all the way to Optics and build Harbors which is not easy to do.
They also don't start near any ancient ruins and don't have much of an opportunity to get a religion either. I managed to get a religion from walking a unit to a ruin near Egypt but that relied on a reloading so that was a fluke.
So I'd be tempted to give a bit of a buff to Crete - maybe a free Harbor as part of the UA so they can get city connections up a bit earlier. Otherwise that is a pretty big handicap for the Minoans.
2. Greece
Greece also has a pretty underpowered start but not as bad as Crete does. I'd change the Mount Olympus from a Mt Gilbraltar (2 food 5 gold) to a better yield. Mt Kilimanjaro replacement (3 food 2 culture) could be a bit more suitable. The combat promotion could be changed to Olympic Training for a bit of flavor.
Social Policies
So far it looks to me like Liberty or a hybrid Liberty/Tradition game would be the strongest start. That +2 culture from Liberty opener really diminishes the value of Tradition.
I'm assuming that barbs have been turned off for this map. In that case I'd do something else with the Honor opener to make it a bit more competitive. Maybe culture from killing units?
Bugs
I think the Egypt UA is broken - you get the 1 extra faith from the shrine but not the extra culture.
Aside from that the only other gripe I'd have is that on Diety the game just finishes too fast - usually by turn 120-130. If your still updating the mod I'd say there is still room to fit another Wonder or 2 that take a bit longer to unlock.
I was thinking there could be 1 Wonder generated by accumulating a number of Great Person Points. Something to perhaps add some value to the Garden and National Epic and other Specialist buildings which otherwise don't really do anything in this mod.
Another Wonder the Parthenon could be unlocked by reaching a certain amount of tourism from Great Works of Writing. This would require the Writers Guild to have a function again which for this game could be renamed as a Philosophers Academy with the Great Works using quotes from ancient philosophers.
Two wonders like this would add a bit of value to tall civs which also helps balance out the other wonders which are easier to unlock by playing wide.
Anyway that's just my thoughts.
The Positives - There's plenty more civs on the map so the extra warmongering turns up the heat quite a bit. The poor citystates get eaten alive everywhere so that is funny to see.
The Negatives - Well all-in-all I don't have any major complaints. That said if you're still going to make another patch there's a bit more balancing that might make things a bit better.
Firstly - Minoan Crete
These guys have a very situational start. There starting dirt is generally pretty poor even with the Mt Thera Wonder so they really need to settle adjacent to a sea resource to be competitive so they can work the Lighthouse improved tile immediately - without that it's pretty much a guaranteed loss for them.
The human player can manage this a bit but the AI really struggles. They also suffer because they can't get City Connections easily and have to tech all the way to Optics and build Harbors which is not easy to do.
They also don't start near any ancient ruins and don't have much of an opportunity to get a religion either. I managed to get a religion from walking a unit to a ruin near Egypt but that relied on a reloading so that was a fluke.
So I'd be tempted to give a bit of a buff to Crete - maybe a free Harbor as part of the UA so they can get city connections up a bit earlier. Otherwise that is a pretty big handicap for the Minoans.
2. Greece
Greece also has a pretty underpowered start but not as bad as Crete does. I'd change the Mount Olympus from a Mt Gilbraltar (2 food 5 gold) to a better yield. Mt Kilimanjaro replacement (3 food 2 culture) could be a bit more suitable. The combat promotion could be changed to Olympic Training for a bit of flavor.
Social Policies
So far it looks to me like Liberty or a hybrid Liberty/Tradition game would be the strongest start. That +2 culture from Liberty opener really diminishes the value of Tradition.
I'm assuming that barbs have been turned off for this map. In that case I'd do something else with the Honor opener to make it a bit more competitive. Maybe culture from killing units?
Bugs
I think the Egypt UA is broken - you get the 1 extra faith from the shrine but not the extra culture.
Aside from that the only other gripe I'd have is that on Diety the game just finishes too fast - usually by turn 120-130. If your still updating the mod I'd say there is still room to fit another Wonder or 2 that take a bit longer to unlock.
I was thinking there could be 1 Wonder generated by accumulating a number of Great Person Points. Something to perhaps add some value to the Garden and National Epic and other Specialist buildings which otherwise don't really do anything in this mod.
Another Wonder the Parthenon could be unlocked by reaching a certain amount of tourism from Great Works of Writing. This would require the Writers Guild to have a function again which for this game could be renamed as a Philosophers Academy with the Great Works using quotes from ancient philosophers.
Two wonders like this would add a bit of value to tall civs which also helps balance out the other wonders which are easier to unlock by playing wide.
Anyway that's just my thoughts.
