I hate to make excuses but trying to stay up to date using a phone is tough
There is something I'm not 100% with, if we have an advanced start I assume the AI does as well, if not I'm certainly opposed. I personally do not want to quick kill them, what I personally hope to do is work the AI's personality using possibly its likes/dislikes to manipulate his actions. Not to pay one off to attack another human player but to get out of him "How do you feel about xxxxx?"
Within this game there are many variables like grabbing and denying +Heath resources and trading it to an AI to gain trust or his allegence, time and time again you open a dialog with the AI and everything he has is painted RED. Which translates in you doing your own thing despite the AIs likes.
Why I bring this up is hard to explain, a human may choose a few unit types a population point and a tech while the AI just builds improvements. How I see it as gaining there trust, getting an open border agreement out of them and scout them and everyone else to be prepared for all sorts of possibilities. Focusing on one AI countering it's moves and then here comes someone who has a completely different strategy you didn't see coming.
So Its funny that you can say the AI is predictable but giving them an advance start I just don't feel that was designers meant for AIs to get it or if they did would they bank the coin and accept a low tech for all of it. I just don't know???
As for a map setup it has a few good points; having resources distributed in a way that would allow accelerated growth equal to all but random enough to feel the games gods did this would take a monstrous effort. It just wouldn't be right for everyone to be healthy and happy and have Iron too, the story would be lost to a perfect world.
I think that tech trading of you own researched techs is ok but not allow trading of techs you've acquired. As for trading techs with the AI I could go both ways, espionage will be on and as stated many places it is overpowered to a point that we find the AIs trading up a storm. So it all comes around in a big circle.
Well that was a lot and I'm sure it would make a bit more sense if I could see the whole screen
I think the game gods should roll the dice and because there is the unknown adv Start with AIs we should just go with a standard terra map, standard settler, warrior/scout
As I said before this is for all of us and I want all to be happy and have a great time here so it is best to go with the majority and give some compromise to the opposed
Edit; yeah I got off track in a bunch of places (grumble)
