Hello everyone, I'm just another of the many people who full of excitement has been taking part of this open dev.

I would really like to start by saying that the game is not perfect, as perfection in my opinion doesn't really exist, this can push all of us and the dev team in this case, to always strive for improvement and always be conscious of our achievements.

That said the game was for me very pleasant, I really enjoyed my time playing it and it really created the famous feeling of "one more turn".

Many are the aspects that need polishing and reviewed under a keen eye, but is also true that everything implemented was carefully thought of and to me felt like a breath of fresh air.

The visuals are stunning, the civic "wheel" or tree, allows for good min max approach and also for a good roleplay approach too, the science tech tree looked neat and well thought, I especially liked how some crucial abilities or mechanics were obtainable only if you researched a specific tech, the reinforcement one is a good example of this.

I would though be happy if the opportunity to vassalize your rivals could be unlocked only at a certain point in time through tech tree or through civic point, with maybe having to generate enough influence to be able to maintain the status of liege, in that way the influence resource could have a more meaningful use and this might prevent players from vassalizing anyone without possessing the right resources to do so.

The battles felt memorable and also challenging, especially if we didn't invest too much in military power in order to get ahead on science or other important aspects.

I have to admit though that it seemed to me that too many times, the AI rolled the highest damage output, while the player usually rolled the lowest or in-between at the best of times. It would be nice if this could be explained to the players a bit more extensively, to give an idea of how much eng comes to play when deciding to go for a blow.

AI priorities need some adjustments, it looked like they didn't care about era stars that much, and often starting to fall behind after their initial advantage was nullified, a more competitive spirit could be useful.

I really liked how the territory and the resources really play an important role on the decision of which culture  should I pick next, for example the goths seem to have a phenomenal fighting unit, but it doesn't come cheap and their ability seems a good way of racking up good money while lowering your rivals war support.

Naval gameplay felt honestly a bit underwhelming, I think naval exploration should play a major role throughout the game, especially in the first three eras.

I didn't feel rewarded at all for exploring and didn't even feel the need to, since I could just check the game screen to see how the civilizations I haven't yet met are doing, it might be good to hide from the player the score of unknown civilizations, to increase the need of exploring and see if we are falling behind, barely keeping up or taking the lead of the game. Make the curiosities found at sea much more valuable than the ones found on land. Increase the game score for circumnavigating the map or meeting every civilizations first. Many ideas could be implemented and please give the bireme unit some love, as of now it feels underwhelming compared to some special units other ancient era civilizations get, just a mere plus one in strength without any unique ability, it's not good at making Phoenicia feel a solid sea merchant culture.

I need to remind my self that when the full game gets released, the maps will be generated randomly and we will be able to choose the AI traits, this line will help diversify the gameplay a lot, since it will help reinforce the idea of adapting to the world around by adopting and developing a new culture with it's pros and cons.

Concluding, the game feels good and it is in the right direction, you guys have done an amazing job!

Looking forward to play the game at release, knowing that you are going to aim for improvement and are working hard to create a game you can be proud of!

Take care!

That is such a simple but good idea: to have vassalage linked to a tech, and cost a steady amount of influence. It would make the mechanic more historically accurate and balanced, as the amount of gold now gives you too much advantage for no cost at all.

Secondly, I also wholeheartedly agree with making naval exploration much more rewarding in general. It would also be nice to have the stars reflect the age. So in early modern age you could earn stars by exploring the oceans and founding new colonies. 

Oui l'exploration navale pourrait être mieux récompensé, et en 4 parties dont 3 finies, je n'ai eu que deux batailles navales. La guerre c'était surtout sur terre. Dommage.