I don't know whether it's just for the purposes of OpenDev, but personally, I am getting completely overwhelmed. Everything just happens extremely quickly, and the game does not do a good job communicating the mechanics or the events to the player. I am not even talking about things like research pacing (this can always be rebalanced), but dramatic changes that can occur within a single turn without being properly signalized. Here are few unstructured thoughts and observations.


Territories

Territories get claimed and change hands too fast. The cost of claiming territories is so low that everything gets taken very early in the game and it's very difficult to follow who owns what because things can change even turn. The diplomatic demands system in this regard is completely unclear. I have no idea which territory I am demanding and than suddenly I find myself owning a new territory (not the one I expected!) because the AI has conceded to my demand. 

As things stand here, they are too fast and too binary. There should be more mechanics in place for contending territories, and the pacing has to slow down. I applaud the decision to abolish settlers, but output creation is way too cheap. There should really be more steps to it and a real cost. Also, I feel that the territories might be too large in size. Making them smaller (significantly so) might slow down the expansion, make it more gradual and also make cities more concentrated. 

Culture

Cultural influence mechanics is a complete mystery to me. Things seems to change every turn and I have no idea why. I have multiple influence generating districts and the only holy site in the game, so my influence is pumping out like crazy, but somehow Olmecs  have cultural dominance over my capital? 

Varia

- With the current game pacing, I see no way of structured gameplay for acquiring stars. It's more like "I do random things and get random rewards". 
- Deeds are completely unclear. Why did I claim this deed again? What deed is it even? How far am I for claiming this deed?
- Too many things to build in the cities and not enough real choice. Cities are way too empty
- Neolithic era feels rushed and too impactful. A single lucky turn can give you a massive advantage that will persists though a large portion of the game (like getting that extra unit or being lucky enough to accumulate enough points to claim a territory)