I just finished my first playthrough and would like to give a bit more detailed feedback than it is possible in the questionaire. Overall, I think the game improved a lot compared to the first opendev. Still, there a few things that could be impreved until August in my opinion.


  1. Let's start with a small issue that annoys me way more than it probably should. When you found an outpost in the Neolithic Era, it is immediately sorrounded with farmland on all sides. This makes no sense in an Era that is supposed to let us play a nomadic tribe and kills my mood every time I start a new game.
  2. I played on 'Nation' difficulty and the AI was always slightly ahead of me Era progression wise, but expanded very slowly. In fact, the whole game no one challenged my territories ever. I will try again with a higher diffculty later this week.
  3. Independent people were virtually nonexistant. Before they showed up, almost all territories were claimed. I found one peaceful independent city in the third Era, which I assimilated.
  4. Progression through the Eras felt once again too quick. I assume the biggest issue is that the AI gets some hidden bonuses and advances as soon as possible, putting the playes under pressure to advance as well in order to not fall behind/miss out on all the civ picks. It would be good if the AI would choose to stay in an Era longer and accumulate fame, when it makes sense to do so.
  5. Tech progression felt slow compared to Era progression. Or maybe I just need to learn to build more science quarters. I largely ignored those at the beginning and focused on farmers and makers quarters, before I realized I was falling behind and picked the Joseon. Their EQ certainly helped a lot, but I still wasn't able to fully catch up with the Era progression. Thus, I was unable to build most of my EUs.
  6. I was drowning in influence. At the beginning, influence is sparse and you always want more. But as soon as all the territories are claimed, you accumulate way more than you can spend on civics and wonders. I picked every civic that was available and built 4 wonders and still ended with almost 10k influence in the bank, even though I only picked one Aesthete civ at the start (the Zhou) and later ignored everything that potentially gave me influence.
  7. I had the feeling there were too many anomalies and they were very repetitive. I wish there were fewer, but with more varied effects. Later when I explored the oceans, I received like 5 or 6 ships for free from them, that felt pretty OP.
  8. I seems like mounted units cannot enter city tiles during a siege. A drastic change, but I think for the better. One negative thing that I noticed was that the AI seemed sometimes reluctant or unable to upgrade their units. But overall the battles worked much better compared to the first opendevs, kudos to the devs. Unfortunately, my tech progression was too slow to try out artillery and air units (or build most of my EUs). I will focus heavily on tech for my next playthrough and hopefully I will get there.
  9. I did not really see how religion had an effect on my game besides of occasional grievances from the AI. Maybe the effects need to be more game changing, or explained better. Not sure.
  10. Stability was actually a challenge, which I liked. I thought it could be a bit more nuanced though, 30-90 is quite a big range for a 'neutral zone'. Often it seemed impossible to get to 90, so I just made sure it's at least 30. Maybe there can be smail negative effects between 30-50, like X% reduced money & production, and small positive effect between 75-90, to reward players who try to stay as high as possible.
  11. I wish the UI would give more information on notifications. For example, instead of 'AI empires attitude changed', tell me what changed, like 'AI empires attitude changed from friendly to hateful'.