karma

[Theben]

GAAAAH!!!!

[LzPrst]

i'd like more powerful events and in general far more ebb and flow. small nations should be competitive up until the industrial age.

consider the following. Sweden, Holland and Venice were once major powerhouses in Europe.

In europe nations' strength were until the industrial revolution not necessarily directly related to size or population.
following the industrial revolution there emerged Major powers, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, Austro-Hungary, Ottoman Turks.
following WW2 these nations fell behind (or disappeared) the 2 Superpowers, USA and USSR.
In time these superpowers will be overtaken by the more populous nations, China and India.

what I'm getting at is this. In early game civ size should be far less important. as the game progresses, size should become more valuable and towards the endgame, population should be the main source of power. of course combined with an infrastructure.

What this would mean is that if you stay small early, it should be easier to build up a strong infrastructure, while expanding vastly should not pay off until much later. but it would pay off later. that way staying small would be a viable strategy as you could theoretically try to establish an advantage/head start from the massive hulking nations who should be kept back more from being big until much later. as it is now there is only one valid strategy, you have to be big. the maintenance factor balances this a bit, but still, a small nation just cant compete at all with a large one. which is realistic only AFTER the industrial revolution.

eh... got a bit carried away here... yes. heavier events!