Making the daimyo and the so-called Kannushi the scout unit that can be had from the start is a terribly bad design. Once K dies, villagers have to move away from TC very early to build shrines, hurting the economy pointlessly. The important point of needing 2 monks/samurai explorers is that the map can be explored faster to discover animals, and if one falls, there is still another to continue building shrines. As a powerful unit with the ability to strengthen and train, the daimyo won’t even really die because of becoming a hero, should not be in when the game starts.
The design of the Chinese Prince is even more disappointing to me. The nobles of the Qing Dynasty did not have fiefs, and were only nominally the owners of the army. Giving up an otherwise rather distinctive and interesting leader-member relationship in order to achieve what is actually incorrect historically is a total unnecessary waste.
He claims to be free from stereotypes, yet wants Indian monks to be “reincarnated” as animals. Even depriving the identity of African heroes, just for some unnecessary gimmicks. The changes to the wonders have not changed the fact that the wonders themselves are stereotype, and their too much binding with heroes also loses the flexibility of strategy. Too many unnecessary changes, and we don’t actually need that, there are other ways to improve Asian civilization while maintaining many essences of the existing designs.
I admit that he has a passion for history and culture, but in this thread I can’t agree with his understanding of game design, the ability to design games and the level of detail with which history is considered. For a variety of reasons including the above, even if this thread got more Likes than my ideas, I still don’t think those ideas are more practical than mine. No offense to you and him, but sorry.