This thead has been going around for quite awhile. Maya: Is anyone at BHG actually listening? There's been a lot of suggestions about what to do with Maya. Some of them good, some of them bad. Here's a couple thoughts I'll post here to avoid the "noise."

1. Yes, you should only listen to "experts" about game balance. average players are not able to fully exploit certain imbalances in civs. Some imbalances require tremendous micro or macro skills in order to exploit. An example in RON is Spain. In the hands of an average player, Spain gets a few more ruins and can get to a certain age slightly faster. However, in the hands of an expert, they are not only abe to get their faster, they are able to turn that small advantage into a larger and snowballing advantage through the threat of raiding and attacking in gunpowder age. Note: I'm not suggesting I'm an elite expert (but listen to me anyway).

2. Both Spain and Maya should be nerfed. Maya might beat everyone and Spain can beat everyone but Maya, but Spain beats everyone a lot worse. With no Maya, Spain becomes hugely dominant. Yes, it requires expert handling, but you'll switch from Mayan imbalance to Spain imbalance.

3. Mayan needs reduction in economic bonuses. Leave the defensive bonuses. It's good to have a defensive civ. And it's okay to be able to build wonders faster. But reduce their economic bonuses so that they don't ALSO boom faster.

4. I'm not sure what Spain needs. But they need something.
posted by Tim at 2:24 PM