I noticed that alot of people are complaining about balance. I think the game is actually better balanced than some people realize. It varies depending on the skill, map size, and how many other factions you play against. How about this idea? Have a "best balance" button on world creation where you simply pick the size of the map, and the game automatically picks the best factions to play against (along with dif lvl), and the correct amount of them to make the best balance. I don't know, just throwing ideas out there...
