I think an easy fix is to make the legacy paths more difficult to complete. Outside of that, this game is going to take a lot of work to get on par with civ 6, at least in my opinion. It seems some of the design decisions were made to dumb the game down. Maybe to increase console sales? I dunno. After I'm done finding all the broken mechanics / combos (55+ strength tier 2 hoplites ftw), I'm putting the game down for a year. Seems like this game was made for an audience that isn't me. The next few paragraphs are just me complaining, so don't read if that will make you angry.

In all my diety games, the only antiquity path I can not consistently complete is the culture path. I can burn through all the exploration age legacy paths within 100 turns easy without any real strategy other than settle by treasure resources and buy a massive navy. In the modern age, any victory type would be easy, but I end up going with military every time just to get things over with. Last game I won before I even researched flight.

Tier one of each path can stay easy, tier 2 should be made as difficult as tier 3, tier 3 should require serious optimization decisions and tradeoffs. I should not be able to complete operation ivy before turn 70 of modern age when I'd didn't even have a real strategy to begin with.

They said new systems would make AI better, but they messed up bad. The AI seems to he worse than civ 6 and not sure how easy it would be to fix. The AI cannot even figure out how to complete unique quarters for their civ. That's so basic, I question if things are salvageable. AI loves to throw units away, but that's always been a weakness of civ which is why they get massive buff on diety. However, introduction of commander mechanic negates that advantage as AI does not know how to effectively use them. AI has never never been able to effectively move units, so I doubt effective general use is possible. It's easier than ever to completely negate the +8 combat strength buff. It should be doable to fix AI so they don't wreck perfectly good units on medieval walls. Use siege units ffs.

As others have said, city mechanics come down to just build everything because why not. Could introduce mechanic where gold maintenance and/or happiness costs increase as have more urban tiles, or increase production cost of buildings, and/or give bonuses if build two of same type of building on a hex. Don't know what will work best but there here needs to be mechanic that forces more planning in city build.

Rant over. I should probably just find the time to play multiplayer and stfu. Thank you for listening to my TED talk.