A modding idea

[drone]

#1 would be fairly easy. Maybe also reduce the castle requirements for each level.

#2 I don't believe is possible, the income increases are hardcoded on the Trading_Post building line.

#3 On the farming, maybe what is needed is a longer line of Improved Farmland buildings with some non-linear bonuses per level. Instead of the vast disparity between provinces in the base farming value, even it out some but start with a higher farming improvement level building. You could cap provinces with a resource that would be required for higher levels of farming.

[gollum]

Interesting ideas BB, just try out your hand in modding. I seem to remember that you were tweking unit stats too at some point.

[Jxrc]

##3 On the farming, maybe what is needed is a longer line of Improved Farmland buildings with some non-linear bonuses per level.

Just one small comment. Bear in mind the steward V&V. IIRC for a general to get the "great steward", he needs to be governor a provinces which goes from nothing to +80% and of another that is improved by two levels (0 to 40, 20 to 60, etc). A bit tedious but that gives a reason to upgrade farms in Arabia ... Adding levels might advantage the player who'll get the V&V while the AI will probably not.

[Ironside]

You could try to halve the trade export, but make the port income 200% (instead of normal 20%). That way, the AI earns more than you on your own networks.

Downside is that it will cripple the AI:s economy as soon as the networks breaks, due to the upkeep of his armies. The AI is poor on keeping a money reserve and cannot disband troops.

For 2. Haven't tried modding that part myself, but what does "office level" do? I was thinking if upping those might make a difference.