yeah i agree cities still lack some flavour

also we REALLY need a malus for cities number its boring to see ai spam 10 cities no matter what

there are outposts now, lets use them, there shoudln t be so many cities

There is a malus for cities, they grow slower.  the problem is that malus decreases in effectiveness past the 2nd or 3rd city.

Maybe unrest should increase also with each city if cities > prestige.

I think the cities are pretty interesting once you get your technology level up. However in the beginning of the game there is not much choice. This is probably made worse by the fact that there aren't any interesting units to build either. So, maybe have some early wonders to build, or just some more buildings to choose from in the early game.

I don't find city spamming a problem at all. I build usually two cities in the beginning, and haven't lost yet. One big city is IMO better than a lot of small cities.

There could be some small growth bonus due to how much extra food you have. Something like 0.01 * available food. This way the amount of food you have would be more important. A city with lots of available food would actually benefit from that before 200 turns or so... I often feel the amount of food available isn't nearly as important compared to the amount of materials available. This is a fine balance, though. Too much growth bonuses and you will get a lot of city-spamming.

I agree. There is a lull in interesting choices after I place a city. I have lots of factors to consider terrain wise, but as soon as the city is built, it is pretty much just defining a build order for the level one buildings. At level one and two we should be defining how we want a city to specialize. Have a building like Workshop, which every city needs be three buildings that are mutually exclusive:

Toolsmith Workshop: +10 Production per Material.

Masonry Workshop: +5 Production per Material. -15% Construction Cost.

Leather Workshop: +5 Production per Material. -25% Leather Armor Cost.

Now you have to decide if this city is going to capitalize on high Material resources, Focus on light troops, or build some significant buildings.

Each early game improvement should have a choice like this. 

Choose one building from the list at level up is interesting. So, add more of those "choose one" type of buildings.

It would be interesting if there were buildings which give you immediate benefit versus buildings which give you benefit in the long run. +1 materials vs +0.3 materials per city level type stuff.

Agreed.. I always end up just building all the available improvements...

Specialization seem to be the way to go...

I think what is missing are some early low-level buildings which produce something, when you do not build anything.

Currently those buildings just are available when leveling up.

I would like to have some low level buildings, producing:

5% research (as this is the most important)

small chance for XP for heroes / or troops if nothing is produced

maybe also gold, mana

How about the following compromiise:

- all cities get a growth bonus if they do not produce anything:

0.5 - city level  (so this would help you to get to the level up buildings much faster and latest by level 5 you should have chosen one, which produces something if you do not build anything else.)

I think you are in the minority here. You must really be a glass half empty kind of guy if city specialization makes you feel cheated. 

The point would be that you have to choose if the city you just built can capitalize on existing resources. The Workshops i outlined present the player with the chance to make a large Materials city matter more. Or you can decrease the wait on building Prestige buildings for a city with high Grain, but low Materials. The last option allows you to mitigate a middle of the road city with a bonus to training light infantry. The point is to have a tool for every type of city. You are only cheated if you make bad choices.