looks nice! Would be cool if it plays a @#$%-a-doodle-doo sound when the rooster crowing animation is starting

It happens to me every now and then too, and what I always do is press Alt+Enter twice, which disables and enables full screen again, for me that fixes it and is quicker than restarting the whole game.

Of course they are important, when the developers made them so essential to the game.  Let's look at economic technologies. At one point or another, you will want to research all gather speed upgrades, with the exception of lvl2 Stone gathering (if not slinger civ) and Wheelbarrow. Otherwise, your workers are so slow, that people are metagaming 100 pop in 10 minutes games for 11 years now. The original developers knew this trade off was artificial, so they gave you efficient workers from the start of a game. When they introduced technologies, the techs came in pairs, and they were cheap. The point was that the techs were just a path you chose to follow, not something essential to your build. Just played a longvgame with a retro version of 0 A.D. It's so much more focused that it's basically a different game. 

Committed the first draft of the Guptas     I need ideas for:   4 heroes and their bonuses Unit references (for textures) Mercenary Unit ideas (at least 3) Unique technologies Civ Bonuses Team Bonus Catafalque

If it is already shown when hosting a game, it shouldn't be so hard show it for example when you click the name in the player list... Lol is not new, some people can be very OP programmers, if that is the case, and you want you created or developed is used by people you must consider UX