Ok... this is the idea I'm toying with...

How to simplify the bloated credit system?

Every time you buy a tech it gives you credit CHITS of a specific color, in denominations of 5, 10, 25. You can turn in these chits to pay for advances of the appropriate color. So... say buying mythology will give you 1 yellow "25" chit and 1 yellow "5" chit symbolizing that you get 30 religion credits. Once you use them you never get them back!

I'm trolling for comments now!

Deleting replenishable credits? An interesting proposal..

Civ advances certainly would come along at a much more sluggish pace; it would probably make for a much longer and more elaborate game - potentially much more interesting, allowing some of the later and more expensive advances to more thoroughly develop, justifying their purchase and very existence. The downfall would, of course, be that the incentive to purchase cheaper civ cards merely for the credit contribution would diminish or disappear, and some advances would be nearly unapproachable simply due to cost, potentially creating another unintended consequence - further stratification of the haves and the have-nots: those who are already established later in the game will have the distinct advantage of calamity protection, etc., conferred by the higher technologies, allowing them to retain cities, and thus accumulate the extremely profitable commodity sets required to purchase the price-inflated later civ cards; meanwhile, the disenfranchised would continue to suffer at the hands of the strong and the vagaries of mother nature and her calamities, having neither the technology to prevent such catastrophe, nor the trading power to make the leap from the lesser techs to the greater.
A separate, and feasibly equalizing, element remains thusly, however: if credits remain restricted, their lack of accumulation will certainly benefit the have-nots in that regard, since with the current system, accumulation of credits acts in the same way as does accumulation of wealth, such as within a Federal Reserve interest-economy.. "as money maketh money, so credit maketh credit", or something such. Hence, the weaker among the game would not be left in the dust by the exponentially advancing stronger, and the former may actually stand a chance at staying in the race.
All this said, one thing remains: the credit system is also designed to represent historical reality - technological developments paved the way for new, related advancements, and as knowledge accumulated, so was the potential for new breakthroughs increased. To limit the effectiveness of prior knowledge upon all that may subsequently emerge thereby, is to deny the very existence of the preceding knowledge that afforded its offspring. This would effectively create a mythical game, and not one entirely worthy of such a noble name as "Civilization". But, these are merely factors to consider...

K J K Dalamant

"some advances would be nearly unapproachable simply due to cost"

This wouldn't be the case. The existing credit structure that is in place now would be completely revamped to provide more one-shot credit than is givin now as permenent credit. If you spend it equally I imagine you would get the same return on your investment as in the regular system.

Hmmm.. I see.. yes, that would seem reasonably true. In reflection upon the idea as a whole, when such an explosion of new cards are added as are currently being introduced in this Expansion Project, permanent credits do present a problem of inflating the credit pool, resulting in a system you referred to as "bloated". Thus, a replacement of the current (theoretically) infinite credit system with a finite one would appear an appropriate adjustment. Seems agreeable.. I'd just be interested to see how it plays out..

K J K Dalamant

Well I'm pretty sure this is the best way I've heard yet to fix the "bloated" problem. So I'm inclined to use it. I'll start working on a revised credit chart.

In thinking more extensively about your proposal, it sounds more appealing, and justifiable at that. The greater the quantity of civ cards available, the greater the exponentiality of infinite permanent credits. In lieu of the new revisions, etc., I'm with you on this one all the way!

K J K Dalamant

If you get something put together in time, I'd be willing to push it into the trial run in Apollo 18.

Well... We'll see. I'd have to have it done before any purchaces are completed... so lets see how fast I can put something together.

wouldn't it be simpler to just make the later advances more expensive?
instead of changing the whole system. Also the buying phase would go quicker if people didn't have to consider if they wanted to spend their credit tokens or not.

THis idea has been scraps BTW... there will be credit tokens but these will always be held and just shown to be redemed for credit.