The beginning of the modern era could be the Victorian era

justinwwe14 - I like the idea. Though I don't want a name that feels maybe biased toward the Europeans. Kinda ruins the fun if you are playing as a native american or asian civ. Though, Queen Victoria did pretty much influence every major civ on the globe in that era, so not necessarily too narrow of a name.

Steam Era, Electric Era, so on and so forth - I'm not super sure what the next innovative wave of technology will be so idk what to really call it past that, but I'm sure you get my point.

The "Victorian Period" is also called "New Imperialism Era", if you want a more nation-neutral term for that idea.

Ellye, I like that! Ok will consider that one.

wbwillis - I second Ellye's suggestion for nation neutral classifications of era. The English speaking world classifies historical era from the lens established by the British Empire, then carried over by the US. WW2 was the Great Patriotic War for the Russians (Soviets), Japan wasn't technically in WW1, and the Victorian Era wasn't so Victorian for the French, Germans, Austrians, Ottomans, or Italians for that matter.

Much in the way we see asymmetrical technological progression by civilisations in-game i.e. not all players/civs advance at the same speed.

Here's my suggested list of Eras/Ages, taking a bit of inspiration from Static Soviet and Sir John Glubb's Phases of Empire (from his book The Fate of Empires ):

1. Era of Foundation/New Beginnings
2. Era of Chiefdoms
3. Era of City States
4. Era of Ancient Kingdoms
5. Era of Exploration
6. Era of Empire/Conquest, Colonization, Commerce, Culture, Alliances, and Affluence
7. Era of Nation States
8. Era of Discovery
9. Era of Enlightenment
10. Era of Renaissance
11. Era of New Imperialism
12. Era of Revolution and Liberty
13. Era of Industry
14. Era of Technology
15. Era of Corporations
16. Era of Individual
17. Era of Space
18. Era of Resurrection
19. Era of Expansion
20. Era of Neo-Imperialism

Anyone is welcome to discuss, suggest additions/subtractions, suitable titles to the eras. Here's a brief description for each era:

1. Era of Foundation - Founding your first city, first resources, first research, first units, first of everything. The civilisation is focussed on securing its foothold.
2. Era of Chiefdoms - All civilisations start as a chiefdom, and as the chief you decide your first civics, culture, policies, strategy, and identity.
3. Era of City States - First interaction with other city states, other civilisations, as well as founding new cities.
4. Era of Ancient Kingdoms - Your civilisation possible has a couple cities, you have met neighbouring civilisations and city states, and you want to focus on trade, relationships, building wonders, and protecting your surroundings.
5. Era of Exploration - You are already an established Kingdom by now, your existing territory doesn't have any more space to settle new cities, and want to see what lies beyond your borders.
6. Era of Empire - You will settle in new areas through Conquest, Colonisation, establish alliances of trade or culture, and grow in wealth, intelligence, and power. This era will also witness wide spread warfare and possible decline.
7. Era of Nation States - Some of your Vassals, cities or colonies will break free, and you won't have the resources to subjugate them. Former powers will contest to influence new Nation States to their block.
8. Era of Discovery - Civilisations will discover new continents, new ways of thinking, new ways of government, new culture, cultural harmony etc.
9. Era of Enlightenment - Building districts will become the norm, older ways of harvesting resources will be replaced by newer methods and processes, compete with other civilisations in projects.
10. Era of Renaissance - Building newer wonders, establishing identity, establishing industries, guilds, secret societies, and choosing/modifying civilisation perks etc.
11. Era of New Imperialism - See #6.
12. Era of Revolution & Liberty - See #7
13. Era of Industry - Creating abundance and new resources from existing resources.
14. Era of Technology - See #9. Mostly upgrading districts and placement bonuses.
15. Era of Corporations - Establishing Corporations, Investors, Tycoons, Global Trade, Cross Border migration
16. Era of Individual - Great people, Demographics, Poilitics etc. Cultivation of your society.
17. Era of Space - Launching space projects (Mercury, Venues, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, Ort Cloud etc), under water projects, under ground projects, cyberspace etc.
18. Era of Resurrection - Combating and/or Curing World Hazards, climate change, global riots, zombies, plagues, etc.
19. Era of Expansion - Moon Colony, Space Station, Mars Colony, Jupiter's Moons
20. Era of Neo-Imperialism - Earth Federation/Earth Empire/Earth Republic/United Nations, Interplanetary Civilisations etc.

awesome Q4, very thorough!

The 20 era solution seems fine for the tech tree but not the civics tree. There are 205 techs and 106 civics, so there would be an average of 10.25 techs/era and 5.3 civics/era. Plus, many of the techs and civics have been carefully organized to be in their current spots. I suppose you would have to completely reorganize them anyway if you create any new eras, but you would have to arrange them so that they historically and accurately belong in their respective eras.

eclipse. I agree with you there. I don't know if it will be reasonable to split each era into two.
The ancient era was pretty much designed to be split.. I had always intended to start with a neolithic era. I may do: Ancient->Bronze Age->Iron Age. so three instead of two. Renaissance and Medeival might also be a situation where i turn two into three. Next up I think the modern era also needs to be split in two. But it does get trickier since after i redesigned the ancient era i had pretty much given up on splitting each era, so the rest weren't necessarily designed to be split

This is not about eras but about continuity for tech tree and I apologize for posting here.
It's related to the bank as it's set on "Tabulating machine" tech, while "Economics" has the stock exchange. "Pendulum" is also developed before Industrial Era so it doesn't work well.

hey dirle, the bank appears at banking civics in the medieval era. I will try to delete it from Tabulating Machine. I will take a look at Pendulum too.

Then it's all good if bank building will come from civics only and I've only mentioned Pendulum because of how it was tied with Tabulating Machine, otherwise, to me, it's fine where it is. Thanks.

dirle,
Fixed Bank! Only at Banking Civics now (version 6.9.9d)

The era progress points also need to be changed. In the game I'm playing now the eras are very long, but the number of points necessary to get to the golden age seems too small, so every nation in my game entered golden age in classical era, which is weird. Maybe if the eras will be broken into smaller ones, that will become more balanced. In general, I like the idea of breaking long eras into small ones, so they would be like 30-60 turns each, but not less.