I dislike volcano too, and as Nelphine said, not for balance reasons. One of the best feelings you get in this game is finding or having a city right in the middle of those delicious resources. Volcano just stomps on that feeling in a "No fun allowed" way.
No clue what to do about it, really. But if evidently everyone hates this spell, the blame doesn't really lie with us, especially when it's not a balance argument. It's the spell that's clearly no fun and needs to adjust.
I would be more okay with a much rarer, more expensive, more powerful volcano, but I'm not sure Chaos needs or wants something like that in the later game.
And to OP:
I've played many games on advanced until I knew what I was doing, and only recently started playing on expert. I don't think it's very realistic to start out on expert and expect good and fun games. I do agree that some level of cheese becomes necessary on the higher difficulties, which is a bit unfortunate.
No clue what to do about it, really. But if evidently everyone hates this spell, the blame doesn't really lie with us, especially when it's not a balance argument. It's the spell that's clearly no fun and needs to adjust.
I would be more okay with a much rarer, more expensive, more powerful volcano, but I'm not sure Chaos needs or wants something like that in the later game.
And to OP:
I've played many games on advanced until I knew what I was doing, and only recently started playing on expert. I don't think it's very realistic to start out on expert and expect good and fun games. I do agree that some level of cheese becomes necessary on the higher difficulties, which is a bit unfortunate.