The tech map needs an overhaul, when I started RoI the first time and looked at it I was laughing. It looked like copypasta from the pre-RoI map, as if they didn't even touch any of the new provinces and just filled in the zero advance level. Probably it would have needed more research and their time schedule was tight?
The game is historically inspired, with realm and dynasty names and such taken from reports in the past, and with mechanics slightly geared to let things happen that could have been possible. I think that historicity or historical correctness in the game should not be emphasized so much, history as we know is relative from the point of view and dependent of the point of view of the chronists. The game should feature mechanics that are a sound balance between what we know from historic records and good gameplay. Thinking of this "historical correctness" it would be appropriate to give India not the lowest tech levels, the gameplay reasons for this would be giving the for the most part pacifistic Indian realms a higher rate of survival.
Apart from all this, the (let's just call it this) dumb AI makes every pseudo-historical framework void. x)
