About research:
1) Current system is very stupid. You can have 2 to 10 points in particular research category and still not get practically anything faster. This should be fixed so that, lets say, you would in practice get 1x reseach speed with 1 point, 2x research speed with 4 points and 3x research speed with 8 points. The truth is, that for example the tank development was on its way during the early stages of the war, but because commanders didnt believe it was going to be effective weapon, it was not adopted before. In the game, you really cannot gain any research superiority to the other, because research is so slow.
2) You could add more research to all spesific areas, such as to develop even more deadly tanks, more deadly antisubmarine warfare, more deadly gas, etc. The latest models of the tanks for example where way superior to early versions, but this doesnt really show in the game as much as it should (especially if you make faster research possible).
3) You could also enhance the research by taking account of what others have developed. Espionage etc. works you know. So you could concider like adding +20% to research in any particular category or spesified research, if any other country already have developed it. If, for instance, British have good tanks, Germany will figure it out and develop their own much faster because they can learn from those tanks or espionage from the British.
4) Starting up levels are not really up to the real levels. Germany and British had very good equipment on its troops, both infantry and artillery and gas etc. Make it count.
About production:
1) The industrial production and manpower are way too concentrated on the capitals in the game. You can take out most of the country but still the production doesnt rise or fall. This is stupid. Spread manpower and production more to other cities, please. Even if the you occupy an area, you cannot ofcourse get all the production and manpower to work for you...but you should be able to knock it out from your enemy.
2) Oil. There is no oil. However, as it was important in WW2, it still is in WW1 aswell. I dont know how you could add or concider this in the game, but lets face it: If Germany builds lots of tanks and aircrafts and ships, she would run out of oil. You could compensate this in the game by simply using the upkeep and production points (but then you have to spread the PP:s better, see above), I agree.
3) Russias production sucks in the game. It should have more production points. BUT, its effiency might be worse atleast in the beginning of the war. Why not give it more production and set its "war production" to like 50% in the beginning and then raising steadily during few years?
4) Russian manpower doesnt suck in the game. It should. Really, you cannot even compare the average Russian soldier to, lets say, French soldier. Most of the russians where ill fed, short and skinny and had basicaly no education whatever. You could add more manpower to Russia, but drop its quality to lets say 80%. This would be easy and realistic fix.
About Finland (sorry, Im a Finn so this bugs me a lot):
1) Vaasa is not where it is on the map, it should be two hexs up, in the coast. This looks very stupid, please, please fix it.
2) Railroad goes from Petrograd to Helsinki and to Turku! And it has the same width as the Russian rail lines have. Notice, that actually the railroads between Germany and Russia use different width, so actually, you cannot simply run a train or supply from Germany to Riga etc. You would have to rebuild the railroadlines to able to use German trains etc.
3) Finland went independent in december 6, 1917. Finland should therefore be "excluded" from the war and from Russia at that time or atleast at the very early 1918 (civil war in Finland was from january 27th 1918, to may 15th 1918).
4) After the civil war Finland had close ties with Germany and was practically her ally in the war, German troops in Helsinkin in the spring 1918 etc. It would not be a bad idea to either set Finland as independed at that time or as German ally. Ofcourse you could argue that it is best left as it is, but anyway Finland should be out of the war atleast in the summer 1918.
5) When Finland is out of the Russia, the Gulf of Finland should be open for hostile ships, meaning that Germany could have access to Petrograd by sea. Historically speaking the sea fortressess placed in both sides of the Gulf of Finland (Tallinna and Helsinki pretty much) where occupied by russian troops until the beginning of 1918, but they did not participate in war in any way.
What do you think?
edit: Added the info about railroad.