I've released a first version of the mod for SP games/testing.
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=43679
There are a few differences in research strength between the mod and the table here, the values in the mod are the correct ones, except for some nations that might get a penalized a bit (Marverni, Arco, Ctis, Ermor).
For the early expansion remember - you have spells. This helps to expand quickly despite the settings. For example Kailasa. Get a bless, research alt 3 first turn, alchemize an earth gem to buy a Yaksha and own.
@Squirrelloid
kianduatha is correct. The main goal is to avoid the growth of micro, which is intolerable imo.
1) Increasing gold goes against that.
2 and the labs suggestion) Well, I had some ideas to limit recruitment centers but cap-only is to much as it will practically remove 100s of mages from the game. It will probably mean that recruitment centers can only be built in certain provinces. Not yet there, though.
I doubt thought that all in all it will increase the mage to troop ratio.
In vanilla sure, but there a mage is also a researcher, although if it does I'm not going to fix that with this first part of the full mod.