

I needed around 65 points to get industrial golden age! Obviously I couldn't get it. Mainly because every city increases the amount of era score required for next golden age, and the increase value is +3 in dramatic ages (+1 in base game). If you go 10+ cities, it becomes impossible to get golden ages consistently. When other players get dark ages, it's a nice opportunity to grab a city or two without diplomatic penalties Normal age has always been the age of nothing for me, so I don't really miss it. Personally that's what I always expected from a dark age, so I'm on board with this.

Dark ages on deity are very painful, you really want to avoid them altogether. I played Gaul with this mode enabled yesterday.
