Boris Gudenuf
Deity
If pressed, I would say that they are on track for their projected August release. Assuming there isn't some Major Problem lurking in the last two Eras, which we haven't seen in any Open Dev as far as I know, the problems left to solve appear to be:
1. Balance among their selected 'Currencies" of Food, Influence, Production, Science and Money. Right now, Money appears to be the 'go to' game winner: you can buy almost anything instantly, making new city development incredibly fast. On the other hand, Influence appears to be merely an early game limiting factor to keep you from spamming new cities and outposts, and Food likewise only an early game limitation that virtually disappears by the time you leave the Medieval Era. Those are all fundamental in-game balance issues that should be addressed before Launch. On the other hand, this being a "4X Historical" game, I should point out that in fact IRL Food became much less of an issue in development and growth by the Industrial Era: artificial fertilizers, advances in plant genetics, mechanized land preparation (harvesters, plows, etc) meant that the age-old equation of 80 - 90% of the population working to provide food for the rest became 10-20% providing food for everybody plus exports. It's just that at the moment, the 'explosion' of food production appears to be a little too early and must be replaced by some other In-Game Problem to keep the gamer on his toes.
Science still seems to be too slow. They appear to have reduced the Science cost for technologies, but I haven't had time to look at that in detail and in any case, based on a few games reported so far, it does not appear to have solved the problem: in the Lucy Open Dev, I was usually between half and a full Era behind in Tech by the time I got to the Early Modern Era, so was fighting "Renaissance" Battles with Classical Era units - as were my AI opponents. This is really frustrating when you realize that you will be in and out of an Era before you ever get a chance to built the Emblematic Unit for the Faction you chose for that Era.
2. The 'Other Currencies" - Religion, Stability. I love the fact that Religion is something that happens to you rather than something you can pick and choose from like some Godly Salad Bar. On the other hand, compared to Civ, Religion appears to me to be a little Opaque: what can I do to influence Religious fervor or acceptance in my Faction? Haven't a clue. The other potential problem is that some of the 'tenets' you can choose for religion (at least the early ones - haven't played anywhere near far enough to see the later ones yet) seem pretty OP: being able to get Science or Influence per Population is potentially Game Changing, when you are looking at 100s of population points (which also appear to include Units now) by the Early Modern Era in any competitive Faction.
Stability is, again, an Early Game limitation, but since Commons Quarters and Fortifications (separate Forts) add Stability, like Influence it loses 'influence' as the game goes on. Maybe there is some mechanic to make both Stability and Influence hugely important in the late game, using them to avoid massive unrest, revolt, civil war from Nationalism, Socialism, or some other Industrial Era '-ism' and make them important again.
3. I am a little worried about the interaction among Units, Resources, and Terrain. I love the mechanic where to represent the greater 'cost' in resources from more advanced units the game simply requires 2 or more of a Resource to build them - much cleaner system than Civ VI's laborious accumulation of stockpiles. On the other hand, the map still seems to supply only 1 resource per region, which means to get later units (like the Knight that requires 2 Iron AND 2 Horses) you need to have and to exploit multiple regions. And requiring 2 or more resources early on means those units will be VERY hard to build. Case in point, the Chariot, which requires 1 Horse and 2 Copper. That means you have to have exactly the right combination of 3 regions that have 3 resources of the right kind, and exploit them all, AND have the Technologies (Bronze-Working and Wheel) to build them. To be honest, in the entire Lucy Open Dev games I played, I think I saw chariots in use by the AI (or me!) about 3 times in 10+ games.
That also means that Wide versus Tall is not a debate in Humankind - if you don't at least go Wide enough to get the right resources, the debate is Wide versus Dead. I haven't (obviously) seen the entire Tech Tree and unit list, but I hope there are, like in Civ VI, some half-decent units later on that don't require resources, or require few enough that they can be built by smaller Factions Otherwise, the game locks you into a Expand Or Die style of play that, frankly, could get boring really quickly.
1. Balance among their selected 'Currencies" of Food, Influence, Production, Science and Money. Right now, Money appears to be the 'go to' game winner: you can buy almost anything instantly, making new city development incredibly fast. On the other hand, Influence appears to be merely an early game limiting factor to keep you from spamming new cities and outposts, and Food likewise only an early game limitation that virtually disappears by the time you leave the Medieval Era. Those are all fundamental in-game balance issues that should be addressed before Launch. On the other hand, this being a "4X Historical" game, I should point out that in fact IRL Food became much less of an issue in development and growth by the Industrial Era: artificial fertilizers, advances in plant genetics, mechanized land preparation (harvesters, plows, etc) meant that the age-old equation of 80 - 90% of the population working to provide food for the rest became 10-20% providing food for everybody plus exports. It's just that at the moment, the 'explosion' of food production appears to be a little too early and must be replaced by some other In-Game Problem to keep the gamer on his toes.
Science still seems to be too slow. They appear to have reduced the Science cost for technologies, but I haven't had time to look at that in detail and in any case, based on a few games reported so far, it does not appear to have solved the problem: in the Lucy Open Dev, I was usually between half and a full Era behind in Tech by the time I got to the Early Modern Era, so was fighting "Renaissance" Battles with Classical Era units - as were my AI opponents. This is really frustrating when you realize that you will be in and out of an Era before you ever get a chance to built the Emblematic Unit for the Faction you chose for that Era.
2. The 'Other Currencies" - Religion, Stability. I love the fact that Religion is something that happens to you rather than something you can pick and choose from like some Godly Salad Bar. On the other hand, compared to Civ, Religion appears to me to be a little Opaque: what can I do to influence Religious fervor or acceptance in my Faction? Haven't a clue. The other potential problem is that some of the 'tenets' you can choose for religion (at least the early ones - haven't played anywhere near far enough to see the later ones yet) seem pretty OP: being able to get Science or Influence per Population is potentially Game Changing, when you are looking at 100s of population points (which also appear to include Units now) by the Early Modern Era in any competitive Faction.
Stability is, again, an Early Game limitation, but since Commons Quarters and Fortifications (separate Forts) add Stability, like Influence it loses 'influence' as the game goes on. Maybe there is some mechanic to make both Stability and Influence hugely important in the late game, using them to avoid massive unrest, revolt, civil war from Nationalism, Socialism, or some other Industrial Era '-ism' and make them important again.
3. I am a little worried about the interaction among Units, Resources, and Terrain. I love the mechanic where to represent the greater 'cost' in resources from more advanced units the game simply requires 2 or more of a Resource to build them - much cleaner system than Civ VI's laborious accumulation of stockpiles. On the other hand, the map still seems to supply only 1 resource per region, which means to get later units (like the Knight that requires 2 Iron AND 2 Horses) you need to have and to exploit multiple regions. And requiring 2 or more resources early on means those units will be VERY hard to build. Case in point, the Chariot, which requires 1 Horse and 2 Copper. That means you have to have exactly the right combination of 3 regions that have 3 resources of the right kind, and exploit them all, AND have the Technologies (Bronze-Working and Wheel) to build them. To be honest, in the entire Lucy Open Dev games I played, I think I saw chariots in use by the AI (or me!) about 3 times in 10+ games.
That also means that Wide versus Tall is not a debate in Humankind - if you don't at least go Wide enough to get the right resources, the debate is Wide versus Dead. I haven't (obviously) seen the entire Tech Tree and unit list, but I hope there are, like in Civ VI, some half-decent units later on that don't require resources, or require few enough that they can be built by smaller Factions Otherwise, the game locks you into a Expand Or Die style of play that, frankly, could get boring really quickly.
