Should I get this game on release day?

[KayAU]

It's probably Town difficulty if you chose the middle tutorial option, which is the one for people who have played 4x games but not Humankind (there were three options if you recall). The first playthrough is a "quick start" game with preset options it seems.

Metropolis will probably not feel like a sufficient increase in difficulty, as I've already done so.

I'm currently struggling at Empire difficulty. Pretty enjoyable so far.

Right you are. For my second game, I went up to Metropolis, and I also increased game length. It might be too easy still, but I'll give it a try before going up another level.

 

[AntSou]

Let us know how the slower pace feels. Normal seems good so far, thought maybe just a notch too quick for me.

 

[Victoria]

how do you feel that the aesthete stars are balanced?

Aesthete takes a bit of work to get, its more about cities than zones and also making the most of independants and trade routes. It is quite a different game I think. The AI just does not like declaring a war on you
It is also worth going over the city cap by 1

 

[AntSou]

It is also worth going over the city cap by 1

You mean it's not worth it under normal conditions?

I'm constantly over the city cap

 

[KayAU]

Let us know how the slower pace feels. Normal seems good so far, thought maybe just a notch too quick for me.

Sure will. My preliminary impression is that the "Slow" setting seems to suit me well. I did a few restarts this time, so I got a good feel for the Neolithic era. It is a tad slow on "Slow". Classical felt just right, though. I am curious about the later eras, but Normal was definitely way too fast for me in my first game, as I was finishing techs just about every turn.

For comparison, I prefer Marathon in Civ 5 and Epic in Civ 6, but the problem with those is that even when you've completely eclipsed your competitors, it takes forever to finish a game.

Other observations so far:

• Harappans seem like a really solid choice for first culture. Getting those high mobility scouts and quick early population growth is really helpful in the early game.
• Harappans also seem to work very well with Shamanism
• Stonehenge seems like a really good early wonder

I could of course be wrong about all of these, as I'm nowhere near being a competent player yet.

 

[KayAU]

I just finished my second game, Metropolis difficulty and Slow speed. My observations:

• Slow speed is going to be my preference. It felt right for every era, with the exception of the Neolithic, which seemed to last just a little too long.
• The last couple of eras still went by rather quickly, but I think I like it this way. Once I've snowballed past everyone, there's really no point in dragging the game out.
• This time, I colonized a new continent, which was fun. I intend to do it earlier next time, by going Norse.
• Even though I went quite wide, I still had things I couldn't build due to resource requirements. I suppose it is intentional game design, but it seems odd that things like iron and horses should be so sparse.
• After playing a game where I was operating on more than one continent, I agree with everyone asking for a minimap
• Natural wonders in this game are rather lovely to look at, but their effects don't excite me the way they would in Civ
• The tactical combat system is good, certainly far better than EL, but there's potential for improvement. I find that the battle arenas tend to feel very cramped and oddly restricted by things like cliff faces. I am probably in the minority, but I would a have preferred battles taking place on a separate battle map.

Overall, I am enjoying Humankind as it is, but I also feel that there is a lot of potential for improvement. I don't think it will eclipse the Civ series for me, at least not unless it has a couple of expansions which really lift the experience. It does however do a lot of things very differently and has a very different feel to it. To me it seems like a bit of a hybrid between a civ game and a grand strategy game, and that is not a bad thing at all. As someone who couldn't really get into Endless Legend, but was cautiously optimistic about Humankind, I am happy to say that my expectations are met. I can easily see myself playing this for a few hundred hours, more if it gets good expansions or other additional content. I am excited to see where Amplitude is going to take this.

 

[Taefin]

Could you tell if unit production cost was scaled up on Slow? If so that could make early AI invasion very scary. As it is I rely on getting the last imperative techs just in the knick of time after the war breaks out, and then pumping out 1 unit per turn in my cities to bolster my defense. But once you break through the first wave it would then make polishing off your opponent much easier. Sounds like it might salvage the late game having enough turns to move units before they become completely obsolete. Might further tip the balance to favor money over production. But I am intrigued!

 

[KayAU]

Could you tell if unit production cost was scaled up on Slow? If so that could make early AI invasion very scary. As it is I rely on getting the last imperative techs just in the knick of time after the war breaks out, and then pumping out 1 unit per turn in my cities to bolster my defense. But once you break through the first wave it would then make polishing off your opponent much easier. Sounds like it might salvage the late game having enough turns to move units before they become completely obsolete. Might further tip the balance to favor money over production. But I am intrigued!

If it was scaled up, I certainly didn't notice, as I could generally build any unit in a turn or two. I tend to focus greatly on production. I don't know if that is the correct meta for this game, but it is a habit I have developed over many years of civ and other 4X games.

Is gold really that good in Humankind? I haven't tried focusing on it, but rushing things with gold seems really expensive. I have seen instances where I could save a turn or two of production at the price of 30 turns of gold income.

 

[7daysofwar]

Is gold really that good in Humankind? I haven't tried focusing on it, but rushing things with gold seems really expensive. I have seen instances where I could save a turn or two of production at the price of 30 turns of gold income.

I don't think gold is that good though. In the early betas though you could buy a lot because the prices of buildings weren't that high so you could buy for example 5 districts in one turn, they definately nerfed that. I think gold is decent, like I could buy quite some stuff with gold when I play aksemites because they gave me lots of cold but nothing too overpowered.

 

[KayAU]

Moving on to my third game, I went a somewhat different route. I increased difficulty to Nation, which still seems pretty easy, but perhaps that's in part because I'm getting better at the game. I'm definitely getting better at both reading the map and planning my cities, albeit with nowhere near the precision I have in Civilization.

I had reduced player density a little bit for this one (5 players on a large map), and ended up getting a large island all to myself. This time around, I went with Egypt, then Persians, then Norse (which is where I'm still at). So, it's pretty close to how real world history played out. It was quite different not getting that massive population growth in the beginning, and I have also been struggling to get enough influence to fuel my expansion. The numerous territories I needed to claim gave rise to a couple of independent cities, but I quickly took control of those, as I wanted the whole island. Now I'm looking to find the new world as early as possible.

The more I play the game, the more I seem to enjoy it. I feel like Humankind may be one of those games which is more than the sum of its parts. I am also surprised at how effective the culture morphing is at driving replayability. I know that it is how they advertised it, but somehow I didn't expect it to work quite as well. As I'm playing, I find myself torn between this or that choice, and I then want to replay the game to try out those choices. For instance, I was really unsure if I should go Persians or Celts this game, and the lack of early influence makes me want to try out the Olmecs next time. However, I am also intrigued by the Phoenicians, as it is an opportunity to go early naval. And how would it be to go full naval? There seems to be a lot of unique Harbours.

Anyway, Steam says my total playtime in Humankind has already surpassed that of Endless Legend. To be fair, a lot of that is me having the game paused in the background, but it still says something about my engagement that I want to keep it running so I can quickly sneak in and do a couple of turns now and then. And I feel like I have only started getting into it.

 

[Taefin]

Norse is surprisingly fun! The naval movement is wild, especially if you relieve the AI of a Lighthouse wonder. Really helps settle some of the islands and get a footing near the AI continents.

Regarding money, I think it it usually plays as you describe, giving the opportunity to rush something through now and again. But if you really focus on gold (my most successful game was Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Ghanaians, Dutch) you get 2-3k gold/turn around medieval and 4-5k at Early Modern, which is enough to buy out a district or two each turn. With 5-6 cities this is about as as I usually am with production at this point. Carthage also helps ensure you still have decent production so it goes maybe 40-60 production/gold. This involved buying all the luxuries and having 50+ naval trade routes in main port city so that market quarters are 30+ gold each.

It’s certainly cool to see it come together and it slingshot me past the AI pretty fast. But I didn’t have the interest to take that game further since the AI, most of whom were allies, were really far behind on army size/tech. I enjoy playing with production much more.

 

[KayAU]

@Taefin Yeah, really liking the Norse, but not surprised by it. They were a lot of fun in Civ 6 too. I was particularly drawn to the unique district, which looks beautiful and gets me a ton of food. The name is slightly funny to me as a Norwegian, but I like it. "Naust" just means boathouse, and the image it conjures up is not of a grand city district, but of a small, weathered building for holding a single boat.

For the next era, I was torn between Ming and Dutch, but settled on the Dutch. I think it will serve me well as I chose the civic which lets me claim and attach territories using gold instead of influence, and I think their unique district might synergize with my Nausts.

 

[KayAU]

I finished my game last night. After the Dutch I went with the Siamese, and then the Swedish. Again, pretty close to real world history there. It was a pretty fun game, but I was surprised by how easily and overwhelmingly I won. This was Nation difficulty, I guess I will have to keep stepping it up, and try Empire next.

In my last game, I wanted to do the Mars colony thing. I had gone super wide, and for a change, I had enough aluminium. Unfortunately, I didn't have the oil. In my vast empire, spanning two continents, I had no oil at all. I was able to trade for one, and I went to war for the other, but the third was nowhere to be found. This was on a large map. I really think they need to do something about the resource balance in the game.

 

[Siptah]

In my last game, I wanted to do the Mars colony thing. I had gone super wide, and for a change, I had enough aluminium. Unfortunately, I didn't have the oil. In my vast empire, spanning two continents, I had no oil at all. I was able to trade for one, and I went to war for the other, but the third was nowhere to be found. This was on a large map. I really think they need to do something about the resource balance in the game.

That's fixed in the next patch. You can already opt-in in the beta for this patch, in case you play via steam.

 

[KayAU]

I've started my fourth game. Still on Slow speed, but difficulty is now Empire. I think I'm starting to notice the difference, as the AI is getting many more points than before. Again, I'm by myself on an island/continent, albeit a much smaller one. I have three copper there though, which is unusual.

My intention this time was to start with the Olmecs, but since I had so much coast, I went with the Phoenicians instead. I had an idea that I would try to quickly gain control of the continent, but it seems to be impossible to do this before a bunch of free cities pop up. Before creating my second city, I have had three free cities spawn right next each other and close to my capital. Is this a common thing? I do find it a bit annoying, especially since the option to merge cities is a long way into the tech tree.

 

[Taefin]

Ahh you mean “free” cities! AFAIK they are created through an interruptible mechanism. Independent people units appear on the map, they form outposts and at some point those outposts become cities. So if you fight roaming IP units and ransack their outposts, the cities won’t form (except for the ones you allow so you can capture them).

I wish you many EQ harbors in your present games!

 

[Elhoim]

I do find it a bit annoying, especially since the option to merge cities is a long way into the tech tree.

Raze the city center, place an outpost, and merge to your cities.

 

[Taefin]

Raze the city center, place an outpost, and merge to your cities.

Wait, can you do that?

 

[MrRadar]

Wait, can you do that?

Yes, and it’s glorious. Ransack the Main Plaza, put an outpost there next turn, it is created immediately, no need to wait for construction, and you get to keep all the other districts and resource improvements already built in that territory. Saves the city slots
Also, this kind of express assimilation helps to score those military stars

 

[Taefin]

Oh wow, and when you get colony model etc, (and want another city) guaranteed to have more infrastructure than before, starts with 100 stability, and able to build districts from the get go. I guess you lose the pops, so can save war score for highly populated cities and ones captured at the end of war (before you’d have time to ransack). Also, wonder if it lowers the war score cost to make a vassal, since their empire becomes smaller.