Bolivar Update

[Saxo Grammaticus]

A new update is on the horizon, one that will surely liberate us from the benighted oppression of the Old World Could this herald the arrival of a revolutionary persona in the manner of Manuela Sáenz? Only time will tell, as there is presently no release date.

In the meantime, Catoninetales posted "War Support and Surrender in the Bolivar Update" over on G2G, the text of which I present below:

In the upcoming Bolivar update, we are improving the Surrender system. We know this system has split the community since release. Some were happy there were limits to how much you could take in a single war, but many were frustrated by the sudden and sometimes unexpected end to their conflicts. So, in the next update, we are adding some flexibility to the system while keeping its core.

Voluntary Forced Surrender

With the Bolivar Update, you will not be forced to demand surrender when your enemy reaches 0 War Support anymore, though you can still impose your demands on them when you want to. This will give you time to achieve any objectives you had set out to do. Finally, you can crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and all that.

Don’t take too long, though, as your people might disagree about what is best in life and won’t like dragging out a war that has already been one, placing a steadily growing stability penalty on your cities. And make sure your own War Support does not drop too far, or you may no longer be able to demand what you want!

Victories Made in Epirus: War Support Changes

Speaking of War Support, how do you get your enemies to surrender? Just like before, battles and occupied cities will cause the biggest changes, but some of the details have changed:

• The War Support change after a battle is now based on the losses on each side. A costly victory might gain you very little... or worse!
• Ransacking enemy districts will now cost the enemy War Support
• Territories under your control but under the enemy’s cultural influence will drain some of your War Support each turn

We hope you’re looking forward to these changes to the War Support and Surrender systems, and the new flow of warfare they create. They are not the only improvement we are working on, though, so stay tuned for more news about what’s coming in the Bolivar update.

Work-in-progress images available in the original post. The pyrrhic changes certainly strike me as heading in the right direction.

Ay, suppose there is nothing left to say except my final wish is for the happiness of the forum!

 

[Siptah]

I really like the changes overall. The negative war score from captured territories that aren’t your culture is a nice way of making influence more important. However, I wish under your religion would also count for stopping the war score loss. Any way it‘s a much more elegant way to make you plan your wars and fight swiftly compared to the forced ending when the enemy reaches zero war support.

 

[Saxo Grammaticus]

I am curious how it will impact the pace of war. So far, war has had an awkward tempo in my games, where it is often the case that I can quickly clear the field of hostile forces well before I can siege all hostile cities. As such, I have to "save" battles to prop up War Support if I want to take territory. Swapping out the forced surrender for ticking attrition will probably help with that. Ransacking will also provide another avenue to attack the adversary's War Support, but I can see the rationale for why ransacking would inspire resistance.

I like the idea of adding religion to influence's new role in War Support. Humankind has rather beautiful influence/religion mechanics. For example, I am not aware of a comparable game where war can break up cultural and religious hegemony. Even though the core can be further developed, it is great to see influence given more of a role in war.

 

[Das Capitolin]

It might be time to revisit Humankind. I played for a few months after initial release, but I felt no connection to any of the leaders because of the mix-and-match approach.

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

It might be time to revisit Humankind. I played for a few months after initial release, but I felt no connection to any of the leaders because of the mix-and-match approach.

I expected that, initially. But I found that importing avatars from people I know from the forums (here and g2g) gives the otherwise random personalities a kind of familiarity. I frequently get my butt kicked by the avatars of very nice and friendly folks.

 

[Saxo Grammaticus]

QUALITY OF LIFE IMPROVEMENTS (PART1)

After taking a look at the changes to Surrender and War Support last week, we want to focus on some quality of life improvements this week, ranging from AI and tooltips to eye candy and wonders. With such a grab bag of improvements, we’re sure there’s something for most players here!


Urban Planning Made Easy

Developing your cities is a core part of playing Humankind. But while expanding your cities with new districts would give you immediate feedback and even suggest good spots, the benefits of improving your cities with Infrastructures were less obvious. Many times, you’d act on a gut feeling about how many relevant tiles like forests or rivers the city already had. No more guessing, though: With the Bolivar update, the game will do the counting and math for you and display a preview of the yields a new infrastructure will give you. You can also check what an existing infrastructure is giving you at the moment.

Spoiler :

(Un)Stable Beyond Measure

Speaking of city management, keeping an eye on your stability is important if you want to expand your cities instead of constantly fighting rebels. Yet when your cities were doing particularly well or badly, it could be difficult to judge how much room you had for further expansion, or how much effort it would take to fix the situation. In the Bolivar update, you can tell at a glance, as we have added a dedicated space for stability outside the 0-100 range to the tooltip.

Spoiler :

Clean Pollution

There’s no denying that before launch, we severely underestimated the industrial powerhouses our players would create in the late game, so the pollution system was more restrictive for these players than intended. While we have already tweaked the balance to stop the game from ending too soon, some players still have problems with the local and global penalties for pollution. With the next update, you will be able to disable the penalties for pollution, so that you can build your cities without worrying about pollution limits.


A Modern Coat of Paint

Don’t you just hate it when your seat of power is literally the oldest building in your empire, while the far-flung cities have fancy, modern main plazas? Well, good news! You can now get your architects and engineers to renovate your Administrative Centers to a more modern appearance. Since some players may want to preserve the heritage of their earlier cultures at least in part, this action will be done manually from the city screen, allowing you to choose which administrative center to renovate.

Spoiler :

The Modding: Reloaded

Even with the modding tools still in beta, we have already seen some great mods from our community. Unfortunately, with mod support not fully integrated yet, using more than one mod at a time used to be a little inconvenient. Luckily, after the next update, the game will reload the mod configuration of your latest save automatically when you relaunch the game.


We hope you found something exciting in this varied mix of improvements. There’s even more to look forward to, so come back next week for Part 2 of our look at the Quality of Life improvements in the Bolivar Update!

https://www.games2gether.com/amplit.../blogs/815-quality-of-life-improvements-part1

 

[FinalDoomsday]

Renovate city centres option is lovely and exactly what I wanted. I wonder if the AI will ever do it but either way its nice I can personalise my empire a bit more and get to see those later city centres more!

 

[Jkchart]

I expected that, initially. But I found that importing avatars from people I know from the forums (here and g2g) gives the otherwise random personalities a kind of familiarity. I frequently get my butt kicked by the avatars of very nice and friendly folks.

I still haven't forgiven Antsou for some things

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

https://www.games2gether.com/amplit...blogs/816-quality-of-life-improvements-part-2

Here's part 2

love the tooltips for civics and unique natural wonder bonuses

 

[Jkchart]

https://www.games2gether.com/amplit...blogs/816-quality-of-life-improvements-part-2

Here's part 2

love the tooltips for civics and unique natural wonder bonuses

Big fan of all these QOL changes, I'm happy about the war related changes too but QOL just makes everything so smooth

 

[Siptah]

Just in case anyone missed it, the Bolivar update is currently available as public beta on Steam.

 

[The_J]

I did miss this.
This is NOT the final roll-out then, yes?
(because that might need a new thread and a post on the main page)

 

[Siptah]

No, official roll-out is in a few weeks afaik.

 

[mitsho]

Its out noe, and I didnt expect the culture pack that came with it? Am I getting old and out of touch with the news?

 

[Siptah]

No, it was meant to be a surprise.

 

[MrRadar]

I’ve played one game - started it under Bolivar Beta, ended already as full release Bolivar, and AI does look like much improved. Much more active first stage of the game, I got declared on by 3 AIs out of 6 present.

The new war score system is much better, I had to be quite in a hurry at one point to compensate the bleeding warscore and avoid losing a war against technologically advanced AI, on Empire.

However the second half of the game became mostly clicking next turn again, as I allied all remaining 5 AIs eventually and left them to war among themselves.

I also do really wish there was a ‘Buy all’ button in the trade tab, as rebuying the resources becomes rather tedious as the trade routes get routinely destroyed during AI wars.
And also it would be nice to have a way to shut up just the narrator and his messages, I can barely stand the guy now. What with the new city starving verbal messages spam?

 

[troubleshooting]

Turning the city starving messages option off, where they don’t pop up, will shut him up

Also, and I understand why they didn’t, but I would’ve liked changeover voice lines for all the DLC civs

 

[HiRezAudio]

Not as yet completed a full game with the new update & DLC, but getting there.
The improvements are very welcome - everything just feels better, snappier & more responsive now too.
If this is how things are going to go in the future then we are in safe hands here.

One thing I would still like to see in War resolution is 'Unconditional Surrender' though, and (this may already be there - I cannot remember) enforced Vassalage of the defeated civ.