Humankind Eras Video

[Krajzen]

I am really in love with the idea that "history just happens, there are no victory conditions". I think a lot of issues with Civ may be a result of its board game WIN AT ALL COST! approach.
As somebody have noticed, Humankind's fame system may encourage crazy risky moves just to get fame and become spectacular empire for a while. For comparision, civ's victory conditions require you to play in the linear, optimal, safest way possible...

 

[Elhoim]

I am really in love with the idea that "history just happens, there are no victory conditions". I think a lot of issues with Civ may be a result of its board game WIN AT ALL COST! approach.
As somebody have noticed, Humankind's fame system may encourage crazy risky moves just to get fame and become spectacular empire for a while. For comparision, civ's victory conditions require you to play in the linear, optimal, safest way possible...

Yeah, I like that there's actually 6 distinct ways to earn them, which reward specialization but doesn't lock you in single playstyle for the whole game. In Civ, if you picked a scientific civ, you have to have a full game of science. Here you can play an agrarian civ in the first era, focus on getting high pops, then a militaristic one and focus on killing units... Sounds REALLY fun and more interesting.

 

[mitsho]

And maybe that even suits your playstyle: Babylon seems to thrive with quarters surrounded by farmland. Maybe Greece will need more closely put quarters, so it's not optimal to go science and science. But an Agrarian faction will benefit from Babylons spread out science and farm quarters. Or your gain in science and pop by Babylon can give you a headstart in producing Wonders, so you may best go with a Builder or an Aesthete in Classical. Meanwhile, the Zhou might allow for some wonder building which will then be ideally suited for the Greeks (hypothetical) "science by quarters adjacent to wonders"-ability.

I already love it, so many possible combinations, and while I'm sure there will be optimal ones, they may not always be open to you (will you ragequit when an AI takes away your preferred choice of Russia in the Industrial Era?) and you may just want to go Egypt-Greece to roleplay as the Ptolemaics (and then follow it up by Arabs-Ottomans-Ottomans-whatever to fully do a "Egypt" run). Again, intrigued

 

[Catoninetales_Amplitude]

Realistically, how viable do you think it would be to transcend an Ancient Era culture all the way to the Contemporary Era? I worry that a Fame earning bonus alone might not be enough, or is this an intentional decision by the designers to persuade players to mix things up?

I haven't tried in a while, but since the Fame bonus will increase each time you Transcend, it should be viable. You may be a bit slower earning the era stars, but you will receive a bigger "payout" for them instead. And while Emblematic Units will eventually become outdated by newer inventions, the Emblematic Quarters do no, and their effects can be useful all game.

@Catoninetales_Amplitude Will this gameplay orientation ability be in effect as long as you're in the culture? Or does it fade away once you go into another culture in the next era?

The Gameplay Orientation abilities are not retained. As I explained on Discord this weekend, we had briefly considered a greater number of Gameplay Orientation abilities, but realized that the production constraints this would place on each ability would be very limiting, and decided to opt for a few impactful abilities rather than numerous smaller ones instead.

Lake Baikal confirmed as natural wonder.

URL for image of lake from blogpost: https://medias.games2gether.com/forums/the-cat-o-nine-tales/FF04_Baikal2.jpg

I would have thought the shape of Lake Baikal was distinct enough without looking at the url.

Yeah, I like that there's actually 6 distinct ways to earn them, which reward specialization but doesn't lock you in single playstyle for the whole game. In Civ, if you picked a scientific civ, you have to have a full game of science. Here you can play an agrarian civ in the first era, focus on getting high pops, then a militaristic one and focus on killing units... Sounds REALLY fun and more interesting.

It's 7 different categories of Era Stars. In the mockup, one of them is shown above the others because the Era Star aligning with your Gameplay Orientation grants you additional Fame.

 

[grug]

This drawing is from 1:27 in the video

Spoiler :

This looks pretty similar to the layout of the empire plan from Endless Legend to me, with concentric circles with 4 axes, although Endless Space 2 which I am not familiar with had the law system so I don't know if laws would also be laid out like this. This could also just be related to coding the game and not the game mechanics, its unlabeled so trying to conclude anything from it might be a reach.

 

[Catoninetales_Amplitude]

THat drawing is an ancient left-over from the development of ES2. The drawings on the blackboards behind William'S PC were the different galaxy shapes. Sorry to disappoint, but no Humankind hints on that blackboard.

 

[bite]

THat drawing is an ancient left-over from the development of ES2. The drawings on the blackboards behind William'S PC were the different galaxy shapes. Sorry to disappoint, but no Humankind hints on that blackboard.

You'll have to forgive them, we are used to finding hidden clues everywhere

 

[grug]

THat drawing is an ancient left-over from the development of ES2. The drawings on the blackboards behind William'S PC were the different galaxy shapes. Sorry to disappoint, but no Humankind hints on that blackboard.

Thanks for clarifying

 

[Siptah]

I just assume that the card for Rome was changed at some point. We see a card that is named "Romans" in the video, yet it is different form one, that we could see a few months ago (attached to this post).

I actually hope that the older card is the one that makes it into the game, as having only Gladiators on it to represent Rome seems a bit strange to me. This card here shows the emperor and his family as well, similar to many other cards showing a leader figure.

 

[Hawke9]

I prefer the newer card from the video. It looks a lot more intense and visually pleasing to me.

 

[DST1348]

Maybe this has been answered already, but AFAIK each Culture can be in the game only once. How, then, is it determined who gets to which Culture and when? Can all players choose at a given moment simultaneously? Or whenever a civilization reaches a new Era, and whoever reaches a new Era first gets to pick from all available Cultures and, thus, limits the choices for other civilizations?

 

[conorbebe]

I’m not sure if anyone has outright stated it yet, but the Spanish castle at 1:47 is Bellver Castle in Majorca. I’m also pretty sure that the large structure on the right at 2:56 is meant to represent the Forbidden City in Beijing, although I’m less certain of this.

Maybe this has been answered already, but AFAIK each Culture can be in the game only once. How, then, is it determined who gets to which Culture and when? Can all players choose at a given moment simultaneously? Or whenever a civilization reaches a new Era, and whoever reaches a new Era first gets to pick from all available Cultures and, thus, limits the choices for other civilizations?

I believe you are allowed to transition upon reaching 7 “Era Stars”. So whoever reaches this first will have the full selection of 10 cultures to choose from.

 

[Zaarin]

Not that I'd expect anything else from Flybyno, but that music is gorgeous.

Lake Baikal confirmed as natural wonder.

URL for image of lake from blogpost: https://medias.games2gether.com/forums/the-cat-o-nine-tales/FF04_Baikal2.jpg

As someone who's been hoping for it in Civ6 for a while, that's excellent news. Now crossing my fingers for my other Civ6 natural wonder wish, Mt. Ararat/Little Ararat.

I am really in love with the idea that "history just happens, there are no victory conditions". I think a lot of issues with Civ may be a result of its board game WIN AT ALL COST! approach.
As somebody have noticed, Humankind's fame system may encourage crazy risky moves just to get fame and become spectacular empire for a while. For comparision, civ's victory conditions require you to play in the linear, optimal, safest way possible...

Very much agreed. The Civilization formula can be fun, but the kind of linear development it encourages is neither historic nor terribly interesting (good stories require ups and downs). Humankind could encourage a model that accepts, "Well, okay, I'm not having a super great Classical Era, but I'll rise again in the Medieval Era."