Humankind Game by Amplitude

[rlw33]

It will be interesting to see what modding capacity the game has. Hopefully some of the later start civs can be tweaked to be playable throughout the whole game.

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

For some reason, these images don't appear for me. Anyone else seeing them?

I switch to Imgur. Did it help?

Another thing I am trying to do is figure out what this presumed Wonder is:

 

[rlw33]

I switch to Imgur. Did it help?

Yup. That's much better.

 

[Cerilis]

I switch to Imgur. Did it help?

Another thing I am trying to do is figure out what this presumed Wonder is:

Mhrm, it looks like a pyramid at first glance. But it also kinda has an east Asian feeling, if the pyramid is a roof instead.

 

[Meluhhan]

I switch to Imgur. Did it help?

Another thing I am trying to do is figure out what this presumed Wonder is:

The step Pyramid of Djoser?

 

[Rob Airdrie]

The step Pyramid of Djoser?

Was the terracotta army originally under a pyramidal structure?

 

[Trav'ling Canuck]

I switch to Imgur. Did it help?

Another thing I am trying to do is figure out what this presumed Wonder is:

Is that water flowing out of the structure?

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

Is that water flowing out of the structure?

I think there are ramps up to an entrance level above ground level on all 4 sides. It appears to have multiple eaves like a pagoda, which gives it an East Asian look.

@Rob Airdrie The actual tomb of Qin Shi Huang was inside a pyramid, but the terracotta army was arrayed around its base.

 

[Casworon]

It might be a unique building of one of the cultures rather than a wonder?

I'm not entirely sure how wonders are going to work, but it might be possible to build more than one pyramid if you choose the Egyptians. There's been speculation that's the case

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

It might be a unique building of one of the cultures rather than a wonder?

I'm not entirely sure how wonders are going to work, but it might be possible to build more than one pyramid if you choose the Egyptians. There's been speculation that's the case

Based on what I've read, Egyptians can built pyramids, but The Great Pyramid of Giza is the one that is a wonder. Also, the Nubians appear to have Red Pyramids.

 

[Casworon]

New post from the developers

--

The idea of mixing cultures to create your own unique Civilization is at the heart of our design and we won’t change that. But we also think that it more realistically reflects the journey of our modern nations through history (as France, for instance, we still have the influence our past Roman and Gothic cultures).



Still, there are a few things that should please you within our current design:

1. Several cultures will appear in more than one Era
   As stated, the Zhou (China) culture is in the Bronze Era, and the Ming (China) in the Medieval Era, allowing you to keep the same culture while updating to the new unique content at specific time.
   
2. Transcending is not negative
   Transcending (keeping the same culture for several eras) is going to be more challenging, as you will not have an emblematic unit related to the new Era nor a new faction trait. BUT, on the other hand, you will benefit from a Fame bonus so you’ll be more competitive regarding victory conditions.
   
3. Each culture has its own identity in term of gameplay
   Even if the individual asymmetry is not as strong for each culture (as it is in our previous games), each culture has a unique content which encourages a related playstyle.
   Most of the emblematic units will have a unique ability used in the tactical battle for instance : )
   
4. We will offer a large range of options
   I can't expand much on them yet, but as in our previous games, we want to be generous with customization of the game settings and some of them will help you to live the experience you’re looking for : )

--

So this confirms that certain civs can exist in multiple era's under different names. So this opens the door to china being 'China' in the modern era, while also being 'Zhou' in the bronze era and 'Ming' in the medieval era.

Also interesting to note that they seem to be including customization options of some kind to allow people to play as one culture through the whole game if they wish, even starting as them.

I wonder if this will be something as simple as an advanced era start such as in civ or something different

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

I wonder how feasible it would be to just roam around as a Neolithic Tribe until the Renaissance.

 

[Trav'ling Canuck]

I wonder how feasible it would be to just roam around as a Neolithic Tribe until the Renaissance.

I'm not liking your odds of gaining Fame points during the early eras.

Unless one of the available stars each era is for "least urbanized"?

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

I'm not liking your odds of gaining Fame points during the early eras.

Unless one of the available stars each era is for "least urbanized"?

I mean, they said you have to do things to Transcend from Neo Tribe to Bronze Age, and one of those things is killing animals. And if you choose not to Transcend, you get Fame bonuses.

I'm thinking that killing animals and whatever yields Fame points. And you may get a bonus for doing that as a Neo Tribe if you choose not to Transcend. Do the bonuses stack? If you stay Neolithic until the Renaissance, with a bunch of animals no one knows about, do you get really awesome bonuses for killing them late game?

 

[Casworon]

So they state there are 21 fame points available per era.

And you can choose to advance an age when you get 7.

Whether that includes the Neo Tribe era or not is up in the air i guess. But you could then theoretically choose to skip the bronze age and the medieval and just aim to get all 21 fame points for Neo. I think that's what they mean about the fame bonuses? Just having more time to get the available 21 for the era

Didn't one of the screen shots show like 'tribal knowledge' or something giving +1 food or +1 production to your cities once you found them. Gained as an option in the Tribe stage

Maybe if you can pull it off you will have picked up so many 'tribal knowledge' bonuses that your cities have enough bonuses to catch up once founded in renaissance?

 

[Trav'ling Canuck]

I mean, they said you have to do things to Transcend from Neo Tribe to Bronze Age, and one of those things is killing animals. And if you choose not to Transcend, you get Fame bonuses.

I'm thinking that killing animals and whatever yields Fame points. And you may get a bonus for doing that as a Neo Tribe if you choose not to Transcend. Do the bonuses stack? If you stay Neolithic until the Renaissance, with a bunch of animals no one knows about, do you get really awesome bonuses for killing them late game?

Which raises a good question about the 21 available stars per era: how many of these are consistent per era, and how many are customized for the era in which they appear?

 

[Alexander's Hetaroi]

Several cultures will appear in more than one Era
As stated, the Zhou (China) culture is in the Bronze Era, and the Ming (China) in the Medieval Era, allowing you to keep the same culture while updating to the new unique content at specific time.

So this confirms that certain civs can exist in multiple era's under different names. So this opens the door to china being 'China' in the modern era, while also being 'Zhou' in the bronze era and 'Ming' in the medieval era.

Is anyone else somewhat bothered by this, or am I the only one?
I understand that for some cultures it makes sense, like breaking up India, but I don't necessarily need a different Chinese civ every era. At the same time France and Germany seems will get more than two or three eras of their period and we might get to choose one all the way to modern.
I'm assuming each different culture does count as one of the 10 in the new era and I just don'f feel like this will be as diverse of a game as I originally thought.

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

Is anyone else somewhat bothered by this, or am I the only one?
I understand that for some cultures it makes sense, like breaking up India, but I don't necessarily need a different Chinese civ every era. At the same time France and Germany seems will get more than two or three eras of their period and we might get to choose one all the way to modern.
I'm assuming each different culture does count as one of the 10 in the new era and I just don'f feel like this will be as diverse of a game as I originally thought.

It is a bit perplexing about how many are carry-over from the previous era vs good alternative cultures that maybe don't have the longevity.

I guess we will have to see when more are shown.

 

[Trav'ling Canuck]

Is anyone else somewhat bothered by this, or am I the only one?
I understand that for some cultures it makes sense, like breaking up India, but I don't necessarily need a different Chinese civ every era. At the same time France and Germany seems will get more than two or three eras of their period and we might get to choose one all the way to modern.
I'm assuming each different culture does count as one of the 10 in the new era and I just don'f feel like this will be as diverse of a game as I originally thought.

I guess it depends on what you want out of a game. I enjoy Through the Ages, where you don't play as any particular culture, you just build your own civilization.

I'm not sure exactly how HK is going to work. In this aspect in particular, it seems to be setting a path that is different from anything that has come before it, video game or board game. As such, it's a bit hard to visualize how the tidbits that have been disclosed to date will actually play.

Personally, I'd be drawn more to some of the ideas Eagle Pursuit has articulated, where your cultural traits are acquired organically based on the map and your actions, rather than selecting from a list as each new era unfolds. But then, I don't feel any particular draw to play as the Franks, or the Khmer, etc. So adding the historical names does nothing for me, but may be critical for other potential customers.

It will be interesting to see how the process works in practice. If it feels natural that my civ has evolved as I enter a new era, and if my choice is based on what has happened so far combined with what I want to accomplish next, then I think the mechanic might work.

I will say that at this stage, we need to throw out some of the expectations that we've grown used to through Civ. In Civ, a lot of re-playability is based on "now play as the X with leader Y", "now go for victory type Z". The dev team in HK have thrown both of those out, but it's not at all clear right now what exactly they've replaced them with.

 

[Boris Gudenuf]

Is anyone else somewhat bothered by this, or am I the only one?
I understand that for some cultures it makes sense, like breaking up India, but I don't necessarily need a different Chinese civ every era. At the same time France and Germany seems will get more than two or three eras of their period and we might get to choose one all the way to modern.
I'm assuming each different culture does count as one of the 10 in the new era and I just don'f feel like this will be as diverse of a game as I originally thought.

The Devil is definitely in the Details.
You can make a historical case that almost every Chinese Dynasty was 'unique' in some way, so multiple Chinas is both accurate and playable.
Likewise, the France of Louis XIV's Absolute Monarchy was not at all the same as the French Republic of 1930 or today. - or the Medieval France of weak kings and strong aristocratic factions that existed before the 16th century.
Germany, of course, was a number of states and cultures (1506 different political entities at the beginning of the 19th century!) until the late Industrial Era, so there's a lot of scope for 'multiple Germanies'.

The question to me is, What is the balance between Changing Cultures and Maintaining Cultures, the Bonuses available or attainable in new Eras and from new or old Cultures, and the exact process of accumulating the 'Fame' required for victory through the Eras.

Based on the post from one of the Developers, it looks like they have or are addressing just those questions, but aren't ready to release all the answers yet - which in a game that may still be a year away from release, is perfectly understandable.