Humankind Game by Amplitude

[Eagle Pursuit]

I suspect the change in your culture during the game will be depicted by changes in clothing and building style (maybe music, too, for those who play with the sound on), rather than by skin tone. Presumably the culture of going a-Viking could have arisen elsewhere, and not just amongst fair-skinned north Europeans. Hence no need for your people to change physical appearance, they just need to develop a fast, ocean-going emblematic ship and a talent for dispossessing others of their worldly goods. Maybe your avatar pops a Viking helmet on their head to look fierce.

Yeah, I think the idea is that your people remain essentially the same ethnicity but serially assume cultural identities through time.

 

[Catoninetales_Amplitude]

Thinking a bit more about it, I guess the changes to the leader portraits in Civilization: Beyond Earth with their affinity are somewhat comparable, though in our case it affects the whole outfit.
As I said, once I can, I'll share some images of my own avatar so you can see examples of this in action.

 

[Elhoim]

Thinking a bit more about it, I guess the changes to the leader portraits in Civilization: Beyond Earth with their affinity are somewhat comparable, though in our case it affects the whole outfit.
As I said, once I can, I'll share some images of my own avatar so you can see examples of this in action.

Who should we mail to pressure them into accepting you showing the images?

 

[FinalDoomsday]

As you change cultures, the outfit of your avatar will change, but not the avatar itself. Facial features, hairstyle, etc. will remain consistent throughout the game.

I'd share some examples of my own avatar, but I don't know if I can... I don't want the artists to demand my head because I accidentally showed something unfinished.

Can you say roughly how deep you plan to go with the character creator? Will there be multiple options for builds things like heavy, muscular, slim that sort of thing or just sticking to one male and one female build?

 

[Boris Gudenuf]

Who should we mail to pressure them into accepting you showing the images?

For those really interested, games2gether has a set of Humankind threads going now, although, somewhat ironically, they are not always as busy as this one is!

But since that is the 'platform' for Amplitude, that might be the place to agitate for something 'direct' to the Amplitude management team.

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

For those really interested, games2gether has a set of Humankind threads going now, although, somewhat ironically, they are not always as busy as this one is!

But since that is the 'platform' for Amplitude, that might be the place to agitate for something 'direct' to the Amplitude management team.

I have noticed activity picking up on g2g in the last month or so. Hopefully it's momentum building.

 

[God of Kings]

I love this! I really liked how leader images changed over time in civ III, although I understand how many thought it was cheesy or weird (skinhead Joan of arc, anyone? )

Your approach seems to preserve the fun of different looks through the ages without the civ III weirdness.

It would be interesting for the player's nation to go from Maurya to Iroquois, causing Zhou-Spain to declare the Maurya-Iroquois "Indians."

It would also be interesting to see a blonde-haired blue-eyed Zulu and a dark-skinned Swede.

After all, alternate history is fun.

 

[Boris Gudenuf]

It would be interesting for the player's nation to go from Maurya to Iroquois, causing Zhou-Spain to declare the Maurya-Iroquois "Indians."

It would also be interesting to see a blonde-haired blue-eyed Zulu and a dark-skinned Swede.

After all, alternate history is fun.

It doesn't have to be that 'alternate': You could play as the real Black Russian, Hannibal Petrovich, a black African who became a Major General in Peter the Great's Army, chief of the engineering forces for the Russian Army, a titled Russian nobleman, and the ancestor of Pushkin, the greatest of the Russian poets.

Real History is sometimes stranger than any Fictional Alternate . . .

 

[Krajzen]

It would also be interesting to see a blonde-haired blue-eyed Zulu and a dark-skinned Swede.

Obligatory 'so just an average modern day Swede' joke

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

Some pretty terrain

https://twitter.com/humankindgame/status/1222919941822861317?s=19

 

[SupremacyKing2]

Some pretty terrain

https://twitter.com/humankindgame/status/1222919941822861317?s=19

The game certainly looks beautiful.

 

[Boris Gudenuf]

Some pretty terrain

https://twitter.com/humankindgame/status/1222919941822861317?s=19

Now that looks much more appealing as "tundra/tiaga/far north Terrain than the monochrome Civ VI style.

IF Humankind does nothing else, it is going to force Civ and Firaxis to take a hard look at their terrain graphics. Compared to the shots we've seen from Humankind so far, Amplitude's game maps are superior looking in every terrain/climate combination from plains to forest to mountains to desert to taiga/tundra. Simply gorgeous. If the gameplay mechanics are even half as good, this is going to be a winner.

 

[Trav'ling Canuck]

Some pretty terrain

https://twitter.com/humankindgame/status/1222919941822861317?s=19

It appears that the rivers are following the change in elevation realistically, i.e. flowing down hill or sideways, but not uphill.

I wonder if rivers and lakes are placed purely randomly, or if the terrain system goes so far as to model the precipitation per tile and where it will flow to, creating river and lake systems out of that?

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

It appears that the rivers are following the change in elevation realistically, i.e. flowing down hill or sideways, but not uphill.

I wonder if rivers and lakes are placed purely randomly, or if the terrain system goes so far as to model the precipitation per tile and where it will flow to, creating river and lake systems out of that?

Watersheds would be a cool ecological system to model procedurally.

 

[bbbt]

Now that looks much more appealing as "tundra/tiaga/far north Terrain than the monochrome Civ VI style.

IF Humankind does nothing else, it is going to force Civ and Firaxis to take a hard look at their terrain graphics. Compared to the shots we've seen from Humankind so far, Amplitude's game maps are superior looking in every terrain/climate combination from plains to forest to mountains to desert to taiga/tundra. Simply gorgeous. If the gameplay mechanics are even half as good, this is going to be a winner.

I think it's intentional design decisions on both parties. Firaxis has designed for more monochrome terrain so it can be read instantly strategically (i.e. I can judge a spot to settle place districts, from the map). Amplitude has designed for more interesting terrain graphically at the cost of having to be more reliant on overlays.

I generally prefer the Amplitude approach, not in the least because I usually still need the overlays in Civ (forest hills). But I also definitely found Endless Legend more frustrating in that regard (especially in terms of movement - I had lot of trouble distinguishing cliffs graphically, though that's been vastly improved in Humankind based on the screenshots).

Once could even argue the choices stems from the game mechanics: Civ where you are building cities anywhere and can place districts anywhere in the radius that suits and potentially more frequently have to read terrain. Endless where you place one city per region (and then grow districts outwards), and more likely to be more infrequent for city settling but where you are likely studying the region in detail for optimization.

 

[Nerevatar]

It also looks like there is multiple levels of elevation. That could really lead to some interesting geography and gameplay possibilities. Imagine what we will be able to make if the map generator/script is moddable.

@Catoninetales_Amplitude are you able to tell us if the map scripts will be moddable? Any other map information you might accidentely drop in this thread? Im very intrigued!

 

[ThunderLizard2]

Just picked up Amplitude's Aggressors: Ancient Rome and have played Endless Legend as well. Both are solid games with decent AI. The AI in Civ VI is still a joke so I'm looking forward to Humankind and my have fingers crossed about the AI. Firaxis has been all downhill since the Take-Two/2K acquisition in 2005 and the departure of Soren Johnson and Jon Shafer soon thereafter.

 

[CivLuvah]

Imgur album updated to include Nubians

https://imgur.com/a/4cPjGSY

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

Imgur album updated to include Nubians

https://imgur.com/a/4cPjGSY

That's 7. Three more for the Bronze Age.

 

[mitsho]

That's 7. Three more for the Bronze Age.

And they are placed alphabetically after N, so Olmecs, Phoenicians and Shang or Zhou?