Humankind Game by Amplitude

[CivLuvah]

10 civs and 1 era down. 50 civs and 5 eras to go.

Maybe I should make separate albums per era once we get all the civs; or label each picture somehow based on era.

 

[Siptah]

Perhaps now is the time a mod should change the title of this thread? I'm sure it's a misconception that neither Firaxis nor Amplitude want to promote.

It may be time to create a a subform in "other games" for Humankind

 

[Boris Gudenuf]

Well the Zhou look pretty cool, but I can't say that I expected them to be another "Aesthete" civ. I assume this means they'll have some similarities to a culture/religious focus if we are thinking in Civilization terms.

Can anyone who has a better knowledge of Chinese history shed some light on why they may have gone in this direction rather than warmonger or something like that?

Eastern and Western Zhou were roughly dated 1046 - 256 BCE.
In that same period, aside from the first Chinese Crossbows, heavy chariots, and Sun Tzu, they also had Confucius (Kong Fu Tse) and Lao Tse, the earliest brush/ink painting, bronze decorative cast objects, and the earliest indications of feng shui techniques - including using lodestone compasses to determine orientations.

Which means I would think they could have gone War Monger, Scientific or Aesthete (Cultural, I presume). Since there are more than enough War Mongering cultures in the Bronze Age (Assyrians and Myceneans, just for two) I suspect they decided to emphasize the Aesthetic aspect of the Zhou for Balance.

Which makes me wonder if the later Tang and Ming will also be Aesthete or other Affinity? I would think the Tang with their heavy armored horsemen-based army would be better as War Monger and the Ming, who after all extended Chinese borders into Korea and central Asia, possibly Expansionist

 

[nauberry]

Do we have any idea how big the map will be? Seeing the screenshot with the pyramids, it seems that the desert itself is already huge. It oculd be just for the screenshot though. The cities sprawl on such a large area, that a civ 6 sized map would propably be too small in my opinion.

 

[Uberfrog]

Do we have any idea how big the map will be? Seeing the screenshot with the pyramids, it seems that the desert itself is already huge. It oculd be just for the screenshot though. The cities sprawl on such a large area, that a civ 6 sized map would propably be too small in my opinion.

I think it’s quite likely that a Humankind empire will involve a smaller number of larger, more sprawling cities than in Civ 6.

 

[Catoninetales_Amplitude]

Do we have any idea how big the map will be? Seeing the screenshot with the pyramids, it seems that the desert itself is already huge. It oculd be just for the screenshot though. The cities sprawl on such a large area, that a civ 6 sized map would propably be too small in my opinion.

I haven't looked up the specific numbers, but from my gut feeling the smallest map is comparable to a tiny Civ6 map in size, but the biggest maps are quite a bit bigger than a Huge Civ 6 map, but of course this feels different with the region system, and may still change.

 

[Eddie Verdde]

but the biggest maps are quite a bit bigger than a Huge Civ 6 map, but of course this feels different with the region system, and may still change.

As long as the proportion of tundra+ice caps to the rest of the world is realistic, this is great news.

I don't know about Civ6, but in Civ5 there's too much tundra, probably because the designers didn't take into account that they were using flat maps. In real life (i.e. espherical world) the proportion of polar surface is much smaller than in the maps of civ.

 

[Catoninetales_Amplitude]

I am afraid that just like Civilization and pretty much every other game that uses a flat map to represent a global scale, we are bound by the facts of mathematics and map projections, making it impossible to maintain distances, angles, and areas simultaneously.
In other words: 10 tiles worth of map height near the poles will be the same area as 10 tiles worth of map height near the equator, so there will probably be "too much" polar region.

 

[nauberry]

I am afraid that just like Civilization and pretty much every other game that uses a flat map to represent a global scale, we are bound by the facts of mathematics and map projections, making it impossible to maintain distances, angles, and areas simultaneously.
In other words: 10 tiles worth of map height near the poles will be the same area as 10 tiles worth of map height near the equator, so there will probably be "too much" polar region.

Some of the ture start location map mods in teh workshop have solved this issue by cutting off the polar regions of the map. This would mean less tundra area and ice, but would still allow icy areas in places such as greenland.

 

[Catoninetales_Amplitude]

Some of the ture start location map mods in teh workshop have solved this issue by cutting off the polar regions of the map. This would mean less tundra area and ice, but would still allow icy areas in places such as greenland.

That may create less tundra and ice, but it does not solve the issue of the map being distorted, especially concerning "horizontal" distances. Travelling 10° of longitude along the equator is a much longer trip than it is at 70° northern latitude.
In the end, this means that we (and likely many other games like this) focus on creating a somewhat believable 2D map that creates an enjoyable game pace rather than trying to project a globe into the flat plane and get the proportions of different areas just right. Unfortunately, "enjoyable game pace" is not a quantifiable measurement, so I cannot tell you whether or not the majority of players would find the maps in Humankind enjoyable to play on.

 

[Gedemon]

Is it too soon to speak of map making/modding tools?

A worldbuilder? Access to maps scripts to create our own ("Continents" , "Terra" , etc...) ?

 

[Catoninetales_Amplitude]

Is it too soon to speak of map making/modding tools?

A worldbuilder? Access to maps scripts to create our own ("Continents" , "Terra" , etc...) ?

Sadly, at the moment those conversations are pretty much restricted to:
"Will there be modding?" - "Ideally, yes."

I can't make any promises yet.

 

[FinalDoomsday]

Presumably the areas around the poles will consist of uncolonisable regions maybe you can stick research outposts there later who knows.

The amount of tundra in civ seemed fine but then I like maps that are more cramped, default settings give you too much space so theres fewer reasons for conflict.

 

[Siptah]

Some more pictures from the trailers


Sankoré University?


unidentified Wonder (not a city center)


unidentified Wonder (not a city center)


Hanging Gardens


Viking UU (?) In-game and from the cinematic trailer


Viking city (?)

We need a thread in which we keep track of which wonders were already seen...

 

[Lord Xavius]

View attachment 545951
unidentified Wonder (not a city center)

Almost certainly the Tōdai-ji temple in Nara, Japan.

(Which is also the Japanese wonder in Age of Kings.)

 

[Eddie Verdde]

I am afraid that just like Civilization and pretty much every other game that uses a flat map to represent a global scale, we are bound by the facts of mathematics and map projections, making it impossible to maintain distances, angles, and areas simultaneously.
In other words: 10 tiles worth of map height near the poles will be the same area as 10 tiles worth of map height near the equator, so there will probably be "too much" polar region.

@Catoninetales,

Thanks for the reply.

I'm used to flat maps, no problem with that, but I suppose the tundra area can be artificially reduced by just making it start on higher latitudes than in real life, to compensate for the flatness of the map. Otherwise, we'll end up with a lot of useless surface because no one settles in tundra and nothing much happens there, really.

Anyway, bigger maps is good news, indeed.

The amount of tundra in civ seemed fine but then I like maps that are more cramped, default settings give you too much space so theres fewer reasons for conflict.

This is also true, but as Catoninetales said, in Humankind we'll be using a regions system, so the management of the territory and disputes over land could get very different from Civ.

 

[Boris Gudenuf]

@Catoninetales,

Thanks for the reply.

I'm used to flat maps, no problem with that, but I suppose the tundra area can be artificially reduced by just making it start on higher latitudes than in real life, to compensate for the flatness of the map. Otherwise, we'll end up with a lot of useless surface because no one settles in tundra and nothing much happens there, really.

Anyway, bigger maps is good news, indeed.




This is also true, but as Catoninetales said, in Humankind we'll be using a regions system, so the management of the territory and disputes over land could get very different from Civ.

Somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but I as I remember in Endless Legend, which also used a 'Region' system, you could set the size of the Regions. Setting large sized Regions automatically would 'compress' the map, bringing your settlements into conflict with your opponents more quickly, whereas on a Large Map with small Regions everybody had more 'room'.

 

[leif erikson]

Moderator Action: Subforum created for this game.

 

[Eddie Verdde]

Somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but I as I remember in Endless Legend, which also used a 'Region' system, you could set the size of the Regions. Setting large sized Regions automatically would 'compress' the map, bringing your settlements into conflict with your opponents more quickly, whereas on a Large Map with small Regions everybody had more 'room'.

I don't know, I never played Endless Legend.

What I used to do in Civ to avoid too much "room" while playing in huge maps was just setting the Sea Level to "High". Less land, more competition.

 

[jddods]

I don't know, I never played Endless Legend..

Started playing EL last month in prep for Humankind. Enjoying it, I'm normally an exclusive Civ player but this one has caught me, although I'm not big on Fantasy.