Humankind Game by Amplitude

[FinalDoomsday]

Perhaps they have a lot more to reveal that's going to be held back for a particular event. Of course I'd love to be able to play it this year but the most important thing is to avoid unhealthy crunch periods to meet a date.

 

[Ondolindë]

Maybe it will be released as a beta this year. Endless Legend and Endless Space were both available for purchase as beta.

I see. I didn’t know that was practiced. How would you rate their quality upon release then?

 

[pokiehl]

I see. I didn’t know that was practiced. How would you rate their quality upon release then?

I've actually never played an Amplitude game before so I don't know I'm not really that confident about a beta either, because Amplitude did those as a smaller studio. Now that Sega has acquired them, it's very possible that their processes will change in that regard.

 

[Ondolindë]

I've actually never played an Amplitude game before so I don't know I'm not really that confident about a beta either, because Amplitude did those as a smaller studio. Now that Sega has acquired them, it's very possible that their processes will change in that regard.

Well, something to be cautious about when deciding to buy the game for sure. I don't want to buy a game that is not worth buying upon release because it is not done. We shall see.

 

[CivLuvah]

From the lack of gameplay footage and culture gameplay, I am very doubtful that this game will have a 2020 release date. We don’t even know that much about how the game starts out, let alone on how it will end.

Which brings me to ask: @Catoninetales_Amplitude is there a sense of what the minimum and recommended system requirements for Humankind? I'm planning on buying a new high-performance gaming laptop but I'm holding it off until I have enough money.

 

[Catoninetales_Amplitude]

Unfortunately I don't know anything about the required specs yet. I don't think we have really started optimizing yet.

 

[Elhoim]

Yeah, most probably it will start as an Early Access release. Many "community driven" studios are doing it this way, like Larian with Baldur's Gate 3.

 

[Jkchart]

Hi all, we've got Carthage confirmed:

https://twitter.com/humankindgame/status/1232342031873298432

Emblematic Unit: War Elephant

Emblematic Quarter: Cothon

Merchant trait

 

[Matthias Corvinus]

If only the phoenicians were expansionist. At least Carthage is fairly accurate

 

[ehecatzin]

The Elephants were true then...man I think I have to rethink my list just to fix the Han slot, Carthage turned out.

 

[Boris Gudenuf]

Hi all, we've got Carthage confirmed:

https://twitter.com/humankindgame/status/1232342031873298432

Emblematic Unit: War Elephant

Emblematic Quarter: Cothon

Merchant trait

Well, they got the Elephants half right. They would certainly frighten horses that weren't raised with them, but they were used to 'charge' only in the West. In India, Burma, Khmer, and other East Asian Elephantic Armies, they were used almost exclusively as Missile Platforms - putting archers above the unruly mob to get better vision on targets and range. When they were used to charge the enemy, they worked pretty well against troops with little disciple (the famous 'Elephant Victory' over the Celts in Asia Minor) but failed miserably against almost everybody else. Hannibal famously lost his last battle at Zama because the Roman infantry stampeded his elephants back through his own lines with catastrophic effect - an all too common occurence with elephants, who are smart enough not to want to get Hurt and big enough to trample anything or anyone who stands between them and Not Getting Hurt.

So, I'd assume that some other (Mauryan, Burmese, Khmer?) Factions may also have elephants, in which the 'card' will emphasize the more tactically effective 'Eastern' use of elephants to enhance missile fire - extended eventually to mounting large jezzail-type muskets on elephant-back during the Renaissance and early Industrial Eras.

 

[ehecatzin]

So, I'd assume that some other (Mauryan, Burmese, Khmer?) Factions may also have elephants, in which the 'card' will emphasize the more tactically effective 'Eastern' use of elephants to enhance missile fire - extended eventually to mounting large jezzail-type muskets on elephant-back during the Renaissance and early Industrial Eras.

At least the Maurya on classical (if they are in), there are as you mentioned a number of cultures that could get their own take on Elephant units. I think the different Elephants will follow a similar route to the unique carts in Bronze age, some seem heavier, and others more about ranged...we'll see.

Elephant unit for Carthage most likely means no base Elephant for all cultures, I'm wondering if that'd be the case for chariots as well, seeing how many unique ones we've got.

 

[Boris Gudenuf]

At least the Maurya on classical (if they are in), there are as you mentioned a number of cultures that could get their own take on Elephant units. I think the different Elephants will follow a similar route to the unique carts in Bronze age, some seem heavier, and others more about ranged...we'll see.

Elephant unit for Carthage most likely means no base Elephant for all cultures, I'm wondering if that'd be the case for chariots as well, seeing how many unique ones we've got.

The difference between Chariots and Elephants is that you only get elephant units if you can get elephants, and the animals are not universally available and don't 'transplant' well out of the terrain/climate they are adapted to. Once the Mammoths were gone, it is very difficult to imagine Sweden maintaining a bunch of Elephant Units without constantly having to import more non-frozen animals!

Chariots, by contrast, can be produced by anyone with wheel technology and a draft animal of reasonable speed. Early chariots were drawn by horses, but also donkeys or mules, and until they started trying to build 'heavy' chariots with 3 men and armor, the horses didn't even have to be very big or specialized.

I would bet, then, that anybody with the technology can build Chariots, but only the Factions that historically used Elephants will have them. That's still quite a potentially long list, since they are dividing the Factions by Era:

Every Indian Faction from Classical to Renaissance Eras
Most of the southeast Asian Factions in the same Eras: Khmer, Siam, Burma
Ptolemaic Egypt (Classical Era)
Alexander's Successors: Seleucid Empire, Lysimachus' Empire, Pontus - but all had to 'import' Elephants, so there might be some kind of limitation on how many Elephants Units they can build
Carthage as seen in the latest 'reveal'

Humankind, based on already-seen and potentially available characteristics, could become known as the Elephant and Pyramid Game: They're Everywhere!

 

[Jkchart]

The difference between Chariots and Elephants is that you only get elephant units if you can get elephants, and the animals are not universally available and don't 'transplant' well out of the terrain/climate they are adapted to. Once the Mammoths were gone, it is very difficult to imagine Sweden maintaining a bunch of Elephant Units without constantly having to import more non-frozen animals!

Chariots, by contrast, can be produced by anyone with wheel technology and a draft animal of reasonable speed. Early chariots were drawn by horses, but also donkeys or mules, and until they started trying to build 'heavy' chariots with 3 men and armor, the horses didn't even have to be very big or specialized.

I would bet, then, that anybody with the technology can build Chariots, but only the Factions that historically used Elephants will have them. That's still quite a potentially long list, since they are dividing the Factions by Era:

Every Indian Faction from Classical to Renaissance Eras
Most of the southeast Asian Factions in the same Eras: Khmer, Siam, Burma
Ptolemaic Egypt (Classical Era)
Alexander's Successors: Seleucid Empire, Lysimachus' Empire, Pontus - but all had to 'import' Elephants, so there might be some kind of limitation on how many Elephants Units they can build
Carthage as seen in the latest 'reveal'

Humankind, based on already-seen and potentially available characteristics, could become known as the Elephant and Pyramid Game: They're Everywhere!

But who DOESN'T want Elephants and Pyramids

 

[CivLuvah]

Hi all, we've got Carthage confirmed:

https://twitter.com/humankindgame/status/1232342031873298432

Emblematic Unit: War Elephant

Emblematic Quarter: Cothon

Merchant trait

Our first successor civ! Imgur album updated:
https://imgur.com/a/4cPjGSY

 

[ehecatzin]

The difference between Chariots and Elephants is that you only get elephant units if you can get elephants, and the animals are not universally available and don't 'transplant' well out of the terrain/climate they are adapted to. Once the Mammoths were gone, it is very difficult to imagine Sweden maintaining a bunch of Elephant Units without constantly having to import more non-frozen animals!

Of course you'd need the Elephant as a resource in order to build an Elephant unit, that's what I was hoping for.

 

[Boris Gudenuf]

Of course you'd need the Elephant as a resource in order to build an Elephant unit, that's what I was hoping for.

The interesting thing is that historically, you don't necessarily. While the Indian and southeast Asian Factions/Civs had access to the Asian Elephant (as did states in southern China, but to my knowledge, they never used it in war) and the Ptolemaic Egyptians and Carthaginians had access to the African Forest Elephant, Alexander's Successors in Macedonia and Asia Minor had no elephants. They got all their elephants from India through trade, gift, or other means.

This is one of the main historical reasons that I'd like to see a compete rethink of the entire Resources System and a 'Mercenary' system added to a 4X Historical game: the Diadochi got both trained War Elephants (essentially, complete Elephant Units) and Elephant Resources with which to form their own Elephant Units - but the numbers were strictly limited and, what I think would be neat in a game, their Elephant Units could not be 'repaired' - when they lost an elephant to battle, disease, or, eventually, old age, rhey were Gone.

Would be a neat way to give the opportunity for 'exotic' Units to different Civs/Factions while still limiting their impact: you could 'import' Elephants so that Dmitri Donskoy of Muscovy meets the Mongols with an Elephant Corps, but trying to base the Russian Army around them just won't work unless you can also conquer India first!

 

[Uberfrog]

Hi all, we've got Carthage confirmed:

https://twitter.com/humankindgame/status/1232342031873298432

Emblematic Unit: War Elephant

Emblematic Quarter: Cothon

Merchant trait

I’m on two correct classical predictions for two! It’s all downhill from here...

 

[ehecatzin]

I’m on two correct classical predictions for two! It’s all downhill from here...

Celts seems like a solid choice...unless they play a switcheroo and actually go for Gauls.

 

[aguaacrobata2]

Celts seems like a solid choice...unless they play a switcheroo and actually go for Gauls

I believe Celts is more than solid, a safe choice. I remember in the twich presentation at the 2019 PAX west they introduced a quest about druids where one of the possible outcomes could only be selected if you were playing with the Celts.