Humankind Game by Amplitude

[Eagle Pursuit]

Do we know if these are randomly-spawning events akin to Civ IV (or Paradox games) or fixed 'story' events that will turn up on every playthrough, similar to the faction events in the Endless games? Given the pedigree I'd guess the latter, but that seems likely to constrain replayability - especially if they don't vary by faction.

I'm still cautiously hopeful, but I have to admit that the more I hear of the game the less confident I am that I'll enjoy its approach. That may simply be preconceptions based on Endless Legend, though, since to a large extent this is coming to sound like a history-themed reskin of that game rather than something that takes full advantage of its source material.

They said the goal is to make them unexpected, which implies that you shouldn't encounter the same events every game like clockwork. But who knows if they will meet that ideal.

 

[Krajzen]

Ha, I guessed correctly - Celts are Classical civ!

Also, holy site, EVENTS

HEY FIRAXIS WATCH THIS
IT IS POSSIBLE TO INCLUDE RANDOM EVENTS IN 4X GAME WITHOUT 'RUINING FUN' DUE TO 'FRUSTRATING RANDOMNESS'

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

Spoiler :

This is the second event from the livestream. Your Public Order has to be over 50 and you have to have a certain number of Food districts. Choice 1 increases the strength of your units. The second gives you more Food in your cities and gives them the Abundance tag. If you are playing Celts a third choice is available that increases Science in your cities and gives them the Learning tag.

This is the third example. It is based on the Salem Witch Trials.

Spoiler :

It is triggered by low Stability in a city. You can see that a third option unlocks if you have achieved a certain number of Fame stars in the Science category. The Condemn option leads to a second page which may either be increased or decreased stability.

This is the 4th example. It is based on Christopher Columbus.

Spoiler :

The first choice takes Money with a chance of discovering 3 tiles on an unknown continent. The second choice gives you a faster naval unit. If you have a Merchant Hero (Great Person in civ speak), the third choice is available and grants him or her the Motivated promotion.

 

[Boris Gudenuf]

Ha, I guessed correctly - Celts are Classical civ!

Also, holy site, EVENTS

HEY FIRAXIS WATCH THIS
IT IS POSSIBLE TO INCLUDE RANDOM EVENTS IN 4X GAME WITHOUT 'RUINING FUN' DUE TO 'FRUSTRATING RANDOMNESS'

Unless, per another Thread, the random events are Hurricanes that trash your coastal cities and for which you have no recourse except not to settle on the coast. Given the Current Events this week, it's a shame Florida didn't know that . . .

 

[Elhoim]

"Tradition" and "Progress" as stats... Interesting...

 

[CivLuvah]

Ha, I guessed correctly - Celts are Classical civ!

Also, holy site, EVENTS

HEY FIRAXIS WATCH THIS
IT IS POSSIBLE TO INCLUDE RANDOM EVENTS IN 4X GAME WITHOUT 'RUINING FUN' DUE TO 'FRUSTRATING RANDOMNESS'

I know (or at least remember) Civ4 had the same kind of system (from BtS)

 

[PhilBowles]

I know (or at least remember) Civ4 had the same kind of system (from BtS)

Which is probably why they were cut from later iterations - Civ IV's random events definitely erred on the "frustrating randomness" side as, while most were irrelevant, a few could be game-wrecking if you happened to be the target and they spawned at the wrong time (or conversely could make the game easier than it should have been if a major rival took the hit).

Civ VI has struck a better balance with natural disasters, but a wider range of random or semi-random occurrences would be welcome.

As for Huimankind, the livestream capture looks very positive but the way they've been described suggests they'll be semi-random, akin to the Civ VI natural disasters, rather than truly random. The way I read the comment, supported by the conditions set in the screenshot, is that these events will probably all trigger in most games, but the timing of their occurrence once you meet the trigger condition won't be predictable. Again like disasters: you know the volcanoes will erupt, and can form a general idea of the frequency, but when they become active or dormant has some degree of variability to it.

 

[Zaarin]

I can agree that Korea as a science Civ does make sense when you have a leader tied to it such as Sejong and Seondeok. I don't know the route they will go but if Korea becomes medieval I can see it going the cultural route but if it chosen in the Renaissance it very well could be science again. Also the Hwacha is confirmed to be seen in a screenshot I do believe.

I admit I have a special fondness for Korea that goes beyond your average Westerner from having lived there, but I'd love to see Goguryeo > Silla > Goryeo > Joseon > Korea.

Speaking of Greece it's amazing to me how they have never explicitly have had any scientific bonuses in the past.

Eh, the Greeks stole most of their science from the Near East, and philosophy is better represented by culture or faith (at least in Civ terms).

Civ VI has struck a better balance with natural disasters

Except for tornadoes, which don't even make sense on Civ6's scale. >_<

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

Here's the link for the twitch VOD:

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/474947055

It starts at the 2 hour mark

 

[Trav'ling Canuck]

They had 4 examples of events. I forgot to screenshot the first one. It took place in the Classical or Medieval Era. You had to have received two Age Stars in the Science category and have a city producing a certain amount of science. A scientist from that city has created a map of the night sky. You can give a copy to your military commanders to increase their sight. Or you can pay the scientist to study more, exchanging X money/turn for Y science/turn in your best science city.

Here's a screenshot of the first event:



A few other tidbits:

• 150 events are planned
• players have the option to shut off events during game set up
• the icons beside each choice are associated with "inclinations" that are part of an ideology system (which they're not going to talk about yet)

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

Here's a screenshot of the first event:

View attachment 533832

A few other tidbits:

• 150 events are planned
• players have the option to shut off events during game set up
• the icons beside each choice are associated with "inclinations" that are part of an ideology system (which they're not going to talk about yet)

I knew I should have taken notes!

 

[Trav'ling Canuck]

This is the third example. It is based on the Salem Witch Trials.

Spoiler :

It is triggered by low Stability in a city. You can see that a third option unlocks if you have achieved a certain number of Fame stars in the Science category. The Condemn option leads to a second page which may either be increased or decreased stability.

Here's a screenshot of the second part of this event.



50/50 as to which of these results you get.

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

Here's a screenshot of the second part of this event.

View attachment 533834

50/50 as to which of these results you get.

Yes. The Shame result has a typo. It should be -X Stability instead of +X Stability.

 

[Trav'ling Canuck]

Last tidbit, out of the question period: an audience member mentioned Civ and how you start with a historical leader, and asked if you have 50 some civs, do you start with actual historical people? The answer was they can't talk about it yet but "we'll have a very cool answer to this question soon."

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

And the ideology reveal would be coming in the next few months.

 

[darko82]

I don't agree with this statement on a fundamental level. Change just for the sake of change is not necessarily good, and revolutions should come from a need of change, not just from a default idea that things need to be turned over. I agree that competition can be good, but the reason that Civ6 is - imo. - not as good a game as Civ5 was is not lack of change. It's because of lack of quality. Not that Civ6 doesn't have a lot of good quality stuff, but too many game features suffer from poor implementation (from minor stuff like road placement to big stuff like the world congress, and of course there's the ever-present issue of the AI).

Through the last 20 years, I've been following two game series devotedly: Civilization and Heroes Of Might And Magic. The latter one was killed completely by developers thinking that change just for the sake of change was a good thing. After the hitt-and-miss Heroes 4, the genre was actually revived by the back-to-the-roots Heores 5, which had all the elements to be the foundation of a glorious base for the future of the series, only to be demolished completely by a developer team who "didn't want to be restrained by old concepts" and who "wanted to fully implement their own vision", which became the abysmal Heroes 6, which completely failed to understand what was the magic of the series for the fans. I think there was an attempt at a reboot with Heroes 7 - but by the same developer team, and the result was not a success, I didn't even bother to get that one.

My point is: Change for the sake of change is not what we should wish for.

I must agree with you in that HOMM was destroyed by Ubisoft that made too many mistakes. And it's because people wanted more of the same stuff they got in HOMM III. They never gave the fans what they wanted. UBI wanted to be "creative", so they did not only change many mechanics, but also changed the whole universe. They made a different game with HOMM name attached to it. HOMM V was still good in terms of gameplay and mechanics (the first UBI HOMM game). But the universe change, 3D graphics already turned off many people. Then, another changes came in HOMM VI and VII. Plus all the techincal issues, bugs etc. The style, the whole mood, atmosphere of the game also drastically changed. Too many things changed, actually. So you are right about this.

I just wanted a Civ game to be more realistic in terms of leaders (that die, have children etc. Canada in 4,000 BC does not feel immersive, too. So more immersion is another thing I would like to see.

Thus, you see, I had only those two features in mind. Only my personal preference or some wish, probably.

However, I did not mean anything more than that. E.g. to change the whole game like Ubisoft did with HOMM series.

 

[kaspergm]

I just wanted a Civ game to be more realistic in terms of leaders (that die, have children etc. Canada in 4,000 BC does not feel immersive, too. So more immersion is another thing I would like to see.

I agree, I will be really interested in seeing how Humankind and/or future civs will tackle this.

 

[Krajzen]

I just wanted a Civ game to be more realistic in terms of leaders (that die, have children etc.

You do realize that in a game which goes through 6000 years in few hundred turns this would mean that (before 19th century) you would basically get new leader every 2-5 turns, right?

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

These are 8 of the values that are tied to the ideology system.

Borrowed from the g2g thread. Some erudite person arranged them into pairs.

 

[Lord Shadow]

Hopefully Amplitude does not perpetuate Firaxis' strange obsession with Sejong's science. Korea became a science powerhouse in the 90s, which is no doubt why Firaxis focused in on Sejong's academies, but I wouldn't say that a focus on science has been characteristic of the bulk of Korea's history. Since Amplitude is clearly not considering themselves bound by Firaxis' traditions, I'm hoping Amplitude will instead focus on Korea's religious and cultural history (Goryeo ware, anyone?).

Providing my perspective on this tangent, very few, if any Civ ability or unique unit represents said civilization as a whole, not even the newer ones with shorter histories.

• Neither the U-Boat nor the Panzer are representative of a significant chunk of highly varied German history.
• Not even the P-51 and film studios are representative of 300 years of American history.
• Hell, with its thousands of years of history, the Great Wall of China isn't representative of the whole. Even though it's iconic and easily connected with the civilization, it's entirely irrelevant beyond the 17th century other than as a landmark and tourist attraction.

Ultimately, it's about bringing up something iconic about a notable period of the civilization, and less a representation of everything the civ meant throughout its history. After all, civilizations have mutated over the centuries. Modern China is not historical imperial China, nor even the China of the first half of the 20th century. Same with Korea, with Japan, with Germany, even with America.