Awesome, thanks. I did wonder if my post was a bit too political.
Humankind Game by Amplitude
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Boris Gudenuf
Deity
Note that Humankind also includes the Olmecs, which have been tried as Mod Civs for both Civ V and Civ VI, but could never be included as a regular Civ because we don't even have city names for them, let alone any Leaders. I completely agree that not using 'named' Leaders opens up the possibilities for depicting cultures and states tremendously compared to the Civ model. I suspect it is also connected to the Humankind inclusion of a 'Leader Model' which represents the Gamer and can (apparently) be modified to reflect the way the Gamer plays the game: You become the 'Eternal Leader' that a historical cartoon is in Civ VI.
Now I just wonder if my Leader Depiction can be shown leaning on a Giant Stone Head if I'm playing as the Olmecs!
Ondolindë
Emperor
I hadn’t paid that much attention to the game and this discussion, aside from reading a few posts at the beginning. I got caught up and can seriously feel I’m getting excited as some of you are about this game. I still want to know more, but it has certainly peeked my interest.
A game that has a way to be flexible in its core to allow the player to experience commonly unrepresented cultures and incorporate their traits regardless of how little we know about their leaders is powerful and thrilling. Also, about the game as a whole, if I understand it correctly, it would feel as if really going through time and picking and choosing your own path to the civilization you want to create however similar or dissimilar you want it to be to a given historical civilization. I’m intrigued and want to know more. Hopefully, it actually will feel as having ample set of options that must be decided strategically in order to survive.
A game that has a way to be flexible in its core to allow the player to experience commonly unrepresented cultures and incorporate their traits regardless of how little we know about their leaders is powerful and thrilling. Also, about the game as a whole, if I understand it correctly, it would feel as if really going through time and picking and choosing your own path to the civilization you want to create however similar or dissimilar you want it to be to a given historical civilization. I’m intrigued and want to know more. Hopefully, it actually will feel as having ample set of options that must be decided strategically in order to survive.
Trav'ling Canuck
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If you're legitimately curious, you should read the long-ago thread, as this topic was covered extensively.
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A winter wonderland, complete with mammoth and hot springs.
https://twitter.com/humankindgame/status/1207707814321426432?s=19
https://twitter.com/humankindgame/status/1207707814321426432?s=19
Morningcalm
Keeper of Records
I will say that the inclusion of large visible animals is a nice touch. Makes the world feel alive early on, I’m sure, though I wonder if the animals will last through later ages. Civ IV had wild animals which were sort of like barbarians who couldn’t enter your borders, but once they died out there were no large visible animals anymore. :|
Trav'ling Canuck
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Nice to see coniferous trees! All other screenshots have only had deciduous.
I hope they have different continent tile sets/"biomes" like Civ V had. That's the feature I miss the most in Civ VI.
Gorgeous.
Boris Gudenuf
Deity
Assuming everything on the map means something, here's what strikes me:
In the 'arctic' environment, there are tiles pure white with snow/ice, tiles with snow and some kind of 'parched/frozen' grass, coniferous trees on both types, rocky 'cliffs', what appears to be a coniferous forest on 'regular' terrain in the background, and the immediately-noticeable geothermal vents/hot springs.
IF the various forest types (we've seen, as mentioned, both deciduous and coniferous so far) mean something, that's 4 types of arctic terrain plus special features (the hot springs) and the already-seen special animals, which are apparently not limited to any particular terrain (although if I see a woolly mammoth wandering in the desert that will be a little 'immersion breaking'!)
So, not only is the terrain gorgeous, but it potentially has a lot more variety of terrain-types and features to 'exploit'.
Of course, the Great Reveal would have been if the group of scouts/hunters/warriors in the background were wearing woolly coats and traveling with dogsleds . . .
Something else to notice in that screenshot is what looks like a kind of stone or mineral deposit on the butte just behind the mammoth. Is it iron, perhaps?
Boris Gudenuf
Deity
Maybe. But there are similar 'rocks' under the Mammoth and just to the right of the Thermal Pools between the Mammoth and the humans. That's either a lot of mineral deposits in a small area (quite possible!) or just 'normal' terrain.
But also, note that the two 'Hot Spring' tiles are not the same: The one mentioned above is 3 pools with indications of bubbling steam, the one to the left and behind the Mammoth is 4 pools, apparently placid, and a mound of distinctly different from its surroundings red earth.
IF they indicate two different resources/tile types that would be intriguing - perhaps one a source for Sulphur (the real limiting resource for Gunpowder) while the other is a 'normal' Thermal Spring that (historically, at least) could give bonuses for Health and Happiness and later, with the right infrastructure, Tourism.
Does anybody else notice how fast the CivFanatics Forum has gone back to its Roots as a place for Sherlockian examination of minutae for clues to what the Game Designers did not necessarily intend to reveal yet?
Kaan Boztepe
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what else is there to do when no developper is forthcoming?
I'm remembering earlier Civ games where you had the sheild symbol on grasslands indicating additional production. So it could be indicative of 'generic' resourcing that affects the productivity of the terrain if they did something similar.
I'd agree it's likely just graphical variation though.
CivLuvah
Deity
From what I know/observed, they had more thought out consultation with the Maori than they did with the Cree.
Lonecat Nekophrodite
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What are the unit classes in that game? Did 'infantry' covers both shock troops armed with axes and swords and spearmen? or ... divided between the two??
Boris Gudenuf
Deity
All very good questions, but I don't think we have definitive answers yet. In the various trailers and screenshots we've seen 'infantry' armed with primitive axes, swords, spears, (apparently) pikes, bows and crossbows. We've seen mounted troops armored and unarmored, hints at knights. War elephants. We have not seen, as far as I know, any sieges or siege engines, artillery, or 'modern' weapons like tanks or artillery - but then, we've only seen a few shots of anything past the middle ages/renaissance-looking eras.
Going back to Amplitude's previous game, Endless Legend, they differentiated troops into infantry, ranged, 'cavalry' and Flyers (it was a fantasy game, so there were some really weird graphics hiding under those definitions), and Sieges were sort of 'semi-automatic' in that siege lines appeared around a city and its districts if you moved an army next to it and 'declared' a siege. The city defenses slowly were reduced (faster if you had a much bigger besieging army than the city had defenders) until the 'fortifications' were at 0 and you could make an assault.
The actual weapons troops were equipped with, though, depended on what you 'bought' for them (and developed through Technology and acquisition of Resources to make the weapons and armor). That meant Ranged could be armed with bows, improved bows, or crossbows, 'infantry' with swords, spears, and 'cavalry' with swords, spears, etc. Armor could be bought for head, torso, legs, or separate shields.
I would dearly LOVE it if they kept this system in Humankind!
Imagine: start being able to make weapons out of wood, bone, stone and horn, 'armor' out of leather or bone, 'shields' out of wood tor leather, get Copper or Bronze and start making Head (Helmet) and torso (cuirass) armor out of Bronze, shields faced with bronze, weapons now including short swords and axes, move on to Iron or Wrought Iron, Steel, Steel Armor Alloys, right up to modern 'Kevlar'.
Whether a unit had Anti-Cavalry capabilities or not might not depend on 'class' but on its specific weapons, some of which (spears, pikes) would have extra effect against mounted troops.
The 'Emblematic' troops might have a 'standard' suite of equipment each, like Greek Hoplites with bronze cuirass, helmet, and greaves (leg armor), shield of leather, wood and bronze, spear tipped with iron, Roman Legion with iron armor for torso and head, wood and iron shield, iron throwing spear, iron/low grade steel sword.
Of course, that kind of system would require a great deal of graphic work to distinguish troops with, say, leather versus bronze or iron/steel armor and the mass of possible weapons and materials combinations. It might, in fact, be too much to hope for, because I would expect such a system to have been Showcased o at least Hinted At by now: all of us old SMAC fans would already be drooling over our keyboards . . .
You know I'm the first to ask for more modding capabilities for civ6, but I think this here could be already possible to code thanks to its graphical capabilities.
IIRC you can define multiple variation of an unit element in the artdef, and we have functions to set those with Lua methods.
but the amount of work required...
