Humankind Game by Amplitude

[Boris Gudenuf]

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.

Yeah, I picked up EL as soon as I heard about Humankind last fall, when the Amplitude games were on sale on Steam. I strongly suspect that a lot of the Legend features will be carried over to Humankind, but it's intriguing to speculate on what they are changing: for starters, it appears that they are using a more conventional Tech Tree than EL's Tech Bush in which within the Era you could research in any sequence.
I would also be surprised if they keep the ability to 'customize' historical units with weapons, armor, and 'talismans' the way EL allowed. Although I would love to see such a system in a historical game, it would require too many 'set' units to recreate the historical Unique Units and unless done very carefully, that kind of system degenerates into Fantasy Units too easily.

 

[Wyvern_Parade]

I believe they have already confirmed that the unit customization will not be as granular as in Endless Legend. That's a huge plus for me because not only does it not translate well to the scale of this kind of historical game, but it also was extremely tedious and makes unit balance a lot more difficult than it needs to be.

 

[Boris Gudenuf]

I believe they have already confirmed that the unit customization will not be as granular as in Endless Legend. That's a huge plus for me because not only does it not translate well to the scale of this kind of historical game, but it also was extremely tedious and makes unit balance a lot more difficult than it needs to be.

Quite agree: historical 'unit customization' is a potential tar pit. On the other hand, I remember fondly the old workshop system in SMAC where you started with a 'platform' - Infantry, Vehicle, Flier, Boat - and added weapons and armor and gadgetry to suit as technology allowed. It worked in the context of a Science Fiction setting: in the historical context, you and your Greek Civ may or may not ever get to play with Hoplites unless "Spearman with bronze helmet, cuirass and greave round wooden shield covered in bronze and Civic that requires everyone who can afford it to show up with shield, helmet and spear" is a 'pre-set' unit.
Unfortunately, 99.9% of gamers wouldn't even know the components of most of the historical Units, and so would, ultimately, be disappointed in their game.

 

[Catoninetales_Amplitude]

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.

I'd encourage you to not transfer too many of your expectations of terrain from Civilization to Humankind. You'll see what I mean when we release the next dev diary, I hope.

 

[Eddie Verdde]

I'd encourage you to not transfer too many of your expectations of terrain from Civilization to Humankind. You'll see what I mean when we release the next dev diary, I hope.

I must say that terrain per se is not among my biggest concerns. I only customise terrain, map-size and climate in Civ to get a more interesting gameplay (a means to an end). So, I think that more important than the proportion of tundra or the characteristics of the terrain, is the overall mechanics of the gameplay and how it interacts with the terrain or the map.

But I'll eagerly wait for the next dev diary to know more about it.

 

[WillowBrook]

Has anyone compiled all the information we know for sure (or pretty sure) in one convenient place? I'm considering starting a thread for that (and then updating my initial post as more info comes to light), but I don't want to duplicate work.

 

[Hawke9]

If the dev diaries are released every week, we could expect one tonight. Anyone know what time the last one was uploaded? I thougth in about an hour from now.

 

[Catoninetales_Amplitude]

I can tell you that there will not be a new dev diary tonight, so don't hold your breath.

 

[Trav'ling Canuck]

*sweeps the dust bunnies and cobwebs out of the Other Civ-Related Games sub-forum*

Huh. This thread didn't even get assigned to "Other Games" like Total War and Alpha Centauri? It got pushed down into a sub-forum of that

Moderator Action: If you have an issue concerning moderation, this is not the place to discuss it. You can start a conversation with me. This is inappropriate for this thread. leif
Please read the forum rules: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=422889

 

[Boris Gudenuf]

*sweeps the dust bunnies and cobwebs out of the Other Civ-Related Games sub-forum*

Huh. This thread didn't even get assigned to "Other Games" like Total War and Alpha Centauri? It got pushed down into a sub-forum of that

Moderator Action: If you have an issue concerning moderation, this is not the place to discuss it. You can start a conversation with me. This is inappropriate for this thread. leif
Please read the forum rules: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=422889

I don't know, I kinds like it here: room to grow, second Humankind Thread has already been started, all the best people will probably move here eventually . . .
Think of it as a "Fixer-Upper"

 

[conorbebe]

Wow, this thread is difficult to find now...

 

[jddods]

Wow, this thread is difficult to find now...

Yeah it is but at least it is in the right place. I'm sure there shouldn't be a drop off in activity. We already have another Humankind thread and more will follow as we get more information.

 

[Cerilis]

Wow, this thread is difficult to find now...

Ikr? Had to make a new bookmark just for it!

 

[leif erikson]

Moderator Action: Back to the topic please.

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

Ikr? Had to make a new bookmark just for it!

And it's as easy as that.

 

[CivLuvah]

And it's as easy as that.

I depend on the alerts to find this thread anyway

 

[Boris Gudenuf]

For me, it's setting up Habits:
After Breakfast:
Fire Up Computer
Check News
Check E-Mail
Check games2gether Forum for direct Humankind posts
Check CivFanatics Forums for Alerts
Post for Too Long and at Interminable Length.
Get on with the day.
End of Day:
Repeat Morning Ritual.

 

[VermelhoRed]

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.

Have you guys considered making maps on the Kavrayskiy or Robinson projection? Just tossing the idea around, I think it's probably too late for changes now, but could be something to research in the future... I don't know if it's feasible, but it sure would look great!

 

[God of Kings]

Have you guys considered making maps on the Kavrayskiy or Robinson projection? Just tossing the idea around, I think it's probably too late for changes now, but could be something to research in the future... I don't know if it's feasible, but it sure would look great!

Those would be much better than the extremely overrated Mercator projection. Practically every single modern cartographer is tired of the Mercator projection (the traditional one with Ellesmere Island in northern Nunavut larger than Australia and Greenland being larger than South America).

 

[Gedemon]

Have you guys considered making maps on the Kavrayskiy or Robinson projection? Just tossing the idea around, I think it's probably too late for changes now, but could be something to research in the future... I don't know if it's feasible, but it sure would look great!

How does it work for world wrap with these projections ?