Humankind Game by Amplitude

[tedhebert]

Been watching all the videos listed in the first Impressions Thread. boy am I excited by this game ;-)

One thought really popped in my mind when watching that specific image of all the cultures available in the build ( I think there were some 14 on the image) with details on their bonuses; The Egyptian UU, the Markabata, seems to me extremely strong for a culture that is tagged as builder, and not Militarist. At 27 ST, 6 moves and 3 range, it seems to me that it compares pretty well to UU available to other cultures from the NEXT Era. I'm sure all those numbers will be further revised as balancing the game keeps on, but this suggest to me ways in which a long term strategy will be able to be prepared in advance and make a possible race for choosing next culture a very real thing.

I hope there are many other examples of this linked to the emblematic infra and/or the legacy trait. those would be more subtle and harder to figure out than militaruy unit strength without actually playing the game, but they've really got my hopes up !

 

[Catoninetales_Amplitude]

To be clear, when you get 7 era stars, you automatically progress to the next era. You can't stick around to get more era stars

Confirming what Siptah and Elhoim are saying: It's your choice when you advance once you have 7 stars.

 

[Siptah]

The Egyptian UU, the Markabata, seems to me extremely strong for a culture that is tagged as builder, and not Militarist. At 27 ST, 6 moves and 3 range, it seems to me that it compares pretty well to UU available to other cultures from the NEXT Era. I'm sure all those numbers will be further revised as balancing the game keeps on, but this suggest to me ways in which a long term strategy will be able to be prepared in advance and make a possible race for choosing next culture a very real thing.

One streamer pointed out that the Markabata requires horses to build, which you might not have access to. I don't know requirements of other EUs, but that might be why it's stronger. And similar to the Egyptian UU in civ VI, it might be strong but too expensive to build a lot of them. We don't really know.

To me, Egypt seems to be, once again, the prime wonder builder culture. You spam trade quarters and their EQ that gives influence based on adjacency to unlock the wonders, which are reduced in price. Additionally, the builder trait seems to give a mind-boggling amount of industry. You might want to go builder-aesthete-builder-aesthete-builder-aesthete though for wonders ;-)

 

[danza4x]

Mycenaeans also look like they could be pretty insanely strong. That +200% XP is a legacy trait, right? So that will carry on throughout the game?

Yeesh, nobody knows how the game will play out yet but I can picture some horrific military strategies coming out of that.

 

[Siptah]

Mycenaeans also look like they could be pretty insanely strong. That +200% XP is a legacy trait, right? So that will carry on throughout the game?

Yeesh, nobody knows how the game will play out yet but I can picture some horrific military strategies coming out of that.

Their EU gets it’s bonus only in friendly terrain though, and the militarist trait seems to be better for defense compared to offense. Except maybe all out offense. But yes, Gaining XP with thrice the speed seems quite strong.

 

[danza4x]

Their EU gets it’s bonus only in friendly terrain though, and the militarist trait seems to be better for defense compared to offense. Except maybe all out offense. But yes, Gaining XP with thrice the speed seems quite strong.

You wouldn't necessarily have to fight the war during that era, though. You could pick them early, then spend the next two eras farming xp for a big push with a Medieval militarist or something like that.

 

[SupremacyKing2]

Confirming what Siptah and Elhoim are saying: It's your choice when you advance once you have 7 stars.

Thanks for the clarification.

 

[danza4x]

Their EU gets it’s bonus only in friendly terrain though, and the militarist trait seems to be better for defense compared to offense. Except maybe all out offense. But yes, Gaining XP with thrice the speed seems quite strong.

Having said all that, though, I do like this design. You might pick the Mycenaeans if you feel vulnerable to early war, so you gain the defensive bonuses, and then 'turn the tables' so to speak by becoming an insane military powerhouse yourself later in the game.

 

[SupremacyKing2]

Having said all that, though, I do like this design. You might pick the Mycenaeans if you feel vulnerable to early war, so you gain the defensive bonuses, and then 'turn the tables' so to speak by becoming an insane military powerhouse yourself later in the game.

Which is great both from a gameplay perspective but also from a historical perspective. Cultures did change over time. Some cultures started agrarian and became militaristic or started militaristic and later became very cultural and scientific.

 

[Gwydden]

You and what feels like 90% of our fans.

You know what you gotta do, then

But Endless Legend is my favorite 4X to date, and I really like that Humankind seems to be turning out as a sort of sequel to it, mechanically speaking, while adapting gameplay to the historical theme. I couldn't get into Endless Space 2 (space bores me, I'm sorry to say), but I'm really excited about this game. Thank you for taking the time to answer questions and the like.

 

[Nerevatar]

Love both endless space 2 and endless legend (also the fantasy aspect, but I would buy an rpg in the Endless universe instantly!), and humankind looks like the spiritual successor, so im very excited!

 

[Boris Gudenuf]

Something that occurs to me about Progressions and Era Advance and multiple Cultures in this game.

The Civics are multi-Era. That is, once you decide to build an army of 'Conscripts' in the Ancient Era, unless you pick a contrary Civic later, your Conscript Army still has the same structure in the Modern Era - when your Mycenean Conscripts are presumably carrying rifles!

The Legacies are multi-Era: in fact, the whole idea of the Legacy Bonuses is that they carry over into succeeding Eras.

Emblematic structures/Quarters remain when you change Eras. The Mycenean Citadel on the hill may have modern American graffiti all over it, but it's (apparently) still giving the same bonuses it gave to Agamemnon 5 Eras earlier.

All of which means that choosing a Faction, especially when you arrive at an Era late and miss your 'favorite' choice, is not Game Breaking: you build a particular 'flavor' of your Faction from the first Era on regardless of the particular Faction you are playing at any single moment in time/Game.

Rather like placing an early District in Civ VI, the best Humankind players are going to have to be knowledgeable about the possible interactions of their early choices with later choices in the game regarding Civics, Factions, and probably Religion, Units, and other things.

The vision of the game is breathtaking graphically, but the depth of the game is potentially equally breathtaking.

Durn, gotta stop typing - I'm drooling on my keyboard . . .

 

[CivLuvah]

you build a particular 'flavor' of your Faction from the first Era on regardless of the particular Faction you are playing at any single moment in time/Game.

Durn, gotta stop typing - I'm drooling on my keyboard . . .

Here we go with the food metaphors again

 

[FinalDoomsday]

If combat is anything like Endless Legend (which it appears to be with some simplification) that Roman +3 army limit will be a huge bonus. If you've got a 5 unit cap limit based on your current technology/civics if Rome is at a similar level they'll be rocking up with an 8 unit limit army. Now sure you can have reinforcements but Rome can deploy 8 units into battle at a time with combat apparently being quite lethal according to Eurogamers preview theres a good chance you'll be overwhelmed and your reinforcements will be going into a slaughter.

Some other powerful bonuses there but that one sticks out to me mostly from my Endless Legend experience which I'll admit is flawed of course but Humankinds combat still seems to share the same essential DNA.

 

[ost]

you build a particular 'flavor' of your Faction from the first Era on regardless of the particular Faction you are playing at any single moment in time/Game.

That's a really great observation. Arguably, the interaction between civics, event choices, and ideology is just as innovative a game mechanic as the cultural musical chairs that happens every era.

By the way, anybody else think that you'll be able to transcend as your neolithic tribe allowing for the in-game recreation of that weird, but endearing spacefaring EDM neanderthal as seen in the first trailer?

 

[SupremacyKing2]

If combat is anything like Endless Legend (which it appears to be with some simplification) that Roman +3 army limit will be a huge bonus. If you've got a 5 unit cap limit based on your current technology/civics if Rome is at a similar level they'll be rocking up with an 8 unit limit army. Now sure you can have reinforcements but Rome can deploy 8 units into battle at a time with combat apparently being quite lethal according to Eurogamers preview theres a good chance you'll be overwhelmed and your reinforcements will be going into a slaughter.

Some other powerful bonuses there but that one sticks out to me mostly from my Endless Legend experience which I'll admit is flawed of course but Humankinds combat still seems to share the same essential DNA.

I agree +3 is powerful. Part of me thinks maybe it should be +2 instead.

But we should keep in mind that terrain is very important. So if you pick terrain that is favorable to your defense, you might be able to hold off the larger Roman army. In particular, we know that cliffs are not passable. So it would make sense to place ranged units on cliffs and rain down ranged attacks on the Roman army. Also, if you are a science civ, you might be ahead in science and have better military units that the Romans. So a bigger army is not a guarantee that you will win.

I do think the larger army is a very good historial bonus for the Romans has they did have strong military organization and bigger armies. It reminds me of the historical battles where Rome had larger enemies but the barbarians use the forest to try to gain an advantage.

 

[ost]

I interpreted the Roman bonus a little differently, I think it increases the number of armies that you could field before incurring the penalty associated with not having a "general", which would make the bonus still powerful but much more reasonable. Besides, I don't think we should take numbers too seriously at this point.

 

[CivLuvah]

If combat is anything like Endless Legend (which it appears to be with some simplification) that Roman +3 army limit will be a huge bonus. If you've got a 5 unit cap limit based on your current technology/civics if Rome is at a similar level they'll be rocking up with an 8 unit limit army. Now sure you can have reinforcements but Rome can deploy 8 units into battle at a time with combat apparently being quite lethal according to Eurogamers preview theres a good chance you'll be overwhelmed and your reinforcements will be going into a slaughter.

Some other powerful bonuses there but that one sticks out to me mostly from my Endless Legend experience which I'll admit is flawed of course but Humankinds combat still seems to share the same essential DNA.

Where did we get info for the Roman bonus?

 

[ost]

It was posted a few pages back, I think from the PartyElite first impressions video:

 

[Elhoim]

@Catoninetales_Amplitude: Can you replace quarters with another one? For example, replace an agrarian one for a trade one. Or once you plop them they stay as they are forever and ever?