Humankind Game by Amplitude

[CivLuvah]

I have never had this problem with Civ5, even though its Art Deco UI design seems subtle - it is there and it builds "universal history vibe" better.

I had the same feeling with Civ5... as well as the UI on this one

 

[SupremacyKing2]

You know what, everything looks great apart of one thing...

...am I the only one who really dislikes this bland, minimalist "blue rectangles" UI design?
I have never understood why does every Amplitude game has the same UI design, regardless if its setting is space opera, high fantasy or history of civilizations. In Endless Legend it was even worse when you have this United Nations 2030 Presentation UI clashing with swords and monsters. Here it at least fits later eras but its so damn modern, sharp and nearly futuristic for a game where you spend half of it before gunpowder. I have just automatically assumed they'd finally change their UI after 8 years instead of sending it in almost identical form from space opera to ancient Assyria.

I have never had this problem with Civ5, even though its Art Deco UI design seems subtle - it is there and it builds "universal history vibe" better.

Personally, I find the UI in Humankind to be very clean and sharp. It's easy to see what is what.

 

[SupremacyKing2]

I wonder if there will be opportunities to revise your culture's civic choices (and ideological leaning) throughout the game?

I think the civics are fixed once you pick them but you can adjust the sliders by making different choices when special events pop up as well as what new civics you pick. So yes, you can revise your ideological leaning in the game.

 

[FinalDoomsday]

Amplitude's UI's are clean and functional they do a generally good job of telling you what you need to know. Going for a minimalist design is the right choice considering your playing so many cultures over so many eras if betrays the multicultural element of the game if you start giving the UI a certain cultural look like Art Deco or Civ 6's 'Age of Discovery' Aesthetic.

 

[SupremacyKing2]

Yeah, I think a clean UI is important. Sure, a UI with a historical "skin" might be more atmospheric but it can also be distracting and make it harder for the player to do things.

One of the worst examples IMO is the Birth of the Federation UI where the game actually had a unique "skin" on the UI based on which civ you were playing.

Romulan

Klingon

It's the same UI just with a different "skin" but it made the UI a bit distracting IMO.

 

[Zaarin]

I will never tolerate an ill word about Birth of the Federation. That game is positively perfect in every way.

 

[SupremacyKing2]

I will never tolerate an ill word about Birth of the Federation. That game is positively perfect in every way.

Oh, I played the heck of the game when it came out. I still love the game. But it was not perfect.

 

[Timberdoodle]

Personally I think that Amplitude have stepped up their UI game with Humankind. In Endless Legend and Endless Space the UI functioned well and presented you with good information, but I wasn't a huge fan of the aesthetics. In Humankind it looks like they have put more focus on the appearance of the UI and the various menus/screens. I love the look of the civics screen!

 

[Zaarin]

Oh, I played the heck of the game when it came out. I still love the game. But it was not perfect.

Its only flaw is that the Borg are game-breaking. I once played a game where the Borg had destroyed every empire on the map; the Romulans and I were both down to a single system. I was crossing my fingers that the Romulans would lose their system first, making me the de facto winner; alas, it was not to be. (But seriously, I love BotF's UI. It's a little confusing at first--like most parts of the game--but it's fine once you get used to it. And it would have felt weird having an LCARS UI as anyone but the Federation.)

As for the original topic of Humankind's UI, it's a little too minimalist for my taste, but it's well laid out, which is the most important thing. I'd still prefer something with a little more character.

 

[Boris Gudenuf]

Its only flaw is that the Borg are game-breaking. I once played a game where the Borg had destroyed every empire on the map; the Romulans and I were both down to a single system. I was crossing my fingers that the Romulans would lose their system first, making me the de facto winner; alas, it was not to be. (But seriously, I love BotF's UI. It's a little confusing at first--like most parts of the game--but it's fine once you get used to it. And it would have felt weird having an LCARS UI as anyone but the Federation.)

Just to jump in here, the flaw was that ALL the Random Events were ghastly: they all seemed to be based on the disasters visited on the Enterprise in the original series, so nothing positive ever came out of any of them. If you didn't want a random disaster randomly wiping out half your fleet or your scout every other system it entered (or All your fleet in the case of the Borg) you learned to turn off Random Events in every game. Would love to see someone grab the title and run a new game with it, though . . .

As for the original topic of Humankind's UI, it's a little too minimalist for my taste, but it's well laid out, which is the most important thing. I'd still prefer something with a little more character.

Don't let's all forget that all we've seen is a Press Release Version of an 'ALPHA' Build of the game. There's a Long Way between the UI we're seeing now and what we may see on Release.

 

[Zaarin]

Just to jump in here, the flaw was that ALL the Random Events were ghastly: they all seemed to be based on the disasters visited on the Enterprise in the original series, so nothing positive ever came out of any of them. If you didn't want a random disaster randomly wiping out half your fleet or your scout every other system it entered (or All your fleet in the case of the Borg) you learned to turn off Random Events in every game. Would love to see someone grab the title and run a new game with it, though . . .

Correction: there was one random event where someone dies and leaves you a bunch of money. My personal favorite (after the Borg), though, was, "A prominent ambassador has forwarded a very insulting letter to your contact in the [insert faction] Empire. Your relationship has suffered." Are. You. Kidding. Me? Can I not just disown and/or publicly disembowel that ambassador?

Would love to see someone grab the title and run a new game with it, though . . .

There are a few, but being fan made limits them a bit.

 

[SupremacyKing2]

"A prominent ambassador has forwarded a very insulting letter to your contact in the [insert faction] Empire. Your relationship has suffered." Are. You. Kidding. Me? Can I not just disown and/or publicly disembowel that ambassador?

Yeah, I imagine public disemboweling in that case would be standard if you are playing as the Klingons.

 

[Zaarin]

Yeah, I imagine public disemboweling in that case would be standard if you are playing as the Klingons.

I was thinking more of the Cardassians, but yeah, Klingons, too.

 

[CivLuvah]

@Catoninetales_Amplitude In many of the preview alpha gameplay videos that I've seen, I always hear some small voices coming from the units when they move towards a tile, especially in the early part of the B-roll. Does that mean units will have voiceovers like in RTS games, and will the language of the voices depend on the culture you selected for an era?

 

[Boris Gudenuf]

@Catoninetales_Amplitude In many of the preview alpha gameplay videos that I've seen, I always hear some small voices coming from the units when they move towards a tile, especially in the early part of the B-roll. Does that mean units will have voiceovers like in RTS games, and will the language of the voices depend on the culture you selected for an era?

My old artillery ears missed those, but I can hear at least two problems with making them unique to Factions/Cultures: the Olmecs and Harappans. They could cobble up Olmec-ish voice-overs from the modern Mixe-Zoquean dialects spoken in the Olmec 'heartland' area, but Harappan is a Blank Slate: Pre-Indo-European and unrelated to any modern language, as far as I know.

 

[Boris Gudenuf]

I was thinking more of the Cardassians, but yeah, Klingons, too.

The Cardassians would disembowel you dispassionately
The Klingons would do it with glee
The Romulans would make you disembowel yourself, and might even give you points for Style
The Ferenghi wouldn't disembowel you until they'd finished selling tickets to the spectacle.
The Federation, of course, don't do disembowelings, but might sentence you to being reconditioned so that you don't mind watching the Ferenghi spectacles any more

 

[leif erikson]

Moderator Action: Please come back to the topic.

 

[SupremacyKing2]

Here is a good interview with Jeff Spock, Narrative Director/Lead Writer on Humankind. He discusses the design choice behind picking different cultures each era, the narrative behind the special events, the importance of balancing the different playstyles and more:

 

[mitsho]

I like the clean User Interface. I do think going with a special style can give a game character: the Art Deco suited Civ5 well. More important than the look is that the UI is functional though, it should provide the information that is needed and not make you click uselessly, as that is what is turning me off civ6 for example.

They clearly also put a lot of thought in the "Random" Events with regard to the UI. Here, the looks do matter a lot. If you don't give the flooding character, it's just text on a wall and a modifier for you to choose from. Better do it right and tell a good story. But... it also means that repetition might be the death of it. I don't have a problem with it though: In civ, I play on fast speeds as I want to get to experience the unique units of the civ I chose to play with. Here in Humankind, I may play fewer overall games, but I am sure to get to play with the emblematics since they change every era. This might also mean it will be easy to pause a game when reaching a new era and continue to play it one week later. I have high hopes in that. This also means that it is okay to invest in the UI for the random events.

I do have my doubts though about that era-entering movie. Is this the same every time and does it play every time? I might get tired of hearing "fish and lentils" there. But again, if I play overall fewer games with Humankind, this could be bearable. After all, with around 20 games, you should have experienced every culture at least once, but of course not in every situation .

(I have never played Birth of the Federation, I may be a little too young for that in my thirties... )

 

[SupremacyKing2]

The interview discusses the problem of 4X games that often suffer from a tedious endgame because one player is far ahead. Jeff says that he hopes the fame system will prevent this problem since players who are behind can still catch up by earning fame points in different areas. Players who are ahead will still want to play to the end of the game to see if they earned enough fame to actually win. He also hopes that picking a new culture each era will make players want to continue playing because even if they are ahead, they will still want to get to that interesting choice of picking a new culture or transcending their current one.

@Catoninetales_Amplitude On this issue, do eras modify how much fame something is worth? For example, do wonders earn more fame in different eras? I ask because I feel like modifying how much fame players can earn at different points in the game could really address this issue by creating early game or late game opportunities to earn more fame, for players who are behind to catch up and just make the "race to fame" more intense. Perhaps things could earn +50% more fame in the last 75 turns of the game. This would create like a finish line sprint where the last 75 turns of the game would be faster in terms of fame earned. It would make the endgame more intense and thus prevent the late game from getting tedious.

Thanks. I am super excited for this game.