Humankind Game by Amplitude

[CivLuvah]

It's not clear that what you or most people on CFC regard as high quality is even what drives Civilization's sales at this point. I also don't think there's a fixed size market and that one game cannibalizes sales of the other.

I think what drives sales for Civ is that it's an established game series. A lot of people buy it because a lot of people know about it and want to get into it.

And yeah, the market for big history games like Civ and Humankind is quite fluid, considering that so far the people who are most interested in Humankind are also those who love or have played lots of Civ, so it's possible that one person can play both games.

I think what he was hinting at is the scale of ambition that Humankind offers on the table compared to what Civ6 has right now (I have to admit). Presenting your game as a direct competitor to Civ is not easy. So far the direct competitors to Civ that I know of are simple mobile games that have passive mechanics.

 

[Revanchist]

It's not clear that what you or most people on CFC regard as high quality is even what drives Civilization's sales at this point. I also don't think there's a fixed size market and that one game cannibalizes sales of the other.

It wasn’t just about whether or not something was high quality, it was also the push towards having an ama on civ’s own subreddit which is very ballsy and certainly catches the attention of civ customers who may have been holding off on the frontier pass. It’s important to note that these two games occupy a very similar niche, and they will have to inevitably compete with each other and adapt. Personally, I will wait and see until I make a verdict, but it looks like the reception to the AMA was positive which is a very good sign for amplitude, and may encourage more aggressive pushes depending on how the studio reacts to feedback.

 

[Siptah]

While I hope Humankind will be a great game, it is too early to call it a better game than civ VI - there are still too much unknown core factors, most notably: fame victory, diplomacy, AI. Each one of these has the power to ruin the game, if they do not work well. They could also hamper the replayability to a large extent. Civ VI was also a lot of fun for me in the first 100 hours, and I kept on playing beyond that until I become very stale and boring, much earlier than civ V or the early civ games. From what I know about Humankind, I can see the potential, but it can still turn out similar or even worse.

 

[SupremacyKing2]

I love what I am seeing with Humankind. It does look like a serious competitor to civ. But folks, let's not bash Firaxis or civ6 just because we like Humankind. Remember that the civ6 devs are people too. They work very hard and love their work. I am sure they are very proud of their work. The civ6 devs have a certain vision for what they want their game to be which guides their design decisions. The Humankind devs have their own vision for their game which is also guiding their design decisions. We can prefer one vision over the other but it does not mean that the other is trash.

 

[FinalDoomsday]

I love what I am seeing with Humankind. It does look like a serious competitor to civ. But folks, let's not bash Firaxis or civ6 just because we like Humankind. Remember that the civ6 devs are people too. They work very hard and love their work. I am sure they are very proud of their work. The civ6 devs have a certain vision for what they want their game to be which guides their design decisions. The Humankind devs have their own vision for their game which is also guiding their design decisions. We can prefer one vision over the other but it does not mean that the other is trash.

I really dont see anyone trashing Civ 6 or Firaxis here just criticising the design choices and expressing personal dissapointment with the direction that certain aspects have taken. I dont think anyone here would argue Civ 6 is not a well built game clearly made by talented people.

For me I disagree with the civ philosophy of one third new, one third reworked and one third old it's too conservative for my liking for a game that is inevitably going to retreading a lot of old ground by it's nature (civilisations that are must haves, units, tech etc) they should try and be more radical in the areas they can change.

Humankind is certainly looking like it will be far removed from its closest relative Endless Legend in many ways and that kind of boldness is exactly what i'm after in strategy games and what I've come to expect from Amplitude.

 

[CivLuvah]

It's happening later today! @Krajzen

 

[FinalDoomsday]

Brave historian! Hopefully they are not bombarded with 'Why did you put in X and not Y?!' type questions I'm quite interested to know how much input the historians have regarding mechanics like city building and civics.

 

[Revanchist]

One thing I have noticed is that they are ramping up interviews, promotional material, and reveals. The director also noted in the AMA that, if feedback was positive which it was so far (OpenDev), then the release would be much sooner. They also said a release date was planned to be announced soon, so that gives me hopes for a January/February launch date

 

[Kouvb593kdnuewnd]

One thing I have noticed is that they are ramping up interviews, promotional material, and reveals. The director also noted in the AMA that, if feedback was positive which it was so far (OpenDev), then the release would be much sooner. They also said a release date was planned to be announced soon, so that gives me hopes for a January/February launch date

How many revelas are left? With 1 per week and atleast +20 left, we could expect the reveals to be all done around early next year.

 

[CivLuvah]

How many revelas are left? With 1 per week and atleast +20 left, we could expect the reveals to be all done around early next year.

I guess as long as they've run out of culture reveals? I don't know.

 

[Revanchist]

How many revelas are left? With 1 per week and atleast +20 left, we could expect the reveals to be all done around early next year.

25 are left, which means something like 175 days from now, or January 27th

 

[Kouvb593kdnuewnd]

25 are left, which means something like 175 days from now, or January 27th

Keep in mind that the game was first set to release 2020, so early 2021 is not unlikely.

 

[SupremacyKing2]

Watching the livestream, I wish they let Benoit just answer in his native French and then translate afterwards. I know he is doing his best but his English is pretty broken and it makes it harder to understand his answers.

 

[Revanchist]

I don't think his English is bad, but having him speak in French would make it harder for chat to respond and ask questions as this is a Q and A

 

[CivLuvah]

But wait guys, there's more!

 

[Krajzen]

I just wanted to express my thoughts about Early Modern African culture:

70% it is Songhai (probably expansionist, though that would be weird with Spain and Ottomans)
10% it is Oyo/Yoruba (aestethe or militarist, though first would be weird with Edo and Ming)
10% it is Somali or Swahilli (merchant)
10% it is Mutapa (builder or merchant)

Alphabetically speaking, we are past Abissynia, Adal, Ajuran, Angola, Ashanti, Benin, Dahomey, Ethiopia, Hausa, Igbo, Kilwa, Kongo, Malagasy, Matamba and Merina. There are also Mossi, Ndongo and Rozwi, but I don't believe in any of those groups getting in anyway.

 

[Revanchist]

The Turks/Ottomans would probably be militarist, but there is a small chance they could be included in industrial

 

[Narcisse]

probably expansionist.

I reserve Songhai for a pack with Kongo and Portuguese
There is interactions/battles between Portuguese and Kongo/Songhai

 

[Jcturmer]

How do we know that there is an african culture in the early modern era?

Only 5 cultures left and we have clues about Spanish, Inca, Poland, Sweden and Venice?? With Ottoman and the african culture there are too much. I'm confused.

 

[Kouvb593kdnuewnd]

If we have seen a swedish city name, can we also see what graphics it had and thus tell what era Sweden will be in?

Only 5 cultures left and we have clues about Spanish, Inca, Poland, Sweden and Venice?? With Ottoman and the african culture there are too much. I'm confused.

Obviously all of these don't have to be early modern. Spanish and Inca would likely be. Poland there seems to not be clear if it will be in or not but winged hussars would be an early modern unit which would mean Poland would be early modern. Sweden could be any of the three eras. Venice would very likely be early modern since it lost its independence in the late 1700s or something like that.

So I say Inca, Spain and Venice would most likely be early modern while Poland, Sweden wont be included at all or may be tied to other era. This leave room for two more cultures or one if Poland is in and is early modern so Ottomans or maybe Mughals + Ottomans may be in, atleast with cultures like Venice and Poland, Ottomans feels like a possible choice.

These are the total amount of cultures per affinity per era ancient/classical/medieval

• Aesthete 2/1/0
  
• Agarian 1/1/1
  
• Builder 1/1/1
• Expansionist 1/2/2
  
• Merchant 2/2/2
  
• Militarist 2/2/3
  
• Scientist 1/1/1

For early modern we currently have 1 merchant, 1 agarian, 1 scientist and 2 Aesthete. Based on the "past" we should expect 1 builder, 1 or 2 expansionist, 2 militarist and 1 more merchant.

However the medieval era did not have aesthete at all so it is possible that expansionist, builder or militarist will not be represented in early modern. Also no era have had the exact same setup of affinities but the difference are not large. Between ancient and classical era he difference is 1 less Aesthete for 1 more expansionist and the difference between classical and medieval era is 1 less Aesthete for 1 more militarist.