Humankind Game by Amplitude
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Revanchist
Warlord
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I think Humankind had a strong tailwind when everything was happening around the lucy opendev and the hype was building (I even managed to get 1000 views for my first lucy video within 1-2 days), but the sudden radio silence outside of some niche forums and a few developer diaries has certainly tempered my expectations.
I think I will still preorder the game because people want to see it, but I feel that the atmosphere has changed around the game and Civ 6 is gaining back its gallop with the consistent free updates and the new barbarians mode. Also, they (Firaxis) know when to dangle the carrot at least for me because 2/3 civilizations getting reworked makes me want to switch my attention to their franchise
Humankind could still knock it out of the park, but I don’t know if it will be quite the home run. Then again, who knows
I think I will still preorder the game because people want to see it, but I feel that the atmosphere has changed around the game and Civ 6 is gaining back its gallop with the consistent free updates and the new barbarians mode. Also, they (Firaxis) know when to dangle the carrot at least for me because 2/3 civilizations getting reworked makes me want to switch my attention to their franchise
Humankind could still knock it out of the park, but I don’t know if it will be quite the home run. Then again, who knows
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CivLuvah
Deity
That's my feeling as well. Well, better to delay a game then release it in a poor state.
AntSou
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Given there are 10 cultures left, there's no time for the one-culture-reveal-per-week approach they've used until now.
So they're either delaying or they're changing to two reveals per week to pump up excitement prior to the release, right?
TreVor_ish
Prince
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Well, it's Tuesday so perhaps some more news are coming today.
EDIT:
Maybe we will get Contemporary Cultures as a video - with all of them.
EDIT:
Maybe we will get Contemporary Cultures as a video - with all of them.
FinalDoomsday
Prince
My experience with NFP is overall pretty poor, the game modes are initially interesting but under scrutiny feel half baked with lots of oversights including barbarian mode which I was looking forward to.
Give Humankind credit for the lucy opendev and just letting us go wild with half of the game. I imagine they got huge amounts of feedback from that and part of the quietness is them reacting to it and deciding what needs to be changed. Of course I still want those cultural reveals back but thats mostly because it made my Tuesdays more exciting!
Revanchist
Warlord
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No culture reveal today
TreVor_ish
Prince
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I want it all,
I want it all,
I want it all,
And I want it now!
I want it all,
I want it all,
And I want it now!
mitsho
Deity
I think we have to settle for Blizzards tried and true „Soon TM“. 
DaviddesJ
Deity
The ten people who look every day to see if there's something new aren't really the ones who will determine the success of the game. That's not how marketing works. I think their strategy has been very successful, but it's not aimed at you.
Given that I dual wield college majors at the moment, and have like four other video games planned to finish/play with, I'd actually love to see Humankind postponed few months.
If my expectations of vaccination campaigns are correct, that would also bring the benefit of HK release coming at the twilight of Covid era* instead of the middle of the second wave. How glorious would it be, for a game paying respect to the human progress to be released at the time when we will (hopefully) witness the enormous achievement of global covid vaccine.
On another hand, late this year Warhammer 3 will be released (another game on top of my pile...) and Humankind devs certainly wouldn't like to compete with that beast of a strategy game. So if it is postponed, I expect it to release in Summer or September at the latest.
Random thought of the day: today it would be obviously tasteless, but give it 20 years and Humankind 4 will feature "pandemic" as a late game event. Good handling of the pandemic gets some fame, winning the race for the Vaccine wins a ton of fame, manufacturing it for other countries and helping them wins a ton of fame as well. It is honestly the perfect scenario for such strategy game, you could even amorally sabotage rival vaccines. As I said, just give it time...
* - for northern hemisphere at least
If my expectations of vaccination campaigns are correct, that would also bring the benefit of HK release coming at the twilight of Covid era* instead of the middle of the second wave. How glorious would it be, for a game paying respect to the human progress to be released at the time when we will (hopefully) witness the enormous achievement of global covid vaccine.
On another hand, late this year Warhammer 3 will be released (another game on top of my pile...) and Humankind devs certainly wouldn't like to compete with that beast of a strategy game. So if it is postponed, I expect it to release in Summer or September at the latest.
Random thought of the day: today it would be obviously tasteless, but give it 20 years and Humankind 4 will feature "pandemic" as a late game event. Good handling of the pandemic gets some fame, winning the race for the Vaccine wins a ton of fame, manufacturing it for other countries and helping them wins a ton of fame as well. It is honestly the perfect scenario for such strategy game, you could even amorally sabotage rival vaccines. As I said, just give it time...
* - for northern hemisphere at least
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zhugejingqi
Chieftain
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This is a very strange idea.
DaviddesJ
Deity
I don't see that much overlap with the Total War series. Certainly not enough for them to try to schedule their release around. There are other products that probably compete more. Plus, Creative Assembly is always releasing new stuff.
AntSou
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I think there's a lot, it's a strategy game. Most people I interacted with in the old total war forums played Civ. Even across genres there is occasionally overlap when it comes to huge titles with wide appeal (e.g. Red Dead Redemption 2). I'd think Amplitude would prefer to release on a quieter month this year. By quieter I mean any month other than September/November, whenever Warhammer 3 is being released.
Here's the "Similar Items" list for Humankind on steam. It's exactly what I'd expect it to be:
https://store.steampowered.com/recommended/morelike/app/1124300/
I doubt it. I don't think it's tasteless to represent pandemics in games in an abstract manner. We have no issues with representations of crime and war. The Pandemic board game is highly successful and the whole Zombie pop culture is about pandemics. If there are reservations regarding such representations in the current environment, I think it's less from the part of consumers and more about businesses being overly careful.
Besides, why 20 years? You say it like you expect this pandemic to be a one off thing. I think people will just learn to live with the possibility of global pandemics and adjust their expectations accordingly.
Seeing how pandemics have been crucial to human history, I'd expect disease and pandemics either at release or in a future DLC for Humankind.
Boris Gudenuf
Deity
If you wait 20 years you'll be dealing with, probably, at least two more pandemics after the current one: they are averaging a new one every 10 years or so . . .
As for pandemics in history, they have had a large role, but not one you can realistically put into a 4X game without some tweaking:
Let's see: You are playing Aztecs and you just contacted people from Eurasia - Here comes Smallpox, you lose 3/4 of your population in One Turn.
You are Imperial Rome - Oops, Antonine Plague just started, lose 1/3 of your population and Army in One Turn - unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be affecting all those invading barbarians that much. Too bad.
And You are Byzantium - Justinian's Plague, you hit the Trifecta of Terribleness: lose half your population in (here it comes) One Turn.
And we haven't even gotten to the Ring Around The Rosie Black Death yet.
Try selling That as a Fun Game.
You practically have to include Pandemics/Plagues as a Natural Disaster of varying degrees, and realize that like some of the least-liked Natural Disasters (Hurricanes, Tornado sets) in Civ VI, there is nothing at all you can do about them for most of the game. Around 1600 CE Venice invents the Quarantine, but before that, all you can do is collect the bodies every morning and pray. Come to think of it, you could include Prayer against the Wrath of the Gods as a new Apostle 'promotion' that protects from the worst of Plague . . .
FinalDoomsday
Prince
Total War Attila had a squalor and sanitation mechanic that I liked from a gameplay stance. Every economic building increased squalor in a settlement while waterworks like wells or aqueducts increased sanitation. If squalor exceeded sanitation in a settlement then there was a chance of an outbreak every turn with that increasing the more squalor there was.
Its not very realistic that you could eliminate disease with some sewers and a fountain but you could still get outbreaks spread from other settlements. I liked it because it gave you interesting desicions like do you upgrade that market and let your settlement dip slightly into squalor? The chance is low but you never know... You can play it safe but sanitation buildings are expensive and they won't help you from a warband sacking your town.
A dysentry outbreak in my own Ostrogoth army inadvertantly helped me when it spread to the invading Huns and blunted their armies. A horrific turn of events that kept my little kingdom safe for a few more years.
Of course Total War Attila works off four turns per year a much,much tighter timeframe than Humankind! I'm not sure how you should implement disease in a somewhat reasonable way as Boris is right that it would probably just be your empire losing half its population in a turn. I think it is generally abstracted as limited urban growth like Civ's housing mechanic.
Its not very realistic that you could eliminate disease with some sewers and a fountain but you could still get outbreaks spread from other settlements. I liked it because it gave you interesting desicions like do you upgrade that market and let your settlement dip slightly into squalor? The chance is low but you never know... You can play it safe but sanitation buildings are expensive and they won't help you from a warband sacking your town.
A dysentry outbreak in my own Ostrogoth army inadvertantly helped me when it spread to the invading Huns and blunted their armies. A horrific turn of events that kept my little kingdom safe for a few more years.
Of course Total War Attila works off four turns per year a much,much tighter timeframe than Humankind! I'm not sure how you should implement disease in a somewhat reasonable way as Boris is right that it would probably just be your empire losing half its population in a turn. I think it is generally abstracted as limited urban growth like Civ's housing mechanic.
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Boris Gudenuf
Deity
That's the other side of 'disease'. The latest archeology indicates that early cities had an effective population growth of 0 because of disease brought about and inflated by having lots of people (and their animals) in confined spaces. The growth of cities was entirely due to people moving in from the countryside.
This was not merely an Ancient/Classical phenomena: as late as the mid-19th century there were cholera epidemics in London and Paris virtually every summer and the aristocratic custom of spending part of the year out on your estate might have become fashionable, but it started as a way of surviving the worst months of the year in town!
And in Classical/Imperial Rome, for which we probably have the best records, there were epidemics of note in:
95 CE - malaria
125 CE - unknown plague/epidemic
165 CE - Antonine Plague, possibly smallpox
249 CE - Cyprian Plague - again possibly smallpox
275 CE - Plague
309 CE - plague of possibly Anthrax
425 CE - Plague, which also decimates a Hun army (Shades of Total War Attila!)
444 CE - Bubonic Plague hits European Roman Empire
455 CE - Plague of Scarlet Fever, possibly related to the first Avar incursions
541 CE - Plague of Justinian hits everywhere from Europe to western Asia and Egypt
590 CE - Bubonic Plague (possibly) hits Rome itself
Anyway, you get the picture: if you have wide ranging trade and travel connections as Rome did, Plague is a near-constant at Humankind game turn times, and just in single Era (above list is just the last third or so of the Classical) you can get hit with 3 Major Epidemics (Antonine, Cyprian, Justinian) that wipe out up to half your population each time.
So, you have recurring Natural Disasters several times every Era until the late Industrial (Pasteur, germ theory et al) plus a general reduction of population growth caused by near-constant 'minor' epidemics virtually every single turn.
Catoninetales_Amplitude
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I think we have some events about disease, but there's no "system" for diseases and epidemics. Perhaps it could be something to look at for future content.
Trav'ling Canuck
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I expect diseases could be efficiently handled as part of the event systems. That way you could customize the impact / choices by era, and it would represent truly horrific outbreaks, rather than the every decade or so events that, frankly, can be abstracted away as part of the underlying population growth system. Would be tough to have a general system about diseases without first having an underlying health-system, and it wouldn't necessarily add much to gameplay as it's primary effect would be to modify population growth. The most noteworthy outbreaks, the ones that had an impact on people's behaviour/thought, seem prime candidates for events. (This terrible thing is happening - how do you respond and how does that change your society going forward?)
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