mitsho
Deity
Me too, I always have podcasts or music on when I play the game. So yeah, I was just as well strangely fascinated „there is music in the game?“. 
Humankind Game by Amplitude
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Prester John 2
Warlord
I love Civ2's soundtrack and had to relisten it. It has a certain mysterious nature and is the sound of my youth. I also loved the colonization vibes.
OmegaDestroyer
King
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One thing that is abundantly clear playing on higher "difficulties" is how truly poor Firaxis is at developing AI opponents. The game isn't hard because the AI makes sound tactical decisions; it's harder because it simply outproduces you. I really look forward to seeing how Humankind's AI shapes up. Amplitude's AI is in another league compared to the garbage we get in Civ. You'd think after developing the series for so long, the devs would up their game.
Lord Shadow
General
We've been over this for years on end. This isn't about Firaxis being "truly poor" at developing AI. This is a problem in every single complex strategy game because the intelligence of computer opponents has a fairly low ceiling within the context of the videogame industry and the resources devoted to it. It's just not viable to scale intelligence according to difficulty level because you don't have that much room to work with unless you want the easier difficulties to feature essentially braindead opponents. So you keep the AI roughly at its best (such as it is) at all times, and graduate the challenge with mechanical bonuses and/or penalties.
I'm sure you can try and bring up examples of games which you perceive do better on the AI front, and I'll tell you how their characteristics and context are different (and likely simpler). There's nothing quite like Civ, and everything that approaches its emergent complexity (Endless/Paradox games) runs into the same problems. Nobody has the resources nor the intent to "crack" "good" AI in this context. Especially because they have the rest of the game to worry about at the same time.
We'll have to see how Amplitude copes with this age-old challenge.
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OmegaDestroyer
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I am sure they will be able to program the AI to actually use catapults and take cities when possible to do so, instead of running away. It's a pretty low bar to reach.
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They don't at the moment. On steam charts right now Civ 6 has about 32k players, Amplitudes biggest - Endless Legend 2 - has about a tenth of that (~3,200). Versus Paradox with Hears of Iron at 23k and EU4 at 16k.
However I think the 'historical' genre is by far the most popular strategy genre (i.e. Civ, Paradox, Total War (Warhammer excepted), Age of Empires), and this will likely raise their profile.
Definitely, I'm surprised about how much people talk about 'competition' and 'civ-killer'. I don't think games - or any media for that matter- are 'zero sum' spaces so to speak in the same way a phone or a car might be. Games tend to live or die on their own merits and if both are good a lot of folks will buy both. In fact if both are good but with different mechanics, in can end up increasing the footprint/interest of the genre.
I think they've coped with it a similar manner as earlier Civ games - letting the modding community do it.
I can only speak for Endless Legend (and I never tried the AI mod which was supposed to improve things) but the AI there was on par or worse with Civs.
Lord Shadow
General
You're assuming far too many things: the depth of the problem, the height of the bar, and Amplitude's ability address that (and the rest of the AI's capability) in an acceptable manner without creating a host of problems of its own.
We can be hopeful while being mindful of the challenge and not underestimating it. Nor the work of those who came before.
Successful games in a genre will influence other games in that genre, and when a game has its genre pretty much to itself (as, for example, The Sims has) or has a particular corner of its genre pretty much to itself (as Civilization more or less has) then it can lead to stagnation and complacency. When I say "competition," I don't mean that it will hurt Civ's market share; I mean that it will spur Firaxis to make a better and more innovative Civ7. (Also Firaxis is clearly already conscious of what Amplitude does as their influence is already apparent on Civ6.)
ButtBillionaire
Warlord
Plus, both are on sale for 71-75% off, with varying percentages because I'm counting the various bundles on Steam, until the 12th.
Considering getting Endless Space 2 myself, so I can spend some time experiencing how Amplitude does 4X before Humankind drops.
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It makes sense. They've attracted a bunch of attention with Humankind. They can capitalize on it by selling some of their older games to the new potential customers.
Lord Shadow
General
Endless Legend's template is likely to be closer to Humankind's execution, but ES2 is great as well.
It actually worked, I'm going to try both of these games to feel Amplitude style.
I am especially curious how EL's combat and region systems work as they are IIRC going to be similar in Humankind
Elhoim
Iron Tower Studio Dev
I am actually very curious how Amplitude will handle religion, because it's been there in the lore of their previous games and been obliquely hinted at in mechanics, but they've never directly handled it before. I think most of us agree that Firaxis has not done a stellar job on that front.
Weraptor
King
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Ah, my bad.He said Region
Abaxial
Emperor
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I had a go at Endless Legend but I find it busy and confusing. I dare say if I worked at it it would become familiar, but It can't see it displacing Civ 6 for me. All the same, for £5.74, it's less than a round of drinks.
Speaking of things I'd like Civ to take from Endless Legend, I'd like them to use their 'marketplace' approach for selling/buying strategics (and maybe even luxes if they revamp those). I.e. instead of selling oil directly to another civ, you sell it (or buy it) from the common market. The price goes up or down depending on how much/how little of the good is in circulation.
What I'd really like if for them to start with the existing approach and switch to a 'common market' for fungible goods at a later era (Industrial?). I think switching up game mechanics mid game (as the eras progress), would give the game a less 'samey' feel as the game goes on.
What I'd really like if for them to start with the existing approach and switch to a 'common market' for fungible goods at a later era (Industrial?). I think switching up game mechanics mid game (as the eras progress), would give the game a less 'samey' feel as the game goes on.
Sherlock
Just one more turn...
It took me a few times for me to get the 'feel' of Endless Legend but eventually it became one of my all time favorites.
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