Xaviarlol
Warlord
- Joined
- May 27, 2011
- Messages
- 276
Hi guys, Xaviar here from Civ 5/6 Improvements Mod. Just wanted to put together an initial list of what I believe are changes and/or improvements are needed for Humankind based based on my initial impressions.
My overall initial opinion of the game is that it is a great start by Amplitude and has huge potential for improvements and upgrades as they continue to support it through patches, DLCs and expansions (and eventually sequels).
If there was one sentence I would use to describe the state of the game it would be this: The game has an excellent base, filled with great ideas and systems, but a lot of them need to be more fleshed out with depth, unpacked with more content, which would hopefully give it more soul.
The list
Religion: Spreading your religion is not rewarding, nor is it fun. In fact, pretty much the entire Religion system is probably the weakest game system in Humankind. This is probably fertile ground for the first expansion. I would love to see more ways to spread relgion via units/missionaries, as well as rewards for doing so. I would also like to see faith as a currency that can be spent on various things - giving you further incentive to maximize faith. I think taking a few pages out of Civ 6's book here is not a bad thing.
Wonders: Wonders are fertile ground for modding improvements, mainly because they are very bland in the base-game. I suspect many modders will aim to make improvements to wonders by giving them greater and more interesting effects. If/when I release Improvements Mod for Humankind, my design for wonders is that they would be as impactful as civ/culture selection.
Natural Wonders: I may be missing something here, but from what I've seen all natural wonders do nothing except give the owner the same amount of bonus influence. I think a page out of Civ 6's book is the solution to this one. Would love to see natural wonders have yield-style and gameplay effects for the owner, and perhaps even some districts that interact with them for further yields/effects.
Culture/influence: I don't mind the majority of the influence system in Humankind, particularly as it functions as a currency, and how it shapes your ideology. However the spreading of influence mechanic needs way more fleshing out. I would like to see the Influence currency mechanic seperated from the influence spreading mechanic. Perhaps call the spreading influence mechanic "Culture", and flesh out the system to be more interesting and provide various effects. Some ideas that come to mind is adding a tourism system, and linking trade-routes and treaties to how influential your culture is with the other civs. This would be more in the DLC territory then a patch or mod.
Tiles and resources: One thing I don't quite like in Humankind is the lack of tile features that substantially change yields (such as bonus resources in Civ). It almost feels like all terrain is essentially the same, and selecting city/outpost locations is arbitrary. I would love to see some mods that make terrain a lot more diverse in terms of yields. I like the feeling that you get in Civ when you find that perfect place to settle a city, which I feel is totally missing in Humankind.
Trade routes: I like many parts of the current trade-route system, especially the actual mechanics of how it passes through territory, rewarding the trading-post owners and allowing for fun ways to economically sabotage an enemy civ (such as bombing their ports and trade infrastructure). I also like the way luxuries work, providing bonuses and giving a strong incentive to have peaceful economic partners. My feedback here is that I would like to see more effects from resources, especially strategic resources. I think strategic resouces should accumulate every turn and be stockpiled, allowing for some better related gameplay mechanics such as power plants, training units and other resource-specific effects.
Pollution: This was clearly rushed and added in at the end just for the sake of being there. I think pollution needs to cause way more interesting effects, such as causing flooding and ruining tiles and causing diplomatic friction. A page out of Gathering Storm expansion wouldn't hurt here, as I think they did a good job with this.
My overall initial opinion of the game is that it is a great start by Amplitude and has huge potential for improvements and upgrades as they continue to support it through patches, DLCs and expansions (and eventually sequels).
If there was one sentence I would use to describe the state of the game it would be this: The game has an excellent base, filled with great ideas and systems, but a lot of them need to be more fleshed out with depth, unpacked with more content, which would hopefully give it more soul.
The list
Religion: Spreading your religion is not rewarding, nor is it fun. In fact, pretty much the entire Religion system is probably the weakest game system in Humankind. This is probably fertile ground for the first expansion. I would love to see more ways to spread relgion via units/missionaries, as well as rewards for doing so. I would also like to see faith as a currency that can be spent on various things - giving you further incentive to maximize faith. I think taking a few pages out of Civ 6's book here is not a bad thing.
Wonders: Wonders are fertile ground for modding improvements, mainly because they are very bland in the base-game. I suspect many modders will aim to make improvements to wonders by giving them greater and more interesting effects. If/when I release Improvements Mod for Humankind, my design for wonders is that they would be as impactful as civ/culture selection.
Natural Wonders: I may be missing something here, but from what I've seen all natural wonders do nothing except give the owner the same amount of bonus influence. I think a page out of Civ 6's book is the solution to this one. Would love to see natural wonders have yield-style and gameplay effects for the owner, and perhaps even some districts that interact with them for further yields/effects.
Culture/influence: I don't mind the majority of the influence system in Humankind, particularly as it functions as a currency, and how it shapes your ideology. However the spreading of influence mechanic needs way more fleshing out. I would like to see the Influence currency mechanic seperated from the influence spreading mechanic. Perhaps call the spreading influence mechanic "Culture", and flesh out the system to be more interesting and provide various effects. Some ideas that come to mind is adding a tourism system, and linking trade-routes and treaties to how influential your culture is with the other civs. This would be more in the DLC territory then a patch or mod.
Tiles and resources: One thing I don't quite like in Humankind is the lack of tile features that substantially change yields (such as bonus resources in Civ). It almost feels like all terrain is essentially the same, and selecting city/outpost locations is arbitrary. I would love to see some mods that make terrain a lot more diverse in terms of yields. I like the feeling that you get in Civ when you find that perfect place to settle a city, which I feel is totally missing in Humankind.
Trade routes: I like many parts of the current trade-route system, especially the actual mechanics of how it passes through territory, rewarding the trading-post owners and allowing for fun ways to economically sabotage an enemy civ (such as bombing their ports and trade infrastructure). I also like the way luxuries work, providing bonuses and giving a strong incentive to have peaceful economic partners. My feedback here is that I would like to see more effects from resources, especially strategic resources. I think strategic resouces should accumulate every turn and be stockpiled, allowing for some better related gameplay mechanics such as power plants, training units and other resource-specific effects.
Pollution: This was clearly rushed and added in at the end just for the sake of being there. I think pollution needs to cause way more interesting effects, such as causing flooding and ruining tiles and causing diplomatic friction. A page out of Gathering Storm expansion wouldn't hurt here, as I think they did a good job with this.
