One of the advantages of being Retired is that I could spend most of today playing a last round of Lucy OpenDev. One of the disadvantages of having family within a 100miles radius is that up until Christmas I was too busy to play as much as I wanted to! Here's hoping for at least one more OpenDev before April.
Comments:
In many respects, the game is already as polished and plays as well in many aspects as Civ VI, which is simply stunning when comparing a game that has been out for years and one that is still months away from Release Date.
Not only does the terrain look good, the map generation (as @housesofelixer pointed out) is far, far better than Civ VI: no jumbles of rainforest, forest, plains, deserts all within a single city radius to allow for artificial 'District adjacencies' and a distribution of resources of all kinds that really stimulates play: in my last game I had trade routes running with all three of my neighbors and two of them were 'retrading' resources using their Merchant Ability. Imagine what a Sogdian Faction could do with this!
Specifics:
1. I think that the game pace is a little too quick. I never took more than 90 - 100 turns to go through the Neolithic, Ancient and Classical Eras and reach Medieval, which means that 2.5 Eras (Neolithic is at best a very 'short Era') were gone in about 1/3 of the game's designed time. Unless things slow down dramatically later on, I would estimate most games are going to be about 10% too short: ending by Turn 260 - 270 instead of a full 300 turns. That's not as bad as Civ VI's Atomic and Information Era ennui, but it indicates that the pace could do with some tweaking.
2. They still have a lot to do with Information Flow. Much of the Diplomatic interactions are pretty opaque at start: it took me several tries to figure out what Renouncing a Demand meant, and half the time it seemed that all I could do was respond to AI diplomatic overtures, not initiate any of my own. This is going to require a lot more very specific informative 'Pop Ups' in the Diplomacy Screen or a very good Tutorial Scenario. - or both.
3. Given that we are all entering Humankind's world from Planet Civ, and I suspect the majority of new Humankind gamers will be doing the same, they are going to have to concentrate on those things that Humankind does very differently. For one major instance, When and How can you go to war, or attack some Scout, or Ransack some Outpost? Again, these very basic differences in design between the two games will have to be Spelled Out for new players somehow, or they are going to be Confused and Frustrated by the game.
Another example: in one game my religion ("Olmecian Polytheism", which doesn't exactly trip off the tongue - they should allow us to Name Our Religions) dominated the entire continent - but I never built a Holy Site and in fact, no matter where I looked, never got the option to build a Holy Site, and I still don't know why or what I should have been doing differently. Enough of these kinds of Opague Game Mechanics and players will leave in droves, no matter how good the terrain looks - you can only chase deer around with the cursor so long before you get bored Stiff.
4. There are definitely still some numbers that need tweaking. Two that I experienced, and I'm sure others have their own Lists:
Mauryans: +10 Faith, +10 Science for every Independent People Patronized. If you've met and managed to Patronize 2 or more Indies, taking Mauryans can instantly increase your science by 25 - 50%. That's a serious boost, and you get the game's first Elephant Unit besides. It's situationally OP, I suspect.
Khmer: Specifically, the Baray is a Beast of a Quarter. I was getting yields of +9 to +20 (!) from a single Baray and getting Bonuses for Food, Production, Science, and Gold from each Baray. It is way OP compared to anything that came before, and I didn't see anything in the Medieval Era from any other Faction that came close to the sheer scope of its bonuses. And, with the Khmer, you get another Elephant. Maybe the game is just designed to Make Elephants Great Again?