HUMANKIND - Amplitude's historical turn-based strategy

[Infinitron]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1124300/view/3034833920098798132

Our Plans for Modding Tools in Humankind

Modding has always been important to Amplitude as a way for our players to further customize their experience with our games. While the modding community for our previous games may have been small, they proved to be creative, and quite dedicated. Over the years since the release of our first game, we have seen many ambitious and remarkable mods, like A Galaxy of Endless Diversity for Endless Space 1, the Community Patch for Endless Legend, or Endless Moons for Endless Space 2, to name but a few. Yet most of these mods were made with relatively simple tools; a text- or xml-editor and copies of a few game files. Many modders must have spent many hours poring over those files, trying to understand their structures and connections and just what to tweak to get the effect they want.

With Humankind, we’d like to take the modding capabilities a step further. We’ve been thinking about mod support virtually since the beginning of the project, and put greater emphasis on providing our community with powerful but accessible tools. Instead of editing game data files by hand, modders will have access to a set of Unity tools based on the tools our own team uses to add content to the game. The AI will also be moddable, so it can be adapted to the new or altered content. On the other hand, if you don’t want to dive into modding technologies or cultures or the AI, you can grab the map editor and craft any map you want, whether it’s a recreation of a real area or a map for competitive multiplayer.

As we are focused on improving and polishing Humankind first, unfortunately neither of these tools will be ready when the game releases. Still, some of you may already be asking “What can we do with these modding tools once they do release?” as ideas take shape in their heads. Quite a bit, actually, though some limitations will apply.

When we first release the Modding Tools, you will be able to:

• Change game values, e.g. for balancing, or to change or add new content, like technologies, civics, units, or even cultures.
• Change localization (Names, descriptions, event texts, tooltips)
• Reuse existing 3D and 2D assets for your new content
• Import 2D UI assets for new Content
• Change AI code (so it can take your other modded content into account)
• Create fixed maps (The Map Editor will likely be a separate tool)

We hope to add the following capabilities later, but they won’t be available at release:

• Import 3D assets like unit models or buildings
• Import materials or textures
• Create full scenarios

Frequently Asked Questions

We've seen a number of questions come up many times on the forums, social media, or during streams, so here are some answers to the most frequent ones.

• Will Humankind use the Steam Workshop?
  Yes, on Steam you will be able to share your mods through the Workshop.
• Will there be mods on Stadia?
  While it’s an interesting idea, mods support on Stadia is not something we can achieve on our own, so we cannot make any promises.
• Will the Avatar be moddable?
  The Avatars will not be moddable, at least not at release, though this might change eventually.
• Are game mechanics moddable?
  You won’t be able to alter game systems by changing the code, but you will be able to mod all values and content these systems interact with, which can have an enormous effect on how the game plays.
• Will the game automatically download missing mods in multiplayer?
  We have not decided on this yet.
• Can you mod the Tech Tree and add new eras?
  Yes, you can definitely change or add technologies. Unfortunately, adding entire eras will probably not be possible at release.
• Can you mod the terrain?
  You will be able to mod the gameplay values of the terrain and the map generator weights, but you won’t be able to add new visuals at release (though we hope to add this possibility later.)

Tools, much like games, need to be tested and used to be improved. We’d like to know what you think of the modding tools, so if you want to take a crack at creating mods for Humankind, please contact us (by email to the address below or direct message), and we’ll reach out to you if you’ve been picked to help us test the tools.

 

[flyingjohn]

Modding support is always nice.Especially if you can fiddle with ai code.

 

[Infinitron]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1124300/view/3001060096215024321

Humankind Release Moved to August 2021
Many of our OpenDev players said Humankind was already great, but we want to take the time to make it even better.

When we announced Humankind, we often stressed that this was the dream game Amplitude was founded for. We were overjoyed by the positive reception our dream saw, many players expressing their excitement for a new entry into the historical 4X genre. Yet we knew Humankind was an ambitious dream, so we looked for help from our eager community.

Through the OpenDev program, you have given us invaluable feedback on the game. While Humankind is already a great game, many of you think it could be even better, and after analyzing all your great feedback, we realized that we could make even further improvements to make Humankind the best game that it can be. These improvements take time, however, so we have decided to move the release date.

Humankind will release on August 17th, 2021.

This will give us time to further polish the game for a great day one experience, address the feedback from the OpenDev scenarios, and keep working with our community to improve the game. We want to thank you all for your passion for our dream, the feedback you have given, and the support for this decision many of you have already expressed:

Hello everyone!

In the weeks since the Lucy OpenDev, we've been reading a lot of feedback. While many players told us they see great potential in Humankind, they also offered a lot of constructive criticism, and often expressed concern if the game could live up to this potential in the time until release.

After taking stock of your feedback, of where we are with the game, and where we want it to be when we release, we have decided to postpone the release until August. We agree with you all, the game will be incredible with a little extra time, and we think we are lucky to have passionate fans like you who support us up in that decision.

At times like these, I am also reminded that we made the right choice when joining SEGA, who has been incredibly supportive of this decision. They believe in Humankind as much as we do, and they have been a great partner in realizing our vision of the game.

Thank you all for your support.

Cheers,
Spacetroll​

We are immensely grateful to all our passionate players who gave the game a try and let us know what they thought, what they liked, and what they didn’t like. Your feedback is crucial to improving the game, and to thank everybody who has shown us their trust by pre-ordering, we are adding two more Avatars to the preorder bonus: Lucy, and Edgar Allan Poe.

Once upon a midnight dreary,/ As I pondered weak and weary,/

If I have more time to burn,/ Proclaimed Lucy: One more turn!

Spoiler

So, what is all the feedback we are talking about? What did our players tell us about their experience with the OpenDev, and what are we doing to address their concerns? We’ll be working to address pacing, balancing, diplomacy, accessibility, and AI (among others), but let’s take a closer look at some of the most common points of feedback and our plans for them:

• Pacing and Balancing:These were two of the most discussed topics in the OpenDev Feedback, and the general consensus was that the game progresses too quickly, and all basic resources are too abundant. Here are some examples of what we are working on to address these issues:
  • The New Growth System: Since the growth model we tested in the Lucy OpenDev (based on current population and population capacity of the city) turned out to be difficult to understand and balance, and potentially frustrating with newly founded cities, we've swapped back to a growth rate based on surplus food. Of course, this still needs to be tested and balanced.
  • Food and Influence in the Neolithic Era: Since many players performed quite a bit better than expected in the Neolithic era, we're rebalancing the food and influence gains and are keeping an eye on this with our internal tests.
  • Neolithic Era Variety: Many players found that the Neolithic era lacked variety, so we want to implement additional narrative events.
  • Research Costs: We will rework the research costs of technology to create a smoother progression that should roughly keep pace with the intended era progression.
  • Stability: Stability should be a limiting factor on City and Empire growth that creates interesting situations for the player to tackle, but in Lucy OpenDev many players found it too easy to reach a point where they could ignore stability. We’re examining and rebalancing the various factors of stability to reach a point where it can create interesting challenges without being punishing or frustrating.
  • Money and Influence: As many players found that as the game progressed they stockpiled an abundance of Money and Influence with little to spend it on, we are working to balance the income and spending of these resources.
  • Market and Research Quarters: Market and Research Quarters were often seen as not worthwhile compared to additional Farmers or Makers Quarters, so we want to improve their value compared to these.
  • Cultures: As expected of such a test, some of the Cultures in the game emerged as particularly strong, some to the point of overshadowing other cultures. We’re working to address this by rebalancing their Legacy Traits, Emblematic Quarters, and Emblematic Units. Most Emblematic Quarters will now also be limited in number per territory to preserve their uniqueness and avoid direct competition with generic quarters.
  • City and Army Cap: To strike a better balance between size and number of both cities and armies, we are working on imposing a limit on the number of both, after which players would incur penalties.
  • Sieges: Many players found that it was too easy to conquer the cities of other players or Independent People, and we are looking into how to address this.
  • Era Star Requirements: With all the other rebalancing, we are also keeping an eye on era star requirements to adjust them if necessary.
• Diplomacy:While a lot of OpenDev players liked the underlying system of Diplomacy in Humankind, many also found it confusing due to the interface and feedback. Here are a few points we are working on:
  • Diplomacy notifications: We are rewriting many of the notifications, grievances, demands, and surrender terms to make it clearer who did what.
  • Improved Dialogue Flow: We're improving the avatar dialog flow to reduce the number and duration of pauses, so it flows more naturally.
  • AI Attitude Changes: We are also working to clarify the "mood messages" when AI change their attitude towards you with additional text.
  • Trade View: We're still working to polish the trade view in the Diplomacy screen, so you get a better understanding of your trade network, including incoming and outgoing trade routes.
  • User Experience Flow and Feedback: We're working to improve the clarity of the UX in the diplomacy menu, for example clearly highlighting when an AI has accepted or rejected a treaty.
• Onboarding:Some of Humankind’s systems were difficult to grasp for players, especially new players, so we are hard at work on the onboarding experience, including:
  • In-game Tutorial Videos: A set of short videos explaining basic concepts, accessible through an in-game menu.
  • Tooltip Polish: We're working to improve the readability and clarity of the tooltips.
  • Hints: We'd like to have a better hint system to help players figure out good strategies, for example suggesting useful Infrastructures to build.
• User Interface/Experience:We're working to improve the interface and user experience in various areas:
  • Territory names: To help players locate events and demands on the map, we are going to add names to territories. Trade routes passing through uncontrolled territory will also create a label showing the name and number of trade routes.
  • Fame Objective Pop-ups: When you get close to achieving an Era star, your progress will be shown on the main screen so you can easily keep track of your objectives without checking a separate screen.
  • Notifications: As many players found that the messages in the notification ribbon did not contain enough information, we are including more dynamic information in them, for example in which category a star has been earned.
  • Management Screens: We're still polishing the city management and battle menus.
  • Ideology Changes: We’re working on a clearer display of the ideology changes and its effects in the Civics menu and events.
  • Splitting regions: We are working on an option to detach territories from a city.
  • Battle Prediction: We'd like to improve the battle prediction to not rely solely on the relative unit strength.

As you can see, we got a lot of feedback from the different OpenDev scenarios, in particular the Lucy OpenDev. Participation was great, so we received not only a lot of detailed, constructive feedback in our forum, but also valuable data from the survey. You certainly pushed Humankind as far as you could, as you can see from the stats below:

Of course, as we continue to work on the game, we may want another round of feedback from our passionate players, so keep your eyes peeled for future opportunities to try the game!

The Amplitude Team

 

[Zarniwoop]

I like how "delayed" is now "moved" .

 

[oldbonebrown]

Whelp was having a hard time deciding if I was going to sin against the 20buxorbust rule and prepurchase this, but I guess I can forget about it for a couple of months now

 

[Infinitron]

We chat to the developer of Humankind and get some new insights into how Diplomacy will work in Humankind.

 

[flyingjohn]

Gee,our main competitor is officially ending support for its game.What a great time to release our game!
Nope,let's just release it in summer when nobody gives a fuck.

Btw this shit ain't coming out until next year.Anything past the first era hasn't even gotten 5 seconds of screen time.They got nothing.

 

[oldbonebrown]

They're just scared to reveal the black nazis

 

[Heroic Liberator]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1124300/view/3001060096232912697

Humankind Feature Focus 11: The Power of Diplomacy
​

In our last Feature Focus, we told you how battles work in Humankind, but these battles do not happen in isolation. While it is easy to think of battles and war as pivotal moments, open conflict is only a small part of history. Rivalries and grudges may have played important roles throughout human history, but so did trade, kinship, and alliances. So, this time we take a step back and look at the bigger picture of conflicts and cooperation between civilizations. Trade, treaties, territorial disagreements... and sometimes treason! Check out what Diplomacy in Humankind has in store for you:



For us, the stories that emerge from a player’s interactions with the map and the other competitors in a game are a crucial part of the 4X game experience. However, stories are not terribly interesting or satisfying if their beginning, middle, and end can all be summarized as “Anyway, I started fighting.” Players should be able to develop a (changing) relationship with the other empires, should find reasons to love or hate them. Even the fighting feels more meaningful if you have some history with your opponents.

The Diplomacy system in Humankind provides a system for these relationships to interact with the game instead of just existing in the mind of the player. Angry at that neighbor who forward settled you? Send them a strongly worded letter to demand they hand it over immediately. Backstabbed by your long-term ally? They’ll have a hard time maintaining that war. Through the diplomacy system, the AI can take your relationship to it into account when making decisions, but it can also contribute to the emerging story by telling you what it thinks of you.

We also wanted the diplomacy in Humankind to be grounded in the space of the game, so many diplomatic actions (like trading, for example) are tied to specific locations on the map. Furthermore, diplomacy should feel immediate and impactful, making propositions, declarations, and demands with noticeable effects, rather than negotiating the details of a deal down to the last gold piece. There are three parts to this approach: Treaties, Trade, and Grievances and Demands.

Treaties are your primary means of cooperating with other civilizations and forming closer relationships with them. While you’re at peace, you can propose treaties improving your cooperation in four different categories: Trade, Information Sharing, Border Policy, and Military Accords. For example, when you first meet another civilization, your armies are allowed to engage each other in battle in neutral territory, so you may want to suggest a Non-aggression Pact to prevent that. When you receive such a proposition, on the other hand, it’s up to you whether you accept, refuse, or ask for some monetary compensation for your cooperation.

If you are on good terms with another civilization, you may even want to form an Alliance. Two civilizations in an alliance enjoy the benefits of all treaties available during peacetime, and even gain access to another, more beneficial level of cooperation. However, alliances come with a certain degree of responsibility: Your ally may call on you to aid them in a war, and if you refuse, they will be none too pleased, and may use this legitimate reason to break your alliance.

You may want to keep some friends, though: Every civilization in Humankind can benefit from Strategic and Luxury Resources to fuel their military and economy, and while you can certainly lay claim to more territory and produce them yourself, many times it will be easier to just buy them from another civilization. As long as you’ve already signed the appropriate trade treaties, buying a resource from another civilization is as easy as clicking on their exploited resource deposit on the map, selecting the mode of transport (e.g land route versus sea route), and paying the cost for purchase and shipping.

Once a purchase is made, money changes hands immediately, and a trade route is formed between the resource deposit and your closest city through the connecting territories. If these territories are controlled by a civilization or independent people, the route will pass through their city center, but if nobody controls the territory, a trade node like a Roundhouse will be created in the region. This gives the trade routes a presence on the map, meaning that even though it is easy to establish trade, it is also easy to disrupt: For example, an army can ransack these trade nodes to gain a lot of money and break the connection, potentially depriving you of resources vital to your economy or army.

Of course, such aggressive behavior is not without consequences. Ransacking trade routes, attacking armies, claiming bordering territories, and many other actions and circumstances can generate Grievances, a sort of legitimate complaint the other civilization can raise. The affected civilization will have a few turns to decide whether they want to forego the Grievance to maintain good relations or press it to Demand compensation according to the Grievance, for example money for a broken trade route or control of a border territory. The offender then needs to decide whether they accept this demand, or refuse.

Grievances and Demands (especially ones that were refused!) will increase your war support, a measure of how willing your people are to endure protracted conflict with the other civilization. If your war support is high enough, you can formally declare war, but even if it isn’t, you can still just declare a Surprise War. Of course, such back-stabbing is generally frowned upon, and you will be branded as a traitor, souring your diplomatic relations with other civilizations.

Once war has started, the attacker’s war support will slowly decrease, as their people expect actions rather than just words. The attacker will have to win battles, ransack districts, or conquer cities to lower the enemy’s war support. Either side can offer surrender at any time, making concessions according to their own and their opponent’s remaining war support. If either side falls to 0 war support, the winner can force them to surrender, and they will have no choice but to accept as their war-weary population makes them sign on the dotted line.

How quickly your people tire of war with your neighbors also depends on how close your ideology is to theirs. The decisions you make in narrative events and the Civics you enact, like whether your people obey an absolute ruler or a council, will shape your civilization and its people by positioning you on four ideological axes. How closely these match with another civilization will define your ideological proximity. The closer you are, the better your diplomatic relations, but the harder it will be to go to and maintain a war against them. On the other hand, your people will be ready to fight for a long time against somebody whose customs and values are strange to them.

Whether you renounce all grudges to make friends and build a global trade network, or seize every opportunity to demand compensation from your neighbors and take through war what they do not give up willingly, it is up to you how you approach diplomacy in Humankind.

 

[Infinitron]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1124300/view/3029209496203732527

 

[Talby]

Looks like Civ 6 but somehow even gayer.

 

[oldbonebrown]

oh noeenoenoe the battles look exactly like endless legend, and those were not engaging enough for how frequent and long they could be

 

[Sweeper]

>Egyptians
EY YO WE WUZ KANGZ N SHIET: The Game

 

[Sweeper]

This game is beyond pozzed.
Stop shilling it, Jew.

 

[oldbonebrown]

I don't think it will have enough flavour to come across as "beyond pozzed" when you play it. It will just be a somewhat confused slurry of history. Perhaps there will be some wokeism in the uninteresting quest text dumps that no one reads.

 

[Arrowgrab]

Historically correct bue hair.

 

[Space Satan]

Saw some streams of beta and holy shit main feature of Humankind - culture adjustments is what irritates everyone the most. It is literally like that - you are fighting Greeks, BAM, now you are fighting Japan. It just happens instantly like a "Change civ" button. Goddamn game had somuch potential and this crap as a result...

 

[flyingjohn]

The tech tree is not very good.

Didn't know guerrilla warfare is a technology.Also,no modern stuff,what a surprise.

 

[Lone Wolf]

The thing shitting me most about all of this newfangled 4X pretender nonsense - beyond the obvious 'diversity' stuff - is that they've got a single city sprawling across half a continent. Fuck off. A city should occupy a smattering of tiles at the maximum. Instead, it's Mega City-1.

 

[downwardspiral]

The wokeism is clear, not from the blue hair but from the nihilistic attitude towards race and culture.
Anyone and any group can adopt any culture they want, culture is just a sport club with no evolutionary history, and meaning beyond that.
If they really want to make a game that is focus on humanity with evolutionary culture, they should not have real life culture as it's theme.
It could be "generic nomadic vs generic merchant vs generic agrarian" stellaris already did something similar, but instead of making it fixed,
they could make it evolutionary, organic and play a bigger role in the game.

Woke thing aside.
I gave Endless space 1&2 and legend a go few times.
The only things keep me not falling sleep are the female hero's boobs art and pretty but clunky UI in ES 2.
Humankind is probably going to be the same, but with less boobs.

They might want to rethink the whole settlement/hex/citizen system from civ.
Maybe find some ways to make them more organic.

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Zarniwoop]

The tech tree is not very good.

Didn't know guerrilla warfare is a technology.Also,no modern stuff,what a surprise.

Still bigger than Civ 6 lul

Dont worry, just like Civ 6 I'm sure they'll have other trees to make up for it. Civics, Religion, Gender, Great Personkinds, Governor, Chairperson and so on.

 

[Zarniwoop]

The wokeism is clear, not from the blue hair but from the nihilistic attitude towards race and culture.
Anyone and any group can adopt any culture they want, culture is just a sport club with no evolutionary history, and meaning beyond that.
If they really want to make a game that is focus on humanity with evolutionary culture, they should not have real life culture as it's theme.
It could be "generic nomadic vs generic merchant vs generic agrarian" stellaris already did something similar, but instead of making it fixed,
they could make it evolutionary, organic and play a bigger role in the game.

Woke thing aside.
I gave Endless space 1&2 and legend a go few times.
The only things keep me not falling sleep are the female hero's boobs art and pretty but clunky UI in ES 2.
Humankind is probably going to be the same, but with less boobs.

They might want to rethink the whole settlement/hex/citizen system from civ.
Maybe find some ways to make them more organic.

Have you played "Sid Meier's" Civilization 6?

Endless Legend has 10 times more depth and personality than that shit.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

that trailer (or a teaser?) is pathetic but i couldnt care less if the actual game isnt filled with woke shit. EL had really good mechanics but i didnt dig the races, except for like 1. As a game this to me looks more enjoyable so i still hope they dont screw it up.

People keep repeating this as some sort of "I'm reasonable" mantra but how often does that happen?

 

[Norfleet]

The wokeism is clear, not from the blue hair but from the nihilistic attitude towards race and culture.
Anyone and any group can adopt any culture they want, culture is just a sport club with no evolutionary history, and meaning beyond that.

That's not the impression I got. It seemed less "wokism", and more simply "arbtirary game mechanic given a flavorful name that doesn't entirely fit". At its core, the mechanic is about picking the direction your team will take in a given era. This is a reasonable mechanic, and in a hamhanded attempt to tie it to "real history" despite it being no longer related, they attached these archetypes to historical cultures.