Humankind: Someone Else's Civilization V

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Humankind: Someone Else's Civilization V

Kchama: Jul 25, 2007

I ended up deciding I don't like this game so far, but I feel like it's for the best you keep giving updates for the fans.

# ¿ Oct 7, 2020 00:53

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# ¿ May 21, 2024 07:20

Kchama: Jul 25, 2007

Lady Radia posted:

Selecting multiple civs as the game progresses is definitely one of the best features, I agree naming your empire at the start would help provide continuity but the general design is really strong. I'd more or less take the next step and say this is just clearly a better designed game than Civ 6, which was trying to just steal ideas from EL as lazily as possible anyway.

I actually feel the opposite. Like, continuity is an issue but it just feels like a lazy reskinning of the party system of their previous game, which can be done fine except it doesn't fit the feel of a civilization game at all. It actually is kind of a problem that they attach them to discrete 'cultures' because they're too bland when you pile them onto the cultures you unlock later.

Also it's kind of funny that their marketing is shouting SIXTY CIVILIZATIONS!!! (DAAANGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!) when really it's only ten, since you can't access all sixty, and instead they're layers onto your civilization rather than discrete different ones.

It's actually the dealbreaker for me.

# ¿ Aug 21, 2021 08:29

Kchama: Jul 25, 2007

ilitarist posted:

Basic Anno 1800 doesn't cost so much. It has numerous expansions that you might get later, it's not like all of those games where not having expansions is like not having patches.

After playing Humankind a little I've started the search for a land-based 4X that is not civ and ended up playing Fallen Enchantress Legendary Heroes. It is still being patched and it's fun. Too bad release circumstances had hidden it from public view. So if you're wondering what to play till magenta stops influencing all those neutral cities - try this. You can get it for cheap probably. Has cities where you can zoom in and watch people too.

Don't go for Fallen Enchantress. Stardock is a pack of shithead IP thieves, and their CEO is the king shithead.

# ¿ Aug 22, 2021 13:16

Kchama: Jul 25, 2007

Lawman 0 posted:

This game looks neat should I get it?

This game does nothing for me and I don't like it but I have weird tastes so I suggest giving it a try if you have the money. Two hours should be enough time to figure out if you like it or not. If you like Civ then you probably can't be done too wrong.

Kchama fucked around with this message at 03:37 on Aug 23, 2021

# ¿ Aug 23, 2021 03:35

Kchama: Jul 25, 2007

Horizon Burning posted:

i like the narrator and i dig the vibe it gives humankind, similar to the pollution mechanic being 'plant useless trees, actively stop people from pollution via military action, or everyone dies.' i really like the idea of a cynical 4x dripping with irony. it's a nice change from civ 6 that thinks everything about history is fantastic. wow, plastics are so great, there was nothing bad about them!

I don't think that's part of Humankind's cynicism though. I think that's just the game not working right.

# ¿ Aug 23, 2021 05:44

Kchama: Jul 25, 2007

victrix posted:

I actually really, really hated them, and it's one of the reasons I bounced off Civ 6 so hard at launch.

It sounds incredibly silly, but I always appreciated Civ 4 and especially the narrator in 5 feeling like it was trying to portray the best parts of human civilization.

There's enough gloom and doom in the world, I don't need it in my silly escapist builder games as well. Playing Civ when I was younger instilled an early interest in history and a love for exploring other cultures.

The Humankind presentation is... somewhere inbetween. It's a bit snarky, but not outright lazy or mean, which is what some of the Civ 6 stuff felt like.

(Alpha Centauri did the 'humanity just can't let go of its fundamental issues and divisions' much, much better)

There's kind of a whiplash between Horizon talking about how great it is that HK accidentally portrays that the only thing to do about pollution is to murder everyone and you talking about how HK isn't mean about its portrayal, gotta say.

# ¿ Aug 23, 2021 06:06

Kchama: Jul 25, 2007

ilitarist posted:

This is probably a bug that appeared a couple of days before release and was a fix for some other bug, or a consequence of a change in map generator. It's not like it was there for half a year and no one noticed.

Then again, this is why devs make gold version of the game some time before release, test it and release day 1 patch dealing with those obvious issues. Amplitude probably has a wild development workflow. Some bugs or design issues of EL and ES2 were sold after a huge delay or weren't solved at all. Like people asked for only unique factions option since ES1 and it was added to EL years after release.

Could it have been noticed? I don't think the big betas did any of the late age stuff, which is where they're the biggest issue.

# ¿ Aug 23, 2021 07:32

Kchama: Jul 25, 2007

ilitarist posted:

Previous time anyone tried to contend with Civ was Call to Power 1 & 2. Those games went far into the future. They weren't good though.

Also Civ itself goes pretty far into the future, don't you think? It's just depressing cyberpunk but without cool implants future, and also everything is flooded.

To be fair, they tried to contend with Civilization by literally being Civilization. It's why the first game was called "Civilization: Call To Power"

Kchama fucked around with this message at 09:38 on Aug 23, 2021

# ¿ Aug 23, 2021 09:34

Kchama: Jul 25, 2007

down1nit posted:

I would also like a good breakdown of war support. I've played stellaris like crazy so the concept "makes sense" to me on a base level, but i don't quite get the point. Is it to make wars unattractive for some playstyles? Is it measuring hatred?

They said something about it's to prevent defeating other factions through war because they didn't like that aspect in Civ. So you basically only get what you ask for at the start of the war. So if you don't or can't ask for anything/what you want, then you basically get nothing of value from a war and can lose what you gained.

# ¿ Sep 20, 2021 01:18

Kchama: Jul 25, 2007

Gort posted:

What did the recent patch (which made districts escalate in cost) do to the meta? It sort of felt like increasing costs didn't really discourage industry-or-nothing, it just meant you built the industry more slowly.

That's all it did.

# ¿ Jan 12, 2022 01:00

Kchama: Jul 25, 2007

eXXon posted:

Rhye's and Fall of Civilization did a historical challenge type of game pretty well for the time, as did some of the Fall From Heaven 2 mods with the dynamic world and potential for literal demon spawn. It's a shame nobody has tried anything similar since.

I've played a few hours of Humankind and it just seems very... bland. It's essentially Endless Legend with all of the charm, lore and novelty tossed out, at least so far. I can't see anything that has been significantly improved. Actually, I think they made combat worse with alternating turns, there should be interleaved initiative or simultaneous orders of some kind. Maybe outpost attaching? But I find it confusing and one of many choices where I'm uncertain what the benefits/drawbacks of each are.

I'm pretty sure the simultaneous turns suck rear end since the AI can just read your input and slip in their order just before yours to gently caress with whatever you do.

# ¿ Jan 20, 2022 05:19

Kchama: Jul 25, 2007

Dayton Sports Bar posted:

I agree, we need to give Soren Johnson more money

Soren Johnson joined Stardock so he's tainted for life in my eyes. Screw him forever.

Baron Porkface posted:

It was the combat system that turned me off this game, particularly battles that involved cliffs that turned into slaughters because of some unpredictable quirk of the system. At least you know what you're getting with civ6.

This and simultaneous turns are the two instant deal-killers for me with this game.

# ¿ Nov 10, 2022 19:25

Kchama: Jul 25, 2007

Anno posted:

Are you sure you aren�t thinking of Jon Shafer? Far as I know Soren never worked for Stardock (though they did publish Offworld Trading Company).

He was the guy who made Fallen Enchantress for Stardock. He has his own company, but he also works at Stardock. He did Star Control Origins just recently and assisted in their IP theft of the Star Control series, so he's scum all the way down in my eyes.

# ¿ Nov 10, 2022 23:40

Kchama: Jul 25, 2007

Anno posted:

You're thinking of the wrong Civ designer. Jon Shafer (lead on Civ V) is who went to work for Stardock and then left to make At the Gates, a bad game. Soren Johnson led Civ IV and then went on to make Offworld Trading Company and now Old World.

Edit: Maybe they both did?

E2: I see he has a "thanks" credit in SCO, and I think Mohawk had a shared office space with Stardock at some point, so eh, guess I'll take the L on this one. It's weird that him and Shafer (and I think Derek Paxton?) all got swindled by Wardell's lovely rear end.

https://www.polygon.com/2013/3/2/4056362/civilization-designer-soren-johnson-joins-stardock-entertainment

Just so there's like, a good source to point to so you're not just taking me at my word. Dunno why Moby only has it listed as a 'special thanks', though.

chaosapiant posted:

If I genuinely enjoy the Endless games, and Civ V and Civ VI, is this game a solid pick? I've been eyeballing it for a while.

It's been a bit of a regret purchase but it's mediocre instead of awful. Has some great ideas done well, but has some amazingly bad, or really good ideas executed poorly.

# ¿ Nov 11, 2022 17:45

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# ¿ May 21, 2024 07:20

Kchama: Jul 25, 2007