Humankind, or how I stopped love and was disappointed in the game

The blog is dedicated to how I burned from the game after the recent roller. But instead of demolishing the game for the tenth time, I decided to express everything I think about it.

There should have been a block “The first time”, but it is better to throw a little of my background. It seems like I love 4x strategies, but I play them not so much. He sat down on the genre from the fifth part of civilization, in which he played a lot and differently, the multiplayer tried only with friends, but he did not try against “immortal” bots and so on. From the games of the studio that released Humankind, I played quite a little in Endless Legend, and a little in Endless Space 2 (it turns out 4x in space is felt as another genre). I tried other genre games (4 and 6 Tsiva, Stellaris, Old World), I did not catch. Humankind I will compare a lot with the listed games.

Ton

Since the first announcements, he was highly gifted by the game. Information about key chips painted beautiful paintings in my imagination. It was clear that Humankind would become a development (spoiler: not quite) the ideas of Endless Legend, but with a bias in the less fantasyine and a more popular series Sid Meier’s Civilization, a sort of “killer of Tsiva”.

The first rinks were not that they did not disappoint, but surpassed all my best expectations. With the exception of some bugs (yes, oil spawn, I am talking about you!) the game seemed perfect. Haith sincerely did not understand her, especially to the main chip, the change of cultures, the most frequent argument against which sounds like “well, kapets is like nilagic, so I was an ancient Chinese, developed in the Romans, and finished the Americans in general. Game of feces. Not like my beloved Tsiva, where in the 19th century I destroyed the Incam with nuclear bombs of the French. “. Rejoiced at the financial success of the Amplitude studio, they went to him for a long time, and received what they deserved.

In his misunderstanding the situation, even went into Steam reviews. Mostly against the game, the arguments were weak, but even positive reviews sometimes warned that the assessment was set with a stretch. The sensible from the reviews did not bear anything, but one interesting point was remembered: “The world generator does not look like Earth at all, but rather aurig”. I have to agree here, there is something alien in the form of continents, even the most non-realistic parameters in the fifth civilian give out a landscape more similar to Earth than standard in Humankind. Perhaps since then I began to suspect that something was wrong with the game. And perhaps after he started playing it more often.

Chips and other games enter the stage

As mentioned above, the change of cultures has become the main trump card of Humankind. I do not remember this in any strategy. It sounds strange, incomprehensible, incredible? But you feel … quite normal. Not that it would be delightful, and radically changes something, but appropriate and worthy.

The game is divided into eras: Neolite, antiquity, antiquity, Middle Ages, early New Time, industrialization, modernity. You start a game with one unit of nomads, and explore the surrounding lands. Very good find, do not cut the first city, and there is time to choose its location. To move to the next era, it is necessary to gain 8 “stars”, by growing the population, the construction of districts, the murder of units, the study of technology, etc. D. During the transition, you choose a culture, you get a unique bonus from it (more food on rivers, stronger than units and so on), district and unit. As well as Ultu, which depends on the type of culture, for example, warlike can instantly call units from cities/outposts at the cost of the population.

And it seems that you can suddenly change the development vector according to the situation, which is useful. The cultures themselves are not directly unique, but quite diverse (not that most of the civilizations in the fifth civilization). However, in most cases, everything rests on the dials. I will not say that this part is poorly implemented, very strange and extraordinary pieces are difficult to come up with in such a realistic setting. In Endless Legend and Endless Space, from the most unique fraction I can highlight: the race of golems that breed and treated with money (do not use food at all);a race of shadows that are not visible on a global map, and which are afraid of technology (do not receive progress points, but can buy technologies for money in a technology tree);Rasu Zhukov, who always want to eat and are generally the embodiment of the phrase “Peace Was Never An Option”, because they do not have such an option.

Further, regions and cities. The world in Humankind and Endless Space is divided into the regions of some area on which there may or may not be resources, miracles of nature, and so on. There is only one city in one area. I like this balance much more than the extension of cells in Tsiva, where “your” resources can leave a departure neighbor. In Humankind, you can also build advanposts by any unit. This is still considered your territory in the lesson, and you can also buy resources in this territory for the influence of the production of resources, getting rid of the need to build the city “Upper Zjopya” only for the sake of Uranus production. Cities do not consist of one cage, and for its effective work it is necessary to complete it with districts: agricultural, production, trade, scientific. Also, you can build a unique district for one area, which usually gives good buns, and a harbor (yes, in order to be a naval city, you do not need to be close to the mor, like you, Tsiva 5?). Cities can consist of several areas, which finally turns Humankind into a town -planning simulator. No, however, I like this mechanics most, a kind of game in the game.

But what are we all about good? Let’s talk about diplomacy! Another Humankind Fisheka is claims. The neighbor occupied the neighboring territory? Throw him a claim, albeit either gives it, or you will receive a bonus to military support. The latter is used to declare an “honest” war, and actually decides who won. Exactly these things are not bad, with the exception of the moments, when for some reason you are announced to one and the same territory several times. There are also claims of the breakdown of contracts, a sudden attack, you can hide the territory with your culture or religion. But I promised about the bad, so because?

In general, interactions with other civilizations are quite limited: to make claims, fight, conclude peace, non -aggression pact, open/close borders, show maps, trade resources, and conclude an alliance. All. Interactions in the Union are generally ridiculous: a discount on resource trade, +5% to culture, +5% to science and total logistics. As many as five percent, Karl. Moreover, bots often shit even on such ultra -high proposals. And the logistics in the war is useful yes. Both Endless Space and Endless Legend have a trading in technology, cities (planets), just gold, and the strip was likely to be accepted. After good diplomacy for the 4x genre, we get such a stub, but with a couple of good ideas. Despite the fact that the UN or like there is not at all in any game amplitude, a big omission. At such a pace you will miss the prohibition of citrus and crabs.

Canvas, instead of the third act

Further, more. Let’s talk about such an ephemeral thing as balance. The fact that complexity affects only the quantitative characteristics of AI is already, unfortunately, the standard of the industry and this will not surprise anyone, especially in strategies. Once played at fast speed and on complexity one higher. The neighboring AI almost at the very beginning almost destroyed me, only that, then he did only riders who could not enter the city. I’m afraid to imagine what is happening on the last complexity, of course I will not check.

But this is not even the main complaint. It will be difficult to start here, and you will have to start with examples of Tsiva. In general, with proper dexterity, in the fifth part it is not very difficult to make Uber Gorod, which is the most populated, and builds miracles in 4 moves, gives the most tangible increase in science, culture, and even gold. This, of course, is not very good, but in general it is quite easy to “sit on two stools” (or more), for example, to make a city or civilization with a top in production and science, and rivet sophisticated units, but not enough, since there will not be enough money to maintain for maintenance. In Humankind, this is very strange.

Influence. It is used to https://casino-stars.co.uk/ build advanposts (the price progresses with each region), the transformation of the avantopost to the city, the addition of the region to the city, the adoption of public institutions. There are no problems with these options, in any layouts, even not specifically swinging in prestige, there is more adequate development (yes, 10 not accepted institutions remain at the end of the game, but most of them give little). Also, the city can be absorbed for influence. And here the oddity begins. Firstly, the price for this is simply transcendent, even when choosing a “prestigious” culture (which is actually not such a big increase). Secondly, the price is growing constantly, for each new district, for the population, for buildings, and for the absorbed city and for the absorber city. The adequate method remains in two necessary cities to begin production of units, and wait for about one era, for the price of about 10 new advances, 5 public institutions (approximate prices). As a result, the option is not needed because of its price, it is easier to destroy the unnecessary city, plundering the area with its army (yes it is done, no buttons to destroy the city), build an avant-navpost in the same place, and absorb it, will come out both faster and cheaper in every sense in every sense.

But it was a complaint to the useless option, consider the money. Spent on the maintenance of units, the purchase of resources. And as with prestige, there are no problems. The problem in the redemption of buildings/units. The sky -high price, which at the same time grows from the current course. And here the main growth in money is given by trade crops, and trade with all resources (without them it will be difficult to raise dough). In Tsiv, for example, the price of everything was fixed, but more than +200 gold was hard to gain for a move, while putting money, you can advance the city well from scratch. In Humankind to redeem the tank, the country’s GDP can go for 10 strokes, while the area itself will be built for the course of 4. Not that you will never have money for a ransom, but you need to invest well in the economy.

And the sweetest, science. A standard situation when you can go to a new era, having studied a quarter or third of current era technologies. Or half, if you invest in science (it is advisable to choose the appropriate culture and use Ulta, transferring money and production to science). By the last era, the lag becomes very noticeable, and you have to build a heap, a bunch, a huge number of scientific districts. For comparison, in one city I had 10 scientific districts, and only 2 industrial (yes, these were coke factories that are approximately three craft, but still). And such a picture was approximately in every city, which allowed me to study technology as much as 2 times faster. With an increase in the number of districts every 5, and the construction of a bunch of buildings for science.

Gigachad Koksovo Plant

Vyldin craft quarter

And this situation is everywhere. For good, in order to be an “imba” in your field, you need to invest in one direction all the time, each era, while the development between the eras is more likely to success from different sides. A strange situation. Sitting several chairs is not easy, and in other games of the studio there was no such gap as in civilization. I don’t know whether it is good or bad, it looks strange and unpleasant for me.

There are also a couple of questions for units. Sea units, due to the impossibility of independent capture of cities, and the fact that few people get along along the coast become not very useful. Not that in Tsiv, if the card was not archipelago or islands, there was another situation. Aviation. Also as for me, too expensive and useless thing, given that airports need to be built separately. In Tsiv, you can contain aviation without it, and the content of a glass of bombers greatly simplified the siege and protection of cities.

And nuclear weapons. For production, you need to study the technology, get a variety of resources, find a large free but occupied by your city, build at least one, and preferably 3 national projects, build a mine, and after that you can safely let in rockets. For 18 cells during the construction of a thermonuclear rocket, with all completed projects. This is the average distance from the center of the district to the center of another district. As a result, an expensive thing that can instantly erase all living things in the area, but at the same time the radius allows you to reach the maximum of the close adjacent area. Words cannot be described how I was disappointed for the first time, having built a rocket. I had to go on the Internet to find out the reason why I can’t run it, did not immediately understand that the matter is within the radius. And no, it can only be moved between missile mines. In Tsiv, the radius is also small, but it was not supposed to launch missiles from the city, and with the help of special units. But at the same time, the city did not demolish straight to the devils of the dog, and there was no cool cartoon when starting.

Retreat about fashion. Praise to the creators, the moding of this game is very simple. You download the archive with a mod from the site, unload it to the game folder and that’s it, without registration and SMS so to speak. There is a mod for correcting the radius of nuclear weapons, and a mod, for the progressive complexity of AI.

DLC, another cornerstone of the genre. Since the support of the game is still going on, it is difficult to say for sure what will happen. At the moment, DLC is the thematic cultural packs that do not introduce new mechanics. What is really sorry. It is difficult to play in Tsiv 5 without some DLC, because they add a bunch of mechanic. There are so many additions to Endless Space and Endless Legend that it is better for beginners to play for some time without them. It was impossible to play with all the additions as for me, as for me, and without them the game looks good. I would like to believe that the developers will add new mechanics, but not as usual, but in moderation.

Some results

It’s time to summarize all this canvas in a shorter appearance, and add something else.

Cities. Areas. Quarters. Residential. Arrays. Also a very good solution, twisted to mind after Endless Legend. I would like to see this more often. The limit of cities is soft, t.e. when it is exceeded, it gives progressive fines. Balanced enough.

Fashion. For download, you don’t even need to register, for installation you just need to know the folder into which the archive is unpacked, for activation – press the button on the menu, everything is very simple. But I did not notice the directly in large mods, only rewriting cyphors and the addition of my cultures.

Cards. You can make your cards, and share them in the same place as with mods. By the way, somewhere half of “mods” are cards. I tried only a huge land, it is very good.

Pollution. When building some buildings and areas, pollution is added in the city and on the planet. It is treated by planting forests and the construction of reserves (they are built only on special cells). There are several stages of pollution, including the one in which the geimovers occur. The threshold, however, was too large, not one of them pierced.

Miracles. Yes, this game repaired such a broken thing. No rasa who will be the first to build a miracle. Now you first need to buy for the influence of the right to this miracle, but after that it can be built only by the one who did it (or the one who captured the city in which it is built is also an interesting thing). Miracles and national projects can be built by the whole country, which is very cool.

A bunch of little things. The videos at the beginning, comments of the narrator, the video of the launch of nuclear weapons, summing up at the end with the most diverse information and graphs: the longest war, the best city, the number of won battles and defeated units, as well as its own schedule for each parameter. Makes the game more tactile and personal.

Resources. In past games of the studio, it was better (there are extractors, they mines n resource for move). Yes, they could be spent on armor for units, buildings and all that. Now a certain amount of resources is required, but they are not spent, but simply there is. Well, at least not like in Tsiv.

Avatars (AKA bots with characters). Each bot has its own advantages (for example, *0.8 cultures for a miracle), and quality (aggressiveness, treachery, trusting, tendency to put the colony far away and so on). In fact, I did not feel much difference between different avatars. And give bots additional buns besides complexity is very strange. But you can play against Edgar on.

Balance. The numbers are sometimes very large. The difference between prices for the first and last technology can reach 600 times, for the rest of the picture is about the same. And this is very striking.

Battles. In general, it is much better than in Tsiv or Legend (where it was generally difficult to get used to what was happening). Landscape, position and so on strongly affect, not only wars won by combat power. However, they are very tightened, the autobos sometimes creates game, the interface is not very clear, there are not enough drawing the radius of the shot and walking. Sometimes. And for some reason, when the unit is moving, the battle screen is folded, and not always the calculation of movement correctly displays available points.

Generator and card settings. As stated, I don’t really like the result of generation for any parameters. There are a lot of settings themselves, the new light is especially affected (the reserved uninhabited continent). However, there is no way to influence independent cities, or set up some game, like a continuous glacier. But you can put a peaceful mode, and turn the game into a town -planning simulator.

Independent cities. They are and barbarians if the city is aggressive. In general, there are not enough interactions with them, and their interactions with the world. Their cities can be bought by pouring influence or money, buying mercenaries (but they are not always available), bargain or win. They, if aggressive, attack everything that moves (unless, of course, affect them), despite the balance of power, and also rob. Do not attack each other, the cities do not capture. If peaceful, just wandering aimlessly on the map.

Interface. Yes, you can even get to the bottom of it. He is big. No, healthy. Even giant. The feeling that the game was prepared on mobile platforms, although even my laptop is pulled only by puffing.

Despite really very interesting ideas, the number of controversial moments outweighs them, although they are not noticeable at once. The game cannot be called bad, and despite everything, 4X lovers should at least try. It is difficult not to continue the rink begun. But personally, I do not have enough reigree, and the pace of the game seems to me slow (animations and brakes due to capacities deficiencies). And after one roller, I delete the game to hell to download it in a few months again. To everyone who read: I don’t know why you did it, how why did I write it. So.

The capital is already without an interface

Not the capital. Check out the size of the Akademgorodok, adjacent farms that became necessary for all this smart breakdown of scientists, and how stability went to one place in one place