I am really hoping Potato will bring another Terra Invicta series to the channel. With all the kinks the game had when he first played, I still feel it was one of the most exciting plays in the channel.
or Dunaj/Duna/Danube river which starts in Germany and ends in the Black Sea (approx ~1800 miles/2850km long river), crossing like 10 states. For the US citizens, thats as long as around 28000 american football fields, or crossing over a half the US from East Coast to West Coast.
@@matejbosela9093 The Missouri River, one of its tributaries, is 3,800 (2300/1500) miles from start to gulf of Mexico, crossing through 6 states (actual countries in this case, because thats what our states are) that are roughly comparable to Germany in size as the Missouri, and another 3 as the Mississippi.
Confucian School is best for 2 mountain tiles so you can have an industry quarter on one side and a confucian school on the other to exploit both the industry and science
To be fair, if you make a game where those kinds of optimizations are necessary, that's a fundamental design problem, or intentional. This game is one of em.
Potato, I gotta say you are basically the only "influencer" that really works on me. You're the sole reason I've bought multiple games (including Humankind). If any advertisers are reading this, SPONSER THIS SPUD.
I love the concept of Civ-like games... I always have... but I've always suffered from playing a few hours of a game before starting over... after the initial exploration phase games like that tended to get stale and I'd start up another run. With Humankind and how the changes in eras work, it just works for me. It is BY FAR my favorite civ-like game. Just beating all others hands down in actually playability for me personally. I would not only play the game much longer than any other, but i would finish most games that i started which I would never do in any of the Civs.
Humankind is one of those games where the adage "if you come for the king you best not miss" occurred. They marketed as a Civ beater and then got judged extra harsh for not doing so. Now all the dev team can do is catch up for an audience that isn't going to be there in large numbers and is reliant on free modders to do most of the grunt work.
Humankind has its issues but Amplitude _never_ claimed it was a Civ killer. Even in the run-up to launch they have always been incredibly cordial and respectful of Civ and Firaxis and I suspect there's been some cross-pollination of ideas between studios ever since Civ VI introduced districts. The only people who claimed Humankind would "kill" civ were toxic Civ V fanboys who wanted to see VI fail.
@@therexbellator Amplitude has also talked about how they really were honored and annoyed that the title of "civ 7" or "civ killer" or the sort got put on them before they even really said anything.
@@therexbellatorYou know it’s funny you mention Civ 6 cross pollination because Civ 6 didn’t actually introduce districts, Endless Legend (an Amplitude game) did. So Civ 6 and Humankind are both arguably influenced by Endless Legend more than Humankind is influenced by Civ 6.
@@PhoenixStriker1 yeah that's why I phrased it that way; I have a feeling some of the devs from each studio swapped notes and gave each other the go-ahead to implement their respective ideas from their franchise as a gesture of good will. People think competition is always a zero-sum game but it's not, bringing new titles into the space means more opportunities for creative ideas to flourish and propagate. The existence of games like HMK, Old World, Millennia and soon ARA shows the market for 4x games is big enough for Civ and other historical 4x games to co-exist and thrive.
I personally quite enjoy Humankind, although I am well aware of the flaws. My hesistation with these mod packs is the balance changes are sometimes too drastic and can completely change the point of an ability, which goes too far for something with a "vanilla" feel. This modpack has a lot of these changes, especially for tenets and some of the stronger cultures.
True. I dont like those as they are only breaking the game in different way but. QoL is nice to have and some balance changes i really appreciate. But they need to be balanced and have offsets.
Half the cultures are objectively useless in the base game though. Like, you shouldn't be able to look at two cultures side by side and decree "this first one is always objectively better and there is no conceivable world in which the second one is better, even if I had mod tools to hand-pick a world specifically for that purpose". Looking at you, Britain.
@@liuyusi125 The city building is extremely fun when it matters. I also think that war in this game can be a lot more entertaining than civ, as battles can be won over one turn, or a dozen. The way your culture evolves over time is also very satisfying, especially because it makes the mid to late game more interesting. I love the first few eras of civ, but by the time I get into the late game I start to get bored, but in humankind it changes enough for me to still have fun. Other than that civ 5 and 6 are better. Humankind is objectively unbalanced and has the easiest snowballing of any modern 4x ive played. Some cultures are so niche that even if the stars align to make a perfect empire with them, it is STILL BETTER to pick the objectively meta cultures. Some play so well into each other that it not longer is a 4x game, just a tile painting idle game. I also think it suffers from the inability to create tall empires. I've never really had a game of humankind where expanding was bad. Even if you go over your city cap by 2 or 3, you can pick the right culture and skyrocket your influence, so it doesn't matter. Also I find it really easy in the base game to deal with stability by spamming and buffing garrisons until you pick a culture that gives tons of stability. It may not be meta, but it works really well for me. Building 4 late game HALF PRICE garrisons means at least 10 districts without a loss of stability. There is so much potential with the game, but i don't think it will ever reach it.
@@liuyusi125 IMO it is a poor civ6. I just think it was the chronology: Humankind released between civ5 and civ6 and civ5 was somewhat inferior/different or so I think when I bought it thinking it was a civ5 expansion esque game.
I was thinking the exact same thing!!! He plays this more like civ with emphasis on districts and constructibles. I might be playing more like his style when I get home hahaha
I agree with you about territories following geographical features. It would be cool to be able to build dams, which would form a lake but also dry up opponents rivers if they are downstream.
Hey Tato! I just wanted to say that I love your videos and I think you're great. I don't care what anyone else says, you're amazing and I learned so much about Civ from you. You give great explanations that are easy to understand and apply. Thanks so much for sharing all of your knowledge and being a fun person to watch.
I will love to try this. I really liked human kind when it was in early access it felt so fresh. But nowadays it has so many frustrating quirks like army fights which took all fun and AI that was using the bad design to advantage
I love this! Might actually have to pick up the game 😂 Potato, you said you read the comments. I really like when your games come out in 40ish minute episodes. When you come out with a single video that is two or three hours long, I can seldom find the time to finish the entire thing in one sitting. Unfortunately, that normally means that I don’t finish the video, which is a shame. I really enjoy your content. I always have. I want to keep enjoying and I feel like shorter episodes might help. Love you!
Save to watch for later and you do the 40 fraction sittings yourself. TH-cam even saves where you left off. He can only publish once a day if he wants the video to do well, and editing is more work even if to cut the video. Don't be selfishly lazy.
@@raizan5946 oh, and I do. The only reason I commented this was because I thought other people might feel the same. Also I wanted to compliment this video because I really enjoy med it
@@davidfuller06 honestly, it just scares me that he, or any content creator I enjoy, goes for the "too episodic" route. They can but it is a thing I want if it benefits them because they know their audience and not to please youtube algorythm.
Heckin love all of tatoes vids. I do have to let him know the Topkapi palace boosts the production of the city it's placed in, so it's best to be put in your strongest production city.
Yeah Humankind! Honestly like this game more than Civilization because of the shifting nature of the game (until the Huns and Mongols just plow across the entire map and are the major power for two entire eras). Also if you want Mods to try, check out the Civ Beyond Earth "Codex" mod. Really interesting mod that (I think) makes BE an interesting Civ competitor.
I have actually loved Humankind since release, play it alot with my brotyher. Everything we dislike in Civ is not in this game, makes it a way better game for us. Love that you play it again! :D Also, fun to keep winning when most people don't realise you should optimise Fame gain before going to next culture :)))
I think I just have tried playing humankind three times, probably 15 hours total. There seemed to be few extraordinary aspects… although I loved the art style, beautiful game! looking forward to this mod pack!
Oh wow! Didn’t expect you to make a video response to that reddit thread someone else… paraded?-yeah-on the HUMANKIND subreddit. I’m just glad you’re having a more enjoyable time with the game. Edit: 55:06 Interestingly enough, if you weren’t forgiving all your leverages, they would have instead spawned on the map for any… third-party to grab a hold of them. Though someone else grabbing them doesn’t cancel your ability to still forgive or demand it. 1:05:49 That’s a really cool idea! 1:31:42 Potato’s indecision here was so fun to watch! You can tell he was really invested in the options he had. 2:08:54 About Cultural export: It’s what allows that Independent to change to your ideology, which helps shifts the Congress ideology to your favor-a little bit. But, really, it’s super interesting to see how a much strategy with Envoys potato has been doing in a peaceful game. 2:25:56 Influence. I think what’s killing you here is that the game scaling the influence cost by the total amount of influence you are generating, but without taking to account how much influence you are burning with patronage. It’s unfortunate, but i’m not sure how that can be balanced.
It’s unfortunate that in the name of balancing around limiting Gigantic city quarter spam, the game went the route of inflating the industry costs so high that you needed to opt to pay with influence on outposts (i suspect is a mod feature). Still: thanks for giving this game another chance-especially through this awesome mod! Hopefully that modder sees this video and your call.
Been playing humankind frequently atm on console (even though there is a big difference from pc & console) been enjoying it well since I’ve mixed my gameplay to explore different mechanics. It would’ve been nice if the console supported customisable AI leaders & the last 2 dlc (Rule together & naval) the game is very beautiful to look at & gameplay wise it’s not as bad as some people say it is, it’s only the numbers game in late game that becomes exhausting.
same here, I'd love to know what are the things that the mod changes. I like humankind as is, I wouldn't mind trying the mod, but I'd like some explanation over what it has that makes it better than vanilla
An idea for balancing production scaling as the game progresses: Create a production bar similar to the population bar. The minimum requirement scales with the number of districts constructed (possibly ignoring emblematic districts, or having some that are exempted as part of their ability), while there would be some level of base cost for districts scaling with era/unlocked relevant tech. Produced industry that is lower penalizes stability and produces locked worker slots (moveable between available slots) with the required deficit percentage for a locked slot getting smaller the more districts a city has. My logic behind this idea is that larger cities take more industry to support and with insufficient industry cannot sustain all of their facilities, and base build costs scaling because better facilities take more to construct. Non-district boosts for cities would scale with the number of districts of the yield they effect within the city, but would not have their base cost altered by tech/era progression.
As soon as I saw this video I started watching (commenting at the beginning of my watch). I wanted to like Humankind so much, but it was just so hard to actually enjoy, when Millenia came out and I was describing it to people I said "it's what I wanted Humankind to be". So very keen to see how this improves the game, cause at this point I've tried a few times but never gotten more than a few ages in.
Just I start a new Humankind campaign, and here's Potato makes a new vid, what a day! Love the game and lots of its decisions, especially compared to Civ. Better combat system, versatile cultures, even the fame table is a step up. I still play it a lot, and dont think it needs mods to be good. Not gonna diss tho, mod looks interesting, and could freshen up the feelings. Would like to know what cultures do you think are imba :)
What does the VIP mod actually change? I am a fair ways in the video and I am still unsure... I don't necessarily want to spend the time on Humankind...again. I really love Endless Space 1 and 2, and I gave Endless Legend and Humankind a chance, but did not end up enjoying either of them.
It rebalances a lot of the mechanics, provides each culture their own constructibles on top of districts, and reworks how the constructibles function and the buffs that come from doctrine
I know it’s a daunting game to get into, but I’d give it a try again if you’re feeling motivated. I personally haven’t stopped playing it since release. I used to go back and forth between this and civ but I now only play Humankind. I really want the Devs to keep pumping content into this game but with the player base right now, I’m afraid it might die off.
2:56:30 Having excess population causes you excess food usage, as well as lower stability, creating new slots from infrastructure helps offset that problem.
Ah yes, making your favourite content creators appear advertiser unfriendly by posting private messages on a public forum without permission. Classic strategy.
12:11 getting a second outpost in the neolict age can be a huge deal, cause you don't have distance penality added to the cost, so you can have second city far, in another spot with good land/resources if you try to claim an outpost more than 5 territories alway from you your already claimed territories you get massive increase in the cost
I really like Humankind, I see it as a great first attempt at entering the genera. I look forward to Humankind 2 where they can more easily fix the major issues the game has.
Well… the thing is that the company have been in the genre for a while. Endless Legend is probably the most popular non-civ game in the genre. Hell many people like Endless Legend more than they liked humankind. Amplitude also claimed humankind was to be their magnum opus, but it ended up just being almost on par with their previous titles. Nothing against them either. It’s everything to do with publishers and execs shoving themselves into the development process and fucking everything up. I feel bad for the devs. They want to fix the game themselves but Sega is forcing them to release DLCs that just add more cultures instead
Btw, it's totally fine to just play a game on the first try at a decent difficulty. Because that gives you the biggest opportunity to learn. On a super low difficulty where you cannot fail, you won't learn as much, since bad decision won't hurt you.
I play town difficulty and enjoy city building , and "nation watch" the AI fight eachother. These days I play HK more than Civ, I enjoy the district building and how the city looks more so than Civ6.
Potato, District Cost scales with the number of districts that a single city controls. Its totally OK to go over your City Limit, you only lose 10 influence per turn on Normal Speed as you go over the limit, which is easily equalised by the population each city has as Pops passively generate Influence. IDK how this mod works, but in Vanilla, you want to spam individual cities, to minimise this scaling mechanic.
I'll be honest, I like Humankind more than I like Civilization. Humankind was the Civ-killer for me. The combat in Humankind is phenomenal. The territory system is far more reasonable then Civ's tile system. The district system really makes it feel like the city is growing, rather than Civ's stagnant-looking growth system. Obviously, Together We Rule was a horrible update that completely ruined the game, but I honestly am not entertained by Civ anymore because of Humankind. There is no turn-based combat system that I like better than Humankind. No game has given me naval battles like Humankind has.
i remember being so hyped for this game when it first came out, havent touched it in 3 years haha. maybe ill give it another shot, are any of the DLC worth it?
Humankind is interesting. The production values are quite good, but somehow... well, an example. Recently I found a big Mod, We the People, for Colonization, a very old game with much poorer graphics than HK. Yet, I was drawn in. My take is that there were many ways of developing your entitiy, and yet there was a sense of stability of identity while playing. I take the time to do something (like build a plantation) and its value stayed with me. In HK I feel like when I change cultures I am starting over. I am not expressing it well, but there it is. Well I shall try again, because of your video (it's YOUR Fault!).
I love the idea of all the mechanics in humankind, but the execution feels wrong. Like the battle system is so much cooler than the civ style imo, but there's so much weird behavior around it that it ends up being infuriating. Same with the region claiming and district building. I love the region system, but claiming vs absorbing vs city founding just doesn't give any interesting results one way or the other. And as far as districting, I hate just paving my empire with cookie cutter buildings where more district is more good; it just makes my empire look ugly and unwieldy. Civ balances that by having fewer tiles with more impact, and giving incentives (via natl parks for example) for leaving some nature intact. I'd love to play humankind again, but I'm going to need a solid breakdown of a mod pack and how it plays to consider going back. I'd love to see you focus on some of that in a video!
i just got the game for two bucks or soemthing (from the steam summer sale), just checking out what you think about it, appreciate hearing somenone who will play more 4x than i ever will talk about it
not sure if that still works, but when i was playing humankind, if you put at least 1 turn of production in a 'special' quarter (do not remember how the game call them) like the olmek head, you can carry said buildoption over to the next area(s), thus not losing the benefit for it. BUT i do not know if the mod changes it, or if the devs themselves change it, sicne i haven't played for at least 2 years by now
Played humankind through gamepass when it first came out and really enjoyed the core gameplay foundations. My second playthrough was on the humankind difficulty which I beat and I haven't touched it since. I think one of its main issues was the lack of a developing complexity, each era felt the same just with different aestetics. Although I haven't played civ in a longtime either, I've been playing alot alot of total war warhammer. Also I had the exact same thoughts on the cliffs and ridges; they add a really nice bit of variety to landscape navigation but the default setting is far too high and becomes frustrating.
Eventually watched rest of it, a large amount of your complaints are because you're playing on too easy, your decision making doesn't have much impact. As soon as they made it possible to choose any culture(absolutely love it) you need to play in higher difficulty because you can intentionally choose your snowball.
I really like the way the tiles look with landscapes and disricts and stuff. What i dont like is the fact that from the middle game i always spend the the time zoomed out and can only see the grey colorless map, i think they should change that.
As HK enjoyer, i wholeheartedly agrees...HK is fun when mod is involves. Specifically the Triple Alliance Mod ( VIP + ENC + SCP ). I am curious on your hot take with this mod pack. Does it solves alot of the problem with current base game or not.
Watching this just confirmed to me it still has many of the late game issues they had at release. I remember the whole detach and reattach thing, it was so annoying and so micro-intensive.
There are games that are making players founding out the right settings to play properly and this can be really frustrating, especially if game doesn't give you baseline of how it should feel
I am wondering if the reason you aren't having fun origionally was because the game doesn't explain several things. Took me a few games to find my flow and now I really like it. I am always weary of mods as they tend to ruin balance and the ideas of the game. I just hope this is enjoyable for you.
Potato, can you elaborate on why Together We Rule should be turned off, in your opinion? Personally I feel like Influence and WarSupport is a good enough abstraction of the social elements of an empire, and Leverage is kinda stuck out as a sore thumb as an "extra" mechanic; it just feels out of place when Influence should really be the resource used instead. I also feel this way about Civ 6 Governors - IMO governers really should have been instead called "Factions" or "dynasties" or "Rulers" and been archtypical and faceless.
i think that humankind has the most potential from a 4x game i think that as a base game it has way more potential than civ6 did but its just spaffed that potential away with a meh dlc and a general content drought idk if its just me but the content that has been released the new culture packs and everything they seem way more expensive than they should be and it kinda seems like theyre sticking something up for sale because they dont really want to go full civ mode and release a load of expansions and make the game the best that it can be they just want to take a bit of the extra dlc money and leave it in a kinda bad state though i would love to be proved wrong on that you know borderlands the pre sequel you know how they had a load of actual content expansions planned for it and in active development but then when the game didnt sell amazingly they just released one content expansion and a couple new characters and left it at that which sucked because the dlc expansion was the single best content in the entire game its kinda like that but humankind could have actually gotten back and been super good unlike bltps its just a shame i really enjoyed playing the game its one of my most played games on steam but it does kinda feel like they gave up on it
What frustates me about Humankind is that Multiplayer could really be something if given the chance, but it just doesn't work for more than 6 players; it lags like hell, all actions get extreme delays and rehosting constantly may be easy but gets old quite quickly. I've found the systems both in vanilla and VIP to be ever the more engaging when playing in a competitive, multiplayer setting. The lack of "flavour", the fame system being a mixed bag and other rough edges can be ignored quite easily when actual geopolitics get thrown into the mix: Now civilizations need no more charaterization that who's behind the wheel and his roleplaying, fame becomes more of a dick measuring contest than having actual impact (because the opportunity cost in diversifying is much greater) and the competitive setting can set standards (organically or enforced through honor/rules) about what works/doesn't work for the experience we seek.
3:12:20 It's like in some RPGs with excessive level scaling where when you get stronger the enemies get stronger by as much as you do too, so the power difference ends up being the same, thus you make just as much progress at lvl 1 as on lvl 100. The thing is, if not for level scaling you'd be pumping out all upgrades in 1 turn since the medieval era, since all the bonuses you've stacked up are so ridiculous. As I see it the cost scaling is a crutch that holds up a badly balanced game. In both La Venta and Beijing it took 6 turns to build one nature preserve, even though La Venta had more than 4 times the production. I may be not understanding some things, since I haven't played the game myself, but to the layman's eye the math isn't mathing.
I don’t know if you’re up to suffering through another Humankind play through but if you are I’m curious if you’d be willing to try out a game with both VIP and my own mod, Additional Mechanic Complexity. I don’t really know if you’d see it as a viable solution to any of your grievances with HK but I would be curious to get your thoughts on the mod.
I knew Humankind was going to be underwhelming when all the marketing focused on how “quirky” the game could be, instead of paying any attention to the actual gameplay. Building a vegan Roman Empire or whatever can only be interesting if there are mechanics to support it, otherwise it’s just playing the same game with different flavour text.
I tried to play some Humankind after watching this and unfortunately, I don't think I've changed my mind on this game because of this mod. It really feels like it punishes you for doing well- By the time I got to Early Modern era, I was well ahead of all of the AI but I was CONSTANTLY dealing with Stability issues despite doing everything in my power to stack Stability. I was just producing so much food that I was getting a pop (typically a good thing in 4x) every single turn, which meant I was constantly dealing with Overcrowding no matter what I tried to do to fix it. My rivals were apparently having issues too, considering every single AI was imploding with constant rebellions from lack of stability.
Personally, I like Humankind a lot. It's not balanced, it's janky and sometimes just plain bad. But the amount of options, however bad they are, is what keeps me playing. Port-tall is the most broken thing in all 4x games I've played, yes, but the little things like basic units changing looks based on your culture or the fun of building a huge, hyper-efficient city is SO good. I really hope Amplitude won't pull the plug.
The scaling is just so bad. You have a city making 16k production, 5k gold, and 3k science and get an event that says "would you like an extra 15 yields for 10 turns?" Just don't even have the events at that point
a real shame that someone on your patreon exposed something you didn't want to go public, hope that person at least apologized, was a good video to watch anyways
One of the most disappointing elements of TWR was the diplomatic cultures, I was expecting gameplay that rewarded treaty making, trade and helping other players with military emergencies. Instead, we got collect the intel.
I think Humankind is pretty good (have not played the improvement mod), but there is certainly things that just feel bad. Like bombers destroying an emblematic district, that (as far as I know) you cannot repair and can never replace. That just sucks. On the difficulty: I feel like the game is harder the farther away the AI-start locations are. If you get the jump on them in the early to mid-game it is very easy to keep bullying them, but if you just sit back and want to win a score victory, "Humankind" feels a little unfair imo. I think the warfare is done better in Humankind than other 4X, so I dont feel to bad for being forced to play aggressive, but it is quite limiting imo. All you want to do is rush down their cities. Actually besieging rarely happens and killing the entre garrison gives obscene amounts of war-score. The AI is also kinda bad at picking the "correct" cultures, as the balancing between the different cultures is very very off (if you get Khmer its basically over).
![The Wall Song ร้องข้ามกำแพง | EP.213 | กรีน อัษฎาพร | 3 ต.ค. 67 [1/5]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/3KrlLbCsadI/mqdefault.jpg)
I am really hoping Potato will bring another Terra Invicta series to the channel. With all the kinks the game had when he first played, I still feel it was one of the most exciting plays in the channel.
I would absolutely LOVE to see it, as long as he actually enjoys playing.
It's been so long since hes touched it and I dont think he's played the selfish capitalism guys yet, would be cool to see a return
Absolutely
Yes, please - especially since it has changed so much during the ongoing development.
would love that too
"The river is split along too many territories" no one tell potato about the real world Mississippi river
or Dunaj/Duna/Danube river which starts in Germany and ends in the Black Sea (approx ~1800 miles/2850km long river), crossing like 10 states. For the US citizens, thats as long as around 28000 american football fields, or crossing over a half the US from East Coast to West Coast.
@@matejbosela9093 The Missouri River, one of its tributaries, is 3,800 (2300/1500) miles from start to gulf of Mexico, crossing through 6 states (actual countries in this case, because thats what our states are) that are roughly comparable to Germany in size as the Missouri, and another 3 as the Mississippi.
That 4-mountain hex next to the capital was just screaming for a confucian school
Confucian School is best for 2 mountain tiles so you can have an industry quarter on one side and a confucian school on the other to exploit both the industry and science
Three confusion schools with two mountains minimum each means you'll never need to build a science center until the second to the last era.
3:13:20 "whenever possible, the players will optimise the fun out of the game" quote, perfectly exemplified
To be fair, if you make a game where those kinds of optimizations are necessary, that's a fundamental design problem, or intentional. This game is one of em.
@@goldenhate6649even in games where it isn’t necessary players will still do it
@@goldenhate6649 to be more fair - them being there doesnt make them necessary, and "necessary" is subjectve anyway.
Potato, I gotta say you are basically the only "influencer" that really works on me. You're the sole reason I've bought multiple games (including Humankind). If any advertisers are reading this, SPONSER THIS SPUD.
Humankind had my favorite set of systems of all these new civ-like games that have come out in the last 5 years or so.
@@mvpmvp2980 so much so that Civ VII decided to steal from them.
@@sextond I'm glad honestly, but Civ 7 still doesn't have graphics nearly as nice as HUMANKIND's
@@sextond oh noes, SOME things are from the games that ripped off Civ, how dare they!
Nice video, would have loved to hear at the start what were the main changes of the mod and why was such a game changer for you.
I love the concept of Civ-like games... I always have... but I've always suffered from playing a few hours of a game before starting over... after the initial exploration phase games like that tended to get stale and I'd start up another run. With Humankind and how the changes in eras work, it just works for me. It is BY FAR my favorite civ-like game. Just beating all others hands down in actually playability for me personally. I would not only play the game much longer than any other, but i would finish most games that i started which I would never do in any of the Civs.
Humankind is one of those games where the adage "if you come for the king you best not miss" occurred. They marketed as a Civ beater and then got judged extra harsh for not doing so. Now all the dev team can do is catch up for an audience that isn't going to be there in large numbers and is reliant on free modders to do most of the grunt work.
Humankind has its issues but Amplitude _never_ claimed it was a Civ killer. Even in the run-up to launch they have always been incredibly cordial and respectful of Civ and Firaxis and I suspect there's been some cross-pollination of ideas between studios ever since Civ VI introduced districts.
The only people who claimed Humankind would "kill" civ were toxic Civ V fanboys who wanted to see VI fail.
@@therexbellator Amplitude has also talked about how they really were honored and annoyed that the title of "civ 7" or "civ killer" or the sort got put on them before they even really said anything.
@@therexbellatorYou know it’s funny you mention Civ 6 cross pollination because Civ 6 didn’t actually introduce districts, Endless Legend (an Amplitude game) did. So Civ 6 and Humankind are both arguably influenced by Endless Legend more than Humankind is influenced by Civ 6.
@@PhoenixStriker1 yeah that's why I phrased it that way; I have a feeling some of the devs from each studio swapped notes and gave each other the go-ahead to implement their respective ideas from their franchise as a gesture of good will.
People think competition is always a zero-sum game but it's not, bringing new titles into the space means more opportunities for creative ideas to flourish and propagate. The existence of games like HMK, Old World, Millennia and soon ARA shows the market for 4x games is big enough for Civ and other historical 4x games to co-exist and thrive.
They never did, they were making their own thing, the TH-cam culture of clickbait videos turned all the talk about it into that.
Your videos are always a delight, and this one is no exception. Thank you for brightening my day, and sorry your post breached containment like that.
I personally quite enjoy Humankind, although I am well aware of the flaws. My hesistation with these mod packs is the balance changes are sometimes too drastic and can completely change the point of an ability, which goes too far for something with a "vanilla" feel. This modpack has a lot of these changes, especially for tenets and some of the stronger cultures.
True. I dont like those as they are only breaking the game in different way but. QoL is nice to have and some balance changes i really appreciate. But they need to be balanced and have offsets.
Half the cultures are objectively useless in the base game though. Like, you shouldn't be able to look at two cultures side by side and decree "this first one is always objectively better and there is no conceivable world in which the second one is better, even if I had mod tools to hand-pick a world specifically for that purpose". Looking at you, Britain.
What’s good and what are the the flaws? Feel like a poor man version of civ6
@@liuyusi125 The city building is extremely fun when it matters. I also think that war in this game can be a lot more entertaining than civ, as battles can be won over one turn, or a dozen. The way your culture evolves over time is also very satisfying, especially because it makes the mid to late game more interesting. I love the first few eras of civ, but by the time I get into the late game I start to get bored, but in humankind it changes enough for me to still have fun. Other than that civ 5 and 6 are better. Humankind is objectively unbalanced and has the easiest snowballing of any modern 4x ive played. Some cultures are so niche that even if the stars align to make a perfect empire with them, it is STILL BETTER to pick the objectively meta cultures. Some play so well into each other that it not longer is a 4x game, just a tile painting idle game. I also think it suffers from the inability to create tall empires. I've never really had a game of humankind where expanding was bad. Even if you go over your city cap by 2 or 3, you can pick the right culture and skyrocket your influence, so it doesn't matter. Also I find it really easy in the base game to deal with stability by spamming and buffing garrisons until you pick a culture that gives tons of stability. It may not be meta, but it works really well for me. Building 4 late game HALF PRICE garrisons means at least 10 districts without a loss of stability. There is so much potential with the game, but i don't think it will ever reach it.
@@liuyusi125 IMO it is a poor civ6. I just think it was the chronology: Humankind released between civ5 and civ6 and civ5 was somewhat inferior/different or so I think when I bought it thinking it was a civ5 expansion esque game.
I have always liked humankind and it was fun to watch you play it completely different than how I play every game
I was thinking the exact same thing!!! He plays this more like civ with emphasis on districts and constructibles. I might be playing more like his style when I get home hahaha
I agree with you about territories following geographical features. It would be cool to be able to build dams, which would form a lake but also dry up opponents rivers if they are downstream.
Thats a really classy way of dealing with the criticism issue you had
I'd like to say thank you for the effort you put into creating your video's they are really informative.
Hey Tato! I just wanted to say that I love your videos and I think you're great. I don't care what anyone else says, you're amazing and I learned so much about Civ from you. You give great explanations that are easy to understand and apply. Thanks so much for sharing all of your knowledge and being a fun person to watch.
I will love to try this. I really liked human kind when it was in early access it felt so fresh. But nowadays it has so many frustrating quirks like army fights which took all fun and AI that was using the bad design to advantage
I love this! Might actually have to pick up the game 😂
Potato, you said you read the comments. I really like when your games come out in 40ish minute episodes. When you come out with a single video that is two or three hours long, I can seldom find the time to finish the entire thing in one sitting. Unfortunately, that normally means that I don’t finish the video, which is a shame. I really enjoy your content. I always have. I want to keep enjoying and I feel like shorter episodes might help.
Love you!
Save to watch for later and you do the 40 fraction sittings yourself. TH-cam even saves where you left off. He can only publish once a day if he wants the video to do well, and editing is more work even if to cut the video. Don't be selfishly lazy.
@@raizan5946 oh, and I do. The only reason I commented this was because I thought other people might feel the same. Also I wanted to compliment this video because I really enjoy med it
@@davidfuller06 honestly, it just scares me that he, or any content creator I enjoy, goes for the "too episodic" route. They can but it is a thing I want if it benefits them because they know their audience and not to please youtube algorythm.
Lmao I’ll have it play during my work day like I am right now. 😅😂
1:03:40 "i am going to open up..." proceeds to open up a can
Heckin love all of tatoes vids. I do have to let him know the Topkapi palace boosts the production of the city it's placed in, so it's best to be put in your strongest production city.
Yeah Humankind! Honestly like this game more than Civilization because of the shifting nature of the game (until the Huns and Mongols just plow across the entire map and are the major power for two entire eras).
Also if you want Mods to try, check out the Civ Beyond Earth "Codex" mod. Really interesting mod that (I think) makes BE an interesting Civ competitor.
I have actually loved Humankind since release, play it alot with my brotyher. Everything we dislike in Civ is not in this game, makes it a way better game for us. Love that you play it again! :D Also, fun to keep winning when most people don't realise you should optimise Fame gain before going to next culture :)))
love your vids bro, thank you for being really entertaining
I think I just have tried playing humankind three times, probably 15 hours total. There seemed to be few extraordinary aspects… although I loved the art style, beautiful game! looking forward to this mod pack!
Tbh i enjoy humankind even without mods, i like it more than civ 6
Potato don’t stop being you, your videos make me and others happy
Oh wow! Didn’t expect you to make a video response to that reddit thread someone else… paraded?-yeah-on the HUMANKIND subreddit.
I’m just glad you’re having a more enjoyable time with the game.
Edit:
55:06
Interestingly enough, if you weren’t forgiving all your leverages, they would have instead spawned on the map for any… third-party to grab a hold of them. Though someone else grabbing them doesn’t cancel your ability to still forgive or demand it.
1:05:49
That’s a really cool idea!
1:31:42
Potato’s indecision here was so fun to watch! You can tell he was really invested in the options he had.
2:08:54
About Cultural export: It’s what allows that Independent to change to your ideology, which helps shifts the Congress ideology to your favor-a little bit.
But, really, it’s super interesting to see how a much strategy with Envoys potato has been doing in a peaceful game.
2:25:56
Influence. I think what’s killing you here is that the game scaling the influence cost by the total amount of influence you are generating, but without taking to account how much influence you are burning with patronage. It’s unfortunate, but i’m not sure how that can be balanced.
It’s unfortunate that in the name of balancing around limiting Gigantic city quarter spam, the game went the route of inflating the industry costs so high that you needed to opt to pay with influence on outposts (i suspect is a mod feature).
Still: thanks for giving this game another chance-especially through this awesome mod!
Hopefully that modder sees this video and your call.
Been playing humankind frequently atm on console (even though there is a big difference from pc & console) been enjoying it well since I’ve mixed my gameplay to explore different mechanics. It would’ve been nice if the console supported customisable AI leaders & the last 2 dlc (Rule together & naval) the game is very beautiful to look at & gameplay wise it’s not as bad as some people say it is, it’s only the numbers game in late game that becomes exhausting.
Love to see some humankind gameplay! That said, the run looked pretty much identical to vanilla, really unsure about what the mod actually changed!
What is it about the mod that you enjoy? I'm 10 minutes in and I don't know what the mod does yet.
same here, I'd love to know what are the things that the mod changes. I like humankind as is, I wouldn't mind trying the mod, but I'd like some explanation over what it has that makes it better than vanilla
Balance and small little things that can be annoying in vanilla. If you go look at mod you can see what it changes
An idea for balancing production scaling as the game progresses: Create a production bar similar to the population bar.
The minimum requirement scales with the number of districts constructed (possibly ignoring emblematic districts, or having some that are exempted as part of their ability), while there would be some level of base cost for districts scaling with era/unlocked relevant tech.
Produced industry that is lower penalizes stability and produces locked worker slots (moveable between available slots) with the required deficit percentage for a locked slot getting smaller the more districts a city has.
My logic behind this idea is that larger cities take more industry to support and with insufficient industry cannot sustain all of their facilities, and base build costs scaling because better facilities take more to construct.
Non-district boosts for cities would scale with the number of districts of the yield they effect within the city, but would not have their base cost altered by tech/era progression.
Long time watcher, first time commenter. Big fan of your content:)
It's so satisfying to watch Humankind every once in a while
"They have to sign a trade treaty with me or I declare war on them." -Scone of Teashire
22:40 the leverage from renouncing DOES count but it only updates in the next turn
Oh hey it's DoctorKain aka Bruno Carvalho aka the mod author
As soon as I saw this video I started watching (commenting at the beginning of my watch). I wanted to like Humankind so much, but it was just so hard to actually enjoy, when Millenia came out and I was describing it to people I said "it's what I wanted Humankind to be". So very keen to see how this improves the game, cause at this point I've tried a few times but never gotten more than a few ages in.
Just I start a new Humankind campaign, and here's Potato makes a new vid, what a day!
Love the game and lots of its decisions, especially compared to Civ. Better combat system, versatile cultures, even the fame table is a step up.
I still play it a lot, and dont think it needs mods to be good. Not gonna diss tho, mod looks interesting, and could freshen up the feelings. Would like to know what cultures do you think are imba :)
love love love the long form content
What does the VIP mod actually change? I am a fair ways in the video and I am still unsure... I don't necessarily want to spend the time on Humankind...again. I really love Endless Space 1 and 2, and I gave Endless Legend and Humankind a chance, but did not end up enjoying either of them.
It rebalances a lot of the mechanics, provides each culture their own constructibles on top of districts, and reworks how the constructibles function and the buffs that come from doctrine
I know it’s a daunting game to get into, but I’d give it a try again if you’re feeling motivated. I personally haven’t stopped playing it since release. I used to go back and forth between this and civ but I now only play Humankind. I really want the Devs to keep pumping content into this game but with the player base right now, I’m afraid it might die off.
2:56:30 Having excess population causes you excess food usage, as well as lower stability, creating new slots from infrastructure helps offset that problem.
Human kind is one of those games I play once a year to see if I enjoy it now. I never have
It’s just so boring. Like, idk how games like this have been done for so long and they modify the formula a bit and it ends up being boring.
Ah yes, making your favourite content creators appear advertiser unfriendly by posting private messages on a public forum without permission. Classic strategy.
Olmec is one of my favorite "Power Starts" because the wide empire spread gives you crazy leverage early on
“This mod does not overhaul the game”- Potato
“Vanilla complete overhaul modpack”- description of the mod in the UI
Made me smile
12:11 getting a second outpost in the neolict age can be a huge deal, cause you don't have distance penality added to the cost, so you can have second city far, in another spot with good land/resources
if you try to claim an outpost more than 5 territories alway from you your already claimed territories you get massive increase in the cost
I really like Humankind, I see it as a great first attempt at entering the genera. I look forward to Humankind 2 where they can more easily fix the major issues the game has.
Well… the thing is that the company have been in the genre for a while. Endless Legend is probably the most popular non-civ game in the genre. Hell many people like Endless Legend more than they liked humankind. Amplitude also claimed humankind was to be their magnum opus, but it ended up just being almost on par with their previous titles.
Nothing against them either. It’s everything to do with publishers and execs shoving themselves into the development process and fucking everything up. I feel bad for the devs. They want to fix the game themselves but Sega is forcing them to release DLCs that just add more cultures instead
Btw, it's totally fine to just play a game on the first try at a decent difficulty.
Because that gives you the biggest opportunity to learn.
On a super low difficulty where you cannot fail, you won't learn as much, since bad decision won't hurt you.
I play town difficulty and enjoy city building , and "nation watch" the AI fight eachother. These days I play HK more than Civ, I enjoy the district building and how the city looks more so than Civ6.
Lmao I like the combat so much it’s hard for me to not make enemies sometimes
White peace badge is earned when your war support is higher than your opponent's war support. The opponent will suffer -1 war support.
Potato, District Cost scales with the number of districts that a single city controls.
Its totally OK to go over your City Limit, you only lose 10 influence per turn on Normal Speed as you go over the limit, which is easily equalised by the population each city has as Pops passively generate Influence.
IDK how this mod works, but in Vanilla, you want to spam individual cities, to minimise this scaling mechanic.
When you have to teach people how to enjoy the game tells you how unenjoyable the game is
Great video as always
I say as I’m only a fraction into this behemoth of a video…
If a game has nature reserves potato WILL drag himself to hell to build them everywhere
I'll be honest, I like Humankind more than I like Civilization. Humankind was the Civ-killer for me. The combat in Humankind is phenomenal. The territory system is far more reasonable then Civ's tile system. The district system really makes it feel like the city is growing, rather than Civ's stagnant-looking growth system. Obviously, Together We Rule was a horrible update that completely ruined the game, but I honestly am not entertained by Civ anymore because of Humankind. There is no turn-based combat system that I like better than Humankind. No game has given me naval battles like Humankind has.
They’re simple and boring.
Potato can into humankind, and you can, too!
When I clicked on the video I didn't realize it was 3 and half hours long about an hour in....
i remember being so hyped for this game when it first came out, havent touched it in 3 years haha. maybe ill give it another shot, are any of the DLC worth it?
Hey man, great video! Thanks
Humankind is interesting. The production values are quite good, but somehow... well, an example. Recently I found a big Mod, We the People, for Colonization, a very old game with much poorer graphics than HK. Yet, I was drawn in. My take is that there were many ways of developing your entitiy, and yet there was a sense of stability of identity while playing. I take the time to do something (like build a plantation) and its value stayed with me. In HK I feel like when I change cultures I am starting over. I am not expressing it well, but there it is. Well I shall try again, because of your video (it's YOUR Fault!).
I love the idea of all the mechanics in humankind, but the execution feels wrong. Like the battle system is so much cooler than the civ style imo, but there's so much weird behavior around it that it ends up being infuriating. Same with the region claiming and district building. I love the region system, but claiming vs absorbing vs city founding just doesn't give any interesting results one way or the other. And as far as districting, I hate just paving my empire with cookie cutter buildings where more district is more good; it just makes my empire look ugly and unwieldy. Civ balances that by having fewer tiles with more impact, and giving incentives (via natl parks for example) for leaving some nature intact. I'd love to play humankind again, but I'm going to need a solid breakdown of a mod pack and how it plays to consider going back. I'd love to see you focus on some of that in a video!
All the times you said "I'm enjoying Humankind" makes me say "Blink twice if someone is holding you hostage...."
This comment is just in case your mental health needs the reminder, creating these videos brings a lot of joy for lots of people
i just got the game for two bucks or soemthing (from the steam summer sale), just checking out what you think about it, appreciate hearing somenone who will play more 4x than i ever will talk about it
not sure if that still works, but when i was playing humankind, if you put at least 1 turn of production in a 'special' quarter (do not remember how the game call them) like the olmek head, you can carry said buildoption over to the next area(s), thus not losing the benefit for it. BUT i do not know if the mod changes it, or if the devs themselves change it, sicne i haven't played for at least 2 years by now
this still works
i enjoyed watching this game here far more than your introduction video to this game.
You should play multiplayer with Jumbo Pixel 😊. VIP of course. The best mod!!!
Played humankind through gamepass when it first came out and really enjoyed the core gameplay foundations. My second playthrough was on the humankind difficulty which I beat and I haven't touched it since. I think one of its main issues was the lack of a developing complexity, each era felt the same just with different aestetics. Although I haven't played civ in a longtime either, I've been playing alot alot of total war warhammer. Also I had the exact same thoughts on the cliffs and ridges; they add a really nice bit of variety to landscape navigation but the default setting is far too high and becomes frustrating.
It's so unfortunate that potato didn't go in est. It's the best part the have had to offer! Maybe in another VIP video?
I'm shocked that there is evidence that the game is finish-able in only 3.5 hours. Didn't think it was possible on normal speed.
I like when he makes long videos like this one and the millennia one and a whole bunch of others
No one could've predicted a game called "Humankind" wouldn't be employing people based on merit.
Eventually watched rest of it, a large amount of your complaints are because you're playing on too easy, your decision making doesn't have much impact. As soon as they made it possible to choose any culture(absolutely love it) you need to play in higher difficulty because you can intentionally choose your snowball.
can we get more of this, this was brilliant
I really like the way the tiles look with landscapes and disricts and stuff. What i dont like is the fact that from the middle game i always spend the the time zoomed out and can only see the grey colorless map, i think they should change that.
Potato: "We're now spreading in every direction"
Just like your mom. BOOM!
As HK enjoyer, i wholeheartedly agrees...HK is fun when mod is involves. Specifically the Triple Alliance Mod ( VIP + ENC + SCP ). I am curious on your hot take with this mod pack. Does it solves alot of the problem with current base game or not.
Watching this just confirmed to me it still has many of the late game issues they had at release. I remember the whole detach and reattach thing, it was so annoying and so micro-intensive.
There are games that are making players founding out the right settings to play properly and this can be really frustrating, especially if game doesn't give you baseline of how it should feel
I am wondering if the reason you aren't having fun origionally was because the game doesn't explain several things. Took me a few games to find my flow and now I really like it. I am always weary of mods as they tend to ruin balance and the ideas of the game. I just hope this is enjoyable for you.
VIP + ENDLESS is sooooo good
Hello! Love your work @PotatoMcWhiskey! Thanks for inspirering me to spend money and time unwisely on 4X games! Loved it! 😆
Potato, can you elaborate on why Together We Rule should be turned off, in your opinion?
Personally I feel like Influence and WarSupport is a good enough abstraction of the social elements of an empire, and Leverage is kinda stuck out as a sore thumb as an "extra" mechanic; it just feels out of place when Influence should really be the resource used instead.
I also feel this way about Civ 6 Governors - IMO governers really should have been instead called "Factions" or "dynasties" or "Rulers" and been archtypical and faceless.
i think that humankind has the most potential from a 4x game i think that as a base game it has way more potential than civ6 did but its just spaffed that potential away with a meh dlc and a general content drought
idk if its just me but the content that has been released the new culture packs and everything they seem way more expensive than they should be and it kinda seems like theyre sticking something up for sale because they dont really want to go full civ mode and release a load of expansions and make the game the best that it can be they just want to take a bit of the extra dlc money and leave it in a kinda bad state though i would love to be proved wrong on that
you know borderlands the pre sequel you know how they had a load of actual content expansions planned for it and in active development but then when the game didnt sell amazingly they just released one content expansion and a couple new characters and left it at that which sucked because the dlc expansion was the single best content in the entire game
its kinda like that but humankind could have actually gotten back and been super good unlike bltps
its just a shame i really enjoyed playing the game its one of my most played games on steam but it does kinda feel like they gave up on it
What frustates me about Humankind is that Multiplayer could really be something if given the chance, but it just doesn't work for more than 6 players; it lags like hell, all actions get extreme delays and rehosting constantly may be easy but gets old quite quickly.
I've found the systems both in vanilla and VIP to be ever the more engaging when playing in a competitive, multiplayer setting. The lack of "flavour", the fame system being a mixed bag and other rough edges can be ignored quite easily when actual geopolitics get thrown into the mix: Now civilizations need no more charaterization that who's behind the wheel and his roleplaying, fame becomes more of a dick measuring contest than having actual impact (because the opportunity cost in diversifying is much greater) and the competitive setting can set standards (organically or enforced through honor/rules) about what works/doesn't work for the experience we seek.
Maybe this will be enough to make me pick Humankind up again. It was very disappointing during the initial year, but maybe mods are the solution.
Great content thanks so much.
You're the man, Tater
3:12:20 It's like in some RPGs with excessive level scaling where when you get stronger the enemies get stronger by as much as you do too, so the power difference ends up being the same, thus you make just as much progress at lvl 1 as on lvl 100. The thing is, if not for level scaling you'd be pumping out all upgrades in 1 turn since the medieval era, since all the bonuses you've stacked up are so ridiculous.
As I see it the cost scaling is a crutch that holds up a badly balanced game. In both La Venta and Beijing it took 6 turns to build one nature preserve, even though La Venta had more than 4 times the production. I may be not understanding some things, since I haven't played the game myself, but to the layman's eye the math isn't mathing.
I don’t know if you’re up to suffering through another Humankind play through but if you are I’m curious if you’d be willing to try out a game with both VIP and my own mod, Additional Mechanic Complexity. I don’t really know if you’d see it as a viable solution to any of your grievances with HK but I would be curious to get your thoughts on the mod.
Love the video! Especially because it's almost 4 hours long, I'm just wondering if you're going to play terra Invicta again?
I really like the idea of switching between civs upon progression, but the majority of mechanics in the game are broken.
I knew Humankind was going to be underwhelming when all the marketing focused on how “quirky” the game could be, instead of paying any attention to the actual gameplay.
Building a vegan Roman Empire or whatever can only be interesting if there are mechanics to support it, otherwise it’s just playing the same game with different flavour text.
Oh shit, I have very mixed feelings about human kind, I love a lot of it, but I also kinda hate a lot of it. This is really exciting!
I tried to play some Humankind after watching this and unfortunately, I don't think I've changed my mind on this game because of this mod. It really feels like it punishes you for doing well- By the time I got to Early Modern era, I was well ahead of all of the AI but I was CONSTANTLY dealing with Stability issues despite doing everything in my power to stack Stability. I was just producing so much food that I was getting a pop (typically a good thing in 4x) every single turn, which meant I was constantly dealing with Overcrowding no matter what I tried to do to fix it. My rivals were apparently having issues too, considering every single AI was imploding with constant rebellions from lack of stability.
Personally, I like Humankind a lot. It's not balanced, it's janky and sometimes just plain bad. But the amount of options, however bad they are, is what keeps me playing. Port-tall is the most broken thing in all 4x games I've played, yes, but the little things like basic units changing looks based on your culture or the fun of building a huge, hyper-efficient city is SO good. I really hope Amplitude won't pull the plug.
The scaling is just so bad. You have a city making 16k production, 5k gold, and 3k science and get an event that says "would you like an extra 15 yields for 10 turns?" Just don't even have the events at that point
a real shame that someone on your patreon exposed something you didn't want to go public, hope that person at least apologized, was a good video to watch anyways
One of the most disappointing elements of TWR was the diplomatic cultures, I was expecting gameplay that rewarded treaty making, trade and helping other players with military emergencies. Instead, we got collect the intel.
I think Humankind is pretty good (have not played the improvement mod), but there is certainly things that just feel bad. Like bombers destroying an emblematic district, that (as far as I know) you cannot repair and can never replace. That just sucks.
On the difficulty: I feel like the game is harder the farther away the AI-start locations are. If you get the jump on them in the early to mid-game it is very easy to keep bullying them, but if you just sit back and want to win a score victory, "Humankind" feels a little unfair imo. I think the warfare is done better in Humankind than other 4X, so I dont feel to bad for being forced to play aggressive, but it is quite limiting imo. All you want to do is rush down their cities. Actually besieging rarely happens and killing the entre garrison gives obscene amounts of war-score.
The AI is also kinda bad at picking the "correct" cultures, as the balancing between the different cultures is very very off (if you get Khmer its basically over).
As long as there are still simultaneous turns, the game will never be good.