Improving Humankind Gameplay Together

[The-Cat-o-Nine-Tales]

Since the launch of Humankind, we've seen many of you eagerly dive into the game, and have received many kind words, but we have also received a lot of constructive criticism (as we expect from a dedicated community like you.) While there is much talk about quality of life and interface, there is just as much talk about gameplay. We want to know what gameplay improvements are most important to our players, so we invite you to share the improvements you would like to see in this thread.

Let us know what you think, so that together we can make Humankind a better game!

[drizzth]

The game feels a bit too slow to me. I wish units would move faster for instance. That would be great if they would immediately reach destination when I tell them to move.

[Chanzui]

A lot of the things that interact with other players feel arbitrary, for instance in the game I played my religion had ALL the followers, which is to say, there was only 1 religion, being the owner of that religion gave me no fame or impact.

Actual suggestions:
High culture spreading
Rreligion spreading
Science advantage

All of the above should give you fame or some type of actual advantage over other players.

Also when winning a war, you should be given rewards appropriate to how much you actually conquered, I was rewarded 1-2 cities for conquering 5 cities, which feels really bad.

[Appiodici]

Yesm aybe a button for turn animation.

1) I think 300 turn on normal mode is too little it will better maybe with a little more like 350 for people that are on ♥♥♥♥♥♥ to try to keep it up.

2) Influence is the big problem, we have ton of it (especially with aesthete) but no really utlity from mid game ... influence much have more impact with utility in end game because right now i see no reason to go with aesthethe from middle age. we should have the possibilty to conquer city with influence like tourism bomb or something like that.

3) Some ifnrastructure are totally useless, for exempla the Tax class, especially the first building that take 500 industry for ... +3 gold, this building have no reason to be build.

4) some civ are clearly op and other very weak, the balance need to be rewap ... for example Khmer with the Baray that can give at middle +30 food and +30 production on all cities, that is really really op. Too the end game turk improvement with +300 of science.

[Steefy_92]

i think that once player advanced to Ancient Era they shouldn't be forced to upgrade an outpost into a free city, right away or they can't end the turn, unless...

Yes, this can be avoided by switching off the Mandatory something something in UI menu, but that's a workaround and one that's actually necessary in my opinion due to the sheer amount of micro-management.

It should be handled as a reminder to keep players notified but not forced right away, because they might want to take an extra turn or two, so they can build outpost with better benefits (or move it) and have that as desired capital

[Ambrivian]

I don't know what other peoples' experiences have been like but I'm a fairly seasoned 4X player (Civ 4 through 6, all of Paradox's games, Endless Space/Legend, all the Total Wars) and I find it really difficult to 1. win the game, even on easy settings (like the default metropolis), 2. reach the last two ages before the turn limit runs out (especially contemporary age, I only reached it once in 3 full, 300-turn playthroughs), and 3. playing tall.

I think this last one is especially disappointing because I hate the micromanagement of large empires (managing 8+ cities in Civ or managing dozens of planets in Stellaris) but I don't feel any advantages to playing tall in this game. Playing wide allows you to rack up fame through expansion, population (Agrarian?), and military but playing tall doesn't give you fame through having giant cities or anything (e.g. fame bonuses for reaching 50 population, 75, etc.). I feel like I have to play wide in order to compete with the AI.

In my last game I played tall (3 cities with 2-3 territories each) and I focused almost exclusively on science (after food first to fill up those population slots) and I still didn't reach the Contemporary age before the turn limit was reached. In this game, none of the AI reached the contemporary age either. I managed to reach Contemporary about 10 turns after the game "ended".

[Damedius]

I'm not sure if this has already been patched but resources seem all over the place.

In my first playthrough I had played on a 4 continent map. I had almost conquered the continent I was on but didn't have enough strategic resources to build modern units.

In my current play through I got a ton of strategic resources in the area I started. I don't know what a lot of them are yet because I'm only in the classic era but they are plentiful. The only downside is that I have no luxury resources in my area. My two neighbors do have some though.

So I'm not sure if it would be possible to balance it or if this is what you are aiming for.

The only other thing i'll mention is that pollution seems a tad extreme right now. Maybe it could be toned down a bit.

[Spiffy]

Right click deselects uniformly throughout the game except when a unit is selected.. it moves. It's easy to forget or get confused and it leads to a lot of unintended movement of units.

A tactical retreat is instantly punished on war support. Perhaps tie it to loss of units instead?
A cooldown before a new war can be declared on the same empire would also be nice so you don't find yourself at war right away again with the same guys you just defeated in a long defensive war.

Olmecs javelin throwers line of sight is nonexistent compared to regular archers - and unless fighting in forest straight up worse with 1 less range as well.

[Lost Latios]

Two things.

I feel like the A.I. always choose specific nations. I've mostly played on Endless, Huge, Metropolis, 10 Nations. The A.I. never choose the Egyptians on this setting for me. I noticed on other settings they picked them, but on the one I mainly play they never seem to choose it. They seem to pick them in a specific order depending on who got what first, and I don't like how predictable it is.

I like how movement across rivers are handled, but I don't quite like the river's penalty for being 'on' it. It works when there is a single river, but as soon as you add two it makes no sense why both armies are suffering the same penalty for attacking and defending.

[TheBandit]

Note: I have this game through gamepass. (TYVM for releasing on GP)

Just completed my 2nd full play through, this time on nation difficulty.

Issues:

There are not enough strategic resources: I owned an entire continent (4 total) with 6 total players on a large map. I could not build any the units in the contemporary era that required resources, despite trying to trade with the 2nd largest player. I was able to smash my way through the top ranked AI using trash units since I couldn't build any of the fun ones. Key word, fun. Cannot build any of the fun stuff.

AI aggression: The AI only seems aggressive in the early-mid game and is the only time they seemed to be any threat. I almost lost during this phase but was luckily able to defeat their units... which they then proceeded to not build any new ones??? After I took first place on the fame bar, no one threatened me in anyway. There was no attempt to prevent me from winning at all.

Civs: Seem pretty unbalanced across the board. I got super production first few civs then switched to all the science. Picked up the Swedes and said adios to all the AI. I went from a little behind in science to 5x the output of the next. Absolute silliness. After the mid game, I was so drastically ahead of everyone in production and science the game was essentially done.

Science and Eras: I think science overall needs a re-balance. Give a large boost to techs from previous eras and increase the total science needed for techs in the last two eras.

Osmosis... I really hate this. Some is ok, but being spammed on multiple cities what seems like every turn is REALLY annoying. Please scale this back.

World Seeding: I'd just like more options. All the options. Ok, so I really just want more strategic resources on the map more than anything.

Peaceful Neutral AI: They just take up space. Early game economy is to weak to spend money or influence on. Cost/Benefit is real bad. Just ignore them.

No science dump: If I want to continue my post game, I might as well destroy all my research. Sounds pretty tedious. I'd like to conquer the world in all my science and production glory, but I have a LOT of micromanagement first because all these useless districts are going to bother me. Am I missing something?



Things I really like:

Districts + terrain: Super well executed. Love the synergies and planning.

Infrastructure: Not everything needs to be on the map, these are great choices. Really promotes specializing cities.

Aggressive Neutral factions: They do a good job of keeping the early game, before you encounter other empires, dangerous and punish you for rapid expanding if you can't defend. Noice.

[Mazisky]

This suggestion is specifically for the Art Director other than the main team:

-Please add weather and day\night cycle! The map is already gorgeous and it would truly shine with those additions! This can also bring some new DLC mechanics related to the weather\seasons\time of day. It would be glorious

-Please allow more zoom in, there are tons of details that get lost because you cannot zoom enough.

[mrpmg]

Here are some suggestions and problems I've had with balance.

1. It feels like there are too few strategics, and too few late-game strategics especially. Counter-intuitively, it feels like you have to be a merchant civ instead of a builder civ if you want to build powerful late-game stuff. (Strategics abundance as a setting would be cool too.)

2. Some civs feel way overpowered. I haven't played enough yet to say too much about this, but I can give two examples: the Khmer and Mughals. The Baray is ridiculously strong on a tall city. The Jama Masjid is also quite strong, but because it scales with Imperial Magnificence, it gets out of hand fast. Going Kmer into Mughals just feels broken because of how well they synergize.

3. Late-game techs are too cheap. I get to era VI and then blast through the tech tree in no time. There's no time to use anything.

4. I'd really like an adjustable turn limit independent of other speed options. 300 is not terrible, but I'd like some more time in late game. Someone suggested 350 above as a default. I think that would feel better.

5. Era V seems to go by a little too fast. I-IV feel about right to me.

6. I would really like some better catch-up mechanics. I'm about even with the AI for the first few eras, then get to era IV and I've won. The extra star is not enough. I'd like it if techs become cheaper once they've been discovered, maybe after a delay. The combat is so fun; it's a shame that it becomes pointless in the end-game when I'm killing pikemen with tanks.

7. Pollution could use some tweaking. More levels would be good so that it's more gradual. The first level is brutal. Some more ways to reduce it would be nice. Environmental cleanup ceremonies, maybe? Option to switch to renewables earlier in the tech tree?

8. Ceremony benefits are so small in the late game.

[Spoonwraith]

1. Resources: There needs to be (at least a map setting for) a considerable increase in tactical resources overall on the map (oil, uranium, coal, etc).

2. Upgrading Units 1: It should be possible to upgrade a unit to the highest type you have resources for (e.g. if I have researched all the way to attack helicopters, but have no oil - I should still be able to upgrade knights at least into dragoons) - ties in with above, but the way it's currently set means you actually hamstring yourself by researching ahead.

3. Upgrading Units 2: WW2 infantry should be upgradeable to Mechanized Infantry in the contemporary era - there's currently no upgrade for the at all, and havign your WW2 dudes fight alongside attack helis and MBTs feels a bit... silly, and nobody can be bothered to decommission and rebuild 20+ units

4. State religion: There should be a way to change state religion without waiting for the AI to make a demand (that may or may not ever come).

5. Demands: There should be a way to actively make (or fabricate?) a demand for an AI to cede a particular territory or outpost (e.g. that one territory with both oil and uranium). Could be based on free choice, or resources in the territory, etc.

6. Airports: It should be possible to use airports to quickly move units between them, ignoring terrain etc.

[eternien]

Originally posted by Damedius:

The only other thing i'll mention is that pollution seems a tad extreme right now. Maybe it could be toned down a bit.

Agree with that.

[Spoonwraith]

7. AI Personalities 1: Please allow me to only pick number of opponents and then have their personalities randomized from the list.

8. AI Personalities 2: If possible, please allow fully random AI personalities (looks, traits, etc). You have such a fantastical editor, I feel it is an enormous waste to just have the handful of premades to pick from.

9. AI Personalities 3: If possible, allow creation of user-side custom AI personalities to include in your own games - anything for some more variety in the opponents, really!

[Bjornn "Boxy" Steeleye]

i got 2 main things.
Faith:
-outside of the things you pick it doesn't seem to do much. For example, when your faith(or culture) is the only one in the world you don't seem to get anything from it. no bonuses like; relationship with other empires with that religion.
-no "holy war" type thing to make another empire have your religion as their state religion. can make it so empires with the same religion have a positive mood towards each other.

Alliance wars:
-so it seems like i can usually pull the AI into my war if they are in an alliance for with me with the grievance system BUT the AI cant ask/pull me into a war and instead the AI gets upset that you aren't "acting friendly" because they're at war and you're not helping.
^fix to this would be give the player a grievance vs the person at war with your alliance member