When we launched the Humankind events with the Dia de los Muertos event last year, we wanted to encourage players to pursue different goals than usual and get creative with their strategies, while also rewarding successful players with some neat but not essential in-game rewards. However, many of you felt that we missed the mark on this, voicing your concerns about various aspects of the events, from the specific challenges to the FOMO of their timed nature.
Clearly, we had to rethink our approach to challenging our players, but we needed time to weigh out options. In the meantime, we relied on the existing system to continue providing challenges, while also experimenting with other formats like the Amplified and Lunar New Year Community Challenges and the Push Humankind Too Far Challenge.
In the end, we decided to keep things simple: Scenarios instead of challenges.
Many players had suggested scenarios as an alternative to the time-limited goals of the events, and it is an idea we like and had considered before. Unfortunately, hand-crafting scenarios like the first OpenDev takes a lot of work from our designers, and it will take time to create them. So, while you can look forward to some big scenarios, we also want to pass the time between them by providing smaller, more straightforward scenarios, like the first scenario we are releasing today to try the new format. Whether big or small, these scenarios will be provided as a save by us, you will be able to replay them any time you want with no time pressure.
However, playing the scenario early will still have some small benefits. As an added competitive element, we will maintain a Hall of Fame, but entry into this leaderboard will be limited to a certain time after the scenario is first published, and the top scoring players may receive a Games2Gether badge as a reward. Beyond those bragging rights, though, there will not be any other rewards for these scenarios, as we do not want anybody to miss out.
Scenario Challenge 01: Summer Heat
Since we want to focus on trying the new format with this first challenge, we have kept the scenario fairly simple, pitting you against 9 Empire-level AI on a standard-sized map on fast speed, with only 150 Turn Limit as the end condition to keep scores comparable. But water is scarce in this world, with a desert spanning across the center of the map, and barely any rivers, lakes, and oceans. How great an empire can you build in these conditions?
Note that this scenario was created to be compatible with the Ibn Battuta Update, which unfortunately means it is not backwards compatible with the Bolivar update. To play this scenario, you will have to use the beta branch or wait for the release of Ibn Battuta.
Download the Scenario Save here: ScenarioChallenge01-SummerHeat.ctr
How to use it?
- Download the Save File
- Copy the file into the "Save Files" > C:\Users\"username"\Documents\Humankind\Save Files
- Make sure you are on the Battuta Beta (otherwise will crash)
- If not, Right Click on the Game on Steam > Properties
- Betas > Select "ibnnattuta_beta"
- Open the game > Play > Load > Select the "CommunityChallenge01-SummerHeat"
- Enjoy and submit your result on the contest section ^-^
For the time being, we are using the contest section on Games2Gether to collect submissions to the leaderboard. If you want to compete against other players for the Hall of Fame, please create a new contest entry, and include a screenshot of your final score as well as the save game on the turn you won. For the sake of fairness and verifying your scores, mods will not be allowed for leaderboard entries. If you played the scenario a second time and got a better score, feel free to update your submission, but please do not create a new entry. We will close submission to the leaderboard in two weeks (July 27th).
However, the new scenario format does not mean our old events and rewards are lost to time. We may reactivate these events to give all players the chance to unlock their rewards at their own pace in the future. This will require some preparation, though, so we cannot yet tell you when that may happen.
We hope you will enjoy this little challenge, and the bigger scenarios we have in mind for the future.
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