I was thinking that when the eventual expansions come around Amplitude will fill out some of the missing kinks in their cultures. The Inca are a first that come to mind, considering they're already basically confirmed as DLC. This thread is about brainstorming a merchant culture for the era that doesn't have one, the industrial.

Personally my money is on Switzerland, they seem to be the most likely possibility considering every other candidate culture is already in Humankind, part of the early modern era or would make better sense in the Contemporary era.

Probably not a merchant one, but I would love to see Maori or Samoa included in the early eras. With maybe focus on expansion, and some frightening units.

Switzerland wouldn't be a good pick for a merchant culture in my opinion. Austia could be better.

Belgium

I would love to see a Merchant Culture DLC in the game, I think a nation such as the Netherlands have a history of being merchants and that may be a good idea to base it around.

Diamond227 wrote:

I would love to see a Merchant Culture DLC in the game, I think a nation such as the Netherlands have a history of being merchants and that may be a good idea to base it around.

I don't know how well they fit as a merchant in industrial today, except being one of the most well of countries today, but as I said before that apply to many european countries. Since industrial era is filled with european countries I would expect industrial era additions be non european cultures, contemporary may be different however. 

Diamond227 написал:

Мне бы очень хотелось увидеть в игре DLC Merchant Culture, я думаю, что такая нация, как Нидерланды, имеет историю торговцев, и это может быть хорошей идеей для ее создания.

We have Dutch in Early Modern Era

I believe they decided their culture affinity not only because of their historical impact, but also to create an in-game challenge.
Example: Huns and Mongols are militaristic. If played correctly, players will likely win some expansionist stars too. But, in order to get that extra fame, the players must be worried about killing as many units/armies as possible.
Another example: Franks' Legacy is extra food output. And they are Aesthetic. Pretty sure both ideas are not against each other, but having more population does not necessarily translate into more influence output (if it does, I don't know how, because I did not play Victor's opendev. Only watched Gameplays on YT and read the fandom wiki). So it is likely Frank players will get those Agrarian stars pretty easily. But the Aesthetic ones, which values more for them, will not be that simple.
And about more cultures: pretty sure the mod community will be able to add new cultures for each era, so that area will eventually be covered. And adding more variety on each era (more than 8) is a good thing, especially because there is so much more to be explored on this game. "How electricity works?". "How is the environmental issue applied in Humankind?". And "are there cultures who thrive solving/working around those areas?". I think Amplitude will be thinking like that when creating DLC, just like they did for EL and ES2.

TBH Maybe the British could be a merchant culture and or builder culture for the Industrial era.(yeh its a bit of a longshot having the same culture appear 3x) That or Maybe canada or Aulstralia As for merchant in particular well... Either America or Netherlands. Empire of japan, spanish empire and the ottoman empire would be cool to see in the industrial era but they would not be merchant cultures. 

As I was saying yesterday on another thread, I first wanted to thanks everybody for all those suggestions which we realize represent such an amount of work. I can assure you that while we are investigating and designing new cultures for future content, all your suggestions have been taken into account.

For this particular case, it's always interesting to see the lense of players from different locations. And I think it's the main difficulty as developpers: trying to offer the best representation of a culture during a period of time that sometimes represent many centuries, and to come up with something that will make sense for the vast majority of players. For exemple I do agree with you that the British would have been a great choice for a trader culture (industrial revolution, maritime compagnies...), but on the other hand we couldn't ignore the fact it was the biggest empire the world ever know. 

Anyway, my hears are all yours for further suggestions for any industrial/trader culture ^^

I made a thread in suggestions, but I'll answer here too as it's relevant...

I think the game should represent every historical civilizational sphere in every era.

What I mean is, every in-game era should have a choice of cultures based on historical regions... The game actually already has this, for example you can choose one mesoamerican culture in every era. You can go from Olmecs, to Mayans, Aztecs, Spanish, Mexico... 

Europe and the middle east is also heavily represented.

Africa has some nice representation in every era.

Southeast Asia seems to be conflated with India, so I guess you can say "South Asia" has choices in every era, though I would prefer to separate India and Southeast Asia and have cultural representation for BOTH of these regions that are incredibly rich in history.


So which region has a problem: East Asia.

This is weird, that this particular cultural sphere would be so underrepresented.

Let's look at the individual eras:

1) Ancient: Zhou, ok

2) Classical: ZERO. Huns certainly aren't Asian in this context. So why no choices from East Asia? Weird. Mauryans are in the Indian sphere, so I suppose the devs see "Asia" as a conflated cultural historical sphere?

3) Medieval: I suppose Mongols, but it's also not a very adequate or fun representation of East Asia. Sure, you can say they "technically" conquered China, but as a philospoher said, who conquered whom? They were simply a ruling caste that got culturally assimilated by the Chinese civilizational sphere, and they gradually got absorbed by it - in direct contrast to their nomadic central asian heritage. The thing that makes Mongols "Mongolian" in a historical context as we imagine them as a nomadic horde...is decidedly NOT "East Asian" at all. Conquering China is a cultural point of divergence for the Mongols, they're not "Mongols" anymore from that point on, not as the game sees them as the conquering nomadic horde. Their "post-conquest sedentiary form" should be seen as separate, and represented in the game as separate. Manchu or something.

So I have 2 comments on Mongols as representing East Asia in the Medieval era in the game: 
- There should be additional East Asian culture options in the Medieval Era in the game, most likely another Chinese dynasty, but Korea and Japan are no slouches with historical examples.
- Mongols should be conceptually paired with other central asian nomadic peoples, and should not be seen as representing any other civilizational sphere, they are worthy of their own "class". Not just consider "East Asia is covered bcs we have the Mongols". It's inadequate.

4) Early Modern: we have THREE east asian choices, Ming, Joseon and Edo. Awesome, I can't complain, choices are a good thing.

5) Industrial: again ZERO choices for east asia. Meanwhile, we have switched from the "culture" concept and now the game has actual national countries. Look at Europe, such particular detail that they even put Germany and Austria-Hungary in the game. Italy. France. British. Dutch. Europe is heavily represented, obviously for colonialism purposes and WW1 purposes (which is the only reason for Austria-Hungary). Again, I don't complain, it's wonderful to have a wealth of choices.

But east asia has zero. Do the devs consider east asian culture to be unworthy of representation in the "industrial era", presumably spanning the end of the 18th century up to post ww2? 

Well I have a modest suggestion... Meiji Japan is a worthy historical choice of a culture that has transitioned from Medieval times into modernity. The contrast between the Edo and Meiji periods is so stark, that surely it would warrant a "culture" in the game, more so than having a Germany/Austria-Hungary differentiation (again, I don't mind, but we're still talking about "cultures", not "countries, right? Or has the game changed concepts in the Industrial era?)

6) Contemporary, we have Japan and China, no complaints.




So to recap, east Asia has only 3 eras where they are adequately represented, Ancient - Early Modern - Contemporary. This is a shame.


Now, OBVIOUSLY, the devs plan to add stuff through DLC. Sure.

My point is, the base game should have these "basics" at least. Why not? Why shouldn't the base game have every civilizational sphere covered and represented in every era? I think it's not an unreasonable thing to expect.