I have been a fan of the Civilization series since the 90s, so I saw this game in a Steam sale and decided to try it out. granted I took a leap before I really looked deep into it, but it's downloading now. 

So I thought I'd ask while I wait for it to finish, how does it stack up to Civ? It looks pretty interesting, but obviously I have not played yet. (I've got roughly an hour or so for the download to complete.)

The less you expect it to be just like Civ the more fun you will get and vice versa. 

Sublustris wrote:

The less you expect it to be just like Civ the more fun you will get and vice versa. 

Well, that's good. I don't want it to be like Civ. That'd be boring and I might as well just play civ then! I just hope it has that "one more turn" feeling. (though maybe that could work against me. I've stayed up all night because of that)

d4everman wrote:

Sublustris wrote:

The less you expect it to be just like Civ the more fun you will get and vice versa. 

Well, that's good. I don't want it to be like Civ. That'd be boring and I might as well just play civ then! I just hope it has that "one more turn" feeling. (though maybe that could work against me. I've stayed up all night because of that)

It's not as good as Civ. It's even not good at being not-Civ.

It's just simply not a good game at all. Bugs, severe in-balance everywhere, the culture swapping mechanic is a massive fail, and war resolution is extremely frustrating. The tribal era is great though.

So think of this as being more like Spore. Lots of money poured in, lots of hype poured out, but only the first part of the game is actually playable and enjoyable.

d4everman wrote:

I have been a fan of the Civilization series since the 90s, so I saw this game in a Steam sale and decided to try it out. granted I took a leap before I really looked deep into it, but it's downloading now. 

So I thought I'd ask while I wait for it to finish, how does it stack up to Civ? It looks pretty interesting, but obviously I have not played yet. (I've got roughly an hour or so for the download to complete.)

The game is great if you play with a lot of mods, otherwise its just okay.

I hate to say this, but after you learned the basics and put some hours into the game it becomes really boring and not very entertaining. Maybe more content and mods will help.

Also the block on ending turn bug is always working like a charm ! except now loading a previous save game won't fix that shit

For some reason it seems like the most grumpy people are the most active on the forums! There's loads of fun to be had with this game at the moment and it's exciting to see where it will go. For me the biggest weakness, which is one that's shared by lots of big complex games sadly, is the AI. I've played a lot of Vox Populi for Civ V and I think the modders there have achieved the high watermark for 4X or grand strategy AI. In Humankind at the moment, I don't find the AI provides a meaningful challenge past the midgame. Stuff like Vox Populi takes a long time though, so patience is a virtue.

Scheneighnay wrote:
AI is blatantly extremely cheaty even on standard difficulty

Proof?

Sublustris wrote:

Scheneighnay wrote:
AI is blatantly extremely cheaty even on standard difficulty

Proof?

Hi.

No need of proof honestly, every civ players know that AIs need some help at some point to propose a challenge (or at least a good game experience) to a human player. It is no big deal when it is elegantly done in a stealthy way, to keep the immersion intact. 

It seems it is the case here with Humankind (apart maybe on the commerce front where the costs difference between AI and players seem a little bit too obvious, maybe). No big deal I would say.

The only thing that comes to my mind is AI 'cheating' about stealth units, i.e. it knows exactly where they are (confirmed by dev) - which leads to some wacky shenanigans, like naval transports ganging up on submarines which otherwise can't be taken out by proper naval units, because ranged ships, despite knowing where they are, can't 'see' them and thus stay at range without ability to attack.

(the "cheat" about the stealth unit seen by AI is not intended behaviour btw). 

Scheneighnay wrote:

Sublustris wrote:
Proof?

Watching the AI constantly spawning troops it shouldn't have the population to support, and materializing them from literally nowhere into your territory.

In the tribal stage as well I went out of my way to completely obliterate an enemy tribe, and watched them keep materializing units out of nowhere to keep attacking. And I say with 100% certainty that they materialized out of nowhere because they were coming out of a peninsula I had visibility over the entrance of.

Not to mention absurd combat bonuses where you should logically have every advantage and the AI still deals more damage because it's AI.

AI will cheat to keep up in every 4X game, but in Humankind it's overblown to the point of completely ruining immersion.

Are you aware of the Nehandertal achievment and the very specific event triggered in case of tribe wipe-out during Neholitic era? It would explain quite precisely what you saw in your game I think.

Scheneighnay wrote:
In the tribal stage as well I went out of my way to completely obliterate an enemy tribe, and watched them keep materializing units out of nowhere to keep attacking. And I say with 100% certainty that they materialized out of nowhere because they were coming out of a peninsula I had visibility over the entrance of.

You'd be materialized just as much should your tribe be wiped out, it's a mechanic not kill off any player before they found first city.

Scheneighnay wrote:
Not to mention absurd combat bonuses where you should logically have every advantage and the AI still deals more damage because it's AI.

Again, on Normal difficulty AI doesn't get any damage bonus that it did not legitimately obtain: from veterancy, civics, terrain, status from events, traits etc. Either check it yourself in dev mode, or provide a save file with battle for us to see.