After over a year of being a full feature version I still feel like the fame is in beta state for many reason but will try to list some:

- Max player count is still bound to 10 which makes the game on the smaller side in scope. Emulation of a proper Earth map is not ideal as there arent enough competitors to make each Continent a fight or be enough for late game to have 2 or even 3 major alliance groups confronting like in WW1, WW2 and Cold War

- Iconography feels placeholder in some parts: The new espionage icon for example is clearly a modern design that does not fit into nay Era prior to Contemporary but other older icons are also in this situation such as procession or outputs attachment. In case of the latter the chain itself would fit I guess but still the UI feels like Windows 95 with clippie not ideal for non contemporary eras. Same for most of Society icons: I could pick on the entire system there but seeing a globe, light bulb and judge hammer in Ancient Era next to a tribe is not helping immersion

- The UI with its sleek, modern and milky transparent windows also does not help in this. I understand the UI cant chance with every era but its window dressings could with the slight touch of wood, stone, machinery or computer akin imagery to place the player firmly in an era beyond listing it as a single string on the top left corner

- Units feel unresponsive in most of the cases having a fraction of a second delay between movement and activation which results in a floating feel of control the player not being sure if they need to issue order again or if they should wait longer for an animation to end. This might be a residual issue of the real-time movement resolution but I dont see this in EL. Maybe disabling real time movement would help but it feels like unit animation might need some snappier ending to it instead

- Unit selection feels uncertain on strategic and tactical map too low key thus if selection is lost its difficult to notice

- I havent never seen an AI respond positively to counter demand of money for treat which I guess makes sense as it wouldn't make much sense but then remove the function I would suggest

- Same for religion, civics and events - they are embedded enough for the player to have to deal with them but they do not offer much substance or integration with core game mechanics (how cities and armies are built and wars fought). I would be happy to see a disable option for these functions

- Map zoom feels restrictive. I am not saying the game should have Google Earth level of zoom but I wonder if there is a technical limitation for how far out the camera can go as average empires as of mid-game seem to not fit in general

- Wild animals feel pointless after Neolotic Era. No food boost to nearby settlements, negligible income

- Naval exploration comes too late and along with naval expansion doesnt have enough meat on it

- Small details like the save game menu not remembering the last save game name used for the particular game and always offers one with a running number instead

- Pacing of Era and Tech progression does not yet feel finished: era progression is lightning fast compared to tech progression and cultures are playing with 2-3 era behind the curve tech as of mid game. Here the main problem is the separate star system and detached tech progression IMO but the simple balancing fix I was anticipating is to make stars harder to come by to slow down Era progression and let tech catch up

cannot agree more!

The points I agree most with are 10 max players is limiting and the eras go by WAY too fast. I use a mod (One of the first mods ever made for this game) that makes eras 14 stars. its STILL too quick. Build a district? Thats a star. Kill an enemy? Thats a star. Research a tech? Have another star... damn. There needs to be minimum turn amount per era, like if you are the first to fill stars you get first pick at cultures but it's just too quick. I also have the mod slowing tech and its still too fast, again. (I play on the slowest speed too) I would like an era/units to actually last a bit.

As for max players, you said it, I fully agree. Even if it isn't "earth" I'd like to see like 10-12 players main land mass (like europe/asia/africa) maybe 2 "island" nations (Japan/Australia) and 3-4 "new world" players. 

With this said, I exclusively play largest map size/slowest speed in this and all the Civs, and I only play single player (I have lots of other games for multi) so perhaps I am the minority. I feel for Humankind and Civ 1-6 the maps are too small and the pace is too quick. I'd really like to see a kind of Hybrid between Humankind and EU IV. The objective doesn't need to be conquer the entire planet, (as much as I enjoy war)it could be fun to just start in the middle of Europe in 4000 BC and end up a prosperous nation with stable boarders by 2040~AD game end. 

That is a good point: I also only play largest map with max player count but Single Player only

So maybe the issue is that the main priority of the game is to be balanced as a multiplayer experience: hence the refusal to switch to sequential unit unit movement, the lightning fast era progression and the small player count

If that is the case I can understand that - its not for me but its understandable. In that case HK is not a competition to CIV like games more of an offshoot multiplayer branch

If someone is looking for a good 4x SP experience I can recommend Stars In Shadow (sci-fi theme), Gladius (40k) or Old World

Though the latter also suffers from a somewhat small scope (small amount of factions) it does only concentrate on one Era and has a great Ancient Mediterranean map where players can roleplay as Rome, Cartage, Egypt, Babylon etc

Some infrastructure is still utterly useless and feels like it still has just a placeholder bonus... Looking at you, Levy Administration. As if they came up with cool art and a theme and had to fill a gap on the tech tree, but then never came to actually designing an actual bonus for it. Or the big imbalance between how many and complex science infrastructure is available and how little and bland the influence infrastructure is. And we never even got religious infrastructure with shrines, temples, monasteries, etc. as if the whole infrastructure system was only halfway done at some point but also it's really not needed *at all* for the game to function, so it was left in that incomplete state and resources were shifted elsewhere.

I agree with OP and could add a whole bunch more. I absolutely love this game but it’s also messy, very messy. And after almost 2 years it seems they are not intent on cleaning up and put the real finishing touches down.  

At this stage it’s fair to presume that Humankind is a big beta in a way and any real progress will be made in a possible sequel. I really wish they would take a year to simply streamline and better what they have already, than make more expansions that add more micro and mess up balance again but I don‘t see that happening. I mean, this game has so much in it already, there’s so many decisions to make, it really needs fleshing out and polish more than anything - and some drastic cutting. 

Every time I return to this game I am reminded how much I love its dna, the systems, the art, the general take on things. But every time I get frustrated with so many little things as well that are detrimental to the experience. While I appreciate their drive for originality, if there is one thing this studio has to learn is that less often is more. Gameplay is about meaningful choices, and this game halfway starts to drown in its own mess and lack of focus.   

yeah maybe for HK 2

I would also agree that this game needs more players, better earth map scripting and an improved pace between eras. In my mind Era stars should not be the main criteria to advance an age, there should be a tech, culture or religious inflection point to advance an age, Era stars should just be used for score keeping. 

I disagree that we need to wait for HK2 for a lot of things to be fixed. Infrastructures can be fixed and some mods are already doing it. I hope we will get more news and updates soon. I think HK did improve quite a bit in the past year, although I wish it would be faster.

Regarding AI's opinion of you - this is largely influenced by ideologies IIRC.

So if you're on opposite sides of an ideology axis, they're going to hate you regardless of the fact you're much more powerful than them.