South American Addendum: Another very long post on suggestions for Pre-Release content, such as resources, wonders and other things from South America

Heya.

I said in my last post that I might make a second post talking about other possible ways to represent South America, mainly resources and wonders, and then I thought about it some more and decided to do it.

My reasoning for this are a. the high and low ground and biome mechanics lends themselves to representing South America's weird terrain very well (much better than just flat and static terrain specially), and b. these recommendations would probably be a lot easier to implement than whole new cultures.

Without further ado...

Introduction

But what make South America so interesting? A lot actually. I'll copy and paste something from wikipedia here to show you what I'm talking about (also I'll keep the links if you wanna look at some pretty things)

"South America is home to the world's highest uninterrupted waterfall, Angel Falls in Venezuela; the highest single drop waterfall Kaieteur Falls in Guyana; the largest river by volume, the Amazon River; the longest mountain range, the Andes (whose highest mountain is Aconcagua at 6,962 m or 22,841 ft); the driest non-polar place on earth, the Atacama Desert; the largest rainforest, the Amazon Rainforest; the highest capital city, La Paz, Bolivia; the highest commercially navigable lake in the world, Lake Titicaca; and, excluding research stations in Antarctica, the world's southernmost permanently inhabited community, Puerto Toro, Chile." -Mr. Wiki M. Pedia

You might have noticed, that's a lot of stuff. On top of that, South America is very rich in minerals resources such as Tin, Copper, Gold, Silver, Lithium, Oil and Natural Gas. Has a lot of biodiversity and some very extreme climate. All of this makes it an interesting setting, of course this is a 4x game so it would only count for a TSL map, but that doesn't mean we can't take some of South America's most notable attributes and places, and use them for our own benefit like the Spanish and Portuguese.

A. Les Ressources

I'll be starting with resources, since I think they'd be a bit more interesting to talk about than just saying "big mountain should be in the videogame" (we'll be covering just that later though). Now, where do we begin?

1. International resources

Here we'll be covering resources that aren't unique to South America, we'll discuss only confirmed and basically confirmed resources.

Some of these would be Tin, Copper, Gold, Silver, Salt, Coal, Cotton, Cocoa, Bananas, Wheat, Rice, Cattle and Petroleum (oil)

If I remember correctly there was mention of Bronze in a promotional video, probably indicating the presence of Copper and Tin. The fact that the "currency stat" is called Money instead of Gold suggests to me that gold will be a physical thing on the map. I think salt was shown in the reimagining terrain video on Humankind's youtube, and Silver, Coal, Cotton, Cocoa, Bananas and Oil are easy guesses, along with Wheat, Rice and Cattle being pretty obvious

(Oh and also fishies, crabbies, and whalies in the sea most likely)

Now let's get to the juicy part.

2. South American specific resources

This is the big important part, other games are always very disappointing in this regard, I'm hoping Amplitude doesn't make the same mistake as their competitors. Even if they aren't present at launch these resources could easily be added in our hypothetical DLC discussed in my last post, discussing certain possible South American cultures for the game's first three eras, let's begin shall we?

2. 1 Recursos Animales

Llamas, just llamas, they're literally necessary, I'm not joking, I will commit war crimes in Turkmenistan if they're not there, seriously

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On a serious note please add them, I could literally go to the outskirts of my city and see llamas, they're everywhere here, they were and are still used for food (I ate some dried llama meat this moring, it's delicious), wool and as makeshift draft animals (they're weak so they can't carry much, but it's the best thing in the continent). I'd probably have them give a divided yield of food and industry, also they're depicted a lot in textiles and ceramics, they were seriously important in the Andes, but there's another famous camelid that we're ignoring.

Alpacas! These pretty boys are used just for their wool, so unlike llamas that were domesticated to carry and move things, these guys are still smol and their wool (technically called alpaca fibre) is some of the best quality in the world. They would probably provide a different boost to llamas, maybe something comparable to luxury resources in civ? idk if humankind's mechanics could provide an analogue, but something like a hapiness boost would work well (if you guys could help me find a mechanic that could be helpful).

Finally, the black sheep (or alpacas) of the bunch, guinea pigs! despite from not being pigs nor from Guinea, these cute fellows were initially domesticated by ancient peruvian cultures to serve as food. My dad's friend had a little farm of them, there was like 200 of them and they were squeaking and they were adorable! (sadly he had to sell them due to coronavirus -_-). If they got added to the game it'd be a real cool nod to us andean players, plus the in-game people would get to eat cuy (hmmm cuy).

Oh and they'd provide just food probably.

2. 2 Recursos Vegetales

There's a pretty decent amount of plants domesticated by indigenous South Americans, here I'll give the most important ones.

Potatoes, comme on, they're potatoes, the fact they're not in more games is honestly confusing, literally everyone eats them, please add them Amplitude, please

Oh, a fact, uhhh, there's 4,000 varieties of potatoes here in the Andes, and they're all much better than potatoes from the US (I get whiplash every time I travel there and try some potatoes, how do you survive on that, like honestly)

Corn, Also pretty self explanatory, specially because the food icon literally is corn, in the Andes in particular a drink called Chicha is made from fermented corn, it's very very old and important to indigenous and settler cultures alike, but corn's importance is far greater than just in the Andes, so it's also a must add.

Quinoa, this is an incredibly important cereal crop, that has gained a lot of popularity recently in the US, and deservedly so, being the main crop of many Andean cultures for thousands of years, even in modern diets it's sitting up there with the greats such as wheat, rice and corn for us.

Peppers, after I showed this to my dad he recommended them, they were domesticated both in South and North America, and they've become a food staple worldwide, it might conflict with the "spices" resource that's probably in already, but at the same time it's peppers so I think they're important enough

All of those last crops are just grown for food, these last ones' purpose is more cultural and spiritual

Yerba Mate, a plant that is used to make a beverage called mate, it's similar to tea, basically replacing it in the region of southern South America, here when your stomach hurts, drink some mate, you have a headache, drink some mate, wanna hot drink, drink some mate baby, this one's a bit more obscure, but I think it'd be cool in the resource roster.

Note: here we call a lot of different drinks mate, apparently the "mate" I drink is just tea, but that adds to it's cultural legacy here in South America. A specific aspect of  actual mate is its social aspect, kinda like how people have teatime in the west, people get together to drink mate and socialise.

Finally we get to Coca, all non South Americans here probably know it as the plant that cocaine is made from, but it's so much more than that. It's incredibly important in Andean religion and traditonal medicine, it can decrease pain, increase energy and reduce altitude sickness (important in the mountains) by being chewed. It's specially used by miners, but most people here use it recreationally as well, I have some leaves here at home, it would probably have a religious function.

2. 3 The Special Boys

To end this section, I'd like to note that Bolivia has lost half of its territory in wars, three of them specifically because of three resources, let's look at them shall we?

Natural Gas, lost by Bolivia after the war of the Chaco with Paraguay, admittedly this one isn't unique to South America, so I'll keep it short, if there's an energy mechanic (which there should be) this is a necessary resource, like coal and oil. Natural Gas is very important to the economy of many countries all around the world, and they could contribute to an in-game "monopoly" in the endgame like in real life, where many countries are made rich because of certain resources, energy resources in particular, like the UAE and Saudis, so the more energy resources the better!

Rubber, lost by Bolivia in the Acre war with Brazil, is rubber, just straight up rubber, I think having many different resources be necessary for making late game units could help balance late warfare quite a bit, and it could add a bit of realism too. Of course rubber would be used to make tanks and other vehicles, there's not too much to say here, I just think it'd be neat!

And finally, the weirdest choice by far is...

Guano! coming from the quechua "wanu", lost by Bolivia and Peru to Chile after the war of the Pacific (along with Bolivia's coastline (F)). You might be asking yourself why? that's a very good question because guano is not the first resource that comes to mind. The answer is simple, a. it's secreted by Peruvian boobies and I findd that funny, and b. it was essential to the development of agriculture when it's functionality was discovered in the 19th century, it was (and still is) amazing fertilizer, only replaced by chemical fertilizers in the 20th century. Not only did it cause the war in South America (at the request of the British might I add) but it made the US claim a whole bunch of islands in the pacific because they had guano, the influence of literal bird poop is too much to ignore, and personally I think it could make both an interesting resource, with a special mechanic of giving it's owner fertilizer to increase the productivity of their lands, it could represent a very important resource and moment in history, and it's another little nudge to us South Americans, in my opinion that's more than enough reasons for why something should be added to a game like Humankind, I'd like your thoughts on this in particular.

I tried making a table to put each resource into and categorize where they'd spawn by biome, but there's too many of them so I'll just write it down:

(A little asterisk next to the resource's name signifies it's more likely to spawn in higher latitudes, but it can still spawn at sea level. (Forests) being written in parentheses means the resource can spawn in forests of that biome type)

Llamas*: Grasslands, Badlands

Alpacas*: Grasslands, Badlands

Guinea Pigs*: Temperate, Grasslands, Badlands

Potatoes*:  Temperate, Savannah, Mediterranean, Grasslands, Badlands

Corn: Tropical (Forests), Temperate, Savannah, Mediterranean, Grasslands, Badlands (Forests)

Quinoa*: Temperate, Grasslands, Badlands (Forests)

Peppers: Tropical (Forests), Temperate (Forests), Mediterranean (Forests), Grasslands (Forests)

Mate: Temperate (Forests), Mediterranean (Forests), Grasslands (Forests)

Coca*: Tropical (Forests), Temperate (Forests), Badlands (Forests)

Natural Gas: Literally everywhere and anywhere

Rubber: Tropical (Forests) (Rubber is special because it can only spawn in forests, because it comes from a tree)

Guano: idk If coast is a biome but it'd spawn there and only there

An abstract stat like "faith" or "culture" from civ would be perfect to encapsulate these resources' yields (specifically mate, coca and alpacas), after we get more info on resources I'll try to assign them yields in Humankind terms.

B. Les Merveilles (Wonders) et carractéristques du terrain (Terrain Features)

Oof, that last part was quite exhausting, luckily it didn't require as much research as last time, but that doesn't mean it was easy! Let's do something a bit more relaxed, starting with some natural wonders that I think represent the beauty of South America.

1. 1 Wonders of the natural variety

Here's a list of 10 natural wonders that I think are both important and beautiful, these are just my opinion of course and if I missed an important one please mention it!

Also if I remember correctly, most natural wonders will give some yields and a fame bonus to whoever discovered them, meaning they'll probably be mechanically pretty similar

Here's the list:

1. Iguazu Falls (Argentina/Brazil)

2. Perito Moreno Glacier (Argentina)

3. Cerro Rico (Bolivia)

4. Salar de Uyuni (Bolivia)

5. Guaíara Falls (Brazil/Paraguay)

6. Lençóis Maranhenses (Brazil)

7. Torres del Paine (Chile)

8. Galápagos Islands (Ecuador)

9. Angel Falls (Venezuela)

10. Mount Roraima (Venezuela)

Please don't expect lengthy descriptions, only brief ones and suggestions for gameplay

1. Iguazu Falls

Starting of the list we have the biggest of all the falls. The Iguazu Falls are the result of the flow of the Iguazu river, 80% of them is owned by Argentina, I don't have much to say here, apart from the fact they're probably really beautiful.

2. Perito Moreno Glacier

I saw this one recommended a whole lot on travel blogs, its relative proximity to human settlements make it a popular tourist destination, curiously they're actually growing contrary to most other glaciers, it's part of the southern patagonian glacier ice field that is also shared by Chile, this ice field is currently the biggest reserve of freshwater in the world, speaking of fresh water...

I want to propose a mechanic, exploitable wonders, this wonder along with a few others I'll talk about later could be exploited for their resources but at the cost of not being able to use the wonder for tourism/fame, this wonder could be used late game if the player is running out of water because their population is too big, consuming one tile of the wonder (which would probably be 3 tiles in size) for a one time big boost in freshwater, I'll talk about this more with the two next wonders specially.

3. Cerro Rico

Cerro Rico, meaning "Rich Hill" in spanish has a very appropriate name, because it has yielded... (prepare yourself) around 50,000 tons of silver! a questionable source even saying that it contributed 90% of the silver ever excavated! And at one point the city founded to mine it, Potosí, became the most populous city in the New World! (150,000 when it set the record, 200,000 at its peak) and it became the cornerstone of the Spanish Empire's wealth for decades.

I'm not including this because it's pretty, in fact it's just an inconspicuous hill from outside, but because of how important it is, most of the silver in Europe came from it. Because of this, it's a great candidate for an "exploitable natural wonder" probably yielding 3 silver resources (or whatever is balanced for Humankind) after you put a mine on it, much more than your average silver mine, plus I'd think that the negative from exploiting a wonder makes sense for this one in particular, the mining that continues to this day has left the mountain in a fragile state, it and the city of Potosí are considered and endangered site by UNESCO (the same status as sites in the Middle East and northern Africa in places with terrorism and civil wars to put it into perspective), maybe the wonder could even be destroyed in game after some time passes (maybe that mechanic could even apply to other resources?).

Note: also the dollar sign could have come from Potosí, because so much money was produced there it's said that the P and S of potosí fused into the dollar sign, first used for the spanish peso and later passed down to the US dollar

4. Salar de Uyuni

Continuing in Bolivia, the Salar de Uyuni is the biggest salt flat in the world, being 10,000 kilometers in area, famous for it's reflective properties, this site is also located in (the province of) Potosí, it also possesses 50 to 70% of the world's lithium reserves, and also has a very diverse ecosystem consisting of animals like flamingos and... oh god... geese (they're everywhere).

This is also a contender for an "exploitable wonder", maybe having two resources, salt being mineable from the beginning of the game and lithium (probably another energy resource) only in the last era, of course it's a big boy, probably being 3 or 4 tiles big, and the downsides of exploiting it wouldn't be as bad because it occupies many tiles (irl the salt regenerates so the mining isn't a problem, but idk if that'd be balanced in the game).

5. Guaíara Falls

Another waterfall, but with a twist, it no longer exists, because it was destroyed to make a hydroelectic plant, before that, it was one of the fastest flowing waterfalls in the world, and it's said its crashing could be heard 30 km away...

I want to propose a second mechanic, destruction of wonders, we've always had a game where a wonder was an annoyance, and we wished we could somehow remove it, well, with our new patented "wonder removal TM" You can do what you've always wanted!

The wonder would be destroyed and the empty space left behind could be developped, the downside would kinda obviously a fame reduction, it'd be a high risk high reward mechanic, and destroying a wonder unnecessarily would lead to a huge drop in popularity, so it'd need to be used wisely, how does that sound for a mechanic?

6. Lençóis Marehenses

We'll calm down a lot more now, the next couple of wonders are mostly just aesthetic so relax, drink some hot chocolate and put on some lo-fi in the background.

The however you pronounce that is a national park, it's notable for flooding in the rainy season and getting water between the dunes, it looks real pretty after that, and like the rest of Brazil it has a lot of animals.

7. Torres del Paine

The Torres del Paine national park encompasses mountains, glaciers, lakes and rivers, it's found across the border of the Perito Moreno Glacier. The titular "torres" (meaning towers in spanish) are joined by the Cuernos del Paine, another set of mountains, some famous lakes include the Grey, Pehoé, Nordenskiöld and Sarmiento, and some glaciers include the Grey (yes another Grey), Pingo and Tindall.

8. Galápagos Islands

Mainstays to the 4x genre, these islands are mainly famous for their amazing biodiversity, that were studied by Darwin helping him refine his Theory of Evolution (specially the boobies), they are popular tourists destination and have a population of 25,000.

Maybe in Humankind they could be settleable?, they are relatively small so they would probably only be one or two tiles, and honestly idk if it's a good idea, so I'd really like you guys' opinion on this.

9. Angel Falls

Angel Falls is the highest uninterrupted waterfall, of almost a kilometer in height. In one of Amplitude's videos on youtube, they say that finding the highest waterfall could give a player fame, so finding this wonder would be an easy way to achieve that

10. Mount Roraima

Mount Roraima is a tabletop mountain found between Venezuela, Brazil and Guyana, with Venezuela owning 85% of it, it's the highest of it's kind, having an elevation of almost 3,000 meters, certain rare plant species can be found there, and it has been the subject of many expeditions.

Woo! That was surprisingly long, maybe I'll update this when we get more info on Natural Wonders, for now here's a list of honorable mentions:

Lake Titicaca, Colca Canyon, Laguna Colorada, Kaieteur Falls and Caño Cristales

I've also excluded geographical areas, like the Amazon rainforest and river, the Pantanal, the Atacama desert, the Tierra del Fuego and the Andes themselves for being way too big (also Lake Titicaca but lakes could both be wonders or just regular lakes in games like these).

1.2 Wonders of the Man-Made variety

Let's not beat around the bush here, there's four very obvious choices for Wonders, along with the last one, that's more my personal choice, and ties back to my last post on possible cultures from Pre-Columbian South America.

Here's the list

1. Machu Picchu

2. Moai

3. Nazca Lines

4. Cristo Redentor

5. (Some part of) Tiwanaku

Let's begin:

1. Machu Picchu

I think it's pretty obvious why Machu Picchu is important, it's so important that most 4x games even if they don't have anything else andean have Machu Picchu, it's just Machu Picchu.

2. Moai

Probably some of the most recognizable things literally ever, the Moai of Easter Island were created by the Rapa Nui to commemorate their ancestors, the tallest ones being 10 m high, maybe in game they could be made early but would need to be made in islands? Hmmm...

3. Nazca Lines

Idk why but I 100% expected the Nazca to be in the game, even if they aren't included, I can confidently say that the Nazca Lines will (or at least should), we don't exactly know the function of 200 meter lines in the sand, but hey, they're pretty when seen from a helicopter.

Maybe in game they could also be made early but could have a desert restriction, that'd be fun.

4. Cristo Redentor

Big Jeebus shows his dominance all over Rio de Janeiro, it's easy to see how it would have a religous use in game, maybe increasing the religious pressure in the city where it's built?

Also when reasearching I found that the little city of Cochabamba, Bolivia has a slightly bigger Jesus statue called Cristo de la Concordia (Cristo Redentor is actually pretty small compared to most other important monuments.

5. Tiwanaku

In my last post I suggested that some part of the city of Tiwanaku should be a wonder, even if Tiwanaku itself isn't a culture, I'd suggest either the temple of Pumapunku or the whole city including other landmarks like the Gate of the Sun and Kalasasaya.

Tiwanaku isn't as necessary as the prevoius wonders, but I still think it's important enough, plus seeing the site reconstructed in HD visuals would be a treat to the eyes.

2. Terrain features

To wrap this up, I'll just mention a couple of little terrain thingies that would neithe be considered resources or wonders.

Oh and warning none of these are unique to South America, I just think they're cool

I think we've already seen Geysers and Geothermal springs, these are both somewhat common in the Andes, in fact I went on a trip with my classmates to some a couple of years ago and my roommate hurt his foot on a geyser, so that was a thing. Bonus if you can extract energy from the geysers and create thermal baths from the hot springs.

Volcanos are volcanos, they go boom and sometimes kill people (and dinosaurs), personally I like the mechanic in civ 6 DLC where they leave behind productive volvanic soil after the erupt, although maybe it's a bit unblanced in the player's favor (it's a volcano it's destructive), certain resources like Obsidian would probably be found near volcanos too.

Variations of existing terrain would be rad, like cold deserts and salt lakes, these are both very common in the Andes, and could spice up the game quite well, while being relatively easy to develop and having some small but significant gameplay changes (ex salt lakes don't give fresh water but produce money or industry).

That was a lot longer than I expected, it's very possible I missed something, so if you know About South America and wanna lend a hand you're very welcome.

For my next post I'll either A. Talk about resources/wonders from other parts of the world, B. Revisit the Nazca and Moche as possible DLC cultures, or C. Make a First Nations version of my first post.

Note: I didn't do any of that oof

This took around 14 hours to make, surprisingly more than last time, I'd really like an upvote if you like the post, also comment some recommendations for new posts if you wanna see more from me.

You're welcome!