Hello, as one of those fortunate enough to partake in the Open Dev Scenarios of the last few months I wish to articulate a question that was proven very much possible by the Open Dev scenarios. Can we have Historical Scenarios in the final game? 

I believe it is important to first specify what exactly is a Historical Scenario, at least in the context of 4X games in the vein of Civilization which I believe we can all agree Humankind most undoubtedly is. A Historical Scenario is a custom map with at the very least a set amount of custom triggers and a select amount of unique units not found in the base game that pits a player to reenact or change a historical event. An example of this can be found in Civilization 5's Civil War scenario. 

There is a select amount of objectives, triggers, and win conditions based on the map and on the Scenario. This is very much more engaging and in-depth than just some modders custom map with a few units thrown into the mix. Although as the Civ community has shown they are very much capable of doing it if given enough time as the WW2 modded Scenario shows (Although it lacks custom triggers that Humankind can most likely include. By triggers, I mean getting a unit to a set point triggers a consequence like increasing war support or not getting said unit to a specific area within the time frame triggers the opposite. That is a simplistic version triggers can be anything from binary options like the events in the Opendev to actual objectives that can spawn or delete units add technologies ect.) 

Below we can see another unique opportunity such Scenarios give us as players, unique and custom units that if added in the main game would be detrimental to the game or unneeded but within the context of the scenario would offer a player new opportunities for engagement either with the scenario itself or with a friend who could say in a WW1 scenario play as France while you play as Germany. These are from the aforementioned Civil War scenario of Civilization 5 and provide a prime example that this is indeed possible. With how the previous Opendevs have been formatted it has been proven that the Humankind developers are capable of creating in-depth scenarios with custom triggers, units, and events. We have already seen what they can create just to playtest the game, now imagine what we as players could experience with a World War One or Two scenarios, or a Warring states period Japan or three kingdoms China. 

Obviously with game development and mechanics needing to be polished this is very much not a priority but even so. Humankind has shown itself to be an incredible platform for new and engaging ideas and mechanics within the 4X genre and it would be an incredible opprotunity to experience it within the context of a Historical Scenario.  

Yes! I would love historical scenarios in Humankind. There is just so much potential and of course history to draw upon. In one of the recent interviews https://m.twitch.tv/videos/883455015, they discussed  modding capabilities, map editor, and a scenario editor. It definitely sounds like historical scenarios will be possible to create, maybe not at launch but eventually. I didn’t hear any mention of triggers but I would think that concept could be possible perhaps through Event modding at least? Tie this into fame perhaps to give players objectives in the context of the scenario. I hope we can also control what culture is able to selected in a culture transition, to preserve some historical authenticity. What historical scenarios would you be most interested in playing? Considering HK is all about the transition of cultures, I’ve been thinking it would be interesting to play a scenario in the eras when cultures transition. So a Late Antiquity to Early Medieval scenario could be a lot of fun (so the Roman player eventually becomes the Byzantine player, etc)

There's one problem - in Humankind every culture can become a totally different culture in the next era and it'd be strange to have a medieval european scenario in which French would become Chinese and English would become Zulu. Historical scenarious would have to be restricted to one era only or follow some other rules (like no culture change).

AquilaSPQR wrote:

There's one problem - in Humankind every culture can become a totally different culture in the next era and it'd be strange to have a medieval european scenario in which French would become Chinese and English would become Zulu. Historical scenarious would have to be restricted to one era only or follow some other rules (like no culture change).

Or this could be an opprotunity to expand upon the mechanics of culture change, maybe instead of changing culture in a scenerio there are "paths" a specific player can take and so on

Definitely a fan of historical scenarios. And would love to to see a historical or at least plausible culture selection in some of them. Cultures and Eras could be changed to fit history.

Example: An "Heirs of Charlemagne" scenario where you and two rival AI players all start as Franks (Charlemagne's grandsons) in the Early Medieval Era and fight over the fragmented Carolingian Empire. When you advance to the next (High Medieval) Era you can choose between Teuton (same as base game), Capetian French (aesthete/agrarian?), Norman (militarist), and North Italian (merchant/aesthete?) cultures.

I do love to have scenarios in the game!

However in addition to historical scenarios I would also love to have custom scenarios where the community can just be creative and fuse custom scenarios with custom maps to create all sorts of combination.

I posted some ideas for a custom scenario feature, welcome to add anything you think be great in scenarios :)