Hello everybody,

And Welcome to the Victor OpenDev!

We're thrilled to have you join us for another round of OpenDev to help us make Humankind an amazing 4X game!

I know you're all eager to play, so I'll try to keep this short (but the list of changes at the end of the post is pretty long):

Key Points on OpenDev

• OpenDev Access - You can gain access to the Victor OpenDev by pre-purchasing on Steam or Epic Games Store, or through Twitch Drops. Please check the Announcement Blogpost for detailed instructions.
• Fill out the Survey - Once you finish a game of the Victor OpenDev, the game will ask you to answer a survey - I know surveys are a lot less interesting than playing Humankind, but please do take a moment to fill out the survey after the scenario. The results of these surveys are vital for our evaluation of OpenDev and your discussions in this forum. Note that if you end your game early, you will not see the survey.
• Share your experience! - The contents of OpenDev are not under NDA, and because everybody gets to play, we'd love for you to share your experience with the rest of the community: Screenshots, videos, streams...
• Earn Twitch Drops - Even if you're playing the Victor OpenDev yourself, you may want to check out a few streams by the content creators we worked with to put them in the game. Check out the How To Earn Twitch Drops for information on how to earn Twitch drops and who has their own avatar. 

A Note on the Organization of These Forums

In order to keep these forums easy to navigate, please take note of the following points:

• Used the Pinned Feedback Threads - There are a couple of topics in particular we want feedback on, so for the sake of keeping the forums easy to navigate, please use the check the pinned feedback threads first to see if you can add your feedback there. However, you should still feel free to open threads for particular subjects you think warrant deeper discussion.
• First Impressions - If you want to post your "first impression" or a collection of feedback on various different subjects in a single post, please use the "First Impressions" thread. Even if you have shared such a post, please be sure to post in the relevant pinned threads about specific subjects as well.
• Bug Reporting - If you encounter any bugs, please first check the Known Issues thread. If the bug is not listed, check if somebody else has encountered it in the Bug Reports Section and add to their report, or open a new report if there's no thread yet.
• Trouble Accessing Victor OpenDev - Please check the Troubleshooting post before creating a new thread about your problems.

What's New in Victor OpenDev?

We've been hard at work since the Lucy OpenDev and have made many changes to the game. Here's a (nin-exhaustive) list of notable changes:

Economy and Game Pace

• Rebalanced technology costs
• Rebalanced various District and Infrastructure bonuses, for example:
  • City Centers no longer exploit Money and Science
  • Research Quarters and Market Quarters now synergize with themselves
  • Increased some previous Research and Market synergies
  • Increased science yields of natural modifiers
  • Strengthened early game science infrastructures
• Introduced new growth system: Food Surplus increases growth with diminishing returns
• Increased population food consumption
• Increased population base yields from 4 to 6 to increase their value
• Rebalanced Influence cost for claiming and attaching territory and for creating cities
• Implemented ability to detach territories from a city
• Introduced Unit upkeep
• Introduced a City Cap; exceeding the cap reduces Influence income
• Introduced stability penalties for being at negative Money or Influence; penalty grows each turn

Diplomacy

• Ribbon Notifications now include dynamic information (e.g. "The Nubians bought your Tea.")
• The Diplomacy screen can now display either incoming or outgoing trade routes with another empire
• Improved flow of Avatar dialogue by reducing pauses.
• Added text notification for AI reaction to proposals
• Cost of counterproposal is now dynamic based on related empire properties (e.g. number of resources for trade treaties)
• Fixed being able to eliminate other empires without enacting the required Civic.

Cultures

• Rebalance of cultures, especially Emblematic District effects
• Emblematic Quarters can now be built only once per territory
• Added passive ability for builders: Gain 10 current stability when finishing a district
• Added passive ability for Agrarians: Gain 5 current stability when gaining population

Neolithic Era

• Implemented additional events
• Rebalanced food and influence gains

Combat

• New Unit Class: Anti-Cavalry gain a bonus against mounted units
• Anti-Cavalry bonus now works against all mounted troops (e.g. Markabata, Mounted Nomads, and elephants)
• New Unit Class: Heavy Cavalry receive a charge bonus to combat strength (incudes chariots, knights, and several Emblematic Units)
• Mounted Units can no longer cross or attack over undamaged walls
• Rebalanced damage formula: Maximum damage of the weaker unit is reduced less than before, making the exchange more risky for the stronger combatant
• Reduced combat strength of some early game units

Naval gameplay

• Increased number of turns ships with Navigator can survive in deep water
• Introduced Skilled Navigator for mid-game ships, allowing them to survive even longer in deep water
• Fixed gun platforms being unable to shoot at land units in combat, and increased their range
• Reduced cost of naval trade routes

Civics

• Balanced ideology axes now grant a bonus to Stability
• Changed the effect of several ideologies:
  • Tradition now gives Faith instead of Influence
  • Liberty gives Influence on cities
  • Authority slows down Influence conversion of your territories
  • Homeland gives fixed percent food bonus
  • World gives a percent food bonus scaled with number of alliances

Interface:

• Improved the yield preview when placing new Districts
• Trade routes going through neutral territory now generate a pin marking the tile that can be ransacked
• Progress towards era stars is now displayed on the left of the screen when getting close to gaining a star

We look forward to your feedback,

The Amplitude Team