The new HUMANKIND™ Update arrives soon and brings with it new opportunities to rule the waves, get rich trading (or stealing), and meet new cultures. With big changes to naval combat and trade, the Caribbean Pirates, and a DLC with six new cultures from in and around the Pacific, there's a lot to discover, so let's dive right in!
Cultures of Oceania DLC
It's time to expand your selection of cultures and wonders in Humankind once more, with the new Cultures of Oceania DLC. This DLC includes:
Six new Cultures (Pama-Nyungan, Polynesians, Rapa Nui, Maori, Hawaiians, and New Zealanders)
6 new Wonders (Aitutaki Lagoon, Bungle Bungle Range, Uluru, Whakaari Volcano, Royal Palace of Pape'ete, Mauna Kea Observatory)
15 new narrative events
The Cultures of Oceania DLC will be available on Steam on September 11th, and you can pre-order it now with a 10% discount.
The Caribbean Pirates
There's a seventh culture to join the game on the 11th for free for all players, thanks to the diligent efforts ruthless plundering during the anniversary community challenge: The Caribbean Pirates.
The first culture in the game to forego their Emblematic Quarter for a second Emblematic Unit, they can use their agile Sloops to raid unprotected sea trade nodes yet put up a fight if they get caught, and their Buccaneers' accurate fire to deprive enemies of their defensive positions. Not to mention that their ill-gotten gains from Poaching will have additional benefits for their economy.
The Bonny Update
While the Caribbean Pirates are a fun addition to the game, the core of the update are the changes to naval combat, resources, and trade. Let's take a look at what that entails:
Rebalanced ships: Most ships in the mid to late game will now be faster or stronger but also more expensive
Rebalanced Air Units and Missiles: To keep pace with the increased bombardment and anti-air power of naval units, Air Units and Missiles have been buffed
New Ship Classes: Early Modern and later ships are now classed as Capital Ships, Escort Ships, or Torpedo Vessels, each with their own abilities
Three new generic Ship Types: Diesel Submarines, Destroyers, and Frigates
Naval ranged retaliation: Naval units will now return fire against other naval units attacking them
Enlarged naval battlefields: To account for increased speeds and ranges, naval battle areas are now larger but do not feature a flag for the defender (This does not affect land battles.)
Enlarged deployment zones: Deployment zones now extend to the edges of the battlefield (This does affect land battles.)
Retreats: Starting in the second round of a naval battle, the losing side may declare a retreat and withdraw their units to the edge of the battlefield to escape at the end of the turn
Expanded Resources: Resource deposits can now provide more than one copy per deposit, which may be further increased by some infrastructures
Reworked resource requirements: Units and infrastructures can now be built when not meeting all resource requirements, at increased cost, as long as at least one copy of each resource is available
Domestic Trade Routes: Strategic and Luxury Resources are now transported to your capital by internal trade routes; these do not cost upkeep or generate income, but can be disrupted
Reworked international trade: All trade between empires now flows between their capitals to create readable, high-value trade routes
New Trade Screen: This screen can be used to buy resources or view the global trade network
Poaching: Armies can now steal Luxury and Strategic Resources while standing on a trade node
If you want to learn about these changes in detail, you can find more information in the posts about naval combat, resources, and trade.
Bonny Beta Playable Now
We've got one final surprise for you: The Bonny Update (including the Caribbean Pirates) is available as an opt-in beta for PCs on Steam right now! Just go to the properties window of the game and select the Update_preview beta on the Betas tab.
Give it a try and let us know what you think!
Humankind 2nd Anniversary Community Challenge
Hey everybody!
Humankind was released two years ago today, so it's time for a little celebration. Just a little one, though, as we're quite busy working on the next update. :)
For those of you who haven't been following our regular news, here's a little summary of what we've worked on in the past year:
We know many of you are excited to get your hands on the trade rework, improve naval combat, and poaching ability, but that’s not quite ready to ship yet. (Don't worry, it's not that far off now. You'll get a hold of it next month.)
To get you in the mood to mess with your enemies once the new update hits the waves, we prepared a little community challenge: From today (August 17th) until next Tuesday (August 22nd), we’ll be tracking the number of districts all of our players ransack together. As you burn and pillage more districts, you will progressively unlock Humankind-themed rewards, alongside a few hints about the final in-game reward.
Goal 1: A hint of what's to come
Goal 2: New G2G Avatar
Goal 3: A second glimpse of the future
Goal 4: New Humankind wallpaper
Goal 5: The final clue
Goal 6: New free in-game content
The hints will be revealed as you reach the goals, but all other rewards will be delivered with the naval update.
Have fun stealing your neighbor's riches!
Trade and Poaching Preview
If you've been following our recent blogs, you might have been wondering why naval combat should matter to you, or why we introduced domestic trade routes towards your capital. Well, it all ties into how international trade will work in the new update, and how you can mess with it.
International Trade: Would You Be Interested in a Trade Agreement With The English?
International trade is a crucial interaction in Humankind, as it creates lasting economic ties and thus diplomatic cooperation and stability, so with this update we want to make trade clearer and increase the impact of disruptions to your trade network.
To that end, trade between empires (including vassals and their lieges) will now always connect their capital cities. This reduces the hard to read “trade route spaghetti” of the old trade interface and gives you a better idea of the path a new route will take. It also concentrates all international trade along a few major routes, letting you take better advantage of it with infrastructure, protect your interest, or interfere with your enemy.
Buying resources still requires an upfront payment and the appropriate diplomatic treaties (unless you are a Merchant empire, who can now always buy resources from others without signing treaties first). However, unlike before, trade routes now have an upkeep cost for the buyer based on the territories they cross and increasing slightly with the variety of goods on the same route. This upkeep cost can evolve over the course of the game, as technology, infrastructure, and control of the land changes. For example, routes crossing ocean territories will be expensive at first but become cheap with the advent of Three-Masted Ships, roads and railroads reduce upkeep, and routes in territory you own will be cheaper than in foreign territory. Of course, trade routes may also need to cross neutral, unclaimed territory, where they will form neutral trade nodes to serve as indicators and interaction points for the passing trade.
Poaching: What's Yours Is Mine
So far, so good... But that doesn't really affect trade, does it? They may be going to your capital now, but you're still getting all the same resources, right?
Not always! In the new update, armies and navies can poach trade routes at various points along their path (such as neutral trade nodes or harbors) to interrupt the flow of resources and divert some or all of them to their own empire. Just steal the Saltpeter you need from your enemies, and bring along their gold and gems while you're at it!
Such attacks on peaceful trade are frowned upon, though, so while an army is poaching a trade route, any other empire can attack them without generating any grievances. Even once they stop stealing trade, armies will be marked as outlaws for a few turns, leaving them vulnerable to counterattack. Even stealthy units won't go unpunished, as poaching a trade route will immediately reveal them to everybody. This makes poaching trade routes a risky move, but on a rich, isolated trade node it can be well worth it.
That's all for our previews of the next update. We hope you're excited about these changes and additions, and will join us next week to celebrate Humankind's release anniversary.
Resource and Economy Preview
After last week's look at how naval battles will change in the next update, it's time we turn our attention to how we will handle strategic and luxury resources in the next update, and touch on some of the changes that should make control of the oceans more appealing.
Resource Deposits: Riches of the Land
Before we delve into how strategic and luxury resources will work in the next update, we need to say a few words about what they won't be: a stockpile-based system. We know many of you were hoping that we could switch to a system in which you produce and consume resources every turn and your stockpile changes accordingly, with consequences for running out, but changing from the current access-based system to a stock-based system would be such a fundamental change that it would have taken too much of our attention away from other tasks.
So, if we are not switching to stockpiles, then how are we handling resources in the upcoming patch?
While we are sticking with an access-based system of strategic and luxury resources, we are aiming to increase its granularity and diminish the effect an abundance or scarcity of any given resource will have on your economy. To that end, resource deposits on the map will now usually yield more than one copy of each resource. This not only generates some variation in the (strategic) value of different deposits, it also allows us to add some effects that increase the yield of deposits so you can improve your economy without exploiting new deposits. The higher number of resources in your economy also ties into some changes to the trade system that we will discuss next week.
Strategic Resource Requirements: Supply and Demand
Of course, with easier access to strategic resources from horses and copper all the way to oil and uranium, we've had to increase the resource requirements of units and infrastructures. Won't that just leave us at square one, though, where you are just a single copy of a resource short of building that cool Emblematic Unit you just unlocked? That's why we are also changing the resource requirement system: Now a single copy of each of the required resources will be enough to unlock construction, but falling short of the requirement will make it inefficient as each missing copy increases the industry cost.
Luxury Resources: People-pleaser
There's been no shortage of feedback about luxury resources since the game's release. Some people found that access to luxury resources made stability both trivial and volatile, as it was as easy to gain massive stability bonuses as it was to lose them. Others found that an abundance of a few select resources could catapult their economy to new heights. The general consensus was that luxury resources in Humankind were very, very powerful.
Obviously, leaving them untouched as we increase the number of copies of each luxury was a no-go, but even tweaking their power might not suffice.
To rein in the growth spike an abundance of any specific resource can give you, but maintain resources as a valuable goal for expansion, trade, or even conquest, we have split the effects of luxury resources into three categories:
The diversification effect: This effect is earned with the first copy of a luxury resource you have access to and does not stack. Generally, this bonus will offer a moderate boost to Food, Industry, Money, or Science, as well as a stability bonus to your cities.
The cumulative effect: This bonus stacks per copy of the luxury resource you have access to, but only offers a smaller boost to FIMS than the diversification effect does.
The wondrous effect: Earned by controlling the luxury manufactory of a resource, this effect is a stacking percentage bonus to the appropriate FIMS yield.
Of course, the “manufactured” resources like Weapons or Pharmaceuticals do not have Wondrous Effects and do not necessarily follow the pattern outlined above.
Internal Trade: Shipping and Handling
So, how do you take advantage of these new resource effects?
The first step hasn't changed much: You still build a resource extractor on a deposit in your territory, even if you can later upgrade its yields with infrastructure. However, this extractor no longer supplies your entire empire directly. Instead, all your resources must first be taken to your capital by way of domestic trade routes, from the extractor to its administrative center and then territory by territory to the city center of your capital.
Resources will only affect your empire if this path can be traced without interruption, so you might lose the benefits of faraway resources without losing control of the deposits, especially if they have to cross neutral or foreign territory. Since many ocean regions cannot be claimed, resources found outside your home continent are particularly vulnerable to poaching.
Hang on a minute...
Poaching?
Well, you'll just have to come back next week to learn about that.
Naval Combat Preview
For the second day of Endless Summer 2023, we're looking at Humankind and taking it to the high seas as we dive into what the naval update will bring to the game.
While the focus of this update is on maritime gameplay, many of the changes to make control of the oceans more rewarding will also impact the land-locked parts of your empire. We are expanding the resource system to make access to resources more granular and are rebalancing luxury resources in the process. We're also reworking the trade system to make it clearer, with fewer but more valuable and more vulnerable international trade routes, opening lucrative opportunities to disrupt your enemies' trade through ransacking or other means.
But we will discuss those changes in the coming weeks. Today, we want to talk to you about naval combat.
Naval Unit Rebalance: Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger
Many of you let us know that you found naval units too slow and weak compared to land units, especially once gunpowder entered the picture.
In the next update, we're rebalancing the abilities and costs of naval units pretty much across the board. Most naval combat units (as well as air units for proper carrier support) will see increases to their movement speed, attack range, or combat strength. Late game capital ships in particular will deliver devastating blows to land units if they get a chance to fire on them.
Larger Battlefields: From Boarding to Bombardment
With faster speeds and longer ranges, the combat areas were starting to feel a bit cramped. We increased the size of naval battles to let you take full advantage of the new-found mobility and firepower of your navies, and stretched the deployment zones to the edges of the battlefield to begin every battle in the most favorable position. Finally, these battles will not feature a flag to capture, as a supply camp made little sense on the open seas. That does not mean all battles end in complete destruction, though, as in the second turn of a battle you may be able to call a retreat and fall back to the edges of the battlefield if you have taken heavy losses.
Ranged Retaliation: Early Modern Warfare
Faster movement, longer ranges, greater firepower... Won't this just amplify the first move advantage in combat many of you have pointed out? You might think so, but your enemy will be shooting back now! The attacker may still have the advantage of being the first to concentrate their firepower, but they'll take a chunk of damage in return.
New Classes and Abilities: Top of the Line
While all the changes mentioned above will help to set naval battles apart from land battles, they are merely the bones of the naval combat changes. The meat and flavor are in the changes and additions to the mid and late game naval units.
Starting in the Early Modern age, you will have access to two classes of ships, Capital Ships and Escorts. Not only are capital ships armed heavily enough to support your sieges by destroying walls, their sheer bulk means they take less damage from attacks! Most of them also have the Ship of the Line ability that gives them even higher combat strength when they're next to two other allied units, encouraging you to form a battle line and meet your enemies with a withering hail of cannon fire.
Capital ships are, however, quite expensive. This is where the escorts come in: Cheap and fast, they are an excellent option for patrolling your trade routes so you can bring the might of your capital ships to bear where it is most needed, and to further support these behemoths in battle. With the advent of torpedo warfare, they will also help to screen your capital ships against attacks, while serving as a spotter for their massive guns on the side.
A Note on Land Battles
We know that some of these changes to naval battles would also be interesting improvements for land battles, and that a good part of our players would welcome them, so we want to be upfront with you: We may not be able to add ranged retaliation or retreat to land battles, as both features face additional technical and design challenges in land battles. However, the expanded deployment zones are shared between sea and land battles, and air squadrons stationed within the battlefield can be used during the battle for both.
That's all for today but join us next week for a closer look at some of the economic changes.
Scenario Challenge 11: Aurigan Summer
We're hosting our Endless Summer event this week, so this month we will take Humankind to Auriga! It's a beautiful planet... you know, apart from the impending end of the world. Better get ready to leave together to the stars.
The Aurigan Summer Scenario Challenge
Auriga, home to such iconic factions as the Vaulters, plays a key role in the unfolding story of the Endless universe. It's a beautiful planet, but also a dangerous one. Wracked by cataclysms before, the world seemingly recovered, only to spiral towards destruction once more. Can you lead your people to find a way to escape or to survive the increasingly hostile environment, even without the help of the near-magical powers of Dust?
Place the save in “/Documents/Humankind/Save Files”
Load the save labeled “AuriganSummer” in game
(optional) If you want to submit a score to the leaderboard, check this post
(We know that downloading and manually placing a save file is inconvenient. However, we do not currently have the means to deliver these directly in game, though we are exploring this option.)
Scenario Conditions
Victory Condition: Most Fame at game end
End Condition: Space Race, Endgame Technologies
Game Conditions: Nation difficulty, Fast game speed, no DLC or mods
Leaderboard Submission Deadline: August 28th
Leaderboard Ranking: Fastest Victory, tiebreaker by Fame
We hope you'll have fun building a glorious city full of wonderful structures!
Scenario Challenge 10: City of Wonders
After we set you on the warpath last time, this time around we want to focus on more peaceful pursuits once more. Let's build some beautiful cities. Well, one beautiful city, your capital. After all, massive construction projects that everybody talks about seem to be a great way to be remembered throughout history.
The City of Wonders Scenario Challenge
From ancient pyramids to modern skyscrapers, massive construction projects can be found throughout history. Though they may have been built for different reasons, they always fascinate us, and they always require exceptional effort and careful planning. That won't deter us, though, as we want to create a grand city for perhaps the most simple reason: Vanity, because a ruler needs (or at least wants) an impressive seat of power. Let's see who can build the most impressive capital city filled with Cultural Wonders!
Place the save in “/Documents/Humankind/Save Files”
Load the save labeled “Scenario-CityOfWonders” in game
(optional) If you want to submit a score to the leaderboard, check this post on G2G
Scenario Conditions
Victory Condition: Most Fame at game end
End Condition: Turn Limit
Game Conditions: Nation difficulty, Fast game speed, no DLC or mods
Leaderboard Submission Deadline: July 23rd
Leaderboard Ranking: Most Cultural Wonders in your capital, tiebreaker by Fame
We hope you'll have fun building a glorious city full of wonderful structures!
[1.0.22.3840] "Vauban Update Patch 1" Version Notes
STEAM WORKSHOP
Fixed an issue where the "Upload Map" pop-up could not be closed without actually uploading a map.
Fixed an issue where a Mod could not be re-uploaded through the Humankind Mod tool if it was deleted through the Steam Workshop page.
Fixed an issue where the UI could break when refreshing mods in certain circumstances.
Fixed an issue where the Description field in Steam Workshop was lacking formating possibilities.
Fixed an issue where a recurring "mod mismatch" message was displayed when launching the game after unsubscribing a Mod.
OTHER FIXES
Fixed an issue where some custom maps validated by the editor caused an error when starting a new game on it. To fix the issue, Creators need to reopen their map, and go to the territory tab, then the validation tab, to re-validate their maps.
Fixed an issue where incorrect text was displayed in the "Upload Map" tooltip.
Fixed an issue where the tooltip of the Random button was not clear in Multiplayer Lobby.
Fixed an issue where a few Game Updates illustrations were in greyscale when all the others were colored.
Fixed other minor UI and localization issues.
PARA BELLUM WONDERS PACK FIXES
Fixed an issue where the Kaiserliche Werft was incorrectly updating its own industry bonus in the Cultural Wonders tab.
Fixed an issue where the Kaiserliche Werft wonder tooltip was missing information that it is considered a harbor.
Removed "Domestication" technology prerequisite from The Stable of Pi-Ramesses.
Scenario Challenge 09: A Legend Forged in Battle
Last month was about getting rich (perhaps too much for some of you), so we were thinking that it was time to go back to war.
A Legend Forged in Battle
Achilles. Hector. Beowulf. Siegfried. The Knights of the Round Table. Myths and Legends are filled with tales of legendary warriors. It is time to forge your own. Can you lead one of your warriors through the ages to fame and glory, so they become known as a great champion and the slayer of many foes of your people? Face your neighbors on the field of battle and create the greatest warrior known to HUMANKIND™ by amassing the highest kill count on a single unit.
As a reminder, these challenges are prepared by the community team for the community, while the team is working on future things.
Our first expansion Together We Rule focused on diplomacy and cooperation, with a touch of subterfuge, but any experienced 4X player can tell you that it's virtually guaranteed you will come to blows with your neighbors sooner or later. So the Para Bellum Wonders Pack and Vauban Update focus more on military efforts, with the DLC adding six new cultural wonders that should help you in your conflicts across the ages, whether you are fending off jealous neighbors or expanding your own empire.
The Para Bellum Wonders Pack adds one new cultural wonder per era:
Stables of Pi Ramesses - The city of Pi-Ramesses became the capital of Egypt during Ramesses' II reign in the 14th century BCE. The Pharaoh's stables were the headquarters of the Chariot Troops of the King and could accommodate and train up to 460 horses.
Colosseum - The Amphitheatrum Flavium remained the biggest Roman construction until the Empire's end. The Colosseum was surrounded by gladiator schools and their inauguration games.
Citadel of Alamut - Built in the ninth century on a dramatic mountain overhang, the Citadel of Alamut was taken over by Hassan as-Sabbah in 1090. Under his rule, this isolated stronghold became the center of the Nizari Ismaili state.
Hôtel des Invalides - The Hôtel des Invalides was built in the late 17th century on the orders of France's Louis XIV. Designed to host some of the many injured soldiers and veterans in need, it included rooms, refectories, and a dedicated hospital for its residents.
Kaiserliche Werft - Founded in 1869, Wilhelmshaven Imperial Shipyard was the biggest German shipyard specialized in building warships. At the turn of the 20th century, the site's nearly 20,000 workers produced some of the era's largest warships.
The Pentagon - Built during WWII, the Pentagon is an administrative building that houses the United States Department of Defense. It employs more than 20,000 people on-site to coordinate the missions of the country's 1.3 million active-duty service members.
The Para Bellum Wonder Pack is free to claim (and keep) on Steam until May 10th! After that, you can still pick it up for just 2.99€/$2.99/£2.49
PARA BELLUM WONDERS
[table][tr][td][/td][td] Era 1 - Stables of Pi-Ramesses
+1 Horse Deposit
+1 Land movement speed
-25% cost for Cavalry and Land Vehicle
-25% upkeep for Cavalry and Land Vehicle
+2 Combat Strength on Cavalry and Land Vehicle
[/td][/tr][tr][td] [/td][td] Era 2 - Colosseum
-50% stability penalty on empire during all out war
+5% money on empire per declared war
+5% money on empire per received war
+4 stability per adjacent district
On war, narrative event:
Choice 1) Generate the most recent 2 Militia units on city with Colosseum
Choice 2) give +10 War Support against the opponent
[/td][/tr][tr][td] [/td][td] Era 3 - Citadel of Alamut
+ 10 Faith per adjacent mountain
+ 10 stealth max for all stealth units
-25% cost for stealth units
+4 Combat Strength on ambush
+1 Detection on empire
Apply "Marked" status on all revealed stealth armies on empire at the beginning of the turn.
"Marked": Similar to "lost at sea"; If the unit begin their next turn in the territory of the Citadel's owner, they are destroyed
[/td][/tr][tr][td] [/td][td] Era 4 - Hôtel des Invalides
Units can regenerate outside their own territories for half their regeneration
+1 Combat Strength on units with veterancy lvl 1 or above
Disband unit: gain 100 money per unit the disbanded unit had destroyed
Disband units outside their own territories still give the pop back to capital
[/td][/tr][tr][td] [/td][td] Era 5 - Whilelmshaven Werft
Coastal water only
Works as harbor
+20 industry per harbor in your empire
Naval Spawn point
-25% industry cost on naval units on empire
Allow repair action with money inside the empire at half the price for naval units
[/td][/tr][tr][td] [/td][td] Era 6 - The Pentagon
+20 Fortification for all districts on empire
-25% cost on units with bombardment action
Allow bombardment action 1 more time for all units (naval/land/aerial) with the bombardment ability
[/td][/tr][/table]
Alongside the Para Bellum Wonders Pack, we are releasing the Vauban Update, focused on quality of life improvements:
Steam Workshop: While we originally opted for mod.io as a solution that works across multiple storefronts, we have seen many requests from Steam users to implement Steam Workshop support. With the Vauban update, you can get your mods from either Mod.io or the Steam Workshop as you prefer, and the modding tools will be updated to allow you to upload mods directly to either. For now, we consider the Steam Workshop support to be in beta testing until we can ensure reliability.
Demand/Renounce All Buttons: For your convenience we have added new "Renounce All" and "Demand All" buttons on the Crisis tab of the Diplomacy screen to deal with all grievances at once. It's never been so easy to forgive and forget... or worse.
Auto-resolve Improvements: We've added a preview of the damage your units will take when you hover your cursor over the auto-resolve button. Additionally, we've made some small changes to the auto-resolve formula to better reflect army compositions and terrain.
Cultural Wonder Improvements: We know players would often place Cultural Wonders far outside their cities to take advantage of their exploitations. With the Vauban update, we're adding adjacency bonuses to many wonders to encourage you to incorporate them into your city planning. Additionally, you can now renounce your claim if you change your mind about a wonder.
Brussels Town Hall: The new Cultural Wonder unlocked in the Amplified 2023 Community Challenge is available now.
AI Improvements: We've worked on how the AI manages Faith, Influence, and early expansion. They should compete better with you now.
[table][tr][td] [/td][td] Era 4 - Brussels Town Hall
+10 Influence per Adjacent District
+15 Industry per adjacent Market Quarter
+15 Money per adjacent Makers Quarters
Passive: Bonus Fame (+50) when completing a Wonder
Upon construction of the wonder, earn 50 Fame per Cultural Wonder you've claimed so far
[/td][/tr][/table] The Update also includes various other quality of life improvements, bugfixes, and optimization that should improve performance especially on lower spec hardware. You can find the full changelog at the bottom of this post.
If you want to hear the devs talk more about this Update and DLC, or as a couple of questions, join us on twitch.tv/AmplitudeStudios tomorrow, Thursday the 27th, at 6PM CEST.
And don't forget, if you want peace, prepare for war!
[1.0.22.3819] "Vauban Update" Version Notes
ADDITION - Para Bellum Wonders Pack
Includes 6 new cultural wonders
The Stables of Pi-Ramesses
The Colosseum
The Citadel of Alamut
The Hôtel des Invalides
The Kaiserliche Werft
The Pentagon
CHANGES AND ADDITIONS FROM COMMUNITY IDEAS (THANKS!)
Display of damage preview on Army Panel when hovering the Instant Resolve button.
Added a "Demand all / Renounce all" button for grievances.
Added a "Kill Count" info on units.
Added a preview of FIMSI yields given by Cultural Wonders.
Added a new "Territory Size" world generation option.
Added a game option to play with the leaderboard hidden.
Players now see their own username when inside multiplayer lobbies.
