The da Vinci Event may be over, but we’ve got more in store for you with the Mississippians Community Event starting today. Switching things up a little, this event does not feature individual challenges, but instead pools the contribution of all our players towards unlocking a special reward for everybody: A new culture to be added to the game, the Mississippians!

As you might be able to guess from their name, the Mississippian culture flourished along the banks of the Mississippi and its tributaries, establishing numerous chiefdoms between the 9th and 17th century. Their influence extended across much of the south-eastern part of the present-day United States, but they are nonetheless sometimes called Cahokians after one of their biggest and most influential settlements. At the heart of these settlements lay a public plaza with monumental earthen mounds, with structures ranging from grain silos to temples constructed on top of them, given these flat-topped pyramids great cultural and ritual significance.

This event will run from today May 25th to June 9th, and since the Mississippians are well-known for their earthworks, this challenge is all about construction, counting the Builder Era Stars all of our players collect. It doesn’t matter which culture you’re playing, if you’re using mods, or the Bolivar beta. Just build your beautiful cities and collect those era stars!

On your way to unlocking the Mississippian culture, we also have some other rewards in store for you:

• 500 000 Builder Stars: A wallpaper pack with the culture art for the Mississippians... and maybe more
  
• 1 000 000 Builder Stars: The Soundtrack for the Mississippian culture
  
• 2 000 000 Build Stars: The Mississippian culture unlocked in the game

All unlocked rewards will become available with a future update and be free for everyone who owns the game. You can check progress on these rewards at any time by checking the Humankind Games2Gether homepage, which will update regularly.

Knowing how passionate our players are, we’re sure you’ll reach these goals easily. So, have fun building your grand cities!

Working with our players to improve our games is an important part of our approach to game development, and with the Bolivar Update in early June being a big and much anticipated update (as you might be able to tell from the previews over the last three weeks), we want your help to put it through the paces before launch. 


From May 19th to June 9th, an opt-in beta version of the Bolivar Update will be available through Steam (for PC only). This beta will let us collect feedback early to help us work on the first patch after the update. However, please remember that most changes based on your feedback will likely not make it into the release version of the Update, but will be delivered in a separate patch later. 


Here’s what you can look forward to in the beta: 

• 
  Reworked Surrender System: Forcing your opponent to surrender when they reach 0 War Support is now optional, but you will take stability penalties if you press on for too long 
• 
  Rebalanced War Support Modifiers: Changes in War Support now scale with losses in battle, and cultural influence over territories causes war support losses 
• 
  Surplus/Deficit Stability Tooltip: The stability tooltip in the city screen will now clearly display surplus or deficit stability 
• 
  Infrastructure Yield Previews: Expected yields for Infrastructures are shown at the bottom of their tooltip before construction
• 
  Disabling Pollution Effects: Gameplay effects of pollution can be turned on or off in the New Game menu (defaults to off) 
• 
  Administrative Center Renovation: You can update any administrative center to your current culture with a cheap construction project 
• 
  Automatic Mod Reloading: The game automatically loads the mods used in your latest save when launching 
• 
  Civics Unlock Conditions: Unlock conditions are shown in the tooltip of locked Civics 
• 
  Unique Wonder Effects: All natural wonders now have a unique gameplay effect 
• 
  Luxury Distribution Settings: In the map settings, you can now choose how even luxury resources should be spread 
• 
  Scaling AI Difficulty: Bonuses the AI gets on higher difficulty now increase throughout the game to improve the late-game challenge. Please let us know how you feel about these changes on the forum and through the Bolivar Beta AI Survey 
• 
  AI Delays: If your armies have queued orders for the turn, the AI will now wait for these to be resolved before engaging them 
• 
  New Sortie Rules: Defenders cannot sortie on the first turn until the attacker chooses to “maintain siege” 
• 
  Content Management: You can set the frequency of DLC content (except cultures) from the Content menu, and new content is highlighted in game  

So, how do you access this beta if you want to try it? Open the properties of Humankind in your Steam library, go to the “betas” tab, and select the Bolivar_Beta branch. Steam should then update your game to the beta version (and if it doesn’t, a quick restart of Steam should resolve the issue). 

Please keep in mind that saves for the Bolivar Update and the previous Vitruvian Update are not cross-compatible. Attempting to load a save with the wrong version of the game will likely crash your game. 


If you want to share your feedback with us, please check out the Bolivar Beta forum. You can also post Bug Reports section and check the Known Issues thread there.


Have fun with the beta!

Many of you seemed quite happy about the changes we previewed in the recent posts about Quality of Life and War Support and Surrender. We’re not done with our sneak peeks yet, though, as today we want to tell you about a few more quality of life and other improvements coming in the Bolivar Update.


Laws of the Land

HUMANKIND™ is all about shaping your civilization and its history, and Civics are one of the tools you have to guide your society. We wanted these Civics to unlock naturally as your empire developed, rather than being specific goals you would aim for. However, many players were frustrated by the lack of information, and for good reason, as some Civics became incredibly rare and hard to get. To help with this, the tooltip of locked Civics will show their unlock conditions, making it easier to work towards them. 




It’s a Wonderful World

Most players agree that the natural wonders in Humankind look stunning, but many are disappointed that they all provide the same bonus. Finding a natural wonder became a simple “Oh, another one” for many players... But exploring the world and discovering its wonders should be exciting! To make each wonder feel special, the Bolivar update introduces unique bonuses for each Natural Wonder. We hope this will encourage you to go out into the world to explore and vie for the best spots! 




In the Lap of Luxury 

Strategic and luxury resources are a powerful boon to your economy in HUMANKIND™, and these resources were often clustered regionally to encourage trade or conflict. While some players enjoyed this, many players did not like the monopolies this could create, or the imbalances between the starting positions of different players. In the Bolivar Update, we are adding a Luxury Resource Distribution setting allowing you to choose either spread, natural, or clustered placement. 




AI Through the Ages

Getting the AI of a strategy game just right can be quite tricky, and naturally we saw a lot of feedback about the AI in Humankind. While some opinions differed based on player preference, some topics came up repeatedly: The AI would fall behind the player in the later stages of the game but do well in the early game (sometimes perhaps too well.) To address this, we are changing the bonuses the AI get on higher difficulties to grow as the game progresses. This should help them keep up with the player in later eras, while also making them a bit less likely to overpower you in the early game. We've also taught the AI some restraint, so they should attack you less while your armies are carrying out their orders and no longer snipe the attacker role from you as you engage them.


Arriving at New Shores

Last, but by no means least, we’re happy to announce that we’ll be adding support for two more languages to the game: Italian and Turkish. We’ve seen these two languages requested quite often, and there have even been fan projects to localize the game, so we are happy to provide official support now.




The Bolivar Update will release around mid June, and this was the last of our previews for it. You might still want to keep an eye on our news, though, as there might be a chance to try this update before its official release!

After taking a look at the changes to Surrender and War Support last week, we want to focus on some quality of life improvements this week, ranging from AI and tooltips to eye candy and wonders. With such a grab bag of improvements, we're sure there's something for most players here!


Urban Planning Made Easy
Developing your cities is a core part of playing Humankind. But while expanding your cities with new districts would give you immediate feedback and even suggest good spots, the benefits of improving your cities with Infrastructures were less obvious. Many times, you'd act on a gut feeling about how many relevant tiles like forests or rivers the city already had. No more guessing, though: With the Bolivar update, the game will do the counting and math for you and display a preview of the yields a new infrastructure will give you. You can also check what an existing infrastructure is giving you at the moment.




(Un)Stable Beyond Measure
Speaking of city management, keeping an eye on your stability is important if you want to expand your cities instead of constantly fighting rebels. Yet when your cities were doing particularly well or badly, it could be difficult to judge how much room you had for further expansion, or how much effort it would take to fix the situation. In the Bolivar update, you can tell at a glance, as we have added a dedicated space for stability outside the 0-100 range to the tooltip.




Clean Pollution
There's no denying that before launch, we severely underestimated the industrial powerhouses our players would create in the late game, so the pollution system was more restrictive for these players than intended. While we have already tweaked the balance to stop the game from ending too soon, some players still have problems with the local and global penalties for pollution. With the next update, you will be able to disable the penalties for pollution, so that you can build your cities without worrying about pollution limits.


A Modern Coat of Paint
Don't you just hate it when your seat of power is literally the oldest building in your empire, while the far-flung cities have fancy, modern main plazas? Well, good news! You can now get your architects and engineers to renovate your Administrative Centers to a more modern appearance. Since some players may want to preserve the heritage of their earlier cultures at least in part, this action will be done manually from the city screen, allowing you to choose which administrative center to renovate.

 


The Modding: Reloaded
Even with the modding tools still in beta, we have already seen some great mods from our community. Unfortunately, with mod support not fully integrated yet, using more than one mod at a time used to be a little inconvenient. Luckily, after the next update, the game will reload the mod configuration of your latest save automatically when you relaunch the game.



We hope you found something exciting in this varied mix of improvements. There’s even more to look forward to, so come back next week for Part 2 of our look at the Quality of Life improvements in the Bolivar Update!

In the upcoming Bolivar update, we are improving the Surrender system. We know this system has split the community since release. Some were happy there were limits to how much you could take in a single war, but many were frustrated by the sudden and sometimes unexpected end to their conflicts. So, in the next update, we are adding some flexibility to the system while keeping its core. 

 
Voluntary Forced Surrender 

With the Bolivar Update, you will not be forced to demand surrender when your enemy reaches 0 War Support anymore, though you can still impose your demands on them when you want to. This will give you time to achieve any objectives you had set out to do. Finally, you can crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and all that.

Don’t take too long, though, as your people might disagree about what is best in life and won’t like dragging out a war that has already been won, placing a steadily growing stability penalty on your cities. And make sure your own War Support does not drop too far, or you may no longer be able to demand what you want! 




Victories Made in Epirus: War Support Changes 

Speaking of War Support, how do you get your enemies to surrender? Just like before, battles and occupied cities will cause the biggest changes, but some of the details have changed: 

• The War Support change after a battle is now based on the losses on each side. A costly victory might gain you very little... or worse! 
• Ransacking enemy districts will now cost the enemy War Support 
• Territories under your control but under the enemy’s cultural influence will drain some of your War Support each turn 

We hope you’re looking forward to these changes to the War Support and Surrender systems, and the new flow of warfare they create. They are not the only improvement we are working on, though, so stay tuned for more news about what’s coming in the Bolivar update. 

When we launched Humankind, we already knew we wanted to support the games for a long time with free updates. Today, we are releasing the next of these, the Vitruvian Update. As a recap, here are the main improvements included in this update: 

• Notifications can now be set to not automatically expand even if the ribbon is open 
• Improved the tenet screen to make picking a Historic Religion easier and enabled the AI to do so 
• Restricted Builder and Scientist active abilities to one city at a time, increased payout of Aesthete and Merchant active abilities 

You can find the full patch notes on Steam.

In addition to the update, we are launching the DaVinci event, another set of in-game challenges that let you unlock a new persona to play against: None other than Leonardo DaVinci himself! Since DaVinci was a remarkable artist, engineer, and “natural philosopher,” the challenges are focusing on these themes. 



The event runs until May 16th, and on this occasion you will have both chapters available to complete from day 1. 

Chapter 1: 

• Science and Industry: Own a city netting over 1000 Industry and 1000 Science per turn 
• Machines of War: Destroy the fortifications on 10 tiles during the same game. 
• Flight of Birds: Own a Biplane as an Early Modern Era Culture. 

Chapter 2: 

• Live with Passion: Max out all 4 Ideology Axis, on either side.
• Eternal City: Own a city with Cultural Wonders from all six eras 
• La Serenissima: As Venetians, trigger the Science End Condition 

As usual, completing each chapter will unlock player symbols and decorations for you to use, while completing both will earn you the Leonardo DaVinci persona.  


We hope you will enjoy this new challenge, and the improvements of the Vitruvian Update. If you want to know more about what else we have in mind for Humankind in the next few months, be sure to check out the post about What’s Next. We’ve already started working on many points on that list, like the improved War Support and Surrender system for example, and if you look closely at the previews for the Vitruvian Update, you might even spot a few teasers... 


Have fun, 
The Amplitude Team 

Note: modding tools will require an update that will arrive soon.
The modding tools update has been released.

Important changes and additions

• Improved historical religions discoverability
  
  • Reworked the Religion panel, to make the choice of historical religions more visible.
    
  • Improved the way the AI chooses historical religions, so that it does not stick to its first choice anymore.
• Balanced Affinitites
  
  • Increased the payouts for Merchant affinities, to give substantially more Money per Trade Route and per Era.
    
  • Increased the payouts for Aesthete affinities, to give substantially more Influence per adjacent Territory and per Era.
    
  • Limited the "Collective Minds" action (Scientist affinities) to be applied only one City at a time, with a cooldown.
    
  • Limited the "Land Raiser" action (Builder affinities) to be applied only one City at a time, with a cooldown.
    
  • Improved the way game speed settings are taken into account for the "Power Investor" Merchant's active ability.
• Added control over notifications, so that only relevant ones are displayed.
  
  • Added game options to show or hide themes of notifications.
    
  • Added a "show/hide" button directly on notifications.

Other changes and additions

• Improved the way the AI manages cities, to avoid Stability penalties and a deficit of Influence, which should make it more competitive mid/late game, prevents it from spamming Common Quarters and Garrisons, and should avoid waves of "zombie AIs rebels" attacks.
  
• Improved the way the AI manages its economy, with refinements on resource needs and an Industry and Money focus, which makes it more competitive mid/late game.
  
• Improved the way the AI handles affinities actions for Scientists, Builders and Expansionists affinities: AI armies will tend to annex Territories more often.
  
• Improved AI culture choices mid/late game: the AI performs a better analysis of its current situation when changing Eras, and how it takes culture bonuses into account.
  
• Improved the way the AI manages settlers: AI empires will tend to produce more Settlers and give them smarter colonisation missions.
  
• Added the possibility to build Trebuchets until the end of Industrial Era.
  
• Increased the maximum number of opponents on tiny maps to 4.
  
• Added information about pollution malus when clearing a Forest.
  
• Merged veterancy Combat Strength bonuses in the attack preview UI.
  
• The "placement details" tooltip is now anchored on the bottom-left of the screen to avoid overlapping with the cursor.
  
• Added feedback to highlight tiles where the Clear Ruins can be built.

Fixes of issues spotted by the community (thanks!)

• [CMTY] Fixed an issue where Germans Legacy Trait "Iron Ordnance" Combat Strength bonus was not applied properly.
  
• [CMTY] Fixed an issue where the Lighthouse of Alexandria Combat Strength bonus was applied to all unit types.
  
• [CMTY] Fixed an AI odd behavior when placing a unit on the tile the AI wanted to turn into a City.
  
• [CMTY] Fixed an issue where Cultural Wonders in separated Territories were no longer exploiting adjacent tiles.
  
• [CMTY] Fixed an issue where the game could be stuck at the end turn on rare occasions.
  
• [CMTY] Fixed several issues where the International Trading Civic was not functioning as intended.
  
• [CMTY] Fixed an issue where Japanese Reisen emblematic air Unit had an invalid Upkeep cost.
  
• [CMTY] Fixed an issue where the Stormborn Legacy Trait Combat Strength bonus of the Norsemen was applied to land Units once Naval Transport was unlocked.
  
• [CMTY] Fixed an issue where sea curiosity pins were visible only after researching Trade Expeditions in some occasions.
  
• [CMTY] Fixed an issue where the "placement details" tooltip could displayed inconsistent information for tiles adjacent to Mountains, depending on the position of the cursor.
  
• [CMTY] Fixed an issue where inconsistent information was present in the Noble Javelineers range description tooltip.
  
• [CMTY] Fixed an issue where Armies could not move through a passable terrain tile in rare occasions.
  
• [CMTY] Fixed an issue where upgrade path for the Dragoon Unit in Contemporary Era was inconsistent.
  
• [CMTY] Fixed an issue where outpost and ruin 3D models were not displayed when placed on the tile of a partially completed and ransacked Outpost.
  
• [CMTY] Fixed an issue where the player could not exit the religion mode using the Escape key or right-click if the mode was accessed using Alt+5.
  
• [CMTY] Fixed an issue where the Machu Picchu Cultural Wonder Food effect was stronger than intended.
  
• [CMTY] Fixed an issue where false information could be displayed in the "Pay" Grievance demand included in the surrender terms in some occasions.
  
• [CMTY] Fixed an issue where the City's Population counter could reach a negative -1 value on rare occasions.
  
• [CMTY] Fixed an issue where the empire referenced by the description of the "The Propaganda Machine" narrative event was incorrect.
  
• [CMTY] Fixed an issue where debug text was displayed in the description of the "Left out" narrative event.
  
• [CMTY] Fixed an issue where debug text was displayed in the description of the "Based on a true story III" narrative event.
  
• [CMTY] Fixed an issue where the effects of the first choice in the "Lost Souls I" narrative event was not taking effect if your Units were engaged in a battle.
  
• [CMTY] Fixed an issue where the effects of the "Lost Souls II" narrative event was not applied in a specific situation.
  
• [CMTY] Fixed an issue where Independent People's siege of an AI never got resolved in very rare occasions.
  
• [CMTY] Fixed an issue where "Crusader" persona strength was applied on Units in the Neolithic Era.
  
• [CMTY] Fixed an issue where emblematic Units could not be constructed if their technology was researched in the previous Era, in some occasions.
  
• [CMTY] Fixed an issue where the player would not receive the Independent People defender Armies when assimilating them in a specific situation.
  
• [CMTY] Fixed an issue where the pathfind algorithm would lead ships to be lost at sea without taking into account "Coastal ship" or "Navigator" attributes in some occasions.
  
• [CMTY] Fixed an issue where the "Be Virtuous As Water" Tenet was applying a malus effect instead of bonus in some occasions.
  
• [CMTY] Fixed an issue where misleading information was present in the tooltip for the "Lumber Yard" infrastructures in some occasions.
  
• [CMTY] Fixed an issue where false information was displayed in the siege battle preview in specific situations.

Other fixes

• Fixed an issue in multiplayer where attempting to load a save file caused the session load to fail in rare occasions.
  
• Fixed an issue in multiplayer where sessions were redirected to the main menu after ending the first turn in some occasions.
  
• Fixed an issue in multiplayer where the host was unable to change the AI Persona from the Lobby Competitor Settings panel.
  
• Fixed an issue in multiplayer where placeholder empires were displayed in the loading screen when the session has less than 10 empires.
  
• Fixed an issue in multiplayer where instabilities could occur for the host when ending a turn in some occasions.
  
• Fixed an issue in multiplayer where instabilities could occur for the host after they selected a Biplane squadron.
  
• Fixed an issue where the session would not end when the Era limit reached end conditions were met.
  
• Fixed an issue where Army Upkeep was not properly lowered for Armies with more Units.
  
• Fixed an issue where the player received War Support when declaring any type of war on an empire that has the materials procurement first Civic choice active.
  
• Fixed an issue where the "Hamlet" District would not replace other Districts previously build on a tile.
  
• Fixed an issue where the "Lord of the Flies" achievement was not unlocked when the prerequisites were met.
  
• Fixed an issue where a stuck situation could be encountered when launching 2 simultaneous nuclear strikes over 2 ongoing battles.
  
• Fixed an issue where the UI of the player which accepts a demand that leads to their elimination would disappear.
  
• Fixed an issue where the player was unable to perform an "instant resolution" in some battles.
  
• Fixed an issue where the Natural Wonders narrator lines were triggered only after pressing the locate button from the Natural Wonder discovered notification.
  
• Fixed an issue where a graphical corruption could be present when accessing the profile screen when booting the game.
  
• Fixed an issue where no audio feedbacks were present in several places (empire statistic panels, liberate action, etc.)
  
• Fixed an issue where the sound effect that triggers when reaching the end-game screen after resigning was not affected by any volume option.
  
• Fixed an issue where AI attitude changes made by signing an open borders Treaty required multiple turns to register.
  
• Fixed an issue where an upgraded Unit's Upkeep was not displayed inside the tooltip that appears when hovering the cursor over the Unit's "Upgrade" button.
  
• Fixed an issue where the mute button help layer had a missing information line.
  
• Fixed an issue where videos of technologies discoveries were sometimes hiding subtitles.
  
• Fixed an issue where misleading information was displayed in the affinity panel for the "Land Raiser" and "Collective Minds" abilities.
  
• Fixed an issue where the player was not informed in the City FIMS output tooltip about the "Land Raiser" and the "Collective Mind" abilities status.
  
• Fixed an issue where the placement details tooltip could overlap the placement cursor.
  
• Fixed an issue where the heads-up markers placed by the AI empires on the player's Territory were not clear enough on what the player should do for them.
  
• Fixed an issue where confusing information was present in the violent Independent People "Indifferent" status description tooltip.
  
• Fixed an issue where interacting with a tile pin while attempting to place a marker was opening the pin's associated UI.
  
• Fixed an issue where the description of the "A meeting of minds" achievement was misleading.
  
• Fixed an issue where the game options screen had a scrolling speed inconsistent with other menu screens.
  
• Fixed an issue where the Japanese Culture's Legacy Trait description was containing an inconsistent period symbol.
  
• Fixed an issue where debug text was displayed in the tooltips of the squadron actions whenever the squadron was placed in the area of an ongoing battle.
  
• Fixed an issue where a text error was displayed in the tooltip of the Encyclopedia entry from the Mouse & Keyboard settings.
  
• Fixed an issue where players could remain stuck on the "G2G Share Tools" screen if the "Upload" button was pressed right after pressing the "Edit" button.
  
• Fixed an issue where an incorrect avatar icon was displayed for the Horatio Avatar (unforgivable!)
  
• Fixed an issue where trait column mislabeled in the AI Persona would display in the Profile screen tabs.
  
• Fixed an issue where multiple hairstyles presets presented missing textures when the player changed the avatar's gender.
  
• Fixed an issue where Nayakuralu Nagamma's avatar preset could get facial features of other avatar presets.
  
• Fixed an issue where Nayakuralu Nagamma's avatar was displaying inconsistent skin color between different body parts.
  
• Fixed an issue where Nayakuralu Nagamma's name was not fully displayed in avatar customization.
  
• Fixed an issue where La Catrina's avatar was no longer available in some occasions.
  
• Fixed an issue where instabilities could occur upon toggling the UI visibility after choosing end game or concede defeat options.
  
• Fixed an issue where instabilities could occur when attempting to buy resources via trade.
  
• Fixed an issue where instabilities could occur attempting to use the "Air Strike" squadron action on a target.
  
• Fixed an issue where instabilities could occur when attempting to move a Unit on the tile of an opponent Unit during manual combat.
  
• Fixed an issue where instabilities could occur when when booting up the title while having a specific hair style on the avatar.
  
• Fixed an issue where instabilities could occur when after loading a save file and an AI declared war on the player in rare occasions.
  
• Fixed an issue where instabilities could occur when hovering over the Influence counter in the society screen or in the resource banner.
  
• Fixed an issue where instabilities could occur when accessing the society mode in the Ancient Era.
  
• Fixed an issue where instabilities could occur when destroying a resource extractor via artillery strike.
  
• Fixed an issue where instabilities could occur when attempting to produce the Aksumite's emblematic District Great Obelisk.
  
• Fixed an issue where instabilities could occur when the "Iron Reserves" Militarist affinity ability was used right after opening a screen using its hotkey.

Cultures of Africa Pack Fixes

• Fixed an issue where the "Bandari" Swahili emblematic District did not replace the Harbor District.
  
• Fixed an issue where narrator lines were not triggered when discovering "Cultures of Africa" Natural Wonders.

Mac

• [Mac] Added an option in the Game Resolution settings to filter Mac native resolutions.
  
• [Mac] Fixed an issue where terrain was incorrectly rendered and army panel were displaying graphical corruption in some occasions.
  
• [Mac] Fixed an issue where several panels displayed font graphical corruption in some occasions.

The Holi Event is about to end. Many players were glad to see an in-game event based on a Hindu festival, while others were happy to return to individual challenges instead of community-based ones. But if we are honest, we have to admit that this second Humankind event was not without problems. Three challenges in particular were discussed at great length: Shrewd General, Smite the Wicked, and Houses of the Holi.

• Shrewd General: Forcing another empire to surrender while they have a vassal is quite achievable for most of our players, but unfortunately the AI did not pick expansionist cultures as consistently as we expected based on our own experience. 
• Smite the Wicked: While getting a single Hero Badge is quite doable if you have a traitorous AI in your game, raising it to level three is much more difficult, and many players struggled with this challenge. Furthermore, some players have pointed out that the Mughals do not belong in an event themed on a Hindu festival, as they followed Islam. This was overlooked during our historical check of these challenges, and we apologize for this inappropriate choice of culture. 
• Houses of the Holi: Controlling 10 Holy Sites was a reasonable challenge to most players, but we noticed several discussions about this challenge, and it appears some Holy Sites were not properly counted towards completing this objective.  

 

As a bug affected one of the challenges and two more were more difficult than intended, we will give the full set of rewards, including the persona, to any player who has completed at least three of the six challenges by Monday, so you still have some time to finish more of the challenges if you want to. The rewards will be unlocked early next week after the event ends, and you may still see the event at this time, but challenges completed after Monday will not count towards unlocking the rewards. 

 

Going forward, we’ll be working more closely with our VIPs to make sure that future challenges are set at an appropriate difficulty. 

 

Thank you for your understanding, 

The Amplitude Team 

Many of you have met nothing but various forms of Polytheism and Shamanism, leaving the religions followed by the different empires to blur together. The historic religions and their unique Holy Sites, meanwhile, remained largely unnoticed. In an earlier version of the game, these were adopted as a Tenet, so both players and the AI would pick them up as they developed their religion to get more Holy Sites. When we separated Historic Religions and Tenets to give players more flexibility, the Historic Religions unfortunately faded into the background. With the Vitruvian Update, we want to bring them back to the foreground. 


To that end, we are introducing two changes: 

Firstly, AI players will adopt historic religions, changing the name of their state religion and the appearance of its Holy Site accordingly. With this change, you should no longer see Shamanism and Polytheism everywhere in the world until the very end of the game. 

Secondly, we noticed that many players had trouble finding where to adopt historic religions or did not realize this was even possible. To make this feature easier to notice and use, we have made some changes to the tenet screen. Adopting the name and Holy Site of a historic religion will now have a dedicated button, instead of turning the name of your religion into a dropdown menu as before. Furthermore, the tenet effects will be displayed in their own dedicated box to show their effects and description. 




That’s it for the last of our previews of the Vitruvian Update, but this is by far not the last improvement we have in mind for the future of the game. So, stay tuned for news about future updates! 

Affinities are a crucial part of the cultures you can play in Humankind. Their active abilities are meant to be powerful, allowing you to compensate for a weakness and informing your strategies. But while we want these powers to have an impact on your game, they should not be so strong that they do not require engaging decisions when using them, or harm the pace and overall balance of the game. 


In the feedback we received about cultures, the Land Raiser and Collective Minds abilities of the Builder and Scientist cultures dominated many strategies and many discussions. On the one hand, these abilities allowed experienced players to complete their games much faster than intended. On the other hand, for many players these abilities were a question only of “when” and not “where,” turning them on across their entire empire when they wanted to rush a construction or research. These abilities were clearly much more powerful than the others, and much more powerful than intended. 


In the Vitruvian Update, we are introducing some restrictions on both abilities: 

• The ability can be used only on one city at a time 
• The ability lasts at most 10 turns (scaled by game speed) 
• It can be deactivated after one turn 
• After the ability ends, you cannot turn it back on for 10 turns (scaled by game speed) 

We think that with these new restrictions, you will need to think more about when and where to use these abilities. Should you quickly build new infrastructure in your capital, or keep the Land Raiser ability for an emergency when your aggressive neighbors come knocking? Can you afford to keep your most productive city on Collective Minds for the whole duration to get the most benefit, or should you use it on a smaller city instead so it can run its course? 



Many of you have expressed some concerns about us nerfing these affinities instead of buffing the others. And we agree that it is more fun for players to improve weak abilities. This change was necessary because of how much these abilities could affect the pace of the game, but it is only a first step. With the Vitruvian Update, we are also improving the Merchant and Aesthete abilities. The “payout” of these abilities will increase more than before as you move through the eras, and the target of the abilities will have a much greater impact. With these changes, it will be easier to generate a burst of money of influence with these abilities.


We’ll continue to work on balancing the affinities.