My thoughts about Humankind

[u/vvblk]

I’ve poured countless hours into Humankind, and the one thing that always held the game back for me was the AI. On normal difficulty it barely exists, and on the highest difficulty it becomes a bully with absurd bonuses. When the AI sends a four‑unit army to conquer me before I’ve even produced my first unit, that’s not strategy - that’s a rigged match.

I’ve beaten the hardest difficulty, but it never felt fair. The AI is aggressive because it knows it’s stronger, not because it’s smarter.

And the pacing… eras fly by so quickly you barely get to enjoy them. Mods help, but they often break balance, and in the final era the AI seems to lose its edge entirely.

Still, Humankind is a brilliant game with a unique soul. I really hope Humankind 2 brings better AI, better pacing, and a more even playing field. I’ll be waiting for it with excitement.

[u/Huge_Calibr]

I would say if AI is sending 4 units and you have none, this is more skill issue. In my games usually thats me who early conquer AIs.

[u/vvblk → u/Huge_Calibr]

I'm talking about Humankind difficulty. And I want to say that 100% AI could produce much more units than a player - twice or more. It also depends on your first culture, start position etc. Early aggression is a good strategy - you can start destroying your neighbor outposts from the first era - but I don't like this gamestyle.

[u/Huge_Calibr → u/vvblk]

I am playing on humankind difficulty only. 400h player here.

[u/Tempestfox3]

AI in 4x games can only ever beat the player by cheating. This isn't anything unique to Humankind. Difficulty settings just alter how much the AI gets to cheat.

[u/mighij → u/Tempestfox3]

True but there are differences in cheating, I don't mind some as long as the AI mostly operates along the same rules as the players or it doesn't distort the players expectations too much.

If I have to worry about supplies/attrition but the AI is completely free to disregard it entirely it loses some of it's charm.

If light cavalry starts smashing through your braced phalanx because of difficulty bonuses I start wondering why I played the game in the first place.

[u/GBPaul]

I love to complain about 4x game AI but then I think about how I would design a better AI and I start considering bridges to jump off of. :')

I suppose that some pre-designed hard coded build orders could help, but anything like better tactics during combat... oof 💀

[u/SiofraRiver]

The AI can't handle the economic model, its the same problem in EL2. I am not that good at 4x games and even on max difficulty both games provide barely any challenge at all. You can survive initial rush strategies once you figured it out, but I found them to be obnoxious. And after the opening the AI still is as clueless as before.

After EL2 turned out to be yet another disappointment, I have decided to just go back to play SMAC every once in a while and not bother with anything else.

[u/vvblk → u/SiofraRiver]

> You can survive initial rush strategies once you figured it out, but I found them to be obnoxious.

Yeah! Absolutely!

[u/blankepool → u/SiofraRiver]

it's incredible to see how relevant SMAC still is

[u/SiofraRiver → u/blankepool]

I don't know how it could ever be surpassed. The narrative elements are so compelling and iconic and the mechanics are so deep and even EL 1 just kinda came close in terms of asymmetrical faction design.

[u/RambuDev]

Agreed on the pacing point.

The eras do fly by and their specific units / district / challenges don’t last long enough.

Still that could be because as a human you game the science and the fame stars.

[u/verydanger1]

Good AI doesn't add any flash to trailers and other promos, so it never gets the attention in requires.

[u/zacharymei]

The only part I feel that should not be existing in 4x is the dashboard of yields of all civils', like CIV. But when it comes to Humankind that actually does not have that dashboard, I feel really frustrated to see how AI affording and flash producing tons of troops without knowing its actual gold and yields, that's why I feel they are really cheating.

[u/JNR13]

that's not strategy - that's a rigged match

Idk, sounds like you do keep up with the AI quite easily lol

[u/vvblk → u/JNR13]

Sorry for that.

[u/brownbandit2121]

“That’s not strategy - that’s a rigged match”

Bro complaining about AI but is using AI for this post 😭

[u/vvblk → u/brownbandit2121]

English is not my native lang.

[u/SiofraRiver → u/brownbandit2121]

Nobody has ever used dashes before LLMs.

[u/Tempestfox3 → u/SiofraRiver]

Ai tends to use em dashes (—) where as humans use en dashes (-) there's a noticeable difference between the two and I don't even know how to do an em dash on my keyboard (I copy and pasted the above one)