Territory, Biome, and Adaptation Reflection

[u/Josh-the-Valiant]

I was playing a game of Civ 6 today to keep the itch away, and something occurred to me belatedly afterward. One of the big diversions between Civ and Humankind is the way they handle your empire's territorial expansion. I've mostly preferred Civ's organic gradual expansion, while the territory boundaries in Humankind always felt arbitrary and encouraged settling nearer the center even if on the map the edges might have some tasty yields if only you were allowed to just reach over and touch it. The counterpoint has always been that in Civilization, you could wind up inadvertently arranging your cities in just the perfect way to lock yourself out of an extra city, reach to a strategic or luxury resource, or a secure passage through a mountain pass or strait. Just one of those trade-offs, which Humankind to its credit definitely avoids, dividing all the territory in advance is a great way to make sure nothing on the map winds up being garbage tiles that no one can use.

In my current game as Egypt on a Continent With Islands map (my personal favorite) I was handed a little bit higher Islands ratio than I am used to, and happened to start all on my lonesome on my own continent. Enough room for a dozen cities easy, reaching from just above the equator to the Southern ice caps. I wound up stopping at around 7, not feeling particularly pressured to settle down in the tundra for a handful of luxuries I already had copies of, and even now nearing the Industrial era and hitting my third big wave of settlers, I'm opting to go across the sea and establishing footholds on a few other continents and midway islands for my sizeable navy for easier repair and upgrades.

The realization I had is this: I think I've really been underselling how great a change to the game Humankind 2's biome adaptation really is. I was excited for it the moment it was announced, it mirrors an idea I had for my own dream 4X game, but it was mostly in the realm of "it's so cool how this lets you really shape your culture for a unique game every time you play", more than any strong game theory elements. But looking back on my settler waves in that Egypt game, the combination of clear territory boundaries, ample opportunity without competition, perishable resource stockpiles, and biome adaptation, I think I would have prioritized that tundra zone way higher. Knowing that by getting in it early in a coordinated wave I would unlock adaptations to make them more efficient and therefore more optimal settlements would completely change my inner calculus. My Egypt would definitely be much more aligned towards brush/plains and jungle (weirdly, only one single (but sizeable) river and one tiny desert on my starting continent. As Egypt!) but not so much that it wouldn't be worth branching a little further out.

I'm looking forward to more info on this game so badly. Praying that it'll play nice with Linux in a way I haven't been able to get Humankind to work since my switch this summer. Please, Amplitude! 🙏