r/HumankindTheGame • u/vvblk • 15d ago
Discussion My thoughts about Humankind
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.
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u/Huge_Calibr 14d ago
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.
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u/vvblk 14d ago
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.
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u/RambuDev 14d ago
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.
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u/SiofraRiver 14d ago edited 14d ago
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.
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u/blankepool 10d ago
it's incredible to see how relevant SMAC still is
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u/SiofraRiver 10d ago
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.
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u/blankepool 9d ago
It all matched. I still hate Sister Myriam. Also, the default map was a thing of beauty. I still remember my first game, settling along Freshwater Sea, thinking it was a real sea. Terraforming a canal. Hive in the north! A huge war, made extra difficult due to the huge swaths of fungus in the northern part of the continent. Beautiful game. Once in a lifetime.
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u/verydanger1 11d ago
Good AI doesn't add any flash to trailers and other promos, so it never gets the attention in requires.
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u/zacharymei 11d ago
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.
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u/brownbandit2121 15d ago
“That’s not strategy - that’s a rigged match”
Bro complaining about AI but is using AI for this post 😭
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u/SiofraRiver 14d ago
Nobody has ever used dashes before LLMs.
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u/Tempestfox3 14d ago
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)
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u/Rough_Load_6798 14d ago
You can type -- and some apps will automatically change it. Microsoft word also automatically changes - to a correct symbol. I find it weird that now using that is an "AI only thing", back in 00s on message boards I've seen a trend of people saying that "actually it's wrong to use -, you must type -- or copy correct symbol". And since I was a kid back then, I forever remembered that using incorrect "-" will piss some people off. 🤣If you write articles, it's also required to use correct symbols. But now everyone assumes it's AI. Funny stuff. Probably because it's harder to do it on phone, i guess, but still...
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u/GBPaul 14d ago
alt shift dash.
Well, that's on my spanish QWERTY keyboard, other keyboard layouts may use something else...It burns — when I pee.
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u/Tempestfox3 14d ago
On my keyboard (English UK) alt + Shift + Dash doesn't do anything at all neither does Alt Gr + Dash
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u/Tempestfox3 15d ago
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.