Humanitas (A New Civilization Game)

[Vince278]

I like that. Basically researching without knowing when the results will come.

[FrostyBoy]

DeathByTheSword, the Game Details section says that you don't discover anything just by picking and waiting. You have to do a series of requirements to reach a discovery.

So yes, you would never really know what you are going to discover, they will come from no where, infact, you could discover a few things in one turn (tho it would be very hard to do).

[Kaak]

sweet

[DrSpike]

I will keep an open mind but I am very dubious about blind research. Yeah, it's more realistic, and good for those that value realism over gameplay, but too much luck does not a good strategy game make. Still, I'm sure you've thought of that.

[DeathByTheSword]

it doesnt only go for inventions but it can be used for everything that has a value...this makes the game a little bit more flued and removes the precises calculations without removing the balances created in the game...

[FrostyBoy]

Discoveries are discovered through your civilizations acheivements/actions

But Inventions work different, inventions require funding for research.

If you want to invent faster in the weaponry category more than any other category (commerce, exploration, etc), then you would fund a higher percentage of research in the weaponry category.

[GeoModder]

Can a category be neglected in it's entirety then? IOW, will a player have total control of what is researched in categories?

[Verto]

Very nice looking screenies, and a very interesting work based on what I've seen here.

[FrostyBoy]

Originally posted by GeoModder
Can a category be neglected in it's entirety then? IOW, will a player have total control of what is researched in categories?

yes

[GAZ082]

Owww, 8 eras? Changing interface and such for each one? Would not that delay the game release too much?

[FrostyBoy]

There are more than 8 eras.

And no, a lot of the interface designs are already completed.

[Kaak]

Screenshots!!!

[DrSpike]

More gameplay details!!!

[GeoModder]

The game!!!

[Cornax]

Master of Orion had the well-nigh perfect research model. (After the initial research there was an increasing chance each turn to make the breakthrough.) Also, there was an interest rate to the accumulated research points based on each field's share of research funding (IIRC).

In Civ type games, the interest rate could reflect of freedom of speech (information) in each culture and exchange of information between cultures. These go up with communications technologies (compare scientists of 1905 [letters and newspapers, communications lag of months to share any findings] to those of 2005 [e-mail, blogs, findings can be shared as soon as they can be written up]).

Civ type games are completely missing one important ingredient, though: effect of private enterprise on information dissemination. When nations are in peace, entrepreneurs keep tabs on inventions and purchase licenses instead of inventing everything themselves. Also, even the knowledge that something is possible seems to make it easier to make the breakthrough (heavier-than-air aircrafts come to mind), and newspapers all over the world reported the first flight in 1912, stimulating emulators in the Old World.

In effect, this diffusion of different inventions and discoveries would be free research points to other nations that are researching the tech in question, and after however-many turns each tech would become freely available. In ancient ages there is no diffusion, as there is so little contact between people, in classical times the delay could be several decades, in medieval and renaissance perhaps a decade or two, and in modern times at most several years.

***

The worst shortcoming of every single Civ game so far, though, is this: Regardless of the chosen goverment type, every single nation in Civilization is in effect a socialist state (the player, human or computer, owns all of the resources and dictates their use). This results in the micromanagement paralysis.

What I would like to see is a bit more Sim type game where the player can revert to Civ type micromanagement hell by selecting socialism (Communism or Fascism, or tribes, clans, monarchies, whatever in earlier ages) as the government type. In republics, democracies, constitutional monarchies and so forth, the nation would do its own thing (in practice, each city would develop itself and the surrounding area automatically more or less efficiently, depending on the age and government type), and the players would be limited to the tax income and deficit spending (which results in inflation), and could concentrate on whichever aspect game they prefer (guns or butter; manufacturing armies and waging war or subsidizing cities and developing economy to become an economic superpower).