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2 years ago Mar 17,2022, 15:10:43 PM

Celebrate the Colors of Humankind with the Holi Event

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Last November, we celebrated the Día de los Muertos with the first ever in-game event in Humankind. Now, after our recent community-based events, we are back with another in-game event, this time celebrating the Holi Festival! 

 

One of the oldest recorded Hindu festivals, Holi is celebrated across the Indian subcontinent to welcome spring. Bonfires are lit to represent the victory of good over evil, and huge crowds gather to sing, dance, and engage in battles with colored powders. At its core, this is a celebration of love, life, friendship, spiritual purification, and the different colors of humankind.

 

The Holi event in Humankind will begin on March 17th, with the second chapter unlocking the following week, and will last for about three and a half weeks until April 11th. 

 



The first chapter is called Holika Dahan, Holika's Death, after the story of Holika being burned instead of her devout nephew Prahlad when she tried to kill him. This story is celebrated through the lighting of bonfires on the night before Holi, as it is seen as a symbol of the triumph of good over evil. So most of the challenges in this chapter are related to opposing those who would take what is not theirs.

  • Shrewd General: Force an Expansionist Empire that has Vassals to Surrender 
  • Famous Accumulate 40 000 Fame over several games.
  • Smite the Wicked: Earn a level 3 Hero badge while playing as the Mughals.

We know some of these challenges may seem a bit tricky, so here are some tips for you:

Shrewd General: Set up a game with many AI players, two or three of which should be aggressive (e.g. Agamemnon, Beowulf while the others should be peaceful (e.g. Tjilbruke, Midas, Makeda). You should also have about two to three times as many players as continents (don’t forget that the New World settings means one continent will be empty) to give the aggressive AIs a chance to vassalize their peaceful neighbors. Then you can declare war on them after they choose an expansionist culture.

Smite the Wicked: “Hero” badges are earned for declaring war against an empire with the “traitor” badge, so remember to include a Traitorous AI (e.g. Gilgamesh) in your game. You should play on slower game speeds so the badges last longer. Don’t forget, your war declaration must be justified, and you must not already be at war with somebody else! You only need to earn the third level of the badge as Mughals, and if you need more time, you can also transcend.

Famous: If you have trouble reaching the total Fame, consider playing on faster speeds to play an extra match or two. 


As with the Día de los Muertos event before, you will unlock Symbols and Decorations for each chapter that you complete, and if you complete both chapters you will earn the Nayakuralu Nagamma persona, an astute ruler and strategist from a 12th century kingdom on the Indian subcontinent. 

 

Have fun with this new set of challenges!

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2 years ago
Mar 17, 2022, 3:39:09 PM

Back to individual events? I don't mind that, I do mind that two out of three challenges depend on AIs behaving in particular way, rather than altering the way player should play the game. And the third one is basically a gimme, but that's fine.


As with previous challenge, I'd really prefer if it was a set of scenarios with special ruleset, but with Dia de los Muertos at least we had to play in a special way or take some actions you wouldn't necessarily take. This seems like it will be more like stalking occasions, especially the Smite the Wicked, I can already smell the burnt toast due to brain aneurysm when level two badge just runs out.


Can we get a clarification on Shrewd General, too? Will it be pretty lenient and take into account only start of the war, or should we expect a failure if enemy swaps culture or releases the vassal during conflict?

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2 years ago
Mar 17, 2022, 3:43:12 PM
I'm excited for the new event, and I'm glad I can earn the rewards myself. I will second that unique scenarios may be interesting too, but I think the general fixes and reworks of current systems are more desired at the moment, and I'd remain pleased to not have huge update sizes outside of DLCs.
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2 years ago
Mar 17, 2022, 4:06:19 PM
DNLH wrote:

Back to individual events? I don't mind that, I do mind that two out of three challenges depend on AIs behaving in particular way, rather than altering the way player should play the game. And the third one is basically a gimme, but that's fine.


As with previous challenge, I'd really prefer if it was a set of scenarios with special ruleset, but with Dia de los Muertos at least we had to play in a special way or take some actions you wouldn't necessarily take. This seems like it will be more like stalking occasions, especially the Smite the Wicked, I can already smell the burnt toast due to brain aneurysm when level two badge just runs out.


Can we get a clarification on Shrewd General, too? Will it be pretty lenient and take into account only start of the war, or should we expect a failure if enemy swaps culture or releases the vassal during conflict?

We agree that having specific scenarios would be cool, but as it would be a new system in the game it would require a lot of time to develop and implement. We are not ready to work on that for the moment, as we are focusing on the rest of the feedback (What's next). BUT it is a thing we are considering, I do not do any promise.
Regarding the Shrewd General, it should check the condition when the enemy surrender, not during the entire war.

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2 years ago
Mar 17, 2022, 5:43:02 PM

I agree with those saying the challenges are poorly thought out. They should be based on getting players to try a new playstyle or combination, or at least actions we take ourselves. Two of these solely depend on how an AI behaves, and one is just a matter of playing more. Even the Lunar New Year event was better than this.

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2 years ago
Mar 17, 2022, 8:56:15 PM

Nobody has noticed that Holi is a Hindu festival and the Mughals were famously Islamic conquerors. Bitter enemies of Hindus. A rivalry that exists to this day.


Play as Mughals for Holi? lol


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2 years ago
Mar 17, 2022, 9:37:44 PM
blackbutterfly wrote:

Nobody has noticed that Holi is a Hindu festival and the Mughals were famously Islamic conquerors. Bitter enemies of Hindus. A rivalry that exists to this day.


Play as Mughals for Holi? lol

You know, I didn't care enough about this event to notice the Mughals, but a (disclaimer: very lazy, 30 second) search indeed says that the Mughals were Islamic and oppressive towards Hindus.  (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persecution_of_Hindus#Mughal_Empire)  And they're the spotlight culture for a Holi event?  Ouch...


Edit:  Oh, man.  And the Mughal challenge is even named "Smite the Wicked" - for an event that's supposed to celebrate a Hindu festival...

Updated 2 years ago.
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2 years ago
Mar 17, 2022, 9:49:35 PM

Sorry I'm really not a fan of these challenges and events, I know a lot of games do timed events with challenges now but the time dedication between doing a few combat challenges on Genshin Impact or a match on Age of Empires vs commiting to a single 4x campaign is huge. Not only that you are relying on the stars to align and the AI to do what you want and you have less than four weeks to get it done.


Age of Empires 3 Definitive Edition is doing an event right now for International Womens Day and the challenges are a lot more reasonable both in time and difficulty. If I've got an hour I can play an AOE match easily. A 4X campaign is a multi session affair even on a faster speed and you still run the risk of failing the challenge.

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2 years ago
Mar 17, 2022, 10:57:56 PM

I've tried and managed to get every avatars until now (yes, even Twitch ones), but I agree with previous comments: I just don't have time to commit to an event which supposes several games which couldn't work if the AI doesn't behave exactly as I need. I am gonna have to pass this one.

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2 years ago
Mar 17, 2022, 11:25:53 PM
SpikedWallMan wrote:
blackbutterfly wrote:

Nobody has noticed that Holi is a Hindu festival and the Mughals were famously Islamic conquerors. Bitter enemies of Hindus. A rivalry that exists to this day.


Play as Mughals for Holi? lol

You know, I didn't care enough about this event to notice the Mughals, but a (disclaimer: very lazy, 30 second) search indeed says that the Mughals were Islamic and oppressive towards Hindus.  (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persecution_of_Hindus#Mughal_Empire)  And they're the spotlight culture for a Holi event?  Ouch...


Edit:  Oh, man.  And the Mughal challenge is even named "Smite the Wicked" - for an event that's supposed to celebrate a Hindu festival...

I think the reasoning for this is more because the Mughal empire at one point owned almost all of India. It seems more like a oversight to me honestly.

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2 years ago
Mar 17, 2022, 11:56:20 PM
DragonGaming wrote:
SpikedWallMan wrote:

You know, I didn't care enough about this event to notice the Mughals, but a (disclaimer: very lazy, 30 second) search indeed says that the Mughals were Islamic and oppressive towards Hindus.  (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persecution_of_Hindus#Mughal_Empire)  And they're the spotlight culture for a Holi event?  Ouch...


Edit:  Oh, man.  And the Mughal challenge is even named "Smite the Wicked" - for an event that's supposed to celebrate a Hindu festival...

I think the reasoning for this is more because the Mughal empire at one point owned almost all of India. It seems more like a oversight to me honestly.

Yeah, I'm positive it's an oversight.  It's just a really, really unfortunate oversight.

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2 years ago
Mar 18, 2022, 12:53:45 AM

I know this is an unpopular opinion, but I DEFINITELY prefer this ingame events over community events!!!

The reason is simple: If I want the new Persona, I can get it!

Just look at the last event where we didn't manage to unlock the persona. There was no way for me as an individual to have a meaningful impact on unlocking the persona. The whole time I was worried that we fail to unlock the persona (and I was right, what a waste both creating it and for us trying to unlock it) and I was hoping that ingame events will return.

I understand that this type of event is not for everyone, but at least it is your own decision then to not get the persona, without affecting other players who may want to get it.

For me personally, these challenges are a good reason to come back to Humankind and play the game again, also in a different way.

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2 years ago
Mar 18, 2022, 8:17:30 AM
Daarkarr0w wrote:
Regarding the Shrewd General, it should check the condition when the enemy surrender, not during the entire war.

Huh, so you do need to speedrun the war once you get to it.


If I'd already have a level 3 Hero badge and become Mughals and then declare a war that would earn me a next level of Hero, would that work?


Sorry for pestering you with questions, but I hope all the users can use those answers.

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2 years ago
Mar 18, 2022, 9:14:14 AM
SpringHeeledJosh wrote:

Quick question, will these challenges unlock if playing with mods?

Yesterday on streaming we were playing with 2 mods and we saw that the fame we earned during the game counted so it should be fine :)

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2 years ago
Mar 18, 2022, 9:58:41 AM
DragonGaming wrote:
SpikedWallMan wrote:
blackbutterfly wrote:

Nobody has noticed that Holi is a Hindu festival and the Mughals were famously Islamic conquerors. Bitter enemies of Hindus. A rivalry that exists to this day.


Play as Mughals for Holi? lol

You know, I didn't care enough about this event to notice the Mughals, but a (disclaimer: very lazy, 30 second) search indeed says that the Mughals were Islamic and oppressive towards Hindus.  (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persecution_of_Hindus#Mughal_Empire)  And they're the spotlight culture for a Holi event?  Ouch...


Edit:  Oh, man.  And the Mughal challenge is even named "Smite the Wicked" - for an event that's supposed to celebrate a Hindu festival...

I think the reasoning for this is more because the Mughal empire at one point owned almost all of India. It seems more like a oversight to me honestly.

Like the British? (In fact the British Raj encompassed even more of India than the Mughals).


Holi is principally a Hindu festival. So it is inappropriate.

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2 years ago
Mar 18, 2022, 12:01:49 PM
Khaar wrote:

I know this is an unpopular opinion, but I DEFINITELY prefer this ingame events over community events!!!

The reason is simple: If I want the new Persona, I can get it!

Just look at the last event where we didn't manage to unlock the persona. There was no way for me as an individual to have a meaningful impact on unlocking the persona. The whole time I was worried that we fail to unlock the persona (and I was right, what a waste both creating it and for us trying to unlock it) and I was hoping that ingame events will return.

I understand that this type of event is not for everyone, but at least it is your own decision then to not get the persona, without affecting other players who may want to get it.

For me personally, these challenges are a good reason to come back to Humankind and play the game again, also in a different way.

I certainly agree that these ingame events are better than community events (primarily for the reasons you mentioned, as well as it feeling rather disconnected), I think these challenges are pretty bad though. I probably won't be going for them because I already know how frustrated I'll be when several hours in I find I'll have to try again, likely without having been able to do much about it. It is nice to know how to get the Hero badge though.

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2 years ago
Mar 18, 2022, 12:54:11 PM
Khaar wrote:

I know this is an unpopular opinion, but I DEFINITELY prefer this ingame events over community events!!!

The reason is simple: If I want the new Persona, I can get it!

Just look at the last event where we didn't manage to unlock the persona. There was no way for me as an individual to have a meaningful impact on unlocking the persona. The whole time I was worried that we fail to unlock the persona (and I was right, what a waste both creating it and for us trying to unlock it) and I was hoping that ingame events will return.

I understand that this type of event is not for everyone, but at least it is your own decision then to not get the persona, without affecting other players who may want to get it.

For me personally, these challenges are a good reason to come back to Humankind and play the game again, also in a different way.

I agree, personal challenges are better but the personal challenges are still bad they dont motivate me to play.


What about events introducing modifiers that twist the game a certain way and offer some simpler challenges?


Holi Festival Modifiers might look like:

War Score cost for vassalising is cut in half

Players receive approval and influence bonuses for going to war with vassal owners

Elephant units are cheaper and move faster.


The challenges for playing on this 'mutated' game set up could be:

Vassalise a faction

Go to War with a Militarist or Expansionist Empire

Train 4 Elephant units


You could probably get all those challenges in a single game and much more reasonable in a restricted time frame.

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2 years ago
Mar 18, 2022, 1:39:57 PM
Khaar wrote:

I know this is an unpopular opinion, but I DEFINITELY prefer this ingame events over community events!!!

The reason is simple: If I want the new Persona, I can get it!

Just look at the last event where we didn't manage to unlock the persona. There was no way for me as an individual to have a meaningful impact on unlocking the persona. The whole time I was worried that we fail to unlock the persona (and I was right, what a waste both creating it and for us trying to unlock it) and I was hoping that ingame events will return.

I understand that this type of event is not for everyone, but at least it is your own decision then to not get the persona, without affecting other players who may want to get it.

For me personally, these challenges are a good reason to come back to Humankind and play the game again, also in a different way.

Amplitude is usually fairly good about making sure that community challenges have reasonable goals.  But lately it feels like they're putting as little effort into their events as possible just to push out more events over a shorter period of time.  I feel certain that we would have finished Lunar New Year challenge if Amplitude had thought the challenge through a little more and included all cultures that celebrate LNY.  But they instead decided to cherry-pick cultures that aren't on the optimal minmax path, and we fell short of the goal.  I don't feel like I didn't have a meaningful impact on the event though - I put in an amount of effort that I felt good about.


Limited-time challenges were OK when it was the yearly Endless Day challenge (which really isn't time-limited) or when it was an occasional community challenge with reasonable goals (like "start 1M games" or something).  But this constant train of limited-time events is really annoying.  If they were adding permanent challenges to the game with permanent rewards, then I would probably try to tackle them eventually on my own timeframe.  I'm not going to let myself get sucked into a FOMO loop though.  This is a 4X game, not a mobile game.


Which really brings up the question of what Amplitude is trying to accomplish here:

  • Are they trying to boost the player numbers?  According to the player statistics on SteamDB, the concurrent player count has consistently been no more than 4200 players since October 2021 with the all-time low being 1493 (which ironically fell on the starting day of the Holi event).  So none of the events have helped with boosting the player count.
  • Is Amplitude trying to boost cultural appreciation?  If so, then it doesn't make sense take the new content highlighting the culture and restrict it to a short window of time.  A themed LNY update or Holi update where the culture can be celebrated year-round seems like it would be more appropriate.


So I don't know who at Amplitude is pushing the idea that Humankind needs lots of events, but they don't really seem to have a goal in mind or understand the player base.  I'll agree with MasterofMobius that I would be more open to playing along with these silly events if they could be completed in an hour or two.  But there's no way I'm going to play hours and hours Humankind without playing the way that I want to play instead of jumping through hoops just to complete bizarre challenges.

Updated 2 years ago.
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2 years ago
Mar 18, 2022, 3:48:48 PM

when challenges come with a checklist for cheesing them, maybe they aren't good challenges. This really screams "should've been a scenario".


When you set up a new match, your settings from the previous match started appear as default settings, right? Maybe if a whole scenario system is too much, the events screen could get a button "use recommended setup" that overwrites these cached values with handcrafted parameters for the challenge. As in: click the button and you get the chached game options replaced with Agamemmnon, Beowulf, Tilbruke, Midas, Makeda, and Gilgagmesh on a pangaea map with slow game speed.


Maybe add a mini mod that makes aggressive AIs pick expansionist cultures whenever one is available, makes AI never pick Mughals, and has the expansionist AIs prefer going for vassalage in peace deals.


It shouldn't be "play, then you get content" but "get content so you play".

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