Humankind from Amplitude Studios, the developers of Endless Space and the upcoming Endless Dungeon, has now been available for nearly two weeks. And while the 4X game is guaranteed to offer an endlessly playable experience for strategy game enthusiasts, those fans also have loftier ambitions. The modding community for 4X games, including Civilization, is extremely healthy. But Humankind is behind the curve, it seems, as modding tools have been yet to be provided.
That may change in the near future, however, according to Amplitude. In a post-launch blog post from Amplitude detailing what's planned for the game's future, Amplitude admits that it botched ensuring mod tools would be available for Humankind players from day one. Despite that, Amplitude says that it hasn't changed the scope of its plans for modding tools. However, Amplitude says that it's having to change its plans for Humankind's mod tool rollout even further going forward.
While Amplitude wants to deliver the modding tools that it promised for Humankind, the scheduling issues have taken their toll. As such, Amplitude is now planning an initial mod tools release that's much more limited than what it has previously promised. Amplitude notes that it would "like to achieve" the full-scale mod tools it originally announced, but leaves a lot of ambiguity surrounding those plans and certainly doesn't make any promises in its blog post. Needless to say, this is a frustrating development for modders.
Amplitude also says that it still plans to release its "Day 1 Mod," a previously announced introductory experience showing what's capable with Humankind's modding tools. The name is now rather silly since Amplitude wasn't able to provide modding tools on day one and certainly didn't provide a "Day 1 Mod," but the concept will be the same for its eventual release. The mod's theme will still have a sci-fi "Endless" theme, as Humankind community members voted for.
While the lack of modding tools in Humankind for the foreseeable future is extremely frustrating, especially since that was a promised feature that many 4X fans were expecting, it's also understandable. Game development means some things have to be postponed to get a game out the door, and sometimes delaying a game isn't an option.
Unfortunately, Amplitude isn't able to provide a release schedule for its new mod tools. In the meantime, Amplitude is encouraging players to check out its custom map creator. It's not necessarily comparable, but it's what Humankind players have on-hand for the time being.
Humankind is available now on PC.