Kenshi - open-ended sandbox RPG set in a desert world

[toro]

More exploration.

Spoiler

These spiders are insane. That water is the perfect camouflage for them.

Do you see the red eye!? Well, I wonder what is below me

No need to wonder. I could not make it very far.

I had to save scum because the area is insane. I forgot why I didn't explore it the 1st time.

Anyway I went to North. Look what I've found

Got like 7 eggs. Fuck Beak things. At some point I will be back and I will destroy this area but I really want to explore North (I never did before)

Found an altar. It's maybe linked to the story!?

Lots of robots but they are not join-able.

This area is probably important for lore. Many peaceful skeletons which are fighting Blood Spiders.

Found Lost Library.

Rebirth. "Arbeit Mach Frei" for Shek.

Nice vista. Bad screenshot but it looked better in-game. The area is North-West of Rebirth.

Iron spiders and aggressive skeletons. The area is perfect for a starting thief because the mobs density is low.

Looted another something something. Found many Ancient Books. The game is pushing me to craft and build but I'm not doing that shit yet.

Found a tower with free shit. Imagine starting as a slave in Rebirth and then come here to explore It would make for a good start story.

Found another tower which belong to this guy - Burn.

I decided to hire him and he is dissing a lot of lore.

More North. Reached Cannibal Plains. Look a bridge!

And a suspect tower.

Filled with cannibals! This is Kenshi's subliminal theme.

Yeah. Their screams were of short duration. Burn would make a great addition for a beginner's party.

Got bounty. 10k cats for a cannibal's boss is cheap.

Burn is such a lore dump.

Found Flotsam Ninja's town. Faction made up almost completely of women which are fighting the Holy Nation. I'm not sure I'm interested in joining.

I decided to rest here. Next time I will go to hunt some Skimmers

 

[Deleted Member 16721]

toro , Why does your UI look so different? Are you using mods?

Also, the game reminds me in some ways of Asheron's Call. And that's a very good thing.

 

[Tovias]

So you are not supposed to recruit as many people as fast as possible?

There is nothing you are supposed to do, you can play the game however you want. Some people form an army while others form an small elite group. Both have advantages and disadvantages.

 

[Deleted Member 16721]

Is it safe to build an outpust in the swamp near Shark? I figure I can run hash to Squin or The Hub and corner the market on illicit goods. Swamp Ninjas are super deadly to me, though, as are large enough packs of adult blood spiders. Red Blades I can handle. But in the area I'm building, eastern side of Shark, it seems relatively safe. Well, here's hoping.

 

[Tovias]

Is it safe to build an outpust in the swamp near Shark? I figure I can run hash to Squin or The Hub and corner the market on illicit goods. Swamp Ninjas are super deadly to me, though, as are large enough packs of adult blood spiders. Red Blades I can handle. But in the area I'm building, eastern side of Shark, it seems relatively safe. Well, here's hoping.

I am not sure if you can sell hashing with ease at Squin, can you even bribe those guards? I also don't remember a fence to sell hashing to. It'd be better if you just hoard it all and tour the UC territories when you have enough.
Now, safety and the swamp rarely go together. Either spiders eat you, ninjas raid you, red sabers raid you, gangs shake you up or raptors eat your crops.

 

[toro]

I have been watching CohhCarnage play this game to see what this game is about. I don't see what is the RPG part of this game?

I don't know what Rimworld is, but I don't think Kenshi is really an RPG. This isn't a knock against it, I love the game so far, but it's much more of an RTS with RPG aspects than an RPG with RTS aspects.

It's like a weird mash of Supreme Commander (squad and map size, base building), Warcraft 3 (the RPG and narrative aspect of the Heroes in it, only each of your characters in Kenshi has this level of detail - sometimes more), Neoscavenger (combat brutality, world lethality, representation of health (per-limb in Kenshi), scavenging for schematics and crafting - all with rich research tree). On top of all of that, the aesthetics and writing of the world in Kenshi reminds me a lot of Omikron: The Nomad Soul, so that is to say: the world is bizarre. It's a lovely change from the normal trite worlds we see too often.

I like Kenshi a lot, there's really no game like it that I've ever played, but I don't think it's an RPG. And please don't ask me to define one

The lethality of the world and the way your skills progress remind me a lot of Kunark-era Everquest (this is a Good Thing), and the game's graphics remind me a lot of the great PvP MMO Shadowbane.

Steam description:

Spoiler

A free-roaming squad based RPG focusing on open-ended sandbox gameplay features rather than a linear story. Be a trader, a thief, a rebel, a warlord, an adventurer, a farmer, a slave, or just food for the cannibals.

Research new equipment and craft new gear. Purchase and upgrade your own buildings to use as safe fortified havens when things go bad, or use them to start up a business. Aid or oppose the various factions in the world while striving for the strength and wealth necessary to simply survive in the harsh desert. Train your men up from puny victims to master warriors. Carry your wounded squad mates to safety and get them all home alive.
Features

• Freeform gameplay in a seamless game world in the largest single-player RPG world since Daggerfall, stretching over 870 square kilometers. The game will never seek to limit you or restrict your personal play style.
  
  
• Custom design as many characters as you want and build up a whole squad to fight for you. Characters will grow and become stronger with experience, not just in their stats but their appearance too.
  
  
• Original take on the RTS-RPG hybrid genre. No "hero" characters with artificially stronger stats than everybody else- Every character and NPC you meet is potentially an equal, and has a name, a life.
  
  
• You are not the chosen one. You're not great and powerful. You don't have more 'hitpoints' than everyone else. You are not the center of the universe, and you are not special. Unless you work for it.
  
  
• Build a base where you can research new technologies, upgrade your defences and craft new gear.
  
  
• Purchase and upgrade your own buildings to use as safe fortified havens when things go bad, or use them to start up a business.
  
  
• Variation and possibilities of gameplay. Be good, be evil, be a businessman, be a thief, live in a town, live in the desert, travel alone, travel in hordes, build a fortress, raze a city. Devote yourself to freeing slaves, or maybe end up a slave yourself.
  
  
• Dynamic, ever changing world. Support or hinder whoever you wish, or keep to yourself, the world won't stop moving. This is not just a "game", you are living and surviving in a simulated world.
  
  
• Get captured by cannibals and eaten alive, or sold off by slavers and forced to work in the mines. These are not scripted events, just a regular part of this chaotic world that ruins your life by chance. Anything can happen, yet anything can be overcome if you have the strength.
  
  
• Absolutely no Level-scaling. The world does not level up along with you, and the shops don't change their inventory to only items matching your level. At the start of the game almost everyone will be stronger than you, and survival will always be a struggle. The game won't hold your hand or help you when you're down.
  
  
• Realistic medical system that affects gameplay. A character with a wounded leg will limp or crawl and slow the party down, wounded arms means you must use your sword one-handed or not at all. Severe injuries will result in amputees needing robotic limb replacements. Blood loss means you can pass out, and the blood will attract predators. A character’s stats are affected by equipment, encumbrance, blood loss, injuries and starvation.
  
  
• Intelligent AI that allows for characters to reason and work towards long-term goals and desires. Squads work together and carry their wounded to safety. Characters can be setup to take care of micromanagement for you and run production in your base.
  
  
• Aid or oppose the various factions in the world while striving for the strength and wealth necessary to simply survive in the harsh environment.
  
  
• Independently developed with no design influences, or alterations dictated by men in gray suits who have never played a game before in their lives.
  
  
• Original game world. There are no fantasy-knock-off cliches. No magic

Yeah, the game is not a pure RPG because it's much more than that: you can play it like a RTS, city-builder, RPG (have roles with different gameplay styles) or other genres (including a walking sim).

Kenshi has many flaws but it's probably one of the best games I ever played because in Kenshi's world game-play is King! over everything else. In-game events happens because the world is governed by cause-and-effect links which provide a very immersive world (fair and rational) while the vast majority of the games (especially RPGs) feature smartly scripted worlds but still scripted and dead.

Kenshi remind me of playing games like a child: you play with small Lego bricks or plastic soldiers. You build and build, layer by layer, and then everything goes to shit because gravity cannot be bent You get upset but you get joy and you start again. This is Kenshi or what it tries to achieve. You don't know but you have all the tools to explore the world, Kenshi is just saying: Go out and play! (in this world).

And for first time in many years you have limited but real freedom to explore a game world in any way you see fit and I will be honest to say that in 2018 I was so retarded that I did not know how to play the game. After years of gaming I was conditioned to expect a completely digested story but Kenshi says No! Go make your own story!

Personally I love the game because it manages to avoid all the traps of artificial difficulty. For example: you play Rimworld (which is nice) but then you have to constantly fight with your people because they are retarded. Then scripted shit happens: sometime the timing is completely unfair (because you were doing something else in the game at that time) and sometime the events are brushed aside easily (because you are already overpowered). Well, shit in Kenshi happens to you only because you did something at a certain moment. This is player empowerment done right; not like in fucking Dishonored where the world design is brilliant but they give you Predator powers to kill everything (you can do that in Kenshi but you have to work for those powers).

For me, this game is a complete revelation and it rekindled my love for games like nothing else. Honestly, it reminds me of old games like Populous, Galapagos or Magic Carpet when games were trying to be experimental instead of cash cows.

That being said: the game has many issues and it's not for everyone. If you have standard expectations from it then don't do it. The game is like a box of toys, you can take it, you can play with the toys but don't expect more fun than your imagination can provide for you. In most games you are the chosen one, in Kenshi you are whatever the fuck you are. The game doesn't guarantee fun. That's it.

Also this game is like 25% of what it could have been: for starters a simulated economy would bring this game to a God-like tier. Then there is faction related gameplay, factions fight for supremacy, long term impact over the world and so on. Check luxury features which were not implemented. It's a sad state of affairs.

However there is so much I could write about this game. This is like Underrail's 2015 for me. For the last 3 weeks I have been obsessed with the game. I love it. I understand why it's not for everybody. It's not just a RPG, it's more.

 

[toro]

toro , Why does your UI look so different? Are you using mods?

Also, the game reminds me in some ways of Asheron's Call. And that's a very good thing.

Dark UI.

Is it safe to build an outpust in the swamp near Shark? I figure I can run hash to Squin or The Hub and corner the market on illicit goods. Swamp Ninjas are super deadly to me, though, as are large enough packs of adult blood spiders. Red Blades I can handle. But in the area I'm building, eastern side of Shark, it seems relatively safe. Well, here's hoping.

Good luck

 

[Deleted Member 16721]

toro , can you briefly describe what each of those mods does and if I, an appreciater of the developer's vision, should use them in a first playthrough?

 

[Zanzoken]

safe

the Swamp

The Swamp can be a good place to settle but if you can't handle spiders and ninjas then you're gonna have a bad time. In fact you probably aren't experienced enough to build a base anywhere yet, at least not without considerable difficulty.

If you decide to go for it anyway, keep in mind you'll have to rely on generators for power, which requires labor to farm hemp, create biofuel, and refill tanks. But here's a protip -- if you straddle the border between biomes you can utilize wind generators and still technically be located in the Swamp. When I built my base there I think it was on the border with the South Wetlands, but I don't recall the exact location.

 

[toro]

toro , can you briefly describe what each of those mods does and if I, an appreciater of the developer's vision, should use them in a first playthrough?

Shidan's Tweaks and Fixes - "This mod is a collection of various simple bug fixes that have yet to be implemented by the devs, and some tweaks to the game that in my opinion improve the experience. I've tried to avoid any major changes, but of course major is subjective."

In-game Biome Map - Put region maps on the worlds map. For some reason I like to see the name of the region I'm visiting. No other impact.

Dark-UI - Just a dark-theme for the UI. No gameplay impact.

Attack Slots x5 - In vanilla most fights are really 1-vs-1 with this mode they can be 5-vs-1 in each way (one of you characters can be attacked and damaged by 5 enemies at the same time and the opposite). It does impact the game-play as the game's beginning is much harder but I think it will become OP by the end-game. We will see. It's perfect for my limited party.

More Names - The NPCs names are more diverse. No gameplay impact.

Minor Mesh Fixes - Mesh fixed for characters wearing hats or head armor.

Let's Talk - Triggers special NPCs dialogs more often.

Reactive World - This is also implemented by Shidan. The idea is that you can now completely obliterate Holy Nation (like Shek can take over their city and shit) but I did not really use it yet. It does nothing if you don't decide to attack Holy Nation.

Honestly I don't recommend either one except the Dark-UI. Play the vanilla and then you will have a reference for future play-through(s).

 

[flabbyjack]

I got lucky and the first ruin I visited had 30+ friendly slaughterbots who followed my party around killing the guards in the next town.

 

[Deleted Member 16721]

I'm still a bit foggy on the factions. Can you join them or aid them somehow, other than delivering bounties? And if so, what's the point? Do they offer anything for friendship? I'd like to get in with The Hounds and run Hashish to The Hub but I don't see a real way to interact with the factions other than the occasional bounty delivery. And do they war with each other?

 

[toro]

I'm still a bit foggy on the factions. Can you join them or aid them somehow, other than delivering bounties? And if so, what's the point? Do they offer anything for friendship? I'd like to get in with The Hounds and run Hashish to The Hub but I don't see a real way to interact with the factions other than the occasional bounty delivery. And do they war with each other?

Shinobi Thieves have armor which is exclusive to them, also they have some places scattered through out the world where you can rest and train. No other difference from what I've seen.

Delivering bounties increases your reputation with certain factions (Holy Nation, Shek and United Cities). When you have good reputation they might help you when you encounter them (once I saw a Holy Paladin give food to a companion disguised with Holy Paladin armor). Shek and Holy Nation are in a war but it rarely plays out properly in the game.

Overall the faction mechanics are incomplete. It hurts. Don't ask.

Edit:
I could be wrong according to this: http://kenshi.wikia.com/wiki/Guide_to_Faction_Relations

Players can attempt to destroy factions which they don't like by taking out their leaders. Killing or imprisoning faction leaders can lead to Location Overrides. Overridden towns are entirely new locations and any Player-Owned Buildings in Town are completely forgotten by the game.

Often, after killing faction leaders, the Homeless Spawns of that faction decrease in quantity. Sometimes, other factions become strengthened due to the power vacuum which the leader's death has caused. This results in "invasion" Homeless Spawns in zones which this secondary faction did not originally have claim to. This phenomena is most noticeable after players have killed the Western Hive's Hive Queen and the Southern Hive begins to invade most of the world.

I will experiment with this when I will reach end-game.

Also if you have big balls, download this and go ham: http://kenshi.wikia.com/wiki/Forgotten_Construction_Set

You can implement completely new factions and even dialogs.

 

[Beastro]

Can you go into more details?
Maybe I am missing some deeper and more interesting game here because of the way he is playing it.

It just seems a little bit messy, that's it. As expected of a first game from anyone but damn that's a lot of squads.

So you are not supposed to recruit as many people as fast as possible?

The heart of the game is the start and struggle. It's the journey, not the destination that is what's fun.

It's similar to Morrowind where it's easy as hell to break the game through stealing and mass recruitment that ruins all the fun of the game, which is setting yourself to a path and sticking to it rather than looking to maximize efficiency.

ATM I have 9 guys and have them decked out with hundreds of thousands of cats and am mulling over restarting. Thinking of going with some Skellies that buddies of the skin bandits and recruiting one of two Hivers later.

 

[Zanzoken]

I could be wrong according to this: http://kenshi.wikia.com/wiki/Guide_to_Faction_Relations

Players can attempt to destroy factions which they don't like by taking out their leaders. Killing or imprisoning faction leaders can lead to Location Overrides. Overridden towns are entirely new locations and any Player-Owned Buildings in Town are completely forgotten by the game.

Often, after killing faction leaders, the Homeless Spawns of that faction decrease in quantity. Sometimes, other factions become strengthened due to the power vacuum which the leader's death has caused. This results in "invasion" Homeless Spawns in zones which this secondary faction did not originally have claim to. This phenomena is most noticeable after players have killed the Western Hive's Hive Queen and the Southern Hive begins to invade most of the world.

I will experiment with this when I will reach end-game.

This dev blog has more info on world states, which were implemented on the stable branch back in August:

Spoiler

BLOG #25: KENSHI AT TOKYO GAME SHOW!
By Nat Posted On August 16, 2018


We’re excited to announce that we’re going to Tokyo Game Show next month! The show will take place on 20 Sep 2018 – 23 Sep 2018 at Makuhari Messe. Come say hi if you’re at the show – Chris, Nat and Sam will all be manning the booth / playing games! Plus, we’re giving away 30 TGS day tickets on Twitter this week, make sure to try and grab one if you can get to Tokyo…

WORLD STATES
We’ve been pretty vague with details on the world states and town overrides we’ve released over the last month or so, so here’s a brief summary on how it works and what we’ve added so far.

As of update 0.98.48 you can now affect the spawns and town states of:

• The Holy Nation
• Shek Kingdom
• Swampers
• Slave Traders/Traders Guild
• United Cities
• Smaller factions such as Flotsam, Rebel Farmers, Kral’s Chosen, Band Of Bones, Manhunters

How does this work?

Smaller factions are pretty simple: take out their leader (Moll of Flotsam, for example) and the rest of the faction will fall into disarray. Wandering squads from that faction will lessen or disappear entirely, and their hometown will likely become destroyed or even taken over by another faction. It may even cause a knock on effect and spawn a new type of squad.

Larger factions can be a little more complex – taking out their main leader (Tengu, for example) alone won’t necessarily change every town and individual squad of that faction. You’ll likely have to find and destroy the bosses of individual towns or other strategic outposts to have an effect. Your actions might have ripple effects rather than simply effecting that boss’ hometown e.g. taking out the slave farms and camps around a town will greatly reduce it’s access to vital supplies and hence have a negative effect on it, despite the boss still being alive. Taking out the boss of a strong defensive town will mean that nearby towns fall to invading enemies.

So to clarify, ‘town overrides’ does not mean that you as the player can take over towns, but it does mean that you can have an impact on the future of Kenshi inhabitants, both town residents and wandering squads… their fate is in your hands!

In-game tips

To help guide you with this in the game, we’ve added in some small bits of information. If you forge an alliance with a faction that has a vendetta against another faction, some leaders will give you strategic tips on the best ways to take them down, or some of their troops might aid you temporarily in your path of destruction. So far you can talk to Esata, Simion, Moll and the Phoenix. We’ll soon be working on dialogue for the Anti-Slavers too.



So that’s all the main factions now released in game! Now we’re just left with refining, perfecting and finishing up a few smaller ones – let us know your feedback in the forums or via Twitter.

I haven't tried this yet either but the ultimate goal for my current playthrough has always been to destroy the Holy Nation, and in the near future I intend to start the campaign in earnest.

I'll post updates to my LP so everyone can see how it works.

 

[Deleted Member 16721]

Say I disguise my main character as a faction, will that render the rest of my group as allies to that faction as well? For example, I disguise 100% as a swamp ninja, would the rest of my allies be also safe from swamp ninja attacks?

 

[Zanzoken]

I was actually just experimenting with disguises and had some success masquerading my characters as Holy Nation -- which is kind of hilarious, considering that they are women.

You take a 40% penalty when trying to fool members of the faction you are pretending to be, though, so I would not recommend counting on a disguise to keep you safe at all times.

 

[Beastro]

About the only vanilla game thing that disguise helps with is getting out of Rebirth as a slave. If you can beat up or steal a full suit from a guard you can just walk out.

 

[TemplarGR]

Tried it recently. What a GARBAGE game... Stop recommending shit, people!

 

[Cyberarmy]

 

[Beastro]

Split on doing a 6 Skellie start or a single Skellie one. I like the focus on a singular character more, but it sucks not being able to fight as well...

 

[agris]

toro I just looked into Shidan's, and the most recently release is from Kenshi pre-1.0 (Sep 2018). It also seems like there's a weird mix of actual bug fixes, and changes designed to make the game easier - such as ancient texts at mechanics shops.

I wouldn't use it for a first playthrough.

edit: where did you get version 21? The Nexus only has up to v18.

 

[toro]

toro I just looked into Shidan's, and the most recently release is from Kenshi pre-1.0 (Sep 2018). It also seems like there's a weird mix of actual bug fixes, and changes designed to make the game easier - such as ancient texts at mechanics shops.

I wouldn't use it for a first playthrough.

edit: where did you get version 21? The Nexus only has up to v18.

From Steam workshop.

Edit: It's ok. I did not visit any mechanic shop

 

[toro]

I love this game

Spoiler

Fucking around in the North side of the map. Training swimming

Found this beautiful specimen

My party has 12 members from which 6 have Falling Sun heavy weapon The poor thing had no chance.

I healed him a couple of times

The loot

Good bye Raptor Island Awesome place to build a base.

 

[Deleted Member 16721]

It feels a little too easy to make money, though. I set up 2 workers in a separate Workers squad outside of Stack just mining copper and dropping it in a storage bin, then when it's full taking one of them with a trader backpack, loading it up and dropping it off at all the merchants in stack. That is a quick 15-20,000 right there. Meanwhile my explorer group is out doing something else yet has all those catans to play with. I can leave those workers there indefinitely even though I can never return to the Holy Nation lands now (have non-human companions now) and they can just rack up the c's while my other team is out doing whatever. Seems a bit easy. However, opening an outpost is hard, which is cool, you really need strength and firepower for that. I want to make a serious hashish run to The Hub but I'm not sure it's worth the trip when my workers can just keep mining away...