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

[Lagole Gon]

Why would you invade the good guys?

Edit:
>looks at the portraits...
>oh...

 

[Zanzoken]

 

[Deleted Member 16721]

I'm getting my ass handed to me in several ways. It's rough, because I set bodyguards to watch my workers in case Slave Traders (hostile) come along, which they did, and I won the fight. But then the Trader's Guild started looting my dudes, and the alive dudes didn't take kindly to that and started fighting them, in that case everyone went down knocked out. Meanwhile I'm bringing back my wandering group to help (they're not far away), and one of my workers died because I didn't realize if the medic went down in battle (the guy I had assigned the bodyguard work was also a medic) then who else would heal? So one guy dies and the rest are beat up, get enslaved for 10 seconds and then I kill the rest of the slavemongers. So right now I have my workers AND bodyguards in my house in Squin sealed in with a locked door so that doesn't happen again, but I'm wondering what to do now.

I have probably 30 people total, 4 workers and 28 warriors or so. My wandering party is 21 now. Should I just build a base nearby Squin and hope for the best? I was running a house in Squin and making profit off the copper mines but it's too dangerous now. My other option is to pacify the Slave Traders but I'm also broke, how would I do that? I have about 5k left with no one working the mines which was my main source of moolah. Kind of at a loss now of what to do. Should I try the bodyguard thing again but order everyone to be medics also, so I don't have to babysit them? Or would a base be safer actually in the Shek Kingdom?

 

[Zanzoken]

Forget about workers, bases, and all that shit and just channel your inner murder-hobo.

You have somehow amassed a team of 30 dudes so assuming they aren't complete noobs you should be able to beat up nearby bandits and wildlife. Patrol the area, attack anyone you see, take their stuff. Once you can faceroll the normal enemies seek out band of bones, berserkers, and kral's chosen. They will beat the shit out of you, probably wipe your whole party. Good -- that is how you get stronger.

Kenshi is all about survival of the fittest so learning how to fight is top priority. Once your guys can handle themselves (meaning at least 20s to 30s in stats, with good equipment) then you can start to consider your place in the world.

 

[Deleted Member 16721]

I like the base in Squin though so I have a plan. Just pacify the Slave Traders so they don't attack my workers and I'm back in business. That had a steady income of 20k or so catans every once in awhile, enough to outfit my squad and recruit good recruits who cost a bit more. Next session I'm heading to the hub to pick up the book that tells you where the pacifiers are and offering a gold tribute to the Slave Traders to stop harassing me. I like my little base in that longhouse, man.

 

[Thal]

Is somebody reviewing this game? It seems pretty interesting and possibly groundbreaking, but for someone who's hasn't been following the development at all, it's kind of hard to understand how it actually plays.

 

[RoBoBOBR]

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Is somebody reviewing this game? It seems pretty interesting and possibly groundbreaking, but for someone who's hasn't been following the development at all, it's kind of hard to understand how it actually plays.

In a nutshell it's Mount and Blade in budget Vvardenfell.

 

[agris]

the world is much more post-apoc Omikron: The Nomad Soul to my eyes.

does M&B feature the dismemberment / prosthetic limbs and survivalist crafting aspects? Those aspects in Kenshi remind me of neo scavenger, while the actual chardev and combat reminds me of everquest crossed with warcraft 3.

 

[Zanzoken]

High quality review imo. If you're on the fence then this should be plenty of info to get you sorted.

 

[Deleted Member 16721]

Is somebody reviewing this game? It seems pretty interesting and possibly groundbreaking, but for someone who's hasn't been following the development at all, it's kind of hard to understand how it actually plays.

I reviewed it in my love-letter/review thread, and it was a glowing response. The game definitely is groundbreaking and actually one of the best games I've ever played. Maybe that review and further impressions I post in the thread will help you understand it more. Scroll through the thread to see addendums I made to the original review.

 

[Deleted Member 16721]

the world is much more post-apoc Omikron: The Nomad Soul to my eyes.

does M&B feature the dismemberment / prosthetic limbs and survivalist crafting aspects? Those aspects in Kenshi remind me of neo scavenger, while the actual chardev and combat reminds me of everquest crossed with warcraft 3.

Calling it M&B is a disservice to the unique blend of elements in Kenshi. Elements never seen before in a single game. The combat could also be described almost like a mini-Total War. I'm not going to go into detail in this thread why the game is groundbreaking, but maybe in my love-letter thread I will. It's beyond M&B, that's for sure.

 

[mondblut]

Is somebody reviewing this game? It seems pretty interesting and possibly groundbreaking, but for someone who's hasn't been following the development at all, it's kind of hard to understand how it actually plays.

In a nutshell it's Mount and Blade meets The Sims in budget Vvardenfell.

FTFY

 

[Payd Shell]

the world is much more post-apoc Omikron: The Nomad Soul to my eyes.

does M&B feature the dismemberment / prosthetic limbs and survivalist crafting aspects? Those aspects in Kenshi remind me of neo scavenger, while the actual chardev and combat reminds me of everquest crossed with warcraft 3.

Calling it M&B is a disservice to the unique blend of elements in Kenshi. Elements never seen before in a single game. The combat could also be described almost like a mini-Total War. I'm not going to go into detail in this thread why the game is groundbreaking, but maybe in my love-letter thread I will. It's beyond M&B, that's for sure.

It doesn't beat M&B by a long shot. M&B has a world that changes without any player interaction and a rather complex vassalage/economy system, relatively speaking. The world in Kenshi works how many of Bethesda's games work, the player is the anchor that holds everything together. NPCs have some agency, but only if you're present. For example, the city Mongrel would lose more and more guards eventually to the relentless assaults of the fogmen, but only if you're in the vicinity. I've seen something regarding this issue in the patch notes so maybe that was changed, but you had to regularly import your game in the past because a lot of the guards in many cities would eventually die out due to the onslaught of respawning enemies.

When it comes to progression, there isn't much to talk about, really. The game seems vast and complex when you start out, but after putting a hundred hours or so into it you start to realize how formulaic everything is. And since everything simply makes you stronger, there isn't really any way the game takes away progress from you. Beak Things and Blood Spiders are a cheap way of killing newer players, since they break the rules as far as knocked out characters go. It's not particularly hard to survive when you can just mine inexhaustible ore to buy more food than you use during the mining. The smart person kites bandits into guards anyway to loot all their shit.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

there's no need to kite when bast exists. just sit in its only city's bar and wait for samurais to kill some stuff for you.

i had to add an income-destroyer mod, and money is still too easy to come after the first few minutes.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Writing my own Kenshi adventure as I play. Will post eventually.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Writing my own Kenshi adventure as I play. Will post eventually.

I look forward to this most thoroughly.

 

[user]

M&B is a similar but still very different game.. you can't really compare them imo, they offer a different kind of experience.

Kenshi was a great game but I can only imagine how great it could be with world-changing quest lines like the Skyrim CW quest line (but with an actually deep and not meaningless version of it).
Also with a more complex character development for replayability on that front, more skill checks for every skill, dialogue skill checks, more world content, better world interactivity (was carrying high lord Phoenix around and Tengu didn't bat an eye), better dungeons etc... Don't want that much, 10 more years in development with a few million dollars would do the trick.

In a few words, I just want its sandbox elements implemented in a full-fledged dreamy rpg.
Thinking of it, it would be like how Fallout could have turned out. Something got in my eye again pfff.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

i might have hit a bug

 

[Zanzoken]

I saw this on Reddit and apparently it's linked to picking up cats found inside of containers. Idk if there's a fix -- probably best to just reload an earlier save.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

nope, i just edited the amount back to reasonable levels. i admit it could have been fun to contract a heavy debt and maybe be stalked by thugs who want their money back, but damn, 2 billions (and billions and billions and billions) is a bit too much. what did i need that kind of money for? buying the whole planet?

 

[Lagole Gon]

Bros, Vendors are disappearing in my game. Hub merchant, rebel merchant near the Hub and now... the police station dude from the nearest Shrek city. I can't return 10 000 bounty :/

She'll have to wait a bit in the cage.

Spoiler

 

[Lagole Gon]

Well, at least I have now a Meitou katana (and +20 000).
I've stumbled upon a ninja tower. Single ninja Shrek runs out and attacks... a nearby Dust Bandit camp. Kills everyone, but with only 3 chest HP left. Makes things easier for me. I don't think I could handle a healthy ninja.

 

[Ironmonk]

you can try importing and all non unique characters will respawn.

keep in mind that all (non unique) npcs are recreated so, with this you can respawn possible random recruits on all locations (this means possible infinite skeleton recruits, if you keep importing).

Rare loot will also respawn, I don't know if the already looted places gets new loot (they still remain marked red on the map), but rare loot on vendors like Quin on Black Desert City will respawn for sure.

 

[Saduj]

keep hunting bandit leaders and sooner than later you will find its owner

Found him. Was a little disappointed that he didn't remark when attacked by his long lost unique weapon. I did see the guards remarking when I showed up to turn him in though...

With regards to reactivity, I've only noticed two major changes to the game world so far.

Spoiler

The swamp is much safer after I took down the two major bandit groups. They still pop up occasionally but not nearly as often.

The area of the map south of Black Scratch has become more dangerous since I took down the Reavers. Skeleton Raiders, Crab Raiders and Southern Hive are more prevalent now and they are all much tougher than Reavers.

I've tried raiding the Skeleton Raider base twice. The first time I was fucked from the start because a big party of Crab Raiders showed up and attacked me from behind right as the Skeleton Raiders started pouring out of their bunkhouses. Rather than retreat, I let the game just take over and it became an irreversible party wipe with my dudes all knocked out next to the bunk houses (one genius was in a bunk house). The second time, I cleared the bunk houses but went down inside the base itself. Between the guys in the main building, bunkhouse raiders recovering and patrols showing up, I lost the war of attrition. Not sure if the raiders would have eventually carried my team out, didn't wait to find out. I would bet that I can kill the boss if I just go for the main building first but I'm going to wait a while before trying again. Had to abort my one attempt at the main Crab village because my guys go too beat up along the way. Also in that vicinity is the Tower of Spiders, which kicks my ass. I'm going to stay in this region for a while and when I can beat these enemies, I will go after the Spider King.