Fluent plays Kenshi

[ultra loser]

It looks like a garbage F2P MMO from 10 years ago without the multiplayer factor.

this tbh
looks like someone 20 years ago started making a game for fun, generated random map, placed some assets on it, forgot about it, recently found the cd in basement and decided to release it because now people are stupid enoguh to pay for early acces unfinished games
it's probably one of these games people like ironically

 

[gestalt11]

Does this game have a main quest? Does it have an end?

Not really no. Its, perhaps, one of the most sandboxy games to ever exist. You could conquer the entire world and still not end it, although you wouldn't have much to do at that point, you could still make up things.

 

[mfkndggrfll]

It looks like a garbage F2P MMO from 10 years ago without the multiplayer factor.

this tbh
looks like someone 20 years ago started making a game for fun, generated random map, placed some assets on it, forgot about it, recently found the cd in basement and decided to release it because now people are stupid enoguh to pay for early acces unfinished games
it's probably one of these games people like ironically

And I just remembered the title: Fallen Earth, 2009, 55% review score on Steam.

It looks exactly like that.

 

[Deleted Member 16721]

Does this game have a main quest? Does it have an end?

Not really to both questions. The main quest is what you decide to do, who you ally with, which nations you want to take over, etc.. Or maybe you just want to explore all the ruins or build the biggest city of your own, there are many ways to play. There is some lore and history, some dialogue that expounds on the world a bit, so it's not completely devoid of that.

And to those saying it's ugly, both here and other places, I have to disagree. It's strikingly beautiful, when you see a sunset over a valley with a vast view distance, knowing you can explore those areas in the distance. Or when you enter the Vain and it starts to rain among the lush, colorful foliage. The combat and game overall animate well and to me it's a beautiful game. Just look at some of the screenshots. I guess to each their own. *shrug*

 

[SkiNNyBane]

Does this game have a main quest? Does it have an end?

Not really to both questions. The main quest is what you decide to do, who you ally with, which nations you want to take over, etc.. Or maybe you just want to explore all the ruins or build the biggest city of your own, there are many ways to play. There is some lore and history, some dialogue that expounds on the world a bit, so it's not completely devoid of that.

And to those saying it's ugly, both here and other places, I have to disagree. It's strikingly beautiful, when you see a sunset over a valley with a vast view distance, knowing you can explore those areas in the distance. Or when you enter the Vain and it starts to rain among the lush, colorful foliage. The combat and game overall animate well and to me it's a beautiful game. Just look at some of the screenshots. I guess to each their own. *shrug*

I mean, I am sure the gameplay is great, but its ugly af lets be real here. Also, I know it may be a plus for some people, but to me, not having win conditions is a game design flaw sufficient to completely turn me off from a game.

 

[Deleted Member 16721]

It's not ugly when playing. I'm not just saying that because I love the game. It has vast view distances, tons of distinct, unique biomes, and looks gorgeous at times. I think unique art style trumps everything else when it comes to graphics. I'd take Kenshi's graphics over Witcher 3 or something which just looks bland and uninspired. Kenshi is definitely inspired artistically and has a very unique look. It gets a lot of points from because of that, and I'm being real about it.

 

[SkiNNyBane]

It's not ugly when playing. I'm not just saying that because I love the game. It has vast view distances, tons of distinct, unique biomes, and looks gorgeous at times. I think unique art style trumps everything else when it comes to graphics. I'd take Kenshi's graphics over Witcher 3 or something which just looks bland and uninspired. Kenshi is definitely inspired artistically and has a very unique look. It gets a lot of points from because of that, and I'm being real about it.

I don't want to shit on the game but come on dude it's literally low res cylinders over cylinders with black squares and some fence ad repeat. It may be hand crafted but empty spaces of rando low poly mountains with the same low res texture over them might as well be auto generated. That shit looks like delta force 1. The only things that don't make it look as bad as it really is, are the consistency of art style and color palette. But those things only get you so far.

 

[Deleted Member 16721]

Well I'm not going to argue. I honestly think the game looks beautiful while playing it, and I've played for over 150 hours. I wouldn't say that if I didn't honestly think it. There are dynamic sunsets/sunrises, each biome is unique and does not look like low res textures everywhere, there is a ton of variety and the biomes themselves (of which there must be 20 or 30 of even) are all distinct and have their own look and terrain layout. It gets an A+ for art style, A+ for uniqueness and creativity in the graphics and A+ for charming graphics (people crawling on the ground trying to stab an enemy who is standing up, the limping animations, carrying people animations, combat is mo-capped etc. etc..) So I do not care much if some textures are low resolution when it has all those other things going for it.

 

[SkiNNyBane]

Well I'm not going to argue. I honestly think the game looks beautiful while playing it, and I've played for over 150 hours. I wouldn't say that if I didn't honestly think it. There are dynamic sunsets/sunrises, each biome is unique and does not look like low res textures everywhere, there is a ton of variety and the biomes themselves (of which there must be 20 or 30 of even) are all distinct and have their own look and terrain layout. It gets an A+ for art style, A+ for uniqueness and creativity in the graphics and A+ for charming graphics (people crawling on the ground trying to stab an enemy who is standing up, the limping animations, carrying people animations, combat is mo-capped etc. etc..) So I do not care much if some textures are low resolution when it has all those other things going for it.

I am willing to bet that you just enjoy the choice of the color palette, which really is pleasant to look at, but you are not being objective about the other aspects at all.

 

[Deleted Member 16721]

I do enjoy the color palette, but I also enjoy the foliage and fauna, the mountains and vast view distance, the enemy designs (and skeletons, hivers, sheks, etc.), the animations and the ground terrain cover. What parts am I not being objective about? I've again played for 150 hours and think the game is delightful to look at. Have you played it?

 

[adddeed]

Well I'm not going to argue. I honestly think the game looks beautiful while playing it, and I've played for over 150 hours. I wouldn't say that if I didn't honestly think it. There are dynamic sunsets/sunrises, each biome is unique and does not look like low res textures everywhere, there is a ton of variety and the biomes themselves (of which there must be 20 or 30 of even) are all distinct and have their own look and terrain layout. It gets an A+ for art style, A+ for uniqueness and creativity in the graphics and A+ for charming graphics (people crawling on the ground trying to stab an enemy who is standing up, the limping animations, carrying people animations, combat is mo-capped etc. etc..) So I do not care much if some textures are low resolution when it has all those other things going for it.

Its just idiots who think that photoreasim = good looking.
The screens look great btw. Remind me the show LEXX and some of its visuals.

 

[SkiNNyBane]

Well I'm not going to argue. I honestly think the game looks beautiful while playing it, and I've played for over 150 hours. I wouldn't say that if I didn't honestly think it. There are dynamic sunsets/sunrises, each biome is unique and does not look like low res textures everywhere, there is a ton of variety and the biomes themselves (of which there must be 20 or 30 of even) are all distinct and have their own look and terrain layout. It gets an A+ for art style, A+ for uniqueness and creativity in the graphics and A+ for charming graphics (people crawling on the ground trying to stab an enemy who is standing up, the limping animations, carrying people animations, combat is mo-capped etc. etc..) So I do not care much if some textures are low resolution when it has all those other things going for it.

Its just idiots who think that photoreasim = good looking.
The screens look great btw. Remind me the show LEXX and some of its visuals.

Oh fuck off you clearly know as much about art as my cat. You can stop pretending.

 

[Deleted Member 16721]

More notes - there are one of a kind bounties to hunt that usually give you sweet loot in return, loot you've never seen before that may even be one of a kind, either "masterwork" or "specialist" variety. I just found many weapons and some armor that I haven't seen in the game after taking a mercenary crew with me to hunt down an enemy of my ally, the Sheks, called one of Kral's Chosen. We walked away with serious amounts of awesome loot that I haven't seen in 150 hours with the game. Got some weapon and armor upgrades and a 30,000c bounty to turn in. Hopefully the Shek now will move into this space and claim the outpost as their own, expanding their territory (my goal is to help the Shek take over more territory by raiding the enemies of the Shek.) Pretty cool stuff.

 

[adddeed]

Well I'm not going to argue. I honestly think the game looks beautiful while playing it, and I've played for over 150 hours. I wouldn't say that if I didn't honestly think it. There are dynamic sunsets/sunrises, each biome is unique and does not look like low res textures everywhere, there is a ton of variety and the biomes themselves (of which there must be 20 or 30 of even) are all distinct and have their own look and terrain layout. It gets an A+ for art style, A+ for uniqueness and creativity in the graphics and A+ for charming graphics (people crawling on the ground trying to stab an enemy who is standing up, the limping animations, carrying people animations, combat is mo-capped etc. etc..) So I do not care much if some textures are low resolution when it has all those other things going for it.

Its just idiots who think that photoreasim = good looking.
The screens look great btw. Remind me the show LEXX and some of its visuals.

Oh fuck off you clearly know as much about art as my cat. You can stop pretending.

Your cat must be a genious then.
Go back to playing Call of Duty peasant.

 

[Deleted Member 16721]

No arguing in this thread please, let's keep it civil. Let's just say I disagree that the game graphically is poor and leave it at agreeing to disagree.

 

[Deleted Member 16721]

Just some more screenshots. Here are the Fog Islands. A little creepy, eh? Have to watch out for Fogmen, aka cannibals who hang out in this eerie area.

This is the city of Mongrel, the "jewel" of the Fog Islands. Sits right atop the mountain and is under constant siege from not only Fogmen but Holy Nation Paladins as the city is made up of mostly outlaws and ex-slaves of the Holy Nation. Tough times up there. They say once you get to Mongrel you're stuck in Mongrel, because of what they call "deathyards" surrounding the town. Who's afraid of some Fogmen, though?

I liked the rust and look of these structures, before entering the Fog Islands you see a lot of these old structures around. The land is mostly dead now.

If you make it through the Fog Islands alive, you can see what's in the distance - The Floodlands. Have to make it through the maze of Obedience first and hopefully explore a ruin when I get to The Floodlands.

Obedience, a maze-like area filled with old metal structures, ruins and a ground made out of pure, smooth metal. Weird, right?

This is a deathyard in the Fog Islands. Wanna know why they call it a deathyard? Because you will literally get swarmed by 50 Fogmen, who individually aren't that strong, but attack in such numbers that even a large team of skilled warriors will be limping out of there, barely alive. They also run and force your groups to chase them in various directions, and then flank the party when it's all spread out. Clever bastards, and dangerous in groups. Not newbie-land here. I quickly understood why people get stuck in Mongrel now.

And for the record, I don't see the same repeating low-resolution textures anywhere. There is a ton of variety and verticality in the texture maps. Every biome is like this and it's awe-inspiring how different each one really is, looks and plays.

 

[Deleted Member 16721]

Not really no. Its, perhaps, one of the most sandboxy games to ever exist. You could conquer the entire world and still not end it, although you wouldn't have much to do at that point, you could still make up things.

And still be challenged by things, even. There is no end to the amount of carnage that strong enemy types can do to your party, even when skilled and seemingly a wrecking crew. The wrecking crew can also get wrecked.

Here's another screenshot. I can see why this area is called The Floodlands. Great place to find ruins of all kinds but beware of the dangerous giant, iron spiders patrolling the area, programmed to do so by their long dead masters.

If only some of you guys watched my Let's Nerd, you'd see all sorts of challenging and I think interesting things. Like how I made it this far and ran out of food, had to hightail it back to Squin and had my animals nearly die of starvation along the way. Thank the good Lord for bonedogs, which we slaughtered easily and fed to my starving Beak Thing and Gorillo. Was a great adventure, though, exactly the type this game promotes.

 

[Deleted Member 16721]

Just an update. Answers to the interview questions will be coming in about a week or so, they're very backed up at the office. But I will be posting a full interview I did with the devs Lofi Games sometime soon.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Just an update. Answers to the interview questions will be coming in about a week or so, they're very backed up at the office. But I will be posting a full interview I did with the devs Lofi Games sometime soon.

This interview should be front-page Codex news.

 

[Deleted Member 16721]

This interview should be front-page Codex news.

I appreciate that, but I'm fine with just doing it for fun in this thread. If Infinitron wants to post it as news he can, though.

 

[lefthandblack]

This is the best game that has come out in a long time.
Have some screens from my heavily modded playthrough, these were made while I was actively testing/merging mod combinations so some things may change, alot of them were made before I knew how to turn off the UI.

Some of them are NSFW so I'm going to put the all behind a spoiler:

Spoiler

This is a group shot of my main squad. My entire army consists of Amazon Sluts, no sausage allowed except for when we make them into sausage.

Uh oh! Karu forgot to put on her loincloth again!

I recruit most my squad members from fallen combatants that I knock out myself or that I just happen to come across as I stumble into battles between other factions.

I use the tried and true cult indoctrination techniques of starvation, torture, degradation and isolation to get them to come the realization that it is in their best interests to join me. I give them a new name once they see the light; I choose a name based on things that happen during their indoctrination.

This is Snowflake, so named because she kept insisting on a certain kind of food before she would join. You can see from the picture that my methods are quite severe. Those who refuse to convert become pets or food.

The process of making someone into a pet first involves removal of the arms and legs for easier management, burning works surprisingly well for this.

You have to be careful to give them first aid quickly or they'll bleed out and die. If that happens you can just eat them.

The usually come to regret their decision, of course at that point, it's too late.

Once they recover from the pet making process, they are compact and manageable.

Pets have many uses, stealth training for instance. It occurred to me the other day that we could have races with them as a way to boost squad morale.

You have to remember to feed them if you want to keep them alive. She's looking a little neglected here. I hope nobody calls PETA!

 

[PanteraNera]

Where is the interview?

 

[Deleted Member 16721]

Where is the interview?

I keep getting pushed back on when they'll answer them every time I email them. Hopefully soon. I'll send another follow up today and see if they have answered them yet.

 

[PanteraNera]

Where is the interview?

I keep getting pushed back on when they'll answer them every time I email them. Hopefully soon. I'll send another follow up today and see if they have answered them yet.

Just curious, had you asked him if he would do an interview with you?

 

[Deleted Member 16721]

Alright, here's the interview. Enjoy, it took awhile to do. Chris Hunt's answers will be bolded.
________________________

Hi Chris! First off I want to say that I am a huge fan of Kenshi, I think it's one of the most unique and creative games ever made, so thank you for making it and also agreeing to do this interview.

My first question is, what was your goal with making Kenshi? What did you set out to do, and do you feel you have accomplished what you set out to do with this game?

I grew up playing the old-school games that had smaller budgets and had the freedom to create what they wanted. I’m trying to bring that back in a time when everyone is devolving and just trying to make clones of the latest successful games and factoring the market into their design. I wanted to make the perfect game that I wanted to play myself. I’ve been inspired by a lot of games, but on the other hand, I’ve experienced game flaws that niggled at me and limited me as a player and I wanted to address these limitations, pampering and level scaling.

When I play the game I sense inspiration from RPGs like Asheron's Call and even Morrowind. I'm also interested to know which games inspired you to create Kenshi. It's almost like a new genre.

Many, but mainly the original XCOM and Fallout games, and Jagged Alliance 2

12 years in development is an incredibly long time to create a game. What were the major factors along the way that delayed the release and took the most time to work out?

We had some difficulty upgrading the Havok engine, so, what we expected to take just two weeks ended up taking around a year. Apart from that it’s not so much been technical difficulties but more my own ambition and constant growing list of features and player suggestions. Early access is great for integrating feedback from the players themselves, but it sure becomes a rabbit hole of satisfying everyone’s needs. There has to be a limit at some point.

On one hand I was over ambitious, and on the other hand I was cautious. Early Access helped a lot to fund us financially but our earnings were still rather modest to fund such a big project. I had to keep the team small for financial stability but this also meant it took a while longer.

I see that the renowned modder, Vurt, helped design the beautiful foliage and fauna of Kenshi, really bringing the world to life. Did he do this task alone or were there others involved in the general foliage and terrain/landscape creation of the game?

Our main world designer was Oli Hatton

The game world is massive, coming in as the second largest singleplayer RPG map since The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall. What made you create such a huge world, taking a risk where most devs wouldn't even dare create a world that size?

Kenshi is all about insignificance, feeling powerless in a savage world. The large bleak, desolate world really helps add to that insignificance, but it also makes the game a treasure trove for exploration. I wanted exploration to have an important role in the game that involved the travel itself - wandering desolation, camping out at a fire, taking in the views and finding your next meal to sustain you.

On a more specific note, what inspired you to create the world as a wasteland with 3 major factions vying for sole control of it? And where did the inspiration for the minor factions come from and how they fit into the picture?

I wanted the world to be in constant conflict. At the borders there will be patrols fighting eachother, there will different kind of forces fighting for different evils. Humanity will always have conflict, conflicts make Kenshi real.

Did you expect the game to be received as well as it has been? For a somewhat niche and complex title it seems to have very positive reviews on Steam.

I was a little concerned at how it would received after release. It felt like we were leaving a bubble where we’d be facing a whole new breed of customer. Perhaps new issues would crop up that we hadn’t noticed during Early Access? But I’m really happy with it’s reception. The biggest reason for people refunding is simply because they don’t like the harsh sandbox style that is Kenshi. I always knew that Kenshi was for niche tastes and I’m not aiming to please everybody. Satisfying players like me and that missing gap they see in the gaming market is what makes me happy.

Do you plan on revisiting Kenshi in the future, say with some DLC or an expansion? The game has received great reviews and seems to be selling well. We'd all love some new content.

I’ve never liked DLC and we don’t currently have plans to add any. However the story and concept of Kenshi is far from being finished with.

Was there any content that had to be cut during the development of the game, content that you wish could be restored? Or did you have to just accept cutting things and move on to release?

There were a couple of luxury features we had to cut, including the ability to break down or climb over walls; controller support; Mounts, egg hatching and taming. These were never in my original vision for the game and at this point I don’t feel like the game lacks because of there being cut. Years ago in development we tried adding in missions and had to remove them because of complications. Again, missions were never in the original concept of the game and I don’t feel like the game lacks because of it. All of the important features I came close to cutting were eventually added.

Thanks again for answering the questions and for making a legendary game!

- Fluent

______________________________