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

agris

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Apr 16, 2004
Messages
6,761
Anyone tried Genesis? I normally don't go for overhauls, but I just dominated a most vanilla playthrough of the game (living world, squad increase, and a mod to make warrior drones slightly less useless) after 180 hours of timesink and the game calls to me still, but I'm feeling really lazy about trying to find individual mods to make things more interesting.

Speaking as someone who also played a mostly vanilla game, the squad increase mod really trivializes the difficulty. I added it without really thinking about the impact on the difficulty, just out of annoyance that the game mostly stops offering you new potential recruits / hires after you hit the vanilla cap. But, bringing 15 people to assault a stronghold made the game much easier, and in retrospect I should have either kept my war party to less than 10, or never installed the mod.

I expect if you replayed Kenshi without the squad increase, you would be stomping the game a lot less. At the least, there would be a much longer runway to becoming overpowered and trivializing content.
 

Tweed

Professional Kobold
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Joined
Sep 27, 2018
Messages
2,838
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harsh circumstances
Pathfinder: Wrath
So I noticed, I bumped the enemy squad sizes and raids to compensate, but that only goes so far. It still took me a long time since this was my first complete playthrough and I had to figure out a lot of stuff along the way. However, now I don't think I want to spend the additional timesink a smaller squad would force me to make after the amount of time it already took me previously.

While my raiding party was bigger than normal, most of my guys were actually doing non-combatant roles like crafting and farming which frees up a lot more time for your dedicated warriors which is the big thing I like about the increased squad sizes.
 

polo

Magister
Joined
Jul 8, 2014
Messages
1,737
Anyone tried Genesis? I normally don't go for overhauls, but I just dominated a most vanilla playthrough of the game (living world, squad increase, and a mod to make warrior drones slightly less useless) after 180 hours of timesink and the game calls to me still, but I'm feeling really lazy about trying to find individual mods to make things more interesting.

Speaking as someone who also played a mostly vanilla game, the squad increase mod really trivializes the difficulty. I added it without really thinking about the impact on the difficulty, just out of annoyance that the game mostly stops offering you new potential recruits / hires after you hit the vanilla cap. But, bringing 15 people to assault a stronghold made the game much easier, and in retrospect I should have either kept my war party to less than 10, or never installed the mod.

I expect if you replayed Kenshi without the squad increase, you would be stomping the game a lot less. At the least, there would be a much longer runway to becoming overpowered and trivializing content.
Yeah, i used the squad size just to have a good amount of workers in my base. My raiding team was only 5 people destroying everything. I did grind a lot.
 

conan_edw

Arbiter
Patron
Joined
Dec 3, 2017
Messages
846
Grab the Codex by the pussy Pathfinder: Wrath
They've hit a million sales: https://steamcommunity.com/games/233860/announcements/detail/2773611825686452527

August Community Update
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Hi there, here comes another community update on Kenshi. In this update, we’ll go over the decisions and changes that were made on the Discord server, Kenshi's milestone, and introduction to Lo-Fi’s team members, followed by some visual sneak peeks on what to expect for Kenshi 2.

The Future of Discord Server

As some of you may have known, Caliburn (Sam) who has been keeping the community up to date and was leading Lo-Fi's marketing has moved on which resulted in some internal reshuffles that we hope have gone unnoticed.

The most significant decision that was made in the past weeks was the ownership of Kenshi's Community Discord server that has now gone back to the community led by Seth Knight who was voted to the admin role by the group of moderators. For those who have not been aware, there has been an ongoing discussion on Community Server's ownership and its purpose, but they are now set at rest, and the server is back in good hands.

Kenshi's Community Discord server has always been a place to share ideas, creation, and experiences of all things Kenshi by the community, however, it was not designed as a means to communicate with the developer. Now with the growing Lo-Fi team who are involved in different aspects of the game development, we have decided to set up a new official Discord server for the team to interact and receive feedback from the community. We will work closely with Seth and other moderators to ensure that the community's requests are reflected, and there will be more opportunity for us to work together on things such as online events. We will announce the launch of the official Discord server once it is ready.

Major Milestone

After 12+ years of development and less than 2 years of the official release, Kenshi has hit a milestone of 1 million global sales. We wouldn't have made it this far without the support of the community who's been there from the very early stage and have continued to come back to Kenshi throughout the years. Proceeds gained from Kenshi are now invested in developing Kenshi 2, with the expanded team of 15 and a new office in Bristol.

Keeping everyone safe is our priority with COVID, so we are taking time setting up the office with only those who are comfortable to come in for work. Considering where things are heading in the UK, it will be a while when we can fully kit the office and show some pictures in the blog, but we are fully intending to do so in the future!
Hello Everyone!

In the last update, we've introduced several new team members who have joined the studio for the development of Kenshi 2. We'll continue the introduction of 3 members this month on who they are and what they are up to outside of work.

Christopher Schlesag – Concept Designer & Illustrator

I'm Christopher, a concept designer and illustrator from Germany. I have been working on Kenshi 2 for the last 5 months and recently moved to Bristol to work at the Lo-Fi Games office. I'm involved in the creation of various visual elements of the project and strive to make the world of Kenshi more immersive with every design I create. The main focus of the last few months has been the design of various props; refining and improving the visual language set forth by Kenshi 1.

(Some of the light-fixtures I designed further below as a taste of what's to come)

Life Balance:
Outside of work I spend a lot of time on things that keep one inspired, like traveling, reading, movies, or playing games (thou there isn't any traveling going on right now).
But the majority of my free time is spent on improving my skills as an artist, and working on personal paintings.

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(Image of my personal painting)

Above is a digital painting I did some time ago, I still have a long way to go before I can be content with this and other paintings, but if you're interested you can see more of them on my Instagram or Twitter. I only recently set up social media profiles, but I will post more of my creations in the future.

Paul Crilley – Writer

I’m Paul Crilley, and I’m a Scotsman who has been adrift in South Africa for twenty-something years (and I’m still not used to the heat or humidity). I recently joined the team to work as a writer on Kenshi 2 and am having an absolute blast.

Over the years I’ve worked in television, novels, computer games, and comics. My most recent series, Poison City, and the sequel Clockwork City, about a supernatural police force based in Durban, South Africa, has been optioned for television by Jerry Bruckheimer Productions and CBS. Whether it goes into production or not is another matter entirely.

I was one of the contract writers on Star Wars: The Old Republic back in the day. On the comics front, my most recent work was Star Wars Adventures, for IDW. I also planned out a comic book mini-series for IDW called, X-Files: Conspiracy. The mini-series brought together Mulder & Scully, The Crow, Ghostbusters, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and the Transformers. I wrote 3 of the 6 issues of that series. I also adapted the characters I created for the Wizards of the Coast D&D setting Eberron (the fantasy detectives Abraxis Wren and Torin) for comics, also for IDW.

Home setup:
My home setup is a mishmash of books, a cluttered desk, a whiteboard, and walls entirely covered in movie posters and old calendar pictures from over the years. (Lord of the Rings, Discworld, GoT, etc). I cannot stand bare walls and need to be surrounded by the clutter I have collected. I have a desktop PC for gaming, and the novel and scriptwriting work gets done of the MacBook.

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Life Balance:
It’s difficult finding a balance when you work from home. Nothing has changed during lockdown on that front, as I’ve worked from home my whole professional career. What *is* difficult is working from home while having a five-month baby demanding so much attention. I find that I get more work done at night. (I’ve always been a night owl.) So I do a few hours during the day in-between feedings and putting the little terror to sleep, but from 6pm onwards, when he’s down for the night, that’s when my writing day really starts. I usually go on till about 1 or 2 in the morning, with probably one brief feeding for the baby. I need to get back into gym again, as they only recently opened up again, but finding the time to do that is going to be a challenge.

Meg (Gumstar) – PR & Community Management

I'm Meg or Gumstar, and I've been working behind the scene for Kenshi on Japan for a few years. With the departure of Caliburn, I've stepped in to help out the team on PR & Community Management.

Life Balance:
I live in London near several parks, and I walk or run every morning to breathe fresh air and declutter my mind. I've always been a city-dweller, but somehow this lockdown has made me crave for nature like never before.
I've been observing a family of swans since early spring when the parent swans started to incubate. With 'The Ugly Duckling' being one of my favourite childhood tales, it’s been fascinating to see the development of cygnets, when they looked nothing like swans in spring to now when they are perfectly shaped grey swans. They'll soon shed their feathers and will become indistinguishable from their parents. As elegant as they are, I can't help but notice how they look like the distant cousins of certain Kenshi creatures when they thrust their heads into the water :)

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Details, Details, Details

Kenshi 2 goes back 1,000 years from Kenshi 1, and it was undoubtedly a different world from what we are familiar with in Kenshi 1. Some inhabitants would have changed over the years accompanied by transformation in social and cultural dynamics, something that is inevitable given the timespan.

In the past updates, we've shown some concept art from Calum Alexander Watt representing some initial thoughts on the world of Kenshi 2. Now that we are further along in the world-building stage, Christopher, our Concept Artist and Illustrator has been busy working out the details on props that are used by Kenshi 2's inhabitants in their daily life, as in the external light fixtures below.

ccf4937697db4f3fd5c1e99f643ae2c63379c07b.jpg


Kenshi 2 is developed with Unreal Engine, which allows further details in visual appearances and animation that would not have been possible in the technical setup used by Kenshi 1. We are happy to reveal an example of a creature that lived over 1,000 years with their uncanny survival instincts.

youtube_16x9_placeholder.gif



We've been late with this month's update, but we love to hear your thoughts, especially on our visual reveals on Kenshi 2. As ever, you can join us on Twitter and Facebook, and if you'd rather receive this blogpost in a non-Steam way, they are available on our website and via our mailing list.

Also, a small peek of Kenshi 2:

 
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Van-d-all

Erudite
Joined
Jan 18, 2017
Messages
1,557
Location
Standin' pretty. In this dust that was a city.
Anyone tried Genesis? I normally don't go for overhauls, but I just dominated a most vanilla playthrough of the game (living world, squad increase, and a mod to make warrior drones slightly less useless) after 180 hours of timesink and the game calls to me still, but I'm feeling really lazy about trying to find individual mods to make things more interesting.
I use it. Genesis as a whole is pretty good and mostly consistent nicely tweaking mob factions like cannibals or fogmen and adding variety of buildings to cities. I have some minor gripes with it, like Guild Of Surgeons being way too western for my taste, but I let it slide since at last most locations conform to common sense by at least having detail like sustainable source of food. Also, the newest (ie. non-alpha) version seems to have removed the most dangling sub-mods (and their authors...) from the pack.

Honestly, just like any Kenshi mod IMO, it requires custom tweaks, because various stuff is just too OP (especially since it's a frankenstein of smaller mods). FCS is trivially easy to use so I'd advise anyone to make a simple mod tweaking stuff for themselves. Changes to Global Variables, like squad size or simultaneous combatants were always a staple of Kesnhi, and since it's just a single value to change, you can set them to whatever you want, so It's really not worth it to miss the entire mod on behalf of one number.
 

Major_Blackhart

Codexia Lord Sodom
Patron
Joined
Dec 5, 2002
Messages
18,300
Location
Jersey for now
I'm pumped. First time I played as a soldier drone and its actually fun.

Fish village-
Fisherman: Hey Hiver! Fish for sale! You love fish!
Me: Well I do love fish.

Then my guy apologizing for having probably sold a lantern of radiance in the past was another great line.

Also let's you get a good look into how free hivers look at hives still. He hates the mindlessness of it.
 
Joined
Sep 1, 2020
Messages
979
I made a huge mod during confinement allowing you to play as a cannibal among different cannibal tribes. Then I burned out on the game and left it unfinished, not sure if anyone would have any interest in playing it in its current state. I was most proud of a feature that let you duel other cannibals to make them join you.
 

SmartCheetah

Arcane
Joined
May 7, 2013
Messages
1,076
Are there any "essential" mods for Kenshi?

Also, how do I see my fps?

Reactive/Living World or Genesis, depends on what you want. Not sure which one is the best right now, but from what I've heard, Genesis is shitting updates all the time so probably has the most content.
Other ones depend on you. I dropped some mods with new armor sets as well as new buildings for your bases etc.
If you dig borderlands like esthetics, there is an fx mod with black outline to characters. Looks rather pretty I'd say.
 
Joined
Nov 21, 2014
Messages
410
Are there any "essential" mods for Kenshi?

Also, how do I see my fps?
I've found that mods like Attack Slots x5 added a lot to the game. Made things faster and less fair. These big overhauls like Genesis probably make it redundant at this point, though. Not sure if they include a setting like this. You'll probably want to raise squad capacity at some point and there are plenty of mods for that as well.

Not certain how relevant this is anymore, but Compressed Textures Project was a must closer to launch day. The game engine is just a shambles regardless of your rig, so you will probably want to maximize your performance.

As for content, stuff like Cannibals Expanded is essential if you're planning on spending some time in the Cannibal Plains. It's a lot of fun while still remaining (mostly) true to the vanilla gameplay.

Regarding the building aspect: I'm partial to smaller changes and additions to the building menu. For instance, there are mods that make logical additions to Kenshi like the copper drilling machine that should have been there in the first place; or weight benches and dexterity dummies so your fresh recruits don't start out too fresh. Taming and prisoner recruitment mods are also fun, although they do tend to make the game easier.
 
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Gregz

Arcane
Joined
Jul 31, 2011
Messages
8,511
Location
The Desert Wasteland
Are there any "essential" mods for Kenshi?

Also, how do I see my fps?

Reactive/Living World or Genesis, depends on what you want.

I'm on the fence about the world mods, many people are advocating for the vanilla experience on first playthrough. That being said, Living World got a lot of praise in this thread. Not sure what to do. I'm about 80 days in if that matters?
 

pidstuff

Educated
Joined
Oct 17, 2019
Messages
49
Here's a pastebin that some guy made which lists the most often recommended mods: Kenshi modlist README

I personally have these installed:
AnimationOverhaul - adds a bunch of new/missing crafting animations to the game
Attack Slots x3 - makes it possible for combat to be 3 on 1, default is 1vs1
Dark UI - changes the default UI of Kenshi for a darker and cleaner look
dogbackpack - adds backpacks for dogs
Less_Foliage_and_Rocks_x2 - removes some foliage and rocks for performance
Let's Talk - makes dialogues repeat over time
LivingWorld - adds a large number of world state triggers to make Kenshi feel more alive
Reduced Particle Effects - for performance

There's also a guide to improve a bit of performance: Kenshi Modding Wiki: SCAR'S Performance Optimization Guide (WIP)
 

Gregz

Arcane
Joined
Jul 31, 2011
Messages
8,511
Location
The Desert Wasteland
Here's a pastebin that some guy made which lists the most often recommended mods: Kenshi modlist README

I personally have these installed:
AnimationOverhaul - adds a bunch of new/missing crafting animations to the game
Attack Slots x3 - makes it possible for combat to be 3 on 1, default is 1vs1
Dark UI - changes the default UI of Kenshi for a darker and cleaner look
dogbackpack - adds backpacks for dogs
Less_Foliage_and_Rocks_x2 - removes some foliage and rocks for performance
Let's Talk - makes dialogues repeat over time
LivingWorld - adds a large number of world state triggers to make Kenshi feel more alive
Reduced Particle Effects - for performance

There's also a guide to improve a bit of performance: Kenshi Modding Wiki: SCAR'S Performance Optimization Guide (WIP)

Good info, although for the life of me I cannot find the Living World mod for GoG, just steam's...whatever this is https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1772722749
 

Gregz

Arcane
Joined
Jul 31, 2011
Messages
8,511
Location
The Desert Wasteland
I am loving this game, but I have an annoying problem.

Everything automates quite well if the sequencing in done correctly, but I cannot for the life of me figure out how to automate farming. Specifically how to get my farmers to bring water to the field. Is there some kind of trick to this, or do I have to do it manually?
 

asfasdf

robot
Patron
Joined
Dec 18, 2012
Messages
839
Insert Title Here Strap Yourselves In Codex Year of the Donut
They will bring water if they are assigned to the farm. Make sure they have space in inventory though.
 

polo

Magister
Joined
Jul 8, 2014
Messages
1,737
I am loving this game, but I have an annoying problem.

Everything automates quite well if the sequencing in done correctly, but I cannot for the life of me figure out how to automate farming. Specifically how to get my farmers to bring water to the field. Is there some kind of trick to this, or do I have to do it manually?
Its been a while since i played but it can be done, what i remember doing was putting wells surrounded by farms. And you need quite a lot of wells to sustain farms, something like 4 farms 1 well? idk i dont remember honestly.
 

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