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

[Grampy_Bone]

You're throwing away tons of xp.

?? 2 levels of engineer from building a shack? Who cares?

 

[Deleted Member 22431]

Travelling in unknown territory. Unexpected acid rain, no cover. To make matters worse, I stumble on a holy nation outpost. They try to murder my ass. One character lost a leg in the massacre. Need to pick her up and still find a way to get back to my territory. Business as usual.

 

[Deleted Member 22431]

I managed to escape the holy nation territory by crossing it, barely. I had to drop my heavy armours in the ground. Phew!

 

[Mustawd]

What it most reminds me of is Ultima Online, the MMO grandaddy whose back-of-the-box precis still reads like a game from the future, despite its age-dictated shonkiness

Ultima Online

Holy fuck....I might just buy my first game of 2018...


EDIT: I like the way this RPS commenter put it. Makes me wanna play it even more now.

Kenshi always made me think of a child’s idea of the perfect game, the one they would design when they’re grown up: “It will be an open world game, see, and also an RPG only you could control dozens of people, like, at the same time when they’re all over the world, and it would have samurai and ninja but also post-apocalyptic so you also get killer robots and electricity and you can give your people cybernetic limbs and go look for lost tech in ancient ruins and also you could play as the robots, and it will also be kinda like an RTS where you build a base and research and put up turrets and mine and grow food and build stuff to sell and there will be many factions that you could fight with or ally with and there will be monsters and doesn’t-it-sound-great-to-you?”

The amazing thing is, this ungodly mishmash of ideas and systems actually works. More than works, actually, it shines. Kenshi is addictive as hell, and in case it wasn’t obvious, one of my favorite games.

 

[Alienman]

Player tax collectors from UO has been replaced by Holy Nation bible thumpers.

 

[Zombra]

You're throwing away tons of xp.

?? 2 levels of engineer from building a shack? Who cares?

It's fine if you don't care, throwing away xp to gain nothing seems like a strange decision though.

 

[Grampy_Bone]

You're throwing away tons of xp.

?? 2 levels of engineer from building a shack? Who cares?

It's fine if you don't care, throwing away xp to gain nothing seems like a strange decision though.

Abandoning the base would cost me all the mats and iron I used to build it plus the 6k I spent on mercs. That's a bigger waste.

Holy fuck....I might just buy my first game of 2018...

With the concept of leaving party members behind to work jobs and earn cash, the game it is reminding me of is... The Magic Candle.

 

[Deleted Member 22431]

Sooo... I finally replaced the missed limb with this beauty.

 

[Zanzoken]

Now she is back to good health, is no longer wanted as an escaped slave, and has stolen and fenced about $10k worth of goods. Next step is to formulate a plan to help my dude escape, and then begin the long journey toward burning the Holy Nation to the ground.

I spend about 3 weeks in-game training for the rescue mission. First off, my girl (named Grey) mined an inventory full of iron and marched up and down the streets of Sho-Battai with a bonedog carcass on her back. I figure dude (given the incredibly original name Kenshi) will be too starved to run and therefore she needs to be prepared to carry him out.

Now that Grey is a stronk independent womyn, it was time to train stealth, lockpicking, and assassination. I spend night after night running roughshod over Sho-Battai and Heft, cleaning out noble houses and merchants for loot and playing knockout game with the empire peasants unlucky enough to cross my path. The Shinobi are ideal partners in crime by providing early stage training, taking all stolen items off my hands, and setting me up with ninja gear giving 33% bonuses to assassination and stealth. Even with the guild's 50% cut I pulled down about $30k during this time.

Keep in mind that while the UCs may be a great big pussy waiting to be fucked, sometimes they fuck back. One of the gate guards tries to shake Grey down with a hashish possession charge, so I picked up a $2k bounty and had to skip town for several days. I decide to head toward Rebirth and try my luck on the rescue, but first I take a short detour through the Bast region and snag a couple of disguises off remnants of the neverending HN/UC warzone.

I make it to Rebirth just before dark and put on the HN clothes, which the game estimates give Grey a 60% chance of pulling off a disguise. Kenshi is tied to a pole near the center of the prison, but has already unlocked his shackles and is ready to make a break for it. I'm hoping I can just stroll through the front gate, give him the HN disguise, and (with luck) stroll right back out without causing a fuss.

Unfortunately Grey gets made almost immediately and has to initiate plan B, which is run like hell. The guards manage to wound her going in but it's to the chest and not bad. She scoops Kenshi up and, remembering that there were turrets on the way we came in, I send her toward a different exit and she is able to outrun the guards. We head back to Heft but I'm not sure how to get in, given that my party is one criminal and one escaped slave. But luckily we aggro a group of Outlaw Farmers near the gate, who draw the ire of the samurai guards and give us a chance to sneak into the Shinobi tower unnoticed.

Needless to say, the last couple of play sessions have been a blast. This is my first time developing a stealth-focused character and it makes the game is drastically different. If anyone is just starting out and not sure what to do -- or on the fence about the game because it doesn't have traditional quests or other RPG elements -- hopefully stuff like this shows you what is possible. The stories come out through the gameplay and your creative ability to respond to the dangers and unpredictability of this fantasy world.

 

[Deleted Member 22431]

If anyone is just starting out and not sure what to do -- or on the fence about the game because it doesn't have traditional quests or other RPG elements -- hopefully stuff like this shows you what is possible. The stories come out through the gameplay and your creative ability to respond to the dangers and unpredictability of this fantasy world.

Indeed. The game has lore, rival factions, NPCs, choices and consequences (somtimes in dialogues), and even some eventual bartering between members of your team. It's just not in your face all the time like in most cRPGs.

The main flaw of the game is the griding, because you need to do the same tasks over and over to improve. It's a learn by use system that reminds you of Oblivion, and this is not a compliment.

BUT I can endure the griding because it is compensated by the game world, which is huge and alive, the many detailed mechanics, etc. This is not only a reward in itself, but it also brings some unexpected events to your griding. You may encounter among your tasks bands of thugs demanding money (what are you going to do? run? kill them? talk your way out of it?), wild life, climate effects (dust storms affect your visibility and your job, acid rain will ruin you, etc).

The game world is not just a desert as it may seem at first, but it's varied, immense. It has all kinds of vegetation, climates, etc., and some locations look really good, even if the game is not easy on the eye.

And as you increase your athletics, you run like the wind. I'm not one into larping, but at times it felt like my group were mistborns burning pweter. They run across the landscape with superhuman speed. It's a irony that I'm enthusiastic about this game because in a sense it is the opposite of my favourite game, Age of Decadence, which has zero griding and no excessive back and forth.

What is impressive is that even after 10 years, the developer still wants to implement new mechanics such as diplomatic relations, your ability to destroy other factions completely, etc.

At this time, I have a team of six members and I barely scratched the surfice. I'm enjoying the game. Maybe I will change my opinion down the road, but it doesn't seem likely. My advice to anyone on the fence about the game is don't pigeonhole your character in doing one repeative task before you explored the game world a little bit. It kills the interest. Try new things and take risks. If the many mechanics don't compensate the griding part, the game is not for you.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

My advice to anyone on the fence about the game is don't pigeonhole your character in doing one repeative task before you explored the game world a little bit, it kills the interest. Try new things and take risks. If the many mechanics don't compensate the griding part, the game is not for you.

As a related note: Being hit in battle is a pain, but guess what raises your Toughness stat to take hits better.

 

[Kyl Von Kull]

I bounced off this at first, but it’s strangely addictive. I’ve mostly just been grinding to boost my stats but even getting your ass kicked is fun in this game.

Is there any way to automate resource gathering or do I need to drag every single chunk of copper to my character?

 

[Alienman]

I have been spending the last 2 hours in a Holy Nation prison. They refuse to release me, but at least I get to see some awesome brawls outside my cell window. One robot that came by almost killed all the guards that was on duty. One guy even lost his leg and tried to crawl away. He died alone in the sand.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Is there any way to automate resource gathering or do I need to drag every single chunk of copper to my character?

Shift+right click will automate tasks,I believe.

EDIT: Which means if you automate a resource and its repository, the dude will do the gather and store himself. Likewise any required resources will be fetched from the corresponding stockpile as and when available for automated manufacture etc.

 

[Deleted Member 22431]

Is there any way to automate resource gathering or do I need to drag every single chunk of copper to my character?

https://steamcommunity.com/app/233860/discussions/0/1471969431587562666/

If you put someone's auto job on a specific storage container, he will haul for it. For example, shift left click on a cooper storage, and he'll collect the cooper for this storage.

 

[Deleted Member 22431]

I bounced off this at first, but it’s strangely addictive. I’ve mostly just been grinding to boost my stats but even getting your ass kicked is fun in this game.

The animations are gruesome and hilarious at the same time. People fighting with an arm dangling, others crawling in agony while they are cowardly hit in the back like a dog, etc. One time I was knocked unconcious and bleeding, left for dead. My luck was that a random medic was crossing by and give me first aid, thus saving my life. I also got one of my characters into a recovering coma state. He need to be picked up and placed in a bed to recover. Shameless entertaining stuff.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

and a random NPC give me first aid, thus saving my life.

Don't look now but you also got robbed.

 

[Deleted Member 22431]

Don't look now but you also got robbed.

This also happens, but this one only saved my life. He is probably the only altruist soul in the world of Kenshi.

 

[Deleted Member 22431]

Which means if you automate a resource and its repository.

Emphasis on the repository part. You need that in order to make it work.

 

[Talby]

Downloading now. I will bring order to the savage desert. Wish me luck bros.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

So are leviathans still in, btw?

 

[Kyl Von Kull]

Oh shit, my two weakest characters just picked a bar fight with four assholes and they won! Now I’m rolling in fancy equipment.

 

[Elim]

So are leviathans still in, btw?

Yes, they are!

God how I love this game.
After 240 hours our so I saw my first elder beak thing. My group fled into a house, heavily wounded from the last beak thing attack. Then I saw this creature! It was gigantic and had thousands of HP per limp. Good thing these creatures can't get into houses.
Also I feel like Martial Arts is horribly OP. I got a pretty huge base with a lot of great weaponsmiths and so on, but my Shek martial arts girl just rips off limbs. She one-shots people.

 

[Deleted Member 22431]

So are leviathans still in, btw?

Yes, they are!

In the beta update, Leviathans returned in the v0.93.0 northwest area update.

http://kenshi.wikia.com/wiki/Leviathan

 

[Grampy_Bone]

In my experience you only need to automate mining, they will auto-haul to the nearest storage on their own. You do need the storage however.

I set up in Squin and started auto-mining copper while training and researching my team. I tried to set up weaponsmithing but without a source of iron plates, the products are worth less than the materials with my low skill. Ah well.