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

[Fedora Master]

I just ran across Drin. Holy shit that place is basically the Blood War.

 

[Wyatt_Derp]

I got to the point where I started my first base at the edge of the swamp but now I'm getting swamped (heh) by Blood Spiders and raiders and building defenses takes ages because getting building materials is so slow.

Best Kenshi is adventure Kenshi. Take a couple of characters and go explore the world. You will probably die but it will be in a satisfying way.

The first time I managed to get a companion, the two of us went for a stroll around a mountain town and found a big building that had practice dummies available. Coulda' swore it had a Gold's Gym sign out front. Turns out it was a Holy Order building and they didn't take kindly to me and my buddy using their facilities. We were instantly swarmed by guards and hacked to pieces. I guess they got their practice for the day.

 

[Zanzoken]

Best Kenshi is adventure Kenshi. Take a couple of characters and go explore the world. You will probably die but it will be in a satisfying way.

Bullshit. Best Kenshi is building lots of castles and watching hordes of hungry bandits being shredded by your turret-working crew without you doing anything.

Explorefags vs Basefags is the epic final battle of Kenshi........ that will never happen.

Explorefags are too busy looting the same copy-pasted ancient lab for the hundredth time, and Basefags can't stop adding to the trash mob body count outside their front gate.

It's an incredibly fitting end to the first chapter of the Kenshi story.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

sad. true.

but the piles of corpses in front of the gate have their charm.

 

[Fedora Master]

 

[Fedora Master]

I built a base in a caldera and walled off the entrances. Reloaded, all the walls are floating randomly in the air. Built a furnace to dispose of corpses, using it crashes the game.
I love Kenshi but by god the jank is getting to me.

 

[mondblut]

but the piles of corpses in front of the gate have their charm.

1.5 FPS is not very charming tbh

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

I built a base in a caldera and walled off the entrances. Reloaded, all the walls are floating randomly in the air. Built a furnace to dispose of corpses, using it crashes the game.
I love Kenshi but by god the jank is getting to me.

sheeesh, or some retard will come to tell you the game is perfect and complete as it is.

 

[Fedora Master]

I built a base in a caldera and walled off the entrances. Reloaded, all the walls are floating randomly in the air. Built a furnace to dispose of corpses, using it crashes the game.
I love Kenshi but by god the jank is getting to me.

sheeesh, or some retard will come to tell you the game is perfect and complete as it is.

The mixture of mechanics and gameplay elements is great. It just doesn't gel well because the game is just as niggerrigged as everything in the world of Kenshi.

 

[conan_edw]

Chris is hosting AMA right now

 

[Zanzoken]

I posted a couple of questions but there's a pretty big sea of comments now so I doubt he will see them.

 

[Zanzoken]

Here are the highlights from the AMA. Answers are from Chris and his sister Nat (who did 99% of the writing for Kenshi).

Development

• Kenshi 2 development is still in early stages and nothing is set in stone.
• They are working on a new "secret" engine. I thought it was previously announced that the sequel would run on an updated version of Ogre, but this seems to indicate something else?
  
• They hope to port Kenshi to the new engine once it's finished, but it would be "a lot of extra work".
• Mod capabilities will depend on the engine. Chris says because most of the game code is in C++ it can't be modded, but that's the only way they can get a seamless world with 800 characters running around at a time.
  
• They are doing long-term planning for other games within the Kenshi universe.
• Some dumbfuck asked about a console release. Chris says it won't happen because the game wouldn't work on a controller and would never pass console QA requirements.
• They don't ever want to work with a publisher.
• They'd like to make a Kenshi comic or something but don't have time.

Setting / World

• Kenshi 2 is set 1000 years prior to Kenshi.
  
• The content is "secret" for now but the sequel will reveal more about the world's history and lore.
  
• There will be a new continent to explore, in addition to the existing one.
  
• Aesthetic will still be post-apocalyptic, perhaps even more dire than Kenshi 1.

Gameplay

• Chris says there will be one huge new gameplay feature that will "change things up a lot" but isn't sure when he will announce it.
• Nat hopes to make world states more flexible so that there are multiple routes to take down factions, besides just killing boss characters.
  
• Nat says improving reactivity and the player's impact on the world is her most important goal for the sequel.
  
• Basebuilding will be back and Chris is thinking about new ways for the AI to siege your base, or tactically force you to leave.
• Chris doesn't like the idea of allowing players to take over towns, since it's a lot of new features and bugs to contend with.
• Chris admits that stealing is OP, but doesn't really want to change it because it's fun. He does acknowledge a couple of posts where people offer feedback on how the system could be better balanced.
• The correct way to play Kenshi is iron man, unless Beep dies of course
• Chris doesn't like using mining as an easy income source, and may make it less accessible in the future.
• Ranged weapons will player a bigger role in the sequel.

Also it looks like we got a resolution to the Explorefag vs Basefag war after all

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

So is this shit any good? Throw me some Codex summary please folks.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

So is this shit any good? Throw me some Codex summary please folks.

It's a great rags-to-riches/wuss-to-warrior simulator.

 

[mondblut]

So is this shit any good? Throw me some Codex summary please folks.

It's a MMO without other people. The best of both worlds!

 

[Wyatt_Derp]

So is this shit any good? Throw me some Codex summary please folks.

It's a bug-ridden, sometimes awful looking game where the world enjoys murder-death-killing you in various ways over and over again.

So yes, the game is great fun. 10 out of 10 flayed corpses.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Here are the highlights from the AMA. Answers are from Chris and his sister Nat (who did 99% of the writing for Kenshi).
...

• Nat says improving reactivity and the player's impact on the world is her most important goal for the sequel.

...

Kenshi's greatest flaw was the lack of dynamic reactivity to player actions, as opposed to a limited amount of heavily scripted reactivity that allows the player only to affect the expansion or demise of a few factions in a pre-determined way. It will be tremendous incline if they manage to implement this successfully for the prequel.

 

[deuxhero]

But will Kenshi 2 have children without them being cut in beta?

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

Here are the highlights from the AMA. Answers are from Chris and his sister Nat (who did 99% of the writing for Kenshi).
...

• Nat says improving reactivity and the player's impact on the world is her most important goal for the sequel.

...

Kenshi's greatest flaw was the lack of dynamic reactivity to player actions, as opposed to a limited amount of heavily scripted reactivity that allows the player only to affect the expansion or demise of a few factions in a pre-determined way. It will be tremendous incline if they manage to implement this successfully for the prequel.

more than that, it's the lack of being able to rebuild.
there are abandoned cities in awesome places, they're there to stay, you can't take their buildings, you can't build nearby, it's a waste of precious space in a huge map filled with nothing and void.
there are outposts which can become ruined and then abandoned. same fate. some others just swap hands with another faction nearby. some of these outposts instead are eternal, there's no way to destroy them, some even replenish fully their troops if you just leave a single dying but not completely dead occupant alone (and we all know there're no finishers in kenshi).
but the game is totally feature complete. totally and perfect as is.

 

[a Goat]

So is this shit any good? Throw me some Codex summary please folks.

It's clunky piece of shit that you will play for 150 hours and wonder where did the time go while remembering Brave Sir Robin, who bled to death after bandits cut off his leg. Sir Robin was stupid, he wore too much armour to run away.

 

[Fedora Master]

This happened within 30 seconds of each other, ON TOP of the usual Red Sabres/Blood Spiders/Swamp Ninja groups.

 

[Martyr]

I always thought that I'd never restart Kenshi, since the early game can be a bit of a slog and leveling up can at times be tedious.
however, yesterday I started anew and I'm having even more fun than on my first playthrough. I already know what to do, where to go and which enemies to avoid - that makes things a lot easier. also, I'm on day 8 and my characters are almost as powerful as my old chars were at day 60-something. they have better gear now, too.
in short: a very good game becomes even better upon replaying it.

 

[Zanzoken]

So I have never done a mod before and don't really know shit about it, but I've been working on something for the past few days that I wanted to show you guys.

I have always been frustrated by how Kenshi doesn't really let you interact much with the Cannibal Hunters. You can't ally with them, learn about them, or really even talk with them. The Cannibal Hunters game start has fuck all to do with the actual faction. Hell, you can capture the Cannibal Grand Wizard and carry his ass right into Cannibal Hunters HQ, and they don't even bat an eye (I know because I've actually done it). That's incredibly unfulfilling, and just flat out lazy on the dev's part if I'm being honest. I want to see if we can do better.

Keeping in mind what seems feasible based on the mod tools, here is what I'm shooting for:

• A game start that places you in Cannibal Hunter territory and puts them front and center to your new game. Game starts are really easy to do in the editor, so this one's no big deal.
• Cannibal Hunters can be allied with as a faction (similar to the Flotsam or Shinobi). But creating a relationship with them is not going to be free and easy. There will be light story elements, creating a natural progression from raw recruit to trusted captain. Or at least, natural for an RPG.
  
• The Bastion will be expanded to make it more like a functional outpost. Once you are allied, you'll have access to all the supplies you need to hunt cannibals effectively. I will probably add a safehouse or three throughout the world as well.
  
• Fresh recruits will be available after a certain point, allowing you to build out your own crew of hunters. It will take a bit of LARPing to fully realize this, but if you've played the game very much you already know that's just how Kenshi is.
• New unique NPCs, including lots of new dialogue for Cannibal Hunter leadership and mod-specific recruits.
• I am undecided on how to go about it, but I want the cannibals to be legitimately intimidating foes. In vanilla they are tough for a low-level party, but once you get decent stats and gear you can chew them up pretty easily. I will either make these changes myself, or ensure that the mod plays well with another cannibals mod of my choosing. Cannibals Expanded is the most popular one but I haven't tried it myself, so idk if it's any good.
  
• I want to be true to the lore, to the extent that it exists. And will probably use some creative license to flesh things out a bit.
  
• To get the full experience, you may need to create a new character in order to play the mod. But, I will try to make it accommodate existing saves if I can.
• As I come across them, various other tweaks and fixes to make the cannibal / Cannibal Hunters war more realistic and meaningful. Unless it is completely impossible to pull off, it will be possible for either side to win / lose, i.e. the CH retake Deadcat or the cannibals take over the Bastion.

Anyway, I do have a couple things to show off from what I have so far.

A new game start that places the player at the Bastion. The Bastion expansion is currently WIP, but the HQ, guards, etc are all pretty much working normally.

Spoiler

Spoiler

The bros defending the new base against a gang of outlaws:

Spoiler

And finally, a snippet of dialog from a Shek recruit I wrote for the mod:

Spoiler

Hopefully this looks at least a little promising to you guys. I am certainly not the right person for this job, and I may fail miserably, but I've learned quite a bit about the FCS so far and made what feels like a lot of progress for just a dozen hours of work.

Let me know if you have any feedback or suggestions for what you'd like to see in the mod!

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

So I have never done a mod before and don't really know shit about it, but I've been working on something for the past few days that I wanted to show you guys.

I have always been frustrated by how Kenshi doesn't really let you interact much with the Cannibal Hunters. You can't ally with them, learn about them, or really even talk with them. The Cannibal Hunters game start has fuck all to do with the actual faction. Hell, you can capture the Cannibal Grand Wizard and carry his ass right into Cannibal Hunters HQ, and they don't even bat an eye (I know because I've actually done it). That's incredibly unfulfilling, and just flat out lazy on the dev's part if I'm being honest. I want to see if we can do better.
...
Let me know if you have any feedback or suggestions for what you'd like to see in the mod!

The game design of Kenshi established a great many dynamic systems but unfortunately left it to scripting to deal with any alliances and world-state changes, and the developers completed only a limited amount of this before releasing the game. The area controlled by the Cannibal faction is particularly ripe for additional world-state changes, since the cannibals seem to have ruined an existing Deadcat civilization, which has been left with a single town on the coast, while both the Cannibal Hunters and Flotsam exist on the fringe of cannibal territory and the diminished but still mighty Holy Nation lurks just beyond Flotsam and hence also not too distant. Ideally, if the player eradicates cannibal villages, and perhaps even destroys the cannibal capital and its Grand Wizard, this would have dynamically resulted in one or multiple factions expanding into former cannibal territory and re-establishing settlements there, but since the game relies on scripting to accomplish this nothing whatsoever was done.

The only advice I have is not to make the substance of your mod dependent on starting a new game with your additional Cannibal Hunter game start; it should be possible for more or less anyone Kenshi group to reach the Bastion and join the Cannibal Hunters as a proper faction.

 

[Zanzoken]

Too much?