KickStarter Kingdom Come: Deliverance - Dan Vavra's medieval chad simulator

[cvv]

The fuck does this even mean?

It's from Polygon.
It means writing is great.

 

[Raghar]

So I started this game yesterday and I'm quite pleased with it. The writing seems very authentic, especially with regards to swearing. Witcher 3 always felt a little try hard on that one. All in all the banter and shenanigans in the beginning felt very much like the stuff kids from the countryside around here would do, even back in the day when I was a wee little lad. Of course I also stumbled over the polygon review of this game:

The fuck does this even mean?

So I started this game yesterday and I'm quite pleased with it. The writing seems very authentic, especially with regards to swearing. Witcher 3 always felt a little try hard on that one. All in all the banter and shenanigans in the beginning felt very much like the stuff kids from the countryside around here would do, even back in the day when I was a wee little lad.

Micro level.

Played game, stumbled on review, read it. Macro level.
(Basically they mean, the text could be better written.)

 

[Chaotic_Heretic]

So are the hitboxes here better than ELEX?

 

[Kyl Von Kull]

So are the hitboxes here better than ELEX?

The combat system is very, very different. Your opponent either parries or dodges or gets hit. So in melee there are no hitbox issues. I’ve seen people bitching about hitboxes with archery, but I think that’s just because it’s difficult to aim without a reticule.

 

[unfairlight]

Elex didn't have an issue with hitboxes, rather just hitdetection and some weird animations.
If what you mean by that is "is the combat shit?" then I can answer you that it is: Get fucked early game (10-20 hours,) rape everything after that and be able to kill most enemies with single strikes.

 

[agris]

Elex didn't have an issue with hitboxes, rather just hitdetection and some weird animations.
If what you mean by that is "is the combat shit?" then I can answer you that it is: Get fucked early game (10-20 hours,) rape everything after that and be able to kill most enemies with single strikes.

Are you still one shotting armored knights after the patch?

 

[Smejki]

i7-4790. 8 cores @3.6Ghz should be enough to simulate a few people standing around, doing essentially nothing but their idle animation.
At least it is enough for thousands of units in Ashes Of Singularity and similar games, or entire towns full of way more people ala Dishonored, Assassins Creed, Witcher 3, etc.
As I said numerous times, this is THE ONLY GAME I've had problems like this with. It is also the only game I've played using CryEngine 4, so... to me, everything point away from my rig as the cause.

That's a monstermachine. Should be alright. Ok then, give me your full specs pls. Will forward them

i7-4790, 16GB, GTX 1070 (also using the latest drivers).
Yeah, I know, should be enough
The performance in general is really bad for me (have to have everything at low and 720p>1080p resolution to even get 30-60fps), but it really drops as soon as multiple characters come into view.
GPU temperature is normal and CPU usage also doesn't rise above 40-60%. Almost seems to me as if the game doesn't want to use the resource available

We seem to have found the source of this. A (insufficient) hyperthreaded core was being assigned to a critical thread of the game due to some other processes (external programs) claiming the intended proper core for themselves.
That's why it occured in hi-edn Intel CPUs only. I'm not sure if the fix is in 1.3 or 1.4. If it still occurs, in the meantime try to kill all unnecessary processes or disable hyperthreading.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

i7-4790. 8 cores @3.6Ghz should be enough to simulate a few people standing around, doing essentially nothing but their idle animation.
At least it is enough for thousands of units in Ashes Of Singularity and similar games, or entire towns full of way more people ala Dishonored, Assassins Creed, Witcher 3, etc.
As I said numerous times, this is THE ONLY GAME I've had problems like this with. It is also the only game I've played using CryEngine 4, so... to me, everything point away from my rig as the cause.

That's a monstermachine. Should be alright. Ok then, give me your full specs pls. Will forward them

i7-4790, 16GB, GTX 1070 (also using the latest drivers).
Yeah, I know, should be enough
The performance in general is really bad for me (have to have everything at low and 720p>1080p resolution to even get 30-60fps), but it really drops as soon as multiple characters come into view.
GPU temperature is normal and CPU usage also doesn't rise above 40-60%. Almost seems to me as if the game doesn't want to use the resource available

We seem to have found the source of this. A (insufficient) hyperthreaded core was being assigned to a critical thread of the game due to some other processes (external programs) claiming the intended proper core for themselves.
That's why it occured in hi-edn Intel CPUs only. I'm not sure if the fix is in 1.3 or 1.4. If it still occurs, in the meantime try to kill all unnecessary processes or disable hyperthreading.

that's what you get for thinking you're smarter than the OS scheduler.

 

[unfairlight]

Elex didn't have an issue with hitboxes, rather just hitdetection and some weird animations.
If what you mean by that is "is the combat shit?" then I can answer you that it is: Get fucked early game (10-20 hours,) rape everything after that and be able to kill most enemies with single strikes.

Are you still one shotting armored knights after the patch?

I completed my copy before the patch and I uninstalled it already. I'll play it again when DLC + all patches are done and I get a faster PC, eventually.

 

[Smejki]

If there is one thing I find really irritating, it's the NPC schedules.

In 6 in the morning the sun is already up. However, most traders/services are closed until 8-9.

I don't know how much this conforms to reality, especially medieval reality, but I know that in the villages of present day, people who work the land usually try to get work started as soon as light breaks, so as to be able to do enough work before noon, when it gets hotter and thus more difficult to work. You have lunch at noon, then you work some hours more until sundown, then you go for schnapps and dinner, and go to bed *early* because it's another day tomorrow.

However, this isn't my gripe with the game, not conforming to reality. My gripe is that from the moment day breaks, I have a downtime of nearly half a day before I am able to visit traders, services (baths), or quest givers. Given that ingame time in KCD flies at an extraordinary pace (why in the first place?), this is half a day lost for questing, riding from place to place, or whacking bandits.

I've been standing for 5 hours - from 7 to 12 - in front of Radzig's scribe's room, waiting for the dumbfuck get up from sleep and open his door. This makes no sense at all.

Yea, this pisses me off too. It's been reported. I think most of the schedules still fit the old alpha/beta settings where day and night were equally long (12 hours). We'll have to look into specifics to see if there's any possible negative impact. If not, it should be a simple fix.

 

[agris]

Smejki some of the game's textures appear to be incorrectly mipped or are lacking the full resolution regular or normal map. See here: https://imgur.com/a/Kn0Jz

That's on Very High with 4 GB VRAM.

 

[AwesomeButton]

Smejki , I just want to confirm if you know about the LOD sliders, that they reset to default values after you save the settings. Or is this not a universally encountered issue?

 

[Smejki]

So after they include the option to play as a female character, what would be the player's options as quests go in this realistic medieval game?
Sweep the floor? Prepare a meal and bring water from the fountain?

Kingdom Come Deliverance

 

[AwesomeButton]

So after they include the option to play as a female character, what would be the player's options as quests go in this realistic medieval game?
Sweep the floor? Prepare a meal and bring water from the fountain?

Kingdom Come Deliverance

I'll roleplay as an old midwife?

 

[Ramnozack]

So after they include the option to play as a female character, what would be the player's options as quests go in this realistic medieval game?
Sweep the floor? Prepare a meal and bring water from the fountain?

Kingdom Come Deliverance

I'll roleplay as an old midwife?

You'll roleplay as a female poacher who really likes liver.

 

[Raghar]

We seem to have found the source of this. A (insufficient) hyperthreaded core was being assigned to a critical thread of the game due to some other processes (external programs) claiming the intended proper core for themselves.
That's why it occured in hi-edn Intel CPUs only. I'm not sure if the fix is in 1.3 or 1.4. If it still occurs, in the meantime try to kill all unnecessary processes or disable hyperthreading.

So you finally noticed? That's the reason why I recommended to disable HT in BIOS.

Also HT CPU don't have HT core and efficient core. All cores on HT CPU are equal, just each real core is split into two equal virtual cores, and all thread scheduling between each pair of virtual cores is handled by CPU directly.
BTW does that fix still allow using HT dual core, or would we hear people with dual cores to scream murder?

 

[thesheeep]

i7-4790. 8 cores @3.6Ghz should be enough to simulate a few people standing around, doing essentially nothing but their idle animation.
At least it is enough for thousands of units in Ashes Of Singularity and similar games, or entire towns full of way more people ala Dishonored, Assassins Creed, Witcher 3, etc.
As I said numerous times, this is THE ONLY GAME I've had problems like this with. It is also the only game I've played using CryEngine 4, so... to me, everything point away from my rig as the cause.

That's a monstermachine. Should be alright. Ok then, give me your full specs pls. Will forward them

i7-4790, 16GB, GTX 1070 (also using the latest drivers).
Yeah, I know, should be enough
The performance in general is really bad for me (have to have everything at low and 720p>1080p resolution to even get 30-60fps), but it really drops as soon as multiple characters come into view.
GPU temperature is normal and CPU usage also doesn't rise above 40-60%. Almost seems to me as if the game doesn't want to use the resource available

We seem to have found the source of this. A (insufficient) hyperthreaded core was being assigned to a critical thread of the game due to some other processes (external programs) claiming the intended proper core for themselves.
That's why it occured in hi-edn Intel CPUs only. I'm not sure if the fix is in 1.3 or 1.4. If it still occurs, in the meantime try to kill all unnecessary processes or disable hyperthreading.

Not bad.
How did you even come up with that find? Some stuff is annoyingly hard to debug.

Though I must say I doubt that's what my problem is... I don't have much stuff running in the background.
Chrome, Steam, Thunderbird, KeePass 2, Ditto, SpiderOak ONE, Creative Cloud (wtf is that?!), GOG & NVidia stuff, that's it.

I got somewhat used to play on my 30FPS anyway

 

[DoomIhlVaria]

Have they mentioned anything about adding a way to pause cutscenes? My wife always finds something to ask in the middle of them.

 

[AwesomeButton]

I'm at the main quest's last leg. Or maybe last toe even.

I can't help but state that it gets rather underwhelming. Criticism follows. Real spoilers, read at your own risk:

Spoiler

Inconsistencies and implausible developments
1. In a region that's so small that it's one day's ride from one end to the other, Henry has to scout and describe to experienced warriors twice as old as himself that Vranek a) even exists; b) is occupied by enemies? Neither Radzig nor Hanush are aware of Vranek's location? Hanush's constable was in Sasau just recently and the place is right next to Sasau.

2. Hanush's temper is well and fine, but his sudden rashness when it comes to the attack is at odds with his role as a responsible governor and Capon's regent.

3. Why even attack Vranek? The place has no independent water supply and can easily be surrounded. A few days to two weeks, and the defenders would have given up without battle, or tried to sally.

4. After the battle for Vranek is over, Henry is the only person in the world capable of walking up to a table and bringing back a letter? Warhorse, you were rushing development soo hard at the point you designed this part of the main quest!

5. But before that, I should have mentioned the corridor advance through the camp, together with my clunkily bumping into me armored buddies. Invisible walls preventing us from straying from the One True Path which would throw freshly spawned enemies at us. Simply inexcusable.

6. The game maintains that I have to "pick up my stuff" from the tent? Why this sudden gamy approach? I'd have the player actually lose everything once he *lost* it already. Also, I took the game's hints at heart and when I went into the camp I had dressed up as a simple soldier, I didn't approach it in my shiniest armor and with my grand bascinet on! Actually I expected I would raise suspicion based on flashy armor and be immediately captured by the bandits. I expected the game would continue to adhere to common sense.

7. There was no real need for the forced drama of Henry's being captured at Vranek. It was Hollywood style shit in terms of plot construction. Outright lazy and unoriginal. If the point was the introduction of Istvan as the main villain, this could have been done in many other ways, each of them more plausible than what we got.

8. While we are at it, there was no need for the forced drama of how Henry solves the riddle of who is Pious at the monastery either. In both cases I was on a covert mission and I wanted to roleplay a covert mission, and solve it in my own way. Not be a part of someone's attempts to play at movie director. FFS.

9. Talmberg's capture by treachery was one of the least convincing parts of the plot in any game I've played which has been taking its plot seriously. Witcher 3, a fantasy story where at any point "magic" or "Ciri's powers" can be an excuse for anything happening out of the blue, still treats its plot more seriously than this. And with KCD this was in stark contrast to the tone of everything up to now. It was like watching Heat in one minute, and the tone switching to Lethal Weapon 4 in the next.

10. Talmberg, while it does have a well in the castle's inner courtyard, is also easy to cut off. Even if the occupants eat from the castle's reserves, they still have no endgame, and they don't even have enough people to man the castle properly. Would Sigismund come to their aid with a larger force? And even if he would, what was Istvan hoping to achieve in the first place - take the castle by treachery and at huge risk to his own life, and at the cost of sacrificing his whole force at Vranek, just so he can sit on his hands in Talmberg and wait for relief by Sigismund? If I were Sigismund, I would classify this as a major fuckup and Istvan as more trouble than he is worth.

11. Going back to discussing Vranek, Zbyshek's motivation was plausible enough, but again - the game's development was so forcefully rushed through, so that QA could begin (or for some similar reason), that Warhorse even made it impossible to make a stealthy exit by stealing a guard's armor. The first guard I encountered once I got control over Henry was alone and positioned perfectly for a silent takedown. I took him out, carried him to my cell, finished his unconscious body off with his own axe, then took his clothes, put on his helmet which even conveniently covered my face and tried to stroll out, but no dice! I was immediately recognized, despite my disguise and helmet. Some smarty pants mr. game designer had decided that for plot reasons I have to exit the camp by means of "making an exciting escape" between two guards, and then run down a hill and into the woods. I won't even comment on how after I hooked up with Zbyshek, Henry was shown in undergarments in cutscenes even though I escaped the camp completely armored.

These 11 things are just off the top of my head. Jesus Christ, Warhorse, I had such a good impression of the game, and you had to shit it up at the end, from going completely linear from the monastery quest, to switching to a badly scripted interactive movie which doesn't even cover for reactivity. You still managed to run out of funds and time to give the main story a proper conclusion. For shame!

 

[Carrion]

This is the first game that made me wish it was possible to knock on people's doors. So often I go see a quest NPC on a not-so-late evening or a not-that-early morning only to find them asleep. Then one of the following happens:

- The NPC tells me to fuck off and let him/her sleep. It doesn't matter if I'm on an urgent quest where a man's life is at stake, I simply have to wait eight hours for that charcoal-burner to get his beauty sleep because there's no way to wake him up. In the morning he tells me that I'm just wasting my time since the princess is in another castle.
- I pick the lock to get into the NPC's house and go into his/her bedroom, a restricted area. The NPC wakes up as soon as I approach, asks me who the hell I am and tells me to get lost for a few seconds until I'm able to initiate dialogue. Suddenly we're best friends again and have a very pleasant chat. When the dialogue ends, the NPC again tells me to fuck off and threatens to call the cops. Sometimes our meeting ends with the NPC running around the streets in his/her underwear, trying to get the guards' attention by shouting like a complete madman, while I make a daring escape on my trusty stallion.

I wonder if it's possible, but it'd be neat if you could just knock on the door at night, and the person living there would wake up and come to the door (if they like you, that is), allowing you to conduct your business with him/her and then be on your way. It could even lead to a reputation hit if you did it too often.

 

[Beowulf]

Yeah.

Your point 11 is an especially glaring issue.

Spoiler

I also managed to subdue the guards by stealth, but than I found a lockpick and got my gear back.
Nevertheless I dressed up entirely in the bandit clothes, and my disguise was not working. There is also apparently no other way out, than through that gate. Surprise, surprise.
But they managed to drop the ball even lower, showing Henry limping and dressed in rags, while I had full plate and restored full health

 

[AwesomeButton]

Yeah.

Your point 11 is an especially glaring issue.

Spoiler

I also managed to subdue the guards by stealth, but than I found a lockpick and got my gear back.
Nevertheless I dressed up entirely in the bandit clothes, and my disguise was not working. There is also apparently no other way out, than through that gate. Surprise, surprise.
But they managed to drop the ball even lower, showing Henry limping and dressed in rags, while I had full plate and restored full health

Off the top of my head, a more realistic development of the whole quest:

Spoiler

Henry is able to return to Rattay and report that the bandits are preparing to attack Sasau. In fact when questioned, bandits in the camp even mention that tomorrow there is an attack planned.

Depending on how inconspicuous Henry's scouting has been (insert dialogue checks, checks for flashy armor, including false checks, where the game makes the player think he has passed the check, but actually the outcome is that the NPC got suspicious), maybe the bandits got tipped off that there has been a spy around and they rush down and attack Sasau, or maybe they prepare their defences better inside the camp. Alternatively, if the player has not alerted them to his scouting, they may be caught off guard and surrender without a fight.

 

[Beowulf]

Yeah.

Your point 11 is an especially glaring issue.

Spoiler

I also managed to subdue the guards by stealth, but than I found a lockpick and got my gear back.
Nevertheless I dressed up entirely in the bandit clothes, and my disguise was not working. There is also apparently no other way out, than through that gate. Surprise, surprise.
But they managed to drop the ball even lower, showing Henry limping and dressed in rags, while I had full plate and restored full health

Off the top of my head, a more realistic development of the whole quest:

Spoiler

Henry is able to return to Rattay and report that the bandits are preparing to attack Sasau. In fact when questioned, bandits in the camp even mention that tomorrow there is an attack planned.

Depending on how inconspicuous Henry's scouting has been (insert dialogue checks, checks for flashy armor, including false checks, where the game makes the player think he has passed the check, but actually the outcome is that the NPC got suspicious), maybe the bandits got tipped off that there has been a spy around and they rush down and attack Sasau, or maybe they prepare their defences better inside the camp. Alternatively, if the player has not alerted them to his scouting, they may be caught off guard and surrender without a fight.

Nice ideas. But it only further drives the point, that while you have multiple ways in which you can tackle most quests (this one apparently not), there are basically no consequences for the storyline. Nothing changes.

At least with sidequests you can change the world a little, and lock or unlock further questlines.

 

[Rev]

How do I raise my reputation with Merhojed's soldiers? I've done all the bandit hunting quests but they're still at 50.

 

[Rev]

I've finished the game btw.
Despite some bugs and the fact that the last patch fucked things up instead of improving the situation, I'm really satisfied with the game.
I wasn't sure about what to expect from the game before starting it, I hoped it would be good but feared it would have some good ideas ruined by a poor execution and well, while it certainly has its flaws here and there, none of that mattered and prevented me from enjoying every minute of the game. Overall I think it's great, one of the best and most intriguing rpg releases of these last years, and I'm happy to have bought it at day one.

Curious to see what they'll do next.