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

[GentlemanCthulhu]

The fuck is Vavra Game Studios doing these days anyways? Are they just wasting their time on hookers and drugs or are they making Legend of Henry pt. II?

 

[rusty_shackleford]

The fuck is Vavra Game Studios doing these days anyways? Are they just wasting their time on hookers and drugs or are they making Legend of Henry pt. II?

https://store.deepsilver.com/merch/accessories/other//kcd-natural-soap-logo

 

[Mary Sue Leigh]

At the most you might get, A Woman's Lot 2 - The Wedding Planner!

Coming in fall 2024

 

[Paul_cz]

even though these detract from RPG immersion and the experience of the player.

You should really speak for yourself, not "the player"; there are plenty of people, myself included, who enjoy the cinematic presentation as much as the gameplay itself, assuming it is well done (which in KCD it is).

 

[Lyric Suite]

In a sense, Vavra wants to do the same thing the industry wants to do. He thinks roleplaying is about "experiencing" the role as if the player was actually living it. The difference between him and other devs is that he is going the right way about it. Codexers may scoff at the idea roleplaying has anything to do with "experiencing" anything, but if one MUST go that road, there's no better way to do it than how Vavra is doing it.

Vavra's game-design tendencies might be far superior to the typical tendencies of AAA game design, but they could still be considerably improved. He is the person responsible for KCD's heavy focus on cinematic cutscenes involving a pregenerated character, emulating games such as the The Witcher II/III, even though these detract from RPG immersion and the experience of the player. Similarly, Vavra insisted on prolonging the main plot in order to have as much exposition of the life of Henry as possible, preparing the grounds for at least one sequel, even though this results in the game dragging on and on in the later parts, with repeated anticlimaxes; there's even a second bandit fortress that again fails to fully resolve Henry's situation after their defeat. The true heroes of KCD are those who designed its systems and its historically-grounded Open World setting.

I don't think they need to be improved, not the least because nobody is going to talk Vavra out of doing anything different.

The point i was trying to make was coming from a simple practical consideration from a purely player's perspective. It's not a question of what the "ideal" way of making an RPG is about. The question is what we as players are getting out of this singular vision Vavra has for the genre, and what we are getting is something that is actually pretty good as far as that particular style goes.

 

[Quillon]

If Henry is back as main character, It's gonna be a hard pass for me.

Unless the sequel is set at least couple decades after Dan seems too stubborn to change the MC

 

[Chanel Oberlin]

It's really a focus on a good story, which kindda needs a premade character, coz stories with a custom silent protagonist like Skyrim or Dark Souls have always sucked and always will, for obvious reasons.

Untrue. Games with custom characters don't need to be silent to begin with, but going back to the main point of your argument, in games with custom characters the story shifts from the character's personal story to the conditions of the world around you, the NPCs, villains, etcetera. Fallout, Arcanum, Age of Decadence and many do this well. Of course you can prefer a story like Planescape Torment or The Witcher, but it's wrong to suggest that premade characters are a requisite for having a good story.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

PST straddles the line of predefined & custom character. The current incarnation is meant to represent you.

 

[Corbin Dallas Multipass]

I personally find the journey of charname to be a very interesting and compelling one, even if he doesn't have a predefined name, race, class, appearance, or voice. Same with fallout characters, it's more fun for me to come up with the concept of the character in my head and try to play them that way.

The fact that the concept often comes down to "Well he would definitely do all the things that make him stronger and richer" may signal a lack of imagination on my part, admittedly... Although sometimes a game will have a well written enough villain or whatever that I'll make actual suboptimal choices just to spite them, or avoid doing some ridiculously evil thing...

 

[Lyric Suite]

I have half a mind of starting an HC game with all the perks on.

I never actually finished the game. My 580 struggled even on medium back when i tried and i remember having some annoying bugs.

On my 5700XT, i can now set the game at very high with only shadows and shader quality on medium and the game never drops below 60 FPS at 1440p with HD textures on and the new Hard Core mode seems enticing. I'd leave the Mercy achievement for another run as that seems kinda of annoying to get.

 

[The_Mask]

I have half a mind of starting an HC game with all the perks on.

If you do this without having played through the game before, you might have a bit of a bad time when it comes to some perks. I know it sounds lame, but I would recommend consulting the wiki, because the way some perks work/flat out don't work as worded, might ruin your playthrough.

 

[Lyric Suite]

They don't seem bad. Some of them you can negate with perks and some even seem to have some secret advantage (like the hunger one which allows you chug more potions). I also like the numbskull one since XP acquisition seemed a bit too fast for my tastes.

Biggest problem is probably going to be to re-learn how the combat works without the help of the UI. Gonna be fun to try to make perfect blocks without the green shield icon.

Anyway, loaded up the game with all the negative perks on. This is how i'd imagine my Henry ought to look like:

 

[Lyric Suite]

BTW, so the game saves everytime you quit? Doesn't that negate some of the challenge i mean seems like its easy to save scum any time you want just by quitting. Not that i'd do it or anything.

Anyway, i'm already at level 5 herbalism lmao. The kleptomania is real.

 

[cvv]

BTW, so the game saves everytime you quit? Doesn't that negate some of the challenge i mean seems like its easy to save scum any time you want just by quitting. Not that i'd do it or anything.

The game is built so that you can't really brick your run. No matter what you do you can always complete the game. In fact oftentimes failures are way more entertaining than successes (drinking with the priest if you fail a speech check being the best example) so there's no real benefit to savescum (and even less if you have to quit and restart everytime, what with the long loading times).

Plus, if you've played the game already, you know very soon you can start brewing potions, meaning you can start savescuming liberally anyway. Brewing 3 schnapps is way faster than quitting and restarting.

 

[Lyric Suite]

So i picked up ascetic and Henry still eats like a hog lmao.

Does using the inventory pause the game? I'm reading up all the codex entries, don't want to get hungry while doing that lul.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

BTW, so the game saves everytime you quit? Doesn't that negate some of the challenge i mean seems like its easy to save scum any time you want just by quitting. Not that i'd do it or anything.

the saves should be deleted when you continue, so if you alt+f4'd I think you'd have to start back at your last non-suspend save

 

[ItsChon]

I decided to give the game a proper shake, and I've been playing for a few hours now. Got to Rattay and have started my first patrol.

So far, I am very lukewarm on the whole experience. The combat system actually seems fun and I look forward to fighting proper enemies. The setting and story are great too, although this is due to the premise versus the writing quality which really isn't anything special (maybe even substandard at times). Trouble is, even with all the settings bumped up to max and a smooth 100 FPS+ experience, the game still kind of looks/feels like shit.

It's also mind numbingly boring walking around in first person for some reason. I get the whole appeal is for "muh immersion" but I don't think I'm autistic enough for that. Running/walking around is such a slog that I often find myself wriggling in my chair from the pain that it causes me. I can reload the same KotC2 fight for five hours until I get the optimal result I was looking for, but walking for more than 60 seconds makes me want to alt f4 out of the fucking game. I think this might be universal for me for all walking simulators though.

I will push on though, because I like our sexually frustrated protagonist, and I want to continue on his quest for some medieval waifu fornication revenge. Will need a few more hours before I can decide whether or not this is the kind of game I will want to finish.

 

[Lyric Suite]

BTW, so the game saves everytime you quit? Doesn't that negate some of the challenge i mean seems like its easy to save scum any time you want just by quitting. Not that i'd do it or anything.

the saves should be deleted when you continue, so if you alt+f4'd I think you'd have to start back at your last non-suspend save

You get an option to save every time you quit. Loading times on my flashy SSD aren't that big a deal, so technically i could easily exploit this to savescum at my leasure.

 

[Lyric Suite]

I'm not even running the game on max and i think it looks great. Distance rendering looks wierd/cartoony but my system is struggling already with whats in front of me so i guess they had to do something there to make the game playable at all.

I also have no issue with first person. Can't comment on the writing as i'm still stuck in the prologue. I went to collect money from some drunk guy and managed to get through the diplomatic options and avoid having to fight him but the quest remains unresolved. So now i gotta beat the money out of him, or steal his shit or see if i can actually finish the quest in some pacifist way (i guess leaving him be and get the money for the quest stuff i need some other way is also an option. Maybe i can sell those million herbs i picked up to get some cash back). I also just found out that you can kill and loot chickens without getting in trouble for it, but punching an horse sents the whole twon after you lmao.

The frequency by which i keep getting hungry is starting to worry me. Of course i'm just eating enough to get rid of the hungry icon maybe i should try to get full instead. I also managed to get injured just by jumping off a ledge. Those negative perks are actually doing something, but i will persevere. It is after all just a scratch.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

The frequency by which i keep getting hungry is starting to worry me

Check if Henry got the munchies

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

I decided to give the game a proper shake, and I've been playing for a few hours now. Got to Rattay and have started my first patrol.

You haven't really completed the tutorial yet; the game doesn't properly begin until you reach the horse stables that have been raided. Admittedly, this prolonged opening probably wasn't the best design for an Open World game.

So far, I am very lukewarm on the whole experience. The combat system actually seems fun and I look forward to fighting proper enemies. The setting and story are great too, although this is due to the premise versus the writing quality which really isn't anything special (maybe even substandard at times). Trouble is, even with all the settings bumped up to max and a smooth 100 FPS+ experience, the game still kind of looks/feels like shit.

At maximum graphical settings, the game looks fairly beautiful, though it may disappoint fans of fantasy or SF settings since the historical environment of Kingdom Come: Deliverance is necessarily grounded and lacking flair.

It's also mind numbingly boring walking around in first person for some reason. I get the whole appeal is for "muh immersion" but I don't think I'm autistic enough for that. Running/walking around is such a slog that I often find myself wriggling in my chair from the pain that it causes me. I can reload the same KotC2 fight for five hours until I get the optimal result I was looking for, but walking for more than 60 seconds makes me want to alt f4 out of the fucking game. I think this might be universal for me for all walking simulators though.

I will push on though, because I like our sexually frustrated protagonist, and I want to continue on his quest for some medieval waifu fornication revenge. Will need a few more hours before I can decide whether or not this is the kind of game I will want to finish.

 

[udm]

Walking around in KCD genuinely made me happy though. It really made good use of the lighting shaders that come with CryEngine 2. The environments are stunning. I never got this with any other walking simulator, but then few walking simulators let you shoot rabbits and roe deer while on a leisurely trek through a photorealistic forest.

 

[Lyric Suite]

This game looks a billion times better than Skyrim, and i don't mean just graphically. Skalitz is a masterpiece in enviormental design. The only other game i remember that paid this much attention to terrain was Gothic. The world in Skyrim by contrast is poorly modeled and that's why the game looks like shit even after a trillion graphical mods, most of which are basically nothing more than an attempt to slap lipstick on a pig as the Fagbryo engine looks incredibly ugly no matter what you do with it. And believe me, i tried, not in Skyrim but Fallout New Vegas where i downloaded a billion mods to try to fix the Fallout 3 out of it only to fail miserably at the end.

 

[Mary Sue Leigh]

Yeah good way to put it. Felt much more like being in a place that actually exists as opposed to Skyrim which was so "computer generated" terrain that I took me out of it.

 

[ItsChon]

I don't have any issues with the landscapes, in fact I think it's the sole reason the game looks decent versus shit. I don't know, something about it just doesn't do it for me though. Things look low res even at the highest settings. At high, I was able to literally see the polygons in an archway, and even at very high it still looked weirdly fuzzy. The ground textures are also a bit meh. It's not bad by any means, and obviously better than a almost everything I usually play, but I guess if I'm going to play a game that tries to lean into the graphics, I really expect the creme de la creme. Also, when you're playing a game with an art style, it's okay for things to not be super "detailed", or rather, not completely realistic. But since the game is meant to be as realistic as possible, it's hard not to notice bad lip syncs or small graphical inconsistencies. I honestly prefer the beautiful art of IWD/BG or something like Vagrus versus what we have in the game, though it's a fair attempt.