Kingdom Come: Deliverance II - Henry's coming to see us on February 4th

[AwesomeButton]

The Asmongold mention is another illustration of the phenomenon - "we care about any idiot's opinion if he has the perseverance to grow a youtube channel with a million subs". Quality is immaterial, quantity is everything.

 

[SlamDunk]

The post-reveal interview binge continues.

• Savior Schnapps - The save system will be returning. Although Sir Tobi mentioned that they are aware that especially in the early game it was hard to afford to save often enough. They are making it more accessible in the early game.
• Blacksmithing - This is a confirmed mini-game similar to how alchemy worked in the first game.
• Lockpicking - Lockpicking will work much the same way as it does now in KCD1, however he said it was smoother and more accessible.
• Father Godwin - Everybody's favorite priest is confirmed to be back.
• Time passing - The start of the game picks up exactly where KCD1 ended. Sir Tobi refused to speculate at all about anything related to story. So whether or not time advances later was left unsaid.
• Story structure - Initially KCD was envisioned as a three part story. But the first game ballooned to be much bigger than they had planned back in 2014. KCD2 will "end the story" but exactly what that means is unclear.
• Current state of KCD2 - According to Sir Tobi, they are much farther along in development with KCD2 than KCD1 was at this stage. He says they are now working on bug fixing and localization. He said the team is very confident they can release in 2024, but acknowledged that outside factors may change that.
• Character progression - Sir Tobi said there is always a challenge in sequels about how much progression to reset so the player can grow the character again. He alluded to something happening to sort of soft-reset Henry's skills. But also said that since KCD2 takes place in a far larger and more powerful area of the world than KCD1, Henry is now up against bigger and more powerful foes - and therefore he might not be as skilled as we thought.
• Game areas - As we already knew, there are two separate game maps. Once the story advances to the point that Henry gets to the second, Sir Tobi confirmed that you can travel freely back and forth between the two. They are far apart, so there is a loading screen as Henry makes the journey.
• Returning characters - Sir Tobi was very vague about story points and who we can expect to see. However he said there were some familiar faces, but also many new characters. After all, Henry has traveled a long way to a much larger area. There will be many new characters.
• Battles - Sir Tobi confirmed that just like KCD1, there will be larger-scale battles. But just like the first game, these are restricted to story moments. Henry cannot just decide to siege a castle for fun.
• Mini games - Again Sir Tobi was very vague in his answer. He confirmed blacksmithing as the big new addition, and said Farkle is back with some minor additions.
• Miscellaneous - Beyond these things, Sir Tobi confirmed there will be no NPC children in KCD2. This is primary a time restraint. It doesn't add enough to the game for the team to devote the time it would take to do it properly. He also said there was no fishing to his knowledge. When asked if Henry could swim now, he said no. But the way he answered it made me wonder if that would be a skill Henry could learn, similar to how Henry could learn to read in the second game. Maybe I'm speculating there... Tobi confirmed in another interview that Henry will only swim in a cutscene.

EDIT:

• They started working on KCD2 in 2018/19, so that they didn't have to fire anyone between making both games
• It's a direct successor, obviously, same protagonist
• Henry will be taken to Kuttenberg (he used the passive term), he won't go there because he wants to
• Kuttenberg will be under siege by Sigismund
• No save game import
• They try to connect to KCD1 by dialogue and flashbacks, primarily for newer players
• Old players will feel right at home, story-wise as well as gameplay-wise
• The bigger team/budget this time around is used to deliver a better optimized game with way less bugs than at the KCD1 launch
• They're not, and I quote, "a team of punks trying to get out the game" anymore. They now have more experience, better time management regarding bugfixing and pre-release optimization, and have taken the user experience more into focus
• The team looked at what mods people liked to download, and tried to include some of those features in some capacity
• The design philosophy for them is "easy to learn, hard to master", although they struggled with the "easy to learn" part and put extra work into it
• Historical immersion was very important for them
• Example: Same combat system as in KCD1, but they streamlined the experience and made it easier to get into it, so new players don't immediately die in the tutorial phase
• They make a distinction between "hard to master", when it's due to gameplay reasons, i.e. Henry being a peasant and naturally bad at swordplay, and "hard to master" due to bad gameplay and design; they worked to remove the latter, limitations by bad design
• Henry will be able to read (likely, although he wasn't 100% sure at that moment)
• Henry won't start as a dumb unskilled peasant, but he'll be at a point at which he'll have to re-learn some thing
• The scale of the scenario will also force Henry to rise to the occasion, it's not about small-scale brawls with bandits anymore, but realm politics, the big stage, where Henry has to grow into it
• KCD1 was Henry's growth from boy to man, KCD2 is his growth from man to warrior
• Old systems/skills present in KCD1 are more or less also in KCD2 in some form; what they did was tune them better
• No survival mechanics, like having to pee etc.
• Reputation is more granular, now it's not just only by location, but also by social standing: The upper class of a place, for example, will have a different reputation with Henry from the beggars
• Even if people don't catch you doing crimes, a series of crimes will make everyone more vigilant and increase skill checks for a time
• Everything an NPC does serves a purpose. For example, if someone carries a bucket of water, they'll use it in some capacity. No NPC will walk circles with the bucket without purpose
• Save system is very similar to KCD1. However, they saw that the unlimited save everywhere mod was the #1 mod, so they made a compromise: Saviour Schnapps is cheaper, more available, and easier to make. But they kept the mechanic, because by requiring you to consume an item, it makes saving a more conscious choice, to reduce save scumming
• Looking back, they agree that making the Schnapps rare wasn't the best decision. When you needed it most in KCD1, in the beginning, you had little to no Schnapps available, which is what they want to avoid this time around
• There is nothing in KCD1 that was so bad that they had to remove it
• However, they reworked some options that they found not diverse enough. As example he mentioned the combat system, which now caters to different tastes: if someone wants to avoid combat complexity, the mace/axe will have way less complexity best for brute force. Swordplay will be for high finesse, with tricks and combos
• Each weapon has a stuntman/advisor of its own, that gives each weapon its own moveset/feel
• They got more historians on board to improve immersion and avoid unhistorical stuff, like a huge two-handed Berserk-style sword
• There are also a few new things, like blacksmithing. Similar to alchemy, you'll have several different steps and actions when crafting here: awareness of each strike you do, the colour of the iron when working it, getting the right rhythm, etc., etc.
• The idea wasn't complexity for the sake of complexity, but to create an immersive system, one that rewards players who engage with it and master it
• They wanted to include it in KCD1 already, but ran out of time. Now it's in
• You don't need to learn/use most of the skills (like blacksmithing, alchemy, bow, different weapons, riding), they're tools for you to pick up and use, or not
• KCD2 will have more dark themes/choices for Henry, especially morally questionable paths, as the story itself is also darker, bigger, more serious. Not brawls in taverns anymore, but the war between two kings
• Henry will learn that war is a horrible business, a path he won't necessarily go out of his own free will. He'll be taken down that path by the story events
• Those events will put Henry at a crossroads every now and then, forcing him to make choices regarding the story as well as his own psyche. He'll learn that war is sh*t, but that sometimes the greater good requires terrible choices, with appropriate consequences depending on the choice
• But it was also important to keep Henry's humour, the lighter themes of the game, many easter eggs, jokes etc., but the main story will be more serious than in KCD1
• A challenge was composing those profane melodies (even if they had a text), as only religious chants survived time. But they composed new tracks (like drinking music) in a style that would be believable for Bohemia in 1403
• KCD2 really finishes Henry's story, beyond that "we'll see"
• No camp management upgrades/mechanics, it's a story-driven RPG first and foremost. Nothing beyond the existing survival mechanics (like hunger)
• As you know, you can now pet your dog and horse
• Cats will also be present (as many of us probably know already)
• Kuttenberg will have hundreds of NPCs, with different nationalities present. Several markets will be there, like the animal market we see a glimpse of in the announcement
• Kuttenberg was the biggest challenge when making KCD2
• The original idea was a trilogy, each lasting around 20h. But when making KCD1, they became ambitious, so it kind of escalated. But that also means that they knew from the very beginning that they would continue Henry's story
• They briefly thought about Prague for KCD1, but that was so out of scope, they dropped the idea pretty soon. Rattay was at that time the best they could do
• For KCD2 they chose Kuttenberg, because it was relevant and necessary to the story
• Warhorse as a studio developed a more refined mindset, with a higher discipline and willingness to cut stuff earlier. KCD1 suffered from it, because a feature bloat would slow them down. Many things got cut too late, which cost them valuable time towards the end, which is why KCD1 released in a somewhat shaky state. That has now changed for KCD2, they're able to make the necessary cuts early on and manage their time better. Might hurt, but it's better for the game overall to do it that way
• No seasons; KCD1 was early summer, KCD2 is summer
• No swimming, just a sorry attempt at it in a cutscene (from the trailer), where Hans Capon is involved
• Will we see Theresa? He said this was a question regarding the story, so he can't answer that. We'll have to wait and see
• Minigames are of course in, especially Farkle turned out better than expected. So they improved upon it
• Tournaments are in, as "Kuttenberg is a big city"
• They really went door to door, went through the houses, inspected cellars, and really looked for all the old stuff, so that they could recreate Kuttenberg as close to how it was 600 years ago as possible
• KCD as a game series is big in Czechia, people in Prague for example recognize Tom McKay (Henry). When they made the announcement trailer, even the Mayor of Kuttenberg contacted Warhorse immediately, while normal folks discussed the filming vividly in their small facebook groups
• The team is very motivated right now, since the announcement boosted morale
• We might get some new piece of gameplay in the near future
• He said he was way more optimistic with the release date of KCD2 in late 2024 than he was with KCD1, that's how far along they're right now

 

[Gerrard]

The Asmongold mention is another illustration of the phenomenon - "we care about any idiot's opinion if he has the pereverance to grow a youtube channel with a million subs". Quality is immaterial, quantity is everything.

Yep, can't wait to see what e-celebs will be included as NPCs in the game.

 

[NecroLord]

As for Godwin, he doesn't strike me as the big thinking type, he's just a wild boy who likes to booze and party and talk smack in the pub. That's my interpretation anyway.

You know, I always thought Godwin was a bit of a hypocrite.
It's good that he opposes the corruption in the Church, but he's a booze enthusiast and quite a whoremonger. That is not very christian-like and he is not setting an example with his behavior.
Still a interesting character.

 

[Lord_Potato]

As for Godwin, he doesn't strike me as the big thinking type, he's just a wild boy who likes to booze and party and talk smack in the pub. That's my interpretation anyway.

You know, I always thought Godwin was a bit of a hypocrite.
It's good that he opposes the corruption in the Church, but he's a booze enthusiast and quite a whoremonger. That is not very christian-like and he is not setting an example with his behavior.
Still a interesting character.

Drunkard
Whoremonger
Hypocrite

Seems very Christian-like to me.

 

[ArchAngel]

As for Godwin, he doesn't strike me as the big thinking type, he's just a wild boy who likes to booze and party and talk smack in the pub. That's my interpretation anyway.

You know, I always thought Godwin was a bit of a hypocrite.
It's good that he opposes the corruption in the Church, but he's a booze enthusiast and quite a whoremonger. That is not very christian-like and he is not setting an example with his behavior.
Still a interesting character.

Drunkard
Whoremonger
Hypocrite

Seems very Christian-like to me.

Only if you compare with fake Christians from classical Christian Churches. Also there are some good priests there.

 

[NecroLord]

Like I said, he is really not setting an example.

 

[Lyric Suite]

As for Godwin, he doesn't strike me as the big thinking type, he's just a wild boy who likes to booze and party and talk smack in the pub. That's my interpretation anyway.

You know, I always thought Godwin was a bit of a hypocrite.
It's good that he opposes the corruption in the Church, but he's a booze enthusiast and quite a whoremonger. That is not very christian-like and he is not setting an example with his behavior.
Still a interesting character.

Godwin was an Hans Capon in his youth who was forced into priesthood by his family. This was quite a common thing in the middle ages and it often did lead to certain aberrations, such as noblemen still behaving in a wordly manner even after accepting the vows. In fact, celibacy of the priesthood became mandatory precisely because noble families would often send their children into the fold of the Church purely for the purpose of expanding their power, which compelled the Church to take the most stringent measures to ensure the moral purity of their clergy.

That said, there's a few issues with Godwin, the first being that his behavior would have been excessive even had he never taken the vows. It would be excessive today. Second, you'd think a man of his age would eventually give up that kind of behavior and settle in his position. One would be hard pressed to believe even Hans Capon himself would keep up his juvenile antics forever. There's also the fact such flagrant disreguard for even trying to keep a lid to what he was up to would have ended up with the Church coming down on him like a ton of bricks.

And then of course there's the fact Godwin DID in fact take his Catholic faith seriously, but that's completely at odds not only with his behavior but his delusion that such things could be tolerated for a man in his position.

 

[Stavrophore]

You know, I always thought Godwin was a bit of a hypocrite.
It's good that he opposes the corruption in the Church, but he's a booze enthusiast and quite a whoremonger. That is not very christian-like and he is not setting an example with his behavior.
Still a interesting character.

He could had been pushed into priesthood by family as less prospecting son to inherit. There was also a pressure for nobles that had many sons to push one to take the vows.

 

[cvv]

It would be excessive today. Second, you'd think a man of his age would eventually give up that kind of behavior

I personally know at least two men in their fifties who are still rumbustious boozers and womanizers. I know a guy who used to be a great womanizer into his late sixties. Testosterone levels have fallen drastically over the last 50 years, in another 50 there won't be much difference between men and women with their clothes on, but in the past men were animals. Plus afaik Godwin isn't even that old.

As for excessive - Warhorse talked about this, apparently in those times the position in the clergy was extremely desirable for its material advantages. It just offered a much better life than your average peasant and so it wasn't just sons from noble families being forced into it (one such NPC is in the KCD) but an army of lesser well-off men scrambled to get in. And if you have so many people joining for all sorts of reasons but for the spiritual one you can't expect anything else than a mass-breaking of celibate and all sorts of debauchery.

Plus of course the bishops and cardinals didn't exactly set a good example, culminating with the pope Alexander himself a few decades after KCD, who was an exceptional hedonist and womanizer even for non-clergy standards.

 

[Multidirectional]

Godwin was an Hans Capon in his youth who was forced into priesthood by his family.

I don't remember anything of the sort about Godwin at all. From what I recall the guy used to be a soldier before he was a priest. Where did you get that about him being forced into priesthood by his family? I guess I missed a good bit of lore there.

 

[TedNugent]

Glad they didn't put crosshairs, fuck that. The thing that makes archery cool is that it's powerful but hard to do and carried imminent danger of getting bumrushed by dude in full plate sticking sword in your face if you didn't pop him in the kneecaps.

It should be hard like close combat is difficult, otherwise it would be a retarded shootemup.

There was a great quote I read in a John Keegan book, allegedly from a Byzantine general that said something to the effect that if you had 10 archers, 1 of them would be any good. Hence why medieval Europe usually didn't bother, and also why the steppe nomads were a fucking terror from hell. Farmer guy who picks up bow and arrow is shit, dude who hunts game his entire life while roaming the steppes is a monster. Similarly, English longbowmen were good because archery training was mandatory for every able bodied male. Even then, when they lost a shit ton of them at Patay, they never recovered.

Imagine doing anything useful with a 110 pound longbow that you picked up off the ground. Also why crossbows being added is super good. Long reload time, mechanically inefficient, but easy to point and clip one shot and why they were hated in Europe. Going to be fun dunking a hail mary shot into the first knight taking point before ohshitting to your sword.

That said, there's a few issues with Godwin, the first being that his behavior would have been excessive even had he never taken the vows. It would be excessive today. Second, you'd think a man of his age would eventually give up that kind of behavior and settle in his position.

Godwin was a pure gag character, but a fun one. You can tell he is massively getting on the nerves of the town he's living in, and rightly so. I actually would have thought that part deux would have had his rambling about Jan Hus coming to bite him in the ass hard, especially after that heavy subplot in A Woman's Lot. I seriously thought that KCD2 would be moving straight into that as the next catastrophic conflict. Well, maybe further down the road if they keep carrying the torch on the franchise? It will probably come back up, heavy foreshadowing in the first game.

Kind of lame that he's just picking up a sword and being a larping adventurer for the lols in KCD2. I get that he was a fan favorite, but god damn. Part of what I liked about KCD is that it knew when to be bleak.

On that note, I didn't care much for Hans. Also a pure gag character, would have been as annoying as Dandelion but at least he was genuinely amusing unlike that weird fuck.

I read Godwin as being as outwardly intentionally ridiculous as that charlatan guy. Both gave me a kick, I'm not going to lie.

 

[SpaceWizardz]

I don't remember anything of the sort about Godwin at all. From what I recall the guy used to be a soldier before he was a priest. Where did you get that about him being forced into priesthood by his family? I guess I missed a good bit of lore there.

He was sent to the church to prevent any inheritance squabbling with his older brother, I think this was pretty common practice at the time for nobility.

 

[Funposter]

As for Godwin, he doesn't strike me as the big thinking type, he's just a wild boy who likes to booze and party and talk smack in the pub. That's my interpretation anyway.

You know, I always thought Godwin was a bit of a hypocrite.
It's good that he opposes the corruption in the Church, but he's a booze enthusiast and quite a whoremonger. That is not very christian-like and he is not setting an example with his behavior.
Still a interesting character.

Drunkard
Whoremonger
Hypocrite

Seems very Christian-like to me.

average codexian's ability to understand a multi-faceted character on full display here, folks

 

[Old Hans]

I don't recall any Jesus teachings about NOT being a booze enthusiast.

 

[ArchAngel]

I don't recall any Jesus teachings about NOT being a booze enthusiast.

No gluttony?

 

[SlamDunk]

Game is basically a cool walking/riding simulator

Are you still of this retarded opinion, by the way?

 

[ArchAngel]

Game is basically a cool walking/riding simulator

Are you still of this retarded opinion, by the way?

It is also a cool medieval times simulator, it is cool to enter new place and people just going around their business.
And some quests are kind of cool. But it is a daily reminder why I usually skip playing these games, everything is designed to waste your time , even more than Bethesda games.
Also there is no cool exploration elements except maybe some cool nature you can run into. I went back to Skalitz and nothing was happening there. Guards killed some bandits inside it and outside I had one fetch quest to find a priest and one random encounter and one empty mine I found.
What you still do 99% of the time is walk/ride around...
It is nice visuals and very nice music and not much else. About 7.5/10 game atm.
I might need to rush main quest and try M&B2 again on Xbox, I got better at using a controller in the meantime and it could be as fun as it was on PC.

 

[The Wall]

It is not for you. It simply isn't. Simple as that, no need to spend pages of writing to force cat to like bathing. Downfall of game design began when they tried to make any game of any genre and any play style appeal to everyone. Everyone? EVERYONE

Impossible. Kingdom Come ain't for you. That is Deus Ok

 

[ArchAngel]

It is not for you. It simply isn't. Simple as that, no need to spend pages of writing to force cat to like bathing. Downfall of game design began when they tried to make any game of any genre and any play style appeal to everyone. Everyone? EVERYONE

Impossible. Kingdom Come ain't for you. That is Deus Ok

All Bethesda exploration games are not for me but over years I tried playing most and never really enjoyed any. Even back when Morowind came out I was making fun of people that prefered to play that time waster with one character and clunky combat over Bg1 or BG2 and other isometric RPGs. Those were usually full of content, had party based tactical combat and you could move fast from one place to another.
I was so pissed they ruined Fallout 1 and 2 and Tactics (which I also enjoyed and finished twice) with Fallout 3 I came to hate even similar non Bethesda games. For example I tried Gothic for 2h and quit, for same reasons I've quit other such games.

 

[NecroLord]

I was so pissed they ruined Fallout 1 and 2 and Tactics

Ruined them how?
Oh, you mean ruined them by making Fallout 3 and the others?

 

[goregasm]

I quite liked the initial restrictions on the save system. Besides if you didn't OCD save every 11 seconds during the tutorial you had almost 10 of the things by the time you woke up at the millers, more if you explored around the city after you awoke.

Beds are everywhere, it's really only an issue during long bouts of exploring, for that I eventually used the camping mod, which is something I think should be in main game.

All in all a minor issue I suppose. Hopefully they make the things weigh like 10 pounds as a fuck you, or they could have just made it optional.

 

[Harthwain]

average codexian's ability to understand a multi-faceted character on full display here, folks

Was that supposed to be an insult? An average is still higher than below average, which Codex has no shortage of.

 

[SlamDunk]

2 million views now:



cvv Get up of your lazy ass and add the reveal trailer into the first post.

 

[Zariusz]

I really hope that rocky, mountainous part of the map will be quite large. Its a perfect place for hiding spots, treasures and bandit camps full of loot, much cooler than random graves or camps close to village imho.
Caves, rocky crevases and gorges are great, KCD's hills and forest were nice and had homely atmosphere but they cant beat great feeling of adventure and exploration of hiking in mountains. From what i saw in trailers it reminds me of those few times when i was hiking in polish part of Sudety Mountains and kinda of landscapes from Janosik.

Also mail coifs and collars finally can be seen over surcoats and plates, this small change does so much in terms of aesthetics.