I’m glad to hear this because I’m still struggling. I ‘get’ the game, but I’m not getting how to get really going in the first few days/weeks. I think I’m going to try an easier start, perhaps the trader.
Yup, pretty sure this is a key to the early going.
I think you hold down your right click on the building’s front door, and the option to purchase will pop up.
Click en the building, if it’s for sale, a buy option will appear on the bottom left.
So how are people liking this game? I am kind of interested in buying it, but this thread doesn’t have much activity which suggests the game is very niche.
I’m 11 hours in, and finally starting to get the hang of it. Those 11 hours include multiple starts with different scenarios to see what floats my boat most. Right now I’m doing the easiest start – Wandering Trader. But my true goal is to do the squad-based starts.
I’m loving it the more I get into it. There’s no hand holding, and the tutorial doesn’t help a lot, but now that I’m over that initial learning curve, I think this is my GOTY. More than anything, it has a feel that there is a living breathing world going on around you, and you better be damn careful about interacting or you will quickly end up as a corpse. It is a nasty world and no one is your friend, except those in your crew.
Right now as a Wandering Trader I’m truly roaming the landscape, me and my pack mule. A lot of times I just watch the other shit going on – battles among troops and traders and pirates, battles with giant insects. Sometimes I wait up on high ledges and watch the battles until they’re done, and then loot the corpses of the victims. Sometimes the victims are only unconscious and when I loot them they give chase. My mule and I can run pretty fast now.
There’s a ton of crunchy stats, there is grinding for sure, the UI is decent and the inventory system works well, as does trading. The different starting scenarios actually lead to different styles of play, changing the game from survival to more city building. Though I’ve yet to get far, I believe there is depth to the game’s systems. I think the 12 years put into making this shows. For example, the health of each of your characters is broken down into body parts.
I love that level of detail in a game. And your character animation reflects that status, so when your left leg is injured, your character limps as it walks or runs.
Sorry for the rambling answer. Is it niche? Absolutely. For me, this (so far) comes pretty close to everything I want – post apocalyptic survival, squad based, RPG-ish, with loads of bizarre shit. I will be playing it for a very long time.
I played it a lot during early acces so im a little burned out at the moment, but its a great game. And yes, it is niche.
@DeepT Fwiw, here is the Rock Paper Shotgun somewhat pretentious but rave review of Kenshi.
And here’s a pretty good and relatively brief tutorial series.
The mocap in Overgrowth is pretty impressive IMO. ;)
I have a question for someone who has played this a good while.
I set up a base in the fertile zone near the holy nation. At first everything was cool, but now they constantly send assaults to my basse. My faction with them is zero, so I have not offended them, yet I keep getting assaulted.
Sometimes they ask my about the beasts in my crew, and I tell them they are my slaves, and they seem happy with that. Is that the cause? They have demanded that I surrender all my non-humans. Would that stop the assaults? If so, is it safe to say, that anyone I recruit in a bar from a holy nation town is ‘safe’ and not offensive to them?
If I walls around my base, will this keep them out (their patrols, not their assaults). As in, if they do not go inside, they will not see my non-humans?
I don’t know, I haven’t tried the basebuilding yet. But the subreddit for Kenshi is full of experienced players. I’m sure if you ask there, someone could help.
If you build in their territory they might attack you i think. I know the empire will send tax collectors at you and if you dont pay they will attack.
I have mostly set up bases in the cannibal zones and i get constant attacks from them.
Also the holy nation hates everyone that isnt a male white.
They have not sent tax collectors that I have noticed. They have sent inquisitors who complain about all the beasts in my base, meaning my non-humans.
Christmas season has made me busy…I’m forced to read your accounts while i yearn to play with family visiting…
Interesting RPS interview with developer Chris Hunt, who persevered.
The fact that you can’t conquer and take over existing settlements kind of bothers me. Not sure why.
You can’t for yourself but you can, for example, eliminate the leaders of the holy nation and they will start losing settlements to the other factions.
I don’t know how the system exactly works tho.
I’ve been reading through the Something Awful thread for this game and apparently that’s a planned feature but not before the map is done. There are also a lot of mods for the game but no one so far has mentioned any that let you do this.
(I don’t have this game yet but will probably end up buying it this weekend.)
Map is done already, game was released, no new features planned.
Oh, ok thanks for the correction (I’m back reading that SA thread and this was said in July.)
After two weeks of wandering, scrounging and looting with his pack mule, Jed stumbled upon a good location for his own base – near some copper resources, and close enough to a town for selling after mining. His immediate goal is to raise enough money to recruit an ally – who will then be tasked with the laborious mining while Jed himself works on looting and thieving.
Shortly after building the base, Jed was greeted by a large group of peaceful missionaries asking him to join their sect. He politely refused, and the group went on its way. But a straggler from the group got into an altercation with his mule, and Jed was forced to knock out the miscreant in order to end the fight and save his valued companion’s life.
Rather than kill the guy outright, Jed got a brilliant idea: if he saves his life, perhaps when the missionary awakes, he will join Jed’s squad. So Jed administered first aid, then carried him inside his small hut to protect the visitor from dust storms. The missionary now lays on the floor of the base, in a recovery coma, and Jed watches warily. When he wakes, will he be grateful, and join Jed’s crew? Or will he attack?
Jed watches and waits…
Haha, love it! “See, my mule don’t like people laughing. He gets the crazy idea you’re laughing at him.” - Fistful of Dollars
I just started playing this game and the emergent storytelling is just off the charts. My story has only just begun and is not nearly as interesting yet as yours but I’ll try to share when neat stuff happens.
