Thanks @Paul_cze! That was an excellent read.
That’s pretty much me as well.
If you can handle some hardcore czenglish, there is a great talk/stand-up deadpan performance from Design Director Viktor Bocan from last year’s GDS called “Of Bugs and Men” where he goes into explaining some of the bugs in KCD, how they happened and why and whatnot
I think it is possible to take a breather in Uzhitz, I remember learning to read there. But when you get the quest to find Reeky, I would recommend doing that as soon as possible. I took some time off and found him almost dead.
Cheers
Modding tools are finally out and it seems like quite a comprehensive package:
I know they spent years making their quest and dialogue editor Skald, so it is awesome to see it available to anyone.
Wow. The release of modding tools pretty much guarantees that I will be doing a second playthrough sooner rather than later.
I am currently about 170 hours into my first round and I will probably break the 200 mark. I absolutely love Kingdom Come Deliverance and for anyone who has a passing interest in this kind of open world game, it is worth putting on the front burner. If it clicks, get the expansions too as they will enrich your current playthrough.
I put this on my front burner. Despite the fact it feels like I’ve put 20+ hours in, I’m still pretty awful at combat, have no idea how to really pick-pocket (yeah, I did the tutorial, but I forgot!), and am infuriated by the fact that I can wander about the world for 2 hours exploring the map, then the moment I decide to fast travel 6 dudes and their dogs appear, and I lose my 2 hours of play time instantly as I inadvertently lock on to one of them and can’t run.
And yet, I keep on loading the damn thing back up, so I either like it or I’m a massachist, or you need to be a massachist to like it.
One thing that really kills me is that I play games with inverted Y axis, and it makes trying to reposition the direction of your swing a PITA when you have a sword, as you can’t move your mouse in the direction of the cursor. Maybe I’ll get used to it, or play an herb-picking humanitarian?
I went the herb picking/alchemy route. You even can even get a herbology perk that increases your strength as you level the skill up. And in the early game, nettle plus marigolds = profit. Saviour Schnapps gets easier to make as you level as well. So saving isn’t as annoying.
Combat feels much better as your skills level but I can still get smoked if I get surrounded by mobs. I usually try to ride into the mob with my horse and try to lead one or two away from the pack.
The stealth/pickpocket route was too rough for me.
Make sure to learn saviour schnapps and brew it, as you level up alchemy you will be able to make 3 instead of one and then automate it completely. That said it will of course remove some of the tension from the game :)
So, speaking of alchemy - I get that there’s eventually a perk that automates it, but given that it’s a single player game, why should a player wait so long? It’s interesting enough to craft a potion the first time, and a player should demonstrate that they understand the recipe well enough to follow the steps. But once you’ve done one potion, why do you need to grind?
I crafted ~10 savior schnapps last night, and put a show on another monitor as I went through the steps over and over (with all the long and clumsy animations, gah.) This seems more like what I’d expect from a free to play MMO design that was trying to keep me there (and play adds) than a single player experience.
Ha ha! Yeah, the game does have activities and even quests that err on the realism side of the coin. I found the alchemy routine kind of zen-like and charming and a nice break from some of the more violent activities. I levelled alchemy pretty quick by repeating some of the simpler recipes like Marigold potion but never looked back once I hit multiple yields on auto-brew. Wonder how quick a mod will come out to allow autobrewing sooner?
Hah, that’s a fair criticism. Kingdom Come is very unlike most other games. It is not as much interested in providing immediate “fun”, but it is more focused on providing “experience” of being in 1403 Bohemia. Now, obviously, the alchemy is not realistic and accurate to real world alchemy, but it provides part of that immersive feeling. Of course Warhorse could have simply thrown together some excel-like GUI like from Fallout 4 and let players “get on with it”, but…that wouldn’t quite fit with the game’s goals. Personally I like this approach, even if it means that yes, I have to spend some time doing stuff that isn’t fun in traditionally videogame way. Although I might be weird because I did find it enjoyable following the recipes and brewing my potions. Schnapps is the only one where I used the automation once unlocked since it is used so often compared to other potions.
As for not being able to use automated brewing right after brewing the first - I feel that would really cheapen the experience somewhat, but I empathise that it can be considered grinding by others.
Oh yeah, party like it’s 1403 :D
Ridiculous czech humor at its finest
Goddamn you Paul, I was determined to pass this one by but that longread of yours just compelled me to get it.
I sincerely hope you will enjoy it as much as I did. I can’t wait for a sequel and hope some enterprising modders will download the tools and create something good in the meantime. Although it seems the tools are legit development tools that are much less user friendly than something like Bethesda’s creation toolkit.
I followed its development for quite some time prior to release. Then it turned out rather buggy, so I held off. Then there was talk of alt right assholes claiming the game as their thing and i did not want to be on that bandwagon.
And now theres been plenty water under the bridge and that beast of a post of yours and it’s nearly done downloading and I’m looking forward to getting medieval on some asses.
If it makes you feel any better, my tales of KCD (both good and bad) inspired a few of my friends to buy a copy, so now there are a bunch more people appreciating peasant simulator. Even the jank is worth experiencing for jank’s sake, given the price is now so low.
Holy fuck this game takes no prisoners, does it?
No, but it’s fair. You can’t take anything for granted.
They focused specifically on creating a game that sat on the fence between “realistic and not fun” and “a fantasy simulation game”. In some ways it’s a masterpiece and in others you just want to rage quit. If it all gets too much and you want to stop playing, give a few mods a go. It’s better to finish the game with a little “help” than quit and never experience what is a great game.
There are mods that fix a lot of the most annoying elements. I played the game through once without mods but when I went back for a replay, I just couldn’t face it and modded a lot of the worst stuff out.
Oh I will be banging my head against this shit some more. Be sure!