Lo-Fi Games

So, i would like to start by saying Kenshi is imo the best game ive played since the 90's and every time i play it i can´t stop thinking about all the possibilities and as my ideas are starting to overwhelm me i decided to drop them here.

1) Sandboats and Steampackers

- Taking Kenshi setting in consideration, i imagined that as a civilization based around gathering and trade "Kenshiners" would have come up with some transport and war technologies so i came up with:

1a- Sandboats (war tech) - Theese would be a mix between 18th century small vessels and steampunk. i was thinking that if the boat was made of bamboo or softwood and coated with aluminium plates it would be light enough and have low friction, to drift the desert sands using wind, this vessel would have very low capacity of transporting as seeing that if the vessel its too heavy it just wont move maybe a maximum of 5 crewman (crew has to be in the lightweigth state) aboard and no inventory space. Also as seeing it would be troublesome puting wind in the engine i thought in a way that it could work (keep in mind my programing skills are 0).

Here is a speed draw of what i imagine of the sandboat, including 2 mounted harpoons on each side:


About the wind: a way i think Kenshi could have "wind" would be to have a the engine tell where the wind is coming from using a 360 degrees language and for how long the wing would stay there untill the next wind change, then it would calculate the sandboat position and check if the wind is hiting I , II, III or IV. Being the speeds (considering the max speed on foot is 79): I- 0 / II- 100 / III and IV- 75.



1b- Steampackers (trading tech) - Steampackers would be a cart like vehicle with 1 man driving it, it would have a speed around (20 or 30) but would have a 20(h)x10(w) stackable inventory, the fuel would be coal, maybe 1 coal unit (500g) per 50m.

Speed drawing time:


more to come since i get som many ideas every time i play

im not so keen on the boat idea, but i love the steampacker, that does look cool
the boat for me seems abit useless, if you cant store stuff on it, and its only used as transport i could never justify owning one in the game, except for the harpoon guns i gues

I love your ideas and they would be ideal for Kenshi and they would add so much to the gameplay.

But I'm afraid that since there has been no no for mounts from Chris himself, there will be no yes yes for sandboats or steampackers either.

But if you are able to make mod for those, it would be awesome

wolfleader01 wrote:im not so keen on the boat idea, but i love the steampacker, that does look cool
the boat for me seems abit useless, if you cant store stuff on it, and its only used as transport i could never justify owning one in the game, except for the harpoon guns i gues

Yeah, i tought the Sandboats more for a military purpose as to have the upper hand in war , especially if you are on a large facction such as the empire that would probably need this upper hand to keep control.

Santaissick wrote:I love your ideas and they would be ideal for Kenshi and they would add so much to the gameplay.

But I'm afraid that since there has been no no for mounts from Chris himself, there will be no yes yes for sandboats or steampackers either.

But if you are able to make mod for those, it would be awesome

yeah ive seen this "no mounts" comments but using animals ist way harder for a transport method on a game because you have to animate it (and believe me horses are hard to animate) put a behavior on it, simple AI etc etc etc, as for the vehicles yo need the model and some simple animations , for the boat that would be the sails turning and for the steampacker the wheels spining and maybe some smoke particles, and no AI needed nor behavior.

The boat idea seems a little far-fetched for Kenshi, but I love the Steampacker.
Good art too.
Now I may try and draw some ideas. lol.

I like the artwork.


Chris did mention that there will be something similar to pack mules.

Chris said: no, except for something like pack mules

He didn't specify if it was beast,man or machine.

http://www.lofigames.com/phpBB3/viewtop ... lit=mounts

Good to know, love looting and trading and a pack mule would be great xD

YES YES YES YES YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS. YES. THIS. Please. Put this in the game. The second one especially fits into the Kenshi feel imo. Big and clunky, should be all rusty. It's technology, but obviously from the "old world". Looks so awesome. And it makes me happy everybody likes the Steampacker.

Sandboat could do with some wheels/skids, and I wouldn't want to see it unless wind-direction and tacking were implemented.

As for the other image, Steam-tech doesn't fit in a game with no way of producing gunpowder and not that much else to burn that isn't coal.

There's already electricity, so I wouldn’t mind seeing the occasional(rare) airship run on batteries charged from the wind-turbines if you're into the whole steampunk scene. After all, if you can build an electrical generator, you can build an electric motor, so yes to vehicles, (rather slow and not all that useful vehicles other than for goods-transportation, which would keep the sandboat useful I suppose) but no to steam engines.

I thinks these vehicules should be a great idea.

But for the sandboat, maybe make a different form so there will be less friction.
maybe a catamaran form?

or putting wells on it, i don't know but i thinks it could be great.

The sandboat is a really good idea,it would add alot to the game!

Naiba wrote:Sandboat could do with some wheels/skids, and I wouldn't want to see it unless wind-direction and tacking were implemented.

As for the other image, Steam-tech doesn't fit in a game with no way of producing gunpowder and not that much else to burn that isn't coal.

There's already electricity, so I wouldn’t mind seeing the occasional(rare) airship run on batteries charged from the wind-turbines if you're into the whole steampunk scene. After all, if you can build an electrical generator, you can build an electric motor, so yes to vehicles, (rather slow and not all that useful vehicles other than for goods-transportation, which would keep the sandboat useful I suppose) but no to steam engines.

coal is one of the most comon minerals on a coast, and you can as well make charcoal , if you look at keshi's map, there is suposed to be a coast and there is probably where you would find it, and another lore-friendly excuse for the coal is where you can find iro you can most certainly find coal, and maybe if you dig deep enough on those northern plains you will find oil and all, seeing that deserts are some of the most ancient terrains we have, a lot o carbon based "stuff" was burried underneath it so, coal, diamons, iron and oil have a high chance of being found there, (i.e.: nothern africa and arabia, its a desert full of oil.).

actually a sand-sailer would not be very far-fetched at all in the current setting of Kenshi, however I would envision a catamaran or a boat with side-skids (like tribal-canoes) kitted with off-road wheels

much like current beach sailers, only more ship-like

Such necromancy Daerchador

I too agree that this is a great idea by the way, my fellow Brazilian has put some work on it, and seriously.. Kenshi has industrial machines, a steampacker wouldn't be ridiculous nor unreal, it can be a reality in Kenshi, just because they have an industry capable of building Mechanicals. Steampackers with turrets, steamcarriers for transport and trade, a lot can be invented from it.

Sandboats though, I'm not sure about the wind system.

Kenshi has much potential, it shouldn't be just a band of warriors from Catan going to Fort Simian on foot, if you have tech, you have money and resources, you SHOULD be able to tame animals, such as leviathan transport and the list goes, or make steam machines that can drive around the desert and future jungle biomes, I find it to be pretty, pretty silly when you're a trader, to just grab a bag and trek everywhere with trade commodities on foot, risking lose it all, there could be a NPC transportation system you can embark in high-tech/rich cities, Kenshi has enough inventive people, and they are capable of building these kinds of transportations, but that begs a question, if there be steam-transports, how long we'll have harpoon gun, revolvers, steam-rifles requests? I kinda like these, but unfortunately, some seem to base Kenshi around melee, a game about swords, it is a game heavily on CQC, but having ranged weapons, when you mean business, it would add a new depth to the game.

Roque wrote:Such necromancy Daerchador

I too agree that this is a great idea by the way, my fellow Brazilian has put some work on it, and seriously.. Kenshi has industrial machines, a steampacker wouldn't be ridiculous nor unreal, it can be a reality in Kenshi, just because they have an industry capable of building Mechanicals. Steampackers with turrets, steamcarriers for transport and trade, a lot can be invented from it.

Sandboats though, I'm not sure about the wind system.

Kenshi has much potential, it shouldn't be just a band of warriors from Catan going to Fort Simian on foot, if you have tech, you have money and resources, you SHOULD be able to tame animals, such as leviathan transport and the list goes, or make steam machines that can drive around the desert and future jungle biomes, I find it to be pretty, pretty silly when you're a trader, to just grab a bag and trek everywhere with trade commodities on foot, risking lose it all, there could be a NPC transportation system you can embark in high-tech/rich cities, Kenshi has enough inventive people, and they are capable of building these kinds of transportations, but that begs a question, if there be steam-transports, how long we'll have harpoon gun, revolvers, steam-rifles requests? I kinda like these, but unfortunately, some seem to base Kenshi around melee, a game about swords, it is a game heavily on CQC, but having ranged weapons, when you mean business, it would add a new depth to the game.

Unless the steampacker is ridiculously slow, has no offensive armerments, and can only transport 1 person at a time, I do not see it being included.

skynet464 wrote:Unless the steampacker is ridiculously slow, has no offensive armerments, and can only transport 1 person at a time, I do not see it being included.

I imagine it would, a bathtub full of scrap metals and mechanical tracks in the desert, one can only theorize the amount of maintenance such transports would require, same goes for fuel, steam-moving coal fuel? solar powered? solar power seems more logical, using batteries at night, it think should be able to carry at least 3/4 people, there could versions/upgrades of course, such as more cargo space in place of people transportation, more sits in place of cargo, attack versions of steampackers are kinda impossible, what would you do? attach a turret, 1 drive plus 1 manning the turret? in a attempt to intercept bandit platoons?

Hvizeu wrote: yeah ive seen this "no mounts" comments but using animals ist way harder for a transport method on a game because you have to animate it (and believe me horses are hard to animate) put a behavior on it, simple AI etc etc etc, as for the vehicles yo need the model and some simple animations , for the boat that would be the sails turning and for the steampacker the wheels spining and maybe some smoke particles, and no AI needed nor behavior.

Because of this I'm at the vehicles team, I have seen hundreds of games try to implement animal transports, but failing to give animals some life, some behavior, I'm not saying Kenshi would do that, but given the amount of strain development gives (trust me, I know), and also one man developer for a whole game, starting on a vehicles side of transportation would be ideal for the feature show, we also need to hope the game is eye-candy enough to see more people buying it, for our utmost priority should be to see the game grow, attract more backers so our game can reach completion?

Animal transportation would be creative, realistic, but when you give it a thought, it would be hard to make, it is our right to give suggestions and help the product we bought, reach completion, for thus is the sense of Early Access? Player Involvement.

OP;
I remember when modding became a thing for the game industry, these big companies (Bethesda) rely only on their own to make the game, playable, and then releasing it, their way, in the market, so people can buy it, but it never seems to actually look "complete" hence why a lot of people mod games, Fallout is no exception, when a game needs to be so heavily modded to look complete, the company is the one to blame, modded games can Crash to desktop because of the occult forces that settle in, crude releases, raw. Modding gives it shape, Early Access is the way to make games.