Hardships, and taking advantage.

[TheVagabond]

Reader,

I bought the game just to help out an indie developer. The goals and proposed mechanics seemed to be ambitious and worthy of my money. It wasn't the name of the game, or the katanas... They kinda put me off from trying the game after buying it.

Having tried the game, I'm still put off by some of the art style (not into anime/Japanese stuff), but the mechanics are fun (as I assumed they would be). My biggest gripe is that it seems the only way to get started is by abusing the AI. Taking advantage of the fact that the AI has no self-preservation instinct.

I mean... All I could do to raise my combat skills was run out into the desert, leading a group of bandits to a town, and A) take advantage of the guards - as if they would be accepting of me leading armed criminals to their gates, and b) take advantage of the bandits - as if they would run willingly to their deaths.

The Guards don't arrest me for what I am doing. They just mop up the bandits, watch me loot them, and take care of their wounds before shuffling off.

The bandits don't stop half way to the town and go "Jeez these guys can run fast... and straight to town..Maybe we shouldn't follow...".

I know I am outmatched by both the guards, and the bandits. The Guard's job is to protect the town - so they don't have an option of running when something charges at their gates...They know they are bad ass, and the bandits would too.

My question is... will there be in game consequences for trying to take advantage of the AI? In my experience, its really the only decent way to get your men better at fighting. If this self preservation feature was added, there would have to be alternative methods of starting your game, instead of the current method.

I just feel really cheap, like I am cheating. It's hard to get immersed in the game doing things like this... but I don't see an alternative method of increasing combat capabilities.

Consider this a feature request.

Thank you,
Michael

[iSuck345]

Huh, it seems legit, elaborate and simple. They are mostly the same thing to me, but you make a point.

[Santaissick]

NPCs will get self-preservation instinct later in the development. And yes, it might make starting new game even harder. But it's not the only way to train. You can also start following a group of wandering merchants or other friendly squads who roam the landscape. I believe that later you will even get small payment for "escorting" merchants. (By escorting I mean following them and trying to stay alive while the caravan guards kill all the enemies.

[Clawdius Talonious]

While luring bandits into the guards is one easy way to accumulate significant starting wealth, you can actually do a fairly decent job of it early on by trading. It is a pain to start out, but you can find a few items that are undervalued in a location and schlep them across the desert. Rinse and repeat until you have a larger crew and start training them in Police Stations with training dummies. That will take awhile, so you can continue schleping your newer members around with goods from place to place to build up their speed, swapping out when you hit 3-4 attack skill (getting from 4-5 takes as long as getting from 1-4 I think, seems like it anyway and in combat it takes much less time). Get everyone in a full party up to 3-4 attack skill and venture out into the desert and fight smaller groups of enemies, or groups of enemies fighting caravans.

And that is of course just what you can do right now, Clownsteady is also under attack every few minutes on high speed, in the future we'll likely be able to rent a building in Clownsteady, use our money to build a few training dummies and possibly beds from building materials and train there. When members of our group are up to par, send them into the fray with the guards against the bandits. Perhaps in the future there will be specific randomly generated bounties for us to go and find for the various police chiefs.

I look forward to when the AI starts to loot the fallen enemies, and turn on you if you loot their fallen allies. Will also be nice when they begin to carry their fallen allies. But for now, the game is still quite entertaining.

[Mattk50]

Having tried the game, I'm still put off by some of the art style (not into anime/Japanese stuff),

you heard it here first, kenshi is anime.

[Santaissick]

you heard it here first, kenshi is anime.

Is it?

[Maan]

What you point out "bothers" me, too (well, "bothers" is probably too much of a strong word...).
But it's just a "flaw" caused by the game being far from finished, really.

I found also unrealistic that someone would chop down a foe and then let you loot their prize while they stand idly by.

[iSuck345]

you heard it here first, kenshi is anime.

Is it?

NEW ACHIEVEMENT COMPLETE: REALIZE THAT I AM THINKING OF AN ANIME FOR KENSHI! I already got the intro song.

[Clawdius Talonious]

It would be awesome if someone in the community could come up with, if not an anime intro, something perhaps drawn in that art style. Moving layers of an image can be done more simply than advanced animation techniques, but can look quite nice. The first few minutes of the GW2 Teaser trailer do a good job of illustrating what they were able to do with some still art cut into layers and moved independently, together with some effects filters and the like. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... EbO0#t=18s

Of course, we'd really need some lore to do an intro, although I guess a short anime style battle scene could be amusing to watch. A few desert wanderers from an early party vs a few sand ninjas perhaps?