A few questions about this game's engine

[mstrdenton]

I'm confused about a few things I see in this game, and am wondering if a developer would be willing to answer my questions. I am asking out of curiosity more than anything.

First question is, why are you using Havok physics engine? Don't get me wrong, its a great tool. It was used in source engine to great effect, and the physics puzzle sequences in Half Life 2 that the game is famous for would not have been possible without Havok. However, for a game like Kenshi, the only real use I see for Havok is ragdolls and the navmeshes. The ragdolls in Kenshi are often hilariously buggy and stupid looking. I sometimes see a person fall unconscious from starvation, and then their body flies away like it was hit by a freight train. Sometimes it works great, but other times it glitches out and looks stupid. You could probably make animations for people falling over after combat death or otherwise, and it would look much better, though it could get a bit repetitive unless you make a ton of variants, but wouldn't the performance increase be worth it? It also appears that movement collisions are entirely done with characters moving on networks of invisible faces that can be cut and added to by placed objects and buildings (navmeshes), which Havok does provide. However, Havok's system has a ton of bells and whistles that I don't think Kenshi needs, as it is designed more for games with full 3d movement, so maybe a custom solution would work better? It just seems overkill to me, but if I'm wrong please educate me. I want to learn more about this stuff.

Another question I have is, what version of Ogre are you using? 1 or 2? And if 1, do you plan on moving to two to make use of the processing and graphical power it provides?

[Hatsune_Neko]

can't answer the first one
but the second one
Kenshi is currently using Ogre 2.0

Kenshi 2, which the Devs are currently working on will upgrade Ogre 2.0 to Ogre 2.1 enabling multithreading. it will then be ported to Kenshi 1 free of charge.

As for falling over animations, Lo-Fi games is a indie company, they have limited resources and cash. it is easier and cheaper to use rag dolls then making custom animations. Those take time and money to create and add into the game. and rag dolls come free.

[jmansuper08]

I made my account specifically to respond to this thread. I don't know why I felt so passionate about this specifically but I have to bring up that the ragdolls in this game are absolutely amazing. This game is such a serious game about slavery, war, survival, and conquest which is amazing, the game is great because of it but sometimes when your martial artist kills someone just at the right positions to send them flying it make you chuckle. These things are what makes this game so beautiful. So I would vouch to keep the ragdolls system you have now, it gives some much needed goofiness to the world. Btw thank you devs for a super fun game. I backed way back when and have been playing forever. Looking forward to kenshi 2, pls make character relationships a thing, doesn't even have to be romantic, just like a bond system, i think it would do wonders to the story telling. Good luck guys!