Setting

[Jinko]

What year and area do you guys think this game is taking place, (These are just guess)

[SirChuckles]

I like to believe that it's hundreds of years after a Fallout type situation, in which times have gone on long enough that people have essentially forgotten that there was ever an old world, and that the radiation has passed.
I think this because of the amount of technology in the game shows that we have robotic parts (and planned robotic prosthetics) in addition to the ability to build significant technology, while only fighting with blades and using armor and metals that are sub-par with metals that would exist in such a time frame.

[UndefinedM]

it could also be a different planet where technology evolved in different ways. i remember chris saying it wasn't necessarily earth or a post-apocaliptic setting

[Clawdius Talonious]

From the About section of the front page
"Original game world. There are no fantasy-knock-off cliches. No magic."

This doesn't specify it, but largely it has become accepted to describe the world as post apocalyptic. There are also going to be ancient ruins, near which may be the only place certain things can be researched. The nature of the world having swords and (eventually) arrows and cart animals, alongside stone processors, generators, and electricity generating windmills seems to indicate that with a fair amount of certainty.

However I do believe UndefinedM is correct in his assertion that this is not necessarily earth at all.
Chris says as much in his interview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... JpEA#t=54s

[Jinko]

to me it doesnt feel like a post-apoc, to me it feels like its a diffrent world were all kinds of species are teleported to a unknowed planet and are tested on their abilitys to survive. (sry its hard to think right now and type down what my head is telling me).

[Clawdius Talonious]

It isn't supposed to be earth, and it's impossible to say why the technology isn't available for gunpowder based weapons. It is effectively described as post apocalyptic, but it isn't our apocalypse if you follow me. This other world may never have possessed ranged weaponry beyond a bow and arrow, perhaps saltpeter as a compound isn't required in the human body, or gunpowder was never thought of to be put to the use of firing anything. It seems as though power generation is the only use for "fuel" and it isn't described how power is generated. Perhaps these people only ever used fuel to generate heat for a boiler?

Of course, there are robotics components, and therefore far more advanced sciences were made, but it is entirely plausible that another flavor of humanity would be less warlike by inclination than our own.

[UndefinedM]

btw does it say anything anywhere on how generators produce energy? because they look like big car engines to me..

[Pliskkenn]

Reminds me of Gunsmoke from the Trigun universe.

Without guns, obviously.

[apoororphan]

Ya'll notice that the path to PortSouth is kind of like a crater path? As if something crashed and drug out a path?

Also on the floors of the small shack it says something along the lines of "property of ark b". So perhaps it was an "ark" space ship, filled to the brim with colonists to help colonize this new planet, but something went wrong and the ship crashed.

And maybe Ark B was the Japanese Ark, ya know?

[Tolwrath]

btw does it say anything anywhere on how generators produce energy? because they look like big car engines to me..

And the stone processors look like they might've been a train engine at one time.

[CodofWisdom]

I think it is a world other than earth, or if it isn't, then it is an alternative timeline, where guns never really took off. Was it because of a strict honour code? Or perhaps gunpowder was never plentiful enough to make it even initially viable?
I'd like to think it's the second one for now: Gunpowder is made up of charcoal, saltpetre, and sulphur. Since it's not a naturally occurring mixture, maybe it was never discovered.

As such, engines and generators of all kinds were invented, and perhaps the crudest forms of bio-fuel was created, eliminating the need for coal, oil, etc. They advance mechanically, refining the bio-fuel, creating more efficient generators, and seeking other ways to create energy. Wind was the most prevalent in the desert, bar the sun.
Where the robotic parts come in, I'm not sure. I'm reminded of Fullmetal Alchemist. The automail arms and legs were NOT magical, just extremely advanced.

I'm not certain though why people would settle in the middle of the desert though. No food, no water, no vegetation. A nomadic people, certainly, but for people to settle down? There must be something that draws them. The only other explanation is the post-apocalyptic setting, where the world is little more than a wasteland, and so even the most desolate desert has to become home.

[Tolwrath]

I imagine we'll have a better picture of the setting once the map expansion update comes in. Until then, I guess we just have to assume that they're very proficient at detecting underground water sources.

Maybe it's not about what the deserts have, but rather what they don't have. I know animals are planned, so with this not being earth, they might actually be quite dangerous.

[CodofWisdom]

I imagine we'll have a better picture of the setting once the map expansion update comes in. Until then, I guess we just have to assume that they're very proficient at detecting underground water sources.

Maybe it's not about what the deserts have, but rather what they don't have. I know animals are planned, so with this not being earth, they might actually be quite dangerous.

I agree regarding water: Otherwise farming would be rather ridiculous.

And you have a point regarding the animals. On the other hand, animals who either evolve in or adapt to the desert tend to be dangerous. They have to be either fast, cunning, deadly or just plain won't die. Since this is potentially another world, it might be a case of all of the above.

[Dyderich]

Another world like Arakkis, Dune. Who knows.

[iSuck345]

A world that shows a desert, one of the many biomes of this world, the desert having been the result of constant warfare and housing hard warriors but weak farming and not-that-good economic activities.

[Tolwrath]

Or the deserts could have been caused by overgrazing without replanting anything. Like how we got deserts in Africa.

[DesertWolfie]

I have seen a lot of people approaching the possible setting of Kenshi in... A very odd way, really. People seem to slightly obsess over grouping it with a template setting, cyberpunk, a certain past era of Japan, a future thing, (and a general, GENERAL thing has kind of been suggested, I'll give you that,) but I personally like to approach it with a different spin. That being, the setting is... Kenshi. That sums it all up pretty well I think. I recall a few people arguing why x technology wasn't in there while x just as if not more advanced tech was. They seemed pretty upset about it really for breaking its continuity. But, Kenshi hasn't put a label on itself to specify if it fits into a super-established sort of lore. And personally, I really hope it -stays- that way. Kenshi's aesthetic is so cool (in my opinion) because it's unique. you can't assume the nature of the whole thing from one facet because the arrangement of them doesn't exactly have something it seeks to emulate on a 1 to 1 level. The same could be said for a ton of the super iconic worlds created in gaming. So... Kenshi's Kenshi. I think that's a fair observation.

[Frazzleman]

What year and area do you guys think this game is taking place, (These are just guess)

1000 years Post #2 headband.

[EvilTea]

I kinda see it as a colony from earth of people in tough situation escaping earth expecting a utopia indtead getting a wasteland and these people set up on a alien plannet not being as well or maybe worse.

[Eiron]

I envisioned it as an alternate world that has nothing to do with Earth. So their technology and culture have happened to overlap with Earth's somewhat (and surpassed us in some areas), but they're notably lacking in some technologies that we've had for some time.