What Feature do you think needs improvement?

[ildabaoth]

Hi guys,

New guy here, although I've played quite some time already. I think the game needs some improvements, mainly quality of life ones:

- Map: The map doesn't show too much information. It would be nice if there were labels with the names of your squadies. I rarely play with more than 10 sized groups, but even then watching a blue circle in the map and then figuring out which guy is that is cumbersome. I can't imagine how would that be with +30 members or so. Some easy fix would be with labels (maybe togglable) or by being able to jump to a map position by interacting with the map (double click maybe?).

- Working in darkness: I'd really love it if you could automatically prevent a guy from doing some jobs during night. Early in the game, when you can't illuminate the base, I hate it when a farm is ready in the middle of the night and my guys go and try to harvest it at like 10% success rate (combo of low skills plus darkness, both due to it being early game).

- Medic work: Maybe this is working as intended, I don't know, but I'd like it if the Medic job was automatically done even while being on Hold. I like having my crafters as field medics as well, so they are on Hold not to be involved in battles, but they don't do their job at Hold and if you untoggle Hold, they jump in the fight.

- Threat scale: I don't have a specific suggestion here, but most of my gameplay is quite binary. Either I have to run from a menace or I can easily dispatch it, so in reality I don't have moments of high tension. Maybe it's because facing a still too powerful threat has most of the times too nasty consequences (losing your guys, whose training was quite lenghty), so you are basically forced to build until you're strong enough, and by then said menace is trivial. I'd like more frequent hills to climb, but without those nasty consequences that promote reloads.

[Pyracles]

Aggro mechanics could do with improving. By this I mean the decisions the AI makes about who to attack and how the target of that attack responds. It seems silly and very exploitable, the way I can target a an enemy that I can barely see, and that target instantly turns and runs towards their attacker. This makes it very easy to split someone away from their squad allowing them to be fought wihtout the support of their buddies. Its also pretty absurd that if I change what my attacker is doing, such as making him move towards some different random spot on the ground, that mob he aggroed, if still far enough away, also changes his mind about fighting and goes back to his squad.

I've also exploited aggro to save a character from being eaten by a spider by having an extremely distant character, who was actually behind a hill and out of sight of the spider, constantly aggro the spider away from its dinner.

I'd much rather mobs just made their own decisions about who to turn towards and fight, based on closeness and visibility. They shouldn't magically know someone is planning to attack unless they are seen, close and closing or close and are an enemy.

[A Space Ostrich]

More variables exposed in the FCS would be amazing. In general the more avenues we have for modding the better, for me anyway. I've tried to reverse engineer the data files directly, but haven't had much luck finding anything that isn't already available in the FCS. An example of something that would be nice to see exposed is base damage from item level. Weapons damage is determined by various multipliers, but I cannot for the life of me find the base damage that all these multipliers are modifying.

[Shiek4d5]

0.98.31

A current issue I have is the "ditch resources" task. It works but not with strategic retreats. The whole point about a retreat is not to run back to base. If it is possible, could you make them hold their position if the "hold" button is on? I had it turned on but they still run back to base to eat or drop resources while an enemy raid was taking place.

I love the difficulty of the game but some things make it more difficult than it should be.

Is there an option that I can currently do that stops them from dropping off food the moment it is purchased? I did consider destroying the food store barrel and animal feed trough since they never did that task before I built them.
Also, is it a bug if they store human food in the animal trough?

[Shiek4d5]

Path finding. Wait does that count as a feature? In any case it needs work. Why does my hydroponics person leave the building. Go all the way around it to get water. And then circles all the way around again to go back in the door. The well is literally right to the left of the door!

There are (or at least in 0.98.31) people icons when you place an object for construction. If that icon is red, then your squad can't access that side. You may need to disassemble it and place it again.

[Shiek4d5]

No, I don't like the feel of an orderly society in a disorderly world. It puts a restriction on freedom of play styles. The Catholic style of public execution puts a timeline on the game where it currently feels like an alien world (the two planets in the sky say it is), and on a different timeline than Earth. I like it how it is.

[Shiek4d5]

Recruitment By Kindness:

I noticed that we can heal and feed both friends and foes alike. I thought if I healed a bandit, they might forget their fight with me. A gesture of good will toward my enemies. It did not work as I suspected, the feature hasn't been implemented even though the mechanics are there.
What I had hoped would happen was the bandit's reputation with me would increase. Possibly on a personal level and a small fraction would increase the bandit's faction also. If the bandit's personal reputation of my faction increased enough before he got "erased/deleted" by the game mechanics, then I would gain a new character.

I was thinking it would take reputation points as well as chance to gain a character. There needs to be a chance of failure otherwise it wouldn't be fun and risky.

Some key actions to 'convert' a raider to your side would be:
Bandaging their wounds.
Feeding them if they are hungry.
Fighting with them against their enemies. (I am not sure how that point system would work, either a point is gained for each attack made against their enemies while they are present, or per enemy killed.)
Etc.

Like I said earlier, the mechanics to convert enemies is already in-game, the Devs just need to add a point system for it and also make every person in-game 'convertible' aside from those in key positions. Think of it as the opposite of aggression, where you piss them off if you attack or steal from them. This is the flipside, where your kindness wins the war rather than the battle.

[Shiek4d5]

Edit: Deleted by Shiek4d5.

[Hatsune_Neko]

if you wish to discus someones response.
please do so in a new topic.

Thank you

[Shiek4d5]

Transactions.

Or you could leave them there and save yourself the trouble. Just a suggestion.

[lucidmadness]

I'm sure this has been addressed somewhere, but let's say I queue something that uses iron plates in a crafting station, then queue something that needs steel bars. The AI as of right now sits there with leftover iron plates in the inventory, rendering that bench etc worthless. I would love to see either a larger inventory for these benches, or the ability for characters to auto remove the materials leftover from the previous queue (which would also need the workers to not fill their inventories to 100% when grabbing the initial materials)

[Shiek4d5]

I'm sure this has been addressed somewhere, but let's say I queue something that uses iron plates in a crafting station, then queue something that needs steel bars. The AI as of right now sits there with leftover iron plates in the inventory, rendering that bench etc worthless. I would love to see either a larger inventory for these benches, or the ability for characters to auto remove the materials leftover from the previous queue (which would also need the workers to not fill their inventories to 100% when grabbing the initial materials)

The best solution would be to turn on the "ditch resources" checkbox in the AI tab above the map. I would turn it back off if there is a raid though, otherwise your people will run back to base if you are retreating.
Another issue with that auto-command is that the squad will steal from shops and ditch the resources.
If they have the Engineer job turned on, they will steal from shops to add them to their job site.
Some observation is required and I would turn off the Job button when in towns.

[lucidmadness]

if you wish to discus someones response.
please do so in a new topic.

Thank you

[ronvandorp]

- Map: The map doesn't show too much information. It would be nice if there were labels with the names of your squadies.

I concur. Also the map itself needs region borders and region names, like some mods already provide.

- Working in darkness: I'd really love it if you could automatically prevent a guy from doing some jobs during night.

I disagree. Working in darkness should be a pain in the ass so you will light everything from the get go.
[/quote]

- Medic work: Maybe this is working as intended, I don't know, but I'd like it if the Medic job was automatically done even while being on Hold. I like having my crafters as field medics as well, so they are on Hold not to be involved in battles, but they don't do their job at Hold and if you untoggle Hold, they jump in the fight.

I concur, this is super annoying.

- Threat scale: I don't have a specific suggestion here, but most of my gameplay is quite binary. Either I have to run from a menace or I can easily dispatch it, so in reality I don't have moments of high tension. Maybe it's because facing a still too powerful threat has most of the times too nasty consequences (losing your guys, whose training was quite lenghty), so you are basically forced to build until you're strong enough, and by then said menace is trivial. I'd like more frequent hills to climb, but without those nasty consequences that promote reloads.

I disagree, ultimately your experience is dependent on the choices you make in the game. You can settle in Holy Nation territory and deal with the Wrath of God on a regular basis. There is plenty of challenge in the game, but after a while you do have to go and look for trouble yourself.
You can also play in a different way. A solo character or some other maximum amount of people. Or maybe only martial artists. Or traders. Or bounty hunters. Or a herder with a pack of dogs or herd of goats. You make the story.

[Neteman]

i know it's not necessary to say but, please please please please, do NOT scale the game.

U should die if you go into the deadlands with your bare chest. Your next character won't do it.
You should be eaten by a megaraptor if you go alone with a rusty plank and no armor just because you were training swim. Your next character will swim somewhere else (accompanied and carrying something better).
...

It's a question of learning and the cost (pain) of it that makes this game great.

[lucidmadness]

The shinobi thief trader (not bartender) that buys hash should have a lot more cats in the trade window. right now he has 14-25k, but strangely when you go to mod him it says he already has 45000 cats (I changed his name to make i was looking at the right npc) so i was really not sure where to post this seeing how it's both a request and does not seem to be adding up right.

[PTTG]

Time compression is a fantastic feature, but I find out can be too fast and too slow at once.

It's too fast to react to many problems and events, but waiting two or three days seems to take forever.

I think one way to resolve that would be smart pause triggered by nearby hostiles (ideally before combat begins,) which would make an additional faster speed reasonable.

Also, the stance options (block, hold, ranged, etc.) could use an additional couple of modes like "patrol" and "flee."

[Eternallight]

I find mining to be a bit odd.

You build stones (rather than dig into the earth/make a quarry).
Iron and Copper are just sitting above ground (once again, rather than making a mine, until higher tier research)

I feel like mining should still take those building materials, but should be entirely underground, and be between a manual quarry/mine and an electric one.

Beyond that, the traders need major improvements. I build along a roadway on a pretty heavily traveled area, but, very little actually comes to sell or buy. Hungry bandits though do show up about every 8 hours, so you think they would learn their lesson or call their boss or something.

[Chinsei]

Personal faction management.

both in letting other factions know you want to be friendly toward them. and in getting other factions to recognize that you are your own power - assuming you don't join someone at which point it wouldn't really be your 'personal faction' anymore.

more options for buildings, and attracting people to your settlement(s). especially in the types of people you attract. so that your settlements population can come to reflect the groups you prefer. for example if you prefer being a bandit, it think you should have more ways to attract bandits to your settlement not to attack you but as a 'safe haven' where they can take shelter, and re-equip themselves. of course as with a stereo-typical bandit hang out, it shouldn't mean you're immune to them fighting in your base, or trying to steal your stuff. and of course their bosses should occassionally if they see weakness attempt to take your settlement from you for themselves.

[hotspur75]

Combat advancement.

Hear me out.

I've been reading about this for a while now. Follow with me. The way to you get better at fighting in this game is getting your arse kicked. In real fights. Where you could die. So the process is make some coin, hire some friends to come stand by and watch you get your arse kicked, and then save you before you die. At the hands of people with no discernible fighting skills.

So this combat system is called Fight Club.

It makes no sense that I cannot gain fighting experience with a weapon on a dummy the same as I can attack experience. It makes no sense that I cannot beat someone with a 5 in attack with my 15 in attack because their 5 in [weapon] beats my 1. It makes perfect sense that getting beat up improves your toughness. That's like...the greatest life lesson this game can teach you. You learn by failure.

Hold your tongue. I know what you're about to vomit.

However, some training beats no training. Training with no experience will lose to no training with a lot of experience because experience is a form of training. This seems to be the rule of law in Kenshi. Only experience is valued.

A friend of mine used to teach Kenpo. The only real fighting he did for a number of years was sparring. Sparring is safe. Sparring is effective. It's not as effective as life or death, but most fights aren't life or death. A guy walked into his dojo and challenged him. He warned the guy, "I train for 8 hours a day. How much do you train?" The guy was obstinate. He wanted to fight and prove himself. It took one closed-handed hammer fist on top of the head to change that dude's mind. My friend had experience getting beat up by people who wanted him to learn something, the other guy was just a brawler who thought his wild fists were better than "dancing".

And that's what I think the combat system needs. When you join the Shinobi, or if you join a police force, or when you pick up new crew, there should be a sparring feature. It still needs to be limited. As said, most fights aren't life or death. But in Kenshi, they almost always are. And there is no substitute for that kind of fighting experience.

But come on. Let me train myself and my crew to fight Starvin Marvin and his crew. Not Bandits. That's one level up, and they will kill and loot you if you make them. But the hungry guys...I should be able to train my way to fighting and beating them without risking injury. It's time to disband the Fight Club mentality.