Kingdom Come: Deliverance

[PZ]

 

[Art Blade]

thanks.

[fragger]

Does look fantastic, and from what you've reported over time Art, it sounds amazingly detailed as far as gameplay goes.

Medieval is not my thing though - not in games, anyway. I'm fascinated by the history of those times, I just don't want to play a game set in it. I like to shoot stuff too much

[Art Blade]

I'm not an avid fan of anything medieval although when I think about it there have been a few games set in that period of time which I enjoyed playing. This one here is quite obviously the best one I've ever come across and many people say the same about this game.

It is brilliant in every aspect. The stories are deep and immersive, characters are fleshed out and the combat system is hard but rewarding. All that and in addition, tons of different weapons and armour sets to loot, wear and collect plus now the new canine companion make this game stick out so much that it's almost a new type of game.

[Art Blade]

having played all main quests and side missions, there still may be a few remaining parts of some side quests scattered across the map which I will tackle when I come across them.

I do know of one that I had mentioned some time ago and I think it was bugged but recent patches supposedly fixed it. I remember it because only a few days ago I visited a place (some lonely inn on the far end of the map) where Matthew and Fritz are still waiting for me to decide to join them. I know that the resulting quest is quite tricky and may, depending on what I do, end both of their lives. I rather read up on it and prepare for it so I get a good ending. So far, I've managed to get the best endings of all quests and I don't intend to screw up this probably last quest.

For now, I've decided to take care of all 30 treasure maps there are which I had been collecting and I already found a few of those treasures. Usually they contain some nice gear, also money, food, weapons.. something really cool: you don't have to have a treasure map. If you happen to stumble upon a treasure, with or without map, you can take it Obviously maps are more conductive to finding treasures more quickly.

With the dog by my side, it's way easier now to find any secrets and unvisited places: I give him a "long term" command (that lasts until either he runs off or I give him a new task) which in this case is "seek." He'll just run along and if we're within about 20 or 30 strides, he'll bark a couple of times and then start to follow a trail which leads us to something I hadn't discovered before. Once he finds it, he'll bark again a couple of times, showing me where he found something. So cool It actually makes me want to reward the dog, even though he's just part of a game.. so I usually praise him and toss him some meat that had been rotting in my saddle bags.. he'll gobble down just anything you toss at him that used to either walk, swim or fly.. he's a proper canine dustbin

[Dweller_Benthos]

That's one thing I like a lot about open world games, just wandering around and you stumble on something and either start a quest or find some loot. Too bad many games *cough*Generation Zero*cough* if you do a quest out of the expected order, there's a good chance it will break because you found the second clue before you found the first clue.

[Art Blade]

I remember the discussion in the GZ board, that's pretty bad game design.

Here in KCD, it is interesting: depending on your progress, the dialogues change. NPCs will comment on what you did, like, "oh, you won the Rattay tournament, congratulations." It also works in main quests, they will pick up on how far you've progressed.

[Dweller_Benthos]

Sounds like they spent a lot more time on that sort of thing in KCD than they did in GZ, that's for sure.

[Art Blade]

Here is an example of how the game remembers stuff you did earlier and picks up on it during dialogues. Since it happened right after a savegame, I decided to redo it and why not, record it and a short bit that follows with all kinds of things happening, of course the Bailiff shows up, too. Sword fight, Dice (mini) game, and "Mutt" the dog. Also, look at the phenomenal landscape. I recorded this with the higher bitrate option in OCD as described recently, it looks great, is lag-free and really, nothing to complain about. This video is 574MB small despite the level of detail. And it's YouTube's fault that it's partially blurry, can't help that.

[Dweller_Benthos]

That poor chicken! But, a guy's gotta feed his dog, right? Such a good boy.

Before the swordfight I can practically hear you thinking, "Not this guy again..." maybe if you beat him often enough, he'll stop picking fights?

And the poor Bailiff, all he wants is to complete that quest.

[Art Blade]

hehe, the knight is a rare random occurrence so I wasn't annoyed at all. It only shows you that he remembers a prior encounter with me which is accurate. I actually enjoyed that little duel. If I had wanted, there was an option not to duel him.

Regarding the chicken, I find it both funny that you can kill it with a punch and that nobody takes notice nor offence when I do that.

The Bailiff.. crazy. Apparently his routine starts once per in-game day and is only reset once he encountered me, he then walks all the way back and then, there, it starts anew, and he wanders the land until we meet again. Over and over again.

[Dweller_Benthos]

Maybe the bailiff was Sisyphus in a previous life? 

[Art Blade]

 

[Art Blade]

this is the side quest that I mentioned before and it can be really nasty. You can get your friends killed and all that.. and it usually takes a whole lot of prerequisites (scouting, manipulating people with dialogue choices if you've got a high enough skill level for that, combat.. it is tedious and dangerous)
I tried to find a good solution online but there were none to be found..

So I had to find it out by myself. And indeed, I came up with a solution that is so easy and guarantees the best outcome.

The plot: Matthew and Fritz (they always leave the hard and dangerous w0#k to you.. nice friends they are) plan to steal the wages that belong to Talmberg's quarrymen and that's the payment for a quarter of a year. You need to find out when it will be delivered, how many guards will be guarding it, you're supposed to sabotage that delivery by making horses sick and have some guards be sent elsewhere so it will be easier to attack the camp at the quarry where the money will be delivered to. The camp area will become a trespassing area and that alone means you'll be attacked if you so much as step into the camp site. You're supposed to make your friends help you (yeah, they wouldn't want to risk their necks voluntarily..) and of course you'll have to make sure that they'll make it out of it alive. It may lead to people witnessing that spectacle and running for help. That will make your reputation drop significantly in the whole Talmberg area. You might get caught, you might get killed, you might end up in prison, you might lose one or both friends.. it is quite something.

What I'm doing there (stealing the money before it is even sent to the quarrymen) is actually part of an alternative solution. The innkeeper of the place where I talk to Matthew knows about the plan but thinks it's too risky. If you talk to him he'll tell you that and he'll suggest to denounce your friends. Following that line will result in even more guards to fight. But you can instead tell Matthew and Fritz that the innkeeper wants to betray them and that opens up another quest line: you're supposed to make it look as if the innkeeper stole the money. For that, you'll need to steal the sack used for transporting the money to the quarry. That's what I'm doing but without triggering that quest. Funny or strange: stealing the money sack always includes stealing the money itself which is why you'll see the message on screen "you got: money sack" or some such while what I was picking up was the 3k Groschen for the quarrymen. Anyway, that betrayal quest line is called "Gallows Brothers" that also enables you to betray your "friends" along with the innkeeper. The result is either having the innkeeper alone or along with your friends hanged in front of the inn. They may deserve it for all the bad things but then again, those are harsh times and you're supposed to stick by your friends. By all means, they wouldn't send you to the gallows.

So.. I simply stole the money before the whole circus started and gave it to my friends which is what you'll see in the vid.

WARNING: EXPLICIT LANGUAGE

[Dweller_Benthos]

That is a cool way to turn that quest around, I take it no one gets hanged from that ending? Or does the innkeeper still take the fall for the missing money?

Not to mention both your bozo friends saying they are going on a spending spree right after you get the money, nice way to lay low after a bunch of money gets stolen and all of a sudden these two doofs who normally don't have enough money to buy two beers are hiring hookers for a month? Way to be discreet, guys.