Kingdom Come: Deliverance

[Art Blade]

*bleep*!

...

Now, he's at the camp, I can talk to him, but those are other options (for a DLC) but not the default ending dialogue

Actually, I now think it might yet be possible to finish the game properly. I now believe that I HAVE to finish that DLC tied to Capon first. The reason why I believe it is that I today I used the only option to start the DLC and then it told me to wait for the outcome (end) of that DLC before meeting with Capon there again.

I'm now brutally cutting every corner to get it over with quickly and along the way I just managed to get yet another achievement unlocked.

[Art Blade]

and it is getting a bit tedious. It's not "just" the DLC with Capon, part of it requires interacting with a character I would have come across during a side mission if I had played it. Because of speed reasons, I didn't. I can still do it. I found out because I've already bought a recipe book from him to brew a potion needed for the DLC but the game wouldn't accept it.. that guy is still waiting for me to play that side mission from the main game.

But it's not only that. I need to play that side mission in order to get said character to move to another town where he'll be available for the DLC purpose. I've actually JUST finished it and he's just moved to that other town. Now it will let me interact with that character for the DLC-related stuff. If I'm really unlucky, I'll have to play yet another side mission but we'll see about that..

And mind you, it's the hardcore career.. no fast travel, no compass, no map marker of my own position, and all that.. lol

And yep, need to play another side mission with that character..

Normally, it's fun and would have happened somehow anyway, only this time on hardcore I limited the playthrough to the bare minimum only to find out I can't finish it, have to play a DLC, and during the DLC I have to play TWO side quests that are lengthy.. I'm working my way around with some trickery but I still need to spend quite a bit of time JUST TO FINISH THE GAME on HARDCORE 

[Dweller_Benthos]

ahhh too bad that makes you go through all that again. No matter how enjoyable a game is, the constant repetition of it can be annoying at best. Hopefully you'll get the final quest to finish and be able to see the ending after all this.

[Art Blade]

Gone through to the point that I ended the second side quest that I had mentioned and.. mission marker got stuck, can't progress that second mission, meaning I can't finish the game. GNNNGNGN

I have a feeling it is my own fault. The point I got stuck now is all about a certain "Musk of infinitive Allure," a potion that Lord Hans Capon asked me to get from that character (a charlatan) as he believes that it will make him irresistible (he's trying to seduce a woman and I'm doing all the w0#k and running errands for him, as usual) and yep.. I knew it from the first playthrough. I found out that it's an easy source for energy and against hunger, 10 units each.. a few bottles and you can skip sleep and any other food.. so I "helped" myself to an energy/food source. I didn't expect that I had to play the DLC, otherwise I wouldn't have used it. Now that I have to play the DLC, it is perhaps backfiring but it could just be a bug that would have popped up anyway.

I'll try from a savegame BEFORE I bought the recipe from the charlatan (which enables me to brew that potion using an alchemy bench) so I might get lucky. My "mistake" then was, that when I started the DLC and subsequently was sent to town 1 (Sasau) where I had to do the first side mission that would then send him to town B (Ledetchko) I bloody bought the recipe, read (unlocked) it and then found out I couldn't progress the DLC. So I should have reloaded then already. But I didn't know it would result in the problem I'm facing right now so there's only one chance, doing those two missions YET AGAIN in hopes that I might finally continue and finish the DLC and the hardcore playthrough.

The missions are fun but as you can imagine from watching my last vid, they're typically very long.. although they're not typically "all cutscenes" like the last vid. Mostly they require you to do stuff so they keep you busy. And if you make a mistake (wrong decisions or missing out on important things) the missions may end differently. So yes, throughout the game, decisions will have an impact later on, for the better or the worse. I consider playing them repeatedly as a practice run, practice makes perfect. For instance, today I found out two options during the second side mission that I had never played before, so it was good already that I did play it again. And the other way around, for the first one I remembered a few important things so I was able to cut that mission very short.

[Art Blade]

Alright, I triggered the charlatan and got the potion, so it works and indeed when it didn't, it was due to me having helped myself to it a tad too early, unknowingly.

The funny and annoying bit of this reload-play-again bit: Part of the shortcuts I mentioned were for the DLC quest, I "miraculously" found a hidden bandits' camp and retrieved a necklace that used to belong to Sir Hans Capon, and that saved me a good chunk of the mission. That was before I ran into the bug. Now, having loaded a save about from right after the start of the DLC mission, I went there again but the necklace wasn't there. I tried several times, nothing, suspected it had to do with the charlatan quest so I ran back to the charlatan to finish his first quest that I had almost skipped entirely before. Now I had to play through it. Then came the DLC bit for the necklace, or so I thought, and I ran back to "discover" the camp.. still no necklace. It dawned on me.. I checked my inventory and there it was. So the savegame was from when I had already retrieved that necklace and bloody hell, I could have skipped that side mission altogether this time.. Sounds complicated? It isn't, really. Essentially I removed all of those elixirs before I started the charlatan missions and in the end, it worked. This time, I was able to skip the 2nd, very lengthy side mission. Kind of funny, really.

Now I'll "just" have to finish that bloody DLC.. about to.

[Art Blade]

IT WORKED!

I GOT THE HARDCORE ACHIEVEMENTS! And the "merciful" (without killing anyone but that main quest brute which is the only unavoidable kill and as such allowed)

But.

Hardcore means, you can only save sleeping in your own bed, using the "bathhouse services with everything included," drinking saviour schnapps or "quit and exit." The last one gets overridden every time you do that, the saviour schnapps saves can be up to 10 saves and from then on, you'll have to start overriding them.

So I was also aiming for the "Virgin" achievement which means I am not allowed to, erm, see.. any women. The bathhouse save is only possible if you use the full service, including bathhouse wenches, and that.. ruins the virgin achievement.

During my last attempt of getting this *bleep* over with, I completely forgot about that and used a few bathhouse saves because I wanted a "hard" save to fall back to if needed.  

Now I can do this "reload and play again" once more, but I'm bloody experienced now AND this time around I may kill people.

[Art Blade]

Bloody hell, I can't believe it! Now that I know removing the special potion from all my inventory also removed the bug I had run into, it now turns out that I don't even have to play the two side quests for the charlatan!! I just hopped on my horse, galloped back and forth across almost the entire map (I know the paths by heart now) and just arrived with the potion in under 10 minutes Now I'll just have to finish the rest of the DLC which will be equally quick.

I hope the virgin achievement will pop up then..

[Art Blade]

YESSSSsss!

It worked, now I've got all those achievements I had "worked" for, even managed to pick up two more along the way.

NICE

Now I can finally continue my most recent fresh career on normal difficulty and without that stinking stalking Bailiff of Rattay. I'm already excited

[Art Blade]

< I added this after reading this post: sorry D_B, my only loyal follower here, for you having to read so much. It's nice writing about all this but I realise that you're the only one who reads this stuff even though you're never going to play this game. Other people just drop by once in a while or when I ask them to. I hope that you're enjoying reading all this stuff here.. there's no one else I could "talk" to. So I am very glad that at least you're reading my stuff here. Cheers for that, buddy, and +1 for you. >

***

I did some other stuff the rest of this day and haven't touched the game but my mind kept returning to it, thinking about situations that I experienced, all kinds of things.

I think this game has got a lot more replay potential than FC2 or FO4 regarding game story/quests. FO4 is likely to have more hidden stuff and collectibles but KCD isn't so far behind, really.

I mean, we replayed FC2 a lot but by comparison, it was a small game. FO4 is quite big but not so deep. KCD is way bigger than FC2 and a lot deeper and way more advanced than FO4. It is amazing, the freedom you're given, the many interactions and characters, skill trees, alchemy/potion brewing, weapon/combat system, gear, background, even collectibles.. KCD really isn't small at all.

I think I never mentioned that this game is based on reputation.

Reputation is both a local thing, like you have a certain reputation in every town and bigger (named) locations, and a personal thing, like my reputation with the Bailiff of Rattay or Sir Hans Capon and other named/relevant people.

If you steal in a town and someone sees you, your reputation with the group that someone belongs to goes down and, being part of a location, your reputation with for instance that town said someone lives in (respectively, the town you were seen stealing in) goes down. There are typically "citizens" and "soldiers" and "traders" in towns but there are also other groups in certain locations, like "refugees from Skalitz" who can be found mostly in Rattay, or "Talberg quarrymen" near the town of Talmberg, or "monks" in the Monastery near Sasau.

Now, you start with a reputation of 50 and from there it can even go negative (below zero) or up to 100. There are ways to improve a reputation to get back to normal or even good but I only tried that for a short amount of time and reloaded a savegame. I know that it's a long way to get reputation back up to a good standing so I avoid losing my reputation if possible.

Reputation: you notice your standing when interacting with people. If they hate you, they may run away from you or refuse to speak with you (you can literally buy your right to talk to them and it's comparatively expensive especially when you're not yet established) or, passing by, they may drop remarks essentially telling you, "we don't like you here, go away, leave us alone." Guards may frisk you and won't be susceptible to sweet-talking your way out. They may even attack you on sight. Good reputation, however, is obviously beneficial. People will greet you very friendly, like, "I'm glad to see you!" and you'll get way better prices selling and buying from traders. Of course and quite obviously, you won't have to pay for your right to talk to them, either People are much more inclined to help you if your reputation is good.

I may have mentioned random encounters when you travel, one can be seen in one of my last vids, a knight who offers a duel for honour or wager. But there are many more, most of them are at night on paths through forests: different types of enemies, mostly bandits. Sometimes there are skirmishes that involve guards and bandits/enemies and sometimes there are additionally civilian hostages, sometimes there are traders being attacked by bandits or Cumans.

That's when things can go terribly wrong: Shoot a guard, shoot a trader, shoot an innocent hostage.. you'll have to fight with whomever is still there. I remember one occasion when Cumans (enemies) and guards were fighting among themselves as well as both groups coming for me at the time, it was quite a mess I also lost reputation with the nearest town the guards belonged to. As well as reputation with I think citizens of that town.

And I remember another occasion: after everyone had died, I was looting a dead guard whom I hadn't even killed myself, a random wayfarer happened to walk along that path towards me. He noticed the dead guard and me looting that guard. The wayfarer would then turn around calling for help while running away and shortly thereafter I had a bounty on my head in the nearby town. He must have told the guards that I killed and looted a guard

It can also go very well when you happen to come across guards fighting someone and you manage to help the guards by killing at least one of their enemies. I noticed a notification for reputation increase (positive) and it was related to a nearby town and their guards, I believe it also affected my reputation with the citizens there.

You see, this game is so much deeper than meets the eye when just watching one or two videos. It really is deep, in every aspect.

[Dweller_Benthos]

It is interesting how many variations there are in each quest and how some can be slipped just by doing something slightly different elsewhere. FO4 isn't like that, where it's eaither do the quest or not, or fail it because you did something else. There's no option to get the same outcome but by different actions. Except for doing stealth or gunning, though some quests let you talk your way through them if you have the charisma. Those options though are usually either/or depending on the special skills you have on the character.

I know for sure some of those achievements I'd never bother doing, hats off to you for the dedication getting them done!

[Art Blade]

thank you I usually don't do anything related to hardcore but this time, for reasons unknown, I was feeling my oats and did it anyway And those achievements are very rare. Even 1.5 years after the game was released, there are some achievements that still only 0.2% of all (steam) players got. I got a few of those, one is hardcore related

And yes, FO4 is a sandbox game but the quests are quite linear. KCD works completely differently.

[Art Blade]

the same outcome but by different actions

Hah, it gets even better: while the main quests obviously have the same outcome, quite a few side quests don't.

You can get beneficial solutions (for instance, permanently lower prices) as well as really bad ones that may result in a character dying or never speaking to you again which, in that case, is almost the same.. heh. I am currently playing a side mission that demonstrates how powerful they can be:

It's called "Hare Hunt" and is intertwined with "Sheep in Wolf's clothing" and at a certain point, they're mutually exclusive. Meaning you either fail this or that quest. They may, depending on how you play Hare Hunt, also intertwine with one or two more side quests. Whoa. Along the way you can gain or lose reputation with several people and some may live or die, depending on your actions. You may finish it in a way that the name giver of that quest, Hannekin Hare, disappears (I never played it that way so I don't know whether or not he can even die) and the current master huntsman stays. However, you'll never get his job and privileges if he stays.

So it is most important to play it right: if you finish that side quest "properly," you will become the Master Huntsman (he's kind of a forest supervisor and a hunter) appointed by the biggest lord of the region (Sir Divish) and by that, you inherit both the home (a safe house) and the job of the previous master huntsman whom you got rid of which is very, very useful for all the rest of the game because.. if you go hunting, it will no longer be a crime. And no, can't do that before going on a hunt with Sir Hans Capon which takes place very early in the game.

There are quite many side quests that involve "poaching" (illegally hunting, owning and selling the stuff like boar meat, deer antlers, lamb skins.. that kind of thing) and by that, your reputation with the one you poached for goes up, OK, but goes down with the guards of the related town(s) which is really not what you wish for

I'm currently playing it on my hardcore career because it is possible even after the main quest is finished, meaning I may postpone some side quests as long as I want. At least some side quests are still available like Hare Hunt, and others that involve poaching. I don't think that all side quests remained playable because I think some kind of got obsolete during the main mission but who knows. Well, with the new career I came across a side quest requiring poaching and I noticed how my reputation with the town's guards kept dropping every time I delivered poached meat, even though nobody saw me poaching. I even tried it with cheated meat and still I lost reputation. I'm now going to find out whether or not becoming master huntsman rids me of that reputation drop when doing that side quest. If so, I'll wait until the Hare Hunt quest is available

[Art Blade]

Alright, tested it: first off, I can now hunt anywhere and it's not a crime, the meat, offal, skin and all that isn't stealing when I grab it and isn't marked as stolen in my inventory. Nice.

But. It doesn't w0#k with the specific quest I had in mind. I lost reputation with the guards in Rattay, before the quest: 100 (max) and 55 after, barely above neutral. It did give a reputation boost with the refugees but I can boost that with other quests not involving poaching. Since I don't know how to boost reputation with the guards now, I may just avoid that particular quest.

There might be a chance by doing that quest first and then take on a quest that involves taking out several bandit camps which gives a boost with the soldiers every time, which is why I got it to 100. But it might as well cause the reputation to drop so low that even the bandits quest won't put it back up enough, probably not to 100. However, I don't have to do that quest and it's nothing special, just going on a hunt several times and dragging tons of meat around

[Dweller_Benthos]

That's quite a hit in reputation, they must really frown on poaching. Minus 45 points seems extreme, as I presume it can only go up to 100? You said it can go below zero, but how much below? Infinite? That would be interesting, make everyone hate you so much the game breaks lol.

[Art Blade]

 

+100 is max and I've only seen negatives in YouTube videos. I guess -99 is the lowest.

And yes, that poaching during that quest, every time I delivered meat, the rep went down by 9. Doing something good only made it go up by less, I don't remember how much as I was only testing whether or not I could compensate it which I couldn't.

Little anecdote: I was riding fast through a forest when I suddenly heard a thud along with my character's voice screaming, and my screen went haywire. First person action when getting knocked off your horse by a branch Same happened when riding fast through a barn door (there were two so you could pass through the barn) and a stone arch, which was some kind of opening in a wall. So funny

The worst accidents I ever had were when I was very, very new to the game and playing without godmode.

The first was right after the start of the game. From other games I was used to hopping down from a height and only take little to no fall damage. Not this time, not in this game. I fell, rolled over and broke both my legs and the rest of my body wasn't in much better shape, either. I couldn't yet fast travel, had no horse, no bandages or more precisely, no means of healing myself. I was bleeding out while crawling back towards the castle.. early and slow death. Horrible

The second happened when I was riding full speed towards some kind of hilltop within a forest and thought hey, horse, jump over that rock there. Surely there will be a slope so nothing to it. Wrong. It was a tall cliff I plunged down after falling off my horse, rolling and bouncing off rocks with my view spinning and when I finally came to a halt, my horse came tumbling down and rolled over me. I got crushed by tons of horse grinding me into the rocks and those saddle bags were also worth hundreds of pounds. I was pretty much rolled out flat as a pancake and worked into the cracks of those rocks. It was a rather memorable death, too