Kingdom Come: Deliverance

[fragger]

I've never gotten one of those ever. I never really think about it, I just play. I'm boring

[Dweller_Benthos]

You must be pretty close with FO4, with all the time you're putting into that game. That's the only one I've gotten all the achievements for.

[Art Blade]

re priest: lol fragger My horse probably didn't give a toss but I was interested because of the harsh criticism. And as to how many people there were, it was a very rare random encounter so it is not dependent on the size of the audience, if there's any. When I first noticed him, he was preaching to himself.

And thank you guys, 100% is usually quite something by itself only some games are a bit easier to get 100% than this one. I can tell because I got 10 perfect (100%) games now, except Hitman 2 added new achievements so I'd have to collect them to get 100% again which I'll do eventually. However, in KCD, I've racked up over 1,000 hours of gameplay and only recently I decided to go for 100% which meant, I believe it was 37, out of 82 achievements still to go. And they weren't easy, I think 15 were secret achievements. A few required hardcore mode which had put me off before. That alone took about 50 hours to complete the game (main missions only) on hardcore while on top doing a few other achievements that were not bound to hardcore. Imagine, HARDCORE along with ALL negative perks AND without killing ANYONE lol it was crazy

[Art Blade]

I keep thinking about one achievement in particular that I will now tell you about. It was likely the hardest one to get for me.

I could simply put it like that: I fought a long duel with a wooden sword until I got 100 combos. But I think that's not really entertaining. So I'll go a bit more into detail

The achievement is called Fighter and its description simply reads, "Carry out 100 combos in combat." Doesn't sound like much. But if you consider that until I decided to get it, I had put over one thousand hours of gaming time into KCD and never got it. OK, those 100 combos need to be carried out within the same career but my—until then—main career encompassed about 700 hours without getting even remotely close to 100 combos. I had like 13 or so and those were from a training bout with a sword master who forces you to carry out combos as part of an introductory tutorial so you learn how to use a long sword, short sword, mace and axe. So this is my new career and I now wanted to get those 100 combos.

Combos require you to learn specific sequences of mouse actions. There are several per weapon. It's like this:

A right click for a stab to the chest. Moving the mouse forwards and adding a right click while moving forwards causes a stab to the head.

The other option, a left click, leads to a slashing movement with the weapon. You can aim that slash at five positions, like on a clock, at the 12, 3, 5, 7 and 9 o'clock positions. In order to slash at those positions, you need to move the mouse left or right, or down left or down right, or forward, and left click while still moving towards one of those directions.

Those actions by themselves do not count as combos, obviously. They'd be single stabs or slashes. To create a combo, you'll have to time your mouse clicks just right: the moment your weapon hits the enemy's body (meaning, they did not block your attack) you have continue fluently: choose an attack area (those clock positions) and either slash there or stab to the centre (just a right click, no mouse movements) and then fluently perform the next action belonging to a defined series of actions. If your opponent does not manage to evade or block your attack, your combo is complete and the reward is some kind of special finishing move with added damage which the opponent cannot avoid. Looks cool, too.

Combos comprise three to five actions and they are defined, you can't make them up.

If you are already having a hard time grasping what I'm trying to explain here, imagine being in a fight that might cause your virtual life to end if you don't win that fight. I was therefore usually happy enough when I could just hammer the enemy while trying not to die in the meantime, sod those combos Now you'll easily understand why I never got more than those from during the training mission

Well, now I had a mind of getting 100 combos during combat. In reality, during any fights, you won't get many combos because the opponent will block you, you'll run out of stamina and need to have a breather, you'll have to block the enemy's attacks.. it's quite alright if you manage to "slip in" one or two combos before a real fight ends with either you or the enemy dead.

Too much time between fights and I'd likely forget the combo sequences, so I had to come up with a solution how a) to learn and b) to not forget a combo sequence. I memorised just two combos. "700" and "095" is what I called them. The zero stands for the single right click stab to the centre (hence zero) of the imaginary clock, and 7/9/5 were slashes towards the respective positions on that clock. So 700 would be a low left slash followed by two stabs to the chest, and 095 would be a stab to the chest followed by a left slash and a low right slash. That, I could remember.

Now I was facing the problem of getting a lot of those combos, 100 minus those 13 from the tutorial. I had to bloody land 87 combos..

I think you needed to know all that so you would understand the background, like what the heck I had to learn and figure out. Now you can read the actual story or anecdote which follows now:

There was one single bandit, as part of a mission, he was there all by himself, yet determined, a good fighter and surrender was not an option for neither one of us. A fight to the death. If only I could make that fight last a bit longer to get some combos in..

During the tutorial, you use wooden training swords. You can steal one if you come across one of those but I simply wasn't prepared for that but I had the game console for cheats.. so I added a wooden long sword to my inventory. Meaning, I could hit that guy for hours on end without killing him. The only problem was that he damn well could hit me with a proper sword. I had removed all of my armour because the least thing I needed was that he wore his sword out and he'd have minced my armour in the process, too.. so I was there in just a shirt and boxer shorts, kind of, and a wooden sword, fighting an iron-clad bastard with a sharp cold steel sword plus shield. Nice. Of course I needed an immortality cheat to get anything out of that whole spectacle, and took care of that.

It took probably three hours real time to get my 100th combo and when the achievement popped up, I heaved a sigh and a diabolic smile formed on my face when I whipped out my long steel sword. Battle-hardened and experienced in combo fighting plus ripostes, perfect blocks, master strikes and all that, my torturer died rather quickly.

My statistics were a bit screwed by then: I had dealt about 40k damage points before that fight so it more or less stayed the same but now I had increased my received damage significantly to about 20k points. Before that battle, I had perhaps a low 4 digit damage count for damage taken. So he really chopped me to pieces during that fight

It was one of those situations that are hard to forget. 87 combos in a single three-hour fight, unlocking that super-hard achievement and then finally finishing off that bastard. AHHHhhhhh

[fragger]

  Bloody hell, and I think I'm proud of myself when I pistol-whip a scavver out in FO4...

I'm afraid I wouldn't have the patience for learning that kind of multi-task melee combat. That's one achievement I would definitely never get, for sure I admire your perseverance Art, that was an achievement well and truly earned. In fact, I reckon that deserves one of these +1

[Art Blade]

thank you very much, fragger

I was like you, "I'll never get that, for sure." Until I decided to bloody get that achievement

I'm a lazy bastard when it comes to things that I'm not interested in. I am a world champion at ignoring stuff that I don't want to do, and I'm quite inventive in cheating my way around those things. But there are always some new things popping up in my life that interest me. Once I'm interested in something, I change into an "all in" guy. I won't give up until I get what I want. That's true in real life as well as in games Maybe in games because I'm like that in real life. And I'm curious by nature, and inventive, all of which comes in very handy in this game


*****


And that brings me to what I just did, I tried out something in this game. Very interesting!

Do you remember situations in any game that sparked an idea in you, like, "hey, what if..?" Like perhaps FC2 which we all remember well, or FO4. Didn't you (too) sometimes think stuff like, what if I went there before the mission takes me there and do this and that, in order to change the outcome? Like, run to one of those faction leaders when they're not yet suspecting anything and rig their office or hut with explosives of your choice so you can blow them up and by that save you a tedious part of a mission? Or just for fun? What about people in games that you really, really hate but it's impossible to kill them?

KCD is special. I found quite a few ways of cutting short certain missions that I found tedious. Like, instead of having to ask people all around the map in order to gather clues which will eventually reveal the location of some guy you need to go to, all of which taking a lot of time, I just went to the location right away because I knew where it was from a previous playthrough, and it works! Treasure maps you need to decipher in order to find valuable loot? If you happen upon one of those treasures, even without getting the map at all, you can loot it!

Now, what I just did: there's a nasty piece of w0#k you meet almost right at the start of the game. There are several missions he's a part of, and you can never kill him. Then there is one mission about mid-game he's also part of, and he's once more a person you can't kill. Towards the end of the mission, you have to meet him and as soon as you get close enough, it triggers a lengthy cutscene and at the end you have to decide whether you let him go unpunished, even allow him to bag a reward, or to have him put away in a cell but you won't see him ever again.

My idea was to see whether I can actually avoid triggering the cutscene. So he was waiting for me to show up. Usually you walk along a path and the cutscene triggers before you actually see him. This time I wanted to scout the area, I went off the path and sideways, like parallel to the path with a good distance, and was looking for him. I didn't know whether or not I'd actually be able to see him. It might as well have been scripted in a way that there was nobody until you trigger the cutscene, like in virtually all other games in situations like that.

But I found him. I saw him! And I had a bow and arrows..

..and I killed him before the cutscene triggered.

The game acknowledged that I failed a mission objective, "meet with Zbyshek." 

Normally the cutscene would show the two of you walking because he forgot to bring a horse, and your horse is not accessible during that mission, and it's a long way through forests and valleys and finally you approach Rattay (a town) and there you'd see how the two of you get helped into something like a conference room and all that. Lots of blah blah and then the question who that guy is (said nasty piece of w0#k) and you explain he helped you escape and that you promised him he'd get paid and be free, too. Or you betray him and have him jailed.

This time, having killed that bastard, there was no mission marker. It simply told me to report in Rattay. And my horse wasn't accessible so indeed, I had to walk. Only this time it wasn't a cutscene and I had full control over my character. So I walked to Rattay and was wondering all the time what would happen next.

Would the quest be broken, like bugging out because I killed one of the main characters of that mission?

If not, would I have to explain that I killed a guy and probably get a clout round the ears for that?

Turns out that the quest wasn't broken, the cutscenes played out without that guy, he was never mentioned, and the part when I would have to decide what to do with him simply missed. Because he was missing. No penalties, no questions asked, and mission accomplished.

I GOT AWAY WITH IT

Isn't that cool game programming? That's just ONE of many examples how you can actively change events. Like I killed that guard who would otherwise have caused a game-breaking bug. He's still dead by the way

In my statistics Zbyshek counts as a murder (killed civilian) just like that guard, but hey, it was well worth it, both of them, if for different reasons

[fragger]

Imagine what a Bethesda game would have done in a situation like that... Probably melted down into a quivering, gelatinous mass Heck, sometimes their games fall over even when you do everything you're supposed to, let alone stick your head up out of the box a bit.

Sounds like the devs of KCD have pretty much thought things through and covered a lot of contingencies, which is very commendable. Many devs don't, so their games just clag out or freeze or CTD or whatever when a player does something the devs haven't planned or allowed for.

[Art Blade]

yes, this game really is fantastic. If memory serves me right, the script of the game is 10x the amount of Lord of the Rings, referring to a trilogy. Don't quote me on that, but it was truly monumental.

[Dweller_Benthos]

That is pretty amazing, I don't think any other game would let you do that, either the quest would bug out and never w0#k again or the guy would have an invisible shield and not be killable.

Oh, and that combos achievement? Pssht.... ain't gonna do that, lol. Congrats on the perseverance, Art!

[Art Blade]

cheers, Dweller

[Art Blade]

ARGH!

Urban, the guard who can/will trigger the game-breaking endless black loading screen, has been resurrected.

And he's just caused a change in my statistics. There's one more murder now

I've reached that quest in the main mission line some people were talking about when talking about that bug, they said that Urban would be needed for it and would then at the latest cause the bug. For the quest to progress, I had to hide near "his" door at night in order to catch a bad guy trying to break in there and Urban would possibly ruin it for me. But he wasn't there.

It was funny in a way. Ever since I killed him, now I have to point out: for the first time, I kept checking on his door so to speak. Checking whether or not he was lurking there, but so far, he had stayed dead. Then, after reloading a savegame because something wasn't right (the guy I was waiting for didn't show up) all of a sudden Urban comes flying through that door and bee-lining towards my position (in a pitch black barn at night) and going to call me a thief. I tried, out of curiosity, and the bug occurred. Reload, he comes flying at me, and my poison arrow comes flying at him. They meet in the middle and Urban collapses wile moaning, "dear GOD!" and croaks right in front of me.

Since it was again at night that I killed him, no one around, I got away with it. Again.

Now I have to wait another night because the guy I was trying to ambush didn't show but he's still staying at the nearby inn so he will give it another shot. So will I.

[Art Blade]

ha! It worked I bagged that part of the mission.

The guy showed up and I killed him. Yes, it's all a bit bloody right now but that guy was a very clever and unsuspicious looking assassin. The very first time I fell for his excuses, the next time (my hardcore playthrough) I too fell for his clever excuses, meaning I didn't realise he really was an assassin so I let him go. Half across the map and probably one in-game day later, he'd show up in the military camp I where I had taken his victim to (part of the mission) and bloody hell, assassinated my guy in plain sight in bright daylight right there. Two times I fell for him! Of course, reloading helped prevent that assassination attempt in the camp but the victim was very angry with me because I didn't believe him that there was indeed an assassin after him and that he nearly got killed "thanks" to me.

So THIS time I remembered that, did NOT fall for the excuses, and killed the assassin. My guy of course asked there (the house with "Urban's door") what had happened and I told him he was right and that the assassin was dead. My guy was very thankful and headed off to the camp. This time he'll be happy there.

And Urban, that annoying old bugger, he did not ruin it for me. I hope he stays dead, this time, we don't need him anymore

[Art Blade]

IT'S DONE After finishing the game, I've now got a next to perfect open world for free roaming

And most importantly, finally there's no more "stalking Bailiff" getting on my nerves He's a happy man who stays in Rattay.

I've finished the main story line (all main quests) as well as all DLCs (From the Ashes, A Woman's Lot, The Amorous Adventures of Bold Sir Hans Capon, Band of Bastards) and played almost all side quests. Those that I did not play are perhaps less than a handful but all of them require me to steal and burglar stuff and I did not want to do that during this playthrough. Apart from pouched meat during the hunting mission, I have abstained from any mission that required me to do illegal stuff apart from when it was unavoidable as part of a main mission or related to something that I really wanted. For instance, the game starts and you've got two best friends who unfortunately have always been good for nothing and anything that's got to do with them leads to trouble and illegal stuff. I managed my way around that by mostly avoiding (tricking my way around) that stuff because I wanted those two clowns to be alive at the end of the game and live in the village that I rebuilt "from the ashes" (DLC) and that they do.

You know that it didn't quite w0#k out as planned, to play an honourable character, when I had to kill Urban, the bugged guard. Twice, even. Well, and I killed Zbyshek in cold blood To me, it was well worth it, believe me. And I have, for reasons unknown, a ton of stolen items shown in my statistics. I know that illegally pouched meat is part of it but I guess some of the stuff I cheated ended up counting as stolen but well, it's still a next to perfect playthrough.. mostly without doing illegal stuff and if I had to, nobody was any the wiser I've got excellent reputation, mostly maxed out to 100, almost everywhere (thanks to avoiding those missions that cause the reputation to drop) and it's very nice to be welcome everywhere.

mostly avoiding illegal stuff like this abduction
Guests are not allowed to view images in posts, please Register or Login

I managed to play the game better than ever before, I'm very happy about this whole playthrough For the first time, I was able to recruit every electable NPC for my village and they're people who now w0#k there in different professions. Like, one is a blacksmith, one a trader, two w0#k in my tavern, one is a groom in my stable.. and so on. So those are people whom I've known from throughout the game's side and main stories are they're now living in that village. Back then, I didn't even know you could recruit some of them, and they're now living there, too. In my first playthrough I had killed a dimwitted bandit ("you deserve to die!") whose sister would have been available as an alehouse maid later on in that village but because I had killed her brother, she was mad at me and refused. Now, I let him live (it was indeed a better choice, I realised) and she's working in my alehouse This time a merchant who had bugged out (disappeared, as in he spawned inside an inaccessible house..) is now alive and kicking, I can trade with him So nice he made it this time.

There were quite a few things I learned during previous playthroughs and I made some things happen that can only be achieved with a few cheats: The very first horse you're given in the game, Pebbles, a reward for saving Sir Capon's life during that famous hunting mission, will disappear once you buy a new horse. I cheated by "assigning" the best vanilla game horse to me and when I was rewarded Pebbles, both horses were mine. That was a surprise, I didn't expect that. So thanks to that glitch that I created, I've kept Pebbles and rode him to my village where he's happy now. Pebbles can't be modified like my other horse, so no new saddle or stuff like that, and I can't call Pebbles when I need a horse. The other one will appear. Pebbles is very, very slow, anyway, but it's nice to see him "parked" in front of my Rathaus (town hall) in that DLC village I have to be careful not to leave him in an area that respawns, the very first time I arrived with him in the village, I left him under a tree on the village green and he disappeared. I know that there is some stuff going on so I reloaded a save and moved him somewhere else and he's still there. I was a bit nervous when I had built stables because I wanted to buy the best horse (thanks to the DLC) because it would make my current horse disappear. Would Pebbles "survive" that? Yes. He's still there.

Speaking of horses and DLC: It is possible to cheat the best bow and the best shield and the best sword at any time if you've got that From the Ashes village DLC as they're part of it. Normally you can either have a bow OR a horse, and either a sword OR a shield. The bow comes with a guard house and the horse(s) with stables. Those two buildings are mutually exclusive. Now the fun part. I found out that the DLC horses are not available, even with cheats, unless you build stables. Everything else, like bow, sword and shield, are always available. So of course I built stables and now have access to the best horse and sword and cheated the best bow and shield.

So, everything is now like I wanted it to be, the best gear, no stalking Bailiff, cool achievements like those 100 combos (meanwhile homing in on 140) and those 50 headshots (meanwhile over 150, hehe) and I went boozing with Father Goodwin after exchanging a few blows lol, so I'm happy that all those missions were great and had good endings.. and all those people now living in my village, the trader who's available this time, oh I got rid of Johanka, a nagging annoying bitch.. I played the Woman's Lot DLC in a way that it counts as a good ending but the Inquisitor led her away to live under supervision in some convent outside this game's boundaries so she's gone, too, hehehe) and my two weird friends survived and are also living in my village (I ruled over them so they've stopped beating people and instead, they legally contribute money to my village, yay) so ALL that stuff is very, very good.. which is why I call it a nearly perfect game (apart from slightly botched crime statistics..)

[Dweller_Benthos]

Nice, and "modifying" the game to suit how you play is no big deal in my book, heck, look what I did to my No Man's Sky save, getting around some of the stupid things they have. Now you have the rest of the game world to wander around in a do as you please.

[LowPolyOWG]

Modding tools coming soon