Kingdom Come: Deliverance

[Art Blade]

I suppose they'd all be dead before sunlight.

[Art Blade]

This is why I think so -- I was found trespassing and then I killed everyone who came at me. In the church, in a monastery, at night. You can see dead guards and some loot that I dropped. It was a bit grizzly. I had already planned to reload the game so I didn't mind going full Berserk on everyone who crossed my path. I was even having a private archery contest going in the square garden of the monastery, as the monks were all running around in the garden's archways, for some reason counter-clockwise, and kept passing me every lap. They caught most of my arrows but none of them ever died. I think I'll have to proceed to more drastic measures when dealing with monks. Slap them silly, perhaps, then wring their necks

bad move
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[Art Blade]

good game
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As you can see in the pic above, looking at the stats in the lower left corner, I just won over 1,000 Groschen and thereby I unlocked the achievement "gambler." 

dice game
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You can play dice at lodgings and taverns. There's always one table with something like an opened back gammon case on top, and most of the time you find someone sitting at that table waiting for someone to gamble with. I might add that I used to play back gammon. I won around 75% of the games because I play with some kind of risk management in place (let's say, I know the odds of a set of dice well enough to know when to stop) and that's how I've won a reasonable sum so far.

[fragger]

Nice

You mentioned backgammon and dice roll probabilities, Art. I know it's not backgammon you're playing here, but your comment prompted me to say something about it. Which is, what a great old board game it is - ten minutes to learn and a lifetime to master, as they say. Some folks don't consider it a true game of skill because there are dice involved, but I beg to differ. Yes, there is the luck of the roll, but the skill comes in knowing how best to utilize any roll, and a solid understanding of dice-roll probabilities (plus knowing which points on the board are the most vital to control). A thorough grasp of probabilities makes the difference between a talented backgammon player and a hack.

If it was all just down to the luck of the roll, there would be no such things as backgammon tournaments.

[Art Blade]

indeed. People who thought otherwise were not always welcome to sit down with me at a board of backgammon but as soon as they were willing to bet.. more than once I ended up with them having paid for all my drinks and I still had some pocket money to go home with -- more than I had left home with. I used to hang around the real money players and once in a while, when there were no victims, I was invited as a training partner, no bets, but still good lessons. I usually don't play for money but just those people who don't have a clue and want to gamble.. why not.

[Art Blade]

I like it that even side missions are powerful, here another example

I was on a mission and had done several things already. There was a new task of which I thought it was pretty damn difficult. I had to get a locked-away book from the monastery. It wasn't just any book from their library, it was one of the librii prohibiti, the forbidden books, that were locked away in a special cupboard of the library, and it was "monks only" territory.. and guards at the ready, should someone disturb the brothers in the cloister or elsewhere in the monastery.

I knew a backdoor, literally, which allowed me access in plain daylight, albeit trespassing and all that, all the time, and any monk would point their fingers at me and call the guards, depending on how high the security level of the area was that I was trespassing. I managed to sneak around the cloister garden, slipped into the dormitory and from there onto some kind of balcony in a church, high up. That's where I waited for the night to come. Some eight hours.

The monks would all go to sleep and get up before dawn again. Which meant, I had to be out and away while it was still dark or I might get spotted. And then I had to get through the dormitory again, almost pitch black, in the middle of the room stairs leading down that I had to take. Imagine me wading around between sleeping monks, in total darkness, and they mostly slept on the floor (on some hay) so I was constantly worried about tripping over one of them. They made breathing noises so I could navigate around avoiding sound sources, and finally found the stairs. I was out of the dormitory.

In total darkness, only sparsely lit by the occasional candle or fireplace, I hovered around in the monastery and couldn't for the life of me find that bloody library. I did come across one, only there wasn't the locked cupboard in that room. There must have been two libraries, or rooms with books, and I couldn't find the right one. So I was running up and down and around and across that bloody monastery, on tiptoes, without a source of light for fear of getting spotted. And then I came across a room I recognised, there was a locked chest with the key for the cupboard, and a few rooms further on, there was the right one with those librii prohibiti waiting for me to get taken away. Yet another lock-pick attempt (I had lock-picked virtually every door during that night) nice, there they are. I got the book and a different one, too, both from the cupboard. No one had seen me.

The second book is part of a different quest, so I already got it. All I wanted at that point of time was to be as far away from the monastery as possible but I couldn't find the bloody exit in that damned maze. Backdoors are not supposed to have neon signs and arrows flashing so you can spot them from miles away. They're supposed to be hidden. And this one bloody was. And here I was again running around and across in that bloody monastery, all the while thinking about everyone getting up and me in the midst of that, oh dear, no.. In the end I found a way out, a different one than I had in mind, but good enough to crawl away from the building and run to my horse, past a sleepy guard who simply hadn't seen me. One last glance over my shoulder, taking in the view of the monastery. It was already dusk when I left.

[Art Blade]

Stuff to do in your spare time. Shooting at logs that are floating down a river, competing with two other guys. Who gets the most of their 20 arrows into the logs before they swim through the finish, wins. It is quite funny how it works: you stand and shoot some six or seven arrows while the logs are floating away from you so you pack up and run, overtake the logs, stop, and start to shoot them again. Needs two or three stops to get it done, the logs float at a considerable speed if you have to shoot them with just bow and arrow, no crosshair.

If you magnify the pic, you may notice the arrows sticking out of most of the logs. Also note the archer dressed in green, to the centre left in the pic. Barely visible I took the screenie because I had time to do so after already scoring 15/20 and I was essentially just waiting for those two clowns villagers to finish up.

river archery
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[PZ]

Sounds quite realistic. Beautiful environment 

[Art Blade]

yes, and it is interesting enough just to ride or walk around because they sculpted nature so beautifully. Actually, they copied it, built after photographs and so on. I'll never forget that statement, about having had 1.5 million trees put into the game manually.

scenery view 01
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[PZ]

 

[Art Blade]

Wow.. Warhorse studios have been quite busy. Nice

26.6 GB patch release

Release Notes for version 1.4
30 MARCH   - WARHORSE_JIRIRYDL

New Hair and Beard mechanics.
Customize your style in bathhouses and gain extra charisma with freshly cut hair.
Unarmed mercy kill added for a more "subtile" way to solve quests.
Real Easter eggs added. The hunt for the golden egg can begin!
Traditional Czech Easter-themed weapon to be found, called "Pomlázka".
Resurrection day is upon us! Some NPCs that have died due to the physics glitches have risen from their graves.
Fixed problems with the "Mightier than the Sword" quest related to the scribe.
Rattay archery competition works on advanced difficulty.
Fixed save issue for the "House of God" quest.
Another 200 major bugs fixed

Free DLC - HD Texture and Audio Pack

As a special treat, we're releasing the first free DLC - HD Texture & Audio Pack for PC which together enhance the visual and audio experience of Kingdom Come: Deliverance. HD Textures boost the overall graphics of Kingdom Come: Deliverance to create an ever more lifelike look at 1403 Bohemia. HD Audio is available for all three voiceover languages (English, German and French) and enhances all in game voiceovers and sounds.

***

They created several HD modular DLC packs so you can hand-pick what you want -- if you've got the hardware for it (I haven't). Like, HD sounds, HD voice-over (one per language) and HD graphics. The HD sound requires a Creative SOUND BLASTER Zx and the HD gfx specs are also quite demanding:

Please be sure you have version 1.4 of the game and at least 6GB of VRAM on your graphics card. You can always turn off the HD textures from the game menu.

Enjoy the Kingdom Come: Deliverance with HD textures now!

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

MINIMUM:
OS: OS 64-bit Windows 7 or 64-bit Windows 8 (8.1) or Windows 10
Processor: Intel CPU Core i5-2500K 3.3GHz, AMD CPU Phenom II X4 940
Memory: 12 GB RAM
Graphics: Nvidia GPU GeForce GTX 1060 6GB VRAM, AMD GPU Radeon RX 580 8GB
DirectX: Version 11
Storage: 6 GB available space
Sound Card: Integrated
Additional Notes: SSD recommended

RECOMMENDED:
OS: OS 64-bit Windows 7 or 64-bit Windows 8 (8.1) or Windows 10
Processor: Intel CPU Core i7 3770 3,4 GHz, AMD CPU AMD FX-8350 4 GHz
Memory: 16 GB RAM
Graphics: Nvidia GPU GeForce GTX 1080 8GB VRAM, AMD GPU Radeon RX Vega 64 8GB
DirectX: Version 11
Storage: 6 GB available space
Sound Card: Creative SOUND BLASTER Zx
Additional Notes: SSD recommended

[fragger]

Free DLC! Nice w0#k, Warhorse!

The game does look beautiful, damn near photographic. They've done a bang-up job with the environment Pity we can't hear the ambience here, too.

From what you've reported so far Art, it sounds very open-worldy and free-rein. I love that sort of thing, wish there was more of it. I don't suppose they can make games just to suit me, though

I like the casual archery contest, that's pretty cool. Good way to hone your arrow skills!

[Art Blade]

Indeed

There are even more competitions, with those round targets some 20 or 30 paces away, actual archery tournaments. You can bet money on all those events and mini-games. I think there's a horse race, too, and perhaps jousting. I got a cuirass with a rest for a pole (a lance) used for jousting. What I like most is the dice game, I've racked up a few more wins now, I think I won 39 by now and lost 11 (losses are almost the same as before, haven't lost many games since I last reported about that but I did add a couple of wins) so I've managed to improve my win/loss ratio even more.

[fragger]

Jousting sounds like it would be fun - and probably dangerous. From what you've said so far, you could get laid up for a bit if you got knocked off badly

The dice games sound good too. I like those kinds of mini-games. I used to enjoy the poker games in FC3, they were a fun little diversion. And the shooting challenges.

[Art Blade]

Jousting sounds good indeed and it may very well be dangerous even though the tips of the lances in a jousting tournament are blunt. The best visual example I know of can be observed in the fantastic flick from 2001, "A Knight's Tale" with Heath Ledger, an Australian actor who unfortunately died way too early. I remember one scene in particular, early in the flick, when Heath won a jousting tournament (in borrowed armour, actually he was a squire of Sir Ector who had died during a rest unbeknownst to the public during the tournament and Heath decided to ride in his place although he wasn't a knight and therefore had to keep his identity a secret) and went to receive the prize with his helmet still on. The visor looked as if a cannon ball had hit it, it was almost reversed, pointing inwards. He said the final blow to his head had bent his helmet to his head in a way he couldn't remove it nor open the visor.

Here you get an idea, and don't miss the last couple of seconds.