Kingdom Come: Deliverance

[Art Blade]

thank you It is a perfect ending, no one dies. About the spending and laying low: what you can't know is that a) it wouldn't have mattered game-wise but indeed, they're idiots and b) I actually unlocked an option to invite (read: send) those two special friends of mine to a DLC-village to w0#k and live there. I already knew from various sources that Matthew and Fritz wouldn't w0#k and on the contrary, cause a loss of money rather than a gain by working but only the other day I found a comment that you (as bailiff of that village you're also the judge) can judge those two clowns and give them one last chance which will stop Fritz from beating up your people and Matthew to "w0#k a bit" so both of them actually go from -15 Groschen to +10 Groschen per day. I actually happen to have judged them already and indeed, it worked

The judge thingy is kind of a random encounter, a mini game, that sort of thing, it happens once every in-game day that you can judge one case of your villagers' problems and the outcome (your judgement) can be good or bad and it will have an irreversible impact on your village for the better or the worse. Quite cool.

[Dweller_Benthos]

I guessed that their spending money wouldn't matter in the game, unless the devs really got deep in the story, but was just pointing out the amusing aspect of it.

Good though, that you can figuratively smack them upside the head and make them less of a drain on the local economy, lol

[Art Blade]

yeah, that's pretty cool. When I hadn't yet known about the possibility of judging them, I had been reluctant to send them to my village one day but having learned about that "game changer," I was quite curious as to whether or not it would actually w0#k, hoping for the best.

What I didn't know: there was a little downside following my ruling, telling them to stop fighting for Fritz and to w0#k a bit for Matthew. Those two clowns took it personally so I lost reputation, the whole village reputation went from 100 to 97. Luckily I had another ruling coming up next and I gained reputation so the village went from 97 to 100 again. Kind of ironed out the "Fritz&Matthew incident."

[Art Blade]

For a change, almost an entire quest. Almost. I cut it short which is one reason why I uploaded it (I didn't find any guide how to cut this quest short anywhere but I managed to cut it short) and my personal and therefore main reason: I got such a tongue-lashing at the end of the quest that it made my jaw drop to the floor before I started to laugh

Actually, after my first experience of that, I reloaded a save, did everything right (told Bernard where I was headed) and continued with the quest. But I couldn't stop thinking of that lecture.. so I decided to play that again and record it so other people might have a laugh, too. What I cut short was a lengthy search, wandering the around the world trying to find several charcoal burner camps, talk to those people, they wouldn't want to help me at first so I would have had to do them favours, also on several occasions there would have been fights with bandits, even requiring me to kill them.. which was exactly NOT what I wanted. Of course the speech option "lie" comes in handy, too, which I used in the vid. Under normal circumstances I would have killed those bandits and of course would have been able to truthfully state, all is good. But with this Merciful thingy, there was no other way than to lie.

I started the vid after arriving at Neuhof, a stud farm / stables, that had been raided, many people and horses had been killed but nothing was stolen. My job was to find out what happened. I had interviewed a couple of people on the farm and now knew there were bandits not far from here, I had to hurry in order to catch them.

That is also funny.. you may wonder why I didn't fight the guy.. it's because of an achievement to play the entire game through without killing anyone (during main quests, which is what I'm doing exclusively, no side quests..) and at the time, there's an achievement for playing through on hardcore with ALL negative perks enabled (I show those at the very end of the vid) so this is quite something

"Apart from cutting this quest short (hope you like it) I uploaded this vid mainly because I was given such a MASSIVE tongue-lashing by Captain Bernard who was SO close to punching my lights out LOL That was because of not telling him where I went before I went.. Enjoy By the way, I'm playing on hardcore with all negative perks because of an achievement ('Tis but a scratch) AND for another one (Merciful) that doesn't allow me to kill anyone except Runt. Quite challenging but in a way, fun. Thanks to Mutt, the dog. "

^ Mutt.. there is a perk for that dog which allows me to have him bite and chase enemies but he'd likely kill them so I can't have that with regards to the Merciful achievement. In other words, I did not spend skill points on that, they're sitting in my stats screen unused. Generally speaking, in this Merciful playthrough, I have to either avoid combat at all or only engage in fist fights which allows me to punch out enemies but that's very dangerous.. I did that once already but I wouldn't stand a chance against more than one enemy. Even one could cut me to ribbons.. so, I'll have to run and avoid fights at all costs Which also means, I don't carry any weapons except bow and arrows for hunting.

[Art Blade]

Oh just by the way, these are the Hardcore Rules for KCD. What it doesn't mention is the fact that you need to pick at least two negative perks. You can check which ones there are at the end of the previous video as I picked them all.

Hardcore Rules
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[Dweller_Benthos]

Ah interesting you get the option to either tell him where you're going or not, and deal with the consequences.

[Art Blade]

yes, as is often the case in this game, there are lots of little things which may easily be missed but indeed, virtually everything, including those little things, has consequences. Good ones or bad ones, depending on what you did or didn't do.. I like that

In the case of that video, telling Bernard that you found out about Ginger will be followed by his approval, he literally sends you on that mission to find Ginger. When you return, you obviously won't get that lashing but he'll ask you straight away what you found out.

The game keeps surprising me, even after hundreds of hours.. I really didn't expect that he'd freak out only because I hadn't told him what I was about to do

[Dweller_Benthos]

Seems an extreme reaction, yeah. Maybe he needs a refresher course in managerial techniques?

[Art Blade]

we're talking the dark ages.. well, not quite, but still medieval. Nobility and peasants.. A nobleman, Lord Hanush, told Bernard not to spare me and Bernard is military.. literally old school. Of course Henry (my character) gets a lashing, he's lowborn, a blacksmith's son, a peasant

[Art Blade]

just as an intermediary comment:

I am currently playing this game from start to end again, my second real attempt (there's a third but older career that I started some time ago but it's stuck at the beginning) but this time on hardcore mode with maximum difficulty (I have not "at least two" but ALL negative perks activated) because there are a few achievements tied to a hardcore playthrough. As yet another difficulty on top, for yet another achievement, I am not allowed to kill anyone at all with one exception. That exception is a bad guy and killing him is an essential part of the main story so it must be done in order to advance the story. Yet another, erm, difficulty.. is that I am not allowed any erm.. private.. interaction.. with anyone in this game for yet another achievement called "Virgin." One more temporary difficulty is to stay illiterate while rebuilding a village (that's a DLC called From The Ashes) and I already achieved it, it's called Trial And Error. The difficulty was that rebuilding the village was tied to quite a few rules which were written in a ledger and I couldn't read them. Of course I had a few tricks up my sleeve to make it easy but it was still time-consuming. Funny side effect: By chance, I found out that building stables (other than a guard house like in my other playthrough which however gives you the most powerful bow in the game) results in three horses, one of which is actually faster and has a higher storage capacity than the best non-DLC horse which I had so far. I am quite enjoying it in this hardcore playthrough because I am not allowed to kill anyone and therefore I have usually only one option: getting away as fast as possible. Easy, with that horse

Having said all that, my reason to post this here is to say how amazing this game is. Playing through it again is extremely enjoyable. I am playing only main missions this time, for time-saving reasons.. I want to get back to a normal difficulty without negative perks but with fast travel option and a map that shows my position and a compass that shows the actual direction.. So I will definitely start a new playthrough on normal difficulty and do all the things right that I screwed up in my very first playthrough. I've learned a few things during this hardcore playthrough so I am confident that a new career will be better than my first one.

This game is my favourite game. Hitman 2 is my other favourite game. These two are so different that they can't be compared at all which is why I can't say I'd prefer this one or that one, both are fantastic in their own right. However, Kingdom Come Deliverance, with all its DLCs, is indescribably deep and immersive.

I am so happy that I've got it

[Dweller_Benthos]

Sounds like you're enjoying it. I know for me when I look at the rules for most "hardcore" difficulty settings on games I know there's at least one or two things that make me be certain I'm never going to play the game that way. Not that I want an easy go of it, why bother, but I also don't want frustration and failure either.

[Art Blade]

I'm only doing it because I'd like to get all of the achievements for this game. And there's a mod that erm, helps, me with a quick-acting self-healing ability and some, erm, financial aid and, erm, a way to generously bypass the levelling-up process for all skills needed. In the end, all of the aforementioned helps me save a LOT of time, I want to get it over with as quickly as possible Even so, the game doesn't auto-complete itself on hardcore. And those negative perks keep me busy quite a bit more than I'd have wanted but well, in the end, I admit I'm having fun. I also admit that I have a lot more fun on normal difficulty

[Art Blade]

*bleep*!

Finished the game but in order to get the achievements, I need to "wait until Capon arrives at the camp" which he does, but the quest still shows that I have to wait. Since the game doesn't realise Hans Capon has arrived, I don't get the dialogue option to continue with him riding to an out-of-the-game destiny (or, into the definite end of the game) and thus I cannot finish the game on hardcore. BUG!!!

There had been other bugs around that Epilogue which apparently have been fixed but now I've got this one. It's part of an old bug. Then, he'd arrive at the camp but either couldn't be spoken to or he'd return to the castle, hence not being at the camp. 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, that's just not there. And the quest still telling me to wait for him to arrive.

Blooooooody Helllllll.... It has been completely useless playing through on hardcore because all but one (rebuilding the village as an illiterate) of the desired achievements require you to finish the game with that option that isn't there

At least I can keep that playthrough as an independent career savegame folder within the game so I can reload the last savegames once there's a patch for this bug. If ever..

[Art Blade]

ah well.. my life doesn't depend on steam achievements. Generally speaking, I enjoy games more when I don't worry about those achievements but I tend to get all achievements for those games that I really enjoy because those achievements may expand the gaming experience by making you do things you either wouldn't normally do or you never thought of.

However. I've started a new, and normal, playthrough on normal difficulty. I overrode that one half-started career because I didn't remember what I did or didn't do a year ago when I started that old career.. overriding it with a fresh one saves me all kinds of trouble.

What I took away from hardcore is the ability to navigate through the map without fast travelling and without compass.. that was tough.. so now, with compass, it's so much easier to combine travelling routes that I memorised somewhat with a marker on the compass to get my bearing right. I can tell you, getting lost in the woods without anything to orientate yourself by, especially at night (which I thoroughly avoided) or with an overcast sky so you don't have the sun or shadows giving you any idea.. I once spent a good quarter of an hour trying to get out of a fricking forest

After that hardcore playthrough without killing anyone, I decided to try my luck on normal difficulty without using god mode. At least for a while. I suppose it's easy by comparison, so why not.

So I ran into two camping bandits (almost, I saw them before they saw me) and drank a saviour schnapps (the manual save option) and went in to see whether they were up for a chat. They weren't. After some fumbling with my weapon while getting stabbed and slashed at, I finally defeated those two bandits with my short sword. I took quite a beating before finishing them off so I had to bandage one bleeding wound and drink some healing potions for my overall degraded health. Then I thought why.. why did you do that. I reloaded the save game, whipped out bow and arrows, and shot those two clowns. An arrow through the head works wonders. One shot each, headshot, nice. They never stood a chance and I kept my health.

[Dweller_Benthos]

Oh man, bugs, especially that late in the game and on such a difficult run too. That's really too bad. Hopefully they'll fix it and it won't be one of those fixes where you have to start over!

I know when I get a game I usually look at the achievements and see what they entail. Usually there's one or two that are so difficult or time consuming that I know I'm never going to do them so I don't bother much with achievements at all. Fallout 4 is the only game I've ever done all of them, and Astroneer I've done all except for the multiplayer ones. Every other game if I have over 50% that's a lot.