I bought Kenshi way back in 2013. It was in early access at the time, but the premise of the game seemed amazing to me. It was an open world sandbox where you -- an average person, not a superhero -- could be anything you wanted to be. Be a good or evil trader, thief, adventurer; you could purchase buildings and hired help, build your own base, and ultimately live in an everchanging simulated world.
It appealed to me greatly and I hurriedly threw money at it!
I tried it during the early access period but couldn't really get into it, and I decided to wait until it was fully released. Then, after it was fully released in 2018, I tried it again but couldn't understand the controls or the UI very well. Just because something is an open world sandbox doesn't mean that there shouldn't be a small tutorial on how to do the basics. 😑
I have no patience for such things. Unless your game is like every other game, put in a small tutorial! I tried working it out for myself, ended up mining some ore outside of the town, then a roaming group of bandits killed me? I vaguely remember?
Anyway. I decided to try it out again today, this time having read a bunch of helpful hints to get started. This is my story.
After making my character and entering the world, I noticed that this time unlike last time, there was actually a tutorial on-screen. Of course there is. Because I just bitched about how last time I played there was none. 😆
Also, apparently my character's name is Claw, because I didn't realise that the 'Claw' on the character creator was apparently the Name section. Or maybe all player-created characters are called 'Claw'. I don't know. 🤷♀
Much like the last time I played, I figured that I would go just outside of town and start mining in order to get my strength up and, perhaps, to find some ore to sell.
When, exactly like last time, a group of bandits rushed towards me with intent to beat me, kill me, steal my food, whatever.
This leads me to believe that this game doesn't have random events. This is exactly what happened last time.
Only this time I didn't die! This time I ran away, ran into town, ran circles around the guards, and made the guards beat them up. 🤣
Nice work there, fellas.
With the guards having dispatched of the hungry bandits, I stole their leader's shoes, his armour, and his sword.
Unfortunately his peons didn't have anything. I was hoping to loot them all and sell all their goods to the local shop. However, all they had were worthless ragged pants. Back to mining I go.
As far as I'm aware, mining is a good way to make money at the moment, and it also gets a few of my skills up. Like labouring, strength, and athletics. Not quite sure what I want my character to do just yet, but I figure making money and skilling up a couple of things isn't a bad start.
After looking through all the buildings in town, I decided that my first priority was to buy one of these houses and repair it. This one was worth $4800. It wasn't the cheapest one, neither was it the most expensive, but it looked of a semi-decent size and good for a starter home.
I'd have to mine more ore!!
I soon discovered another mining node by this town. A copper node! Which had ore worth a helluva lot more than the iron ore I was slowly tinking away at.
Pleased with my discovery, I mined it until my inventory was full then sold it all to the merchant for a tidy profit. At last I could buy my house!
With a building secured as my very own, it was time to start repairing it.
In order to repair the building, I needed to buy building materials from the one lonely vendor at the bar and he only sold so many at a time. This was going to go slow, but that was okay, it would be worth it!
I spent my days mining ore, selling ore, buying building materials, and repairing my new abode. Then, at last, it was complete.
With my humble new abode now in a livable condition, I set about building a research station and levelling up my Science skill whilst researching a bunch of things so I could one day craft ~all the things!~
While I was going inbetween mining and sciencing, I had the opportunity to investigate some roaming bands of bandits and slavers from afar and I soon noticed that pretty much every enemy had a substantially higher amount of dexterity, strength, and everything, than my poor little lady. As I result, I went back to mining the heavier iron node and working on more strength training rather than mining copper and making more money.
I wasn't too sure how to skill up my other attributes just yet... so turned to the wiki for guidance.
Apparently the only way to level up dexterity and dodging is, of course, by engaging in combat and the best way to level it up is by capturing an enemy and keeping him prisoner to fight him, first aid him, fight, first aid, fight, over and over and over.
I didn't really want my character to be so evil. There had to be another way.
So like the vulture I am 🤣 I took to luring groups of bandits into town, and picking off the lone stragglers whilst the guard focussed on the majority. Then, when the ones who had merely been knocked out rather than killed came back from their naps, I attacked them while they were trying to crawl to safety.
That's how it's done! 😅
While waiting for roaming hostile bands to engage, I kept working on my research. I bought new books from the vendor each day, and soon became smarter and more sciency. I started training up my locksmithing and attack power via the means of training tools, and my house was becoming more and more furnished with goods.
Soon some better geared bandits tried ransacking the town and were thwarted by the guards. A good thing too, since they actually nearly killed my lady.
They also nearly killed the only vendor in town.
While waiting for the vendor to heal, my lady scavenged up some new armour from the corpses that littered the town and continued mining. She could no longer do things alone. She needed friends. And in this game, you need to buy your friends.
This man named Logan reckoned he was a gunner. A ranged friend would be advantageous, surely! So she soon scrounged up enough money to buy his friendship... only to discover he was a liar. He was a bare-fisted martial artist.
She would have to train him to be better.
But first, some grueling labour to show her dissatisfaction... and to repay his worth in copper.
Honestly, I'm enjoying this a lot more than I did last time. Although I haven't really even done anything yet.
So far I have mined... a lot. That's been my main thing so far. It seems the most efficient way to make money as a fresh character, and you need money to buy your starter house, food, first aid kits, research books... buy your friends. 🤣
I wish combat ability was a little easier to level up without outright kidnapping a bandit, healing them only to attack them, then heal them, attack them, over and over. I don't want to be a kidnapper, even of dastardly bandits.
Some sound effects would be nice. Music is sporadic and unexpected. There'll be half an hour of silence then suddenly music will play for 5 minutes, then slowly dissipate and there'll be elongated silence once more.
I'm honestly not sure if I'll last much longer in this. I would like to build up my own settlement with all the friends I plan on buying at some point, but, hmm. I don't know. If it wasn't for the risk of certain death if you happen to not be paying attention, this would almost be one of those relaxing zone-out games. Just. Sitting there. Clicking every now and then whilst staring at this perpetual motion machine.
Really not sure if it's interesting enough to keep playing or not though. I guess I'll see as I progress a little further and do more than just mine, mine, mine, whack a crawling bandit, research, mine. 😅
Until next time! 🙃