Questions about In-Game Travel

[dingbat91]

Kenshi is going to be (from what I see at least) a fairly big game world, and as such characters are going to be taking long trips, so in this stead how would transport and travel be managed.

Here is a list of questions that ran through my mind:

1.
As well as the standard "on foot" walking option what other methods will there be? and how will they be controlled?

2.
This also has to be balanced by party size, as mentioned before you can have large groups of characters under your control as well as just 2-3 so how will that be controlled? A speed penalty?

3.
How about time? Fatigue and Morale would rise and sink respectivly on forced marches, would that be taken into account?

4.
Will things like Food and morale come into account? the saying "An Army marches on it's stomach" is something that should be taken into account, and the mobilisation of large/huge armies of troops should be something fairly rare considering the logistics and supplies that would be needed in a practical sense...

5.
Finishing off with Party control, in RPG's I like it when you can split the party to perform multiple tasks individually, will you be able to split your party into multiple groups or will they always be stuck together like glue or somewhere in between ( Icewind Dale allowed you to go into buildings individually but when going across the overworld you had to go as a solid party)

[Windexglow]

Damn, I thought this was a spam thread at first (the title seemed like a spam bot's..)

Anyway, I can't answer your questions fully, however Kenshi's terrain is complete and NOT split up into many areas.

That means (at least right now) you can travel from one side of the map to the other in real time without any loading screens.

[Hector]

A few suggestions crossed my mind as I read through the questions there:

1. With such a large world, no doubt horses or the like would be used to speed up travel, but also to carry goods and equipment. They would, of course, have to be fed.

2. I wouldn't penalise speed personally so much as I'd limit a group's speed to its slowest member. A large group of people would have to be organised into a formation of some description, otherwise everyone would be reaching their destination at different times.

3. One way to deal with this would be to reduce morale for every hour after the tenth that the group is made to march, and increase fatigue for every mile they march; adjusted by terrain. This gives the group a reason to rest and the time spent resting can be divided between sleep and eating.

4. Leading on from the above, I'd suggest that so long as the group's collective inventory contains food, said food should be eaten at a rate dictated by the player character, with morale being affected by the size of the rations.

5. Seeing as this game is supposed to be an RPG/RTS hybrid, I would suspect that you can give various party members orders that involve their being separated from the rest of the group. Extending this to the overland map could be interesting if done properly, as it could well allow your character to do some rather sneaky things.

[dingbat91]

Damn, I thought this was a spam thread at first (the title seemed like a spam bot's..)

Whoops Sorry about that

[Captain Deathbeard]

As well as the standard "on foot" walking option what other methods will there be? and how will they be controlled?

1. With such a large world, no doubt horses or the like would be used to speed up travel, but also to carry goods and equipment. They would, of course, have to be fed.

not sure, any kind of pack animal/vehicle/ship travel would be much later in the game development, for now walking will do. Travel will be a choice of running there manually, or using the world map and speeding up time, like in fallout 2.

This also has to be balanced by party size, as mentioned before you can have large groups of characters under your control as well as just 2-3 so how will that be controlled? A speed penalty?

A group moves as fast as its slowest member, like the wounded guy, or the guy carrying him.

How about time? Fatigue and Morale would rise and sink respectivly on forced marches, would that be taken into account?

I haven't really thought much about morale (just fear, which is based on warrior spirit combined with an assessment of the situation). Fatigue would be the main factor, so running across the desert would be much more tiring than walking. Fatigue is a major factor in combat.

Will things like Food and morale come into account? the saying "An Army marches on it's stomach" is something that should be taken into account, and the mobilisation of large/huge armies of troops should be something fairly rare considering the logistics and supplies that would be needed in a practical sense...

No, I currently have no plans for food. It seems more tedious than fun, unless you guys can offer a good argument for it.

Finishing off with Party control, in RPG's I like it when you can split the party to perform multiple tasks individually, will you be able to split your party into multiple groups or will they always be stuck together like glue

Yeah I always hated that. In kenshi you can split up your characters however you like, even send them to opposite corners of the world, join different factions, you could essentially be playing several different games at once in the same world.

[Hector]

Food isn't that much of an issue with small groups of people; if there's a decent hunter, he can probably bring in enough for a group of five while they make camp for the night, or else the player can just buy a few weeks' worth of trail rations. Food becomes an issue, however, with large groups of people. If you're leading a band of a hundred and more people, you need to keep them fed. While one's tactics will determine the results of the various battles, one's strategy will determine the results of the campaign, and logistics are a large part of strategy.

The battle of Agincourt was part of a fighting retreat by Henry V, and the reason he was retreating was that his army had run out of food. His troops were hungry and tired, and the resulting battle was worthy of a Shakespeare play.

[Captain Deathbeard]

Okay then, here's the plan for food, although it won't be in the game till much later on.
Characters have an outdoorsman skill, it causes a fixed rate of food income for the squad when in the wilds. The income rate varies depending on the terrain. Any small or medium squad will never have any trouble with food supply, and can almost ignore it. If a squad turns into an army, their food income will not be enough and you will have to carry supplies, which can be re-stocked at any village or city. AI armies will have food carts or carriers that you can target in a raid.

[Hector]

Sounds good.

[dingbat91]

Finishing off with Party control, in RPG's I like it when you can split the party to perform multiple tasks individually, will you be able to split your party into multiple groups or will they always be stuck together like glue

Yeah I always hated that. In kenshi you can split up your characters however you like, even send them to opposite corners of the world, join different factions, you could essentially be playing several different games at once in the same world.[/quote]

Chris for this alone in my mind makes the game another tier above the rest thank you for that information.