Tue Jan 20, 2015 5:32 am
I love that Kenshi is about systems and emergent game play. There is a solid history of being able to mod the game to your liking. Starting a new game has sliders that help determine just how brutal your world is. You can bet that there will be some easier play options for the weak willed and time poor.
As to being beaten and robbed by casual passers by you have to admit that it's fair. You have always been confined mostly to town in the beginning. Without skills you can die. Always have your first fight just outside of town or in town if you can swing it. I started a new game last week. Holy sword start. I ran out of town to look around and saw this ninja just a runnin' towards the town I just came from. I right clicked on the ninja (while paused) and chose to talk to him. Unpause and he keeps running and my guy follows him. Right into town all the way to the back and this citizen comes out. The ninja starts wailing on the citizen while my guy is still running up to talk to him. I think I should do block only just in case my guy gets the wrong idea even though a quick check of my faction ratings shows no one loves or hates me. As soon as I unpause after turning on block only the ninja turns to my dude and just chops him up. You know those desert assassins swords aren't that great and he just ruins my head down to -37 and falling with three arrows. My chest, left arm and right leg were all bad as well. I sat here and watched for ten or fifteen minutes as my character slowly bled to death. No one ever came to help me. Eventually the citizen left and came home later. It took a long time to die. I can't wait for blood to be implemented.
I learned a valuable lesson from this experience. Do not follow assassins when you have no skills. Yes you need to stay in town or get to one in a hurry for a week or so. You need to loot bandits and police for sellable goods and armor you can wear. You need to train your defenses first so you can survive long enough to train your attack. You need to lure bandits to their doom. This will always be the case. A master swordsman with a crappy sword will own weak enemies. A master swordsman with a good sword gets to keep it. So what if they rob you? You stole it anyways. And if you made it you can make another. It's just that if you are the last survivor of a 20 person squad trying to get home and you get beaten and robbed and survive that too you will now have the opportunity to put your unarmed combat skills to the test as you continue on your journey. That's how the game is supposed to work. Don't want to be robbed? Hire guards. Hire new members. Travel with traders.
Money will change and become another system and you will for sure be able to bank it and steal it and spend it. I believe there will be jobs you can do for money and pay someone else to do later when you are rich. I hope that, balance-wise, there will be enough to do in town with no skills that you can easily earn some opportunities to level up some skills and get some cash before heading out in the wide world. For instance, labor jobs. A couple of days of walking heavy items around town should get you some strength and some money. Running messages back and forth between towns will earn you some athletics and more money. Maybe a police officer job could net you some combat training time with the dummies and more money. Enough to buy a house in town? Maybe with the additional money from looted armor sales.
Give the AI every tool I have access to. No problem for me because I'm smarter than my computer. I'll figure out the best way to deal with whatever. Trial and error.