Kenshi - open-ended sandbox RPG set in a desert world

[ItsChon]

Why settle in one place when you can settle in a dozen?

That was my original plan, to make a bunch of small outposts around the map so my adventuring party would always have a place to put their head, and they would all be connected through trading caravans.. I did away with that idea as I started building my first base because I didn't see how I would be able to automate the caravans using jobs, and I was also worried about how an outpost ran by two to five people could manage to resist a bunch of raids. That being said, with hydroponics I will be able to make much smaller outposts that are self sufficient, and if I get enough AI Cores I can research MKIII Harpoons, which perhaps makes the whole venture more viable. Even then, I would want a large base of operations to act as my home base, while the smaller outposts are like FOBs.

 

[thesecret1]

Why settle in one place when you can settle in a dozen?

The massive lag that occurs whenever I jump from one party to next always discouraged me from such an idea.

 

[ItsChon]

The massive lag that occurs whenever I jump from one party to next always discouraged me from such an idea.

I was going to mention this as well, since I have an RX 6800 the game still runs quite smoothly even when jumping around, adding a further point towards its viability.

 

[Harthwain]

There is sale on Kenshi (-55%). This is fortunate because I was waiting for one and thought I would have to wait a few more months before that to happen.

 

[Zanzoken]

Kenshi is a good buy for that price. I am about to build a new PC and it's been several years since I played, so it's about time for another run.

 

[Fedora Master]

What are some of the best zones to settle in, especially towards the late game. Big points for an aesthetically pleasing location/zone.

Fog Islands. Yes, Fogmen are annoying but hardly a threat and they eat other faction raids for you.

 

[The_Mask]

Community Spotlight #5, *much* Kenshi trivia & lovely wallpapers!

Hello there, folks!

We hope the new year has treated you well so far and your time in Kenshi has been easy-going.

Community Spotlight #5
We are kicking off our first blog post of the year with another community spotlight, showcasing the fantastic creations our community shared in January!

(3 minute video)




Show us your #BrilliantBases
Last week, we introduced #BrilliantBases. We would love for you to share screenshots of your bases on social media using the hashtag. We’ll be sharing some of our favourites.


We heard you wanted this back...
By popular demand, the desk mat from RobaRoba is now up for pre-order once again, so grab yours while you can!



A bunch of Kenshi trivia
In the run up to Christmas 2022, we created an advent calendar on our social media, sharing facts and trivia about Lo-Fi and Kenshi.
There was a lot of interesting stuff in there that you might not have known about Kenshi and/or Lo-fi so we’ve compiled it all into one easy-to-digest blog for you to sink your teeth into.


Day 1

Here’s a Desktop wallpaper which has been requested for a long time.
Download it here: lofigames.com/wallpaper


Day 2

Kenshi is set on a tidal-locked moon.


Day 3

There are 28 people in 12 countries across four continents working on Kenshi 2.


Day 4

Catun was originally named Catan but the name was changed due to similarities with a certain board game.


Day 5

Many of the bandit's mispronunciations of long words were inspired by my Nat's friend Will, who's long been mocked for saying 'confirmination' instead of 'confirmation'.


Day 6

December 6th is the 4th anniversary of Kenshi’s official release!
What is your favourite memory of the game from the past four years?


Day 7

Nat couldn't decide what to call the Holy Nation god for ages, then when she was on a bus in Gran Canaria she was thinking about okra vegetables.


Day 8

Hivers come from the Queen's dispenser unit.


Day 9

The KLR series limbs are named after Chris's favourite motorbike - the Kawasaki KLR650. Which character would be cool enough to ride this bike?


Day 10

Kenshi was originally known as Forgotten, a name whose legacy lives on in the Forgotten Construction Set.

What would you have named it if you’d made the game?


Day 11

One of the longest strings of Kenshi dialogues is when the player's character refuses to leave the shop at night. They were some of the first things Nat worked on as a writer and she just wrote too many out of sheer panic.


Day 12

In Kenshi 1's development, getting dialogues and interactions to actually run in the game took at least 10 x longer than actually writing it. It was extremely frustrating before we got condition templates in Kenshi 2 - setting everything manually was tedious, temperamental, highly bug prone and a source of many a meltdown, particularly without having a QA.


Day 13

Hivers choose their names based on the first thing they see when they are born. How Beep got his name is very questionable.


Day 14

crab. We guarantee that you didn't know this one.


Day 15

Here's another desktop wallpaper for you!
Download it here: lofigames.com/wallpaper


Day 16

Just over 50,000 people have left reviews for Kenshi. Out of them:
95% left positive reviews
The average reviewer's playtime is 137 ½ hours
One reviewer has 17,000 hours on record
The top 10% most passionate reviewers played for more than 500 hours

How many hours have you clocked up?


Day 17

Discover the origins of Agnu: The Agnorigins? EtymolAgnulogy? Eggnog?
Agnu was named after Chris' motorcycle, which was in turn named after the Headless body of Agnew from Futurama.


Day 18

Although Kenshi is designed to supply the player with cruel antagonists to take down, we also like to keep the humans of the world morally grey and diverse as well. This is why you'll see Holy Nation or United Cities residents / guards occasionally showing kindness to the player, for example giving them food when starving. We like to also show that humans aren't just purely evil for the sake of evil.

Have you ever been blessed by Kenshi? Was there ever a time where you felt justly treated by its inhabitants?


Day 19

Hobbs never actually wrestled a randy gorillo, he's a lying shit.


Day 20

Kenshi could have gone in a very different direction because a long time ago, Kenshi was planned to be a gun-based title.


Day 21

Scorchlanders were originally called Sun Demons and were concepted to have tails.

Day 22

Red is a pickpocket, but also a unique recruit who will only join you if she thinks you're a pathetic underdog like her. She is very picky about who joins her.

Day 23

A fourth big world faction was planned called the Republic of Tertius, its leader's name changing from Fark to Tertius to Tornado King to Mighty Patriarch...We later scrapped it because we decided it didn't add any value or contrast to the game and its existing societies. Plus it was a bit weird.

Which one of those names is your favourite?


Day 24

Kenshi players have racked up a combined playtime of 140,278,740 hours.
Kenshi gained more new players in 2022 than it did in 2021 or 2020.
What year did you join the Kenshi hype train?

Day 25

To wrap up the advent calendar, we created a range of lovely Kenshi phone wallpapers for you.
Download them here: https://lofigames.com/kenshi-phone-wallpapers/

—

And there you go, you’re all caught up! Thanks for joining us with our first blog post of 2023.
We'll have another Community Spotlight blog at the end of this month, so do continue to tag us in all your screenshots, mods and fanart for a chance to make it in the spotlight.

As always, we thank you all for the continued support you show us. Make sure you're keeping up to date with us on our social media channels as well as our Discord server.

Take care!

 

[The_Mask]

Also, for any phone users out there, here is the link for the forementioned wallpapers, swift and easy.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/conh1s5049r5o15/Kenshi Phone Wallpapers.zip?dl=1

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Community Spotlight #5, *much* Kenshi trivia & lovely wallpapers!

Hello there, folks!

We hope the new year has treated you well so far and your time in Kenshi has been easy-going.

We are kicking off our first blog post of the year with another community spotlight, showcasing the fantastic creations our community shared in January!
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[ItsChon]

I have spent a ridiculous amount of time on base building, and it is a ton of fun much to my surprise. I still have a lot of stuff I want to add, but here are some preliminary screenshots of the exterior of the base. Interior screens will be coming soon as well.

Spoiler

 

[lukaszek]

finally picked it up.
Started as wanderer in order to become a solo thief. Storing my goods became a problem so started over as merchant with storage on legs.
Since this town appears to be wealthier I immediately amassed a lot of goods and my bull could no longer help. With thieving 40+ I could just sell some expensive shit. Amassed a lot of money this way, joined ninjas, bought best ninja stuff.
Got bored, bought expensive house next door. Got bored again.
Started doing stealth take downs around the town. Now my assassination is 40+ too. Got bounty on my head but lookc like it will clear soon anyway.

So... is that it? What am I to do in here? Tried to seek adventure outside but I cant find anyone. I guess if I trained assassinate for 20 more mins Id be able to take down all the heavy armored samurai patrolling the town and strip them of their belonging - I did it with those who were pursuing me. But what next?
Can I somehow turn whole town into my naked slaves?

 

[toro]

finally picked it up.
Started as wanderer in order to become a solo thief. Storing my goods became a problem so started over as merchant with storage on legs.
Since this town appears to be wealthier I immediately amassed a lot of goods and my bull could no longer help. With thieving 40+ I could just sell some expensive shit. Amassed a lot of money this way, joined ninjas, bought best ninja stuff.
Got bored, bought expensive house next door. Got bored again.
Started doing stealth take downs around the town. Now my assassination is 40+ too. Got bounty on my head but lookc like it will clear soon anyway.

So... is that it? What am I to do in here? Tried to seek adventure outside but I cant find anyone. I guess if I trained assassinate for 20 more mins Id be able to take down all the heavy armored samurai patrolling the town and strip them of their belonging - I did it with those who were pursuing me. But what next?
Can I somehow turn whole town into my naked slaves?

Kenshi is a real sandbox game therefore there are no end goals except your own.

 

[lukaszek]

yes very helpful. Not answering my question about becoming a mayor of existing city by turning everyone my slave

 

[agris]

lukaszek see that beak thing? You can eat it

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

finally picked it up.
Started as wanderer in order to become a solo thief.

Playing Kenshi as a though it were a single-character game is a grave mistake. The game is clearly designed to be squad-based, and even permits multiple large squads, as well as possessing base-building mechanics available at low level.

Also, it's quite an exploration-focused game, aside from the base building.

 

[lukaszek]

Playing Kenshi as a though it were a single-character game is a grave mistake.

 

[Beastro]

Thought just came to me: Kenshi would be an awesome base for a Dune mod.

 

[Pots Talos]

I'm scratching my head thinking of alternative ways to make the game more challenging (without more grind).

Well, you could make a torso start in a middle of acid lake and die.

Torso starts are a meme, it just means you have to spend an ungodly amount of time grinding in the beginning. Later on it becomes even easier than a normal game, as prosthetic limbs are superior.

A one arm playthrough with no prosthetics could be interesting, though.

Even with a one arm playthrough you will still end up godlike, there is no stopping that from happening.
The most challenging playthrough I had was Skeleton Torso start where I could only recruit other skeletons (no mods for more recruitable skeletons) and I built my base in the middle of the Holy Nation with the goal being to wipe them out.

 

[Joggerino]

It's funny when you get your guys to lose limbs on purpose in order to install the superior prosthetics. Or when you capture endgame Bosses only to use them for training.

 

[Gilius Thunderhead]

Torso starts are a meme, it just means you have to spend an ungodly amount of time grinding in the beginning. Later on it becomes even easier than a normal game, as prosthetic limbs are superior.

A one arm playthrough with no prosthetics could be interesting, though.

Even with a one arm playthrough you will still end up godlike, there is no stopping that from happening.
The most challenging playthrough I had was Skeleton Torso start where I could only recruit other skeletons (no mods for more recruitable skeletons) and I built my base in the middle of the Holy Nation with the goal being to wipe them out.

Yes, I tried a one arm playthrough shortly after my previous post. It wasn't that difficult, main differences being:

- less overall HP
- couldn't carry bodies
- limited in the use of weapons (you can still use all katanas, sabres, hackers, I think)

It was kind of fun to play as a one-handed master swordsman, but it wasn't that much different from other playthroughs. Hard starts are only challenging in the start (duh), you have to do like you did and put yourself in a situation you can't get away from.

Some other things (apart from what I've mentioned in the previous post) I've done to make the game somewhat challenging:

- drastically nerf running speed. The game is only challenging if you can't just outrun things. I know there are mods for this, can't remember which one I used. Make sure bonedogs are also faster.
- make bonedogs eat people (believe it or not, they only eat corpses!). Of course, if you change the AI in the Construction Set it will affect ALL bonedogs, including those belonging to slavers, which will now eat prisoners in cages! The workaround is to separate Bonedogs into two species (wild and tamed), which might be too much work if you're not very familiar with FCS.) Since AFAIK there's no mod for this I might share mine if someone asks (assuming I still have it).
- change the economy so you're always poor or struggling. There are mods for this, try different ones.
- install one of the mods that give crossbows to more world squads, particularly Holy Nation and United Cities.
- make first aid deplete resources 3x faster.

Together with no stealth and assassination, low enemy render distance and other things mentioned in this thread, the game starts getting interesting again. Still, it's nowhere near as challenging as many would imagine. I really hope Kenshi 2 fixes this.

 

[Kruyurk]

One thing I would like for Kenshi 2 is the option to entirely disable the map. It would make the exploration much more interesting, slowly building in your head a mental map of the world. You would have to pay attention to landmarks and use the positions of the sun, stars and moons to orient yourself. And you could get lost.
Of course you can already avoid opening the map in Kenshi 1, but totally disabling it in the option menu before you play would be better, and not complicated to code I assume.

 

[behold_a_man]

One thing I would like for Kenshi 2 is the option to entirely disable the map. It would make the exploration much more interesting, slowly building in your head a mental map of the world. You would have to pay attention to landmarks and use the positions of the sun, stars and moons to orient yourself. And you could get lost.
Of course you can already avoid opening the map in Kenshi 1, but totally disabling it in the option menu before you play would be better, and not complicated to code I assume.

Would it even make sense? Apparently Kenshi 2 takes place about thousand years before Kenshi 1, people at the time - most likely - had access to the GPS or something alike. I doubt those people were willing to create The Eye or behemoths before inventing a way to successfully navigate the continent without using landmarks.

 

[Gilius Thunderhead]

I think it'd be better to have imperfect maps lacking detail and whole areas filled with "here be dragons" style lacunae. The areas depicted, cartographical style and level of detail could vary based on where you acquired them. Ancient maps could depict places which no longer exist, for example. It's such an obvious part of world building that exploration based games always seem to miss.

Obviously no GPS, or at least the ability to turn it off.

 

[razvedchiki]

can you conquer land with your build bases?

 

[Norfleet]

One thing I would like for Kenshi 2 is the option to entirely disable the map. It would make the exploration much more interesting, slowly building in your head a mental map of the world. You would have to pay attention to landmarks and use the positions of the sun, stars and moons to orient yourself. And you could get lost.
Of course you can already avoid opening the map in Kenshi 1, but totally disabling it in the option menu before you play would be better, and not complicated to code I assume.

Honestly, I think having the map in a vidya game is fine, because in real life, you can FEEL where you are. You can orient yourself using the Earth's magnetic field even without visual cues, which is how we navigate underground. But in vidya games, you can't, because you don't actually ever move and the computer doesn't emit a magnetic signal to emulate that sensation.