Kevin's Watch

Ok. I'm ten days into this game - probably around twenty five hours give or take - and I'm loving it!

I have read that the game is about fifty plus hours long and can only respond with "What!" Twenty five hours in and I've barely scratched the surface; I saw one YouTube post where the girl had played seventy hours and only then felt she was getting the hang of it.

Certainly it is not a game that holds your hand as you play; without very much in the way of guiding or training you are essentially thrown out into the world like a newborn infant to the wolves. You start as a wretch - and stay that way for a good long time (I'm still only slightly less of a wretch than I was at the start). But don't let this put you off. I've seen countless reports of how hard it is, how the combat system is nigh on impossible to master - of how hours and hours must be spent training in order to get to a point where you can survive even the simplest of confrontations. Bullshit! For starters, there is simply so much to do that the training never becomes onerous - I've already broken away from the main quest-line and done one of the dlc's (I think - I'm talking about the extended section where you play as Theresa as she deals with the attack on Skalitz) and while it wasn't easy, it always gave you sufficient leeway to approach problems in a variety of ways that made the thing doable.

I absolutely love the historical realism - and not being the fikkin' Dragonborn or some other fire-spouting hero. I've now re-entered the main game and am setting off on some of the side quests (learning to read will be an early necessity if I'm going to get on) in which I hope to build up a character that can at least survive out in the wider world. I am desperately short of money - a real problem in a place that demands you eat, keep your appearance up to speed and pay for your training in hard coin - but it's bloody hard to come by! I've got a horrible feeling that for all of my best intentions (Henry is a good boy! A good boy I tell you!) I've got a feeling that a life of crime might be beckoning (and being medieval the punishments for this tend to be - well - medieval!). Ah well - I'll do my best, but a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do!

Haha nice, glad you enjoying it. I don't have that particular DLC...or the "Band of Bastards" one I think, although I have the other 2 or so.

I too enjoy the "realism" although it can be a teeny bit tedious sometimes...wait until you start doing alchemy...

--A

Made a very tentative start in this direction yesterday Av. Also got smeared with some kind of hallucigenic ointment that resulted in my having some kind of......."session" (hem hem)...... involving a horse, a pig and a chicken. Don't imagine that would do my reputation much good if it became common knowledge!

First time I saw that I was absolutely stuck regarding the "keyhole" and the horse. Very weird.

I would recommend a few quality of life (QoL) mods, but dunno if your console version supports them.

--A

Doubt it Av; there might be some on the PlayStation Store, but I'm probably going to stick with playing it 'vanilla'.

Pffft, vanilla is for noobs.

Mod it all I say!

--A

I'll look into it!

Talking of vanilla, went on the piss with Father Goodwin yesterday and fetched up in the bell tower with a couple of..........no, let that rest. Had to give his sermon for him this morning because he was too hungover to do it himself. Went moderately well I thought, but the crowd were not best pleased with it. Goodwin seemed happy enough because he broke Limpy Lubek's confessional in return for it and set me on the main quest pathway again.

Need to start getting to work on my 1) combat skills 2) lock picking and pickpocket skills and 3) working out how to get more money so am going to take a break from this in order to do so. My alchemy and herbal skills could do with a brush up as well!

I am McLovin! Yeah baby - you know what I'm talkin' about; move over Rover and let Peter take over!

--A

Skills, skills, skills! It's all about development of skills.

I'm getting to the point where I have a large build up of uncompleted quests because I'm not concentrating enough on development of things such as lockpicking and pickpocketing. Also my archery and swordsmanship need work. But these things cost money and I haven't got any, largely because I haven't got the pickpocketing and lockpicking skills to get any. It's a vicious circle that I have to break somehow or other.

Still, at least I seem to be getting on okay with Theresa, though how long that will continue I have my doubts as someone told me that I was stinking like a badgers arse the other day.

Go hunt rabbits with the bow to grind your archery skill. And if you've signed up with Radovic (I think) you can train melee most any time at the training grounds near Rattay with his man at arms for free.

--A

Yes Av. I'm doing regular sessions with the trainer (what's his name - begins with B) {odd thing there - my predictive text threw up 'B' of its own volition after I typed the word 'with' there...... That's not predictive - that's freakin' paranormal! }
........ anyway,

yes - it's coming along. I also started to use the treasure maps and at last I've got a good sword, some decent armour and some green in my wallet!

Things are a'moving!

--A

OK, y'all convinced me and I picked up the base game on Saturday. Between that afternoon and yesterday, I put in 11 hours.

The main world has really just opened up; I'm not locked up anywhere, I've got a horse, a sword, and some old smelly clothes, and I was quite pleased with myself the first time I survived an ambush by 4 enemies at once (though they were only wearing shirts and wielding clubs). The combat is difficult but not impossible, though archery is rather tough. And I like the freedom it gives you; I was tasked with hunting down a few cut-throats and, after dying a few times, decided to simply wait until they were asleep and slit their throats. Oh, how the turn tables.

Excellent to have you onboard Rigel! I took the advice of a few YouTube posts and stayed with the main quest until after I'd got to the point where Barnard would train me back in Rattay, and while I've done a bit more now, I'm still very much concentrating on side quests.

Sounds like you're going better than me at combat; I've won a few rounds with very weak opponents, but when faced with anyone of any quality (Cumans or soldiers and bandits etc, I'm toast!

Today I managed to get the wife of a local lord into the sack and got the alpha male buff. This gives you a swagger to your step (metaphorically) with some extra vitality and confidence. On the strength of this I waded into a fight that I'd normally have run like a jack-rabbit away from...... and immediately got creamed! I was put in mind of the occasion I was visiting on a farm and one of the young lads helping us was a bit full of himself. The old worker nodded toward me and explained that the boy had just got himself a new girlfriend. He described him with a term that perfectly summed up my state of mind before my well deserved cumupance - cock-happy!

Rigel wrote:...decided to simply wait until they were asleep and slit their throats. Oh, how the turn tables.

IIRC, you can also poison / drug the cooking pots over the fire.

--A

I did this a few days ago and (as I thought was correct) waited until the following day before returning to loot the bodies for their spoils........ only to march in and find them sitting around the fire swapping tales and drinking. At which point they fell upon me like a flock of seagulls on a discarded chip butty and slew me without preamble!

Hey Av, you mentioned some QoL mods - any particular suggestions?

One piece of advice Rigel; Occasionally during the process of the game you will have search elements within quests where an area of the map is shaded in order that you painstakingly sift over the ground looking for this or that object or clue. In the case of the treasure maps this already difficult process is even harder - the maps are loosely based on the terrain at best and the search areas not even shaded on the map. In these cases, much as I don't like doing it, I've been forced onto YouTube for extra clues as to where to go - and even then it can be bloody difficult! I'm simply not that hard core of an immersionalist to be able to able to cope with the hours of frustrating searching that not doing so would entail. You, on the other hand might well prefer to do the footwork yourself, and fine, but be pre-warned, the searches are damned difficult!

Beware! In Kingdom Come Deliverance as in life there is a price to pay for being a.........no - bad boy let's say, and I've just discovered it.

Having just dispatched a crook who'd commited murder, whom I nabbed in corpus delicti as it were, I decided to embark on a spot of well earned looting of the two corpses at my feet, reasoning that as it was the dead of night and I was sequestered away where no prying eyes could see me, I was safe to do so. I have been protecting my reputation assiduously, handling it with kid gloves, not because of my inherent rectitude, but simply because it is a pain in the ass to have to deal with being thought of as akin to snake shit.

So imagine my surprise when, having made a midnight journey back to Rattay Mill for the simple expedient of unloading my stolen booty, and then back to the location in order to finish my quest, I was roundly abused by the local innkeep for having the temerity to ask if there was any work going. "Absolutely not!" he snapped in response to my innocent question, and neither he nor his alehouse maid would offer me lodgings for the night.

I was still in possession of a stolen book that is replete with perks and for this reason had not wanted to part with, so perhaps in some insidious way I have the miasma of a crook surrounding me. I'll have to get the blasted thing read and sold ASAP because the type of game I'm playing demands I perform my perfidious deeds under an impenetrable cloak of respectability. As for the victims of my night time pilfering, both guilty and innocent - damn their eyes for putting me to this trouble!