Can we reason with our foes?

simple answer to that might be that enemies have different degrees of receptivity to diplomacy. marauding band of inbred thieves? probably wasting your breath talking to them. you just intercepted a soldier loyal to sigismund? maybe you can convince him to stand down or even to switch sides.

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This was on kickstarter:

Build relationships with characters, become a criminal or a local hero, seduce local women, threaten your enemies or pardon vanquished opponents.

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technically speaking, that doesn’t specify if it’s posthumously or not. :wink:

I’m hoping that enemy surrender will be a lot more common than in most RPGs. It’s ridiculous when 99% of the enemies you meet appear to be mindless fanatics, determined to fight to the death no matter how badly they’re getting hammered.

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It applies to human enemies as well, at least in the games I’ve played. I can’t think of a single game where your opponents regularly back down, surrender or even just flee when outnumbered, outside of a few pre-scripted encounters.

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i think it was baldur’s gate that I’m remembering that had a system like that. using the old fear system from D&D when damaged heavily, or when taking a significant amount of damage in a short time. it may have been a different game but there have been a couple over the years. but truly you’re all right… the vast majority don’t do this. and if this game is going for realism I would definitely like to see enemies plead for mercy, drop weapons and run, or even question your motives to why you’re attacking (while fighting, to throw you off, or Henry could do the same). and if disarming is possible then there absolutely needs to be some way to handle that from a diplomacy perspective. a dude who is disarmed but continues to try and fist-fight me would seem more like Monty Python than real medieval combat. I have faith in the team to come up with something really cool in this area.

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Discussed here: Talk your way out of a fight, taunting and bullying in the middle of fight? :slight_smile:

I made this comment on that post:
“In TES 4-5 if you blocked and used the activation key (The one to talk to characters), they would stop attacking you if they liked you enough. In KC this could be used kind of like the same but with a lot more variables instead of just a “like meter”. Like how reasonable they are to listen to you, the guy they fought in the forest during the livestream would be a perfect example. You block and press activate and depending on why he’s figthing you, your persuasion and how it goes for him during the fight he might stop. Perhaps he was just fighting you because he thought you we’re a bandit, if you persuade him you’re not he would probaby stop pretty easily. If he IS a bandit it will probably be a lot harder.”

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I think that everything Henry does should have an effect on him. He might end up with the “thousand-yard stare” (decreased stamina, decreased charisma etc.).


I generally prefer not to kill, if anything I would enjoy sparing the lives of my enemies.

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Unless of course they’re a murdering sociopath. In that situation you don’t have much choice.

thanks for referring to my old thread…

now, has the dev made any mention of this gameplay system? IMO this is a must have in this realistic RPG, otherwise what’s the difference between KCD and Dark Souls? heck, even Shadow of Mordor already opened the new way of action RPG by having those supposedly mindless braindead Orcs and Uruk Hais to become somewhat humanly realistic.

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I’d imagine this will be one of the later features they touch on, along around the same time as the combat. they kind of go hand in hand, at least with the way many have described the idea. I think it would be cool personally, along with the other ideas i’ve posted, to see it be integrated into the parrying/attacking system. the combat seemed to have prompts that appeared when it was good to parry/riposte and how to attack. i think it’d be cool if at various times through combat, both when your enemy is weak and you are weak, for mercy options. like you have a dude down to low health, this sequence coudl happen:

  • Mercy option appears “Show him mercy”
  • Henry says something like “Don’t make me kill you ser, do you give up?”
  • The AI can determine based on their stats how they want to react (strong, proud, noble warriors will likely keep going)
  • If they respond “Mercy ser, mercy”, Henry has two choices: (1) “Fool” and kills him, execution style. (2) “shows mercy” sheathes weapon and can begin interrogation of character.

These would also be available to you (Henry) when your health gets low. you could call out for mercy and throw your sword down, but it’s a risk for sure. it could however still open/close other dialogue options or alter a quests in certain ways. would be cool, i kind of hated just in skyrim how you block and push a button and someone will either stop or keep going. i’d like to see that kind of submission be part of the dance of the combat.

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Hmm sounds like a good idea, but I wouldnt want the game to turn this cinematic mode on to chose what you want to do. Especially in the heat of battle or a siege, you wouldnt want to stop fighting because you might get killed by someone else. Personally it could be better to either if the guy throws down a weapon or shouts MERCY MERCY I YIELD, to just attack to finish him off or walk away to show mercy, or make it as a quest, where you fighting 1v1 against some bandit to show mercy or just kill him straight up.

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yeah definitely during sieges this would have to be off, i was mainly thinking during 1v1’s, whether on a quest or random encounters. and i like the idea of having it interactive like just killing him or walking away, though i hope there is a sheathe weapon functionality, so that i don’t have to walk away, and then walk right back to start my new interrogation dialogue. as you point out there are less menu-y ways to incorporate this. also this fits perfectly in if there is disarming. disarm dude is basically the equivalent of calling out mercy. and if you can knock out instead of kill enemies, then you could do that and rob him without having to actually murder/kill people.

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Got your back, Jack. I can’t recall them talking about this, but undoubtedly they would like to have it. If they bring up the discussion it will just be about if it’s worth the effort :confused:

I’ve found that a lot of people flee in Elder Scrolls games. Not so much the higher level guys, and “monster npcs” but if you’re winning a fight against innocents, they tend to run.

I know that but in the end they tend to always come back.

So you would like to see a deeper charisma system?

Lets say I beat the crap out of a local he yields and runs off: now anytime he sees me he averts his eyes, walks away, general avoidance behavior etc?

In most situations yes, but I would also like to make it so that we can raise or lower resentment even after a fight.

well the homepage does say that they are going to being implementing advanced reputation and law, this should fit under that category but how in depth it will be we are going to have to wait and see.