Been thinking about writing this for a while. Mostly because I’m prone to jump into threads and sometimes help and sometimes be unhelpful by telling people they got it wrong.
I was introduced to KC:D by a collegue, who in a conversation about games told me that if I should try a new game it should be KC:D.
He told me it was full of bugs and pretty annoying at times, but I would enjoy it. And “by the way. You can only save once in a while”. This was way before “Save & Exit”.
So I bugged my wife for permission to buy it. I must have been a good boy, because she said yes.
So I started off on a quest. Went through all the conversations and saved whats-her-name from unspeakable horrors and eventually ended up at the millers place. Bugs? Oh yes. Fun? Oh yes.
Then I went around looking at stuff thinking about how much I loved the scenery. Very crisp. Very good. Hated figting because it was so different from my other games. In those you could point at something and pull the trigger (click left mouse) and they usually died after one shot because I am very good at headshots.
This game had you “hack” when you released the button. That was a very steep learning curve for me. Especially because I also played the other games in between.
But I got better.
Then there was a patch promising lots of new stuff and fixing some of my gripes.
So I had to restart my game. Which turned out to be a good thing because I had learned some stuff which made the second attempt so much more enjoyable. Not just because of the patch, but also because I had made some bad choices and was past the point where “I’m sorry” would work.
Second time was so much better. I had learned that some skills were great to learn very early on.
Using up precious game time by killing a few hours learning to fight, would be extremely beneficial for killing enemies later on.
Then I started enjoying the scenery and someone pointed out e_volumetricfog=1 and BAM! my world became a beautiful++ place when it used to be just beautiful. I also learned what settings worked for my pc.
Then there was a patch which would make the world work so much better. So I started all over again.
This time I learned the skills, trained and trained and wasted many hours on getting better.
Main Quest? Phaaa! It can wait. I’m in no hurry. The faster I finish main quest, the faster I have finished the game and the faster I will be left with only sidequests.
I learned to control my left click. Someone taught me how to map my mouse buttons better. Others taught me to pay attention to details which might seem trivial when encountered.
Now I have restarted for the fourth time. I have never gotten to infiltrate the monestary before. This round I’m just about to do so, but there are some things I have to do first.
I don’t use fast travel at all. I often travel back to Rattay for repairs and selling stuff at high prices. The streets at night are great for training on lockpicking.
I gallop once in a while for fun, but most often trot or simply walk. If I’m between trees I never trot or gallop. Wouldn’t do it in real life, why do it in-game?
I love travelling at night (don’t use potions to enhance eyesight) and I often let would be attackers off with a stern warning. Often they are just trying to get by in a cruel world. Only people with armour or gangs of more than three people get wiped out. Don’t like people who kill for a living.
I’ve found the joy of travelling off-piste and have found many interesting sites. Not least an awful lot of beds that let me sleep and save.
Tried showing the game to my brother-in-law the other day. Fast travelled to save time. It felt really really wrong. So I showed him another game instead.
I’ve almost left the Main Quest and am acting like cop-judge-executioner in my vision of what is right and wrong. I let some things slip by because as a beggar in a war torn area, you must do stuff to survive. Others I kill as soon as I realize they are conspiring to kill me. But only after I have gotten what I can from them through conversation.
I might have some sub quests slip through my hands because of it, but who cares?
I’ve noticed that in this rant I haven’t really touched on pop-ins and people who change clothes as I approach them.
That’s because it isn’t bad enough to bother me. It’s a game.
I have to live with no rain spilling off the roofs into the gutter. I can live with the occational person standing in the middle of a horse and it can be easily fixed with “Oh look. A squirrel”.
Clipping can sometimes occur, but it doesn’t really detract from MY game.
As I get too good with weapons and the fight become less of a problem, I’ve found myself not looking for choke points and just let them surround me. I’ve found myself using lesser weapons or allowing my armour to drop in quality. Sometimes I fistfight when they have axes.
I have a LOT of fun with this game.
But then again - I absolutely hated it when other games introduced endless waves of enemies in certain places to break up the endless “walk-find enemy-kill-find new enemy.”
Guess I’ll be a failure as a powergamer. But in this game I am bloody brilliant at roaming the countryside looking for damsels to save and bad dudes to harrass.
Sorry if I wasted your time.
