Decline in challenge + AI ruining immersion

Gameplay
#1

When it started the game was great. I couldn’t beat anyone and I had to scrounge every little bit to build up my character. For maybe the first 20hrs I had a sense of accomplishment after each fight, while turning in quests and selling loot. I was in my element.

I’m just over 47hrs in now and for the past 27hrs everything has changed. I can one or two shot (bow or sword) most NPCs. NPCs that I had to use strategies on before, I can now mash away and kill them within seconds. It’s bizarre. I’m referring to the exact same NPCs, like the sword trainer in Rattay, the mercenaries etc you meet on the roads and so on. It seems a stat increase has somehow elevated my skills without the actual need to employ those skills. I have a lot of ‘moves’ unlocked that I can use, but I barely get a chance to. Sometimes a fight will literally be me countering once, and the guy will fall over (the guy, I should add, who is in full plate armour).

The entire camp where Runt was hiding was taken out by a single person. It felt like maybe a mix of 2 dozen Cumans and bandits. It was insta-death for most of them. It didn’t help that the AI seems to be utterly blind most of the time.

Looting used to be fun, but that was only while money held some value. Now after I kill a group of Cumans, I walk away with maybe 5K worth of goods I can sell. But for what? I can’t seem to buy properties or anything else expensive. I have 26,000 groschens with nothing to spend it on (I had more before a horse, weapons and armor, but even then I didn’t need to buy most of that as I could find it on NPCs I’d killed).

I tried picking perks that didn’t seem like… cheats. For example, regenerating health. Really? Some of them go against the spirit of how the game is set up in the most backwards of ways.

So at the moment the ‘drive’ I once had has whittled away and I’m simply doing quests and the main story for the sake of it.

It seems to have fallen prey to the same issues that plague most RPGs when it comes to what I assume is ‘late game’ (I’ve just killed Runt, I don’t know how much is left). You don’t need to abuse any of the mechanics. You can become too powerful too quickly simply by doing the quests outlined for you.

If they made a hardcore mode (or difficulty modes in general) I feel a lot of this could be sorted.

But getting back to one of the most annoying things - the AI. The last example, which I decided to record after a previous sighting of their stupidity, can be seen below…

So it looks like there are patrolling bandits (who are too stupid to recognise who I am, even from a close distance). Then we have bandits sitting on the ground like prisoners, which doesn’t make any sense. Then there are the usual Cumans I can ‘untie’. Around 40 seconds into the scene and they finally ‘see’ that I’m there. Ridiculous.

Scenes such as this have been repeated dozens of times since I started the game. This is very common. The AI is beyond atrocious. I really thought this game was going to change things for the better, but it’s worse than many other first person RPGs. Without decent AI, most in game mechanics are redundant, and I find it hard to take things seriously.

This isn’t even going into the performance issues (GTX1080, 8700K, 32GB RAM, SSD - lots of 20-30FPS areas and frame drops). Or the bugs in general. Broken quests, having to lose 30mins each time I run into broken AI by going back to old save games, missing objects or things that aren’t triggering are very tiresome to deal with.

If this is considered ‘final’ after all these years, after delaying it for consoles and whatever else - then I’m somewhat sorry that I backed it. I really hope patches fix it. There’s just so much to fix.

9 Likes
Jesus Christ be praised if someone makes a harder combat mod
#2

Bumparoo. :slight_smile:

#3

yeah, don’t think about releasing new content right now, just fix those old bugs for gods sake

#4

Game wasn’t ready for release plain and simple.

#5

I completely agree with this topic. Its everything I felt but couldnt put into works. Well written and explained.

Bumping it for devs to see. Fix this mess.

#6

Yes the AI is so terrible… how anyone can find the combat “difficult” is mind-boggling. The hold up encounters are especially hilarious. I encountered traders fighting bandits, I killed the bandits. Then after the fight was over I decided I’m going to kill the traders. No reaction. I shot one of them in the leg… no reaction from him or his buddies. I then proceeded to punch him… he just kept casually walking. Lol WHAT?!

At this point… can the AI even be overhauled? Because it really does need a complete overhaul. Pathfinding behavior, combat behavior, general behavior… just everything. Wasn’t there a closed beta or something? Surely someone should have realized how dumb the AI is.

1 Like
#7

OP sums it up pretty well, I’m 70 hours in, level 12, one shotting most enemies, used mods to be attacked by groups of 5,6,7+ bandits and it’s just so easy, hugely disappointing lack of game balancing/difficulty scaling/AI. Really lost the will and desire to keep playing, which is a shame because it’s a beautiful medieval world and some aspects of the game are terrific.

1 Like
#8

I agree about the combat. I think they’re working on getting it rebalanced. Viktor from WH replied on another thread saying that the combat balance will be changed. The ai is dumb but I doubt much can be done about it at this point. What’s done is done, only hope they keep patching the game.

#9

There are some more difficult bandit camps (full plate armour, using combos) given by the Sassau custodian but after that you basically get no fighting missions anymore. You should at least be able to repeat these bandit camp quests (Rattay/Talmberg/Sassau) with more difficult enemies infinitely.

1 Like
#10

I thought that Runt was a boss fight… I killed the bitch with 2 hits!

#11

Yeah, it was pretty underwhelming.

I haven’t played the game since I made this topic. The wait for the new patch is killing me. I tweeted Vavra and he said they were going to address balancing:

But to what extent, I have no idea. This is why difficulty modes would be beneficial. I’m guessing they’re trying to appease everyone (the casual crowd + those who like a challenge), so we get this ‘one-size-fits-all’ experience.

If they sorted the balance, then as far as I’m concerned it would be one of the best games I’ve ever played. As it stands (without a challenge), all I have left is the story. But my existence is almost passive since everything dies so easily. I may as well put a movie on at this point :confused:

#12

If you’re on PC try giving this mod a go: https://www.nexusmods.com/kingdomcomedeliverance/mods/209

Odolnost means resistance, strength in Czech. This mod focus on bringing real difficulty to fights after reaching level ~12. The objective is to bring more realism to late game fights, to encourage the player to use all his skills (such as combos) and other game’s mechanics (such as poison and potions). Odolnost was designed with Roads are dangerous and More enemies in mind and with a realistic approach.

Tried it last night and for the first time after 70 hours of playing the game I actually died!!!

#13

If you have PC this is the best combat balancing mod.

Changes made in v1.0:

  1. Weaponskill-scaling disabled
  2. More aggressive enemy-groups
  3. Increased influence of armorload to movementspeed and staminaregen
  4. Item changes:
    4.1 balanced Armor-weight according to price and defence-rating
    4.2 ‘Leather / Hunter’s gloves’ no longer heavy armor
    4.3 ‘Queen of Sheba’s sword’ no longer useless and properly adjusted
  5. Shops:
    5.1 very slightly reduced selling-prices
    (shops no longer pay willingly more than the item is worth)
    5.2 further reduced selling-prices at fences
  6. slightly reduced Herb-gather XP and Herb-gather Radius
  7. reduced Aim-Spread
  8. no longer Blind NPCs
  9. Stay Clean for a more realistic time
  10. Higher SkillXP through reading, making it possible to achieve max level

Changes in v1.1:
11. increased influence of item-status to price
(not as much as I hoped due to system-limitation)
12. decreased influence of Armor- and Weapon-status to defense / attack
(giving common enemies a slight boost)
13. decreased Specialperfectblock-Window for player
14. decreased prevalence of Perfectblock and Specialperfectblock on enemies

Changes to come in v1.2:
15. Longswords no longer massively OP
15.1 bigger dmg penalty for one handed use
15.2 10% dmg decrease for all Longswords
15.2 increased reach of Longswords
16. “Heavy Swing” Buff no longe18r OP; “Fast Striker” Buff influence decreased
17. Reduced price and increased weight of meat
18. Balanced Dmg-parameters for all melee-weapons except Polearms
(balanced against a fully armored enemy the overall difference between expensive and cheap weapons is now smaller,
while keeping the the intended distinction of the weapons in order. That gives common enemies a bigger advantage while penalising the PC)

Changes in v1.22
19. Bigger nerf for piercing weapons (stinger most of all)
20. adjustments to the dirtying mechanic

Changes in v1.3:
21. Adjusted values for all weapons to make every play-style equally viable
21.1 Significant Buff for agility-based weapons (pretty much back to vanilla-values)
22. Balanced Dmg-parameters for all Bows and Arrows against max-armor.
(I highly recommend to disable the Reticle on screen; otherwise Bows will remain OP due to constant headshots ;))
23. Adjustments to older changes:
23.1 Aim-Spread
23.2 Dirtying
23.3 Movementspeed
23.4 Visibility (was changed after some false comments, now back to a better value)
23.5 Slightly bigger SPB-Window for player
23.6 increased Aggressivity in huge groups (>8 enemies)
24. reworked Buffs / perks
24.1 Cuman killer
24.2 Chain strike
24.3 Padding
24.4 Blood Rush
24.5 Stronghold
24.6 Berzerk
24.7 Ascetic
24.8 Insomniac
24.9 Contemplative
25. lowered Field of View of NPCs to more realistic values
26. optional: possibility to disable Slow-Motion

#14

I tried that one (I was so desperate I tried them all including Dark Times) and didn’t find it much more challenging at all sadly :frowning:

Have you tried Odolnost?

#15

Really??

I think the balance is brought was perfect. No more one shotting anything, unless it’s an unarmored opponent.

Enemy AI in groups is much more challenging because they are way more aggressive and enemies will no longer wait for their “friends” to finish attacking you before they make an attack.

The rate of which you can move is greatly reduced when in heavy armor, and stamina is heavily impacted.

Weapon damage scaling disabled, longswords nerfed, perks reworked, slow motion disabled blocking disabled – when you’re fighting a good opponent it’s a lot more difficult than it use to be.

I’ve tried strong enemies, I’ve tried the armor increase mod, and I’ve tried dark times. Immersive Balance is the best out of all of them – it balances the game out and keeps it as vanilla as possible.

Combine that mod with roads are dangerous, I was ambushed by 3 bandits 2 of them weren’t so armored but their leader was and he was tougher than Captain Bernard…

#16

Seems like WH needs to implement lootboxes. XD

This is something I actually don’t like in this mod. It makes armour too restrictive. It wasn’t irl and it shouldn’t be now. Stamina should drain faster mind you but the movement speed should not be affected. Also the increased weight of meat makes some quests a chore.
I tried the mod and it wasn’t my cup of tea. The AI is better mind you but all the other small changes break the experience for me.

#17

Are you kidding me??

Heavy armor most certainly would slow down it’s bearer…

Having gambeson and combining that with a 30lbs chainmail alone would slow you down. Now lets assume you actually have even more armor than that. Full suits of plate armor can weigh up to 110 pounds spread all over your body.

It makes sense that wearing heavy armor impacts your stamina and speed. Plus heavy armor is too over powered in this game and enemies don’t scale or get equipped with better weapons unless it’s a unique opponent or just better equipped bandit – which puts all NPCs at a disadvantage when facing Henry. You can soak up a thousand hits against a bandit in full armor since they are still using a Robbers Sword which does like no damage.

#18

Ok, plate armour for Jousting could reach those ludicrous weights. Plate armour for combat was between 30 and 50 lbs.

It should not limit your moving speed. That is not how velocity works. It should minutely impact acceleration but not moving speed. Especially walking speed. You should try putting on a suit of armour and then you will see what I mean. On long protracted efforts it will take a toll but not as big as you’d think. I am 80Kg heavy (roughly 160 lbs). A 40 lbs suit of armour would represent 25% of my bodyweight spread across all my body. I like to do some hiking and I can tell you I have carried backpacks heavier than this for around 20 Km at a brisk pace of about 7~7.5 Km/h because night was falling. And this after already doing about 30Km normally (5~6 km/h). You get tired sure but not as badly as in this game and certainly not slowed down (Well running is a bit awkward due to weight distribution).

#19

No.
I don’t know if you know the channel Knyght Errant, but here a video where he weight his late 14th early 15th armor and talk about the weight distribution and all. I suggest listening to all, cause it’s interesting, but if you don’t have time, here the important part: https://youtu.be/I7CUfkGLB48?t=15m46s
And here another where he talk more about: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FB0goDq38Q
Bottom line, the armor is less heavy and better weight distributed than an modern rifleman.

It make sense indeed that a full armor will impact you stamina, but not that much either, well at the start of the game yes, but it should be less and less impacting as you build up your cardio, but always more impacting compare to nothing. As for the speed, I’m not saying that it should do nothing, but it should be minimal. it’s doesn’t required that much of force to hurt a person with a sword, you don’t have to swing all you got every time, so speed is not as much impacted in the end.

And full armor is indeed OP, in part as in real life. Full armor are the tank of the ancient time. It should be really hard to put down a enemy in full armor, even much if you don’t have any yourself. And too, arrows should do nothing or very less to plates.

#20

What I would suggest to slow down the climb to god mode is including some more historical accuracy to armor, introducing, fitting. A real armor is close fitted to the bearer, what I mean is pretty much all the component of an armor should be personalize to the one that command it, like the size and measurement. So this way you cannot just kill any armored enemy and then assume that his shinny harness (or less shinny now that you bashed on…) will fit you as well. Maybe he has less belly than you or… So in game, you don’t have a one size fit all armors, you have to find by shear luck a person who has kind of same size that you, if not you should have penalty because it’s too big, or too small. Or, do as everyone who wanted armor did, command one at the blacksmith. Or, you can bring to a blacksmith some pieces of armor to be fitted for you.

This way, money is more important now, cause if you want armor, you have to pay. And armor is now a more valuable resource for the player.

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