Kenshi modlist README

Dating: 20:07 2018-12-18

Concerning the /vg/ OP's recommended modlist for Kenshi! In the same order as the repo.

WARNING: Some of the mods listed will make the game easier or harder, especially when used in conjunction with each other. Also, to be fair I'd say that Kenshi by no means require any of the mods listed to be a complete game, but can alleviate some of the FUN that most people seem to experience when they're noobs.

Don’t forget that Kenshi has revolutionized the gaming industry with its import-game feature, meaning you can add new mods at any point and a simple import of your saved game allows you to continue without fucking up your game or getting a broken mod experience. Some things in the world will reset and the bars may get filled up with new recruits etc. but at least the game doesn’t break.

Though I’ve been using 27 of these simultaneously, I can’t say I’ve noticed many conflicts or bugs at all.

-- (18+FemaleBody) -----------------------------

Lewd.


-- (256 Squad Limit) ---------------------------

Not really necessary unless you want to have more than 32 members. It’s quite hard to reach the vanilla limit to begin with unless you actively seek out to hire a large crew.


-- (Adventurers Guild – Lore Friendly Recruitment)-

Adds the ability to headhunt for more non-unique recruits in every bar. Which, albeit convenient, can make exploring for new recruits a little bit redundant, and may either make or break immersion for you.


-- (Attack Slots x3 or x5) ---------------------

Increases the default combat limitation (from 1 to 3) where a single unit can only enter battle with a single opponent at a time. This mod makes soloing much harder because you will get hit far more often when you’re outnumbered. At the same time it adds to the tactical dimension of the game, i.e. surrounding enemies/singling out weaker opponents becomes more useful, making it easier to fight in certain situations etc.

There are x2, x3, x4, x5 versions available. x3 has been very nice for me so far.


-- (Better Mercenaries) ------------------------

Adds the ability to hire mercenaries for longer than the default 2 days (or 7 for base-guarding duties) at a time. In fact, you can hire them indefinitely, but it also costs more accordingly. Not really necessary, nor immersion/balance breaking, but really convenient if you like hiring mercenaries. Means you don’t have to recruit them again every 2 days once their contract ends.


-- (Bouncing Boobs) --------------------------

Not quite sure what this mod does. But it is said to make adventuring really comfy.


-- (Dark UI) ---------------------------------

Turns the desert-beige looking default UI to a darker, smoother gray. There’s a reoccurring shitstorm in the general in regards to whether this is one of the only “must-have” mods for Kenshi or not. Take a look at the different screenshots posted and decide for yourself which one you prefer.


-- (Dog backpack) ----------------------------

Adds smaller backpacks for your doggos. Makes them a bit more useful, otherwise their only purpose is to act as a convenient limb creation/disposal system. I give it 10/10 because dogs are very comfy in this game.

-- (Extended Camping) -------------------------

Adds more campsite buildings, some of which are quite cool and provide some comfy fluff for your base building/camping-roleplay. Hardly necessary as it only adds fluff to the game.

-- (Guardpost) --------------------------------

Adds a small building to which you may assign a job-order. Convenient if you want to make your guards actually return to their posts after retrieving food or fighting off nearby bandits.

-- (In-Game Biome Map (No Colour)) ------------

Adds outlines to the in-game map. Not really necessary, but makes it easier to discern in which biome you’re (really) building your base. There’s also a colored version on Steam, but I believe that one also highlights what type of biomes the areas are, i.e. if they’re of an arid, green or swampy setting etc. On the other hand it can break immersion and exploration a bit I suppose.

-- (Interactive World) ------------------------

Haven’t tried, seems to add quite a lot of building content, and makes more things harvestable in the wild.

-- (Interior Design) --------------------------

Adds a lot of fluff to your base-building, making your inhabitants comfy not only inside their walls, but inside their buildings as well. Not necessary by any means, but I do recommend it if you want to delve into the more creative aspects of the game.

-- (Let’s Talk) -------------------------------

Makes it possible for unique single-time conversations amongst your recruits to reappear. Can be nice as it’s easy to miss out on certain comfy banter if you often run the game at 3x speed.

-- (Lively Player Town Ai) ------------------

Both this and the “Player Town Settlers” mod add the ability to entice different NPCs to join your town. With this mod you can also in turn give these NPCs many different passive jobs like patrolling, disposing of corpses, following your characters etc. For example I had a Wandering Assassin just randomly pass by and join my outpost the other day, and she still lives there to this day. Though for this alternative to work you have to talk with them once they’re within your town’s area of influence. The other method involves talking with regular recruits while in stealth mode. The NPCs also seem to buy from your shopping counters and can be dismissed from your base, or invited into your real crew whenever you want. Really quite a comfy, immersive mod, though it can also make the game easier because you’re actually able to invite some really high-leveled NPCs into your active crew, and they also act as free NPC guards to your town.

**WARNING: Possibly a bit buggy when it comes to re-recruiting mercenaries whose contracts have ended and start wandering your town aimlessly, other NPCs like the Caravans/nomads etc. are not affected at all. Could be the fault of a mod conflict or the “Player Town Settlers” mod.

-- (More Bounties) --------------------------

Adds a chance for more enemies to have bounties on them. Makes fighting in the early game an actually good alternative for making some money. Hardly unbalanced as it’s still in no way one of the fastest ways to make money.

-- More Building ----------------------------

Adds many comfy buildings to your base-building arsenal. Highly recommended if you wish to build nice, compact bases as most of the default buildings available seem to have issues with their placement boxes. Also adds a lot ´ of decorative, gardening and crafting fluff, which are all very nice additions all-around.

**WARNING: Also adds the ability to create your own Ancient and Engineering books, though these fortunately take a ton of time and material to craft. It does mean that you in theory don’t have to go on more adventures if you don’t want to.

-- Interesting Recruits ---------------------

Adds many new unique recruits with their own dialogue packs spread out around the world. Also adds more types of non-unique recruits. Not necessary but overall quite a nice addition to the game.

**WARNING: Some of the recruits do start out with quite high initial stats, which can make the early game quite a bit easier. Recruit at your own discretion. Also some of their unique dialogue can get annoyingly overused at times, i.e. Katharciss saying “Beasts approaching” whenever animals are close by.

-- (Player Town Settles (Outpostlife)) -----

Adds the ability to entice no-faction characters to join your outpost as NPCs. Haven’t tried myself but they can indeed be found within the game and talked to. They should buy stuff from your shopping counters as well. Not as feature-rich as the other settlement mod, but could be a good low-key substitute.

**WARNING: Sounds like it might potentially cause conflict with the Lively_Player_Town_Ai.

-- (Pocket Change) ------------------------

Adds lootable money to many of the enemies found within the game. There are a few editions depending on how much money you want them to have. The 2.0 or “harsh” version seems to be somewhat more balanced and low-key.


-- (Race Blood) ---------------------------

Gives the blood of different races different colors.

-- (Reactive World) -----------------------

This mod adds many political events that can happen due to your characters actions. Some of these can include quite drastic changes to certain areas.

-- (Recruit Prisoners) ---------------------

Adds the ability to actively recruit almost any enemy that you take prisoner, based on an increasingly lower chance depending on enemy type. Adds dialogue to them as well, so all in all a nice addition.

-- (Enhanced Shopping Economy) ------------

Official mod description: “Mod to rebalance economy to make in-town shopkeeping more viable and more interesting. Everyone wants to run a comfy inn, right? Now you can do it without every single peasant in town going broke from buying a single rice bowl and not regenerating money, because it's really a buzzkill for a horde of people to flood your tavern and scream about how they can't afford things. Yes, Universal Basic Income has come to the world of Kenshi. On top of that, shopping lists have been expanded in general, more NPCs will go shopping, and there's more of a dynamic to NPC income and spending.”

-- (Shops have more Items+) ---------------

Increases the amount of items that shops have by 5-15 times, but also unlocks more types of items that the shops have available.

**WARNING: I really can’t recommend this mod unless you absolutely can’t stand the low amount of items and money that the vanilla shops have.  Because although it’s quite convenient, the mod makes adventuring redundant because you can just buy late game items straight from the nearest bartender.

-- (Sparring – Melee Defense Training) ----

Adds two buildable mats which train your melee defense or martial arts. As it’s already possible to train many of your stats in the game, a lot of people think there ought to be more options to level up the other stats in the same way.

**WARNING: There’s a bug with the tooltip saying you can level to 42, this is incorrect, as the real number is 20 for the defensive mat,  and 10~20 for the martial arts one. Like all of the training-dummy mods, this one makes training up new recruits to a somewhat decent skill level a breeze.

-- (Strength Training Equipment) ----------

Adds a buildable bench press where your characters can level up their strength to 59. Makes it so you don’t have to fill up your characters inventory with stones and have them move-order around in order to train Strength.

**WARNING: Like all of the training-dummy mods, this one makes training up new recruits to a somewhat decent skill level a breeze.

-- (Tame Beasties) –-----------------------

Adds the ability to tame (recruit) most animals found within the game, by means of putting them inside of your prisons.

**WARNING: Adds a “lunch-bag” items to some of the shops. The missing icon can be a bit annoying.

-- (Tanegashima_Gun) –--------------------

Adds a flintlock to the game, haven’t tried.

-- (Taxman Relations plus) –--------------

Supposedly gives you a small incentive in terms of positive faction relations when you pay taxes/tributes or when you accept challenges by Shek warriors etc.

-- (Tohoku) –-----------------------------

No idea what this is.

-- (Training Swords) –--------------------

Adds the ability to craft zero-damage versions of all weapon types, meaning you can give them to your characters and have them fight with prisoners without killing them. Convenient, immersive but quite a “cheaty” way to practice your combat skills.

**WARNING: Like all of the training-dummy mods, this one makes training up new recruits to a somewhat decent skill level a breeze.

-- (Wooden Dexterity Training Dummy) –----

Exactly the same as the “Strength Training Equipment” mod, but for your dexterity stat instead. This one only goes to a max of 29.

**WARNING: Like all of the training-dummy mods, this one makes training up new recruits to a somewhat decent skill level a breeze.

-- (Yukkuri Reimu) –----------------------

ゆっくりしていてね！ けんしって言う世界は素晴らし過ぎて、堪らない。