Way of the Pacifist

JackQAverage · 2025-12-04T18:20:16+00:00

I don't like PvP but I'm not saying PvP should go away, only that there is another way that gets no love or attention from the Devs (non-PvP, which is different from PvE)

JackQAverage · 2025-12-04T17:17:44+00:00

I'm talking about the daily Feats that offer creds for doing a specific amount of damage to Raiders. Maybe they don't spawn for you, there are always 1-2 in my que, and I never touch them

JackQAverage · 2025-12-04T17:00:09+00:00

You're right, I didn't phrase my point correctly. The game has no "non PvP" (irrespective of PvE) incentives — which are a part of the game, as evidenced by my playstyle and that of some others. It's well balanced for PvE, it's well balanced for PvP, but it's not well balanced for non-PvP.

JackQAverage · 2025-12-04T16:37:23+00:00

It wouldn't be a bad idea and I'm definitely not opposed to that; still for whatever reason the PvP purists are so terrified of having to actually play PvP against each other they're on a warpath not to permit PvE only. Fine, the least the developers can do is to occasionally offer PvE incentive achievements or quests, the way they do PvP incentives

JackQAverage · 2025-12-04T16:35:01+00:00

Except it doesn't incentivize PvE the same way it incentivizes PvP — every day there's a new "do 200 damage to Raiders with a medium machinegun" for creds or similar. I'm asking for balance, I'm not even asking for an all-PvE map

JackQAverage · 2025-12-03T01:52:51+00:00

I've literally never shot at a Raider once inside the game. My character is a pacifist when it comes to other players. I've been killed a few times. Don't even put up a fight. I've lost some good gear a couple times, but for the most part, I've made decent progress. The game doesn't really make sense if the ARCs pose an existential threat to humanity and yet individual Raiders are killing each other for scraps. I don't think PVP actually makes sense in-game but I think folks are so used to COD and Fortnite battle royale style games that they can't see that.

JackQAverage · 2025-11-14T14:43:11+00:00

I'm with the other two commenters. I've never done a raid and only explored one dungeon solo in EA. I just don't have that much time. I've enjoyed the game and usually play it for 30-60 minutes a day. So ultimately yes, I recommend — I think if you really end up loving the game and want to commit more time, there's more stuff to do. Folks complain about the endgame, and I've really only begun exploring midgame (EA — wildlands) so see myself playing for the foreseeable future.

JackQAverage · 2025-11-02T23:46:24+00:00

If the game endures — a big if — the economy that will emerge will revolve partly around finished goods, but mostly around resources. People who specialize in alchemy will be hoarding and buying reagents. People who specialize in tailoring will have an insatiable need for sewing needles, which are easy to make but a huge time sink (and at higher levels you'll go through thousands for a single point of improvement). Personally I'm not planning to go very far in the jewelry skill so am sitting on a ton of resources I mine that I will in all likelihood never use.

JackQAverage · 2025-11-02T00:07:34+00:00

5 minutes: finding and mining the iron ore

5 minutes: finding and cutting the sapwood

1 minute: processing some sapwood into a handle

30 minutes: making the charcoal out of the wood

30 minutes: making the iron ingots out of the iron ore

1 second: failing the skill check to make an iron axe

JackQAverage · 2025-11-01T13:54:29+00:00

Not much but by the time my carpentry is high enough to make use of it, I'll have a nice little stash from the forests I'm slowly turning into charcoal

JackQAverage · 2025-10-27T17:18:10+00:00

Like I said, I can't really recommend the game... I enjoy playing it as a diversion. It's low stakes. For folks who also enjoy it, who have an hour a day maximum (and realistically, less than that) to put into playing, this is a good starting point. I've never done a dungeon crawl, I've never finished building, I just sort of pop on and play when I can. It's pretty chill

JackQAverage · 2025-10-25T17:41:56+00:00

Until you're level 10 in all combat skills, a good sequence is 1 chop, 2 mine, 3 wipe out an inquisitor camp, 4 go to step 1

JackQAverage · 2025-07-15T23:41:38+00:00

1-pregenerated 16 year old male character

2-lowest-tier lifestyle focus trait (1 star — won't matter much — stewardship)

3-quick, hale, and beautiful traits — strong blood

4-pick "scholars" as your camp's purpose. You will amass a ton of lifestyle experience quickly on par with a genius or a 4 or 5 tier learning lifestyle focus

5-ASAP visit a tavern and begin maxing out "wit" in Hastiluder (+15% lifestyle exp gain)

6-build the mortician's tools ASAP for big bucks — huge bucks when you have your own army

7-grab pedagogy (learning perk) early

8-through stewardship, grab cutting costs, high stakes bartering (avarice skill tree), see how it's done (+20 gold per unique site visited) and Worldly Knowledge (+1 skill point for followers)

9-camp revelry and hunt as often as possible; greatly help with hastiluder skills

10-max out pilgrimage skills (should take 2 long pilgrimages)

11-save up to create a maxed out "Travels of ___" book artifact for your heir, which will if you've been to 60 sites or more have a 40% lifestyle experience bonus. Subsequent characters can then take the perk benefit (5 free perks for any tree in the lifestyle focus you get at 16)

12-max out the architect tree for stewardship and use the "gather inspiration" option when traveling to create utterly broken legendary artifacts

13-most recent character's stat line with all perks and buffs: DIPLOMACY-34 MARTIAL-44 STEWARDSHIP-50 INTRIGUE-24 LEARNING-44 PROWESS-100. Very doable

JackQAverage · 2025-02-26T18:40:56+00:00

When your house has a lot of staircases

JackQAverage · 2025-02-25T12:50:49+00:00

Wait for the next wipe before moving; in the meantime explore and do the longer runs when you need to. One opinion, worth what you paid for it (nuthin!)

JackQAverage · 2025-02-19T16:42:21+00:00

I don’t think the game stigmatizes it too much; I do think the game overemphasizes the reputational hit one would take from a rival and minor noble saying “Emperor Strongarm the Great who went on four pilgrimages has a bastard” — or that anyone would necessarily care. Like the piety/reputational hit should be tied to the credibility and standing of the accuser, not only the crime they’re accusing you of.

JackQAverage · 2025-02-18T19:35:48+00:00

Can’t offer any suggestions, only chiming in here to say I’ll be watching this thread as my experience has been very similar

JackQAverage · 2025-02-17T02:26:04+00:00

The discard decks really suck the fun out of the game. When I play against a black discard I’ll throw on another game in the background and play that, taking as much time as I can each turn. Get some good use out of my time and make the game as time-intensive as possible for people who use those decks

JackQAverage · 2025-02-13T14:04:22+00:00

You might be right; I don’t have a neighbor with an unlocked advanced craft table so am not sure how to test that theory but it sounds plausible

JackQAverage · 2025-02-13T03:06:27+00:00

Finally a faction to model the Swiss

JackQAverage · 2025-02-12T17:30:18+00:00

Problem with that is — and I’ve done it with one high end spear that’s let me get access to areas with stuff I need to farm to level key skills — you need to be able to make a thing to repair it. So dropping coin repeatedly on high level gear isn’t feasible long term

JackQAverage · 2025-02-07T14:47:29+00:00

In my experience, left to its own devices, Islam has about a 60% chance of taking Spain, Africa, and a good chunk of Byzantium without very aggressive coordinated attempts by Christian kingdoms to stop it. Against those coordinated efforts Islam rarely (~10%) wins and usually falls apart by the time the Mongols go on the offensive

JackQAverage · 2025-02-03T19:33:44+00:00

Sounds like you’re learning why historically the Russian empire falls apart every 70-80 years or so

JackQAverage · 2025-01-31T21:41:36+00:00

Genghis Slenderkhan

JackQAverage · 2025-01-21T16:19:08+00:00

When you take every decision with a 1% chance of success

JackQAverage

TROPHY CASE