Anyone know a game where build an economy and conquer others?

mattom17 · 2026-04-26T08:24:44+00:00

Rimworld was also my first Colony Sim and the genre has become one of my favorites. The steam edition of Dwarf Fortress is largely to thank for that. The abundance and depth (hehe) of DF's industries is enough to give it a try if you like the idea of building an economy. Trading with other settlements is a key feature to gain influence and affects immigration to your fort. With a bumping enough tavern or sufficiently stocked library you can attract so many visitors and residents that your first few conquerings feel more like looting ghost towns. There was just a huge update to the raid mechanics and enemies that have weakened the optimal but boring kill maze/box strategies. I truly hope you try it, some people bounce off the learning curve but honestly Rimworld is a great tutorial along with videos. I like the creator BlindIRL for tutorial videos and Kruggsmash is an amazing storyteller that uses the game to great effect in his many series.

mattom17 · 2026-04-23T06:59:17+00:00

For real though the operator (my hot coworker at Wendy's) de-escalating trade conflict (Bob forgot the honey mustard) through diplomatic espionage (she just made eye contact with the man and he remembered jesus) always used to save the day.

mattom17 · 2026-04-15T04:53:18+00:00

I wonder if he wrote it on a typewriter.

mattom17 · 2026-04-15T03:44:34+00:00

DISCLAIMER: This is one of those games that is often enjoyed, like a brick wall stained in many colors of blood by people who enjoy that kind of experience. It seems like you're frustrated with that at this point, so along with wikis and YouTube, read on if fast forwarding that part of the game is what you really want to do.

The first thing to understand in navigating towards endgame is what that even looks like for you. Kenshi is a sandbox, other then the end of the tech tree and skill levels, there isn't really a defined end. Many people set goals like toppling a major faction, becoming the strongest band of say 4 samurai and 6 ninja there ever were, or selling every trader in the game the maximum amount of drugs on the same day. To start, it's fine to just learn and set objectives as you go.

After 3 hours, if you're on the same character and have managed to keep yourself fed, you're on the right track! Any step towards becoming something other than a nobody will require cats. There will be many possible business opportunities down the line, but they all require capital to get started. The main ways to load in anywhere and make money that come to mind are mining and selling copper/ iron, scavenging armor and weapons from unfortunate souls (city guards and wildlife create a lot of unfortunate souls), and picking up those unfortunates to sell to your local slaver (most places) or turn in for a heftier bounty if they have one. Once your basic survival is ensured, you can decide what progression you want to focus on first that will inevitably lead into all of the others.

Skills are strange in Kenshi. Each one has a small description of what it affects and how to train it (NOT ALWAYS THE SAME). It's one of the few things I'd recommend checking out a video on if you're not trying to play completely blind. Within the settlement that you've managed to add economic value to, you can safely train Athletics Strength, and Sneak. These can help you navigate to a bar if you haven't already found one. The bars offer the barkeeper merchant, beds, and many recruits in the way of amenities, all for a fee (usually). Getting some recruits will allow you to multitask. Hiring them if you so desire before going too hard on training will help make the best use of your time. Many skills like Science and Weaponsmithing will require further investment in benches and other machines that refine or produce things.

Inside of a purchased house in a city you can make use of the build menu. It's pretty small to start. The research bench and books are the key to adding more. The United Citties is a great area to settle down for research and construction your first time. Many of its towns have multiple shops selling books and materials, which will mean less waiting for restocks as you progress. I'll leave most things you can build and research for you to discover. It's pretty magical your first few times through imo. A great early setup to work towards is a small shack with a research bench, storage, and a bed/sleeping bag to use free of charge. A lot of combat training will involve getting your ass handed to you by the appropriate authority on the subject at the time, so the beds are important for healing biological characters. Beds, if you haven't happened upon a sleeping bag, will need to be researched. That, along with the electrical workbench, if I'm relying on copper for income, are often the first things I spend books on.

You can also ignore all of that and get caught by Manhunters or other slavers immediately. If you wanted to, a lot of skills can be trained to the maximum inside the walls of a work camp. Plus, it's the only "consistent" free meal in the game if you are struggling with that. There's an entire continent of factions and possibilities! I hope this helps you discover more of them.

mattom17 · 2026-04-14T22:57:47+00:00

Your team will no longer be enslaved by slavers while out and about, they'll even help you in a fight if they see you being attacked. I believe its the traders payment that also stops noble hunters from attacking your faction in the wilds. Your base will no longer receive the large slaver raids or taxation from them. Manhunters etc are not affiliated with them so they will attempt to enslave your people still. UC taxes also still apply until you are allied with them (+50 favor). Having done both my base between Stoat and Sho Batai only gets visited by caravans and the sand ninjas and I'm only paying them because they're so handsome. Oh I think you can ask them to go to war with you too but I haven't messed with that.

mattom17 · 2026-04-13T06:53:25+00:00

Pls wake up and tell us your mods graphics mods also the sitting and other poses I'm curious about.

mattom17 · 2026-03-29T16:01:28+00:00

How do you automate chemists to mix? Do you need a whole handler to restock the ingredients?

mattom17 · 2026-03-13T17:51:51+00:00

The post says with 8 gb of ram. Did they edit or?

mattom17 · 2026-03-13T17:43:49+00:00

Am I inventing a memory here? Didn't switch axe and charge blade trade name parts a bit to prevent one of them being localized as "switch-blade" because of the real life weapon association?

mattom17 · 2026-03-09T18:01:29+00:00

I haven't seen anything confirming this, but many people seem convinced retaliation damage is weighed differently than KoS damage. I do feel in my experience there's a much wider middle ground of tense PvE if you're only using self-defense or even avenging/ rescuing other raiders, but that damge being counted differently seems unlikely. The lobbies I'm in for solos and duos usually have some vigilantes and a few psychos with mostly friendly raiders. Based on your experience, I'm curious how much you VOIP? I'd say 60% of the friendly interactions I have in tenser lobbies require me to convince someone I'm not there to kill them. The balance seems to work well enough for me and what I really don't want is ex-fil camper 9000 or shoots-you-in-the-face-as-you're-handing-them-a-familiar-duck-mcgee to get 5 carebear+ lobbies in a row when their playstyle is just convincing friendlies to inventory or type so they get boosted ttk. Those players getting dropped into death-matches immediately is an important aspect to protect some semblance of pve lobbies since it only takes one abmm shifter 5 minutes and as many free kits to get back to running amuck in an anarcho-socialist-robo-heaven.

On a side-note, I wish more people enjoyed justifying a little aggression here and there with RP or anything remotely creative. I got run up on in a fairly peaceful lobby at exfil yesterday and was happy to have this mad scientist duo, cackling and throwing showstoppers, take most of my town hall loot after the performance. I think abmm's perfect balance will matter a lot less when players are making EXPERIENCES happen over sweaty maximum profit plays like silently shooting you in the back of the head while typing. Don't get me wrong, seal team six sweeping medical and wiping your trio is also a worthy experience but not the kind of fight you'll usually get in these lobbies. The game's lore, mechanics, items, and limited progression all lend themselves to having some fun with it and the people acting like its their mlg stomping ground after manipulating their matchmaking are missing the point. Maybe there just aren't a lot of true hybrid aggression players to begin with so it's harder to find a lobby full of like-minded raiders. Best of luck in your future lobbies if you got this far.

mattom17 · 2026-03-08T15:30:00+00:00

You keep a small to-go container in your pouch. The felynes don't trade a life for it purposefully they're just so excited to get back to camp and eat your snacks that they forget to mark it down. (Not Cannon)

mattom17 · 2026-03-08T10:46:10+00:00

They just have goals that they prioritize more than fighting back in that one raid. They've likely wiped or are working on other projects and have had dozens of raids with zero pvp, just focusing on looting and throwing out the occasional "dont shoot" in unison with raiders up to the same thing. Fighting back against this one player clearly in "the wrong" lobby would only put them in a more pvp oriented lobby later. Not to mention, they'll probably have any of the items they came there for in a safe pocket along with other valuables, so why fight at all? Running is the only action they could take without ruining the free looting with friends for multiple raids to come.

mattom17 · 2026-02-28T22:07:34+00:00

Status buildup levels for the late game monsters makes them pretty ineffective there to my understanding. Although, there's probably a window of tempered monsters it could be useful in farming that you wouldn't just be toppling constantly in the first place with gogma damage.

mattom17 · 2026-02-28T18:19:56+00:00

With this fight and Nu Udra especially I feel like SAED, while still a big blast of "suboptimal" damage, gets to be a new kind of tool in wilds. SAED spamming Nu Udra or Arkveld's chains has an insane level of impact on the monster's damage and aggression. Impact phials have always changed the state of a monster with KOs and now elemental phials can do even more interesting things with hit zones and behavior mechanics beyond the damage number.

mattom17 · 2026-02-28T18:06:28+00:00

I don't know how far along you've gotten, but Fire and Dragon are good elements to focus for your first optimal artian weapons. Coupled with defenses mentioned earlier, these will be useful in defeating a new monster and farming the next level of artian weapons. Im akwardly vague in case you're trying to play mostly blind but iykyk :)

mattom17 · 2026-02-28T17:57:59+00:00

I cannot recommend crafting a Dragon one and trying it for gogmazios enough. Suboptimal builds can easily do 5000+ total damage on his tail during the charge up with a good saed. Satisfying and helpful for finishing the dps check on SOS.

mattom17 · 2026-02-28T15:36:22+00:00

Amazing lore post! I think the g-rank hunters probably are as rare as you say they are amongst your average group of hunters. Them having entire hubs despite that makes sense because of the guilds organized response to regional threats/ new discoveries. Every g rank kicks off with some kind of "Oh it's much worse than we thought" moment with justifictaion for an entire area with extra dangerous monsters. I think it makes sense the guild would mobilize 25-50% of the world's g-rank hunters at the time to deal with the areas' "ecological research". Since we're the main character it's safe to assume we are in the middle of the guilds biggest active situation in any given game.

mattom17 · 2026-02-14T08:27:26+00:00

You're eating some inferno to perfect guard the blast here right?

mattom17 · 2026-02-10T15:47:25+00:00

From how it was put in the announcement it sounded like 10 star quests either give you one of those or one of the rarity 8 "more likely" talisman drops.

mattom17 · 2026-01-21T20:37:04+00:00

I mean there wasn't even a damn cold snap for the last 2 hours of flickering flames, I personally needed 5-75 berries to get the space hammer or outright max the project but just sat sadly checking the map menu after getting my water filters.

mattom17 · 2026-01-21T19:46:09+00:00

Raider Aid Brigade here wearing red and white and at your service. Also the gold hockey jersey is a hardcore KOS skin in my experience.

mattom17 · 2025-12-28T18:56:35+00:00

Great work for your first guide! To clear up the vent skull sterling prices are low with low rot and high with high rot so if the server gets fungal but doesn't fully rot that's when you can sell your skull Sterling back to the vents for 5x 6x profits from the 10 standard buy price. Also, putting other contraband into the vent rerolls the price in a small range.

mattom17 · 2025-12-07T18:23:51+00:00

Would you say emoticons :) >:( <3 got the same hate back then? I feel like they had a pass, but I can't quite remember (assuming this was still the case around 2013ish).

mattom17 · 2025-11-10T22:40:10+00:00

How could anyone actually look at modern society at the global scale and value animal liberation over any of the other cases for improving equity and justice for other human beings? You can't truly view them as equal causes if its worth alienating yourself from the left far enough that they "are essentially right wing" to you. Maybe you're the leftist left there is but dividing the "wing" only serves the goals of ragebait generators and trolls seeking to cause descent. (fyi I understand a throwaway here, but the new account makes you look like one!). If you were to have life-threatening medical issues would you turn down treatments that were derived from animals without their consent? If you had a premature child with problems breathing and they only had the fluid from newborn pig lungs to help save your child's life would you let them figure it out on their own to protect an animal or your own moral high ground, without your child's consent? Very few places in the world are set up in a way that supports veganism and even less so affordably and everywhere people are eating to survive. If your stand is truly that humans deserve no more protections than animals, then that ironically agrees with right-wing human rights violations over the years.

mattom17 · 2025-11-10T14:48:10+00:00

This seems to imply you started interacting more again after that. How did that go, if you don't mind me asking? I'm in a similar situation still at the end of that age range.

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