Monastery quest made me quit the game after 75 hours of play.

[astronaut0001]

This quest was the nail in the coffin for me, it epitomised the grindy, tedious nature of the game. The main quest line is reasonable, but most of the side quests are slow and tedious affairs. But let me explain my monastery experience:

I join the monastery, it takes me a while to realise how to trigger it, I have to give up my possessions, but the map doesn't show depth for quest markers and it takes me awhile to find the correct box to place my stuff in (it was the room downstairs). Then once I'm in and I've discovered the guy I'm supposed to kill, I agree to spare him and then I get some food together to sell for some lockpicks. But I'm caught and my items are removed and I'm sent to jail. When I get out I have to go through my daily routine, YAWN, pray, eat, and then daily task. I make a couple of potions and a load of lazarus potions to sell for the locpicks (genius right?) having done all this I go on a search for the monk that sells the lockpicks. I can't find him anywhere (no quest markers, as usual), and in the meantime I'm stopped by a circator and arrested for violence (What? when?), put in jail and have all the potions taken from me. Now I've been playing the game for half an hour, most of which was running around like a cretin searching for brother lockpicks and listening to walls of text from some extremely boring old monks. I suck it up and go through my daily routine again, prayer, breakfast, chores. I brew more lazarus potions to sell for the lockpicks and go on the hunt for the elusive lockpicks seller, he's always around at breakfast but I can't buy ♥♥♥♥ off him without something to trade. I search online (now I'm cheating) to find out where this monk hides himself and he's apparently founf in the kitchens. BUT the kitchens and all surrounding rooms are empty of monks, there is nobody there. Of course having looked around the kitchens and surrounding area for a while I have been stopped by the circator three times which means it's back to jail and all my ♥♥♥♥ gets taken away again. This time I refuse and refuse again, having had all I can tolerate from this mission, then I am thrown from the monastery and subsequently fail the mission.

I hope the reading of this is as painful as my experience of the mission. It was actually this mission that finally turned on a little lightbulb in my head that said 'You know what mate? this game is not fun.' And it's true, the game is dull. The fights are few and far between. The side quests are tedious fetch and deliver quests. The so called 'immersive' game is mostly a mess, with dumb AI that can see through walls and have some kind of sixth sense to know when you've commited a crime, and even goes so far as to make up crimes you didn't even commit. I've absolutely no more will to play the game further. It's weird having played 75 hours of a game only to put it down before resolving it, but I honestly don't care what happens any more. So that's it.

[Bankai9212]

I get how you feel, you can just get kicked out, the main story can still be completed or use a wiki to speed through the section or kill everyone.

[Taz]

I love how many options are available for this mission, but it was overwhelming to me; kind of a bombardment of things. I think they should have streamlined it a little. Also having to wait to complete each daily routine got old. Having the game automatically forward time when you're done with each thing would've been better. The mission is as short or as long as you want it to be, but I'm trying to get over being a completionist.

[rubyismycat]

i hated that quest too here just kill the dood if in doubt slaughter everyone quest over you might need to spend a lot to lose your bounty but its better than being in a monestry as horrible as my school

[Bandy]

I understand why players may not like this quest line, but reconsider the environment Devs created, another religious world within a world that existed walled-off but just as twisted. The sacred and the profane.

I lived with Franciscans for a period of time after grad school, see KCD forum thread if interested in deeper discussion...

https://forum.kingdomcomerpg.com/t/re-monastic-life/62572

Trust me, I had my problems with monastery as well (KCD and IRL...), but disagree that it is poorly done. More mature players will enjoy it if they open their minds and understand what is being portrayed.

[d333]

I enjoyed this quest as you could explore and find different ways to advance it. I don't see why everything has to be go to point a, kill X, come back to A. There's 4 or 5 quests that you can undertake in there to gain people's trust.

A few tips: the best way to find the monk who sells lockpicks is at meal time. He's sitting there in the room.

Also concerning the circators: in the evening, after 9pm, go down to the cellar in the basement (stairs from the dormitory all the way down): you will find them drinking. Drink with them, play dice and every time you raise your glass or play a game you raise their disposition. Become their friend and they will be more lenient. There's also a water trough to wash yourself in the basement so you don't stink too much.

You can also advance time while doing your tasks (like attending mass) instead of just sitting there in the room and waiting. Still, looking for the stuff you need at night is much easier. The circators are drinking and everyone else (well there is one exception) is asleep at 10pm.

Finally, you can smuggle some stuff inside: immediately before starting the quest, you can lockpick the door that grants entrance to the cellar (South East corner of monastery). I drop some lockpicks, a few footpad and bard potions, and Groshen in the first chest in front of the door and just retrieve them when I am inside (don't put too many things in it as items will be marked as stolen when you retrieve them). You can also drop items you want in your personal chest at the nearby inn before entering the monastery and access it during a quest the circators give you when you drink with them.

[Bankai9212]

Originally posted by Bandy:

I understand why players may not like this quest line, but reconsider the environment Devs created, another religious world within a world that existed walled-off but just as twisted. The sacred and the profane.

I lived with Franciscans for a period of time after grad school, see KCD forum thread if interested in deeper discussion...

https://forum.kingdomcomerpg.com/t/re-monastic-life/62572

Trust me, I had my problems with monastery as well (KCD and IRL...), but disagree that it is poorly done. More mature players will enjoy it if they open their minds and understand what is being portrayed.

I think most people get what's being presented , but it doesn't make it fun to play through its just tedious.

[Mneu]

After grueling through that quest I figured out you really only have to:

1. Listen to the circators at night in the basement
2. Talk to the novice they're harassing
3. Read the abbots book.
4. Talk to Pious.

You can get all of that done in the first 24hrs. You can avoid the daily routine and leave the monastery, returning at night to talk to the novices in the dorm when the circators are in the basement.

Alternatively the psychopath solution to avoid soiltary is to kill the circators by luring them into the basement during the day, stabbing them in the back after they talk to you and stashing their bodies in solitary.

[Philippe_at_bay]

Originally posted by Bandy:

I understand why players may not like this quest line, but reconsider the environment Devs created, another religious world within a world that existed walled-off but just as twisted. The sacred and the profane.

I lived with Franciscans for a period of time after grad school, see KCD forum thread if interested in deeper discussion...

https://forum.kingdomcomerpg.com/t/re-monastic-life/62572

Trust me, I had my problems with monastery as well (KCD and IRL...), but disagree that it is poorly done. More mature players will enjoy it if they open their minds and understand what is being portrayed.

The monastery quest is my second favorite part of the game .

My all-time favorite is Henry getting the parish priest in Uzhitz to violate the sanctity of the confessional (and my inner Lefebvrite was delighted that the priest had his back to the congregation throughout much of the mass).

The few times life in the monastery became tedious, hitting the T key to make time advance for a couple of hours to the next daily event made a big difference.

I'm sorry that there wasn't a more involved routine for copying manuscripts (though it would have felt a bit like cheating if you're used to reading Latin).

But my biggest complaint was that the reader in the refectory kept reading the same passages from the rule of St. Benedict over and over. It takes a few days in the monastery to get into the swing of things, so you need more readings. I've never spent time in a Benedictine monastery (and certainly not a medieval one), but I always assumed they read through the rule from beginning to end, rather than the same few passages over and over.

My ex-wife wrote a master's thesis on oblates, and I seem to recall a lot of weird rules about lights after dark (stairwells were frisky places in the middle ages).

[One Stoned Bastard]

What the hell is wrong with you, that's one of the best questlines in recent PC RPG memory.

I bet you got used to Bethesda RPGs and the checkpoint chasing they've implemented since Oblivion, and now that your attention span is completely gone you can't be arsed to actually problem-solve your way through a questline.

[Myll]

I understand where the OP is coming from, but offer a different take - the game wants to portray real history but fails to give realistic missions and game play. Let's use some logic here:
- Main character and protagonist Henry sees his family slaughtered by an army of mixed forces in support of the would-be king.
- Henry has a run-in with bandits and a bandit leader in particular that prevented him from getting closure and burying his parents, while also losing out on fulfilling his father's last wishes (deliver the sword to the noble).

So...where are all the combat missions intended to counter both of those?
Where is the desire to "go home" to Skalitz and rebuild that would be natural among those who were put out?

Instead, the Dev's took a left turn toward unrealistic efforts to craft a video game. And, without real closure and impact of decisions seen out by the player/character Henry. I harped on this in another thread, but - take the Scavenger quest, where Beran is the guy you should be helping out as a former neighbor to get his stashed valuable goblet and coin. You don't get his help to go retrieve the items - must do it solo. That was a great moment to potentially gain a temp 2-person mission to go back and start the first of a "fight for Skalitz" return/rebuild effort. Instead, it's a Treasure Hunt to fulfill the debt of the town drunk who owed the family money. Really? For a game that wants to show an immorality and corruption problem in the church, it has no fulfilling game play that supports good morals (here's your 20 coin back for telling me about Kunesh trying to get you to do the mission for him instead). As if all church morality were dead during the time of this war, and morality had no benefit.

The Dev's have a background collage of history/facts, yet then proceed to portray a 21st century refugee simulator. And a play-a-monk simulator. And play-like-you're-a-noble simulator. And play dice simulator. And play archery simulator. And play sword fighting (w/Bernard) simulator. And flower picking. And shallow romance.

But where is the focus and character improvement in the revenge and rebuild lanes? I see many forum threads about players doing all the training with Bernard, and doing various schemes to raise funds to pay for "Training" (that you don't see/experience but just click and pay for...) -- all to power-level their character for a single fight with Runt(?)!. And clear the map of most threats in not so many fights over time, grinding to a final battle that seems a quick-ending.

I think the Dev's failed to weigh the mission percentages toward what would be motivations for a character in this situation. There would be many more missions oriented at degrading the would-be king's forces or logistics tail. Raids (look 'em up, kids), rather than large field battles.
There would be more missions at not just the Runt character, but anyone who isn't getting "on board" to align with King Wenc and his allies. Technically, it would not be a "rebellion" or insurgency - it would be a "God save the King" moment in the game. Find pro-King Wenc allies. Build small raiding forces. Support and rebuild Skalitz and surrounding area. Raid isolated Cuman parties (with small groups, not continual solo 1 on 3 silly fights that mechanically don't work well with the combat system they made).

The Kunesh fight up front - you can get your "Friends" to help. But - they don't have the same desire as you to train and arm up and join the effort to help the King? The friends are just looking for a job that pays the most with the least work so they can keep drinking?

And....Henry can't effectively help/work for coin at actual Blacksmithing, really? Can fetch/grab quest for them. And Henry has zero "Repair" skill as a former Blacksmith's son? Maybe Dev's shortchanged the "varying start conditions" option here. Could have had Henry be the son of any of the occupations related to "Skills" with dad having made/obtained an item related to that. Lacks immersion in the lane you start from. Your character drinks/gets drunk more than working in the craft your dad would have taught you.

I could go on a while, but - the OP is right in that - there are moments in this game that it simply becomes tedious without reward. If Dev's made the tedious filled with a world-class education on history, then - ok, could see the trade off (but there isn't). Or, the tedious was out-weighed by fantastic game play which helps bring both immersion and closure in a revenge-minded protagonist, and in technical terms -- a combat system that isn't trying to be 21st century Dragon's Lair (click at just the right time in the right direction).

[Philippe_at_bay]

Originally posted by Myll:

I understand where the OP is coming from, but offer a different take - the game wants to portray real history but fails to give realistic missions and game play. Let's use some logic here:
- Main character and protagonist Henry sees his family slaughtered by an army of mixed forces in support of the would-be king.
- Henry has a run-in with bandits and a bandit leader in particular that prevented him from getting closure and burying his parents, while also losing out on fulfilling his father's last wishes.

So...where are all the combat missions intended to counter both of those?
Where is the desire to "go home" to Skalitz and rebuild that would be natural among those who were put out?

The Dev's have a background collage of history/facts, yet then proceed to portray a 21st century refugee simulator. And a play-a-monk simulator. And play dice simulator. And play archery simulator. And play sword fighting (w/Bernard) simulator. And flower picking. And shallow romance.

But where is the focus and character improvement in the revenge and rebuild lanes? I see many forum threads about players doing all the training with Bernard, and doing various schemes to raise funds to pay for "Training" (that you don't see/experience but just click and pay for...) -- all to power-level their character for a single fight with Runt(?)!.

I think the Dev's failed to weigh the mission percentages toward what would be motivations for a character in this situation. There would be many more missions oriented at degrading the would-be king's forces or logistics tail. Raids (look 'em up, kids), rather than large field battles.
There would be more missions at not just the Runt character, but anyone who isn't getting "on board" to align with King Wenc and his allies. Technically, it would not be a "rebellion" or insurgency - it would be a "God save the King" moment in the game. Find pro-King Wenc allies. Build small raiding forces. Support and rebuild Skalitz and surrounding area. Raid isolated Cuman parties (with small groups, not continual solo 1 on 3 silly fights that mechanically don't work well with the combat system they made).

The Kunesh fight up front - you can get your "Friends" to help. But - they don't have the same desire as you to train and arm up and join the effort to help the King? The friends are just looking for a job that pays the most with the least work so they can keep drinking?

Instead, the Dev's took a left turn toward unrealistic efforts to craft a video game. And, without real closure and impact of decisions seen out by the player/character Henry. I harped on this in another thread, but - take the Scavenger quest, where Beran is the guy you should be helping out as a former neighbor to get his stashed valuable goblet and coin. You don't get his help to go retrieve the items - must do it solo. That was a great moment to potentially gain a temp 2-person mission to go back and start the first of a "fight for Skalitz" return/rebuild effort. Instead, it's a Treasure Hunt to fulfill the debt of the town drunk who owed the family money. Really? For a game that wants to show an immorality and corruption problem in the church, it has no fulfilling game play that supports good morals (here's your 20 coin back for telling me about Kunesh trying to get you to do the mission for him instead). As if all church morality were dead during the time of this war, and morality had no benefit.

And....Henry can't effectively help/work for coin at actual Blacksmithing, really? Can fetch/grab quest for them. And Henry has zero "Repair" skill as a former Blacksmith's son? Maybe Dev's shortchanged the "varying start conditions" option here. Could have had Henry be the son of any of the occupations related to "Skills" with dad having made/obtained an item related to that. Lacks immersion in the lane you start from. Your character drinks/gets drunk more than working in the craft your dad would have taught you.

I could go on a while, but - the OP is right in that - there are moments in this game that it simply becomes tedious without reward. If Dev's made the tedious filled with a world-class education on history, then - ok, could see the trade off (but there isn't). Or, the tedious was out-weighed by fantastic game play which helps bring both immersion and closure in a revenge-minded protagonist, and in technical terms -- a combat system that isn't trying to be 21st century Dragon's Lair (click at just the right time in the right direction).

This really misses the point. The monastery quest is a brilliant (and perhaps the only) video game portrayal of life in a medieval monastery. Does the word monastery occur even once in that post?

[Myll]

The OP is talking about the tedium of the game, not just the monastery.

[One Stoned Bastard]

(click at just the right time in the right direction).

In the context of swordfighting, that makes sense to me. Like when a shooter game is about aiming at the right spot at the right time (gasp! How tedius!).

Originally posted by Myll:

The OP is talking about the tedium of the game, not just the monastery.

Probably should have watched a gameplay video before getting into this game.

[Myll]

Originally posted by astronaut0001:

.....[truncated]....
I hope the reading of this is as painful as my experience of the mission. It was actually this mission that finally turned on a little lightbulb in my head that said 'You know what mate? this game is not fun.' And it's true, the game is dull. The fights are few and far between. The side quests are tedious fetch and deliver quests. The so called 'immersive' game is mostly a mess, with dumb AI that can see through walls and have some kind of sixth sense to know when you've commited a crime, and even goes so far as to make up crimes you didn't even commit. I've absolutely no more will to play the game further. It's weird having played 75 hours of a game only to put it down before resolving it, but I honestly don't care what happens any more. So that's it.

This is what inspired my last post - the OP is offering a valuable point about how enjoyable the game becomes over time. It lessens. And I don't think DLC fixes or helps that, based on what I am seeing also. I am still playing the game, but I'm around this same playing hour mark now, and experiencing the same tedium without fulfilling game play.

[One Stoned Bastard]

Originally posted by Myll:

I am still playing the game, but I'm around this same playing hour mark now, and experiencing the same tedium without fulfilling game play.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evCtzMqNJiU