Guardhouse or stables?

[NewbieOne]

Talking about Pribyslavitz upgrades in From the Ashes, of course.

Obviously, the most unique benefit of stables, the biggest game-changer, is that you can now put boiler plates on your house. ;) So this appeals to the completionist gamer who would otherwise have no opportunity to experience this particular category of item/part of inventory.

On the other hand, for replaying reasons I feel adding yet another stable would be less than optimal. The King's loyal men need all horses they can get, true. On the other hand there seems to already be plenty enough competition. There's Zora who can't get enough business for her Neuhof form, there's Johann and there's the Chief Groom — are we sure Henry needs to put a fourth vendor on this landscape? I don't think so. It feels more natural to root for Zora instead. After all, we've likely just helped her, probably triggering some empathy and loyalty in the course of the quests.

By contrast, in these difficult times villages and towns need a bunch of trained guards more than they need a bunch of expensive assets to attract bandits with little in the way of protection. While the King needs horses for his men to ride, he also needs men to begin with. Right now this is not a time to start getting involved in an expensive hobby/leisure pursuit like horse breeding, while it's very much *the* time to train men for combat.

It's also a time for defence investments with a faster return — it takes far less time to train men than to raise foals. Plus, men at arms is something Henry can make use of, while starting a horse farm would be an investment for Divish and his heirs to reap more than Henry. Divish already has a contract with Zora and his very own supply chain in Uzhitz and isn't far from Merhojed. When it comes to horses, he already has it covered. Fighting men, not so easily.

So I'm going with the guardhouse. And armoursmith (preference) and probably bakery rather than butcher's. You?

[Castyles]

You make pretty solid points, indeed, but when you take one of the tavern upgrades into account + the random patrols, you get enough guards to protect the population just fine.

Bandits come in small groups and they're spread too thin. They're not armies nor hordes. Pretty sure the random soldiers from the village could take them out just fine.

Not only that but, if all else fails, the commoners should be able to handle themselves, if needed. The village has plenty of lumberjacks - all strong folk.

Anyway. I decided to build the bakery - a happy accident - and the stables.

That choice thing kinda bothers me, though. Feels like it's just there to add the illusion that you can't have everything you want. The village is pretty big. It has plenty of space for everything.

[vine]

Guardhouse for the guards coins spent in pub.. and that protection, sure. plus it gets you archery range and combat rink? for custom geared training? yea all that > stables.
Although there's Shadowfax and Shadowmere, two quite legendary, mythical animals.. i can dig that, and in one playthrough i did have Shadowfax. Mearas, best horses in MiddleEarth, of which Shadowfax was THE best. Their king, in a way. so there.. for those of us.

Bakery because drying racks are SOOO OP. dry meat forever. with boar and other hunting spots sooo close it almost begs to be done.. baker is gotten through one of judgments in Prib fyi.. i never built butcher, ever.. never will.
that's my Prib.

[kris.aalst]

Roleplaying elements are a matter of personal opinions and preference so I'll stick to practical considerations. Guardhouse v. stables is pretty simple:

* If you want access to the best bow in the game, you have to build the guardhouse.

* If you don't have to have that bow, the Pribyslavitz stables offer a slightly better horse than the other stables, although the difference is negligible. And indeed, there is the horse armour but personally I'm not into horse combat so I have no need for that at all.

Butcher v. baker doesn't matter much. The bakery will earn you a bit more money after you've recruited Sylvester (through a 'judgement') and it adds one extra citizen. Knowing this and considering that eating meat drains energy while eating baked goods doesn't, I built the bakery. Note: the upgrades that allow you to dry or smoke food are pretty useless, as all of the dried and smoked food drain your energy. The best dried food in the game is 'Dried fruit' which you can't even make in Pribyslavitz.

[Castyles]

Ursprungligen skrivet av kris.aalst:

Note: the upgrades that allow you to dry or smoke food are pretty useless, as all of the dried and smoked food drain your energy.

Not useless. Dried food + Cockerel potion = god mode.

[kris.aalst]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Castyles:

Ursprungligen skrivet av kris.aalst:

Note: the upgrades that allow you to dry or smoke food are pretty useless, as all of the dried and smoked food drain your energy.

Not useless. Dried food + Cockerel potion = god mode.

Dried Fruit + no Cockerel potions needed = exact same result

So yup, useless because my way is easier and takes less inventory space.

[NewbieOne]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Castyles:

That choice thing kinda bothers me, though. Feels like it's just there to add the illusion that you can't have everything you want. The village is pretty big. It has plenty of space for everything.

Indeed. I understand not having enough time or resources, but the availability of space or raw materials clearly isn't a credible limiter.

Different choices on different playthroughs is a nice concept, but I don't think artificial 'either ors' are a good implementation of it. The way I see it, games shouldn't have rules that are very transparent about being only there to limit the player without anything to do with realism. I don't like the idea of limiting the player for limiting's sake. ;)

Ursprungligen skrivet av vine:

Guardhouse for the guards coins spent in pub.. and that protection, sure. plus it gets you archery range and combat rink? for custom geared training? yea all that > stables.

Didn't mention that but yeah. The training ground also appealed to me.

Although there's Shadowfax and Shadowmere, two quite legendary, mythical animals.. i can dig that, and in one playthrough i did have Shadowfax. Mearas, best horses in MiddleEarth, of which Shadowfax was THE best. Their king, in a way. so there.. for those of us.

Indeed, great great horses. Though I tend to stick with Pebbles. I could probably get myself to upgrade to a charger but not to get rid of Pebbles completely. Give him/her to someone special or just keep him/her around with all needs taken care of, sure. But no selling off to a stranger, not even with Zora as the middlewoman.

Ursprungligen skrivet av vine:

Guardhouse for the guards coins spent in pub.. and that protection, sure. plus it gets you archery range and combat rink? for custom geared training? yea all that > stables.
Although there's Shadowfax and Shadowmere, two quite legendary, mythical animals.. i can dig that, and in one playthrough i did have Shadowfax. Mearas, best horses in MiddleEarth, of which Shadowfax was THE best. Their king, in a way. so there.. for those of us.

Bakery because drying racks are SOOO OP. dry meat forever. with boar and other hunting spots sooo close it almost begs to be done.. baker is gotten through one of judgments in Prib fyi.. i never built butcher, ever.. never will.
that's my Prib.

Ursprungligen skrivet av kris.aalst:

Roleplaying elements are a matter of personal opinions and preference

Indeed.

* If you want access to the best bow in the game, you have to build the guardhouse.

Yup. I always try to own the best bow possible within reason in all RPGs. Not a big fan of archery in KCD, but old habits die hard.

* If you don't have to have that bow, the Pribyslavitz stables offer a slightly better horse than the other stables, although the difference is negligible. And indeed, there is the horse armour but personally I'm not into horse combat so I have no need for that at all.

My Henry is pretty much a dragoon. Even with all the perks and almost max skill I find it too easy to get thrown off saddle and too hard to operate the controls effectively enough on a PC to be a viable mounted combatant. Maybe on a gamepad.

[DargonBlak]

Ursprungligen skrivet av NewbieOne:

Talking about Pribyslavitz upgrades in From the Ashes, of course.

So I'm going with the guardhouse. And armoursmith (preference) and probably bakery rather than butcher's. You?

I done pretty much all the options in Pryb, and it honestly doesn't make a bit of difference.

None of the benefits really matter since they are Not either Truly Unique or Completely change Gameplay.

So, as some mentioned, it's strictly about personal choice.

For me - simply read Vine's response.

[Valfary]

If I were in charge of a small village in the forest, at a time where bandits run wild across the country, surely would I chose the guardhouse over the stables. Anyway, the gameplay differences are very minutes, and you don't need min-maxing in KCD.

[PafunaMT]

Guardhouse and bakery, specifically because of the training arena and archery range, and I like the dried meat option.