This war of mine; Civillian survival in a war-weary wasteland

[Draconi Redfir]

any other surviors in the playground? For those who don't know "This war of mine" is a cool artsy-ish black-and white platformer/2.5D survival rougelike, where you play as a group of survivors trying to live in a city overcome by war and banditry, spending their days in their home base, and spending their nights salvaging for scraps/defending their base from bandits.

Spoiler: sadly no cool voiceover

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wondering if anyone else has run into what i can only assume is a bug, where on three seperate occaisions i've approached one or more trader NPC's peacefully with stuff to trade, only to have them call for help and act like i just murdered someone infront of my eyes, causing someone to try and kill me.

[RagingKrikkit]

wondering if anyone else has run into what i can only assume is a bug, where on three seperate occaisions i've approached one or more trader NPC's peacefully with stuff to trade, only to have them call for help and act like i just murdered someone infront of my eyes, causing someone to try and kill me.

Did you ever try stealing from them or anything like that before? People keep grudges in this game.

[Draconi Redfir]

nope, only been to the marketplace once before that, only took what was availible via not-stealing since i didn't bring anything to trade, was expecting sniper junction.

talked to someone else who had a simmiler bug, where they walked into the hospital to get someone healed only to have the two secuirty guards run at them guns blazing while all the doctors and paitiants just had calm conversaitions around them. gotta be a bug.

[Demon 997]

Just started playing this today.Had a somewhat terrible first run, then did much better on the second.

I'm currently on day 42 or so. Had a very rough patch where I had 3 scavengers die in rapid succession, including my main combat guy. Then winter set in, and I ended up spending far too much on firewood. Things slowly got better though, as some new survivors came in and managed to start building and upgrading again. Currently feeling like I'm doing okay enough, though I definitely wish I had more food reserves and that I'd kept that combat vest from earlier (one lost while scavenging, one sold).

I went pretty ruthless pretty early, robbing and attacking. The rewards were just too good, and my people were hungry. On the other hand I definitely reduced the bandit population some. But it's a truly hard choice between taking apart an elderly couple for tons of food, then reducing their furniture to firewood, and taking on some well armed bandits. Beside that I've tried to set up a booze and cigarettes sweatshop which I can use to trade for the low grade supplies.

I really wish that you could bring some extra people scavenging, at least to use as pack mules. Really annoying to have to go back again and again. I also wish there was some more diplomacy options. I'd love to combine forces with some of the peaceful survivors, setting up a better compound. Maybe it'd ruin the bleak tone of the game, but I think it'd potentially be more realistic.

What I'm thinking is being able to set up a real shelter, where you're mass producing things to sell, sending out well armed scavenging parties, and bargaining with the military for them to ignore you. Tests based on how well set up your place is to get out groups to come join you, that sort of thing.

Really hoping the international relief force shows up soon.

[Draconi Redfir]

yeah it took until my third try before i managed to get everyone out alive, think the trick is to go for a fully upgraded metalwork table and maybe a herb guardan thing ASAP.

i wouldn't have minded having more then four survivors though, seems that's the cap on them, as i only ever got new survivors when i had three or fewer it seems. though that might require more food income things, like being allowed more then two mouse traps.

[Demon 997]

yeah it took until my third try before i managed to get everyone out alive, think the trick is to go for a fully upgraded metalwork table and maybe a herb guardan thing ASAP.

i wouldn't have minded having more then four survivors though, seems that's the cap on them, as i only ever got new survivors when i had three or fewer it seems. though that might require more food income things, like being allowed more then two mouse traps.

Wait, you managed a run where everyone you brought in survived? I must have lost at least 4 people. Though I'd say with some pride that all of those were to bullets, and most of those bandit bullets. Never had to starve anyone.

I think I had 5 people briefly at one point. I do wish I could have 3 or 4 traps, it'd make the food so much nicer. I can understand that you'd hit a cap on the number of rats though. I'm vaguely reminded of the Russian religious exiles who voted every winter on whether to keep some seed grain when I reset the trap (I think they ran into Siberia when the civil started, and the family stayed for 50ish years. Maybe longer).

I did manage to get 3 people through, with the war ending on day 45 or so. Things started getting better as winter ended and some new people came in. That plus getting lucky with some combat can totally turn combat around. I think that as I figure out combat and get better at backstabbing the game might get too easy though.

Have you read the blog post that prompted the game? Very interesting stuff from a guy who survived in Sarajevo, especially that part about numbers mattering so much. Runs totally counter to most survivalist stuff, but there is a strong core of nutjobbery there.

[Draconi Redfir]

i maaay have exploited a thing i found where if you alt-tab out of the game whenever someone dies, and quickly close the game from the desktop bar via right-clicking it then it doesn't save and you can re-play the game... more then once...

the deaths were usually due to failed sneak attacks or people spotting my scavenger when i was looking around. did manage to keep everyone happy and healthy without resorting to theft though.

one thing that bothered me though was that i was never able to free the girls from the brothel, always wound up either not being able to draw a guy to an ambush spot, drawing more then one guy to the ambush spot, or only being able to ambush a passing guy in a room with more then one person in it.

[Demon 997]

i maaay have exploited a thing i found where if you alt-tab out of the game whenever someone dies, and quickly close the game from the desktop bar via right-clicking it then it doesn't save and you can re-play the game... more then once...

the deaths were usually due to failed sneak attacks or people spotting my scavenger when i was looking around. did manage to keep everyone happy and healthy without resorting to theft though.

one thing that bothered me though was that i was never able to free the girls from the brothel, always wound up either not being able to draw a guy to an ambush spot, drawing more then one guy to the ambush spot, or only being able to ambush a passing guy in a room with more then one person in it.

Ah, I am slightly less awed. Though I'm still pretty damn impressed you didn't do any theft, I stole a lot. Including murdering that old couple, taking everything, then taking all their furniture for firewood.

I didn't manage to get the girls in the brothel, but it was because I hadn't brought a crowbar when I killed everyone there with an ax, and then the war ended the next day. I like to imagine that they got rescued though.

[Draconi Redfir]

in two previous runs i only robbed the old couple out of desperaition, only taking the food and some jewelry and little else. seccond time around the poor girl doing the salvaging was deathly starving, and despite bringing home every peice of food the old couple had, died of starvation the moment she walked in the shelter door. everyone else ate well after that at least.

but yeah i tried to avoid "stealing" from people, though there are some places such as the wearhouse and i beleive the construction site where the steal symbols exist despite nobody being there to claim ownership, wich is weird, but yeah i still beleive i didn't steal anything that last run, dont think i killed many people either actually... *shrug*

[Morty]

I haven't played this game yet, but I hope to do so at some point. The concept looks very interesting, fresh and brutal.

[Draconi Redfir]

trust me when i say it's an emotional roller coaster. first couple of times i mourned everyone who died, and the reactions of my characters didnt help.

[Driderman]

I had a pretty great game going until a priest and one of his tenants beat my scavenger to death with their bare hands, for opening a door...

I guess I deserved it though, since I'd murdered every survivor I'd come across so far for their stuff, with a kitchen knife. Seems kinda weird that stuff that belongs to dead people is still marked as private property.

[Draconi Redfir]

yeah i've had a few situaitions like that too, i was actually going to the preist with stuff to trade and all of a sudden everyone started cowering in fear or trying to kill my guy before he even had the chance to trade. think it might be a bug, i'm not actually sure.

[Driderman]

yeah i've had a few situaitions like that too, i was actually going to the preist with stuff to trade and all of a sudden everyone started cowering in fear or trying to kill my guy before he even had the chance to trade. think it might be a bug, i'm not actually sure.

Well the priest did tell me to not disturb his charges but I kinda feel they were overreacting. Especially since they didn't seem to mind me chopping up the furniture with my hatchet, but opening a door = death by fists.

[KillianHawkeye]

I just started playing this game, still on my first run through although I watched a couple videos about it on youtube so I already understand the basics. So far I haven't had too much trouble keeping up on food supplies and had very little sickness, but I'm always running out of crafting and upgrading parts and I haven't been able to get more than the bare necessities from trading. Also, I have no weapons besides a measly knife, so I've been relying on stealth and running away from well-armed hostiles. Had a few close calls but so far nobody's died, but I'm only about two weeks in.

I haven't had to steal much yet, and I don't think I've killed anybody either, but desperation may drive me to it soon since I've picked up most of the low risk food and medicine as far as I can tell and I don't have a lot to trade. I was just forced to attempt a high risk raid for food and medical supplies while dodging snipers at the construction site and just barely slipped past them without getting spotted and killed. There were a couple people I failed to help in the beginning, so I've been trying to help the neighbors who come by during the day which also puts my people in a good mood. It hasn't backfired on me yet, but I for now I'm assuming they won't always go well.


EDIT: Well I made it to the end of the war. Three of my people died, all of them shot to death. The winter was hard, but I just managed to keep people fed and warm. In the latter half of the game, I got a bit more aggressive towards bandit camps, and I even donated some supplies to the hospital. Morally speaking, it seemed I did pretty well besides the time I got into a fight with some "good guy" rebel soldiers.