Become a road warrior in the arid plains of the 21st century! Take the role of a Highway Marshall, in a bid to enforce the rule of civilization on a post-apocalyptic world. Will you prevent the sacking of the last remaining Free Cities, rule over them as a Warlord, or attempt to seek a better future for humanity in another planet?
“Highway Wars” is a 190,000 word interactive post-apocalyptic novel by Adrao, where your choices control the story. It’s entirely text-based—without graphics or sound effects—and fueled by the vast, unstoppable power of your imagination.
• Play as male, female, or nonbinary, romance other characters, and even get married! • Enjoy a road trip along the desolate wastelands of the 21st century, and then conquer the lands around you • Choose your crew amongst a variety of different companions • Several illustrations to enhance your experience • Variety of different game paths, with 24 different endings • Several different difficulty settings
Hi everybody! I realized that I never created my own thread to discuss Highway Wars, back when it was released, so I decided to create one here, so that I can modify myself the title.
Today, the game was updated to v.1.1.0. This is a fairly major update, pushing forward a bit two of the endings of the game (some of the regular criticisms have been that some endings feel short… I reckon that is mostly due to two of the endings, so I decided to make these slightly longer. This is unlikely to fully resolve the issue, but should give a better feeling).
Patch notes are below… overall this is ~10,000 words or so extra in the game.
V1.1.0. (203,000 words)
-Around 10,000 words of extra content.
-Colonisation of Mars ending has been lengthened.
-Terraformation ending has been lengthened.
-Multiple bugfixes.
-Extra options in places
Now that the DLC for Hero or Villain is in playtesting, I want to spend a week or two doing a small free update for Highway Wars (which I haven’t updated for quite some time). This is likely to be a medium-sized update, and one of the things I want to do is add extra dialogue options to get to know the navigators more during the road trip.
Which is your preferred navigator?
Judy (female, expensive merc, England)
Bernard (male, expensive merc, France)
Brune (female, cheap merc, Germany)
Paolo (male, cheap merc, Brazil)
Raquel (female, local militia)
Joaquin (male, local militia)
Sonia (female, local militia)
Alvaro (male, local militia)
I don’t care at all who is the navigator
I don’t care about talking to navigators
Instead of adding extra dialogue for navigators, you should instead expand on the endings
Instead of adding extra dialogue for navigators, you should instead develop more the middle of the game
Instead of adding extra dialogue for navigators, you should instead write a path that does not involve the gunner dying
Ok… I’m going to start working a bit on this, at the same time as a I finish of the DLC for HoV (next will be a DLC or just an update for Tokyo Wizard )
Anyway, as per much feedback I’ve had through the years, it seems the main complaint about this game is that you cannot save your gunner. I always wanted that as an indication of how brutal this future can be… but it is also true that what would be interactive fiction if there weren’t choices? So, I finally came up with a solution that is fairly elegant -in my opinion- on how I can “silence” the gunner for a while in the story, without having to re-write major parts of the game, and without killing him/hem. So, I’ll be implementing that and start coding new dialogue for the others, I guess I’ll be doing Judy, Raquel, Joaquin and Bernard.
So, now that the DLC for HoV: Supercharged is released I have started to work on a free update for Highway Wars! Yesterday I made a video about this and my next moves (see link below).
Regarding progress on this update… I have now coded the conversation with one of the navigators (Raquel). I am planning to do at least 4 of the navigators (as per the pole on post #3, I will probably do Judy, Raquel -already coded-. Bernard, and maybe Joaquin -so, two male, two female, two mercs, two militia). I am also going to code an extra “path” through the game that does not involve the gunner dying (so that there is more player agency in that part of the game).
I am hoping to begin with the playtesting sometime next week… if you would like to playtest this, please send me a PM
So, I’ve continued to work on this… so far I have finished the conversations with Raquel and Sonia. I will continue with Joaquin… then Judy, Bernard and Brune. I guess Paolo and Alvaro will be last… if I even do them? mmmmmmmm
Made very good progress last few days. I only have the dialogue with Bernard left to code. Also, I now reworked the game so there is a new path where the gunner can survive!
I noted some people voted for “instead develop more the middle of the game”. Any suggestions of what part of the game could be developed further?
So, finally I went a bit crazy and did pretty much everything in the poll above (i.e. I coded conversations with all 8 navigators, expanded the middle section of the game, and made it so that it is possible to keep the gunner throughout the game). In total this update is ~27,000 words from what is currently there. The patch notes for v.1.2.0 are below.
Let me know if anybody wants to do a playtest before I submit to CoG. I am planning to do this on Tuesday, so if anybody wants to play the game send me a PM and I can send you the link
V.1.2.0 (232,000 words)
-Added the possibility to converse with the 8 different navigators while driving. There are also other possibilities of things to do while driving (try to patch yourself up, whistle along, etc).
-There are two new roads that can be traveled along, parallel to the existing main road. These new roads offer new encounters.
-The “scripted gunner death” has been removed. It is now possible for the gunner to survive throughout the game.
-Rewrote the “jumping the bridge” scene. There are now more possibilities to traverse the bridge, or an alternative route can be taken.
Keep doing what u doing your books are very entertaining and well put together can use more work of course but overall very solid enjoy your work won’t mind paying we need more work from u
Indeed, I do take the criticisms that people make, and I slowly try to improve my games. I think this new update of Highway Wars will “fix” many of the complaints that people had in the past. That is not to say that it is perfect, of course, and I will surely continue to slowly update it (who knows, maybe in a few years it will be hundreds of thousands of words more…)
@adrao After you are finished with dealing with the update, I have an idea to expand the arsenal in Highway Wars. Rare Weapons, hard to find, but very powerful, and need certain stats. Like the Mini-Gun/Chain Gun, fires hundreds of bullets in a second, it is very heavy so the MC needs great strength to hold it
I don’t wanna play test honestly I enjoy the game and just can’t wait for the update I wait it will make the game better although the faster u get it done the better I’m just saying lol but naw real shit we appreciate u and the effort and time u put into this story for us
But, throughout the game there are already several weapons you can find, right? (at one point I had a list of all of them, which I wanted to copy-paste here… but I cant find my list… but there are quite a lot of them already. Are more actually needed?
@Streeter215 Glad you like the game I just got a list of comments from one playtester, so I will update the game with all of them and send to CoG (so that they have it Monday morning USA time )
A video that describes the gamebook that inspired Highway Wars. Note that the new update to Highway Wars will be out on the 2nd of November 2023, featuring new roads to travel, the possibility to talk to the navigator and much more!
Wow, the upcoming update pretty much addresses all the complaints I’ve had with the game. Really cool of you to make one despite the game being out for quite some time now.
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