The War for the West [Releasing Nov 14]

Different people different tastes I guess. It is an excellent game btw once you get into it

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Their is a ton of plot and story.

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Oh, I easily believe that. It’s almost 500k words, that’s what, two or three Harry Potter books? A lot of possible story in any case.

My issue is that I just don’t see anything of that in the public demo. At all. A letter from the king, some minor talk with the advisers, short random dreams, and that’s it.
There is no story to be seen in those first five turns. Or if there is, I have no idea how to find it (in which case, I’d be happy for any advice). And that’s leaving aside that had to restart the demo four times or so just to be able to even be able to click through all the various areas I can see, like Library, Church, Quartermaster, and so on. I didn’t even want to make any choices there, I just wanted to see what there is.
Which is the basic thing for me to check in a new game. What can I do, and once I have an overview start playing with the proper choices. Which… just wasn’t possible.

Basically I was just disappointed that the demo didn’t give me any impression at all of the story.

Of course I freely admit that it could just be my expectations. I want mainly a story accompanied by choices. With the economic simulation touch (that I like), I expected a more detailed version of Lords of Aswick, Metahuman Inc, Lords of Infinity, or somesuch. Where playing three to five chapters actually shows me story and gets me invested in it.

Here I just got choices with some minor flavor text and no visible consequences in the demo. Or I just missed the consequences, which is entirely possible as at some point I got annoyed at having to repeatedly restart the demo just to go through the various buttons and conversations, because those five rounds passed like nothing.

But yeah, as I said, purely by the wordcount I fully expect that there might be a payoff somewhere down the line, and going by the posts here in the thread I believe that there can be a good game hidden behind it, but nothing of that is shown in the demo. Which just seems a shame, really.

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Yeah, I’ll admit, that demo isn’t the greatest. All of the good bits are pretty much blocked off without anything to get a real hook on. I mean, I played the alpha so I’m still interested, but if you didn’t and your only connection to the game is the demo, I can certainly understand why you’d be disappointed.

This is likely due to the way this game is written in that it’s in a very unorthodox format. It’s not split up into chapters, so you’re left with a time limit that seems to end before it can even begin. This is less of a fault of the game itself and more of the fact that the usual “2-3 chapters free” approach isn’t always applicable.

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I think I might’ve found a bug. On fixing the Southern roads, I went to the quartermaster to inquire him about it, the cost was too much so I chose not to fix the roads. But when I went back, it said that the work on the Southern roads was finished and I would get more aurens from now on.

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@Nasdaxow The Hold Court action draws upon a pool of currently 46 events so make sure to do that. A few of those might have prerequisites before being triggered but there is in my opinion a huge amount of content there. Many of those events can be altered by things that have already happened as well. I confess that having participated in the beta, it did not occur to me to try the demo before purchasing because I already knew the game was amazing. This game first came to my attention by repeatedly being mentioned in the Most anticipated HG WIP? thread and I have found this game absolutely deserving of that distinction.

@MahatmaDagon Congratulations on the release of a spectacular game!

Here are some typos and bugs I noticed and I apologize that I failed to spot them earlier.

During the Dullis feast, the Mulligan brothers mention already having different amounts of money. I am not sure if that is a typo or if they were simply lying which also seems quite plausible…

“And we have found it,” says the man with the unbuttoned doublet, finally. “We know where it is: in possession of someone who does not know the real value of the piece and who is willing to sell it for five hundred aurens. We have, the two of us, three hundred and fifty aurens. If you were to come up with the remaining one hundred and fifty aurens, we would be able to seal the deal and share the profit evenly between the three of us.”

Four hundred and fifty aurens is most of our savings,” admits Delwor. “We have already sold most of our valuable possessions because we really believe this is our way to greater richness. The risk itself would be to share this information with someone else, but we have no other choice. We need the remaining one hundred and fifty aurens.”


I might be remembering incorrectly my first playthrough of today’s release, but I think my MC never received the money from the Mulligan brothers despite agreeing to their terms in Dullis. I’ll do another playthrough to test if I can duplicate that. EDIT: I did receive the payment the second time. I’ll keep testing and update if the payment fails to arrive.


“Believe what you will, my lady. Whatever you decide shall be the truth from now on. This is what means to be a queen, an absolute ruler. This is what you have been raised for. What everything you did leads to.”

I think it should be what it means.


In afterBattle.txt, I notice that metDaedros is set to true at the very start even if Dullis never joined the Battle. I haven’t played a route involving trying to ally with Dullis in a while, but I do wonder whether that variable should only be set to true if Dullis joined the battle. The conversation with Dulsen and Daedros at the Summit already acknowledged that the MC and Daedros had never met so perhaps that variable was changed elsewhere?


In the credits for the game, regarding the Icon Art by Jason Seow, that hyperlink does not work for me without removing everything before the second www.


This scroll consists of a poem about a man called Perrick the Proud, from whom your family claims ancestry. Centuries ago, he funded House Feldyne and united the people of Midstev under a single banner. His name is still sung to this day in some local ballads.

It should be founded.

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The save system in the released final game seems to be different to the WIP

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Thanks a lot for replying to my uneducated comment. I had not reached the end of the war and thus did not get the option to send the skin.

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Another great thing would be if we could seduce jenneth before and turn her into a double agent. We should also be able to assassinate certain members of the chalice as we can predict who they are using information from our spies.

I played the game and I loved it. Kudos to you lucas. I just have some suggestions that might make the game more awesome. I had paid spies to inform me of the going ons of all states. I received their reports and could foresee certain events. There should be options to act on this information and be able to wage a secret war with the secret society and be able to sabotage and blackmail other states.

Dude you should you a spolier tag i deff didn’t know some of this stuff :man_facepalming:

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Hi how can i beat the wicked creature or there is no way to beat it?

You need to equip the sword made from the falling star.

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Congrats on the game and thank u so much for the save system

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There’s some new content, but probably most of the new stuff(apart from an event or two) are quality of life improvements, bugfixes, etc.

But I want to add more stuff to it, as long as people keep playing the game.

I can’t really speak for the demo because I never played it. I will be doing so soon enough, though.

Either way, I appreciate that you took the time to write about what you didn’t like.

But let me try to advocate for the game a little, if you don’t mind. You said you played “five turns”. You mean five days? Considering that the first part of the game usually lasts something between 150 to 200 days, and then there are timeskips and consequences and new events later, I think you didn’t evne scratch the surface of it.

There’s a LOT of stuff to do, but most of it comes with time and/or as a consequence of your actions.

For example, as time passes you will be invited to go to other provinces. Going to Hilltown includes stuff like visiting taverns, attending to a feast, considering a marriage proposal, dealing with events depending on your father’s background, purchasing weapons, learning rumors, flirting, dancing, going to a pleasure house, visiting the local temple, interacting with your soldiers, negotiating business proposals, etc.
etc.

That’s just a single .txt in a game that has over two hundred of them. Different things happen as time passes, depending both on your House’s history and your actions throughout the game. Little by little the mysteries of the world can be unfolded by collecting pieces of information spread the many non-linear events and the plot unfolds.

But yeah, as @GrimReaperJr1232 said, it is unorthodox in its format. I purposefully tried to do something different, with less linearity, less railroading, and plenty of player agency. I followed my personal guidelines.

I understand it might not be to everyone’s taste, but I stand by them. It’s what I always thought was lacking in interactive fiction and I gave my best shot at making it happen. I also added the possibility to “skip days”, for those who just want to go straight to most important bits, so if that’s an option in the demo and you are willing, you could give it a shot. Skip a few days and check the things that you will be able to do.

Thanks, I’ll take a look at it and send the fix with the next update.

@Norilinde Thank you! The different amounts of money is probably a typo on my end, I remember changing the values on that transaction more than once.

Also, good catch on the metDaedros variable. I’ll check it out but it is probably as you said: it should only be set to true if Dullis joined the battle.

Ouch. I’ll fix that. Jason Seow is an amazing artist, btw. He made artwork for portraits in Pillars of Eternity, and is an amazing person.

I’ll review the typos as well. Again, thanks for everything!

Thanks guys. About the save system, it will be updated so that people who died can load their previous save as well. Huge mistake on my part for not doing that earlier. Shouldn’t take long for that to be fixed, though, as the files have already been sent.

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Sooo… I was really interested in trying out the game, so I started the demo, but something really weird is happening. The description says “You can play the first five months of the game for free” yet I cannot move past the fifth day. I’ve noticed another user above mentioning five turns, and I wonder if they have the same issue.

It’s completely unavoidable and random. I can’t do anything of interest. The demo just ends at random points, sometimes when I only started the day and pick an option, and it gives me the “Thanks for playing the demo” screen, sometimes I manage to “finish” the fifth day (and yes, it’s the fifth day, not the fifth month)

It happens whether I create a character or randomize one, whatever options I pick, whether I read the King’s letter or not, etc. I even tried the demo in different browsers, signed in/signed out, but nothing seems to help.

I’m pretty sure it’s a bug, and I have written to support, but does anyone else has the same issue?

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Yeah, that’s the problem. I can play five days, and then the demo ends (See also hawesgyle above). I’m assuming it’s meant to be five chapters like in other games, but here it’s just… nothing.
Side note, that’s why I called it five ‘turns’, because I wasn’t sure if one day was supposed to be a chapter. Glad to hear it’s not :smiley:
I’d recommend expanding the demo so one can try out playing with a lot more days.

Your description of the game sounds like it would be right up my wheelhouse, and I don’t mind the way it’s structured. As I said earlier I was about ready to buy it just from the synopsis, but the demo put me off because there was literally nothing to see. And I’m using ‘literally’ with its originally meaning, not that annoying trend to say literally when they mean figuratively (sorry, pet peeve :-D)

Tried it again, and you’re right, there actually came an event from it! I tried it once in my first attempt, and all I got was a screen with “…” and nothing else, before the new day started. I just assumed that meant it was too early in the game for anything to happen at court and didn’t bother checking it again :smiley:

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So, without spoiling things for other players, of that’s at all possible, is it possible to actually WIN this game? Or like, you dying just set to happen regardless?

That thrice be damned tower…

@ hawesgyle
@ Nasdaxow

There was indeed a problem with the demo. Long story short, it was basically testing for days instead of months(and sometimes not even days, but times you went to the court screen). My bad.

It should be fixed soon. Sorry you guys experienced it.

You can win. There are many endings, but there should be at least three or four in which you live.

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Good Sir, First let me say thank you for writing The war for the west, I am enjoying it.

However, there is one bugs so far that i have seen.
If you buy all the stuff from the quartermaster, if you go back into his room then he seems to randomly advance the day on ya. (at least it appeared to me, would have to restart and go back to double check.)

When you go to the Lord’s Summit, there is a line 24 of Sunset, 1362 … You (at least I), recieved your title in 1362. So how can be three years since you first held court?

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