Question... (AND SPOILERS)

[Jaduggar]

So I just got to the first battle, and I'm kinda pissed. I did everything I was supposed to... collected as much evidence as I could (I got the tooth and the vial, and completed both... missed the other thing, though). Prepped my agents so all three would be in the battle, and got myself some pikemen to boot... got about 1300 men, total. Everything was going fine, and then...

BOOM! AVALANCHE!

... and I'm like, "wait, does that mean that I won or lost? Does that always happen?"

I looked into it, and apparently this is always how it ends, no matter how the battle goes. You always get an avalanche, and it always leaves you with 20 men. So why did I do all of that stuff, then? It didn't matter? I could have screwed the pooch as hard as I wanted, and I still would have "won" this battle, with the same ending? I should have just saved all that money, then!

It also didn't seem to matter that I didn't get all the evidence, they basically told me that I could just accuse whoever I wanted, and it was fine. So my question is...

...does anything I do in this game actually matter? Do my choices actually DO anything? Ive gotten the impression that all I need to do, so far, is say 'yes' to everything, and my income just keeps going up and up and up, and I can afford everything. It doesn't matter if I do any of the optional stuff, it doesn't matter if I get the troops I need, it doesn't matter if I finish the quest lines... none of it matters.

I could've gone into that battle with 100 men, if I wanted, and the DEUS EX MACHINA would have saved me, anyway, so why did I spend the last three hours trying to prep for this battle? Is it even possible for me to have lost?

I feel really ripped off, right now, this game was supposed to be about weighing hard choices and taking risks, but... Im really getting the impression that all of my choices are illusions, just there to waste my time as I watch the story line play out in an EXTREMELY linear fashion.

[No More Robots]

Hey there! So yes, the battle always ends this way, but what you do before absolutely matters. You will lose the battle if you don’t have enough men, hence why we ask you to collect an army of 1000. If you have less than 1000, you begin to struggle, and can only win if you have other special units (eg hounds). But if your army numbers are too low (less than 800), you’re likely to get a game over.

So TLDR, yes, collecting an army 100% matters

[アンジェル]

a) You should finish the game first, if you ask me.

b) I wish you would have chosen a more specific thread title. But that applies to all authors who did bear the same question as you do right now.

c) Last but not least, the question is very subjective, considering your expectations might differ from what the game actually offers.

[Brian Sirith]

Not much matters... lol. Or rather very specific things matter. In my second run I stopped feeding the troops once they reached 1000, let them run off and saved supplies. Which was very effective cause when starting the last part I had almost enough supplies to fill the crates straight away.

This of course is meta.

[Hendumaica]

I hadn't 800 men. I started the battle with 760 but having a general, witch, an hunter, spearmen and a reserve i won. I guess the decisions you take during the battle matters too?

[No More Robots]

Hey Hendumaica, yeah absolutely. Even with lower numbers, we allow you to win if you make good decisions using the special units in battle

(Prior to launch, we actually made the battle a LOT harder, but the feedback we got was that people didn’t like it being so hard. So we knocked the difficulty down a bit so less people struggle with it)

[Hendumaica]

Thanks anyway! I could get away with half the availlable troops then <3

[アンジェル]

Originally posted by No More Robots:

Hey Hendumaica, yeah absolutely. Even with lower numbers, we allow you to win if you make good decisions using the special units in battle

(Prior to launch, we actually made the battle a LOT harder, but the feedback we got was that people didn’t like it being so hard. So we knocked the difficulty down a bit so less people struggle with it)

My feedback: it is far too easy as it now, which creates the feeling of your efforts you put into the game are meaningless. I can only repeat here what I said on my feedback topic from before.

[Jaduggar]

Alright, well... I'm happy to know that losing was at least possible, and that I did have to put in some effort. I'll finish the game and see how I feel after, but so far I'm really feeling like the storyline in this game is leaving no room for my input at all.

This game said it was going to be about decision making, and it honestly feels more like it's about 'going through the motions', more than anything. No matter how this ends, I'm calling BS on the claim that this game has replay value.

PS: I guess just so nobody can say I'm being COMPLETELY negative, and since a dev is here responding, I'll add this: I love the little girl with the pets; the youngest daughter. I find her charming as hell, and I mourn the loss of each and every one of her agents, along with her. Good job on her, she's a nice touch.

[No More Robots]

It's not great to hear you say that :( I can assure you that plenty of decisions you make lead to sweeping changes in the game. At this point in your game multiple people could be dead based on your choices, and by the time you reach the end, you could potentially have lost your entire family (or kept them all alive). And outside of this, there are numerous decisions to make regarding who you ally with, including lords, ladies and kings. If you were playing at the same time as a friend, the ending you get would no doubt be vastly different to the ending your friend would get.

So in that regard, we're not really sure how there's "no room for your input". The majority of characters live or die by your input

[hot2trotsky]

I think you're sort of victims of your own success! I just finished a playthrough of it, and the strangest thing is that I had the same kind of sinking feeling of linearity -- because you all have done a great job of /not/ doing the thing most "choices matter" games do -- put a big huge red highlight on all the consequential choices. Some of the things I do lead to enormous cascading consequences, and some of them don't matter a whit, but I'm always surprised, either way.

I didn't even realize how /not/ linear the game was until I started looking up other people's completions.

But in the game itself -- I don't know, I love how natural the decision-making process feels, but I'm just not used to it. I've been trained by every other game I've played to expect a huge red flashing highlight when I do something that's going to have a major consequence down the road.

One thing that could be improved, maybe, are the "1/5" indicators -- I didn't realize that they meant that this was one of five possible endings until my second time playing through the last few weeks. But I'm also not sure I've got it in me to do another playthrough of this game -- it's a lot! I'd probably be more likely to do it if I could come at it from right after the major milestones after my first playthrough.

[Jaduggar]

Originally posted by No More Robots:

It's not great to hear you say that :( I can assure you that plenty of decisions you make lead to sweeping changes in the game. At this point in your game multiple people could be dead based on your choices, and by the time you reach the end, you could potentially have lost your entire family (or kept them all alive). And outside of this, there are numerous decisions to make regarding who you ally with, including lords, ladies and kings. If you were playing at the same time as a friend, the ending you get would no doubt be vastly different to the ending your friend would get.

So in that regard, we're not really sure how there's "no room for your input". The majority of characters live or die by your input

Ok... I appreciate your quick responses, and your reassurances that my choices matter. I'll hold off on leaving an angry review on Steam where I rant about my lack of input, for now, and finish the game. Afterwards, I'll look at some other peoples playthroughs on YouTube, or something, and see how different their storylines are to mine (or maybe give it a second run), and see if I feel like it's as deep as you say, before I go off telling people that I'm mad about x, y, or z.

But for right now... it FEELS way more linear than I was expecting from a kingdom management sim. I was really thinking this was going to be more like Reigns; with a lot of randomness and uncertainty, rather that something so linear.

[TinyPixxels]

Always glad to chat things through! Make sure when you get to your own end slates and watch other people's, you take a note of the number underneath - they'll give you a window into how many 'complete' endings there are for each character, as long as people don't make poor enough decisions to hit one of the bad endings on the way through the game!

The last thing we want is people being angry that the game doesn't feel right, so if you've got any questions we're always happy to help =]

[Randomness999999]

Originally posted by TinyPixxels:

Always glad to chat things through! Make sure when you get to your own end slates and watch other people's, you take a note of the number underneath - they'll give you a window into how many 'complete' endings there are for each character, as long as people don't make poor enough decisions to hit one of the bad endings on the way through the game!

The last thing we want is people being angry that the game doesn't feel right, so if you've got any questions we're always happy to help =]

I absolutely loved my first playthrough of the game, I did it all in one 5 hour session. All of the family members felt like real people. I very heavily related to Eryk, and many moments hit me emotionally. However, after I started replaying, I felt kind of the same way that op did, like my choices don't matter that much. While I admit that there certainly are impacts to my decisions, I somewhat feel sad that the main story doesn't really change. On my first playthrough, knowing nothing about the game, I did about as perfect as a noob could, told Lorsulia I loved her, confronted Ivodiot, saved everyone, except Lulie obviously, let Asalia run away with Maya, and never really had a problem with resources after about week 10. I think because I did so well, it kinda sucked replaying to get the achievements and not being able to improve in any way. The thought of a Mad King run seemed intriguing, but it ended up just sort of sad (the Cold Heart achievement destroyed me). I would absolutely love a DLC or Newgame+ mode where you and Beyran can just be friends, honor your promise, and absolutely annihilate the Seven Kingdoms together, or at least literally any choice that changes Lulie's Fate.

[Rooty Tooty]

I am sure your opinion about this game has long sense been decided about this game. But I'm not the one who necroed this thread. I was wondering about the part where you said everything was going fine part you said. I had a little over 1000 men with the pikemen like you. However I was clearly loosing as well as some weird thing was rolling up to the battlefield ready to cause more ♥♥♥♥ right before the avalanche. I sort of doubt 300 extra men would of caused the battle to be that much different. I was sort of wondering for anyone reading this did actually begin to win before the avalanche fell.

And hey if you think of it this way, you dicisions did matter. You were able to throw way more rescorses and put more lives into the snow then if you made different decisions. Good jab really

[Synegg]

I had a run with 1400 men, shields, general, witch, hunter and reserve. Basically all allies except the ones where you can only pick A or B.

From memory I had 8 archers (not sure if this can change).

During the battle I sent witch vs fog, hunter vs cavalry, shields vs fire, spammed archers every time they were ready, general vs machine, and then reserve at the end.

Don’t remember the exact numbers but just before the avalanche I was winning by about 100 men. If there was no avalanche we probably would have won, but that’s all moot and scripted I guess.