Against All Odds (GOG edition) (2024)

Safe to use

About this mod

This is a brutal, unforgiving hard mode that changes a lot of aspects of this game. New mechanics, new city maps, revamped balance and entirely new strategy required to play - use this mod if you feel you know this game too well to remain challenged.

The thing about This War of Mine is that once you get good at it, it seldom brings you any challenge anymore. You've already learned a perfect strategy to take out Military Outpost, you know how to handle raids with no losses whatsoever, you know the minimum feeding and resting your survivors require. The game is mostly a routine to you: board up the holes, set up a couple of traps, get the pipeline going. So if this sounds familiar, this mod is for you.
It is basically a hard mode, tuned in the way that 11 Bit Studios would do it if they were to make a hardmod at all (or so I believe).

It alters the game in a lot of small aspects, all of which I shouldn't list so you could be taken by surprise for a change. But some of the changes include:

• Two entirely new game modes. You may (or may not) pick between them on scenario selection screen, as they replace old "Final Cut edition" and "Anniversary edition" checkboxes.
  "No free loot" is a new, unforgiving game mode with only inhabited locations. You will get exactly zero freebies. Like I've mentioned in the description of this mode, I'm fairly certain one can not reach the ceasefire in this mode.The second mode - "Random locations". This mode though will bring all 10 locations that have multiple variations each (Sniper Junction, School, Hotel and so on) on one map, and each time variation for each location will be picked at random. You will get a couple of pre-defined easy locations, but apart from that, you're at the mercy of RNGsus. That's over 1,500 map combinations in one checkbox!TIP: For even more fun try to combine it with random scenario (there's a button for that on the right bottom of the scenario selection screen).Have in mind though that the balance in this mode is off. It's possible to get all "peaceful" or all "hostile" locations, but some sort of mix between them is more likely.
• Rebalanced morale. Now it's easier for your survivors to get depressed and harder to recover. You should try to minimize the "questionable" actions like killing or stealing and prioritize good deeds. Giving away those 2 cans of meat to the kids is now not only a moral thing to do, but also a possible saving grace from depression. Try not to fall into depression loop: remember that your survivors get progressively more depressed as their states (hunger, sickness, wounds and even depression) increase.
• Severely reduced shelter loot. You won't believe how much it changes things when you can barely craft a bed from scarce ingredients you find in your shelter. You'll have to prioritize from the day 1 what fittings you need most. Have in mind (or even on paper) what resources and in which quantities you need to bring from scavenging.
• Degraded starting condition of your survivors. The war started much earlier then the moment you join your survivors, and now it actually shows. Wounded, sick, tired and hungry, they will require your attention immediately. Mitigate those problems ASAP to avoid getting trapped in depression loop (see "Rebalanced morale").
• Reduced comfort from shelter items. A couple of armchairs won't help your people forget the horrors of the war, now you'll have to work harder than that. Every comfort item counts, every good deed helps you stay afloat. Chance comfort boosters, like the kids, snowman or Zlata (I call them that because you're not guaranteed to get those in your run) are now less helping. Keep track of your shelter's comfort on "Some thoughts" screen: now it accurately describes how far you are from reaching a point of maximum comfort, so if you see the "We feel like home here" message, it means you've done about everything you could.
• Increased probability of psychotic breaks. Get used to the cases of insomnia and outbursts of smoking. And if you neglect your survivors' well-being for too long, they won't hesitate to leave the shelter either. But it's not all that bad: this mod introduces "Catharsis" mechanic, so if your dweller freaked out, they will feel a little better instead of worse (unlike the other dwellers who will still be disturbed).
• Routine actions now take longer. Prepare to forget your well-established patterns, because now the game is way less forgiving in terms of time. Choose your steps wisely. Daytime is decreased, and sleeping takes longer, so if you're not careful with your timing, it's possible that one bed won't be enough for two survivors to recover during one day. Several other actions now take more time as well. You're gonna need some new patterns, because the old ones are likely to break now.
• Bandits & military are people too. The game doesn't punish you nearly enough for robbing and/or killing "the bad guys". While for the regular citizens, such as our dwellers, murder should be a murder, no matter who was killed. With this mod, prepare to pay harsh price for immoral actions. Not as harsh as with the same actions against regular citizens, mind you, but still, a normal person feels bad about killing or stealing. It's not impossible that the bandit was a different person before the war, and probably your survivors even knew them, so in no way the conscience is off the table.
• Nerfing the most fruitful locations. Military Outpost, Warehouse and several other locations, taking the level of danger, should of course have more resources than the average, but they shouldn't be the game breakers. Combined with the previous change, it should drastically change your survival strategies. Is it really worth it to risk your dweller's life over a couple cans of meat, especially considering that you'll have to deal with morale afterwards? Maybe you should concentrate on trading instead? Have you tried to reach self-sufficiency without the plentiful loot from Military Outpost? Maybe you should?
• Long-term consequences of murders. Yet another reason to try and avoid running around killing bandits and soldiers. They now react on finding a dead body of their comrade: not only will they pack their things and flee, making the location inaccessible for the rest of the game, they may also follow your survivor back to the shelter and, after gathering enough strength, hit your group with the toughest raid you've ever experienced. But there's also good news: you can still try to steal from them. That will have no such consequences, if you don't get caught. Let me tell you this: the game shines in an entirely new light when being played in a stealthy way.
• More diverse city maps. In vanilla game, there are 6 so-called "Map packs" - sets of locations, one of which you get at random when you start the game. The thing is, there is one occasion where two map packs have as much as eleven locations in common. Out of 15! There are also several occasions with 6-9 intersections. 15 locations are being reused on 3-6 map packs, while 13 others are used only once. And three more are not being used at all, thus being available via Scenario Editor only. That can get old pretty quickly. In this mod all map packs are customized, while preserving balance. There are no two map packs that have more than 5 locations in common, and no locations that are being used on more than 3 map packs (with the sole exception of Hospital). On top of that, there are two entirely new map packs. Experience Pogoren like you never did before!
• Partially anonymized location descriptions. Now you will not get any indications of "danger", "advised caution" or "possible trading" on "Plan the night" screen. The percentage of loot present on the spot is hidden, as well as the quantities of every type of loot (so, you'll now there's "food", but you won't know how much). Also, when it comes to the locations that have multiple variants (like Hotel and Semi-detached house), their texts have been rewritten to make sure you won't know what exact scenario you're about to face there. This is pretty much what "Spoiler-free locations" does, except that here the descriptions will actually be updated after your first visit (this feature was not available at the times of SFL development). This only works for several supported languages languages for now, namely Russian, English, Chinese and Polish. If you want to help me translating it to other languages, let me know in comments!
• Greedy Franko. In times of war having your items delivered to your door is a luxury, and you have to pay for it. This change should shift the trading strategies towards outside traders, leaving Franko as a last resort only, right where he belongs. Besides, now he visits your shelter a bit less frequently. You're still not on your own, but this man is an entrepreneur and not a magic wand that can solve all your problems.
• Worthy abilities. While tuning the game aspects, I made the abilities of those survivors who have them more valuable. Meaning that Roman's combat ability will now actually stand out, and Arica's silent stride will be more helpful than ever.
• Nerfing combat. One more aspect that I want you to suffer more with is combat. Regular citizens should have harder time while fighting with the trained soldiers. If all you have is a knife and an old man with no training behind his shoulders, only a miracle will help you survive against several armed goons - and you will need that miracle badly.
• Colder winters. The vanilla game has got a nasty limitation: the temperature outside can never go any lower than -5C, even when it's supposed to (remember those really harsh fragments of winter that keep the raiders away?). That limitation is gone now. Prepare for cold, cold winters - colder than ever.
• New mechanics. Food poisoning, potential danger from removing rubble with your bare hands, night shellings that can potentially destroy something you'd hate to lose - and more! Pay attention as you play - you never know where help (or danger) may lay.
  

I will appreciate any feedback you can give - ideas, thoughts, notes you've made while playing the game with this mod. But be prepared that it's OK if the game can't be played exactly the way it was before. Try to change your approach, try prioritizing different things, take it easy (but not too easy). And if after all that, you're still certain that there's an aspect that can't be overcome, please let me know.

Compatibility

This version of mod was made for GOG version of the game with all DLCs installed. It's not guaranteed to work with any other game version, however, you can try (reports are welcome). If you have Steam version of the game, better use this instead. I recommend to play this mod with Classic scenarios only. Because this game doesn't exactly have a great mod support, I can not guarantee that it will work with any other mods installed.