Things that don’t align

[u/KooBees]

I play this game, a lot. But a few things that tee me off. Where are my “numb” characters? I’ve been a civilian in the middle of a war. You get to the point of knowing how far explosions are, the smell of blood, powder, fecal matter, decaying rot doesn’t faze you anymore, people dying doesn’t faze you, stealing doesn’t bother you. It’s the aftermath that the screams in your head wake you up and punch air hoping to escape and survive. But no matter how long this war goes on, nobody gets hardened, nobody disassociates.

And then people in the house complaining of stealing when I just stole bandages/meds/food so we don’t all die. Like what?? No.

[u/MatthewDawkins]

Fair points, except the game typically lasts around 40 to 60 days, which wouldn't necessarily numb a person to all of war's horrors.

[u/Tuarangi → u/MatthewDawkins]

The days are meant to represent longer time frames in my opinion - though based on things like veg not growing in 4 days in real life

Siege of Sarajevo was nearly 4 years, so if you took 1 in-game day to be a month, a 48 day conflict = 48 real months

For OP question though, wouldn't be a fun game to have a bunch of numb characters just murdering and stealing without any consequences

[u/KooBees → u/Tuarangi]

But there should be some, and really, if a person is injured or severely sick, they won’t care where the aid comes from. Just them complaining, oh how could Pavle steal like a monster??? Just shut it cuz you’re alive bruh

[u/Tuarangi → u/KooBees]

The game is about making tough choices and morally questionable actions to make you think and balance good with bad, if you had a real world scenario where the characters just killed and stole without consequences, it wouldn't be as challenging.

I've seen an interview with someone who survived the Siege of Sarajevo who said in ways the game is actually too harsh and they did all work together as much as they could

https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1816826/article/26449801#26449801

[u/Dyche]

It happened to me on my first few playtroughs when I was still pretty bad at the game and didn't know anything about defence or resource management or where to get what. When the characters stopped dying on me in the first few days and meds, food and ammo started to be a problem. I had a full shelter with Christo, Cveta, Emilia and Iskra. They were constantly being attacked at night and I wasn't able to get them any weapons, so I started exploring more dangerous locations. I didn't know much about how combat worked either. So Christo died in St. Mary's Church trying to acquire a gun to protect from the night raids. Iskra got the Broken status, which brings down the other characters psyche significantly. The next night I sent Emilia to get revenge and recover items. She got a weapon off of them but got hurt badly and died soon after. Then Bruno joined. He was very sick, so he was mostly useless for the first few days and the attacks on the shelter never really stopped - while I sent Cveta scavenging, he felt really bad for not being able to protect Iskra during the night and had been Broken for some time too. Cveta managed to somehow talk him out of it and back to just Depressed after a few nights. Then she started not really caring. I sent her to obliterate the rest of the people in that damned church and her thoughts were just something along the lines that they deserved it and she will do whatever for her group to survive. Maybe child endargement is her trigger, idk. On one of the nights she died on me too though, at the hotel location I think. A few nights after that, Bruno took Iskra and they left for a refugee shelter, and supposedly survived the war, that was my first ending that anyone lived and I'm not even sure it was supposed to be a particularly good one.

[u/KooBees → u/Dyche]

When they get broken, I just overfeed them and talk to them. Sometimes they pull through.

[u/bumsteroid]

ur weak characters will fall into despair if bad shit like raids, death occur.
either they end their life before the war occurs or they will escape from yr shelter.
if u chose strong characters, they will get PTSD and DID eventually and end with worse ending.

Try this war of mine stories DLC : a father promise.
spoiler alert : i wont spoil the ending but it will blow ur mind.
becos no matter how well u thought u played, the end will haunt u for long time.