With TWOM Stories the storytelling is more important than your run.
You can do everything well to success, if the storytelling needs Milena dies for example, she will die.
11bit Studio mock their clients. Their storytelling is all they want to promote.
You playing pleasure ? they don't care.

Hey there, the only difference I did was I gave the documents to the trader, and the art wasn't stolen

How to save the art: Trade the documents for the bank vault. Some of them will be missed though, but not everything.

Originally posted by nagano328:

Their storytelling is all they want to promote.

Problem is some stories just do NOT work as game, especially with amount of annoying chore TWoM survival requires. You don't get sad about story, you get annoyed about wasted time.

It's like unskippable intro - first time it gets you in in the mood, third time and on it does opposite - makes you "yeah, yeah, whatever *click click*"

First ending I got was probably the golden one, as I gave the Colonel the painting (despite my hatred for the soldiers in this game and my temptation to massacre them all), sold the documents to the Fence, and gave passage for the children at the rail tunnel at the expense of Ruben's presence. Gonna see what other endings I can achieve.

Originally posted by al103:

Originally posted by nagano328:

Their storytelling is all they want to promote.

Problem is some stories just do NOT work as game, especially with amount of annoying chore TWoM survival requires. You don't get sad about story, you get annoyed about wasted time.

It's like unskippable intro - first time it gets you in in the mood, third time and on it does opposite - makes you "yeah, yeah, whatever *click click*"

I agree. This game's mechanics don't work well with stories. Ruben froze to death and the game still mentioned him as if he was alive. That's not even that bad compared to some people ending their days early and missing story characters arriving to their house, making the game incompletable.

As for surviving, it isn't too hard if you become self sufficient. Sleep during the day, grow vegetables, set rat traps, and upgrade your furnace. Build a hatchet and you will never worry about fuel again since hatchets cut down furniture at every location (I destroyed that orphanage). If you build bullets you will basically become a millionaire. Bullets get traded for a ridiculous price and the ingredients are found everywhere. Moonshine is also great since Fading Embers is in the winter. By day 20 I had a surplus of food, bandages, and medicine.

Well if it makes you feel any better, I didn't trade the docs, I didn't give him the painting, I went to rescue Milena and found out she'd escaped, but been wounded. Okay, I figure I'll wait around a couple of days to see if she returns. She doesn't, and you get a visit from the cook saying the military are gonna bomb you tonight. Too late to do anything other than cuss about it. Literally all you can do at that point is watch the entire collection burn.

Where to find Milena after she escaped? Is it even possible?

Also i gave docs to the dude who owns bank vault, then when the woman warned me about bombing tonight i ended the day, chose evacuate collection to the bank on the map and get neverending blackscreen with sirens.

Originally posted by Kathden:

SPOILER WARNING

So I beat Fading Embers and I felt stupid. I saved the orphans, robbed Crow, gave the painting to the Colonel, and did not trade the documents for the bank vault. I thought I made good choices up until the game ended and Milena was murdered and the art was stolen. It would have been better if I had just burnt all the art myself than to see it stolen like that. Before you try it, the Colonel is near impossible to kill. He cannot be shot or stabbed.

Was it possible to ever save the art or was it just a ruse? Also, I never visited Tito after giving him fuel and food. Did he ever need anything after that?

You can play the game and 'win' if you keep Rufus alive with Anya and head to the museum, but it's very 'touch and go' early on. I've just played the scenario so many times, I've kind of gotten bored of it, but it is fun to rob the armed guys in the Abandoned House blind.

There isn't a 'cinematic ending', and it's not really 'fun' of an ending, but if you survive in your home until Day 23 and move over to the museum that night, you will make it past Day 34.

Then you don't have to give anything to anyone, except for the books to the orphans, if you want. It's not easy to survive with Rufus, but you can chop up the garden to give you the wood that you need to keep warm, after you've determined that you have enough food.

After Day 35, the war ends. I've done this, and Melina leaves on the morning of the 34th.
That night, I gave the books to the orphans, and the woman who dropped them off comes in the morning of Day 35.

This means that Maria never arrives on the morning of the 34th, and Melina might not be 'escaping' until the night of the 35th. Since there's no way for the Colonel to get the painting, he has no reason to kill her, and she's able to survive longer in every other situation. Plus, since there's a cease fire on the night of the 35th, it's not like she couldn't come back to the museum and get bandaged up.

It would be nice if Rufus Blackwell saw any of this and actually gave an 'ending' to the 'survive with Rufus until Day 23rd or Day 24th, and you could keep the entire collection together held in the Truck even if Melina does leave on the morning of the 35th, but I think 11 bit has moved on.

I don't mind them 'forcing storytelling', but ignoring possible endings is a little silly. Heck one person continued to play with Anya in her home until Day 29, got bored and decided to restart. I figure if that person had 'played it out', Anya would have simply left Pogoren after living in her homestead for a few weeks, never to return, as she never meets up with Adam and the Orphans.

If you DO decide to do what I have done, survive in Anya's place until Day 24, and head to the Museum. You SHOULD be able to get the entire collection into the Truck, but the stupidity is if you don't get to the Museum until after Day 25, leaving Night 24, then parts of the collection won't be 'at-risk' and therefore won't be 'put into the collection', at the end of the game, which cheesed me off the first time I played it out this way, anyway you get it in the Truck on Day 35, the war ends that night, and... Well you'll see. It's a win, but not a very satisfying one.

It takes ten days to load the collection into the Truck. I was able to bring a hatchet, and a crowbar with me, which made going to the supermarket easier as I took the two lock-picks with me, that you find scrounging in the Museum, but I still needed to make the metal workshop to build the shovel, which also helps at the Orphanage.

The ending is like a classic ending where it talks about Rufus and Anya, but nothing about Melina or Zoran. On the other hand, it doesn't mention anything about the collection being saved, because you got all of it in the truck.

The colonel is tough, but is not impossible to kill. I absolutely hated the army in the game. So I got a bulletproof vest, a assault rifle, 60 rounds, a hatchet, went to the army base, kill the way leading officer by back stabbing him, and the siren will go off, climb onto the guard tower then start shooting anyone that dares enter your range, the colonel might show up, just ignore him and kill every other soldiers. Leave the base when its done (better to take away bullets and rifles from corpses because its going to disappear). Go there again next day, there wont be siren, take a hatchet and bulletproof vest with you, go straight to the colonel's office, go to the corner of the room, colonel will attack you with two moves, fist or elbow knocking, if you stay in corner there could be more chances he will use elbow, which only deals a small amount of damage, and your character will auto deflect the attack with hatchet, and the colonel is dead. There's nothing on his corpse, but killing him is so satisfying, also if he has low hp, he might stop attacking you and ask you to leave, just steal something or hide before him and there's a chance he will attack again.

Originally posted by mdwangsifan:

The colonel is tough, but is not impossible to kill. I absolutely hated the army in the game. So I got a bulletproof vest, a assault rifle, 60 rounds, a hatchet, went to the army base, kill the way leading officer by back stabbing him, and the siren will go off, climb onto the guard tower then start shooting anyone that dares enter your range, the colonel might show up, just ignore him and kill every other soldiers. Leave the base when its done (better to take away bullets and rifles from corpses because its going to disappear). Go there again next day, there wont be siren, take a hatchet and bulletproof vest with you, go straight to the colonel's office, go to the corner of the room, colonel will attack you with two moves, fist or elbow knocking, if you stay in corner there could be more chances he will use elbow, which only deals a small amount of damage, and your character will auto deflect the attack with hatchet, and the colonel is dead. There's nothing on his corpse, but killing him is so satisfying, also if he has low hp, he might stop attacking you and ask you to leave, just steal something or hide before him and there's a chance he will attack again.

Wow I didn't know it was possible. I'm guessing this doesn't change the game, correct?

Doesn't change my plan. You kill the colonel, Melina is still not safe from harm, and instead of him killing her, as the game can 'forget' who's alive and who's dead, another soldier might end up 'doing the job'.

It would be nice to chat with someone from 11 bit studios and explain how one can get to the end of the war on 'Night' 35, allowing for a need for a cinematic ending, but I don't know if they care much anymore.

Maybe on 'Night' 34' you can take the book to the orphanage, leading to a cinematic ending of a future summer evening where Anya could be reading one of the stories in the books kept at the orphanage to Nika at Anya's homestead with or without some of the other characters looking on, because wars end, winters' end, and stories end...until you start another.

Originally posted by SirKathden:

SPOILER WARNING

So I beat Fading Embers and I felt stupid. I saved the orphans, robbed Crow, gave the painting to the Colonel, and did not trade the documents for the bank vault. I thought I made good choices up until the game ended and Milena was murdered and the art was stolen. It would have been better if I had just burnt all the art myself than to see it stolen like that. Before you try it, the Colonel is near impossible to kill. He cannot be shot or stabbed.

Was it possible to ever save the art or was it just a ruse? Also, I never visited Tito after giving him fuel and food. Did he ever need anything after that?

Well... you gave away the most valuable item in the collection to a party that has been killing your community all the time....

And you didn't trust a criminal that just wanted some stupid court documents...

Turn those two things around and you will get a completely different ending.

And the death of Milena... was kind of the writing on the wall. She died for her art, just what she wanted.

Originally posted by RainingMetal:

First ending I got was probably the golden one, as I gave the Colonel the painting (despite my hatred for the soldiers in this game and my temptation to massacre them all), sold the documents to the Fence, and gave passage for the children at the rail tunnel at the expense of Ruben's presence. Gonna see what other endings I can achieve.

What was the result of giving the Colonel the painting? Did Milena survive? Given the dialogue with this woman throughout the game, would she accept this compromise? Especially given this painting, if it were saved, would become the centre piece of the rebuild museum...

By giving the railway people the artifact, you saved the orphans but lost the artifact and lost Ruben. You could save the orphans by giving them the book, and the book would survive the war anyway. How was the ending story when Ruben was lost?