Frequently Asked Questions

AWOIAF (A World of Ice and Fire) is meant to be challenging in line with the harshness and grimness depicted in Game of Thrones. However, there are many ways that you can tailor the experience to your playing preference. Ultimately, it is your adventure.

This mod defaults to hardcore mode; if you are finding it difficult, then change your settings found within the camp menu and main options menu.

Specific ways to reduce difficulty include:

• Reduce Damage to Player (1/2 or 1/4)
• Reduce Damage to Friends (1/2 or 1/4)
• Turn down Combat AI (found in main menu under options).
• Turn down Tactical Speed (found in main menu under options).
• Turn down Campaign AI (found in main menu under options).
• Turn off Stamina (found in camp options menu).
• Turn off Wounds (select at beginning of game).
• Turn off Gear affects skills (found in camp options menu).
• Turn off Blood loss (found in camp options menu).
• Turn off Player stumbling (found in camp options menu).
• Turn off Rest improves morale (found in camp options menu).

Make your own House Rules prior to initially starting the game and adhere to them strictly. That is what I, Fallen Lord, do to make the game more enjoyable for me.

As an example, the House Rules that I generally play with are the following:

• Absolutely no save-scumming except under extraordinary circumstances. You cannot go back in time except when a save becomes corrupted or if a major bug occurs. I feel this helps to keep the game pure.
• No changing House Rules during the game. I like having strict house rules for the game; otherwise, the game loses a lot of its luster, challenge, and purity for me.
• I re-edit my character ONE TIME back down to experience level 0, ONCE I reach level 18. Doing so allows you to re-level your player up from 0 while maintaining your previously gained attribute points. This makes the beginning of the game less grindy and more fun for me. This also allows for more skill points to be accumulated during the course of the game and provides for a more diverse playing experience.
• I edit my character at the beginning of the game to give an extra 3 attribute points in one category and an extra 2 skill points in one skill set. My ideal set-up is to boost my strength by +3 compared to the baseline starting attribute level and boost my character’s path-finding skill by +2 compared to its baseline skill set. Those robber knights can be savage early on… lol. I feel this makes the beginning of the game much more manageable and enjoyable, while still allowing for a less hardcore challenge 🙂
• Reduce Player damage to 1/4. This allows me to last longer in battles, especially sieges, and really impact the course of the battle. I find it more enjoyable to be an absolute badass killing machine.
• Keep Friend damage at normal. I think reducing friend damage is too OP and cheapens the gaming experience.
• Reduce Hero damage to 1/4. This allows the enemy lords and companions to stand out more, and I feel it adds soul to the game.
• Keep Hero damage dealt to Normal.
• Combat AI: Good. Makes combat come alive more and seem more fluid. I think it helps balance out a damage reduction to the player.
• Tactical speed: Normal.
• Campaign AI: Alternate between Normal and Good every 100 days. I find this provides an excellent balance between not being too easy or too hard while still allowing the AI to impact the course of the game.
• I keep on Stamina, Gear affects skills, Shield bash, Player Stumbling, and Rest improves morale.
• I turn off blood loss. I find blood loss annoying, especially in prolonged battles such as sieges. I want to be involved in the action and find it less enthralling to be viewing the combat via ghost cam early on. I do not like gradually and progressively seeing my life force drain away.
• I generally decline the wound option at the beginning of the game. Sometimes I also accept the wound option too. Just depends on how hardcore of a playthrough I am feeling. For the casual player who is trying the mod for the first time, I recommend considering disabling wounds.
• Ensure the box is selected to allow for the White Walker invasion to occur. I think the White Walker invasion is one of the most important and cool aspects of this mod. One of my biggest complaints about the Warband series is the lack of end-game content, soul, storyline, and final objective besides just conquering everyone. I think the White Walker invasion provides the player with a greater purpose, essential end-game content, and helps to capture the essence of Game of Thrones.

Disclosure: These House Rules are NOT endorsed by Produno and are just what I often do to augment my own playing experience. The mod is meant to be intrinsically challenging. It is a fine balance between not losing out on the essence of the mod and cheapening the playing experience, while tailoring the gaming experience to optimize your enjoyment and reduce aspects of the mod that you may find potentially frustrating.