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Incline ATOM RPG: Trudograd - standalone expansion sequel to ATOM RPG

jackofshadows

Magister
Joined
Oct 21, 2019
Messages
4,493
I've played through, more or less reminded me AoD Teron demo in terms of overall size, but with focus on dialogues and quests, it has very few combat encounters (not counting random ones). Feels just like the base game except for the global map, naturally. You're suppose to talk to every NPC. And no, I didn't miss ATOM's writing at all, although must admit, some NPCs, dialogues and quests in general were quite decent. 'Hit and miss' all over again but since it's subjective area, onto more specific and new stuff - CYOA were alright but they has VO (some people don't like read I guess) and it's utter shit, as Comissar Draco mentioned above, I hope it will be re-recorded. If not - no problem, I'll just turn it off, thankfully there's a specific audio option.

Combat wise it was way too easy but for my OP import 21 lvl char so it's not saying much, maybe will check next build with fresh char for proper evaluating.

Two things buffled me: there's a new freezing mechanic instead of radiation. I get that it's just a city so it's kinda clean and all but it's a still post-apoc game, only 20+ years after bombs dropped and no one cares about it at all? At the very least some stuff which comes to city: food, tools, whatever - can be polluted, right? What about literal fallout? You have references like
1712BD22CC6C016558D2FC6AE11C4AA5211205B6

Nuka-Kvas vending machine
in the game but now it has no actual radiation?

And the second thing: Atomboy, the guy who does maps in your game is a complete lunatic. I mean why, why maps are not oriented properly?! I get that it didn't bother anyone all that time beside autist like me that Otradnoe's map is fucking upside-down for instance (still is) but now when you have a proper city blocks it so obvious and still no one cares? You start in the outskirts, open global map, see that city itself on the north, rotating actual map, see the big gates - there it is, open local map, it looks like they're on the fucking west. It's not that big of a deal but immensely confusing.
 

Garyxeao88

Novice
Joined
May 15, 2020
Messages
17
Can't wait.

It's good to see the inventory finally moving a bit further away from the "classic Fallout imitation" they had going before - always felt far too cramped (although they definitely already improved it via patches to allow proper companion equipping of weapons, moving items between them, etc.).

Not sure about the green-screen character sheet though. IMO the "paper" look and feel really suited the game, looking like a 1980's ID document. It's probably nicer for the quest log though.

If they keep the paper L&F for the stats and skills, but move to the green-screen look for the quest log - I can definitely go with that. (New world has done well in this aspect)
 
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jackofshadows

Magister
Joined
Oct 21, 2019
Messages
4,493
Yeah, it's an awkward wording plus the fact that they don't know themselves how to call it... Technically it is continue of the same story but more like a sidestep so it could fit both sequel and expansion. However, the game offers to choose any possible consequences for KRZ/Peregon/companions from the base game which is weird for a player who just bought 'stand-alone' game and don't know shit about those things. Why not simply set 'canon'/default and be done with it?

Also there's so much little changes, I'd say too much for expansion for sure. It would be better if they would have made simple not-stand-alone add-on to the base game using almost the same assets or full-fledged sequel Trudograd with bigger scope - some surrounded area, lots of outskirts etc.
 

Urthor

Prophet
Patron
Joined
Mar 22, 2015
Messages
1,872
Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire
"Continues the story of ATOM RPG as a stand-alone sequel/expansion"
:prosper:


A "sequel" without any tech upgrades that is basically a remake is actually something really cool that more game developers of the indie size should do.

Spending a shitload of energy upgrading the engine is not actually something people need or want after the "first" game commonly, vs a sequel with better writing, better quests, better area design.

Although the name of "sequels" has generally been trodden on by the works of many big name AAA game developers and film makers whose writing, area/quest design efforts generally get sloppier and worse with sequels because they stop giving a shit, as long as those things actually improve a sequel is a great idea.
 

PrettyDeadman

Guest
I am playing as a big-boned powerarmor (hopefully) cannibal with a sledgehammer.
 

PrettyDeadman

Guest
only 20+ years after bombs dropped and no one cares about it at all?
Nuclear Bomb Scare is a hoax. Nuclear bombs aren't that much worse compared to regular bombs. First of all, the area affected by nuclear explosion isn't that large. Second, the more radioactive material is, the less stable it is, the faster it decays... So the most dangerous materials decay within days, weeks, months. What is left after 20 years is not that bad. Third, among more stable radiactive materials (which are left weeks after exploisions) only a fraction can accumulate inside human organism in big enough quantities and long enough to damage health.
 
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Bergblatstein

Novice
Joined
Mar 14, 2019
Messages
39
Is the police station supposed to be empty?

They said it will be released in a future patch. Currently it is empty.

Some opinions about Trudograd as it is now:

- The price was extremely generous at release... if you guys decide to do another supporter thing when 1.0 comes make sure you adjust.
- The change to perks i like generaly, both the fixed cost by tier and the gradual build up to their final usefullnes. It's much better than the Atom RPG way of perks imo. On low levels the perks would be lackluster but since you start at 15, that problem is skipped.
- Game looks good, like the footprints in the snow, the snowflakes in front of the screen havn't anoyed me yet but if there are some blizzards ahead please don't overdo it. Any other weather conditions planed?
- Weapon mods are a cool idea but currently i only found two compensators, guessing the rest come later. Surely it will not be posible to attach every kind of attachment to every kind of gun?
- The new way some interesting dialogue is handled looks good, let's call it "theater mode" if it dosn't have a name. I understand why it was decided to be handled this way. Still think it should be used sparingly.The art for it is great.
- The new way of no more free treversing on global map i don't like but maybe i could live with it when the r.encounter roster is full. As it is now i seem to attract every stray mutt in Trudograd. Are there any land transitions planed, similar to MOW or Dead City?
- I was wandering to check if some of the items from Atom would transfer if you import, i haven't tested all of them. Gem Bag, Pine Cone, Jade Figurine, Amulet, Golden Nut, P.Venus don't transfer. I was holding hope for the Gem Bag. :(
- Quests are good, can't wait for more. I might expand on this at a later time.
- Verticality you mentioned in one of your anouncments but guess we will see when upper parts of city are added. Maybe it reedems the nodal travel sistem...
- Maybe it's me but i was left with the impresion that the law in TDG is harsher but have yet to see a cop try a shakedown of me or some rando. That one aristocrat has the right feel, but currently i didn't see any conseqence of defying him. Get us those fun looking melee weapons soon.

* the import option removed one AP from a character apon reloading, that AP was gained by the talent,perk "Feeling Good" in Atom RPG. What was the natural AP cap in Atom, 10 or 11?

Hope the sales are going well. Good job Atom people.
 

Atomboy

Atom Team
Developer
Joined
Oct 1, 2016
Messages
713
Hey, you! Do you feel like internet is taking over your life? Do you find yourself constantly spending time on forums and boards? Or surfing the web like they say? Or ordering groceries online due to lethal corona virus? I've got a solution for you!
Just release your game into Early Access without crucial story quests! That will keep you away from the web for ages! I tried it and look at me! But today I will do my best to reply to everyone, since I've done most of my part for the next content update, which if anyone is wondering above this post, will be released real soon!
 

Atomboy

Atom Team
Developer
Joined
Oct 1, 2016
Messages
713
Haven't played much ATOM since the full release, so playing in the new area with all the new features and improvements that have been added between then and now is going to be even more fun. :cool:
You should really check out Atom, dude. Since it's release it's perfected so much, prolly even my dummy steam mod account has 30 hours on it! Now it's even possible to be a melee-smoothtalker without the shield! And with 1 STR, too!
as you dump Luck, which is an all-or-nothing stat anyway.
I disagree. It's no Fallout, so even beyond CS usefulness and extremely high luck stuff it affects caravan appearing frequency (which is quite useful although not as in older patches), the loot overall (including chance of some rare things at the caravans again), amount of shahids among cultists and apparently more minor stuff which I'm just not aware of.

Sòren what's the matter? It's the second time I'm getting this rating for calling ATOM's writing shit and perhaps some time later I'll write a proper rant about it because it still haunts me but for now I just gotta say this: I've played it on russian. Maybe, just maybe, Atomboy did a great job making it much more tolerable but it was painful, terrible experience to me.
No I didn't! But we fixed some punctuation errors! And we have a really cool English editor from AOD!
I disagree. It's no Fallout, so even beyond CS usefulness and extremely high luck stuff it affects caravan appearing frequency (which is quite useful although not as in older patches), the loot overall (including chance of some rare things at the caravans again), amount of shahids among cultists and apparently more minor stuff which I'm just not aware of.
Is there any proof of these? I have done a run with max luck and noticed no difference.

Edit: even Atomboy has said it only affects crit, some skills and some checks.
I think it actually does affect caravan loot. Not as much as in older patches, and I always thought it's an urban legend, but then I played a Luck 1 character and only got 1 weapon in 20 caravans. But then again, I got much more weapons and stuff with the same character on a higher level. So, I guess, Luck and Level still influence the stuff you get in trade to some degree, and so does Barter. I even reported it as a bug.
does luck affect crtitical chance and stuff in combat like hit or miss?
Yes for crit chance and crit miss, no for hit or miss!
So while I've enjoyed ATOM RPG quite a bit, my biggest problem with it would have to be an unbalanced pacing in terms of gameplay vs. dialogue. I know talking to NPCs is optional, but it's also one of the only ways you can find quests and progress. I've often times felt bogged down when I've booted up the game to find I've got 10 NPCs around me with page after page of text to read, or quickly get dialogue fatigued when I enter a new area. Don't get me wrong, I like the dialogue, but it just often felt like there was a bit too much to wade through before you got back to playing the game proper (IE exploration, combat, character customization, etc.)

So, my question for Atomboy is: has this been noted by ATOM Team and altered in any way for Trudograd, or are we in for a very similar design approach in this as well?
Trudograd is still a very text heavy game, we just don't want it not to be like that. However, we did attempt to localize the most important quests in a special third dialogue topic, instead of hiding it inside general questions, so now they are available without trying everything inside a dialogue. Basically, in Trudograd most NPCs have dialogues like this:

1. Can I ask you some general questions to get lore stuff, funny stuff, your name, rumors, story, etc.
2. [Clearly visible option separate from the first dialogue option that usually leads to a quest without too much reading]
3. Bye-bye!

It halves the reading time for those who are not into our dialogues. We also try to make the texts shorter overall. Still, it's text first everything else later, just like all our future games if we come up with any!
Sòren what's the matter? It's the second time I'm getting this rating for calling ATOM's writing shit and perhaps some time later I'll write a proper rant about it because it still haunts me but for now I just gotta say this: I've played it on russian. Maybe, just maybe, Atomboy did a great job making it much more tolerable but it was painful, terrible experience to me.

i enjoyed it, highly. writing is better than in almost any other game i have ever played, i loved it in companions, quests and story. i already wrote things about in the old thread, and i don't feel compelled to repeat me. however, u are entitled to ur own opinion and taste, and i don't want to be part of the group of shitflinging monkeys that roam these forums here, so i redacted my first assessment. i was just sleep deprived yesterday. sry.
Thanks dude! I'm really glad you enjoyed it. We love it too, that's why there's so much of it :D I do get those who HATE it, though. It's a really polarizing, highly stylized text. From my observations I'd say Atom and Trudograd has 10% of those who love it - naturally my favorite kind of players :----) Guys and girls I really love to please in my half of the game's text, by inserting special little somethings for them to find and enjoy; 10% who love some of it (like all anime references or all Soviet hyper speech or all jokes or all 4chan stuff) and think of the rest as filler to get to the good bits. Love em too! 70% of folks who are okay with the text, but value other aspects of the game much more - that's our main player base, the guys that inspire me to shorten some sentences and make some quests easier to acquire in Trudograd, without cutting the whole body of text. They stop us from shitty decisions like making our games text-only. The rest are the folks who find the text not only bad, but terrible, jarring, insulting and unholy. I totally get them too. At least for hating my parts of the text. They have plenty of good reasons! Some cosmically different from the others. That's just part and parcel of following the authors I dare call my teachers. A decent part of book readers sees them as putrid trash as well, including me in some cases! I have a huge theory about the reasons, but to put it simply, it's cause of memes in the Dawkins meaning of the word
and aslo bcz of typos and boomer humor and dated shiet
Atomboy whatever you do, do not send a review copy to codex representatives.
Why? I wanna send it to batallie, the author of the previous review! But I'll wait till we release the game to do that. I don't wanna waste that potential for analysis on EA. And I dunno whom else to send it to. Maybe I'll just give some to Infinitron when the time is right!
but ATOM's writing receive on Codex is what just baffles me greatly.
For what its worth, I don't think the writing is godawful as you said, but also not one of the best like that other guy claims. I don't think that's the general consensus here either. I never see ATOM mentioned whenever there's talk of well-written RPGs, there were just a few guys praising the writing in it's own thread. I personally found the coherence of the world to be a little lacking.
Very true! That's basically what I ever wanted, though, so it's okay!
I think whether you enjoy ATOM writing depends on couple of things:
  • whether you were expecting something more serious (like Fallout 1), or something more wacky (like Fallout 2). IMO, ATOM is closer to FO2 in tone, with heavy dose of soviet colouring
  • whether you get the real-world references and like having such in your game - ATOM is super heavy on various references to Russian/Soviet literature and pop-culture. If you're not familiar with those, you will feel like something is missing. And if you hate real world refs, you will hate the writing
  • whether you could play it in original - why the English translation is OK, it's not as good as original Russian. I'm not a native speaker in either of those languages but I consider myself fluent in both, so had a good comparison.
Yes! Couldn't put it better myself. I see a few more reasons, but these are the major ones.
whether you were expecting something more serious (like Fallout 1), or something more wacky (like Fallout 2). IMO, ATOM is closer to FO2 in tone, with heavy dose of soviet colouring
Yeah, they were definitely aiming for F2 flavour but overdid wackiness. I'm playing right now on english and so far no suprizes: it's just plain translation of original's retardation:
7936E3AE23F52C485E752FE93186E88A2EBF3A15

74E32CB3F1428210684A697B472F340F58D5603A
whether you get the real-world references and like having such in your game - ATOM is super heavy on various references to Russian/Soviet literature and pop-culture. If you're not familiar with those, you will feel like something is missing. And if you hate real world refs, you will hate the writing
Correct, sometimes it's so off-puting like I cannot beleive. For instance, one of NPCs - Pasha Technic is an actual person: some completely retarded raper which I'm familiar with by some wild chance. I mean, why the fuck they put him into the game?! No clue.
whether you could play it in original - why the English translation is OK, it's not as good as original Russian. I'm not a native speaker in either of those languages but I consider myself fluent in both, so had a good comparison.
English translation looks lazy and mediocre so far and it's not suprizing since Atomboy did that all by himself afaik. Even if with someone's help it still huge amount of work. So there's next to no adaptation: just google-style reverse. Sometimes it round some corners though, look at this first, top answer option:
0AB80EE0B0BBB213170E7C9DD5B20D1108E1D8C9
Clean and innocent reply, right? Now, I know some guy who's very fond of classic Fallout games and he bought ATOM, launched it, spend considerable amount of time creating a character, went through ambush (back there was no tutorial yet), walk into village's guard and saw this:
631567367A483F1BC8D5C9423DE051A744F35F1B
"Privet ot starih shtiblet" is an obscure as fuck saying which no one in his right mind using - not this days, not 2000x, not even late 80x which game's world supposedly has inherited. Coupled with "privet, tovarish" was enough for him to close the game and never launch again (not kidding, he's my steam friend). Yes, no one besides some crazy people didn't use unironically "tovarish"/comrade in 80x either. So whether devs are unaware of it or simply didn't give a shit and were creating some bizarre soviet'like fantasy world which I'm not a fan by the slightest.
And a hello to you too, tovarisch! Dude, I completely respect your dislike for the text and find it totally reasonable, it even paints you as a kindred spirit. Well, not because I hate Atom's writing, but because I believe the ability to actually feel something strong for the text (even disgust) is a sign of intelligence. When I was 16 I chucked a book I paid good money for out the window from a Khruschovka because it hurt my soul! I later stepped on it and sunk it into snow. And look at how well I turned out to be. However, I don't think you fulfilled your duty as an intellectual to tear our text a new one with well places examples. I'm from an old commie family, and everyone here talks like that. Both физкульт-привет and привет-привет от старых штиблет are heard constantly from neighbors young and old. I even hear that on TV when my mother in law watches her shit too loud. And wtf, everyone called everyone comrade. I call people comrade too. It works as a joke, it works as irony, it works if you don't know someone's name, it works when you address a group of gopniks. It worked for me when I called an ambulance on a drunk guy once, describing him as тут какой-то бухой товарищ в кустах валяется. Literally, first time I heard calling people comrade is archaic was in the Steam reviews by intelligentsia. Do you call people барин? Господин? Сэр? And, like, maybe I'm dumb, but what the hell is wrong with the tampon one and the bookseller's description? Both really funny if you ask me! The donkey and lion stuff is a warped Bible quote even, what, you hate the Bible too, atheist!? And why wouldn't Pasha Technic be in the game? What is the reason to not include him? WHY!? Game needs a mechanic and there's a man called Pasha Technic who is a living meme. I even wrote a few emails to ensure the legality of referencing him, if the law side of things concerns you. Also didn't get the translation part. Is it bad because we should've stylized it for US or to be more like FO2? We didn't even aim for FO2... I mean what's there to ask from a translation, as long as the meaning is somewhat understandable? There are tons of English-only references, memes and phrases inside the translated text, but mostly it just translates what the people say into Engrish. What else should it do? Jokes aside, I'd love to talk to you more. I can't promise we will change anything, since like I said above, most find it tolerable and some glorious few even love it, but I'm really curious to learn of your reasons.

Yeah, I think it's time to start up a new game of ATOM now that it's all patched up and had content added (I played on release) to carry over to Trudograd
Unless you want some traits you won't get in Trudograd like Agent of Chaos, posessed, etc. you can make a new one! We'll patch out distinctions not resetting soon.
* Love the intro
* Love the new character creation screen, especially the amount of information about what skills gives what at each level
* Graphics seem to have improved quite a lot judging by the opening screen, yay
* Briefing video also nice, but I would prefer option to have subtitles a bit bigger. Playing on 1440p 27in monitor, interface already at 2x
* The first dialogue with stranger, where you make choices about what happened in prev game (didn't import save), interface at 2x, text requires scrolling, but mouse wheel doesn't work on it, even when hovering or clicking the text. Loved the type of interaction, with some static image on the side. Feels a lot like a Legend adventure game.
* Both buttons on the right hand side of normal dialog window (like the first radio chat) look broken in exactly the same way. This looks like a lazy copy paste job.
* Switched interface to 1.5x, good balance readability vs. size on my res.
* The first hotel area looks fantastic (love the snowy look), very ATOM dialogue with the pimp.

It will be really hard to keep myself from playing, but want to have at least 1.0 experience when I do. Keep up the great work Atomboy
Thank you very much, dude! A very nice bit of feedback we read with the team long before this reply gets to you! Special thanks for pointing out the buttons. Will fix them up soon.

WE'RE LIVE!!!! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1139940/ATOM_RPG_Trudograd/

I will reply to you guys in a couple of days probably, I see there's a deep discussion about writing and stuff going on, but it's crunching time! Can you imagine how many bugs are gonna be uncovered in the next few hours? I sure can't! I hope none! Anyway, WELCOME TO TRUDOGRAD THE CITY OF LOVE AND LABOR!
I reeeeally hope you'll enjoy it guys, seriously. I never worked so hard and played so little in my fucking life!

Like always with you guys, day 1 purchase.

I will wait with a playthrough until the game is complete, but you can have my money now. I trust you'll put it to good use!

Thank you! It's never a good reason to promise something good beforehand when making an Early Access game, but I will anyway!
:d1p:
I Morgoted via GoG although I am still very early in first ATOM. Good luck and finish before 2020 is over! (Also cannot wait for Potato language patch coming end of May)
Thank you! It's planned that we'll finish in December, but who knows! Polish is on it's way. Literally days left.

Purchased, but of course not touching it until complete. Looks like it's doing pretty well on the Steam global best selling list.

Congrats on the Early Access release and apparent confirmation of a loyal fanbase hungry for more!
Thank you very much. We'll deliver. We were really shock by the support and all the videos and articles in the first days! Very unexpected and sweet.

Will Electra reappear? She just kinda disappeared after her quest in the original.
I don't think she left for Trudograd. But did she...
Well, this should be easier with custom level 15 start. You even start with an assault rifle.
Although tbh I don't get Sneaking and Pickpocket.
You can try going for 150 on both and you still consistently fail to do any pickpocketing in the first inn.

:lol: Talk about worthless.
There was a bug with stealing, should work now!
And Stealth works passively. Did you try finding random encounters at night? I could literally come face to face to some bandits with 120 on my test rig!
I'm so fucking confused by perk tree and traits rework. This game is truly doesn't know if it's expantion or sequel. The tree looks like this:
563A8426FB9EFA606E2D4013A8E74E76AE9A8C20

Inner circle is a 1st level, then goes 2 etc till forth, external circle. Any perk from 1 level costs 1 point, from 2 - 2 points and so on. Now, for each level char gets 3 points. So even without import you have 45 (!) points to spare and this is a fucking beginning of the game. I mean, you choosing like the most juicy perks, discard trash perks which is plenty there and then what? Well, at least some diversity instead of basically mandatory for solo 'Think like the enemy' root (and then the game ends).

As for traits, now they're balanced :sayersmile: In the base game they were too far on a power scale from each other indeed but why do rebalance now? For instance, my first char has Morphine Doctor which was not OP but like tier 2 power. Now it became 'Deadly Doc' with permanent addict debuff which is impossible to cure. What the fuck?! I guess import has its downsides after all.
So I'm gonna pick them first, then drink oblivion potion in the base game, finish it and then import. Crazy stuff
We plan on nerfing the starting point count, or making the midgame really hardcore! Only time will tell. Don't use the wheel though, it's just there to pay respects to Atom. Click on the name of a skill and you'll get a nicer view with bigger icons! Deadly Doc got a lot of complaints, we'll rework some of the changed distinctions or will just let people choose to keep old ones.
Did they fix the perks/traits/character building, if so does it apply to the basegame or just Trudograd?
By fix I mean, is it less boring than before.
Well we have more now, but it won't impact the base game, at least now.
So when will we get the overhauled perk tree in the base game?
:troll:
All I can say is not soon! That will have too much room for error.

Played a bit around the game with imported char the saving did not worked, OK made the one from scratch its super streamlined now, you need 3 skills on 160: I took speechcraft, lockpicking, trade and riffles at 100 managed to do every quest from first map except one, get to second map there failed to pass the checks OK, killed some mutants, opened some locks got onto level 16 and passed them with 190, what I liked: New perk tree, skills having perks at level of 100 and 150, freezing and hunger mechanics made sense to eat more there, some of those CYOA quests were fun some were not, Voice acting was shit but its early access beta so OK some of new distinctions changed so much though so its better to start new char. Payed this time from get go to support Comrades developers but will wait for version 1.1 now going to play base game to get nicely optimized build for part two.
Great bit of feedback, thanks! The saving bugs, etc. were fixed recently. Voice acting won't change later, though :( It will always be like that. Just more of it. Unless the actors stop working with us!
And there will be bayoneting very soon.

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/20...is-about-a-third-of-a-game-but-a-great-third/

ATOM RPG Trudograd is about a third of a game - but a great third

90


The heavily Fallout-inspired ATOM RPG has been on my “play more” list for almost a year, since I enjoyed a few hours of it but was distracted by something else. It is my fault. I am very distractable. Happily its developers, AtomTeam, have just released a standalone expansion called Trudograd. It entered Steam Early Access on Monday (or you can get it on GOG, if you prefer).If you’ve not played ATOM, Trudograd is a surprisingly welcoming place to start, but my advice is to give it a while longer in the oven. I have a feeling it’ll be worth the wait.

The setup of ATOM, and in fact an awful lot of what it does, will be familiar to anyone who’s played the original Fallout games. America and the USSR nuked each other, and the remnant of a semi-legitimate military/scientific organisation sends you out into the wasteland many years later to explore. You’ll wander a dusty geigerworld fighting mutants and grumpy men in makeshift armour, visiting settlements and talking to many people, discovering a sinister plot along the way. Character levelling works similarly, with a high emphasis on core attributes like strength and intelligence, which are directly tested in dialogue, and skills like medicine, lockpicking, and crafting having a drastic effect on what your options are when it comes to resolving fights and subplots.


Rejoice! You can scale the UI up instead of hunching over the screen like a diseased gremlin.

All that carries over to Trudograd. Your character from the base game (or a new one you create, who will start at level 15 and answer a few questions in a dream sequence to determine the outcome of earlier events) is sent to the city of Trudograd to track down an experimental pre-war weapon that your bosses think can shoot down an Earthbound asteroid. It’s a solid hook, and as this expansion is confined to one city, the condensed space makes the main plot thread feel closer, and more connected to everything else you’re doing.

That’s not to say it’s exactly overflowing at the moment. AtomTeam estimate that about 30% of the game’s stories and side jobs are in, and the rest will be done in six months or so. There are five city districts are far as I can tell, which work like the named locations in Fallout: you move between them on a functionally flat world map, and appear in a top-down 3D area when you reach one, or a random encounter along the way triggers a fight. Those random encounters can be avoided with the right skills, or faced head on for a fight and some combat XP and resources.

They’re very lacking at present. I was able to skip the humans ones with a Speechcraft check, but was repeatedly attacked by wolves, sometimes several times in a row. My stealth and survival skills would fail, but then the actual map for the fight would load, and the wolves mostly stood around at random spots on the map until I used a side alley to avoid them and recommence my journey.




I felt a little bit bad kicking them to death, but I needed the screenshots.
I wasn’t exactly sorry that was possible, because combat is its weak spot, although the first of two caveats to that is the obvious “it’s in early access and needs balancing” one. It works, again, much like Fallout’s did. Real time movement switches to turn-based grid action when someone throws down, with move order determined by initiative, range by up to 10 action points (depending on a character’s stats and perks), two active weapon/item slots, and the ability to aim at specific body parts for special effects.

Damages are a bit uneven, and while everything works, it lacked the solid, punchy satisfaction of some of its peers. Getting stunned on a critical hit is a death sentence, totally skipping multiple turns, and I’ve no idea who, if anyone, was a recruitable meat shield. There’s no shortage of options, as Trudograd’s crafting system offers a range of homemade guns, knives, and bombs, and perk points given upon each new level can be put into mostly combat-oriented special attacks, powers, or bonuses (these apply retroactively, so a “1% per level” bonus will give a full 20% if taken for the first time at level 20).




I never played its built-in card game because learning new things is for people who don’t know everything.

I didn’t enjoy the combat, but that’s at least partly because of my other caveat: it’s very easy to avoid. I feared I’d made a mistake by creating a frail, poor fighter of a character with bags of personality and the Speechcraft skill instead, because that is often a miserable RPG path. But despite my meagre skill in punching and a failure to find any NPC lackeys, I realised late in my time with it that I’d sailed through 32 quests, and killed only one person. And even that was optional. Well, I suppose two, if you count the one that someone else shot to protect me after I screwd up a skill check. And you might count another two who were executed by revolutionaries while I did nothing. The wife of one of them certainly did. But hey, that’s why… what don’t we do, kids? We don’t marry scumbags.

The talking approach works very well indeed, and there are lots of skill checks in its many dialogues to convince, threaten, or bargain with people for alternative paths through its quests. It helps that almost everyone you talk to has a fair bit to say, and will likely have a hand in a quest at some point. There’s enough going on with them that I felt comfortable ditching some of the very first characters I spoke to simply because I disliked them personally, even though it probably meant missing out on potential side jobs and/or XP. You gain a great deal of XP for simply chatting to people enough, and I’ve had some fun mini-adventures just doing the odd jobs I normally find a chore in bigger games.




This was a really fun side bit, but I’d like to switch the narration off. It distracts me from reading.

I’ve talked a writer into walking into a minefield. I gained a level after listening to some old women ramble on a bench. I’ve sucker-shot a top hatted millionaire with a crossbow, then taken a pastry of his corpse and eaten it. At one point during an interesting, text-based side mission that reminded me of the weird text adventure bits of Space Rangers 2, I failed to bluff a common guard, alerting a whole base to my presence, but subsequently bluffed his boss into surrendering the entire base without a fight. I have been in precisely zero fair fights, but I’ve told enough barefaced lies to convince people I’m very dangerous. You can just brazen it sometimes, and I enjoyed that very much. It helps a lot that there’s a consistent vein of gentle humour, with a distinctly Eastern European (the dev team are dotted about all over the place) fatalism and surrealism that keeps the potential grimness at bay without becoming wacky.

Some side jobs only appear when new characters show up midway into the game, and open a new dimension on several other NPCs. There’s a particularly good one about an interview that I twigged onto early but played along with anyway for the fun of it, and another bit where I met someone new, and was sure – sure I’d heard his name mentioned, but couldn’t remember where. And just the fact that I vaguely recognised his name was enough to make me back out of an offer he’d made. I loved this moment. Look at this! I’m roleplaying in-character thought processes in an RPG. Crikey, it’s been too long since that happened.




Slimes in a non-fantasy setting is sort of novel, but they’re still lacklustre.

But. But but but. What’s here is interesting, and more like its influences (in the interests of fairness, I should point out that it’s inspired by other classic RPGs like Deus Ex and Baldur’s Gate too) than the many other games that have staked a claim to this territory… it is a bit lacking at present. You’ll be getting about a third of an expansion, and while you can absolutely start here, its strengths make me feel its empty spaces more keenly. The main plot hits a dead end much faster than some of the subplots, with one whole area being conspicuously devoid of people.

Dead characters sometimes sort of lean back and hover in the air instead of falling over. Skills are measured from a counter-intuitive 0-300, the survival elements are sort of pointless (and cooking currently doesn’t work), and there are the usual minor proofreading issues, and the quest log could use better notes about which name is who. More seriously, I had a hard time early on with frequent crashes. A support page on GOG vastly improved – but didn’t fully eliminate – this issue.




The lighting has an oddly warm look at night. Most of the city is currently locked off, though.

Trudograd might be a hard sell for players used to modern RPGs. It’s far more approachable than most consciously retro-inspired RPGs, and it modernises the formula and structure of Interplay’s legendary post-apocalypse adventures about as far as such a tributary game could. I’m on board. I want more. But if I’m being candid, I would have preferred to wait for its full release.
The fact this review exists was a great surprise to us all. I thought you needed to pay 5 trudograd budgets to get mentioned by a mainstream media website. But you don't need to pay anything. Thank you to the author! You should play Bombagan doe!!! I MADE IT FOR YOU!
I've played through, more or less reminded me AoD Teron demo in terms of overall size, but with focus on dialogues and quests, it has very few combat encounters (not counting random ones). Feels just like the base game except for the global map, naturally. You're suppose to talk to every NPC. And no, I didn't miss ATOM's writing at all, although must admit, some NPCs, dialogues and quests in general were quite decent. 'Hit and miss' all over again but since it's subjective area, onto more specific and new stuff - CYOA were alright but they has VO (some people don't like read I guess) and it's utter shit, as Comissar Draco mentioned above, I hope it will be re-recorded. If not - no problem, I'll just turn it off, thankfully there's a specific audio option.

Combat wise it was way too easy but for my OP import 21 lvl char so it's not saying much, maybe will check next build with fresh char for proper evaluating.

Two things buffled me: there's a new freezing mechanic instead of radiation. I get that it's just a city so it's kinda clean and all but it's a still post-apoc game, only 20+ years after bombs dropped and no one cares about it at all? At the very least some stuff which comes to city: food, tools, whatever - can be polluted, right? What about literal fallout? You have references like
1712BD22CC6C016558D2FC6AE11C4AA5211205B6

Nuka-Kvas vending machine
in the game but now it has no actual radiation?

And the second thing: Atomboy, the guy who does maps in your game is a complete lunatic. I mean why, why maps are not oriented properly?! I get that it didn't bother anyone all that time beside autist like me that Otradnoe's map is fucking upside-down for instance (still is) but now when you have a proper city blocks it so obvious and still no one cares? You start in the outskirts, open global map, see that city itself on the north, rotating actual map, see the big gates - there it is, open local map, it looks like they're on the fucking west. It's not that big of a deal but immensely confusing.
So you love the dialogue now? God damn it, and I spent so much time typing a reply to the previous post! I think the problem with the maps being the wrong way around is because one guy makes the actual location, makes a screenshot from any angle he feels like it and sends it to the author. Looks like the guys read your feedback tho because they are planning changes for this particular aspect of the game.
There's a lore reason for cold, basically Trudograd stands in the middle of nowhere somewhere on tselina, with the closest city being two days away on car, so it was the only target for the nukes in a huuuuge area, and them nukes all got killed off by anti-nuke wonder device. So it's free of radiation except for VERY deep ground waters it's mutants have another reason for being mutated, and it only suffers from climate change. But it might be a myth too.
Can't wait.

It's good to see the inventory finally moving a bit further away from the "classic Fallout imitation" they had going before - always felt far too cramped (although they definitely already improved it via patches to allow proper companion equipping of weapons, moving items between them, etc.).

Not sure about the green-screen character sheet though. IMO the "paper" look and feel really suited the game, looking like a 1980's ID document. It's probably nicer for the quest log though.

If they keep the paper L&F for the stats and skills, but move to the green-screen look for the quest log - I can definitely go with that.
Personally, I miss both the paper and the old inventory very much. But we had to do it for the audience who constantly asked us to do this.
Yeah, it's an awkward wording plus the fact that they don't know themselves how to call it... Technically it is continue of the same story but more like a sidestep so it could fit both sequel and expansion. However, the game offers to choose any possible consequences for KRZ/Peregon/companions from the base game which is weird for a player who just bought 'stand-alone' game and don't know shit about those things. Why not simply set 'canon'/default and be done with it?

Also there's so much little changes, I'd say too much for expansion for sure. It would be better if they would have made simple not-stand-alone add-on to the base game using almost the same assets or full-fledged sequel Trudograd with bigger scope - some surrounded area, lots of outskirts etc.
We have our reasons to do this. But I don't know them!
Is the police station supposed to be empty?
Yeah, but we'll fix it very soon.
Is the police station supposed to be empty?

They said it will be released in a future patch. Currently it is empty.

Some opinions about Trudograd as it is now:

- The price was extremely generous at release... if you guys decide to do another supporter thing when 1.0 comes make sure you adjust.
- The change to perks i like generaly, both the fixed cost by tier and the gradual build up to their final usefullnes. It's much better than the Atom RPG way of perks imo. On low levels the perks would be lackluster but since you start at 15, that problem is skipped.
- Game looks good, like the footprints in the snow, the snowflakes in front of the screen havn't anoyed me yet but if there are some blizzards ahead please don't overdo it. Any other weather conditions planed?
- Weapon mods are a cool idea but currently i only found two compensators, guessing the rest come later. Surely it will not be posible to attach every kind of attachment to every kind of gun?
- The new way some interesting dialogue is handled looks good, let's call it "theater mode" if it dosn't have a name. I understand why it was decided to be handled this way. Still think it should be used sparingly.The art for it is great.
- The new way of no more free treversing on global map i don't like but maybe i could live with it when the r.encounter roster is full. As it is now i seem to attract every stray mutt in Trudograd. Are there any land transitions planed, similar to MOW or Dead City?
- I was wandering to check if some of the items from Atom would transfer if you import, i haven't tested all of them. Gem Bag, Pine Cone, Jade Figurine, Amulet, Golden Nut, P.Venus don't transfer. I was holding hope for the Gem Bag. :(
- Quests are good, can't wait for more. I might expand on this at a later time.
- Verticality you mentioned in one of your anouncments but guess we will see when upper parts of city are added. Maybe it reedems the nodal travel sistem...
- Maybe it's me but i was left with the impresion that the law in TDG is harsher but have yet to see a cop try a shakedown of me or some rando. That one aristocrat has the right feel, but currently i didn't see any conseqence of defying him. Get us those fun looking melee weapons soon.

* the import option removed one AP from a character apon reloading, that AP was gained by the talent,perk "Feeling Good" in Atom RPG. What was the natural AP cap in Atom, 10 or 11?

Hope the sales are going well. Good job Atom people.
Thank you for so much feedback, can't wait to learn more of your thoughts on the quests!

For what you mentioned the replies are:

The tree and the whole combat and progression systems need a lot of work and we'll decide on a few changes to implement soon. The voiced picture text quests WILL be used sparingly, because they cost more than almost everything else in the game to make :D We might add in items later, maybe. Still pondering that one. Nodal travel might get an option that will change it to free travel, maybe. And there will be verticality! The cap was 11, we'll look into it!
And the mods will be there. There are so many mods in planning, I want to cut 90% of them. But I doubt they will let me this time... You'll get tons of mods! Thank you!

Hope I didn't miss anything!!!!!!!!!
 
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RK47

collides like two planets pulled by gravity
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Dead State Divinity: Original Sin
no fuck u , don't give it to anyone here.
fuck, it's so cheap, it's an insult that they had to demand a review copy.
if u have to fucking give it away go donate it to orphanage or something instead of a jew.
 

Atomboy

Atom Team
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no fuck u , don't give it to anyone here.
fuck, it's so cheap, it's an insult that they had to demand a review copy.
if u have to fucking give it away go donate it to orphanage or something instead of a jew.
Funny story, I actually donated 3 to what turned out to be a maximum security prison computer education room. Almost an orphanage! Now I have another reason to avoid prison at all costs. I think it's more of a question of ethics than price tho. Like, you're SUPPOSED TO send keys even if your game is 1$ with a 100% discount. Still, we'll have to release something before sending anything!
You should put in a way to bang the Turnip cultist chick in the Scrap Quarter.
You know, that's not the first request to do that. Why though? Why? Didn't you learn she was a prostitute and a hobo humping slobo babe?
 

GrafvonMoltke

Shoutbox Purity League
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You should put in a way to bang the Turnip cultist chick in the Scrap Quarter.
You know, that's not the first request to do that. Why though? Why? Didn't you learn she was a prostitute and a hobo humping slobo babe?

I have a special place in my heart for crazy chicks with sexy eyes. You could even make it into a quest; a "don't put your dick in crazy" kinda quest, like marriage in Fallout 2. Choice and consequences, my man!
 

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