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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.
Wait, what? You're not sure? So it all falls back then because in my experience level and luck does affect caravan's stuff and significantly. Could you ask other, hard-code devs about it?
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.
Absolutely not, don't worry :D I just didn't mentioned this aspect because it would look like trolling here since a) I played on russian b) most of the 'local' guys are at least ok with the writing. I think it become a bit more polished but even worse in general. Change of dialogue structure is a definitely positive thing though where all optional stuff belong to special branch as it should. First off, all damn needless expression hasn't gone anywhere and it's one of my biggest gripes about it. There's even fucking shtiblet base game reference with reverse roles! Painful, just painful (I even dropped screen of it to that guy who has quit after Otradnoe's guard dialogue which I mentioned earlier). Second, too much wacky/anime stuff for me
Opera singer (simply dreadful), not a fan of cultist girl/fanatic near the police station but thouse tolerable in comparison, turnips mother (fuck me...), the quest with nothern avengers falls into 100% anime category, just like similiar in the base game, more even. Some quests looks alright untill you check different outcomes: tell writer girl's husband that she's banging janitor and he dies from a heart attack, wtf?
But that more to my general gripe about game's 'dark side': most evil stuff you can do is somewhat... caricature at best. Which doesn't even remotely fit with premise as a special agent (sorta) with mission of extreme importance in mind.
Even within quest which I liked a lot - robbery, where you can ditch your partners and kill'em but not because "you're really need that money for the mission's sake" but because you're selfish asshole (which I'm ok with playing by but that's not the point).
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.
Well, to clarify, I'm from that very intelligentsia family and I do call people господа и дамы a lot (but more like that, in plural, separately or not), so I might be wrong about the big picture but I've seen my fair share of street life and my neiborhood was very, very common so I talked with all kinds of folks. And yes, some of thouse people used 'comrade' in a daily life but that wasn't my point, I should've been more clear: using not just like greeting but like commie greeting.
So when I played ATOM for the first time it seemed to me like some commie-like pastiche coupled with bizarre lenin-fetishists (which are by itself mandatory for post-soviet game like that, I'd add that myself even), soviet simbolism bits here and there which is unavoidable but then you see KRZ with red flags all over (well, the name) and I was like... 'why'? Maybe some commie-ideologists in charge? No, far from it, just the usual good old 'nomenclatura' which could have been ditch all of that in a blink of an eye because simply no point in that anymore.
As for 'not in the titties' - it was just example of a bad 'combat taunt' imo. I'm aware that it has been discussed already (they should look intimidating for the opponents, not humiliating to themselves) but posted anyway since I stumbled upon it in the eng version. Btw, AoD is a great example of a proper Fallout's combat taunts inheritance. As for Abraham dialogue... it's a too wacky quest to begin with, the whole dialogue looks ridiculous and the Bible reference is making it worse, not helping at all (I mean, how on earth some old man would not only give a fucking battle cry but which resemblance anything like that?! It's highly inappropriate, that's all).
It's also refers to the fact that I'd prefer much more serious tone of the both (now) games but it's just me. I liked a lot barbecue-quest in the base game but when next to it you see stuff like Pasha-technic insert it devalues the whole thing, basically. I get that Pasha is a walking meme but a) why you need so much memes and references in the game? This is why I wrote earlier that you allegedly were aiming for F2 flavour b) he's fucking obnoxious beyond any reasoning thus for thouse who're not familiar with him it would be nothing and for thouse who are... well for me it was painful, again.
And no, of course I don't think you should have stylized it for any other game, not even Fallout. ATOM inspired by it enough as is. Likewise, nice talking to you. I'm not under illusion that my words capable of affecting art-direction of your games but I'm also curious about reasoning. Who were you refering to when talked about authors as a teachers if I might ask?
I liked:
- new, rebalanced talents are much better, less abusive
- I like new perk tree - it solves one of my problems with original game - just 1-2 skill trees and no build niuances
- graphics and UI are significally better
- CARD GAME! Quite similar to arcomage, but still decent
- cold mechanics - don't try to rest on the middle of a street
- unimportant NPC don't have dialogues!
- continuation of a main story
I didn't liked:
- no radiation? WTF? Are you Bethesda? Why are you removing features?
- only one city? I usually hate cities in games and this idea may be a bit risky here... I mean exploration etc.
I will stop playing here - I don't want to spoil final product to myself.
I wonder where did you find them. I mean, so far there's not much NPCs yet so much quests that basically every damn NPC qualifies as "important" and therefore has dialogues. But as Atomboy said, at least any irrelevant stuff now belong to special dialogue branch so it's clear where the optional questions are most of the times.
I wonder where did you find them. I mean, so far there's not much NPCs yet so much quests that basically every damn NPC qualifies as "important" and therefore has dialogues. But as Atomboy said, at least any irrelevant stuff now belong to special dialogue branch so it's clear where the optional questions are most of the times.
As I wrote I have just "finished" 1st location and never gone further (and will not until game is finished). There were 2-3 NPC's with just poping up sententions when you clicked them (IIRC guard next do the track was one of those).
I LIVE.... AGAIN!
Hi everyone! It was a very tedious month indeed, but we're still on track doing cool stuff. A big patch will hit tomorrow, our new bout of battle system experimentation is included, as well as better enemies and AI!
Now, it's time for the replies! Crudux cruo!
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.
Wait, what? You're not sure? So it all falls back then because in my experience level and luck does affect caravan's stuff and significantly. Could you ask other, hard-code devs about it?
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.
Absolutely not, don't worry :D I just didn't mentioned this aspect because it would look like trolling here since a) I played on russian b) most of the 'local' guys are at least ok with the writing. I think it become a bit more polished but even worse in general. Change of dialogue structure is a definitely positive thing though where all optional stuff belong to special branch as it should. First off, all damn needless expression hasn't gone anywhere and it's one of my biggest gripes about it. There's even fucking shtiblet base game reference with reverse roles! Painful, just painful (I even dropped screen of it to that guy who has quit after Otradnoe's guard dialogue which I mentioned earlier). Second, too much wacky/anime stuff for me
Opera singer (simply dreadful), not a fan of cultist girl/fanatic near the police station but thouse tolerable in comparison, turnips mother (fuck me...), the quest with nothern avengers falls into 100% anime category, just like similiar in the base game, more even. Some quests looks alright untill you check different outcomes: tell writer girl's husband that she's banging janitor and he dies from a heart attack, wtf?
But that more to my general gripe about game's 'dark side': most evil stuff you can do is somewhat... caricature at best. Which doesn't even remotely fit with premise as a special agent (sorta) with mission of extreme importance in mind.
Even within quest which I liked a lot - robbery, where you can ditch your partners and kill'em but not because "you're really need that money for the mission's sake" but because you're selfish asshole (which I'm ok with playing by but that's not the point).
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.
Well, to clarify, I'm from that very intelligentsia family and I do call people господа и дамы a lot (but more like that, in plural, separately or not), so I might be wrong about the big picture but I've seen my fair share of street life and my neiborhood was very, very common so I talked with all kinds of folks. And yes, some of thouse people used 'comrade' in a daily life but that wasn't my point, I should've been more clear: using not just like greeting but like commie greeting.
So when I played ATOM for the first time it seemed to me like some commie-like pastiche coupled with bizarre lenin-fetishists (which are by itself mandatory for post-soviet game like that, I'd add that myself even), soviet simbolism bits here and there which is unavoidable but then you see KRZ with red flags all over (well, the name) and I was like... 'why'? Maybe some commie-ideologists in charge? No, far from it, just the usual good old 'nomenclatura' which could have been ditch all of that in a blink of an eye because simply no point in that anymore.
As for 'not in the titties' - it was just example of a bad 'combat taunt' imo. I'm aware that it has been discussed already (they should look intimidating for the opponents, not humiliating to themselves) but posted anyway since I stumbled upon it in the eng version. Btw, AoD is a great example of a proper Fallout's combat taunts inheritance. As for Abraham dialogue... it's a too wacky quest to begin with, the whole dialogue looks ridiculous and the Bible reference is making it worse, not helping at all (I mean, how on earth some old man would not only give a fucking battle cry but which resemblance anything like that?! It's highly inappropriate, that's all).
It's also refers to the fact that I'd prefer much more serious tone of the both (now) games but it's just me. I liked a lot barbecue-quest in the base game but when next to it you see stuff like Pasha-technic insert it devalues the whole thing, basically. I get that Pasha is a walking meme but a) why you need so much memes and references in the game? This is why I wrote earlier that you allegedly were aiming for F2 flavour b) he's fucking obnoxious beyond any reasoning thus for thouse who're not familiar with him it would be nothing and for thouse who are... well for me it was painful, again.
And no, of course I don't think you should have stylized it for any other game, not even Fallout. ATOM inspired by it enough as is. Likewise, nice talking to you. I'm not under illusion that my words capable of affecting art-direction of your games but I'm also curious about reasoning. Who were you refering to when talked about authors as a teachers if I might ask?
It's hard to keep trace of that thing, you know! Turns out, Luck has a minor effect on finding caravans. Bit less than the level.
The expressions are not needless, they're there to make the characters better! Now why would you not like Scherba the singer? He is amazing! Such flowery language. Especially in Russian! You seem to enjoy characters that act and talk as if in real life, where you usually don't put in old fashioned expressions, or a lot of adjectives, etc. Right? What a clash of visions we have!
On evil - not all of it is caricature, there is a lot of subtle evil in the game you can do, especially when you extort people or ruin relationships. The caricature is there for fun, but mostly for roleplaying. Say you wanna be a rogue agent who basically lies to his organization and forgets about his mission the second he's no longer surveyed by his superiors. Being in Atom is a pretty cushy position in life, and even an asshole would pay lip service to the organization and deal with it's assignments just to stay in it. while doing retarded shit as soon as he's out the door! So every choice, even the one in the first game where you pretend to be a chicken and eat dirt can be canon!
I still don't get why you like comrade! Krasnoznamenny is the way it is because it takes from real life. Some people are notoriously pro faux stability. In times of great cataclysmic change people do everything they can to keep things resembling their former "stable" state. If there was an Apocalypse which would totally demolish Brussels, the proud little irradiated city-state of Riga, Latvia would still fly EU flags. Look at some post-Soviet countries who went independent only to keep up the Soviet system under a new name. One even still calls their secret service KGB in 2020!!!!!!!!!
There are player-threatening taunts, too! I just like the self-deprecating ones because they are very funny! To me, at least. I laugh every time they say something like that!
As for Pasha Technik - that's not answerable. Just like one guy in Krasnoznamenny completely copies my old school teacher in everything apart from the name, and just like some characters are not based on anyone at all, the technician character copies Pasha Technic. He just is. It wasn't to make people laugh, or cry, not even to make a reference to Pasha Technik, really. In my parts of the game I take inspiration from the writings of Solzhenitsin, Prokhanov, Platonov, Sorokin, Daniel, Leonid Andreyev, Zabolotskiy, Harms, early Ohlobistin, Limonov, Khlebnikov, Joyce, Pynchon, Burroughs, Lovecraft, Palaniuk, Chris-chan, MDE, John Waters, and writing from the games I like like Dwarf Fortress. Okay not all of those are writers, but all do produce very fun text.
I liked:
- new, rebalanced talents are much better, less abusive
- I like new perk tree - it solves one of my problems with original game - just 1-2 skill trees and no build niuances
- graphics and UI are significally better
- CARD GAME! Quite similar to arcomage, but still decent
- cold mechanics - don't try to rest on the middle of a street
- unimportant NPC don't have dialogues!
- continuation of a main story
I didn't liked:
- no radiation? WTF? Are you Bethesda? Why are you removing features?
- only one city? I usually hate cities in games and this idea may be a bit risky here... I mean exploration etc.
I will stop playing here - I don't want to spoil final product to myself.
Thanks dude! Did you know I made bombagan all by myself???? Sorry, I could not NOT mention that, it's my proudest life achievement. Sorry to disappoint tho, half of the dialogue-less NPCs were just unfinished, like the cooks for example. They're getting their dialogues tomorrow. Look at you, thinking we'd stop making useless NPCs with tons of dialogue!!!
Trudograd didn't have bombs fall on it, so there's just no reason to write radiation in. It's like a lore thing from the first game. So we replaced it with cold. However, you will venture out of Trudograd, like there will be a location at sea for example or in the forest somewhere, so maybe something will be irradiated there if it will have a reason to. But in the city, there are different problems but no rads! Trudograd itself is gonna be a place to explore!
There will be basements! And there are some even now!
===================================
Now that's all, folks!
Trudograd takes much more time and effort than Atom did and we're all barely functioning, but I will post more one day soon! Maranax! Maranax Malax!
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.
You can lost your saves from ATOM 1 or just choose to play lower level character for more challenge while still preserving continuity, the more options is always better anyways the systerm reminds Commissar of Kotor2 where you could set important choices in conversation with Atton, I would be very mad if I was forced to see Cart sorry mug again what a whiny bitch this companion was so arguing for limiting choice for players is just moronic and not fitting proper Codexer, Fuck cannon like making exile wombyn and then castrating Raven and ughmm her in SWOTOR, they should make their own heroes not stealing ours Comrade.
As to game any indications where the more content will be added? What is already in is superb there are very little simple fetch quests and even those who appear to be one offer some twist or memorable reward. About crazy chicks I did noticed that unlike first part all bangable blad'ey are ugly is the team taken over by SJW heresy?
Greetings, friends!
We’re very happy to share some good news with you! After today’s update Atom RPG: Trudograd will finally be available on Mac and Linux!
Also this patch contains a lot of fixes and improvements to the game. We added some changes to the combat system, changed the character import and creation screens, improved AI behavior, and more.
Due to popular demand, we also added a new mechant to the game. He can be found on the global map.
The full list of changes can be found below.
Now, we will continue making the first big content update for the game!
We really hope that you will stay tuned.
And as always… Let there be ATOM!
Changelog:
Added Mac and Linux support;
Camera no longer gets into roof textures;
Import and creation screen UI improved;
AI behavior impoved;
Crash and freezing on game load fixed;
Weapon mods fixed;
New merchant random encounter;
Samuil Brothers quest can now be finished to the end;
New item icons;
Pathing issues fixed;
Behavior during panic fixed;
Added new animations;
Hand to hand moves no longer appear as inventory items;
The expressions are not needless, they're there to make the characters better! Now why would you not like Scherba the singer? He is amazing! Such flowery language. Especially in Russian! You seem to enjoy characters that act and talk as if in real life, where you usually don't put in old fashioned expressions, or a lot of adjectives, etc. Right? What a clash of visions we have!
We have, indeed. Yeah, I get that about expressions, to put it bluntly - characters aren't suppose to be boring but it's just over the top. If we take game mechanics aside, I, like many others, play RPGs to immerse myself and it's impossible when some folks has portrayed more or less like common people while others are on insane freak level regarding everything about them, including manner of speech. Scherba is just another (or maybe even stand out) example of that kind of character. It badly adds up, simple as that. You have to either make the entire game like that (Saints Row probably a good example although I barely played it tbh) or tone those "spikes" down a lot. I can enjoy former approach, as much as I can enjoy over the top expressions by themselves (read some of Sorokin's work with pleasure, oh yeah) but not within frame we're talking about. Prime examples of how it should be done were years and years Arcanum/VTMB where any edgy stuff somehow fit perfectly while dialogues in general were fluent and simply a joy to read. But now we have Disco Elisyim: it's packed with all kinds of possible expressions yet it fits flawlessly thanks to its setting, plot etc. In ATOM... it just looks highly inconsistent. I mean, NPCs're mostly look like ordinary people and setting tells me that they're suppose to be like that (apart from mutants, that is) and yet they're talking not like that at all! When I played ATOM for the first time, the jacky chan meme picture were in my mindset pretty much all along.
On evil - not all of it is caricature, there is a lot of subtle evil in the game you can do, especially when you extort people or ruin relationships. The caricature is there for fun, but mostly for roleplaying. Say you wanna be a rogue agent who basically lies to his organization and forgets about his mission the second he's no longer surveyed by his superiors. Being in Atom is a pretty cushy position in life, and even an asshole would pay lip service to the organization and deal with it's assignments just to stay in it. while doing retarded shit as soon as he's out the door! So every choice, even the one in the first game where you pretend to be a chicken and eat dirt can be canon!
I appreciate the spectre of choices and possibilities it just at least some of them are not makig any sense to me. I mean, appropriateness for any kind of agent. But it's early for me to judge regarding TG, will see.
I still don't get why you like comrade! Krasnoznamenny is the way it is because it takes from real life. Some people are notoriously pro faux stability. In times of great cataclysmic change people do everything they can to keep things resembling their former "stable" state. If there was an Apocalypse which would totally demolish Brussels, the proud little irradiated city-state of Riga, Latvia would still fly EU flags. Look at some post-Soviet countries who went independent only to keep up the Soviet system under a new name. One even still calls their secret service KGB in 2020!!!!!!!!!
Yeah, I'm aware of that, but people in charge of KRZ didn't leave that impression at all. They simply did not seem to care about ideology. Not to mention common people which didn't care about it either (more about what to eat today). So, all of that seemed far-fetched to me, sorry.
Following a successful crowdfunding campaign and an early access phase, ATOM RPG was released back in December of 2018. The game offered a unique spin on the classic Fallout formula - it moved the action to the other side of the Iron Curtain and gave us all a taste of the Soviet Wasteland.
ATOM RPG was pretty well-received and successful enough to warrant a standalone expansion. Entitled Trudograd, that expansion has recently entered early access. Having enjoyed our time with the original game, we jumped on the first opportunity to check out what the new expansion had in store for us.
Back to the Soviet Wasteland
Despite being a standalone expansion, Trudograd is positioned as a direct continuation of ATOM RPG’s story. It even lets you import your old character. But even if you don’t have your old save files or simply decide against importing a character, you will still be technically playing the ATOM agent from the original game.
As such, when starting your Trudograd adventure, you will be asked to create a new high-level character and then answer some questions that act as a recap of your earlier major decisions.
Trudograd’s story takes place two years after the grand finale of ATOM RPG where you defeat a mushroom cult that wants to take communism to a brand-new hive mind level. In the process, you happen to learn that the cultists were trying to prevent an asteroid from hitting the planet and eradicating the human civilization for good.
With the general level of technology greatly diminished by the nuclear apocalypse, dealing with this asteroid, that some consider to be a UFO or a mystical omen, is proving to be quite a challenge.
As ATOM’s hero, you are of course the one tasked with finding a way to save the world from complete and total annihilation. To do this, you’ll need to find a secret railgun that’s rumored to be hidden somewhere in the relatively well-preserved snow-covered city of Trudograd that revels in its corruption.
At this point, whether or not this story will work and end up being satisfying remains a mystery. The current early access build of Trudograd is a far cry from something like Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord that offered hundreds of hours of entertainment straight out of the gate. Instead, Trudograd’s early access version in its current iteration is more of a demo with enough content to last you somewhere between four to eight hours.
This content is spread across five areas. It’s hard to say at this point how much bigger the final game will be, but by the looks of it, the developers still want to add more encounters, locations, quests and dungeons, or in numerical terms, roughly 70% more stuff.
And while most of the existing areas are clearly unfinished and lack polish, the very first location is already quite impressive, featuring a combat quest with different sides to support, an investigation where everything is not what it appears, a quest that introduces us to the new trap-finding system, and plenty of challenging skill and attribute checks.
If the rest of the game ends up being as good, Trudograd is going to become something no RPG enthusiast will want to miss.
Another thing Trudograd already has going for it is the increased production value. Despite some missing UI elements and audio effects, the game already looks and plays much better than its predecessor. And overall, it feels more ambitious, thanks to the new atmospheric live-action cutscenes, weapon modifications, and a neat little card game that vaguely resembles a cross between Hearthstone and Arcomage.
So, what about the systems fueling the game? At their core they’re still very much inspired by Fallout, but by now they feel unique enough to be their own thing. Attributes are mostly the same, but then you have skills that on top of merely making your character more proficient at something, also provide extra bonuses when you reach certain skill levels.
Then, there are the so-called distinctions that act as Fallout’s traits, but are closer to something like Arcanum’s backgrounds in how much they affect your character. And finally, instead of Fallout’s perks, you have abilities that are separated into several ability trees. Each time you gain a level, you get a few ability points to learn something new.
Trudograd’s take on the ability tree differs greatly from its ATOM RPG predecessor, and is overall much better. However, the way abilities are grouped together right now makes very little sense. Say you want to become good at using heavy armor. The way things work now, you’ll need to first invest a good few points into the tinkering tree. And if you want to get more skill and ability points when leveling up, you will first have to become a better medic. It’s safe to say that this system still needs some work.
Another thing that can go either way at this point is the new weather system. Right now, your character has a warmth meter that goes up and down depending on the temperature outside. And while in theory battling the elements can be a fun challenge, cold has completely replaced radiation in the current build, which is quite a bold move for a post-nuclear game.
Welcome to Turnipgrad
Finally, let’s discuss the game’s biggest issue. Its writing.
It’s important to note here that by the time I played the original ATOM RPG, it has received numerous patches and content updates. As such, it’s hard for me to gauge the extent of its journey when it comes to dealing with writing-related issues.
Still, as it stands, Trudograd’s writing is dire, no other way to put it. Even looking past all the typos and odd word choices, something that’s easily fixable, it’s extremely hard to enjoy Trudograd’s writing. Many of the game’s quests and interactions simply feel broken on a fundamental level and make very little sense.
At the same time, the game also features a good number of quests that, thanks to their unusual premises, unorthodox solutions and numerous angles of approach, are actually pretty engaging and fun.
And while the original ATOM RPG was far from perfect in this regard, it wasn’t anywhere near as bad. As such, I hope that by the time Trudograd leaves early access, its writers can fix some of that jankier stuff. Because right now, calling Trudograd’s writing uneven would be a colossal understatement.
And, of course, all of it is exacerbated by the game’s never-ending desperate attempts at being funny. If you played the original ATOM RPG, you should know just how much it liked its references. Instead of toning those down, Trudograd dials things up to eleven.
Soviet culture, modern pop culture, Internet memes, anime - it’s all there already, and given Trudograd’s current limited scope, it’s all very dense.
Usually, I’m more tolerant than most when it comes to silliness, puns, or zany references. But when a Soviet wannabe opera singer starts complaining about haters, or when your character, a high-ranking government agent, replies to a martial arts instructor by screaming “Ora-ora-ora,” that’s where even I can no longer take a piece of media seriously.
Also, what’s the deal with all the turnips? Why are turnips funny? Why does the game keep mentioning turnips? How are turnips connected to either the Soviet Union or the nuclear apocalypse? What’s the joke here? Was Blackadder’s Baldrick one of the writers? I don’t get it.
I really hope that as the game grows, its writers realize that they have something with a potential to be great on their hands, and as a result rethink their approach.
Technical Information
As mentioned above, Trudograd looks better than the original ATOM RPG, and for the most part, it even runs better. The game now also has a weather system that on occasion covers your screen with very impressive blizzards. Paired with a dynamic day and night cycle and sporadic illumination provided by campfires and flaming barrels, this results in a rather neat-looking representation of a post-apocalyptic world.
The audio effects supporting this all are fairly powerful as well. The limited voice acting, on the other hand, is not quite as impressive.
Unfortunately, while the game generally runs well and doesn’t take too long to load, its weather effects seem to be completely unoptimized right now, tanking your frame rate whenever they’re on screen.
When it comes to bugs, I didn’t notice anything especially egregious. The game did freeze on me a couple of times and some UI elements weren’t translated, but that’s nothing out of the ordinary for an early access project.
The options menu is pretty limited in what you can adjust right now, but already you can speed up animations and increase the size of the game’s UI. Both of these features are always nice to have.
Conclusion
The original ATOM RPG felt very much like Soviet Fallout. Trudograd somehow manages to avoid evoking the same feeling despite still sharing numerous similarities with its predecessors. It’s both familiar and fresh at the same time. If, come full release, it manages to elevate its locations to the level of the very first one, it can easily become a game you wouldn’t want to miss.
However, in its current state with sparse content, abysmal writing, and half-baked systems, I can’t recommend the early access version to anyone who isn’t driven purely by curiosity or a desire to support the developers.
Atomboy did you killed a bunch of joggers to get such a shot thrown at you? Or is this just western inferior taste? If the writing is anything like the first game,i must say that i am looking forward to it on this merit alone.
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.
You can lost your saves from ATOM 1 or just choose to play lower level character for more challenge while still preserving continuity, the more options is always better anyways the systerm reminds Commissar of Kotor2 where you could set important choices in conversation with Atton, I would be very mad if I was forced to see Cart sorry mug again what a whiny bitch this companion was so arguing for limiting choice for players is just moronic and not fitting proper Codexer, Fuck cannon like making exile wombyn and then castrating Raven and ughmm her in SWOTOR, they should make their own heroes not stealing ours Comrade.
As to game any indications where the more content will be added? What is already in is superb there are very little simple fetch quests and even those who appear to be one offer some twist or memorable reward. About crazy chicks I did noticed that unlike first part all bangable blad'ey are ugly is the team taken over by SJW heresy?
We're just out of good looking public domain free for commercial use mugshots, and we don't have woman fans who donate pictures for the cause, so our artist has to draw without reference! But hey, if a pretty lady is reading this, support@atomrpg.com is always prepared to receive! Drag queens have an unfair priority, we're in need of at least five.
We're a quarter done with the first big content update and it should be up and running in a few weeks after the solstice.
The expressions are not needless, they're there to make the characters better! Now why would you not like Scherba the singer? He is amazing! Such flowery language. Especially in Russian! You seem to enjoy characters that act and talk as if in real life, where you usually don't put in old fashioned expressions, or a lot of adjectives, etc. Right? What a clash of visions we have!
We have, indeed. Yeah, I get that about expressions, to put it bluntly - characters aren't suppose to be boring but it's just over the top. If we take game mechanics aside, I, like many others, play RPGs to immerse myself and it's impossible when some folks has portrayed more or less like common people while others are on insane freak level regarding everything about them, including manner of speech. Scherba is just another (or maybe even stand out) example of that kind of character. It badly adds up, simple as that. You have to either make the entire game like that (Saints Row probably a good example although I barely played it tbh) or tone those "spikes" down a lot. I can enjoy former approach, as much as I can enjoy over the top expressions by themselves (read some of Sorokin's work with pleasure, oh yeah) but not within frame we're talking about. Prime examples of how it should be done were years and years Arcanum/VTMB where any edgy stuff somehow fit perfectly while dialogues in general were fluent and simply a joy to read. But now we have Disco Elisyim: it's packed with all kinds of possible expressions yet it fits flawlessly thanks to its setting, plot etc. In ATOM... it just looks highly inconsistent. I mean, NPCs're mostly look like ordinary people and setting tells me that they're suppose to be like that (apart from mutants, that is) and yet they're talking not like that at all! When I played ATOM for the first time, the jacky chan meme picture were in my mindset pretty much all along.
On evil - not all of it is caricature, there is a lot of subtle evil in the game you can do, especially when you extort people or ruin relationships. The caricature is there for fun, but mostly for roleplaying. Say you wanna be a rogue agent who basically lies to his organization and forgets about his mission the second he's no longer surveyed by his superiors. Being in Atom is a pretty cushy position in life, and even an asshole would pay lip service to the organization and deal with it's assignments just to stay in it. while doing retarded shit as soon as he's out the door! So every choice, even the one in the first game where you pretend to be a chicken and eat dirt can be canon!
I appreciate the spectre of choices and possibilities it just at least some of them are not makig any sense to me. I mean, appropriateness for any kind of agent. But it's early for me to judge regarding TG, will see.
I still don't get why you like comrade! Krasnoznamenny is the way it is because it takes from real life. Some people are notoriously pro faux stability. In times of great cataclysmic change people do everything they can to keep things resembling their former "stable" state. If there was an Apocalypse which would totally demolish Brussels, the proud little irradiated city-state of Riga, Latvia would still fly EU flags. Look at some post-Soviet countries who went independent only to keep up the Soviet system under a new name. One even still calls their secret service KGB in 2020!!!!!!!!!
Yeah, I'm aware of that, but people in charge of KRZ didn't leave that impression at all. They simply did not seem to care about ideology. Not to mention common people which didn't care about it either (more about what to eat today). So, all of that seemed far-fetched to me, sorry.
That's the thing doe! The game is stylized to have these spikes and random stuff! Stylizing to make things even is very simple, I'm sitting on a medieval fantasy RPG and a sci-fi RPG I'm making on my own three days in a year and these are perfectly stylized to fit the tropes, however I'm making my part of Atom so spiky and weird on purpose (and rarely without) because arguably and controversially this is the essence of life. Atom isn't a simulation, and the characters aren't true to real life, but in some manner they are, because they are inspired by life. Some are even toned down compared to the prototypes. Maybe I'm just lucky I get to experience such a rich spectrum of personalities, but I suspect it's like this everywhere. I live near some private houses, and one is occupied by a grandpa who doesn't say anything apart from hello, and the other houses my pal we'll call Valdis for privacy's sake. So one day Valdis took a liking to a girl who was renting nearby, so he snuck to her window and watched her, and he drew a picture of her in her room, but only he drew her naked. He then drew himself into the picture handing her a flower. He then stuffed that drawing under her door along with his phone number, and then he spent a day in the police station. One day he shared with me a technique called Undyne's kiss (Might be Undertale inspired). To experience Undyne's kiss, he told me, you should stuff the showerhead into your mouth when you're in the shower and make the water blast into your mouth as you jack off. We're not friends, and he tells such things to a lot of people he's not friends with, using a very odd, colorful language. He also asks people to call him The Count (Князь). And let me tell you, before the internet these people were much more wide spread. I'm such a person myself, though I'm not weird sexually, but I do talk and act fucking weird. Life should be tone-deaf, that's actually one of the ideas I megalomaniacly feel my duty is to bring to the world!
Also, the style part is true for the part where KRZ folks simply did not seem to care about ideology. That's how it goes!!! I'm naturally not a writer, or an artist, or an intelligent person, so I can totally get how all of this can subjectively seem shitty and annoying, there's objectively a ton of things to improve, but also objectively there's something raw and new in this shit, and it seems to find ways into people's hearts sometimes, so I'll swallow the fact I'm losing a lot of intellectual players with classic good taste and keep it up, well unless, I dunno, Gamebanshee pops out of the blue to say that this idea is shit!!! OH WAIT.........
Following a successful crowdfunding campaign and an early access phase, ATOM RPG was released back in December of 2018. The game offered a unique spin on the classic Fallout formula - it moved the action to the other side of the Iron Curtain and gave us all a taste of the Soviet Wasteland.
ATOM RPG was pretty well-received and successful enough to warrant a standalone expansion. Entitled Trudograd, that expansion has recently entered early access. Having enjoyed our time with the original game, we jumped on the first opportunity to check out what the new expansion had in store for us.
Back to the Soviet Wasteland
Despite being a standalone expansion, Trudograd is positioned as a direct continuation of ATOM RPG’s story. It even lets you import your old character. But even if you don’t have your old save files or simply decide against importing a character, you will still be technically playing the ATOM agent from the original game.
As such, when starting your Trudograd adventure, you will be asked to create a new high-level character and then answer some questions that act as a recap of your earlier major decisions.
Trudograd’s story takes place two years after the grand finale of ATOM RPG where you defeat a mushroom cult that wants to take communism to a brand-new hive mind level. In the process, you happen to learn that the cultists were trying to prevent an asteroid from hitting the planet and eradicating the human civilization for good.
With the general level of technology greatly diminished by the nuclear apocalypse, dealing with this asteroid, that some consider to be a UFO or a mystical omen, is proving to be quite a challenge.
As ATOM’s hero, you are of course the one tasked with finding a way to save the world from complete and total annihilation. To do this, you’ll need to find a secret railgun that’s rumored to be hidden somewhere in the relatively well-preserved snow-covered city of Trudograd that revels in its corruption.
At this point, whether or not this story will work and end up being satisfying remains a mystery. The current early access build of Trudograd is a far cry from something like Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord that offered hundreds of hours of entertainment straight out of the gate. Instead, Trudograd’s early access version in its current iteration is more of a demo with enough content to last you somewhere between four to eight hours.
This content is spread across five areas. It’s hard to say at this point how much bigger the final game will be, but by the looks of it, the developers still want to add more encounters, locations, quests and dungeons, or in numerical terms, roughly 70% more stuff.
And while most of the existing areas are clearly unfinished and lack polish, the very first location is already quite impressive, featuring a combat quest with different sides to support, an investigation where everything is not what it appears, a quest that introduces us to the new trap-finding system, and plenty of challenging skill and attribute checks.
If the rest of the game ends up being as good, Trudograd is going to become something no RPG enthusiast will want to miss.
Another thing Trudograd already has going for it is the increased production value. Despite some missing UI elements and audio effects, the game already looks and plays much better than its predecessor. And overall, it feels more ambitious, thanks to the new atmospheric live-action cutscenes, weapon modifications, and a neat little card game that vaguely resembles a cross between Hearthstone and Arcomage.
So, what about the systems fueling the game? At their core they’re still very much inspired by Fallout, but by now they feel unique enough to be their own thing. Attributes are mostly the same, but then you have skills that on top of merely making your character more proficient at something, also provide extra bonuses when you reach certain skill levels.
Then, there are the so-called distinctions that act as Fallout’s traits, but are closer to something like Arcanum’s backgrounds in how much they affect your character. And finally, instead of Fallout’s perks, you have abilities that are separated into several ability trees. Each time you gain a level, you get a few ability points to learn something new.
Trudograd’s take on the ability tree differs greatly from its ATOM RPG predecessor, and is overall much better. However, the way abilities are grouped together right now makes very little sense. Say you want to become good at using heavy armor. The way things work now, you’ll need to first invest a good few points into the tinkering tree. And if you want to get more skill and ability points when leveling up, you will first have to become a better medic. It’s safe to say that this system still needs some work.
Another thing that can go either way at this point is the new weather system. Right now, your character has a warmth meter that goes up and down depending on the temperature outside. And while in theory battling the elements can be a fun challenge, cold has completely replaced radiation in the current build, which is quite a bold move for a post-nuclear game.
Welcome to Turnipgrad
Finally, let’s discuss the game’s biggest issue. Its writing.
It’s important to note here that by the time I played the original ATOM RPG, it has received numerous patches and content updates. As such, it’s hard for me to gauge the extent of its journey when it comes to dealing with writing-related issues.
Still, as it stands, Trudograd’s writing is dire, no other way to put it. Even looking past all the typos and odd word choices, something that’s easily fixable, it’s extremely hard to enjoy Trudograd’s writing. Many of the game’s quests and interactions simply feel broken on a fundamental level and make very little sense.
At the same time, the game also features a good number of quests that, thanks to their unusual premises, unorthodox solutions and numerous angles of approach, are actually pretty engaging and fun.
And while the original ATOM RPG was far from perfect in this regard, it wasn’t anywhere near as bad. As such, I hope that by the time Trudograd leaves early access, its writers can fix some of that jankier stuff. Because right now, calling Trudograd’s writing uneven would be a colossal understatement.
And, of course, all of it is exacerbated by the game’s never-ending desperate attempts at being funny. If you played the original ATOM RPG, you should know just how much it liked its references. Instead of toning those down, Trudograd dials things up to eleven.
Soviet culture, modern pop culture, Internet memes, anime - it’s all there already, and given Trudograd’s current limited scope, it’s all very dense.
Usually, I’m more tolerant than most when it comes to silliness, puns, or zany references. But when a Soviet wannabe opera singer starts complaining about haters, or when your character, a high-ranking government agent, replies to a martial arts instructor by screaming “Ora-ora-ora,” that’s where even I can no longer take a piece of media seriously.
Also, what’s the deal with all the turnips? Why are turnips funny? Why does the game keep mentioning turnips? How are turnips connected to either the Soviet Union or the nuclear apocalypse? What’s the joke here? Was Blackadder’s Baldrick one of the writers? I don’t get it.
I really hope that as the game grows, its writers realize that they have something with a potential to be great on their hands, and as a result rethink their approach.
Technical Information
As mentioned above, Trudograd looks better than the original ATOM RPG, and for the most part, it even runs better. The game now also has a weather system that on occasion covers your screen with very impressive blizzards. Paired with a dynamic day and night cycle and sporadic illumination provided by campfires and flaming barrels, this results in a rather neat-looking representation of a post-apocalyptic world.
The audio effects supporting this all are fairly powerful as well. The limited voice acting, on the other hand, is not quite as impressive.
Unfortunately, while the game generally runs well and doesn’t take too long to load, its weather effects seem to be completely unoptimized right now, tanking your frame rate whenever they’re on screen.
When it comes to bugs, I didn’t notice anything especially egregious. The game did freeze on me a couple of times and some UI elements weren’t translated, but that’s nothing out of the ordinary for an early access project.
The options menu is pretty limited in what you can adjust right now, but already you can speed up animations and increase the size of the game’s UI. Both of these features are always nice to have.
Conclusion
The original ATOM RPG felt very much like Soviet Fallout. Trudograd somehow manages to avoid evoking the same feeling despite still sharing numerous similarities with its predecessors. It’s both familiar and fresh at the same time. If, come full release, it manages to elevate its locations to the level of the very first one, it can easily become a game you wouldn’t want to miss.
However, in its current state with sparse content, abysmal writing, and half-baked systems, I can’t recommend the early access version to anyone who isn’t driven purely by curiosity or a desire to support the developers.
When I was getting stuck in Arcanum, Gamebanshee was like a father to me! Now I have no father... But hey, at least they liked the other things. I have a theory the reviewer is Russian, though a Russian wouldn't know Blackadder, but then again I do know Blackadder and I'm almost Russian. In actuality, I came to expect such views from the intelligentsia, the writing really does rub people with classic taste the wrong way. It's funny though, because the writing didn't change since Atom in most ways, though it did objectively lose half the memes, references and a good chunk of useless texts. I can prove this, because I compared average dialogue sizes from Atom and TG and found that TG has on average 20% less text but 10% more dialogue choices. Yet, the reviewer says otherwise. And even though he's objectively wrong with this, I still value this opinion. It's very inspiring to see some praise the "new" writing and some say it's shit, because it is saying something very profound for me at least. IMO the fact that writing didn't change and is made by the same two hacks, yet folks see some of it as better or as worse, means that care for Atom as least as much to get their own perspective and mental image of it in their heads. This is what all true authors strive for! Also my fellow writer always makes me cut huge chunks of my texts nowadays to make it less boring, so I can use this review to let me write chunkier lines bcz gamebanshee says it was better that way! The most hurtful thing is he didn't enjoy the very original, hand-crafted, appropriate jojo reference. But to each his own! Sucks that he didn't like the turnips, if only he knew that the turnips aren't there to be funny, it's based on a real thing. It can be funny and it's very funny to me, but this isn't a fucking joke. Also y didn't u say the same about beet in Atom 1???? There was as much beet there as turnip in TG WHY DIDN'T YOU PREPARE PROPERLY?!?>?!!?!?!?!
Atomboy did you killed a bunch of joggers to get such a shot thrown at you? Or is this just western inferior taste? If the writing is anything like the first game,i must say that i am looking forward to it on this merit alone.
Yeah,sadly the west didn't have good butchers like Stalin an Mao to clean that shit off. The intelligentsia does need a good nice reset once or twice a century or it will become a festering rotting cancer like in the west.
Yeah,sadly the west didn't have good butchers like Stalin an Mao to clean that shit off. The intelligentsia does need a good nice reset once or twice a century or it will become a festering rotting cancer like in the west.
In actuality, I came to expect such views from the intelligentsia, the writing really does rub people with classic taste the wrong way. It's funny though, because the writing didn't change since Atom in most ways, though it did objectively lose half the memes, references and a good chunk of useless texts.
tbh while i still love u and Trudograd (mechanics and character progression, skills are a lot more important than in the maingame), what i haven't seen in the first 12 hours that we have now is the content that reaches deeper emotional levels (without being kitschy). u had so much of that in Otradnoye and Dan's factory that i was a bit disappointed. mysteries, loss, friendship, ambitions, dreams. little of that right now in the Trudograd.
great atmosphere tho. felt a little like icewind dale when starting the game.
I was rubbed the wrong way by the amount of turnip talk in the EA portion of the game. It just felt like you can't take a step without running into a turnip joke or a turnip reference or a crazy person rambling about turnips.
