Fallout Fallout: Sonora - new Fallout mod from the Fallout: Nevada team

[Lord_Potato]

Alphons

Is the quality of the Polish translation for Sonora+dlc decent?

People in nexusmod comments seem to think so.

If so it seems this is Sonora time for me!

 

[V17]

What about DeepL? I found that it's often better (more natural) than ChatGPT 4, although ChatGPT is surprisingly good at understanding (and even explaining) slang, jokes, puns etc.

Chat GPT still seems better than DeepL, it gets the flow much better and the general "eloquence", here's an except:

Here's an except from chat gpt:
{100}{}{You see a guard.}
{101}{}{Before you is a caravan guard. He is resting after a tiring journey.}

{110}{}{Hello. How's the road?}
{111}{}{Sorry, but I need to rest.}
{112}{}{There's water here, but otherwise, it's a lousy place.}
{113}{}{Casa Grande has harsh customs.}
{114}{}{The local mayor is not to be trifled with.}
{115}{}{You need to talk to the boss.}
{116}{}{The road between Phoenix and Tucson is restless.}
{117}{}{The road is dangerous because of the highwaymen.}
{118}{}{It's better not to encounter the highwaymen.}
{119}{}{We're just a source of income for the locals.}

And same one from deepL:

{100}{}{You see the guard}
{101}{}{You see the guard of the caravan in front of you. He's resting after a tiring journey.}

{110}{}{Hello. How's the road?}
{111}{}{Sorry, but I need to rest.}}
{112}{}{There's water, but otherwise it's a lousy place.}}
{113}{{Casa Grande is a violent place.}}
{114}{\pos(192,210)}{\pos(192,210)} {114}{\pos(192,210)}{The local mayor is no joke}.
{115}{}{You need to talk to the boss.}}
{116}{}{The road between Phoenix and Tu-San is rough.}}
{117}{}{The highway is dangerous because of highwaymen.}}
{118}{}{It's best not to run into highwaymen.}}
{119}{}{We are just a source of income for the locals}}

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

The flow isn't as good and it isn't as nice to read, kinda like driving a car without any suspension in eastern europe lol.
Seems to screw up a bit of the formatting like on line 114.

Donno if the paid version of DeepL would make a difference, there is a limit for DeepL for about 1500 characters per cycle, maybe the paid one just unlocks that and that's it?


I'm not paying any attention to the consistency or anything other than really basic stuff, I'm wondering how it's going to pull that off in the end, very curious.

Yes, as far as I know the paid version only removes limits for both text translation and directly translating doc or pdf files etc., no change in translation quality. Thanks for the comparison.

 

[Alphons]

If so it seems this is Sonora time for me!

Minor things- members of local religion and Followers of Apocalypse were translated into "Obserwatorzy" and a ghoul mechanic in Dayglow is "mechaniczny ghoul".

Author also took liberties with translation to make some jokes

Spoiler

In the secret part of Phoenix sewers is a hostile ghoul called Shadow, but was translated into "ostry cień mgły".

 

[Lord_Potato]

If so it seems this is Sonora time for me!

Minor things- members of local religion and Followers of Apocalypse were translated into "Obserwatorzy" and a ghoul mechanic in Dayglow is "mechaniczny ghoul".

Author also took liberties with translation to make some jokes

Spoiler

In the secret part of Phoenix sewers is a hostile ghoul called Shadow, but was translated into "ostry cień mgły".

Okay, you convinced me, I'm totally getting this!

 

[deama]

So was playing around with the dialogue and realised, even though it's set in mexico, it's all fairly tame? I then got the idea, what if I tell chatgpt to add more mexican flair to it? And it came up with this:

original chatgpt translation:

{430}{}{Is there any more work?}
{431}{}{Yes. I'm waiting for a shipment of meat from the hunter's camp. But they're late and not responding to radio communication. I don't know what could have happened. You need to go to the camp and find out the reason for the delays. Maybe they need some help?}
{432}{}{Alright, I'll do it.}
{433}{}{Sorry, but I can't spend too much time right now. I think they'll manage without me.}
{434}{}{The Wynon camp is 60 miles to the east, in the wooded mountains. Be careful; there are wild animals there.}
{435}{}{Wish me luck.}
{436}{}{I hope those hunters haven't just been drinking their time away. Otherwise, I'll give them a worse scolding than any mole rat.}

with mexican flair:

{430}{}{Any more work on the table, amigo? What's the chisme?}
{431}{}{Ay, caramba! You won't believe it, compadre. I've been waiting for a carne shipment from the hunter's camp, but nada, they're MIA. Could you mosey on over there and see qué pasa?}
{432}{}{Claro que sí, amigo! I'll saddle up and check it out.}
{433}{}{Lo siento, amigo, but I've got my hands full. They'll have to fend for themselves, you know?}
{434}{}{Listen, ese, the Wynon camp is 60 miles to the east, nestled in the mountains where even the coyotes don't go. Watch your back, there's some real chupacabras out there.}
{435}{}{Vámonos! Wish me buena suerte, hermano.}
{436}{}{If those hunters are just sitting around sipping tequila, they're gonna get an earful from me, and it won't be a serenade, you get me, amigo?}

I think it adds some nice uniqueness to it no? I'm tempted to redo the whole thing but with that flair! It sure makes it sound real interesting.

 

[deama]

Fuck it, why not, I'll continue with the mexican flair one, it makes it too unique and interesting, it's too bland otherwise.

 

[Feyd Rautha]

Excellent idea!

 

[The Great Deceiver]

Fuck it, why not, I'll continue with the mexican flair one, it makes it too unique and interesting, it's too bland otherwise.

Agracima, just don't overdo it, casità.

 

[Jaesun]

Fuck it, why not, I'll continue with the mexican flair one, it makes it too unique and interesting, it's too bland otherwise.

Yeah I agree adding just a *little* bit of flair is actually improving that dialogue a lot. As someone said above just add a bit, don't over do it.

 

[deama]

Donno if this is too much flair or not, but it is more enjoyable to read, barring the setting in mind:

{330}{}{Who? Me? Eh... Well...}
{331}{}{I don't need any fools around here, amigo. Vámonos.}
{332}{}{Vámo... Ah! Sí, sí, I'm going home. Villa is my home, you know.}
{333}{}{Hold on... What did you say, compadre? We recently got a bunch of slaves from Villa. You from there too? No wonder they left you behind—can't even trust you with a shovel, ese.}
{334}{}{What's a shov-el?}
{335}{}{I think you're looking for your amigos, eh? They're here, in the pen. But if you wanna see them, you gotta do me a little favor, entiendes?}
{336}{}{Oh! Sí! Amigos!}
{337}{}{Sí, your amigos... Listen up, you big tonto. Go to the mine and go down. There's a big rat there. Kill the rat, and I'll take you to your amigos. ¿Comprendes?}
{338}{}{No, I wanna see my amigos now, cabrón!}
{339}{}{Rat! Kill the rat! Kill it, kill it!}
{340}{}{You won't see them until you kill that big rat in the mines, hombre. Don't make me angry.}
{341}{}{Uh-uh, angry señor.}
{342}{}{Rat! Kill the rat! Kill it, kill it!}
{343}{}{Mine... okay... sí, no problemo, amigo.}

That snippet is I think for when the character is a low int retard, pretty funny.

 

[Jaesun]

I think that is fine, it at least adds a bit more of a mexican-like feel to the conversations.

 

[agris]

So was playing around with the dialogue and realised, even though it's set in mexico, it's all fairly tame? I then got the idea, what if I tell chatgpt to add more mexican flair to it? And it came up with this:

original chatgpt translation:

{430}{}{Is there any more work?}
{431}{}{Yes. I'm waiting for a shipment of meat from the hunter's camp. But they're late and not responding to radio communication. I don't know what could have happened. You need to go to the camp and find out the reason for the delays. Maybe they need some help?}
{432}{}{Alright, I'll do it.}
{433}{}{Sorry, but I can't spend too much time right now. I think they'll manage without me.}
{434}{}{The Wynon camp is 60 miles to the east, in the wooded mountains. Be careful; there are wild animals there.}
{435}{}{Wish me luck.}
{436}{}{I hope those hunters haven't just been drinking their time away. Otherwise, I'll give them a worse scolding than any mole rat.}

with mexican flair:

{430}{}{Any more work on the table, amigo? What's the chisme?}
{431}{}{Ay, caramba! You won't believe it, compadre. I've been waiting for a carne shipment from the hunter's camp, but nada, they're MIA. Could you mosey on over there and see qué pasa?}
{432}{}{Claro que sí, amigo! I'll saddle up and check it out.}
{433}{}{Lo siento, amigo, but I've got my hands full. They'll have to fend for themselves, you know?}
{434}{}{Listen, ese, the Wynon camp is 60 miles to the east, nestled in the mountains where even the coyotes don't go. Watch your back, there's some real chupacabras out there.}
{435}{}{Vámonos! Wish me buena suerte, hermano.}
{436}{}{If those hunters are just sitting around sipping tequila, they're gonna get an earful from me, and it won't be a serenade, you get me, amigo?}

I think it adds some nice uniqueness to it no? I'm tempted to redo the whole thing but with that flair! It sure makes it sound real interesting.

It’s great! Define this amount of flair as baseline and have gpt add 5-15% of it, randomly varying the amount, throughout the whole text!

 

[deama]

It’s great! Define this amount of flair as baseline and have gpt add 5-15% of it, randomly varying the amount, throughout the whole text!

Ah, too late, I just went with that as base for everything.

 

[Alphons]

Fuck it, why not, I'll continue with the mexican flair one, it makes it too unique and interesting, it's too bland otherwise.

Really cool idea
Personally I'd add it to only some locations to enhance the feeling of PC being a peasant that left his tiny village for the first time and discovering huge world outside.
Additionally some locations have only NPCs with Mexican names (Sancho, Jorge, Andreas), other are fully American (Steve, Murphy, Aaron) and others are mixed.

Certain NPCs insult you by calling you a redneck or stupid peasant, so you could change it to them using some Spanish term like peon or even ironically used cabron or hombre.

Spanish: Villa, Platform, Santa Ana, Hermosillo

English: Garage City, Flagstaff, Phoenix, Tu-san, Puerto, Jackals, Inferno

Mixed: Rangers, Casa Nueva, Casa Grande, Dayglow, Raiders, San Brahmin

 

[deama]

Fuck it, why not, I'll continue with the mexican flair one, it makes it too unique and interesting, it's too bland otherwise.

Really cool idea
Personally I'd add it to only some locations to enhance the feeling of PC being a peasant that left his tiny village for the first time and discovering huge world outside.
Additionally some locations have only NPCs with Mexican names (Sancho, Jorge, Andreas), other are fully American (Steve, Murphy, Aaron) and others are mixed.

Certain NPCs insult you by calling you a redneck or stupid peasant, so you could change it to them using some Spanish term like peon or even ironically used cabron or hombre.

Spanish: Villa, Platform, Santa Ana, Hermosillo

English: Garage City, Flagstaff, Phoenix, Tu-san, Puerto, Jackals, Inferno

Mixed: Rangers, Casa Nueva, Casa Grande, Dayglow, Raiders, San Brahmin

Problem though is I'd have to comb through the text and figure out who's english and who's mexican, nevermind figuring out where they're even from.
At this point I'm just copying the text, sending it to chatgpt, and copying the translation back.

I wouldn't mind doing a more proper job at it, but I haven't even played the game yet, I don't even know if it's any good to warrant such a time investment.
E.g. I'm working on an english voice over for archolos too, and that game I quite liked, so the work is more warranted, as well as a big update coming around soon.

If you really want though, you can, or someone else can, give me a list where I just have to copy-paste, and one list is dialogue that needs a mexican flair, another list is just normal translation, then I can do that. Or 2 folders, one containing regular english, the other one needs mexican flair thing.

 

[deama]

I think they limited me, I was probably spamming chatgpt 4 too much and I feel like they cut down my usage in half per 3 hours, so 25 msg instead of 50.
Dang, gonna take longer cause of this, bastards.

 

[deama]

I think they limited me, I was probably spamming chatgpt 4 too much and I feel like they cut down my usage in half per 3 hours, so 25 msg instead of 50.
Dang, gonna take longer cause of this, bastards.

Looks like was a hiccup I think, it feels long now as before.

 

[Diggfinger]

Moo....

Moo I say

 

[deama]

Moo....

Moo I say

{110}{}{Moo!}
{111}{}{Moo?}
{112}{}{Moo-oo-oo...}
{113}{}{Sí-sí, moo to you too, compa.}

 

[Lord_Potato]

So I began playing Sonora with the Polish translation, which proved to be quite professional.

The game has 100% Fallouty atmosphere, I'm having fun visiting one town after another, solving local conflicts, and unveiling secrets. So far it seems a worthy successor to Fallout of Nevada.

 

[The Brazilian Slaughter]

No eng translation

At this rate, I will have to learn Russian just so I can play this and read the Strugatsky brothers' Noon Universe's series.

I always wanted to take up a third language, but Slavic Moonrunes was never in the cards.

 

[Lord_Potato]

No eng translation

At this rate, I will have to learn Russian just so I can play this and read the Strugatsky brothers' Noon Universe's series.

I always wanted to take up a third language, but Slavic Moonrunes was never in the cards.

You can learn Polish instead At least you won't have to study the moonrunes

 

[deama]

So I began playing Sonora with the Polish translation, which proved to be quite professional.

The game has 100% Fallouty atmosphere, I'm having fun visiting one town after another, solving local conflicts, and unveiling secrets. So far it seems a worthy successor to Fallout of Nevada.

How does it compare to fallout 1.5 ressurection? That's the only fan one I played.

 

[Lord_Potato]

So I began playing Sonora with the Polish translation, which proved to be quite professional.

The game has 100% Fallouty atmosphere, I'm having fun visiting one town after another, solving local conflicts, and unveiling secrets. So far it seems a worthy successor to Fallout of Nevada.

How does it compare to fallout 1.5 ressurection? That's the only fan one I played.

I played Resurrection around 2018 I think so my memory of it is pretty hazy. So far Sonora is much easier I think. It also offers several ways to tackle quests and factions. I'm too early in the game to say more.

 

[Alphons]

My review of Sonora with Dayglow expansion without any spoilers. I'll be making a separate post with spoiler tag.
It's very hard not to compare it to Nevada, so expect a few comparisons.

I've had a really great time with the game.

In terms of length I think it hit a sweet spot- it's longer than both Fallout 1 and Resurrection, but not as long as Nevada or Fallout 2.

SPECIAL and skills
Not many changes to SPECIAL stats, but playing with very low Strength made my PC a massive gimp. There's a lot of stuff to haul around even if you completely avoid fighting and don't carry a weapon and certain quest in Dayglow required opening crates with a crowbar, which my PC was too weak to do without Buffout.

Sonora introduces some small changes in the traits- Bloody Mess also allows you to understand Spanish and Night Person is completely replaced by new trait Villa traditions which lowers XP you gain by 20%, but gives you Educated and scouts entire world map (revealing all locations).

Nevada perks that show you requirements to pass a skill check and allow to play after the ending credits return. Animal Friend is present, but instead of turning all critters friendly, it allows you to feed them to make them passive (LVL 1) or temporary followers(LVL2) (they don't follow you outside their current location).
There might be some new perks that require physical stats that I have not seen.

Nevada impressed me with how it utilized the entire classic skill set. Sonora advanced it in some ways, in others I feel it took a step back.
Traps are no longer items you can set down with the skill, so once again it's only good for disarming them.
Repair was made more available to different builds, as you can use Junk or Electronic parts to lower the skill check by around 20% per item, but it also means you don't have to invest a lot of SPs into it (there's also an escort quest that gives you a temporary companion that boosts Repair by 20%).
Science checks cap at around 100%, but they open a lot of options with computers. Also it can be used to hack hostile robots, which makes them help you in combat (if your Sneak is high enough to reach them undetected).
There's a lot of gambling in both Sonora and Dayglow. Definitely worth investment if you have spare SPs.
Barter allows you to unlock better stock and even discounts through dialogue.
Speech is extremely powerful, maybe a bit too much.
Sneak was boosted. During certain quests you can avoid fights by scaring enemy off using items in the enviroment. There're several rescue quests, where you can save the NPC with Sneak. You also receive extra XP on occasion if you were never spotted.
Steal was heavily nerfed. Without enough skill you can't even look into the NPC's inventory to attempt theft.
Doctor has potentially a lot of uses, but alternatively you can just use medicine to cure NPCs. At the end I had aroind 50 stimpacks, so I could've definitely avoided investing in it (though it feels nicer to play as a skilled doctor instead of some random with a needle).
Guns were completely overhauled. Small Guns now only apply to 1- handed weapons (pistols, revolvers and SMGs) while Big Guns apply to all 2-handed weapons (grenade launcher, rifles, ARs, shotguns).

Main story
The story is much simpler and easier to follow than Nevada's. There's also more branching options as instead of following a trail of crumbs, you instead receive certain goal you can accomplish with diplomacy, stealth or violence. Near the end you have to choose between 2 factions or indenpendence, but near the end of game you have a choice only between quietly killing everyone and loudly killing everyone. It's a bit dissapointing, as even if diplomacy is impossible you could at least have the option similar to one Resurrection gave you.

Side quests
A lot of classic stuff like collecting debts, looking for missing people, bounty hunting, repairing a water pump, but also some more unique ones. Majority of them have different options dependent on your skills, but there's a couple where you just need to kill someone/something (I think 5 or 6). Some quests are straightforward, others have a moral/ faction choice you have to make.

You can do tasks for both factions until you join the other or make them hostile.

Dialogue/ world interaction
Going through dialogue, asking questions about the world and using options unlocked by Charisma and Intelligence awards you with XP.

You can give food to people or have a beer with them to get extra dialogue or just Karma, Reputation and XP.

There're some one-time encounters in towns that can spawn, where you can intervene in different ways like attempted rape, murder or robbery.

Mexican as a separate language is an interesting idea, but it is used in a hostile location where you can read a terminal for extra information and 2-3 conversations. So unless you love Bloody Mess, it's not really worth taking the trait that allows you to understand it.

Art
A lot of really high quality new assets- from new items, weapons, armour, entirely new tile sets, pre-war advertisements, posters, completely new creature, additional human with new sprites, new ghouls and talking heads.

Music
Awesome, sets the tone for the game since the moment you start. Some classic Fallout tracks are used in a few places, but it's mostly new music made for Sonora.

Companions
I'd say they're on Fallout 2 level, so unfortunately below Resurrection and New Vegas in terms of interactions.

They have a quest before you recruit them, but only minor interactions later on plus comments about locations you visit.

I found 3 of them during the game plus several temporary ones. The vehicle you unlock allows you to travel only with 1, but you can take them all on foot if your Charisma allows it.
There's 1 extra companion after you finish the game and 1 companion in Dayglow.

Worldbuilding
It is pretty enjoyable. As the PC is just a peasant venturing outside of his home for the first time it doesn't feel awkward to ask questions.

Sonora was in a pretty dormant state until certain major thing happened, so most dialogues do not reference anything happening before that moment.

The main goals and means of factions are understandable, but individual member have differing opinions on them.

Commerce between towns exists and you can follow the chain of supplies. Certain characters are interested in establishing new trade routes which you can help with. Doing so expands the inventory of merchants and amount of caps they have. It also works the other way, as you can sabotage a resource one town has and the merchants will offer smaller selection of items and have less caps.

Pre-war companies from New Vegas like Petro Chico and Sunset Sarsaparilla appear. There's not a lot of pre-war stuff to find, but there're some pretty interesting holodiscs and computers to read.

West Coast factions appear, but they're given a reason to be in Sonora. You can also meet 2 characters from Fallout 1 and a single one from NV. Dayglow additionally adds an origin for a certain faction that did not have it before.

Ending slides feel more extensive than in Nevada and they have impact on the world after the credits if you have the perk that allows you to continue your playthrough.

Dayglow
The expansion starts really awkwardly, as you get a message about it pretty early in the game, but then get pointed to one of the most dangerous locations in the entire game to actually start it.

It's pretty massive- with around 20 locations and two dozen quests.

I went there after finishing the base game, did not have trouble with any checks.

At the end there's some pretty powerful equipment that could probably break the balance if you went there straight after getting the message. At the same time there's a lot of radiation and some powerful enemies that would probably annihilate weak character.