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TheGreatEvilKing posted:Now this is getting weird! Why would the devs lie about this? Is Bergman super controversial in Russia or something? Is that guy just a mod trying to take credit for the developers (his profile is private), is he the actual writer, what the hell is going on? Thinking along the lines of "don't attribute to malice what can be attributed to incompetence," it's possible that with multiple writers involved, they didn't keep track of their literary references. Or it's deflection. "poo poo, people think we're just lifting plots and details whole cloth from other works, make something up!"
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May 30, 2021 21:53
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I'm A Doctor, not an Overused Reference! Last time on ATOM RPG, we discussed some of the authors' literary influences. What I haven't mentioned in the thread is, since that time, Xander77 was awesome enough to reach out to the devs to ask some questions about the game and translate their replies. Massive shout out! The developers were pretty cagey about giving us answers (there was quite a bit about how the game did not have any "parallels with reality" in a game about a superpower that existed maybe a generation ago), but they did have this reply when asked about literary influences: Dev Interview posted:We were really inspired by the Strugatskys, for example, their trilogy about Maxim Kammerer (Xander's note - i.e, https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Literature/PrisonersOfPower and the sequels). The themes of totalitarian states, human choices and their consequences. However, you need understand that each of our authors brought their thoughts and ideas with them to ATOM, based on life experience, watching movies or reading books and it is rather difficult to single out any main source of inspiration. Incidentally, the specific Virgin Spring reference - as opposed to the folk song - seems to be the work of the fan translators the devs hired, hence our confusion. Anyway, we've gotten enough into the Prokhanov Zone last update with Dan the Bandit and the Untrustworthy Worm Gang, so let's go visit a completely different leader.  So, we can actually update Kovalev about the bandits here.  : I have something to tell you about the bandits... I made a big deal about how in theory you could organize a trap for the bandits or a popular uprising or whatever by being a double agent secretly working for the villagers while pretending to be a card carrying criminal. : I have intel on the captive inside the bandit camp. : I can try and do that. The problem is that any sort of resistance would be led by Kovalev, and Kovalev is kind of a gently caress up. We've already seen the scene where he goes "of COURSE! The man who straight up said he was a bandit... is a bandit?" and bemoans not listening to him. : I see. Well, I'll try and do just that. Bye.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
There's a lot more to Kovalev that we haven't seen yet, but he never really comes off as competent or the sharpest tool in the shed. His backstory includes a lot of fuckups over both his personal and professional life, and it says a lot that even though he's probably the most moral leader in the game he has you go stealth murder a man while muttering weak rationalizations about how it was totally necessary and he had to do it. Whatever! Let's go atone for our murder by trying to save a man's life.   : I need your help, doctor. : [Doctor Mikoyan checks your pulse, your blood pressure, even your pupils. He finally steps back, looking disappointed.] : We have a patient for ya, doc...: [Doctor Mikoyan looks surprised] : I'm not talking about myself, doc. There's a badly wounded man dying in the Factory. You need to help him.: [Doc Mikoyan takes a step back, his face contorted with disgust] I think they switched translators here, because I am 99% sure this is supposed to be a McCoy "I'm a doctor, not a rapper" reference. You know, from Star Trek. : But he was wounded protecting the people of Otradnoye from a raid. : [The Doctor's face turns beet red] : [Speechcraft] But his intentions were good, doc! Have good intentions ever lead to something bad, huh? Like, ever?Hoo boy, this sure is a line in the USSR game.  : I got it, doc. Let me try a different reason. The irony of the strength option - we never gave our word as a bodybuilder, so that is a lie - is actually kind of funny. Kudos. : [Personality] Constantine, this is harsh. You're putting me in a tight spot. : [Intellect] Sometimes to save a life, it's not enough to simply offer medicine, doc.: [The doctor's ironic smile rapidly fades. He's starting to consider your words] : Thank's[sic] doc! I always believed in you.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 Eh, I'm sure this won't be important later.  We have this encounter on the way to the factory. We attack, as we want XP.  They have dinky rusty pistols, and we have a very sharp knife.  This gentleman gets shanked for his troubles.  A lot of your life as a melee guy is going to be spent running at gunmen. Don't sweat it. Enemy guns are hot garbage right now and would be even more laughable if I'd remembered to craft the armor we got from Satan Guy.  We proc a stun on this idiot and shank him to death.  They have some loot. Of course, while the game is mocking the conspiracy theorists, their real crime is that they believe in the wrong conspiracies - the microwave mind control poo poo instead of, say, the existence of ATOM. We'll get to that later.  Have a fallout reference.  The good doctor beat us here, presumably because he was not stopped by doomsday cultists and I imagine any Dan Fans in the area helped him out.  : Lift up your shirt, young man. : Um... Ah... are you gonna stick me with that needle or what, doc? I need meds!: In due time. I'm a doctor, not a slave to your craving for drugs!I'm a doctor reference count this update: 2 : Just kidding, doc.: This wound was sutured by a blind man? Look at all that disgusting puss! I guess George Carlin hosed up the sutures and is nervous about it, ha ha! : Bite on this, you man. I need to open this wound.: Aiiiiaa!: Don't whimper. I'm a doctor, not a pre-school teacher.This is the third time you've made that reference, and it's rather predictable seeing as the doctor is Bones from Star Trek. : Ow! Aaaah!: This shot will take away your fever.: Ooooh! So good...In case you're wondering, the bandit straight up dies if you don't get Mikoyan. : Time to stitch you up.There's a lot of screaming from the bandit I omit here.   : Never thought I would be helping this sort... although I suppose people are people. So why should it be? Why should us and these bandits get along so awfully? We're of different professions and different creeds but all of us get hurt from time to time and need medical attention.: It happens, young man. Now kindly let me do my job. We can talk again when I've returned to the village. Don't worry about my safety. The local banditry promised me an escort.: I won't hold you back, doc. Do your thing.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 Now, you might think that Dan has something to say about the dying man we saved, and... he doesn't. : I wanted to talk about the captive. A lot of the English speaking fans of the game will talk about how interesting it is that Dan is actually protecting the villagers, and the TvTropes page (I'm sorry, I know) talks about how Dan is a "borderline tyrant". : Can I free him? : Here it is. [Give him the money]This is wrong. Dan is absolutely a tyrant who doesn't care about the lives of his men. I mentioned that if you don't do the quest to go get Doctor Mikoyan, the wounded bandit dies. George Carlin even gives a speech about his dead friend.  You don't get the mission to save this man from Dan, you get it from two men who are desperate enough to promise all their possessions to a man who got admitted to the bandit camp two days ago because he was literally a card-carrying crook.  : Nice doing business with you. : Okay, I'd better go. : I came for the prisoner.: [Shishak's eyebrows shoot up in surprise] : You don't say. Can you prove it? Do you think any old bum can just wander in and say that?: Here's a note from Dan. [Give the note to Shishak]Dan is a smart guy with a fair amount of resources and leverage over Otradnoye. I find it difficult to believe that he couldn't find something to offer the villagers in exchange for Mikoyan's services, even if it was just a temporary reprieve from raids. : [Shishak takes the note, throws you an incredulous look, and frowns at it while he reads. He looks at you again, crumples the note in his hands and finally shrugs his indifference]: Everything seems to be in order. Okay, wait a second.: [He takes his knife and cuts the ropes binding the prisoner's hands and feet]: Yeah, well... Bye. The prisoner becomes a temporary party member until we leave the map. I'll go over this stuff once we get someone permanent like Fidel. TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
Anyway, back to Dan and the dying bandit. Kosoy told us a few updates back that Dan isn't working alone, but he's actually working for the government of Kraznosnamenny. Kosoy posted:
Kroznosnamenny has an entire hospital full of doctors. It's entirely plausible that an alternate version of Dan might ask for permission to send his men there, or even for a doctor to be assigned to the factory to see to the wounds his men take fighting off fanatical murder hobos. I would imagine that if they're talking to the Krasnoznamenny government someone has permission to get into the city, and those doctors will happily treat outsiders for money. It's not that Dan can't save the dying man, it's that he doesn't care. Is this sounding a bit familiar?  You go back to your own game! The parallel isn't perfect, as there are a fair amount of surprisingly decent people at the bandit camp we haven't met yet, but already the characters we met are Kosoy the idealistic gate guard who believes in Dan's vision, the weird Satan guy who taught us how to craft armor asking nothing in return, a mostly harmless guy who was just loving with us for snakes on a plane references, George Carlin trying to help out a dying man, said dying man who took a bullet protecting a bunch of innocent villagers... and Dan and Shishak. Unlike Ashe, Dan actually does have to deal with some of the consequences of his actions, but we'll get there. It ties right back into the theme the developers discussed above - living in a totalitarian society - as we see Dan is just another petty tyrant motivating young men with dreams of a statehood and being cool Robin Hood outlaws who protect innocent villagers, but who is actually just interested in setting up a new tyranny ruled solely by himself. He even says this. Dan the Bandit Man posted: While working on this update, I realized that there's another thing every single leader in this game has in common. : I have something to tell you about the bandits... They're all physically isolated from the people they lead. Kovalev is probably the closest to the villagers, as his house is in the middle of the village next to the tavern, but no one ever goes inside to talk to him and he won't talk to the player until you do Katya's dumb mushroom quest. If we look at Dan's office, it's in a separate building from the rest of the factory where he can take notes in peace and ignore the screams of the man dying a slow death on his behalf. This theme is going to recur in the other towns we visit, and one town in particular heavily features it. : I freed a captive in their camp. Yeah, we paid 500 rubles to the bandits that they will probably use to buy new weapons with. We're taking that reward. : [Nod silently] : Right, I just remembered the part about a reward... : Yes, yes. Let me just find the... Aha! It's 500 rubles. We make no profit on this operation, and I'm not confident in Bear's skills to not aggro the entire bandit camp breaking out the mechanic. : [Speechcraft] With all due respect, Comrade Kovalev, could you add some more money to this reward? It was an extremely risky mission, as you know. : What can a man do? See you later, comrade.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
Whatever. Let's talk to the technician guy.   : I can understand that. It's okay.: [The man looks down and scratches the back of his head] : I just did what I thought was right.: [The man nods with respect and looks you straight in the eye] : Now this is what I call a man with high moral values! You did what was right! Many forgot what it's like, to live life following an ethical code... You're a strong person, friend.: Don't make me blush now...: Hey! I need to thank you for the rescue somehow, right? Look, brother... Most people around think I'm poor. But it's actually not true. I'm actually really handy, and I don't repair stuff just for the village. I have a stash...: There's an empty house behind the gates, filled with all sorts of garbage. This is where I keep my lockbox.: There's a switch left of the entrance. Push it and you'll see light coming from under the old bed. Push it out of the way and boom! You're in my personal little cellar. The safe is in there, welded to the floor. This is where I keep all my extra cash.: The code is 8904! Not hard, right! Only four digits. Take everything I keep inside, don't be shy. There's not a lot of money in there. But I hope it'll help you in your travels.There's actually an amazing item for early game in there.  I'll spare you the questions, basically he got drunk, bragged about being a millionaire, and the bandits grabbed him for ransom. : I better go then. Good luck, man!TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 We also level up and Bear picks up this perk. This perk is all you ever need for offense in this game. Remember how we're an unlucky optimist and thus do more critical damage for a critical chance penalty? This completely negates that and lets us do sweet rear end wombo combos that one shot most enemies in the game save one incredibly badly designed boss.  I buy a rope like an idiot, because we'll need it soon.  Welcome to Steblev's cellar! We're about to run into a totally batshit reference.  Anyway, meet Mouserinks. As you can see, our DPS has gone way up - that's a first round critical that takes Mouserinks from full health to almost dead.  Despite being a named enemy she goes down in two strokes of our mighty shiv. Mouserinks is apparently the Mouse Queen in the original tale of the Nutcracker, and you might be asking yourself "why does this abandoned house have a nutcracker reference?"  I have no idea but we're going all the way!  I am honestly baffled by this entire sequence. This gets you the achievement "Bustin' nuts" by the way.  There's a specific use for this much later in the game, so we're going to hang on to it.  Also, there's a rope on the shelves. Oh well! There's also a toy gun for some reason.  Opening up the safe...  Score! This thing rules. There's a better backpack you can get later in the game, but these sell for a lot and your only other competition are shields that don't work against guns. You are not going to take a shield.  This is the problem with the game, ultimately. There is an interesting undercurrent to the writing with regards to things like Dan and the bandits or Kovalev's ineffectual leadership, but it's all drowned out by weird poo poo like overusing the "I'm a doctor, not an X" or this weird loving Nutcracker reference out of nowhere. This is not helped by every single gameplay element being abysmal. However, at least this game is going somewhere, unlike, say, Stygian. Next time: The Roaring Forest, and maybe Kovalev's backstory.
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Jun 4, 2021 06:34
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: Us? We're the next closest thing to a legitimate force of law. Our chief's already been talking with the Krasnoznamenny Trade Council. We're asking them to recognize us as an official strike force in the region.
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TheGreatEvilKing posted:Last time on ATOM RPG, we discussed some of the authors' literary influences. What I haven't mentioned in the thread is, since that time, Xander77 was awesome enough to reach out to the devs to ask some questions about the game and translate their replies. quote:There's a lot more to Kovalev that we haven't seen yet, but he never really comes off as competent or the sharpest tool in the shed. His backstory includes a lot of fuckups over both his personal and professional life, and it says a lot that even though he's probably the most moral leader in the game he has you go stealth murder a man while muttering weak rationalizations about how it was totally necessary and he had to do it. Which I suppose would be kinda neat, if that was the uniform approach - you refuse to do a quest, and that's that. The quest is gone, things move on without you. It happens sometimes (i.e, the bandit will die if you don't bring Mikoyan along after a few days \ visits to the bandit camp), but not always. quote:It's 500 rubles. We make no profit on this operation, and I'm not confident in Bear's skills to not aggro the entire bandit camp breaking out the mechanic.
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Jun 4, 2021 10:18
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TheGreatEvilKing posted:
The doctor is referencing the chorus from People Are People by Depeche Mode . I wonder if that's another translator added reference?
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Jun 4, 2021 15:09
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While You Studied Mein Kampf, I Studied The Blade Last time on ATOM RPG, we ransomed a drunk man from a bandit camp and saved a bandit from death. Today we're going to learn why the Roaring Forest roars! It's...kind of exciting, I guess?  I try to get Kovalev's life story out of him but unfortunately we are not a slick enough operator to do that. : How do you like being the head of this commune? : Riiiiight. Moving on... : Tell me about yourself. Unfortunately we are not high enough level with Speechcraft to weedle his past shameful history out of him. drat! : I got your point. Can I ask one more question?We go back to the "Speak" screen so I omit it. : How's life out here?: We are very lucky. I heard some communities are ruled by criminals. That must be total hell.Read: every other community in the game. : People get their heads sawed off or are hanged, their eyes are gouged out. In spring they are tied to trees, to get drowned in the floods. All kinds of terrible things.: I would love to say that the cause of all evil is the usual suspects - the criminals, the drug addicts, the lowlifes. But they are not the only ones. Some of the atrocities fall to regular people who simply forgot the morality of the old world. : You don't say. May I ask more?: Heard any rumors?: [Comrade Kovalev shrugs his shoulders, indifferent] This is all we're going to get out of him, sadly. Some rumors are useful, like the one about the experimental gun. Some are not. TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 We are sadly not strong enough to move this rock for a sidequest. I have a plan though!  On the way back to the factory we're ambushed by bandits, and this is actually pretty great!  The bandits unhygenically attack Bear.  Bear is now a one hit killing machine that can put down most enemies for the low cost of 4 AP. 30 HP instakills this bandit.  As you can see, this bandit takes 60 hp. The actual amount of damage done is really, really swingy and this is going to bite us in the rear end later.  The bandits are carrying this magic talisman that gives you a luck boost if you're stupid enough to believe in it.  This guy lets us take all his stuff for saving his life. He's got 100 rubles and a bottle of vodka. We're going to need that booze for...shenanigans.  This is, um, a unique encounter.   : So... So you finally found me! Despite all the precautions, all the measures that I took. But how?! This would work a lot better if one of the random encounters wasn't with tinfoil hat murderers. : Here we go...: [The man quickly lifts his head, and focuses his crazed gaze upon you. You can't really tell what he is thinking right now. But, seeing how he did not lower his weapon, it can't be anything too good...] : Now, who do you think I am?I have to post this next part from the game, because, well...  Oh boy!   ...presented without comment. : Who are you, even?  Hoo boy.  : What are you, high or something?: W-what do you mean? I'm sober? Well... Um... I used to drink back in the day! Sometimes until I dropped... it happened! Vodka, beer, different cocktails, like <<The Hanann Balm>> or <<The tears of the she-scout>>, <<Aunt Klava's kiss>> and all that. But! But.. it's all because you Zionists tried to get us hooked on alcohol! Made the whole population into drunks! Those options sadly just repeat instead of coming up with new Crazy Town. Let's leave. : [Leave] : Listen, I'm not who you think I am.if you just keep waiting he starts spewing the fourteen words, and follows it with this line: This fuckin crazy dude posted:
This leads to your character getting pissed and a luck check to not get shot (Source). Back to our playthrough: : Listen, I'm not who you think I am.Incidentally, telling him to fight gets you this. Crazy Town posted:
 ,,,mushroom person? : [Speechcraft] Hey, if you really think I'm all that, why am I strolling around with no bodyguards? : [The man slowly lowers his gun. He eyes you for a few more seconds, and then finally comes to the conclusion that you are innocent. His gaze suddenly becomes unfocused again, and his weapon drops, just to hang from a makeshift belt]: And that's that. See you later!TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
Unfortunately for Klinov here I held an impromptu poll on the LP discord and the denizens called for his death.  This is the big flaw in the melee build. Weapon damage variance gets multiplied a hundredfold (metaphorically speaking) so our relatively low crit of 24 damage, while provoking a shocked reaction from Captain Racist over here, does not actually kill him.  His AK rips off a good chunk of our health before jamming. This guy will absolutely gently caress you up early game, as most people have small caliber pistols at best and this guy's throwing around automatic AK fire.  Fortunately we are a pro drug chugger and make poor life decisions to murder a crazy guy in a forest.  This drug crazed rear end in a top hat also has healing drugs, so the fight becomes a WoW raid style slogfest and we become drug addicted. It legitimately doesn't matter.  We get 100 XP for that long battle, but our stash of drugs is sadly gone. For now.  I am planning to go in on automatic weapons late game, but right now we do not have the skill to use this thing. Into the Backpack O Guns it goes.  We encounter a few caravans along the way, and I clear em out of money and drugs.  This is the real problem with addiction. Every so often your character will whine about how they now need to get high, and while withdrawal does impose some minor penalties (and then goes away on its own) actual addiction doesn't matter because you're gonna be shooting up stims in combat. The game wants you to go to Krasnoznamenny to burn 400 rubles to cure addiction. Never do this. Addiction goes away on its own.  These things are always useful but I don't want to burn all our money on it just yet. They're the closest thing the game has to traps in combat, and there's one late game encounter in particular I am going to cheese by setting the timer on a bunch of these, dropping them on the floor, pulling aggro, and running like hell.  I am grateful to all the gods that these lines are not voice acted.  Also, Bear just killed three bandits in two turns with a knife.  Different encounter, same poo poo.  We're walking nearly the entire length of the gameworld for this, and there's a reason I'm rushing this early.  God drat, Bear, when did you become such a whiner?  These spiders attack us. You know the drill by now, aim the knife at their eyes and stab.  We're going to collect these for a future fishing unfun adventure.  This man and his wife live in the woods. The man gives us a quest to go wipe out a wolfpack. It's dully translated dialog that we've had a lot of already, so I'm just gonna skip to the wolf fight. They also don't know why the forest roars, but we'll find out in a few minutes.  I'm not gonna dignify this with a blow-by blow. The AI in this game is easily exploited because enemies will happy run right next to you and burn all their AP doing it, and then you melee attack them with TURBOCRITS that instant kill them.  The husband gives us "various forest products" which are some fish, some herbs we can never use (it's a luck check as to whether they help you or harm you, and we have 1 luck) and toadstools. I'll hang on to the toadstools for a later adventure.  This is the other event in the forest we're going to pay attention to. Carving "penis" into the idol isn't the way to go, and "listening to your feelings" just spits out some crap about how you're hungry. Left unspoken is the Star Wars reference.  My first guess was Perun but I'm honestly not sure who this guy is?  Anyway, what you need to do isn't in this dialog box.  Dropping three pieces of meat in the stone circle causes divine lightning to strike you and give you a luck point. While this does nothing to alleviate the "Unlucky Optimist" penalty for Boris, people who aren't dumping luck should definitely seek this out. This raises so many questions! Is this an actual god? Like, a magical god? In the atheistic Soviet Union? Gods are real? So far the game has portrayed magic as a thing dumb people believe in, like with the rabbits food, but we just offered some meat to an actual, no poo poo god who blessed us with supernatural luck. It's a throwaway encounter, but it clashes with the whole vaguely Nietzsche-esque thing the game has going where there's no morality, God is dead, and in the absence of anyone to judge society breaks down and ordinary people become murderous bandits, leaders are all self-serving and corrupt...and here's an actual god throwing lightning around. Is he judging people? He clearly judged us as a cool meat offering dude and gave us a blessing. All of the other magic stuff in the game is clearly charlatanry for idiots (with one notable exception). It's never mentioned again. You get a luck point and an achievement (Sacrifice: Gain the approval of the higher powers). That's it!  As I said, it's sadly not too much help to us. It's very tragic.  Penalties for addiction as well.  There's not too much going on here, you need to have the rope and you can go down to the hole to do the quest.  Now we're trapped underground!  Hope you had more than 5 hit points, sucker!  This is on a skeleton to the right of the fall point. It's a hint to the secret item here, which you want. You want it badly.  It turns out that the earth shaking is caused by mutant bugs digging a hive. Now we just have to get out so we can report to Dan. Except I want that item that the note hinted at, so we're going to be here a while.  If you have a second rope you can make a mad dash for the exit. We will not be doing that.  This bastard is known as "Blind Death" and he is going to wreck our poo poo for one extremely bullshit reason. Well, two, but there's one obvious one and one less obvious.  I ignore the obvious hint that the game is not loving around and go right in.  Alright, good start! This guy is down 54 HP, and we have drugs, so if he can't kill us in one hit we should be good, right? Game says he's injured, we just gotta grind him do -  Take a good long look at the motherfucking log.  While we're desperately chugging drugs to stay in the fight, this bastard has healed back to full health because his melee attack has 100% lifesteal! If we had a decent gun or a bunch of those explosives we could kite the bastard to death, but we don't. So, uh...  We get off another 50+ damage crit and blind him. Guess what? Blinding does absolutely nothing to hamper melee attacks!  That could have gone better.  Here's the game over screen, which I definitely planned to show off deliberately as part of playing this LP and not as a dumb thing.  The bastard has a really high stun chance too! Now, if you bring guns and multiple party members he's a lot easier to beat, but I have a plan.  What is the plan? Simple. Look at our insane damage variance. As long as we hit him first, we can keep reloading until we hit the top of the bell curve and murder him in a single round.  It's not great, but this is the problem with having an extremely shallow combat system. There's not a lot we can actually do besides attack one target, throw a grenade to attack multiple targets, and run around.  The variance is just as likely to work against us as it is for us, but I have the reload button, and it is not merciful.  Get used to this.  Blind Death wins again, Lews Therin.  I eventually get cute and try the shovel in the hopes of proccing the 25% stun chance. You can save on your turn in combat, you see. Look, if the devs are going to place a giant sack of HP with 100% lifesteal, I have absolutely no compunction about pulling this bullshit.  Yeah, I'm not sure if this thing is immune to stuns or what, but it fucks us up badly.  The exciting conclusion to this fight is proccing two crits in a row, and the last crit rolls stupid high for 104(!!!) damage, killing this rear end in a top hat on the first round before he can do his dumb life steal crap. To my knowledge, that's an enemy only ability that only shows up on certain mutants.  He drops 3 meat, but that's not why we're here.  The corpse behind him has this! What does it do, you ask? The letter early said that one injection turns you into a strongman! We also found this letter from the Knife:  So, what does it do?  We can increase an attribute by 1! There is one more of these in the game, along with one event that is super loving tedious and will be the death of me, and you don't increase your SPECIAL by leveling in this game. I raise intellect to 7.  Sadly, it does not retroactively increase our skill points, and I fear I've made a terrible mistake. Onward!  There are a bunch of these assholes between us and the exit. They have sacks of HP and a melee autoattack that might poison? I have no idea, we were already poisoned by walking into Blind Death's lair. gently caress that thing.  Even getting cornered by three of them does nothing more than slow us down. There's a queen to the left we can kill for some okish loot, but I'm done with this place.  Pictured: the main effects of poison.  We make it out with a level and I dump Bear's skill points into speechcraft and melee weapons. Someday we'll level up guns. Today is not that day.  We escape into a completely new instance that's actually farther from the Factory.  Bear takes the opportunity to whine about drugs as I frantically pan the overly large map trying to find the one designated exit.  Back to the factory!  Have I mentioned that this game absolutely does not respect the player's time?  There are ways to get out of these random encounters, but for the most part they're stupid easy.  And you can of course fail the skill check and have to waste time stabbing rats in the face.  Are you threatened yet?  This is a whole fixed map encounter that has some pretty good loot! We're going in!  CAN YOU SHUT UP ABOUT DRUGS FOR FIVE loving MINUTES???  So there's a bit of strategy involved in this battle, as we're a currently unarmored melee character faced off with a bunch of gunmen. See that wall behind Bear?  That wall is our life. Unlike in the real world, where heavy caliber ammunition could probably shred it and force us out from cover to be killed horribly, the enemies cannot penetrate this wall and will walk to one of the two designated murder points, at which point we will jump out with a knife critical to the eyes.  Like so.  This build is real fuckin dumb.  The AI will happy, once again, burn their entire turn moving near us and then not having enough AP to actually fire their weapons.  See?  Enjoy your Darwin Award.  Enemy melee doesn't do nearly as much damage as we do (usually), and will happily run right up to use, exhaust all their action points, and put themselves in range for a knife eye crit.   These idiots are loaded! Here we get our first piece of armor, and these guys have a bunch of weapons we can sell for fat stacks of cash and drugs to replenish our supply. Starcraft marines don't have poo poo on Bear!  Oh, and this dorky helmet too.  I go to loot the place and discover that these two idiots with decent guns were waiting to ambush us. He does a fair bit of damage before his rusty gun jams, allowing Bear to show him the miracle of Cossack Steel.   The other idiot plays peek a boo around the tractor, gleefully wasting all his AP...  Yea. Welcome to ATOM combat, kids!  He kindly drops an armor upgrade, which we slap on to become immune to rats and wasps forever.  They also have weed.  I end up just talking our way out of the remaining random encounters, because this is taking forever and I want to get the cash from Dan.  GOD drat SHUT UP  : I've come to report. : I checked out the Roaring Forest and came to an unexpected conclusion. : It turns out the forest rumbles because there is a massive colony of mutant insects burrowing and digging tunnels beneath it.: [Dan raises an eyebrow in surprise... but soon calms down] : Fascinating. So it's because of mutants. That's a more logical conclusion than all these nonsense stories about pre-war machinery and underground trains. It was worth it though to find out once and for all what was going on, and to put an end to the rumors, however stupid.: [The leader takes a bundle of bills from the breast of his jacket and hands it to you] drat, Dan! : Understood. [Take the money]It's still an extremely generous payout. : [Dan runs a hand through his hair and looks up at the ceiling] : All right. I'll be on my way.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
Next time: So, we're going to gently caress around the Factory for a bit before advancing Dan's quests, but before we do Dan's next quests, what do you want to see? Should we go to Kraznosnamenny, pick up Fidel, and do various dumb shenanigans, or should we check out Bunker 317 and the main plot?
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Jun 10, 2021 07:02
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Well, that was quite a dreadful round of combat to see you put up with. As is the standard with these games. As for the vote... The siren call of dumb shenanigans cannot be ignored.
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Jun 10, 2021 07:29
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Dumb shenanigans for a dumber game.
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Jun 10, 2021 09:35
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Apparently he's meant to parody Yuri Petukjov and Gregory Klimov, but that's just a fan assumption. To me, he looks like a fairly average Pamyat member. ... The caves under the roaring forest (the part you get to with an extra rope) have some archaeological discoveries, including a stone tool (which you can also craft into a stone knife). I thought I mentioned this when we talked, but maybe not. ... Since the pacifist build requires Fidel and various dumb shenanigans, might as well align both playthrough (the real and hypothetical one that's totally coming one day). Xander77 fucked around with this message at 15:18 on Jun 10, 2021 |
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Jun 10, 2021 14:41
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I, for one, am glad you stabbed the conspiracy theorist Nazi. Also shenanigans, because the main plot is for when you run out of side bullshit.
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Jun 10, 2021 15:29
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TheGreatEvilKing posted:
I, uh, look forward to the inevitable Metal Gear reference? On the one hand, it'll probably be terrible, but I should get a chuckle or two out of it.
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Jun 11, 2021 03:32
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Shenanigans, let's explore every horrific gory aspect of this train wreck before proceeding past any.
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Jun 12, 2021 20:29
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While I do want to see the battle robot helicopter, I cannot resist the siren call of Dumb Shenanigans.
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Jun 13, 2021 03:22
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Do them Dumb Shenanigans
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Jun 13, 2021 03:49
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gently caress Kraznosnamenny Welcome back! Last time on ATOM RPG, we fought a badly designed boss and got a bunch of money. Today we're going to waste all our money on stupid poo poo.  This guy has a whole spiel on how Alexander isn't subtle.  : He drank half of the vodka in the tavern and even tried putting the moves on the local broad. It goes without saying that he failed miserably since that gal is colder than the Siberian winter. And good for her! The dude obviously had a 'history' behind him. It would be great to interrogate him! Such cell warriors usually mean bad news...When I said everyone knew about Katya, I wasn't kidding.  Woof, that's some translation.  Anyway, these two bandits guarding the gate have some poo poo going on. "Grinding for skill points" is going to be a theme of this update.  : Hey! Can I ask some questions?I've been cutting out TONS of dialog from incidental NPCs. If these updates seem bloated and wordy... try playing the game.  This guy is... kind of important? : How are things in general? : I'm alright! I've recently got back from patrolling the area safe and sound - isn't that great? I even found something during my patrolling. It was so heavy that I barely managed to carry it here! That's what I call luck! Every time I go on a patrol, I find something...: [He smiles widely and closes his eyes, probably remembering something wonderful] : It's good to be lucky! Can I ask you something else?: Tell me about this place.: What is there to tell? Can't you see? Comrades criminals occupied the former factory. It has a good territory and dislocation[sic] - it's strategically important! At first, a small group came, they made their home here. Then, other people joined them, from all walks of life. Everyone wants to live! It's better here than staying alone in the Wasteland where one may not survive the night... : I got your point. Can I ask one more question? : What are you doing here? "I don't set villages on fire, I just scout villages and report back to the hitmen. It's totally ethical!" Sasha does have a pretty big line he won't cross, as we may see later. : I got your point. Can I ask one more question? : Tell me some rumors.: You know what... You seem trustworthy. I think I can share something with you... Look, there's an old pier to the North from here. I know that there's a small stash there. The owners won't come back. Don't ask me why... it's just how it is... But you can have a rummage in their loot! I just never have time for it myself. But I can't let the good stuff go to waste.This is actually legit and not a trap. : [He motions at you to get out the map, then he draws a circle in the place where, according to him, the stash is. He nods with confidence and gives the map back to you.] This is also true, and we will do it anyway because we are not a smart man. : I'll go check this place out. Thank you and goodbye.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
  : Hello! What do you want? : Who are you? You don't look like the local folk... : [Burst into laughter] Are you indeed? A gangster? Have you been taking candies from younger kids? Or writing bad words on the farm's walls?: [The strip of the boy's face you're able to see goes the same colour as his scarf. A mustached man next to him casts at you[sic] a look full of suspicion and grasps more firmly at his assault rifle]: Very funny. I'm a valuable member of the team. I can... guard and also do household chores. And if you don't like it... you're free to go back where you've come from? Got it?! : [Speechcraft] Wait a second! You're hiding something! Tell me what's wrong! We're not charismatic for this yet.  My guess is that the strength option starts a fight, and I'd rather not hurt "Dima" and Sasha anyway. : Okay, I have another question. : Any idea what the factory folk are up to? More people get suckered by Dan's bullshit. : I see. Now I have another question. : What is this place and what do you do here? : I see... Okay, I have to go.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
To proceed with this interaction we have to...grind!  A monster? What could it be?  Aw, gently caress! We have to fight a bear, armed only with a crowbar! However will we -  Oh.  So, these guys. They are despicable slaving scum.  They're also some of the hardest fights in the game, because they usually carry automatic weapons and decent armor. You don't want to fight them. You REALLY don't want to fight them.  We could win this with a much bigger drug stash, but drat they have a circular firing squad and there's no place to hide. I reload out of this one.  The wolf pack, on the other hand, is an easy fight. It gives us enough XP to level up, we dump points into speech, and go on our merry way.  We're going for this perk, because it's thoroughly bonkers and lets us kite pretty much everything in the game.  A lot of people swear by this perk, which is supposedly needed if you actually want to tank stuff. Personally I did not find it that useful, if you keep up with your armor upgrades and run a stimulant IV into your backpack you're extremely unlikely to die barring bullshit like Blind Death and one other boss we have yet to see. Let's go back to our disguised friend.   Same skill check...   Before you ask, the sexual partners count can include Dunya. You need 10 personality to successfully proposition her in front of her boyfriend anyway, so if we decide to go that route we're gonna be blowing a ton of rubles on Communist Axe Body Spray.  : Now that was unexpected!: [The mustached guard shakes his head and re-adjusts his assault rifle so that it is more comfortable to grasp. Then he starts paying closer attention to your conversation. The girl looks at him affectionately and turns to you]I would also feel threatened if a master of the Cossack Sword started chatting up my gf and all I had was a lovely assault rifle and her devotion being strong enough to hide in a bandit camp filled with sadists.  : I fell in love. It was love at first sight, just like in fairy-tales. I ran away from home with him.You do you, lady. : [She points at the mustached guard, and he gives you a barely perceptible nod] : Why do you pretend to be a man? This is an interesting line - from what we've seen of Dan, he wouldn't tolerate any sort of sexual aggression toward Dunya, but it's clear she doesn't trust Dan to keep the bandits in line. Keep this in mind going forward. : I see. How did you meet?: [The girl sighs and lowers her eyes. It's hard to tell if she's happy or sad]: I lived with my father then. He would repair cars and agricultural equipment, did his best to fix what was broken. And I looked after the house and the garden. : Once our village had guests. These were Sasha and his guys. They had heard through the grapevine that Denis Denisovich, Dan, was hiring, so they decided to join his gang. They set up a camp near the village and brought their car to have it fixed, and ask[sic] the chief for directions, of course...Dunya, you just said Sasha only joined the bandits because they took him in at his lowest, but now he has a working car? And deliberately sought out Dan?  I know, we talked.  : [Nod silently]: He told me stories of the Wasteland, and big cities, and different villages, and forests, and mountains... And people, people! He opened a whole new world to me! The world I hadn't known even existed!: [The girl sighs again and squeezes Sasha's hand tighter] : [Shrug] It's your right to do so.: Of course it is. I felt like a caged bird in that cursed village. There was absolutely nothing there for me! Next to it, even Otradnoye looks like a world capital...! But...: But you know, I haven't seen Dad for so long. He doesn't know I'm alive, that I'm safe. I did a bad thing. I've left him alone and have no idea how he's getting on... : Look, if I meet your father, I can give him a message from you!: You must travel a lot. I can tell by the look of you! Please do, please! He's short, has reddish hair... Old... : I'll go looking for him. Bye.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 We trek along. More random encounters! This game has a serious variety problem.  This moonshine shack is where Dunya's father is hanging out. It's a 2 minute walk from Dan's Fun Factory.  Unfortunately, we are not talky enough to get these guys to tell us anything cool. Oh well!  We'll be back later. There is stupidity to be had!  Throughout the background of this update I'm doing a lot of random encounter grinding to get a mystery tool that will help us later.  Welcome to Krasnoznamenny!  We get a little video cutscene of this sign.  This truck pulls up to the gate and then the cutscene is over.  This is the graffiti outside of Fidel's bar, "El polo loko". I know that's not great Spanish and it should be "El pollo loco". I assume that's a hint that Fidel is actually not Cuban? Not sure.   : [Say the password]  : But it's better to die a traitor than live a slave.Hmm... foreshadowing? : [He gestures to a short lad running to and fro in the main hall of the bar] : Got it. Fidel takes us to the back of the bar.  : The coast is clear, amigo. No eavesdroppers.: [He gives your hand a firm shake] I dunno Bear, I wouldn't call the password ridiculous as much as "ominous" personally. : Good day, Fidel. My name is... : Bear Bearovitch.: [The man looks you in the eye and slowly nods] : [Tell him everything you know]: [Fidel listens attentively. He doesn't interrupt, nor offer his own comments. When you're finished, he removes his hat and pensively runs the palm of his hand over his bald scalp] : Yes, it's all rather tricky. : Wait, did you say "we"?: [Fidel gestures theatrically] : Who's going to look after the premises?: [Fidel dismissively waves his hand] : All right Fidel, let's hit the road then! This is going to make our melee playthrough a bit harder as Fidel starts eating our XP and injecting our drugs, but I am confident in my ability to play Bad RPG Combat.  : Right. Gather as much stuff as you can!Fidel gathers nothing except a hat and a bag. TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 Bear is a level 7 Cossack Sword Master.  Fidel is a level 3 scrub with lovely non min-maxed stats. There is a way to fix this, but we can only fix one companion so I'll hold off depending on how crazy the thread wants to go. Notice that some of the skills are greyed out? We can hover over them to see why Fidel won't do them.  : Tinkering: I have no interest in making stuff. If it has to be done, you're gonna have to do it yourself.Fidel is smart enough to avoid this game's lovely crafting system, which is going to be the bane of my life in a few minutes. : Speechcraft: I did my share of talking to people when I was a barkeep.: Barter: sure I can haggle, but how am I supposed to know what should be sold and what should be purchased? Easier if you do it yourself.: Gambling: Been a long time since I held cards. I don't like playing for money, and in the Wastes that's the only way people play. We're turning Fidel into a pistoleer for now. We stab, he shoots as he has fewer HP and AP. I know. ATOM!  We load Fidel up with some basic gear and marvel at the amazing color changing spiffy hat.  These people. Would you believe me if I told you interacting with them was part of the main quest? It is. It has to be done at some point, and it counts as "dumb shenanigans" so...  Let's just leave it for later.  I'm gonna say this right now: gently caress this rear end in a top hat.  Ok, that's not too bad... : Thirty? Well, that's not too bad.: [You hand the money over to the guard, but suddenly he steps back from you. He looks genuinely (or at least it seems so) terrified...] : [Intellect] This whole Krasnov's Syndrome is just a rumor. There is no such thing. : Umm... No, no! What are you saying? It must be the fever talking! But don't you worry! We'll figure out how to help you!Oh gently caress you. : It'd be good for you to get some help from the city hospital! But I can't let you in just like that.: [The man pretends to think really hard, then a mischievous grin appears on his weather-beaten face] : Fidel, what kind of nonsense is this? This is corruption at it's worst!: What can I say, Bear Bearovitch... Of course. This is Kraznoznamenny, after all. Everyone here is corrupt.See why this update is titled "gently caress Kraznosnamenny"?. It's just the worst. You could drop this shithole into Age of Decadence, the game where NPCs in the starter town scam you with fake magic rings, and it would fit right in. : Hold on there, comrade innkeeper, don't start with me! Because it might turn out that you also are sick! That you've caught it from your friend here! : [Speechcraft] Are you for real! Where would I have this much money from?  : [Barter] I'll be honest with you, right now even killing a man costs less.  : I get it. I'll be back.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
Alright. The two recommended ways are to pay the bribe or go through the sewers. Let's just Cossack Sword his rear end, the rest of the guards are out of sight. What could go wrong?  Oh. Fidel goes hostile and tries to kill us. Thanks, jerk.  Alright. So, we can pay the bribe, but gently caress that. We can sneak through the sewers apparently, but we're not taking such a lovely option. We're doing this... the COOL way. We'll start by talking to this, erm, extremely not sketchy lady here. We're gonna be grinding random encounters until we get enough of a very cool item that will let us bypass that jackass entirely.  Yea drat the game is pretty drat close to telling us we want to bone this chick. : [As she sees you, the woman gestures with two fingers of her right hand, a sign you've never seen before, and lowers her head] : It was not your two feet but blessed Mother Cosmos who brought you to the sainted martyr of Truth, Varna Banana Devi Christu. In the name of the Sitting Wolf I often teach lessons of utopian religious anarchy in this town, in spite of the hypocrites pushing me away. I have no idea who this is a reference to. : I don't know. Somehow, I haven't made up my mind yet.: [All you manage to say is "Somehow, I haven't", before your interlocutrix has finished the sentence for you.] : It was clear as day how my sentence would end. A hedgehog could have guessed it.: You shouldn't laugh, my friend. Hedgehogs are natural born yogis! Have you seen the balls they roll into? And now that I've shifted your attention from the essence of the complaint...: [The unusual woman turns to the public]: Dear friends! Varna Banana, miracle worker and fortune teller, is leaving you to enlighten Otradnoye village! Thank you, thank you for your faith in me!Our what now?  : Yeah, what strange people. This guy runs up to us.  : [Squint your eyes at the man] Right... And who are you? : Oh, how impolite of me. I wanted to offer you a job, an opportunity to make some money, but I completely forgot to introduce myself!: [The man turns and gives you a big smile] That, uh, given what we've seen from the mushrooms, seems kind of... ominous. : Oh no! Another cult member...!: Oh, no-no-no! I'm not a cult member! We have nothing against the existing, official religions! We are just a scientific and educational, philosophical movement. : Alright. What do you want to propose?: [The man comes closer to you. Unlike most Wasteland dwellers, he doesn't stink of body odour, alcohol or any even more unpleasant substance. He only smells of clean clothes and a bit of road dust] : Let me guess, you want me to follow her?: [The man nods in agreement] : Before you say anything else, what am I going to get for it? : Alright, you convinced me. How exactly should I be following them? : Alright, I'll try to do that. : We'll see. Maybe I will approach you.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
From this point onwards it's grinding time! We need to hit up Otradnoye for the next stage of this quest, but we can't really finish it until we deal with Gate Jackass.  These two jackoffs are standing outside the gate. They have an extremely unfunny take on cryptocurrencies, and while I generally consider cryptocurrencies a version of those bug zappers that attract idiots instead, these guys just aren't funny.  Look at this poo poo. The authors know that it's a dumb joke that doesn't work with their post-apocalyptic setting, but drat if we aren't shoehorning in references.  I'm cutting out a ton of this poo poo. Basically, these guys are running pinecone based cryptocurrencies which are just a scam to take money and give you worthless made up currency no one else accepts. It's vaguely analogous to bitcoin except for the part where there are a bunch of idiots who mutter something about blockchain and are dumb enough to accept this fake currency.  I am one of the greatest haters of blockchain you will ever meet and I still don't find this funny. Isn't this supposed to be about the 80s USSR? There wasn't any crypto then!  These two guys got scammed by the crypto gang because they took all the village's money to buy grain, then the crypto guys convinced them to buy their pinecone they could trade for grain with other crypto traders. How much grain were these two supposed to transport by themselves to feed a whole "mountain men survivalist group" for a month? Don't question it.  You can intimidate the pinecone blockchain scammers into giving you the money and either steal it or give it to the coke bottle guys for...the same lovely rusty rifle that the old man gave us back at the beginning of the game. What a waste of time and money.  Another scammer. If you haven't gotten the unsubtle message of "gently caress this town" yet I don't know what to tell you.  I make it to Sasha's stash area. We're doing a whole bunch of unrelated dumb poo poo, folks! This guy gives us a spiel about not coming here at night, and reveals the fish aren't biting because the water's polluted.  Ominous! Let's just go to Otradnoye until nightfall.  Mikoyan has some stuff to say about healing the bandits. We take the first option.  Then he says he plans to get back to work as a doctor. Again, this game operates on the motto of "never use a sentence where a paragraph will do".  Why is there an Osama bin Laden reference? I get he fought the Soviets in Afghanistan with CIA funding, but was he a household name? Was he really big enough to be passed down 25 or so years after the apocalypse? Remember, there was no 9/11, the USA got nuked long before that!  : Yes, yes! Come to Varna Banana Devi Christu, ye ill and lame of all places! She will not disdain you, nor will she turn her full moon face away!: Ah, I remember you. Never mind. In my universal wisdom I will accept your company too, wandering child, even though you are a greedy creature. By your wish to drink from my wisdom a second time, you earn the right of the first sip from the recent converts of Otradnoye!: Whom I can't see yet, and whose hypocritical authorities refused my request to give a lecture on the harm of hygeine. : Last time you spoke out against authority. Why this random topic now?: [Varna Banana smirks self-righteously] I am tempted to take the first option, but refrain out of respect for Her Holiness. : What kind of answer is that? It's even more irrational that[sic] today's choice of topic.: Rationality!: [Devi Christu throws up her hands]You could have saved a lot of money on translation, a lot of QA time, a lot of writing time, and a lot of player time if you'd cut out these drat virtual reality stage directions! The dialog conveys her exasperation well enough! Stop it! STOP IT! : What is rationality if not an imaginary candle held by a blind man who is struggling to find his way out of a dark room with no windows or doors?! A human mind is tuned in to completely different wavelengths.: Only the black magicians, aka scientists, all these Einsteins with their relativity theories, with their loud "I don't believe", and "I don't believe in Gods!" - only they try to prove us wrong! But rationality will not settle for long as the hearts of common people, of the ignorant farmers and village drunks!We met a god last update. He blessed us with lightning. That will never come up again. : They are as clean and innocent as children, and when my next sermon rids them of their drinking habit... Wow, just you wait!: Come to my next sermon as well - this time in the land of sin and depravity, in the chambers of the rotten, dirty old moonshiners who are poisoning this sacred land, this new Constantinople, with spirits and wines.There is probably some irony in Constantinople being conquered by Muslims whose faith prohibits drinking here. : Guys, let's get out of here! I'm afraid we are not welcome in the so-called "Otradnoye". : Wait! Which moonshiners exactly are you going to visit?: [The woman freezes and slaps herself on the forehead]: Ah, yes, there are as many of them these days as stray dogs that need shooting. Give me your map.: [You hand your map to the cult leader and with a piece of coal she marks the location of the moonshiners' farm]: People call this fortress of alcoholism the "Drunken Lair". See you there!Yes, the game is using quotes instead of << and >> now. I don't know why.  She gives an entire hypocritical sermon the entire time about how she would embrace the sick, then yells at one of her followers for sneezing. It's OK. We're putting this quest on the back burner till next update. TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
We're breaking the update here. Next time: The Cool Way.
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Jun 16, 2021 02:39
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Midnight Therapy Welcome back! Last time on ATOM, we started a bunch of sidequests to grind for a secret item that would let us enter Kraznosnamenny the cool way instead of paying bribes. Today we're going to check out Sasha's stash at night.  This is what happens at night round the stash. Fortunately, no one hears Bear screaming about drugs.  : Lookie here... A witness! : Umm... What are you doing, guys? : What are you talking about? I'm one of you! Remember when I said it was a good idea to study the crime slang book? : [Streetwise] Honest gangster? More like honest longjohn! I can wipe you out here and now, and any big boss will acquit me!It's better than "homie" I guess. It's completely different than the vaguely Ebonics stuff we were spewing in the factory. Consistency? What's that? : [The huge man in a gas mask hesitates for a moment and then nods and waves his hand] : Yup. Strange as it may sound, it was he who sent me here.: Dickhead! Who does he think he is? A big boss? Pfft..!: [The man adjusts his gasmask, annoyed, and puts his hands on his hips] : He wants to make sure everything's alright. And you're not causing any unnecessary mayhem. : What has he done to deserve the punishment? : Okay, guy, it was fun and all, but the captive is mine now. : What's the problem? I need to question him.: [The huge guy turns to look at his accomplices, who shrug in reply. Eventually he turns back to you and waves his hand, angrily. When he speaks, you can clearly hear he's offended.]: Ah, to hell with him. Take this piece of crap... let's go, men. I don't want to spend too much time in his company, don't want to look lame.: Just go already. Oh, goddamn, more text?  : No problem. [Untie the captive]: [You fight with tight knots, setting the captive free at last. He raises to his feet, growling, and rubs his numb extremities. He casts a look of hatred to the concrete block, then turns to you and smiles, a bit guiltily] Remember how we talked about Prokhanov and how everything in this game was a conspiracy? : Yeah... well, how did you end up in this poo poo? : I'll be completely honest with you, man. So I was driving my truck, not bothering anyone, - I'm a driver with a commercial company - at 100kph, or maybe even more! Opened the window to breathe some fresh air when I saw a fallen tree on the road. I thought to myself, "That's not good! I should take it away!" So I stopped and got out of the car...: Then these bastards surrounded me! Pointed their guns at my face! And... what could I do? I didn't want to die! I said, "Guys, please don't hurt me. Take everything!" So they did. But instead of letting me go, they started beating me! This took a lot of time, them poking their boots in my kidneys and all... And then their chief, the one you saw, said, in his nasal voice, "Now let's drown him!" And burst into this crazy laughter!: They tied me up, tied this block to my neck... I was certain I was done for! All hope was lost! And then you turned up, man... And well, you know the rest. We immediately call him on his dumb poo poo. : [Intellect] Who are you trying to trick here? I'm sorry, but your story sounds, to put it mildly, kinda over the top.: [The man hesitates and looks around nervously. Then he lowers his arms, as if giving up, and heaves a deep sigh.] : Right. Start from the beginning.: Well... The thing is... These bastards... They are slave owners. And I was telling the truth. I'm a truck driver, I work for merchants. Deliver goods. So I have a big truck, I drive at a high speed... And they made me... Crap... I was trafficking slaves. : And how did you find out? And why didn't you find out earlier?: Why? You spend half a day driving. Lack of sleep, all that... Then you stop at some house in the designated place. They don't allow you do go out[sic], there's noise outside. Then they slap the door, which means you can go, to a certain destination. Don't worry about the police, they say, they're part of it...This is true, as we will see.   : [Keep on listening in silence]: [The man coughs muffedly[sic] and spits a clot of blood on the creaking boards of the pier] : In short, I started regretting this whole shebang. You know, man, I couldn't sleep at night! When I came home, I couldn't look into my wife and kids' eyes... : What do they need slaves for? : I got it. Go on.Fortunately for everyone involved there are no encounters with child soldiers. : So... I was sick of it. And they have a man in the north, not far from here, in the Border Guard Fortress. He's a soldier, his surname is Beardov, and he has a beard, so... Beard is his nickhame. He always lets the trucks with the slaves pass.: He seemed like a nice enough guy. I thought he was maybe forced into it too, and felt bad about it, just like me. So I stopped there once, not long ago, and said, "Listen, Beard, I can't do this anymore... Could you put in a word for me? Tell them I'm sick, or gone crazy, or something. So that they don't give me this job anymore!": He was like, "No problem, bro! Go on your way, this will be your last mission! I'll see to it myself." And he did, apparently. The rest, about the tree on the road and beating, is true. And you know what happened afterwards. : You're expecting some kind of a feedback from me? I go for the comedy option. : This was a bad thing to do. But what's important is that you understand this and feel bad about it.: If only you knew how much... if only... You knew... : Tears won't help you, you bastard.: [The man pays no attention to you. He continues shaking for a while, then slowly takes his hands off his face and looks at you, his face red, swollen, shiny with tears. This is the face of a man who lost a dozen years of his life in a single moment] : Wait, where's this "Border Guard Fortress"?: [You hand your map over to the man, who points at a sport a bit to the north from your current location] : I'll do my best. You go now.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 I haven't talked about party members much. The first option is to check their health points and feed them drugs if they're low. The second sets the AI tactics for things like how much friendly fire to tolerate and whether to engage at all. I mentioned it briefly, but all party members are AI controlled by the same lovely AI we've been abusing to sword people and avoid damage. You can give them commands in combat, but it's frustrating, and it's one of the reasons the survival difficulty playthroughs are usually solo. The third option is your standard plot reminder (in this case, Fidel tells us to go to bunker 317), and we'll interrogate Fidel about his life story another day.  The stash isn't impressive, but we'll need the booze later until I sell it all this update  More bandits!  Party members will also spout off these terrible lines.  On the plus side, Fidel is semi-decent with pistols now.   : Stop right there.: [He lowers his sunglasses and scans your person suspiciously] : Of course! Will this do? [Hand him some wastepaper]: [The soldier examines the heap of scrap paper with unexpected interest and then tucks it away in the bosom of his jacket. Then he puffs a cloud of smoke in your direction and shakes his head so the sunglasses drop back over his eyes] : Oh, so you're the boss here?: [The soldier adjusts his helmet - the word "Peace" is emblazoned across the front - and takes a drag on his cigarette] We're going to get straight to the point, this LP is wordy enough as is and so many of the words are uninteresting. : Did you know that the guy everyone calls Beard is covering up for slavers moving people through the fortress?What I want to know is why? The terrain of this area is completely flat and the fortress has like five people. Why not go around?  Ok, I like that simile.  : A driver who used to work for the slavers told me about it. : Then what kind of evidence do you need? Yea, I wonder why that truck driver didn't go to the police? : Hmm... Rest assured that I will find the evidence! : [Leave]TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
So right now we only want to talk to Beard.   : Yep. Listen, are you called Beard by any chance? : How did you guess?: [The soldier smirks and strokes his thick beard as if milking an unnaturally large and hairy teat] Subtlety? What's that? : Are you by any chance the same Beard who works with human traffickers?: [You've got this soldier's attention now. He takes a nervous step back] : Cut the bull-loney. I know all about your shady dealings.  : [Very slowly clap your hands] Very convincing. My condolences about your brother and all that, but you know I'll get the truth out of you, don't you? One way or another.: You mean you don't believe me? Fine, what if I prove I have nothing to do with it? Will that satisfy you? Will you stop spreading your filthy lies?: Surprise me. This is total horseshit.  : [Frown doubtfully] Your proposition almost sounds like someone trying to lure me into a completely obvious trap...: Hey, hey! You're the one making the accusation. I have a right to make my case and this is the best way I know how. If you really care about the truth, follow through and get all the evidence before making a decision. Let me mark the place on your map for you.: [Though you're not entirely convinced, you hand the map to Beard, who draws a tiny circle with a piece of slate pencil. He double-checks the landmarks relative to the location and returns the map] : We'll see. Okay, I have to go now.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 We're not going to Rest Stop 10. That is an extremely difficult fight where the enemy ambushes us with guns and a terrain advantage, and if we do it now Fidel is probably going to get killed. Incidentally, claiming to want to join the slavers gets you ambushed at Rest Stop 10 anyway.  We swing by Otradnoye to give this guy a beer. He gives us three rubles. The tavern sells beer for 14. I only do this because we got the beer off some bandits.  No, it's time to grind random rear end encounters like this one! The "joke" is that the guy says he cut off his index finger, but taped it with scotch tape instead.   Scotch tape isn't even an item you can find normally! There's blue electrical tape, but that's about it! Whatever. This isn't funny. Highlight reel!  Assholes in Kraznoz!  Sidequests we can't do for a while yet!  Weapon upgrade!  Buying this book for free pistol ranks from Sasha!  Decapitating bandits!  Traders getting some good poo poo (we can't buy). Always hit these guys up, they're cheaper than Kraznoz and might randomly generate good stuff you want.  More loving bandits!  Thugs in a cave spawned on a random encounter map!  Unfounded allegations! It's a reference to another character with, uh, a unique questline  Unfunny jokes about an evil doctor who promises to respec people's stats!  Stupid meta RPG "humor!"  A fortune teller...  ...who sells condoms????  More murder!  Blowing all of our money to get this Cossack Sword! Seriously, this thing is awesome and on my last playthrough I took it to endgame. There is one more melee weapon that nominally does more damage, but it requires fuel and more AP to use and this is sufficient to one-shot the final boss and pretty much everything in the game from this moment on.  Look at this poo poo! Anyway, we're going to end our montage here and demonstrate how to enter Kraznoznamenny...the COOL way.  You see, we're kind of bribing the guard. See how we have 90 cigarettes? We didn't suddenly get transported into Stygian to pay Marino the cornuto fan, we are going to bribe the guard with all 90 of these cigarettes.  The thing with cigarettes is that: 1) They deal 1 point of damage when used, and have a 30% chance to lower Endurance by 1, which lowers HP further. 2) Using them on NPCs is considered a helpful medicinal action, so we will never draw aggro. Fidel is just going to stand here and watch as we hand this guy cigarette after cigarette and he stuffs them all in his mouth faster than Homer Simpson shoveling donuts. Characters even have a special smoking animation, so I can only assume this was intended.  As you can see, it took us 60 cigarettes to get him down to the "almost dead" state. Yes, it is more expensive to do this than pay the 1000 ruble bribe, and all that grinding was to find either tobacco or cigarettes so we could stuff them in this guy's fat face.  The dumbass is still thanking us as the turbo lung cancer claims his life and he explodes into blood everywhere.  The cool thing about this is that not only did we eliminate this corrupt bribe-seeking fucker with absolutely no consequences whatsoever, but we get to grab his gear which is several tiers above what we're allowed to buy or encounter right now. Bear grabs the gun, that's an AK74U which we won't be seeing for a long time, and I put the armor on Fidel because his lovely dex means he won't lose action points. It's actually profitable!  Unfortunately the gate is too hard for us to open, but I saved all my skill points from leveling in a futile attempt to prevent this jerk from level scaling with us, so after a quick point allocation...  We're in! Praise Philip Morris, we're in! Let's check out some of the shops...  Really, ATOM? Really?  I guess we're going there. : I was instructed to get a book from you. Here's a check.: [The old man scans the book receipt that the barman in Otradnoye gave you and leans under his wobbly desk] : Comrade Tolkien, this fine young man is here to get you!: [The old man hands you the dusty book in a hardcover and exclaims.]WHY IS THIS HERE! He's a bookseller, presumably he's giving us the book. We know he's talking, because the game shows us green text for dialog and his portrait to indicate the speaker. Stop it!  : Thank you, the bartender will be pleased. It was discussed in the thread, but this is apparently a crazy translation that adds a sci-fi framing story? : Well, ain't that interesting! Alright, I gotta go.: [Having noticed that you are turning toward the exit, the old man clearly starts to panic] : Why the hell not? I am all ears...: You are a Godsend! It's as if YHWH himself[sic] made you from heaven's manna! Listen!: A new sect of utter Luddites have emerged in the North... They call themselves The Illiterate. They only attack those who deliver my books to the other booksellers.  : Alright. I'll try to help you.: Thank you! Don't say anything else! Or this old man might start crying as a kinder! Here, take this as bait... See, this is...actually funny! We have to lure these crazy book hating bastards out with the complete works of Lenin. I think it actually works!  : Alright, I'll be on my way then.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
There is one last piece of business we have to take care of before I wrap up this update.  The game keeps track of a lot of oddball statistics. We have made 102 critical strikes, apparently.  Unfortunately, Bear is still a virgin. Let's fix that.  This hospital lady looks kind of hot, and also Bear is riding high on the confidence from smoking that guard jackass and getting away with it. : Reading something interesting?: [The woman sighs and puts her tattered book aside] : No, I've just popped in.Well, this is not going well for our horny hero!  : How is it possible? Such a beautiful lady, sitting alone, all bored...: [The woman smiles, looks away, then lowers her eyes before raising them at you again] : I just wanted to discuss your book. You see, I'm a big fan of pre-war literature...! [Wink]: [The woman snorts and looks you in the eye] : [Intellect] Maybe you could... tell me about your favorite authors...? And I'll tell you about mine...This is a lot farther than I usually get, tbh.  To the Bioware Zone!  Fidel has just been standing here awkwardly this whole time while we've hit on this chick with the time tested method of "drat, I like books too, wanna... gently caress?" and now offers some words of advice. He's no slouch with the ladies either! : Yes, it could be interesting. : There's a cool and quiet bathroom here. We could have a cigarette and literary chat there! Unless Zinaida Petrovna interferes, of course...: Lead the way. Fidel is content to awkwardly stand outside while we follow this lady into the bathroom, presumably to hear her thoughts on Moby Dick and the harpooning scene.  Yea, no, we're doin it.  : And I'm... : Bear Bearovitch!I see that Brothers Karamazov reference, game! I believe 2 is a reference to Isaac Babel, and not sure about the others.  If we had purchased a condom, we'd have the option [Condom] [Discuss nuances of literature]. As it stands, the developers apparently planned to implement STDs you'd have to cure but never got around to it. Really.  Then the camera zooms out because they sure as gently caress didn't go to Bioware levels of horny and animate every model, and we sit here for a minute while alternating exclamations of vaguely sexual content occur under the roof. It's kind of funny for the first 10 seconds, and then it becomes tedious. But hey, our sexual partner count is raised to 1!     And...that's all we can do with Zhanna here. She'll answer some questions about her life, and she's happier to see us after we harpooned her white whale, but she doesn't become like a recurring love interest or anything. Still counts for the achievement, though! TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 She's never mentioned again. Anyway, moving on from Zhanna and our exciting adventures in uncreative innuendo, we've got a fair bit going on from the last update. Remember when I was discussing Prokhanov and how he was kind of doing the Russian conspiracy thing before Pizzagate and QAnon exploded in the states? Well, we have a massive explosion in ongoing conspiracies just from picking up sidequests! In no particular order, we have: 1) ATOM itself, the very first conspiracy of the game. So far it's just our player character, Alexander, and Fidel, and they're not very good at covering their tracks - but they operate undercover with agents like Fidel and small military strike forces like Morozov's expedition. 2) Dan's bandits and their plan to become official forces of Kraznoznamenny, which is really just part of Dan's plan to make himself king of Dantopia. There is a LOT of bullshit going on in Kraznoznamenny, and this is just the tip of the iceberg. It's not really clear how much this is actually a conspiracy, seeing as Kosoy shoots off his mouth about their plans to become a state, but we'll come back to this one. 3) The slavers who are working with elements in the Peregon military, namely Beard, to kidnap and sell people and who are running a fairly extensive operation. There's a lot more to this we haven't seen. 4) The incredibly suspicious "Mycelium" scientific organization, whose representative was interested in Bear and Fidel immediately and felt the need to tell us the appellation of "Mushroom Cult" is incorrect. Given how much mushroom related bullshit we've run into lately, there's probably more to those guys than that one weirdo Igor. 5) The criminals in Kraznoznamenny literally making crook cards to identify thieves, openly and without consequences. Those are just the big ones. There are a lot of smaller ones that are implied, like whoever is watching Abraham's store and alerting the book burners, the tinfoil hat organization that's sending out legions of cultists to attack people, and a fair few we haven't met yet. It's all compounded by every law enforcement official and leader being corrupt (Beard, the Kraznoznamenny militia, Dan's bandits), incompetent (the Border Guard commander, Kovalev), all of the leaders being isolated from their people (Kovalev's isolated hut, Dan's isolated shack, the bunker the quest giver mentioned that all the Kraznoznamenny leaders hide out in), and the end result is something that looks a lot like the QAnon worldview...which is kind of correct for 90s Russia! I need to find my copy of Winter is Coming, but Kasparov notes that people in Russia stopped believing in democracy post USSR because they never truly got it. The elites looted everything. It's hard to dismiss this all as simply a conspiratorial mindset when so many of Putin's opponents get obviously assassinated, or when Putin panicks and throws Navalny in jail for revealing how much money Putin stole. (The developers will scrupulously remind interlocutors that ATOM RPG bears no resemblance to real events). It's not even like corruption in the Russian government is something new, the Tsars looted the country for decades. Now, the game does have occasional moments that push against the idea that everything is driven by conspiracies, such as the Roaring Forest just being mutant bugs instead of ancient Soviet machinery or a legion of aliens or whatever, but by and large it's conspiracies all the way down. Keep this in mind as we progress through the game. TheGreatEvilKing fucked around with this message at 17:46 on Jun 16, 2021 |
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Jun 16, 2021 05:40
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TheGreatEvilKing posted:
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quote:Notice that some of the skills are greyed out? We can hover over them to see why Fidel won't do them. Noooooooooooooope. Just a waste of time and skillpoints. quote:
quote:I am one of the greatest haters of blockchain you will ever meet and I still don't find this funny. Isn't this supposed to be about the 80s USSR? There wasn't any crypto then!
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Jun 16, 2021 15:45
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Xander77 posted:Uh... that's not my read on it. Yea, I might be reading too much into it considering the end of the quest.
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Jun 16, 2021 16:13
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You'll probably never discover this, as he won't barter for it, won't accept cigarettes, and killing him aggros the rest of the town so you'll reload before you ever get to loot him... but Abraham's Kippah gives +10 to bartering. Cool. Very casually cool.
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Jun 16, 2021 16:57
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The third literary pseudonym is a reference to Gustave Flaubert. No idea about William Sharpe, though.
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Jun 16, 2021 17:08
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Think I missed where the slavers care about the cult lady.
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Jun 16, 2021 17:31
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GunnerJ posted:Think I missed where the slavers care about the cult lady. Woops, that was supposed to be Mycelium. Good catch.
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Jun 16, 2021 17:47
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Xander77 posted:You'll probably never discover this, as he won't barter for it, won't accept cigarettes, and killing him aggros the rest of the town so you'll reload before you ever get to loot him... but Abraham's Kippah gives +10 to bartering.
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Jun 16, 2021 17:59
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Xander77 posted:You'll probably never discover this, as he won't barter for it, won't accept cigarettes, and killing him aggros the rest of the town so you'll reload before you ever get to loot him... but Abraham's Kippah gives +10 to bartering. It's those cool little details like the FATAL -4 STR thing that really tell you a lot of heart was poured into a game. Not necessarily the right kind, but heart nonetheless. By the way, Navalny is also a tremendous piece of poo poo, which led to Amnesty International's fun little dance in which Navalny re-earned his place as a Prisoner Of Conscience by poo poo-talking Putin rather, hang on, being less of a naziesque piece of poo poo.
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Jun 16, 2021 18:11
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The condom-selling fortune-teller bears (hurhur!) more than a just a little resemblance to Russian adult actress Kira Queen...
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Jun 16, 2021 18:13
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SIGSEGV posted:By the way, Navalny is also a tremendous piece of poo poo, which led to Amnesty International's fun little dance in which Navalny re-earned his place as a Prisoner Of Conscience by poo poo-talking Putin rather, hang on, being less of a naziesque piece of poo poo. ... Also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marina_Tsvigun (That's the issue with mostly being familiar with pre-1990 Russian culture - reaaaaaaally obvious references like this one utterly escape me) Xander77 fucked around with this message at 18:46 on Jun 16, 2021 |
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Jun 16, 2021 18:42
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BisbyWorl posted:Isn't this the game where a merchant's portrait is a Jewish caricature? TheGreatEvilKing posted:
Hey, what do you know, I was right! 
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Jun 16, 2021 18:48
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Xander77 posted:You'll probably never discover this, as he won't barter for it, won't accept cigarettes, and killing him aggros the rest of the town so you'll reload before you ever get to loot him... but Abraham's Kippah gives +10 to bartering.  Classy.
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Jun 16, 2021 18:52
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The Three Lamps, huh? It's just like Morrowind's anti-slavery faction, the Twin Lamps, but 50% BETTER since there's 3 instead of 2!
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Jun 17, 2021 05:31
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To complement the game on something, I like how the companions will actually talk to you about their opinions on the skill in question when you try to teach them something they won't do. I think that's actually a cute touch that's a great opportunity to flesh out traveling companions more. As for everything else.... blech.
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Jun 17, 2021 23:33
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Keldulas posted:To complement the game on something, I like how the companions will actually talk to you about their opinions on the skill in question when you try to teach them something they won't do. I think that's actually a cute touch that's a great opportunity to flesh out traveling companions more. For unintentional things to complement, I must say defeating an obnoxious gating off of a town by making a guard smoke to death is utterly hilarious at least. You'd think most people would stop accepting cigarettes when their lungs begin to implode, but I guess this demonstrates the dangers of peer pressure from a crazy Russian with a sword.
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Jun 19, 2021 01:53
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Using "helpful" things to kill people is not without precedent. In Fallout and Fallout 2, Super Stimpaks will restore 75 health right away, but you take three damage a minute later and another six a minute after that, for a total of nine damage after two minutes. As you can imagine, you can pump a friendly full of these and just wait for the crash to take them down for you.
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Jun 19, 2021 02:41
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And of course in Elder Scrolls games, you can pickpocket someone, slip something harmful into your target's inventory, and watch them equip or use it and slowly die.
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Jun 20, 2021 10:35
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There was the infamous way of dealing with the pickpocketing kids in Fallout 2.
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Jun 20, 2021 10:58
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The Lone Badger posted:There was the infamous way of dealing with the pickpocketing kids in Fallout 2.
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Jun 20, 2021 12:05
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In Arcanum you can drop cursed armor and if it has better overal stats, the NPC's would just pick it up and equip it... even equipping it loads you up with enough poison to kill you.
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Jun 20, 2021 12:58
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Archer666 posted:In Arcanum you can drop cursed armor and if it has better overal stats, the NPC's would just pick it up and equip it... even equipping it loads you up with enough poison to kill you. More to the point, killing a single person in Arcanum \ Fallout wouldn't necessarily turn the entire town hostile.
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Jun 20, 2021 15:23
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 : Sup, one and all. I'm finally getting around to doing a supplementary playthrough, showing off various things of interest. As a challenge \ to differentiate our character, he's going to be a pacifist. In fact, I'm concurrently writing a a guide to the rare pacifist achievement. quote:A true pacifist abhors murdering any living being. At least personally... As you may imagine, the implication here is that kills made by companions don’t count. Regardless, I’ll try to figure out a way to complete the main game quests without any casualties whatsoever. As ever, when forced to choose between skipping \ abridging info that's of little interest (our character build \ the tutorial) or devoting a full update to them, I'm going for quantity over quality. Feel free to skip this if you’re not playing along \ not interested in the game's mechanics.  : Meet our protagonist - the most white-bread 1980’s Komsomol leader imaginable, because that’s how I roll. His name is Arthur. Or rather, Артур, because I keep skipping between Russian and English, and some things don’t really update. Obviously enough, we’ll be taking the Leader trait, as our companions will be doing all the fighting for us.  You’d imagine this is our other trait, but instead, we’re going to go with:  Skill points are abundant – character points are very rare. This seems like a decent tradeoff (I'm mostly improvising here, so we'll whether I'm right later), even if it ends up making the early game slightly more difficult.  : Final stats. As you can see, our skills are fairly awful. That +20 to Gambling is utterly worthless, as we won’t be using that Gambling skill pretty much ever. We’ll need 30 in throwing weapons at some point, so that's pretty much a full level that's going to be devoted to raising that skill, just to show off an interesting bit of the game. Our character points are selected with relatively little thought, and could probably be altered quite a bit. Luck = 8. There are some interesting interactions that require high Luck (9 thanks to the Roaring forest idol, 10 with a certain item) that I’m planning to show off. An argument can be made for Luck of 1, particularly as we’re not fighting anyone and have no use for crits, and the saved character points would be handy pretty much anywhere else (probably would go with Diplomat as our other trait in that case) Personality = 6. Not, strictly speaking, optimal – you can smoke two joints to get +2 to personality for quite a while, and slather yourself with two colognes for another +2, which means that 4 Personality would still allow you to pass the vast majority of tough checks. Meh – I don’t feel like hunting down Axe body spray, so we're going to play a pacifist stoner. Attention = 6. Needed for certain checks, and there’s practically no way to increase it. (A few interesting checks require 7, which I would have gone with if I could spare the character points). Intellect = 8. We mostly need skill points in the early game - this build is actually less INT hungry than most, what with not needing weapon skills. Endurance = 8, just to survive in those circumstances where we have to talk to someone to start a fight and will be the first on the firing line. Eh – more HP is always good, but I might as well have put 2 of those points into Dexterity. Dexterity = 4. We won’t be fighting anyone, but having more AP to run away wouldn’t have hurt, actually. Strength = 4. The only use this build has for strength is carry weight, as we won’t be punching anyone. OTOH - I’m a compulsive scrounger in videogames. I could have dropped it further – we're going to be bee-lining for companions that can act as mules, and at least the Duffel Bag is easily obtainable (as shown in TGEK's previous update) and would increase our carrying capacity quite a bit.  We’re playing on Expert (Survival limits your ability to save, which I cannot bear). As I looked up the kickstarter codes online, I have some additional outfit \ starting item options. The STALKER gas mask (which you get with the Ranger outfit) gives you 100% toxicity resistance. Very useful, but on fairly rare occasions.  The Ranger’s hat gives you +10 to Survival. Mildly, yet consistently, useful. My years of TF2 playtime simply don’t allow me to bypass a unique fancy hat.  The other (generic) kickstarter items are a neat knife (that we’ll never get to use)  And an ATOM dog tag, which you should be wearing for the majority of your playtime. You only get these items once you start the game proper, post-tutorial (since the mugging empties your inventory)  : Starting the game proper gets you the achievement “Atom Agent” (I don’t think I’ve ever seen another steam game where over 99% of the owners actually played it. Helps that it was never in a bundle or heavily discounted). Starting the game with 11 in any character stat gets you the “Savant” achievement.… However, before we get to the game proper, we're going to spend the rest of the update reviewing the tutorial, both in terms of important tips (where it's fairly decent), and so I can bitch about the game’s peculiarities. We’re starting off where TGEK left off – being tasked with finding the key that will let us outside.  First things first – “Isometric Mode” takes control of the camera and limits its rotation to a few fixed angles. I hate that in principle, and I particularly hate how that stops you from spotting \ clicking on certain items. Unfortunately, it automatically turns back on every single time you exit the game \ reload your save.  ATOM RPG doesn’t have Nuka-Cola, it has Atomic Kvass. Or Atomic “Fizzy Drink”. Except it doesn’t, really, since you won’t see Atomic Kvass in the rest of the game. That’s the sort of bad gag you should either commit to or abandon, IMO.  Annoyance N+1 – if you want to use items in the gameworld (as opposed to using them in dialog) you need to equip them in the use slot, click on them and click on the item in the world. Just having them in your inventory or even interacting with the object in the gameworld while they’re equipped is not enough.  It's worth going through several minor tutorial steps just for the xp.   We're going explore and thoroughly loot the ATOM base before heading out. The tutorial is fairly good, btw - you can engage with each element at your own pace and time, or skip directly to the briefing whenever you feel like it. Mind, you can also miss on some things inadverently.   There’s a storage facility dedicated to teaching you how the crafting system works (I completely failed to spot this, and the infirmary building, on my first playthrough)  I’m using a mod which highlights locked containers (unmodded, every container is green, turning yellow once you’ve emptied it \ checked and found that it’s empty), which saves a fair bit of time and definitely should have been in the game proper from the start. That, and outright marking empty containers to begin with (if eliminating them would hurt the game’s precious “huge empty spaces” verisimilitude)  Can’t open the safe, but there’s a note with the code nearby  Of course.  The contents. Glasses are fairly rare in the wastelands – you’ll mostly be able to loot them from civilians in settlements.   : Pickpocketing tutorial.  : (Which doesn’t tell you that your pickpocket skill minus the NPC’s alertness skills [which you can’t see in the base game] = your chance of filching something [maluses for size and quantity probably apply])  Into the infirmary we head.   : Dang it. Where did I put my glasses? Oh, hello there! Didn't notice you, cadet. That's a good thing. A stealthy soldier is a long-lived soldier, after all. Did you need something from me this beautiful morning? : What were your glasses doing in a secure safe?: A safe, huh? I'm afraid I'm not entirely sure. I : One of the very few time someone's portrait actually changes. Would be neat to see, say, the slaver truck driver with his bruises healed. There are a lot of portraits which have a terrible paste-job hat, never taken off. : Reward please. : Hah. I do appreciate how "Name, Job, Rumors, Feelings about the collapse of the Soviet Union" are the standard questions our RPG protagonist was trained to ask.: I do have a first aid tutorial for you, not that it works that way in the game proper : Here's my report: Taras is bandaged and resting. : We also loot a stimpack and a superstimpack  : I mean, stimulator and super-stimulator.   Shooting gallery – pistols, rifles, automatic gun, grenades (but not crossbows, the other throwing-weapon). Neat enough – allows you a chance to see whether your skills are up to snuff before you start the game proper. We literally can't hit anything with grenades or rifles, even the nearest target. No xp for us.   Apparently I forgot to take pic of the training items, assuring us they're all extremely non-lethal.  There’s a pair of ATOM agents by the firing range you can have a training shootout against. I don’t think you get xp if you win though. My introduction to the game’s companion AI involved Alf running back and forth between two spots of cover during his turn. You can sorta ignore cover for the majority of the game, but the UI not really showing sight-lines and what counts as cover is still pretty annoying.  Spar with Alf to test out your melee \ unarmed skills. Pretty good xp if you win, but we don’t stand a chance.    Cooking heals you AND provides you with buffs. I like the fact that buffs are generally ubiquitous and long-lasting in this game. But, in another dumb decision, you can’t actually construct a cooking fire – you either camp in the wilderness or hope the settlement you’re in has one.  Reminder to raid waste bins for junk and crafting components.  We now have so much junk in our inventory that we’re encumbered (easy enough, with our low strength. I didn’t give much of anything to Alf).    Time to smoke up and go to work. Wastepaper \ toilet paper + tobacco can be crafted into a cigarette. Each cigarette gives +8 to your crafting skill (all buffs can be stacked twice over, so we smoke two ciggies for +16) .  We now stand a semi-decent chance to convert all the wood, bricks, empty bottles and other junk we’ve got into useful items.    Our skill is still bad enough that items break once in a while. Turns out that trying to create a "Broken Bottle" via the application of brick to a glass bottle might break the brick. Who knew? You can save-scum or at least pre-plan your crafting root to optimize things, so that items that can be used for several different crafting recipes don't end up orphaned. Oh well.  Tinkering doesn't really get you top-quality items, and you won't be able to craft an equivalent of an M-16. But considering that our tinkering score is abysmal, and we're still managing to craft decent early \ mid game items out of literal garbage, I guess it's not too bad.  So... what was the point of hoarding and crafting all that junk? While all the items we've crafted will be taken away once the game proper starts, the xp remains. Rolling into Otradnoye at level 2 (which we juuuuuuuuust missed out on) and leaving it at level 3 helps a lot. Particularly if you're playing on the hardest difficulty and really need the skills points to avoid potentially deadly fights. Besides, I just like exhausting every scrap of xp possible. Tune in next time, as we explore the game proper - in far less obsessive detail. Xander77 fucked around with this message at 08:41 on Sep 22, 2022 |
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Jun 23, 2021 00:01
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drat, if I'd known you could level grind in the tutorial I absolutely would have done that. Looking forward to the rest of this!
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Jun 24, 2021 07:15
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Pacifist playthrough - Otradnoye part 1 : A Magnificent Seven remake didn't work out well for the locals. Maybe because it wasn't post-apocalyptic enough.  : One passerby told me that somewhere in the Wastes is an old, abandoned Boy Scout camp. But it's not entirely abandoned. All the boy scouts who were camped out there before the war are still there, but they've gone feral and they worship the Devil in secret rituals!: Other characters will also mention this. I do like the rumor system in this game - not everything an NPC mentioned will actually be encountered (or even is actually true in-universe), kinda like actual rumors. Echoes of the Metro series.  : Semyon has a bit of a backstory about being a former poacher - bribing Grankin and being friends with two other hunters who should be fairly old by now. You can start arranging a reunion at the moonshiner farm and the Roaring Forest. : Slightly more pertinently, he also provides a Survival boost, which is very important for a character who wants to avoid random encounters.  We already have more than enough Speechcraft to convince Katya to introduce us to Kovalev without having to go mushroom hunting, but we might as well. Collecting 50 mushrooms gives you the Kraina Grzybow achievement.  You can also start going for the Grave Robber achievement, but there’s really nothing of value in the Otradnoye graves. One of them is "reserved", apparently.  But how are we going to get past all the varmints outside town?  By leading them directly to various friendly NPCs, of course.  Who take care of them quite easily. I appreciate that sort of immersive tactic being available. Almost got the town shepherd killed, but that’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make. No xp, but you do get to loot various bodyparts.    The town trader actually ran outside to help fight the insect scourge, and now has his rifle in hand even when he goes back to trading.  It’s even in his shop inventory now, though I didn’t bother buying it (can’t think of a case where that sort of esoteric thing would be useful) One of my mods lets you know just how high the "trader level" of the person you’re trading with is (i.e, how little they’ll pay for your wares and how much of a markup their own items will receive). In the base game, you just have to remember the cost of some random item in your inventory, and see how much less the trader will offer for it. Generic NPCs have very little bargaining skills, traders in small settlements and on the road will have more, and the traders in Krasnoznamenny that you really want to trade with have A LOT. Which would mean you should sell your items anywhere other than the main KRZ traders, except everyone else has far more limited funds to buy your loot.  In the process of stealing everything the villagers own and trading it back for every ruble they have, I discover that Katya has this perfume (+1 to Personality) which I bought via sheer force of habit – my last playthrough had a female PC.  While we’re at it, remember how TGEK said there isn’t any ammo for the Old Hunting Rifle you get from the old man? There’s actually exactly one bullet you can buy in Otradnoye.  One shot is more than we’ll ever need, anyway.   Pre-war Hunter’s Memo  Grisha booking it out of town. Telling Kovalev that you let him will turn him hostile, but “he got away, oops” is all the excuse we need. Had I wanted Grisha killed (which would be pointless – you miss out on some content, but still wind up working for Dan in the exact same way), I probably could have kited him back to the guards (edit - that doesn't actually work). Or told Kovalev that I refuse, and he’d have his men carry out the execution.  The fisherman has some advice for us, but more importantly, his fishing spot has a very important catch. First of all, we have to craft the right lure:  Some mushrooms, nails and corn result in a Weird Doll. Actually, Otradnoye has only 5 mushrooms, just enough for Katya’s quest. You might be able to find some corn in the dumpster, but otherwise you’ll need all of it for the old man’s quest. So either craft the doll later, when you find the ingredients elsewhere, or skip one \ both quests.  Coming back later would also mean you’ve got better Luck (from the Roaring Forest and certain items). But that’s fine – booze helps improve your luck (up to +2 per booze type).  Your luck stat can go up to 11, which helps if you’re playing along, as the outcome of your fishing expedition is still up to random chance, even if you have the right bait and maximum luck.  Thankfully, one of the mods I’m using assures I don’t have to save-scum for the correct outcome.     Kind of a shame the fish doesn’t get a portrait. Anyway, you get +1 to a stat of your choice (not including Luck).   The other interesting point of divergence – the possessed person in Otradnoye. What happens is we find a more useful vessel for the demon than the pig?  : This old man has suffered enough! I invite you inside of me. Give me your power. : Aaakaka! Akaka! You did it yourself! You asked me yourself! Come on! Come get your gift![With unnatural speed, the madman hits you with his fist right between the eyes! The blow is so unexpected and swift, you have no time to react! For a moment, the world falls dark...] [When you open your eyes again, the old man is watching you with both fear and gratitude. The madness is gone from his gaze. You get up and dust yourself off while trying to understand what just happened. However you try, a clear answer won't come to you] [Although, you could swear you feel an unseen presence behind your back. Soon though, this creepy sensation goes away, leaving a strange emptiness and...] [...an irresistible desire to talk gibberish]  : Kurkula-Murkula? : [An old man in a tinfoil hat is standing right in front of you. He's trembling, staring up at you in awe] Former possessed person: Oh, oh, my saviour! Let me- let me kiss you on the lips! Eh, what? You don't want to? Ah, well, sorry. Old habits. Now what was it you wanted? : [Possessed] drat it all! What's going on? There's supposed to be a demon inside me now? : [The man looks at you doubtfully, as if he suspects you might be mocking him]Man, what are you trying to do to me? I was just starting to get better and now you're dragging me back into the abyss of madness. I used to be stone cold crazy. That demon was a figment of my sick imagination, nothing more. Maybe it's just stress that's making you think that he... uh... is inside you? Sounds horrible anyway.  : Ah. Whoops?
Xander77 fucked around with this message at 14:59 on Sep 22, 2022 |
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Jun 25, 2021 18:54
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Land of Mushrooms TV / Smile Guide (I can't spell it. forgive me) is at least a fairly deep cut for this, even if it falls into the issue of "everything this game references is better than it." (barring the zionist fascist poo poo ofc which sucks) also somebody please tell me about the sci-fi trappings around Russian LOTR. Bogart fucked around with this message at 02:24 on Jun 26, 2021 |
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Jun 26, 2021 02:04
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