KickStarter ATOM RPG - Wasteland Soviet style! - now with Dead City update

[Lyre Mors]

Well, officially it's around two months or so. Although, I think it's gonna take a bit more. Till fall, perhaps! I think May or less probably June may be the month we'll be done with all the game's content. We'll have all the text, all the pictures, all the sounds, models, locations, plans etc etc. But if experience taught me one thing, it's that having all of your content is just half the battle. The other half is placing it into the game by tiny portions, and testing if it didn't mess up the stuff that was put in before. Like with the previous update! We actually had all the stuff needed to make the update back in January. But it took another whole month to put it in correctly. And even after that I got like 50 bug reports we fixed for a few days more. This ride is gonna be slow and smooth, like a greased up pig carcass on a slight slope.

Take your time and make it great, guys!

 

[Atomboy]

Damn, Daniel! It's me - ATOMBOY, and we have another huge (and hopefully at least somewhat bug-free) update on our hands. If Atom Team named each update like those brave people behind Minecraft do, this one would have been the "OGR8 Shoggoth Slavery Surprise Update".
Here's the thing I made for posting on Steam:

https://steamcommunity.com/games/552620/announcements/detail/3338732583942109547


Dear friends!

It is time for another update of ATOM RPG! And we're not talking about bugfixes... Our April update is quite huge as it touches most aspects of the game. As soon as you update ATOM, you will be getting new quests, new characters, new stories, and new gameplay mechanics from all around. According to your wishes - part of Krasnoznamenny is now open, and many other locations are now filled with interactive content. You will also get to play the first of many backer quests we promised during our Kickstarter campaign. This time we made our good friend Rojson's ( youtube.com/user/ROJOV13 ) creation come to life in a long and arduous journey through the Wastes.
Working on this update took most of the last two months and we really hope that you guys will like it. Please, share your opinions and caught bugs on our Steam page. But speaking of bugs - this time we won't be able to fix them before next week, since on April 21st, our whole team (plus a very special Backer) is moving out to Chernobyl! As you can remember, this was one of the top-tier rewards on our Kickstarter page. We're also doing it to catch some glimpses of a true post-nuclear landscape. This will surely help us make the game better in the long run, and once we're back those bugs won't stand a chance! As for the time while we're gone - check on the progress of our adventure using the social media of your choice:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/atomrpg/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/atomrpg
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/atomrpg/

- 15+ new characters with unique dialogue;
- 28 new and renewed portraits;
- 15+ quests;
- up to 2000+ lines of new dialogue and system text;
- new weapons, such as the APS pistol;
- new headgear;
- new clothes;
- new loot;
- new books;
- new maps for both quests and random encounters;
- new use for the Amanita mushrooms...
- some empty maps are now settled;
- new crafting recipes;
- new traders;
- new Easter eggs;
- new interaction with an in-game fraction;
- previously incomplete quest is now finishable!
- new companion screen, to help manage your fellowship better;
- advanced tactics for the Follower NPCs
- updated combat and AI;
- a possibility of becoming a slaver;
- many long-term problems, including the one with the intro movie are now solved;

...and many, many more new things await!

But I conveniently forgot to mention that you also have:

- An ogre-ate surprise
- You get to find a chapter from Karl Junz's Unnausprechlichen Kulten I wrote myself.
- You get to buy a living person like property
- You get to lull Azathoth back to sleep with a ritual and see a Shoghoth (or not, since it was probably just those dang mushrooms)
- The Hesperus star will become even more mysterious
- More Lovecraftian themes done in the most civil way we know
- CARS (but will you get to drive one?.. Or will it just be another disappointment?)
- An even better translation than last time!
- Your choices will matter a lot
- Visions of a pig
- A parody of an obscure slavic new age cult leader from the 90's plays a major role in the game now, and it's not Baba Vanga.
- A certain conspiracy theory found it's way into the Wastes!.. But will you notice?
- Even though we try not to get inspiration from the Mad Max universe, we now have a quest that has driving, shooting and fat people.

Honestly, if I was 100% sure there will be no bugs for any of you, I'd say that this is the best update we made since the first one. Well even if you'll get bugs it will still be the best, idea and scope -wise. You can feel the new content - the quests are big, they take you all around the place, you get different ways to solve them. There's some postoapoc grit, but finally there's also that mysticism I always kept promising. That thing that 90% of players won't even notice... But it's there. All the time. Watching you. And when the stars are right, and the correct dialogue options with a certain fishfaced inbred individual are chosen... You get a glimpse behind the curtain! Only to have it explained off as a drug-alcohol-and radiation infused daydream. And maybe it is.

Spoiler

See you on Steam, friends!

 

[Ninjerk]

Гав гав собачка

 

[Alienman]

Atomboy, I'm always so impressed by your updates. I feel like Atom and Stellar Tactics are the hidden gems of the new indie rpg wave.

our whole team (plus a very special Backer) is moving out to Chernobyl!

don't pet the radioactive dogs

Only one head. What is this?

 

[Atomboy]

Atomboy, I'm always so impressed by your updates. I feel like Atom and Stellar Tactics are the hidden gems of the new indie rpg wave.

our whole team (plus a very special Backer) is moving out to Chernobyl!

don't pet the radioactive dogs

Just got back. Almost no dogs to even speak of, turned out! :D

 

[Feyd Rautha]

Atomboy, I'm always so impressed by your updates. I feel like Atom and Stellar Tactics are the hidden gems of the new indie rpg wave.

our whole team (plus a very special Backer) is moving out to Chernobyl!

don't pet the radioactive dogs

Just got back. Almost no dogs to even speak of, turned out! :D

How about pseudodogs?

 

[Atomboy]

How about pseudodogs?

We saw a few of those. They were chasing a Przewalski's horse (like a normal horse, but with a messed up hippo face) near Chernobyl's border. The horse was completely white. Well, like another Ukranian once said, Life is stranger than fiction.

 

[sstacks]

Thanks to Atomboy I now have a Steam key. Muah HA HA Ha ha ha!

Look for some gameplay video as soon as my to do list from being out of town for a week settles down a bit.

 

[sstacks]

How do you say Dogmeat in a post-apocalyptic Soviet Russia?

 

[Abu Antar]

Probably
псина

Edit: Or not.

 

[Fenix]

Кабыздох.

 

[Serus]

Atomboy, I'm always so impressed by your updates. I feel like Atom and Stellar Tactics are the hidden gems of the new indie rpg wave.

our whole team (plus a very special Backer) is moving out to Chernobyl!

don't pet the radioactive dogs

Only one head. What is this?

My first reaction exactly. Only one head. Exactly fours legs. They probably don't even glow in the dark. WTF is this s**t ?

 

[Atomboy]

Thanks to Atomboy I now have a Steam key. Muah HA HA Ha ha ha!

Look for some gameplay video as soon as my to do list from being out of town for a week settles down a bit.

Saying "WE CAN'T WAIT" is like saying nothing! Now for Dogmeat, I'd say Кабыздох proposed by a fellow VATNIK would work! You could always try SOBATCHYE MYASO if you're taking the literal route :D Although we call our Dogmeat "Dzhulbars", after a partially fictional WWII dog war veteran. They say Stalin loved him so much, he gave him his jacket...
What would the dog do with it is anyone's guess though.

Atomboy, I'm always so impressed by your updates. I feel like Atom and Stellar Tactics are the hidden gems of the new indie rpg wave.

our whole team (plus a very special Backer) is moving out to Chernobyl!

don't pet the radioactive dogs

Only one head. What is this?

My first reaction exactly. Only one head. Exactly fours legs. They probably don't even glow in the dark. WTF is this s**t ?

My last hope is that they actually can glow in the dark, they just don't so the weird horse would have less of a chance to spot them...
Look at them go!

Oh and speaking of Mutants!
There was also this guy:

But the stalkers say catfish grow this large naturally. I tend to agree. The larger you are, the harder you catfish.

 

[SausageInYourFace]

Thats some moody shit in the latest update, man. Dat shit with the horse is like out of some kind of Lynchian or Tarkowskyian dream sequence.

 

[FritzedProcess]

I see they have finally placed the Novarka structure over the reactor! Back when I visited Pripyat (in 2012), the project was a few years behind schedule. I also didn't get to visit the Duga array. Your visit was way cooler than mine (mine was in autumn, though, and the place looked fantastic!)

 

[Sykar]

All I know is I need 11 CHA

Well, 11 CHA and preparedness to still meet some resistance...

Nothing a splash of lube cannot fix.

 

[Atomboy]

Thats some moody shit in the latest update, man. Dat shit with the horse is like out of some kind of Lynchian or Tarkowskyian dream sequence.

Yup! That's the stuff. First thing I thought of was that scene in Twin Peaks, where there's this weird moonlight horse and a giant guy. Oh. Here it is!

I see they have finally placed the Novarka structure over the reactor! Back when I visited Pripyat (in 2012), the project was a few years behind schedule. I also didn't get to visit the Duga array. Your visit was way cooler than mine (mine was in autumn, though, and the place looked fantastic!)

Yeah, I think they only managed to do it like two years ago or something. It's still all shiny and new! The Duga was pretty mind blowing as well. But boy oh boy would I like to visit the place in Autumn!

 

[Citizen]

Thats some moody shit in the latest update, man. Dat shit with the horse is like out of some kind of Lynchian or Tarkowskyian dream sequence.

Yup! That's the stuff. First thing I thought of was that scene in Twin Peaks, where there's this weird moonlight horse and a giant guy. Oh. Here it is!

I see they have finally placed the Novarka structure over the reactor! Back when I visited Pripyat (in 2012), the project was a few years behind schedule. I also didn't get to visit the Duga array. Your visit was way cooler than mine (mine was in autumn, though, and the place looked fantastic!)

Yeah, I think they only managed to do it like two years ago or something. It's still all shiny and new! The Duga was pretty mind blowing as well. But boy oh boy would I like to visit the place in Autumn!

 

[Tancred]

I got a random encounter where I found a dude's body in a cave along with a journal detailing his slow descent into madness after

Spoiler

receiving an unsolicited foretelling from a gypsy woman; each night a star would vanish from the heavens above until eventually there was only a black and empty void staring down at him. He fled to a cave to get away from the sky, but found himself trapped by an unseen presence which drew closer each night until his journal ends.

CREEPY.

For Atomboy , some more feedback and a question, are you able/allowed to tell us anything about future plans for improved combat mechanics and when we can expect to see them?

Spoiler

Happy with the pathfinding changes, it's easier to walk around and explore now. No hassles. But the companions seem to lag a long way behind the player at times, and I realised they follow where the player has run, rather than the player's actual current position. It'd be nice if they followed a little more closely.

Glad we can change combat behaviour of companions, it helps a bit and was sorely needed.

The UI changes so far are good! The combat log is easier to see and I like that we can see the world map wherever we are now. But there's nothing that says 'world map', I had to find it myself by randomly clicking on stuff in the local map screen.

I got myself an ushanka , then I had another idea. What about Spetsnaz/OMON style heavy duty breaching helmets?

I found the mad cultist random encounter again and wore a tinfoil hat to see if that would change his dialogue; no luck. He still thinks I'm a shapeshifting Jewish reptilian from Orion who enslaved the ancient Aryans.

That third companion, looks like I'm a slaver now! Are there going to be any other uses for her, besides pack mule? Or is it intended that we do the nice guy thing and let her go? Any reactivity planned for being a slaver?

I'm doing alright with keeping companions alive now but that is more due to taking advantage of a broken economy. As soon as I start being able to easily kill bandits/cultists, I can just farm them and sell their guns/armour for tons of cash which makes it trivially easy to buy stuff. I have 10+ medkits and probably 50+ kasparamids now and 11,000 rubles (I previously had about 23,000 rubles but then I finally found a merchant selling good gear which leads me to the next point...).

...merchant inventories suck. The armourer and gunsmith in Krasnoznamenny take forever to restock with good stuff and the caravan merchants from random encounters 99% of the time don't sell anything good unless you get lucky and they're selling an M-16 (also how does Soviet 5.45 ammo work in an American gun that fires 5.56 ammo, is this one of life's mysteries I'm not supposed to think about? ).

The dog still eats tons of damage tho , and I found him rather late into the game this time around which hurt a bit because he starts at level 1 when you recruit him = less health. Oh I also noticed we can 'train' him now with enough survival skill, nice!

And I can get free healing from Doc Mikoyan in Otradnoye but I can't ask him to heal Fidel or Gyulchatai.

EDIT: Damn I almost forgot to ask! Silencers! Are we still getting them? What will their practical effect be on gameplay? Can we use them to silently murder people without attracting hordes of guards?

Keep the good work up

 

[Atomboy]

I got a random encounter where I found a dude's body in a cave along with a journal detailing his slow descent into madness after

Spoiler

receiving an unsolicited foretelling from a gypsy woman; each night a star would vanish from the heavens above until eventually there was only a black and empty void staring down at him. He fled to a cave to get away from the sky, but found himself trapped by an unseen presence which drew closer each night until his journal ends.

CREEPY.

For Atomboy , some more feedback and a question, are you able/allowed to tell us anything about future plans for improved combat mechanics and when we can expect to see them?

Spoiler

Happy with the pathfinding changes, it's easier to walk around and explore now. No hassles. But the companions seem to lag a long way behind the player at times, and I realised they follow where the player has run, rather than the player's actual current position. It'd be nice if they followed a little more closely.

Glad we can change combat behaviour of companions, it helps a bit and was sorely needed.

The UI changes so far are good! The combat log is easier to see and I like that we can see the world map wherever we are now. But there's nothing that says 'world map', I had to find it myself by randomly clicking on stuff in the local map screen.

I got myself an ushanka , then I had another idea. What about Spetsnaz/OMON style heavy duty breaching helmets?

I found the mad cultist random encounter again and wore a tinfoil hat to see if that would change his dialogue; no luck. He still thinks I'm a shapeshifting Jewish reptilian from Orion who enslaved the ancient Aryans.

That third companion, looks like I'm a slaver now! Are there going to be any other uses for her, besides pack mule? Or is it intended that we do the nice guy thing and let her go? Any reactivity planned for being a slaver?

I'm doing alright with keeping companions alive now but that is more due to taking advantage of a broken economy. As soon as I start being able to easily kill bandits/cultists, I can just farm them and sell their guns/armour for tons of cash which makes it trivially easy to buy stuff. I have 10+ medkits and probably 50+ kasparamids now and 11,000 rubles (I previously had about 23,000 rubles but then I finally found a merchant selling good gear which leads me to the next point...).

...merchant inventories suck. The armourer and gunsmith in Krasnoznamenny take forever to restock with good stuff and the caravan merchants from random encounters 99% of the time don't sell anything good unless you get lucky and they're selling an M-16 (also how does Soviet 5.45 ammo work in an American gun that fires 5.56 ammo, is this one of life's mysteries I'm not supposed to think about? ).

The dog still eats tons of damage tho , and I found him rather late into the game this time around which hurt a bit because he starts at level 1 when you recruit him = less health. Oh I also noticed we can 'train' him now with enough survival skill, nice!

And I can get free healing from Doc Mikoyan in Otradnoye but I can't ask him to heal Fidel or Gyulchatai.

EDIT: Damn I almost forgot to ask! Silencers! Are we still getting them? What will their practical effect be on gameplay? Can we use them to silently murder people without attracting hordes of guards?

Keep the good work up

Hi! Major thanks for the feedback! We're really glad the UI changes seem to go to the right direction. The goal is to make it even more easy, like the world map thing for example The top tier helmets are already in game, it's just that they're pretty rare. The hat alone won't fool those guys! They sense your reptilian energy field a mile away! Well... technically you're not really a slaver yet! More like a strange kind of savior... Right now, the intent is basically to use you new friend's (see, i'm not using the S-word!!!!) weight carry abilities until you're ready to let her go on her own. However, this character might just gain more purpose in the future updates. Just watch out, the economy always might get improved! The merchant stock is constantly in flux, we're experimenting with different percentages each update. :D On the M-16 part... yeah, better think of it as a trophy of war some handy soviet dude once got, after which he completely changed the gun's innards making a common caliber fit :D We don't want too much ammo in game, especially for weapons that are basically easter eggs.
On healing partners at clinics - we're currently making a new, bigger hospital in another location, maybe it will be possible to heal your partners there, but it's kind of a tricky thing to do, so maybe in the end there will be a completely different solution.

Last but not least - the crazy cave guy! It's a real shame we could not bring the same wordplay into the translation, but in the original Russian, the first letters of each of his journal entries spell out "LOOK AT THE SKY"! :D In atom, there are many reasons to fear the night!

 

[Abu Antar]

 

[agris]

HOLD THE PRESSES. This game is using SQUARES, instead of hexes? Atomboy... too much time sight seeing in Chernobyl? What gives? How are you addressing diagonal movement, or are we in for another Dead State zig-zag fest?

 

[Citizen]

HOLD THE PRESSES. This game is using SQUARES, instead of hexes? Atomboy... too much time sight seeing in Chernobyl? What gives? How are you addressing diagonal movement, or are we in for another Dead State zig-zag fest?

Technically, if the game uses a TU system with big enough numbers - squares are even more :monocled: than hexes (it's easy to implement 8 directions instead of 6).

In terms of distance, 1 square diagonal movement is sqrt(2) times longer than a straight line movement. sqrt(2) ~ 1.4, so if your TU scale has enough total TUs for movement to cost, for example, 5 TU per square (out of 50 TUs total), you can implement diagonal movement without issues (with sqrt(2)*5 ~ 7 TUs per square movement cost). Of course if you use fallout's TU system - with 5-10 TUs total, it's hard to implement a proper TU cost for diagonal movement. If straight movemenet, for example, costs 1 TU per square, using the same cost for diagonal movement will make moving in straight lines meaningless - you can move 1.4 times cheaper by going diagonally. (If you played 1990's King's Bounty or some rogue-likes with square grid, you know what I mean), and if you make diagonal move cost 2 TUs per square - it's just the same as making the player move in straight lines only.

 

[udm]

HOLD THE PRESSES. This game is using SQUARES, instead of hexes? Atomboy... too much time sight seeing in Chernobyl? What gives? How are you addressing diagonal movement, or are we in for another Dead State zig-zag fest?

Yea, or like JA2 which was also such a zig-zag fest

Spoiler

Just messing with you Myron

 

[PanteraNera]

HOLD THE PRESSES. This game is using SQUARES, instead of hexes? Atomboy... too much time sight seeing in Chernobyl? What gives? How are you addressing diagonal movement, or are we in for another Dead State zig-zag fest?

Yea, or like JA2 which was also such a zig-zag fest

Spoiler

Just messing with you Myron

Well, Fallout had hexes.
Running vertically was also an zig-zag fest.


(not messing with you Myron)