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

[Serus]

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.

Good post..
Even 2 TUs for straight movement vs 3 TU for diagonal might be a good enough approximation if you really want to have low amounts of TUs in your system. You loose only a few % of speed by going diagonally in that case (1.5 TU for ~1.41 worth of distance) which might be close enough*.
What roguelikes are you referring to ? Classic roguelikes usually have more complex systems for movement and actions and they also usually don't use sequential turns but some variation of clock-based ones.

*Wasn't that what some HOMM games did on main map ?

 

[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.

Good post..
Even 2 TUs for straight movement vs 3 TU for diagonal might be a good enough approximation if you really want to have low amounts of TUs in your system. You loose only a few % of speed by going diagonally in that case (1.5 TU for ~1.41 worth of distance) which might be close enough*.
What roguelikes are you referring to ? Classic roguelikes usually have more complex systems for movement and actions and they also usually don't use sequential turns but some variation of clock-based ones.

*Wasn't that what some HOMM games did on main map ?

HoMM3 uses big numbers for movement points. 100*penalty for straight movement and 141*penalty for diagonal. Can't really say about 1-2, but I always assumed it was the same.

Edited: http://heroes.thelazy.net/wiki/Movement

And about roguelikes - I only played nethack, and iirc, both diagonal and straight movement costed 1 action/turn, so it was more profitable to move diagonally.

 

[dmonin]

Implement movement via squads much more easy than hexes. But in both cases it's a real pain in the ass.


Just want to say I found new screenshots. Big update is comming.

Personal bunker before/after:

 

[Fenix]

What I said earlier is still there - surface in your game is too flat, in a artificial way.
I see it immediately after looking at screenshots.
Look at Age of Decadence at least - they tried to mask that somehow.

 

[dmonin]

Hey!

Found new screenshots of new location and with new enemy - big rat. I suppose this will be in a patch on 31 may.

 

[Feyd Rautha]

look at those evil red eyes

 

[Alienman]

Is it friendly?

 

[Beowulf]

Is it friendly?

Only towards commies.

 

[Alienman]

So faction based.

 

[sstacks]

ATOM RPG Early Access #1 - Opening Cinematic, Character Creation, Quick Look at Gameplay

First look at ATOM RPG, which can be described as Fallout in Soviet Russia. This video includes the opening cinematic, a browse of the UI, character creation and a little of the beginning gameplay.

 

[Atomboy]

Eyyy guys! So many of you posted while I was away! It's now time for a huge reply post!

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?

The good thing is the squares exist more for the player, than for the player character, which means you don't actually move as if you're moving from square to square. We try to keep the motion natural. The field of squares more or less like that to roughly know how far you can go or shoot, like in Gorky 17! Or were they zig-zagging in Gorky 17? I brought it up myself and now I don't think I remember... Well in case they did, imagine this to be like Gorky 17 but without zig zagging.

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.

I think I saw our coder nodding. Great post. Even though I hardly understood it!

What I said earlier is still there - surface in your game is too flat, in a artificial way.
I see it immediately after looking at screenshots.
Look at Age of Decadence at least - they tried to mask that somehow.

That is quite the issue. We're approaching it from several directions. First off, the blue parts of the map will one day become actual terrain, which can stand out all kinds of ways, also we try adding to existing maps. And generally experimenting as well. Like the starting map - it has some hills, it has some dents, it's all over the place!

[URL='http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?members/feyd-rautha.10707/']Feyd Rautha dmonin Alienman ha! the rat dude's fate is still being thought upon. It might as well be something like that... Probably it's aggro at everyone and not even speak tho... Or... [/URL]

ATOM RPG Early Access #1 - Opening Cinematic, Character Creation, Quick Look at Gameplay

First look at ATOM RPG, which can be described as Fallout in Soviet Russia. This video includes the opening cinematic, a browse of the UI, character creation and a little of the beginning gameplay.

And last but not least thanks to the amazing Shane for his video! It means a lot! Really!

 

[rusty_shackleford]

from looking at the screenshots, it seems the PC is always alone. Are there party members/any plans to add them?

can I kill commies?

 

[Atomboy]

from looking at the screenshots, it seems the PC is always alone. Are there party members/any plans to add them?

can I kill commies?

Faulty screenshots, nothing less! You can already have a dog and a Russian-Hispanic cultural hybrid man in the current version. They are AI with presets you give them through dialogue. There's also a slave woman, but she just carries your stuff. An upcoming update to come in 9 days will feature the fourth follower - Old Man Hexogen, a former soviet writer turned animal lover!

And yes, technically you kill commies all the time - since the USSR never officially disbanded in our universe, it just got nuked. But if it's real life communist party members you're after - we have those too.

The screens can't really show what our humble piece of software grew into. It's pretty big.

 

[sstacks]

Forget the commies, I want the SLACKERS!

*pumps shotgun*

 

[Wunderbar]

can I kill commies?

you should embrace them, not kill

 

[Fenix]

a slave woman, but she just carries your stuff

Fucking incline.

 

[sstacks]

ATOM RPG Early Access #2 - Otradnoye

Exploring Otradnoye (the starting village in the game) while picking up rookie quests and a nice drunken hallucination along the way. First look at the barter system and combat. Mushrooms seem a popular theme. Rubles rule, bottle caps drool.

 

[Feyd Rautha]

can you target the groin with aimed shots or what?

 

[Ovg]

I'd love a low int option.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

I'd love a low int option.

fallout 3 already exists

 

[JarlFrank]

Faulty screenshots, nothing less! You can already have a dog and a Russian-Hispanic cultural hybrid man in the current version. They are AI with presets you give them through dialogue. There's also a slave woman, but she just carries your stuff. An upcoming update to come in 9 days will feature the fourth follower - Old Man Hexogen, a former soviet writer turned animal lover!

And yes, technically you kill commies all the time - since the USSR never officially disbanded in our universe, it just got nuked. But if it's real life communist party members you're after - we have those too.

The screens can't really show what our humble piece of software grew into. It's pretty big.

Any chance you will let us control companions in combat rather than having them be AI-controlled?

Cause if they're AI controlled, I'll just go lone wolf (except maybe for the slavegirl, she can tag along and carry my stuff, Turkish wife with ALDI bags style).

 

[dmonin]

 

[Atomboy]

Ave, codex!

Sorry for not replying to a bunch of you - the last weeks before an update are cray-zee! The replies are coming!

But first, let me introduce you to the new major update! New monsters, new stuff, the nuke launch thing dmonin posted above and plenty more!
The only bad thing is that around 15% to 25% of the English translation is still in Russian for some reason. We're fixing it right now. Well, not me, because I can't do anything but type, but you get the idea.

Here's the changelog!

• Added two new locations filled with quests;
• Updated already existing locations;
• Continued the Mushroom society main quest line;
• Re-balanced random encounters;
• Added two new weapons - AKMS and the HK33;
• Added new icons of armor and headgear;
• Another companion for the player! Be careful with that guy… He has an explosive temper!
• Minimaps for new locations;
• You can now test your luck at the Lottery Shack!
• New enemies;
• Did you forget about Gulchatay? She didn’t forget you!..
• New (not final) battle mechanics;
• New NPC portraits;
• No more crashing during video playback!
• Added save file deletion option;
• Death in Survival is now permanent;
• Fixed pathfinding while following the player character;
• New weapon perks for SVD, SKS-S, R-700, PTRD;
• A huge new dungeon, the Death Tunnel, crawling with new monsters and lined with intricate puzzles and memos;
• New weather effects (Fog, rain);
• A chance to launch a real live nuke… Into a place we all know from childhood!
• New minimap zoom;
• Endurance now helps you endure staggering attacks;
• New sounds;
• New music;
• New books in the KRZ library!
• Many, many bugs fixed;

BONUS CODEX-ONLY CHANGELOG BULLETPOINT: You can nuke the original location of The Glow from Fallout 1 :---D Wow! Remember The Glow? Remember the wacky The Glow quest from BoS? It's as if ATOM is now somehow connected to the Fallout universe!!! It's like the same game now, guys! Piggybacking on that good old lore!
And also there's going to be a personal bunker now, and a servant, and a new companion, it really is a large update guys. And it's all thanks to your support.

And some pictures:

The mutant rats have larger more EVIL versions now! The Nibblers!

That's some of the new items. Don't worry, the G3 gun even says "It's so weird this gun is in USSR" in the description so it's not setting-shattering! The pinecone is especially important.

I can't help but repost. I love this one so much. It's my favorite place in the game now. Look at those displays! They actually say stuff relevant to solving this bunker's mystery! And notice the small clocks that show different times! Some are broken because they're old. Such attention to detail, huh?

Here's the bunker sketch we did way back when for Kickstarter. Now this sketch is implemented in the game. It became reality. This makes me so happy!

Hope you enjoy!

Solve et coagula, guys!

 

[sstacks]

Я буду наслаждаться зарядом свечения свиньей и пинетой, товарищ

 

[jungl]

Tried it out game has lot of potential. Locations need to be much more fleshed out. Vodka should also be lot more powerful and rare fought over resource between factions considering historically that what all eastern euros conflicts were about.