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

[ERYFKRAD]

Any insight on why it was cut Atomboy

Ran out of coal.

 

[ironmask]

The coal mine was probably that stretch goal on kickstarter, they didn't met.

Another Large city - vast location to the East with about +50 new quests, up to +100 NPCs and activities!

New branches in the main quest that will lead you to some of the darkest and gritiest corners of the Wastes!

New weapons, armours, items...

All in all, a complete enhancement of the game and at least +20 hours of gameplay!

 

[Sykar]

What a shame.

 

[Technomancer]

You should properly tag Atomboy for that question mate.

Nah, he will probably read it anyway...maybe.

Any insight on why it was cut Atomboy

Ran out of coal.

Yes, it was likely connected to that quest in Krasno. Perhaps that is another reason because they likely had to add some reactivity for the player to go there before and after the quest. That means a lot of extra effort for a simple far-away location.

 

[Atomboy]

Sup guys? Here's a copypasta from Steam!

Winter Holiday Event & Sale

Hello, friends!

Soon, this year will end. And what a great year it was! We spent it together, perfecting ATOM through your suggestions and observations. The game became larger, much more polished and user friendly. It’s all thanks to you.

We want to close this wonderful year just like we spent it. That means posting another pack of bugfixes (see changelog below) and a little something for those of you who liked our previous in-game events. This time it’s a winter-themed one, where you will set out into the inhospitable Mountain Pass of Woes to eradicate a tribe of malformed, mutated snowmen for a chance to get new items including two fun little weapons and some hats.

As always, if in-game events aren’t your thing and you want to keep your game well away from such light-hearted additions, you can simply turn off the festive content with a single mouse click in the menu as shown below.

Thank you for a year of helpful feedback. Merry Christmas and a happy New Year! Let all of your wishes come true! As for us, we have only one wish: Let there be ATOM!

Changelog for version 1.11:

• Controller controls improved and associated controller bugs fixed;
  
• Changed bridge behavior in the Mountain Pass of Woes;
  
• Dunya’s quest bug fixed;
  
• Error in Dan’s dialogue fixed;
  
• Companions no longer equip whole stacks of items;
  
• Caravan rescue signal quest fixed;
  
• Getting stuck in Peregon doors fixed;
  
• Fixed a rare issue where Katya and Kovalev dialogue didn’t happen;
  
• Érror with Drunken Lair inhabitants attacking Player if Factory gang was killed off by him;
  
• Various bugs with floating or disappearing items fixed;
  
• Typos fixed, most problematic dialogues improved stylistically;
  
• Smoking animation fixed;
  
• New option “Display Player location” added to menu.

So yeah, we're on sale, we made an MMO style event, we hid some really profound stuff, we made a Christmas tree. Sorry! I fell to sleep the other day, so I'm posting only now. After this post, I'm gonna go answer a bunch of you.

 

[Heroic Liberator]

Oi, Atomboy, did you base one of your character portraits on Douglas Pearce?

Spoiler

Namely

derived from

Seems quite obvious, but then again; DI6 isn't a cultural icon of the same caliber as Lovecraft and what not.

 

[Atomboy]

Where do I find that kickstarter code that you can enter in the options menu?

Don't you know it's for backers only

Spoiler

either Fallout, atom or qwerty should do it, memory is hazy

?! :-----------------)

@Αtomboy a quick question,you will be able to import your cash plus weaponry/armor to tutograd?

You're gonna import something, that's for sure. We'll be testing transfers with weapons and apparel you had in your slots + a certain percent of money you had in the slots. If that's gonna make the player too OP from the get go, we'll go with weapon in slot 1 and a 1000 rubles or something I guess. But first we'll test the 2 weapons + some of your old cash, some ammo and some useless stuff you had on you like the mystery item.

As much as I like continuity, I hope not -- it would make things way too easy IMO.

Yup. That's what we'll test for.

I hope you can launch on GOG day 1 so I can

Thanks! Yeah, I was talking to GOG the other day, they say they want us for their early access program. We want that too. So I guess we'll be there as soon as on Steam.

ATOM Team was kind enough to provide us with some images from their upcoming short film based on the game.

https://ragequit.gr/news/item/atom-rpg-short-film-pictures/

Thanks dude! I hope our new email sending lady isn't bothering you too much with constant Atom news!

is it me or the video is of horrible quality?

Yeah, that's weird, it's low quality by default for some reason. Looked HD to us before we posted. Weird.

Hi Atomboy,

two weeks ago I wrote a lenghty review of ATOM RPG on wykop.pl (let's say it's Polish reddit) and it was a very favourable one. There are many aspects of your game that I really admire, but I would also like to write about few things I didn't like. It's mostly really minor things, but I'd love to see your opinion.

- Human opponents are done better than animal/mutant opponents and they are more interesting. ATOM RPG lacks a well done mutant enemy. Deathclaws in Fallout 1 were really well done, you heard stories about them before you met them, there was a well done build up, when you actually meet them you quickly learn how fast they are, how hard they hit and how they can easily knock you down. They even can tear through power armor! Awesome. This is monster done right. In ATOM, Morlocks are ok (I don't like the name) but they are in only one place and they have no story attached to them as far as I know. Let's take a look at Leshy. It's rare, it seems powerful - only seems, sadly. Why are there gorillas at all? Did they escape a zoo when war broke out? What's their story? Etc. It's not a player job to explain the world, to present it in a meaningful way, it's developers job I think. Right now a gorilla just appears and it's easy to kill it and it drops nothing of real value. So I just wanted to say that ATOM lacks it's version of deathclaw, it lacks an iconic enemy. If my advise means anything, you should make Leshy much stronger, it could give even 500 xp and make it drop something. Survival skill would be better as well if it would allow the player to harvest monster's body parts if his skill is high enough (like 100 for Leshy, 120 for Morlocks). Btw, are there any Survival skill checks in the game? Maybe make Survival affect better positioning at the start of the combat?

- It's minor thing, but I didn't like that wolves (alpha and such) were stronger than bears. Single wolf had 100 hp (was it 105? hmm). Don't get me wrong, a wolf pack probably is more dangerous than a bear, but a single bear would easily kill a wolf, so wolf should not have more hp than bear has.

- Mountain Pass of Woe seems underdeveloped overall. Maybe put some overpowered bears there? It did bother me a little when I could ask my companions about the part of wasteland we're in, and they would always say about Central Wasteland. Mhm, so I understand that MPoW, Dead City, forests near Fogelevka and eastern wastes are all Central Wasteland? I kept asking them, hoping for another answer, but they don't care if they are near Krasno or in Dead City, heh. Why were we given the opportunity to ask then?

- This game really encourages grind. Was it your intention that most players end the game before 20 level?

- Companions starting skills should be raised to more reasonable levels. I mean skills like Melee, Pistols and SMG and Stealth could be at 60 minimum. Alexander may not be the best soldier, I get it, but with his INT stat it's really hard to make him better. With 80 points in Stealth and Unarmed he would be way better.

- Last thing is my feeling that the game could use 1 or 2 more locations, especially east of Red Fighter. I was very interested in the ''Red Slavers'' with budyonowkas, they are cool and powerful, but as far as I know we can't really learn much about them. They could've been another faction I think. Any chance you could add their awesome duster armor and red star hat to the game in the future?

I really, really like ATOM RPG and I wish you guys best of luck in the future. I hope that after Trudograd is finished you will release some of it's new content for ATOM (how's that called? retroupdate?), although I understand that ATOM probably made all the money it could already and from business point of view it's more profitable for you to release new games instead of developing an old one further. I'm sure I would give ATOM 10/10 if you would improve it further, but I understand that you probably must move on.
Thank you!

Thank you dude! I read that long before this reply thread. It's a really cool post with very fair observations, and forcing myself to understand what it's about really helped me with my Polish! Now I remember everything I forgot since I learned it in uni! The reasons for stuff being like it is can be summed up in a single expression "we did it like we wanted to and the community didn't push us to change it so we left it like it is". I know it makes me sound like a terrible developer... But on the other hand it makes us change with smart advice from others. When making enemies, we found that none of us has a passion for mutated beasts. We wanted to study humans with deformities (IRL mutants) fitting into society, so that's why they are developed so much, but the fauna is not very inspired. Although, Mirmics are. Mirmics are our deathclaws. Everyone loves them, everyone talks about them, you can pet one, etc. Trudograd will feature a gelatinous cube-alike enemy that I'm very passionate about, and there's gonna be a cool pig or something, that will tear up your exoskeleton with vengeance. So I think we're learning to love making monsters. The gorilla is there because one of the mappers had the model for whatever reasons and hid it in the game even from us. We later found it and made a bit of lore on it (I think there's an NPC or two who talks about the gorillas escaping a zoo during the war). Plus, I like gorillas, they look cool. Same with wolves. They are so developed because we like wolves, and the bear is a late addition. There are stories like this about a lot of stuff in the game. There are a few Survival checks, but mainly it's there to speed up your character on the map, do stuff at your bonfire, etc. It does a lot, but covertely. Trudograd has more dialogue survival checks, though. One time you use it to train a dog! You can skin certain animals btw! And insects. But you need a perk for that. The companions should be asked inside locations, like in cities. When they are outside, they speak about the Central Wasteland as a whole. The Central Wasteland is everything, including Mountain Pass and Dead City. Honestly, we hoped most players would finish the game on like level 12 to 16. But yeah, we already see that's not the case! We never wanted grinding. But it seems like everyone is doing it. We missed something, I think. As for companion starting skills it's not my line of duty so I'm not sure, but I think if you grab them after you're level 8 or 10, they have like 80 in some skills. Don't they? I'll forward this question to the stat guy. Location-wise, it's not that it's hard or unprofitable to make new maps for Atom. I mean we could've made a big DLC every two-three months without worry. I don't advice that because I think this game is bloated. It needs a scenery and quality change that Trudograd will provide for the series. I dunno, maybe it's because I'm me, and I know how much stuff there actually is. Some is very missable. But I just wouldn't feel comfortable making more. For me, the game would lose the last vestiges of focus if it gets another big city. So thank Jesus we didn't hit that Kickstarter goal! We might make more for the Mountain Pass and make general quality of life updates in the future though. Every recommendation helps. So thank you again dude! Developing slavers is a good idea, btw.

- Last thing is my feeling that the game could use 1 or 2 more locations, especially east of Red Fighter.

They promised to add a coal mine location exactly in thar area but they quietly cut it later. I assume it was because they worked the Dead City and Atom 2 instead. Any insight on why it was cut Atomboy?

Yeah, at first we didn't meet the stretch goal, then the Dead City improvements took over and seemed like a better idea. Basically your question is why I remembered about that thing at all. Dead City killed it!

Oi, Atomboy, did you base one of your character portraits on Douglas Pearce?

Spoiler

Namely

derived from

Seems quite obvious, but then again; DI6 isn't a cultural icon of the same caliber as Lovecraft and what not.

For a reason I do not know, there is a huge Death in June subtext in the game, and basing the portrait on the guy is just the tiny, microscopic tip of the iceberg. We have subtle references to around 10 creators that to my knowledge nobody figured out yet, but DI6 doesn't even have an explanation!

 

[Heroic Liberator]

For a reason I do not know, there is a huge Death in June subtext in the game, and basing the portrait on the guy is just the tiny, microscopic tip of the iceberg. We have subtle references to around 10 creators that to my knowledge nobody figured out yet, but DI6 doesn't even have an explanation!

 

[Verylittlefishes]

Oi, Atomboy, did you base one of your character portraits on Douglas Pearce?

Spoiler

Namely

derived from

Seems quite obvious, but then again; DI6 isn't a cultural icon of the same caliber as Lovecraft and what not.

Oh, come on, it is too good to be true.

*singing The Humble Brag out of tune*

 

[Jenkem]

So do we know a rough estimate of when Trudograd will be coming out? I ask because I understand that you can carry over character from ATOM and I want to replay it with the Dead City content and other stuff that was added before Trudograd comes out.

 

[Okagron]

Decided to just restart my playthrough of the game (i had around 40 hours of playtime) because the last time i played was several months ago. Got distracted by other games and other things.

Excited to check out the new changes and so on.

 

[Sykar]

I'll wait until perk tree gets overhauled. It moves me to tears, and not the good kind.

 

[Abu Antar]

Is now a good time to jump in and play? Got this in the Steam sale.

 

[Verylittlefishes]

Is now a good time to jump in and play? Got this in the Steam sale.

I finally jumped yesterday.

 

[Sloul]

I'll wait until perk tree gets overhauled. It moves me to tears, and not the good kind.

Will there be anything like that??

 

[Sykar]

I'll wait until perk tree gets overhauled. It moves me to tears, and not the good kind.

Will there be anything like that??

Supposedly in the upcoming standalone expansion.

 

[Atomboy]

Ho ho ho! Merry Christmas, Codex! Thanks for being cool to us!
I don't have a lot of news as of now, but we could get an unexpected Christmas present yet. I've asked a very important person for a free cameo in Trudograd. Please let him say yes, Baby Jesus! Also please make him write his own dialogue.
Now its time for my X-mas Answer Spectacular!

So do we know a rough estimate of when Trudograd will be coming out? I ask because I understand that you can carry over character from ATOM and I want to replay it with the Dead City content and other stuff that was added before Trudograd comes out.

We'll try to release an EA of it during early Spring or very, very late Winter. If all goes to plan, it will be so. BUT REMEMBER: Trudograd only takes that one save made automatically right after you dispatch the final boss. You won't go to Trudograd with any other save file!

Decided to just restart my playthrough of the game (i had around 40 hours of playtime) because the last time i played was several months ago. Got distracted by other games and other things.

Excited to check out the new changes and so on.

It should be good! We made a lot of fixes since then. Thanks for the return!

I'll wait until perk tree gets overhauled. It moves me to tears, and not the good kind.

That's only gonna be for Trudograd

Is now a good time to jump in and play? Got this in the Steam sale.

Well it won't get any better in a very long while. So now is as good as time as any!

Is now a good time to jump in and play? Got this in the Steam sale.

I finally jumped yesterday.

Nice!

I'll wait until perk tree gets overhauled. It moves me to tears, and not the good kind.

Will there be anything like that??

For Trudograd and even more so for following games. But Atom will be like that for eternity, I'm afraid. Too many people would get pissed off if we change it. Maybe for the Director's Cut tho... But we have to run our of money before we make DC.

I'll wait until perk tree gets overhauled. It moves me to tears, and not the good kind.

Will there be anything like that??

Supposedly in the upcoming standalone expansion.

Yes!

/ X-mas Answer Spectacular

 

[rusty_shackleford]

This looks cool as hell men. I will be following this closely for NMA. Keep up the good work.

I am really loving that dog companion.

We love him too! Especially when you put all the silly hats, bells and whistles on him! I'll maybe even give him a Companion Quest before we're done.

when will we get tactical cats?
a tiger is fine too

where is my tactical cat

I'm still waiting patiently for the tactical cat

Any ETA on the tactical cat?

 

[Atomboy]

This looks cool as hell men. I will be following this closely for NMA. Keep up the good work.

I am really loving that dog companion.

We love him too! Especially when you put all the silly hats, bells and whistles on him! I'll maybe even give him a Companion Quest before we're done.

when will we get tactical cats?
a tiger is fine too

where is my tactical cat

I'm still waiting patiently for the tactical cat

Any ETA on the tactical cat?

This idea evolved into a foul-mouthed, street smart rat companion with a heart of gold, I'm afraid. But then again there will also be a sentient rat prostitute, so maybe we'll make him into a cat. I'll keep you posted!
P.S. I re-read this and it looks like I'm joking, I'm not joking.

 

[Sloul]

Will perks work like in Fallout and Underrail? Free to pick at every lvl\couple lvl, with some of them restricted by stats?

 

[pidstuff]

It would be nice if we could get a few companions. I really liked Fidel and Hexogen. By the way, very interesting power armor.

 

[OSK]

Is this game actually good? Or is this another Slavic circle jerk?

So I finally got around to giving this game a try. The game is largely a Fallout 1 & 2 clone, which is both a positive and a negative.

It was nice to play a post-apocalyptic RPG that doesn't take place in the American Southwest. There's some clever quests, and I appreciate all the world building that went into the game. The overall story was familiar, but different enough to be enjoyable. Unfortunately, the combat was lifted right from Fallout. It made me miss Wasteland 2's combat. Too many times I had to reload because an enemy spawned right next to me and proceeded to unload a fully-automatic weapon into my character. The English translation is pretty poor. I can deal with simple spelling and grammar mistakes. I can even deal with awkwardly worded dialog as long as I figure out what's being said. What I don't like is selecting a dialog option that looks inoffensive, but ends up offending the NPC and initiating combat. This game also just felt like it was full of inside jokes that I just didn't get. I don't know if it was due to my unfamiliarity with Russian culture, unfamiliarity with internet memes, or translation problems, but I had trouble differentiating throw-away jokes from lines that might actually represent something in-game.

Overall, I enjoyed the game. It's good, but not great. I'll definitely play whatever they come out with next.

 

[OSK]

Also, while I'm pretty sure Hexogen isn't actually the cadet's father, I couldn't tell if Hexogen believed he was or if that whole thing was some poor word choices from the translation. And which Georgia does Alexander talk about? I assumed the country Georgia due to where the game takes place, but him dropping the term "Georgia peach" made me question that.

 

[Murk]

Alexander's character is a habitual liar about damn near everything.

 

[Lord_Potato]

It's the brain worm I tell you. It messes with the host's memory.