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

[Jarpie]

Came across this in youtube:

 

[ironmask]

Hey Atomboy , do you plan on also porting Trudograd to mobile and console.

 

[Atomboy]

Hey Atomboy , do you plan on also porting Trudograd to mobile and console.

I think we will, one day. Maybe that's gonna be our shtick. Porting everything to mobile. I dunno. Atom's launch on mobiles and certain consoles in 2020 will be a huge test of water. It these projects at least break even, we'll see to porting everything there!

 

[Jarpie]

Hey Atomboy , do you plan on also porting Trudograd to mobile and console.

I think we will, one day. Maybe that's gonna be our shtick. Porting everything to mobile. I dunno. Atom's launch on mobiles and certain consoles in 2020 will be a huge test of water. It these projects at least break even, we'll see to porting everything there!

Switch port might be worth it if you manage to "break in" in the eshop, some games have been oddly successful in switch, such as Thimbleweed Park, which was a minor hit on switch, but it is always a risk to port for consoles.

 

[Atomboy]

Came across this in youtube:

We don't comment on Atom videos, but we always demolish the like button. Thanks for posting that one! It's cool.

Hey Atomboy , do you plan on also porting Trudograd to mobile and console.

I think we will, one day. Maybe that's gonna be our shtick. Porting everything to mobile. I dunno. Atom's launch on mobiles and certain consoles in 2020 will be a huge test of water. It these projects at least break even, we'll see to porting everything there!

Switch port might be worth it if you manage to "break in" in the eshop, some games have been oddly successful in switch, such as Thimbleweed Park, which was a minor hit on switch, but it is always a risk to port for consoles.

There's a huge wall out there, and we'll throw stuff against it until it sticks!

 

[Alienman]

We don't comment on Atom videos, but we always demolish the like button. Thanks for posting that one! It's cool.

How come?

 

[Atomboy]

We don't comment on Atom videos, but we always demolish the like button. Thanks for posting that one! It's cool.

How come?

I do use my sock accounts from time to time, but I had the following experiences when commenting from our official youtube name. Once people who didn't like atom started trolling the creator for doing the video for the money we paid him, and he probably felt bad cuz we actually didn't pay him or know him before he made the video, another time a creator stopped pointing out mistakes and bugs in a letsplay because he learned we were watching and didn't want to maybe hurt our feelings or something, which was sad, cuz actually critique and grammatical error shaming is the best thing a letsplay can do for the betterment of our game! also when I posted in the past I got a lot of questions in replies to my comment, and since youtube shows you reply notification only when it feels like doing so, it seemed like I was ignoring people writing to me like a bitch when irl I just didn't see the comments! Stuff like that makes liking and commenting from sock accounts the way to go! but we do google our game name every week and watch everything made about us. it's really cool.

 

[Alienman]

Watched anyone play it live on Twitch?

That is one thing I would probably do all day as a dev, watch people actually experience your creation live. But maybe it gets boring after a while?

 

[Atomboy]

Watched anyone play it live on Twitch?

That is one thing I would probably do all day as a dev, watch people actually experience your creation live. But maybe it gets boring after a while?

It never gets boring, because the only few things that repeat from stream to stream from time to time are: 1. our patented "long left mouse click™" is somewhat unintuitive and most folks only learn there's this function later on or by accident if they skipped the tutorial. 2. they stumble over a few dialogues in Otradnoye that weren't fixed by the editor yet. 3. they are a bit weirded out by Alexander. But this one is so good, I hope to see it in every stream ever. He calls the player a "chav" despite being from Georgia, but not actually being from Georgia. Never gets old! The rest is very unique!
I rarely catch a stream live. My team mates are better at that. Last stream I caught was Indigo's a few days ago. Very cozy! A nice chat with a few people that know each other and enjoy talking and watching the stream. That's the tradeoff of using his other channel for streams. I like small streams the most, even though bigger ones are better for the $$$$ bizz!

 

[onemananadhisdroid]

Pretty atmospheric game, comrades. I wish there was a fog of war or something though, because it kills some of the suspension if you arrive at Bunker 317 and

Spoiler

by scrolling see way in advance what's happened there -- e.g. all the bodies lying around.

 

[Ihavenoidea]

I really like the game, but have a few complaints (many addressed previously in this thread, but I finished my playthrough today and just need to vent a bit):
- if you're so inspired by fallout you could have also stolen combat system from Tactics. Tactics wasn't a good fallout, but it's system was pretty fun. My worst opponent was a guy who realized that he can walk, shoot me, walk back. Freaking genius. If I had a Fallout Tactics auto shoot option this would not be a valid strategy.
- the one button system killed me more times than anything, since I ran with a crew. The number of times I tried to show target/tell Fidel to hold position and run to Fidel instead composed of around 10% of combat. I really wish 2 buttons of mouse would be supported. Or maybe I just have a shitty mouse, since no one else mentioned it I think
- the perk system - I won't rip onto the decision about ponts as enough was said about that. However boosting barter to get a good perk for companions, who do not use barter at all (specifically 10% discount) was extremely retarded. I need to spend points for a do nothing. If not a full change from basic game, at least make all perks usable by companions also. Or give them a different perk tree. I know you want a full switch, just saying even a bandage on that wound would work.

Spoiler

- hated the scripted parts at end of game. Linear, needed me to find a specific solution (pesticide/unlock lever at non-stalker base), fought shadows/plant thingies not giving any loot, in general did not have fun and freedom

- game is hard. My first playthrough I abandoned. My second playthrough I get Fidel early, and it helps. I know that many people here are hardcore and beat Dungeon Rats without ever getting hit or stuff like that, but still - feels like a bit lower difficulty early woudn't kill anyone.
- special perks were great, shame there were so little of them. Entomologist only came at first village - my advice would be to also script it at i.e 70 survival, so that you'd have different options leading to same outcome.
- getting parts from animals didn't depend on any skill and was pretty repeatable - would suggest some kind of tie - in to survival skill.
- food was fine, but if you were more into the idea, it rotting would add another layer to the game - I ran around with 30 meat pieces at one companion, and just chomped when nessescary.
- I liked consequences cutting me off quest lines, but still feel I did around 90% of things possible. Missing some small quests like 20 rabbit hides, or the car for Kovalev. Maybe I'm wrong, since I still need to go into evil playthrough.
- Good armor was at one place, and when I had money it wasn't anymore. Just steel/tire/leather, only. Peregon as a hub in general was dissapointing. Regarding armor/crafting - I think you wrote you'd change that in Trudograd, that's good. I'd advice stealing from AoD/Dungeon Rats - 4 slots crafting system with unlockable slots and better slot fitting as you progressed in ability worked great there.

I really liked the game, honest! It was easier to write about the parts I didn't like, since there were fewer of them. Not sure if I'll start Trudograd fresh after completion, or after first major bug fix.
BTW: which save on GOG would be imported? I have one for each ending, so how will I point to any? Should I use save just before credits?

 

[onemananadhisdroid]

- game is hard. My first playthrough I abandoned. My second playthrough I get Fidel early, and it helps. I know that many people here are hardcore and beat Dungeon Rats without ever getting hit or stuff like that, but still - feels like a bit lower difficulty early woudn't kill anyone.

Maybe options. The difficulty seems to depend a lot on the char build. My char is a melee brute, bit of an ass, Lone Wolf, no companions, punches before asking questions first. The random encounters on the world map don't scale per se, so a lot of the game gets easier anyway as you progress. But he punched through those as early as Level 7ish, unless there were a couple unlucky rolls involved, e.g. criticals. Haven't seen much new since.


I'm still stuck though and yet not finished, despite having seen everything there is on the map (almost). I want to do that piglet in the basement quest.

Spoiler

But neither do I have the personality / speech skill required to lure the piglet's owner out of the room, nor does drinking that bottle, ahem, seem to work. Fidel's informant at the casino meanwhile only offers me to play with him.

It's kind of weird though, because the most obvious solution, violence, doesn't work. At first I punched my way into the basement, night-time, rest of the building deserted. But upon coming out, I found that the entire map was aggro against me, including the guard of the faction I took this job from -- which is illogical. :D

 

[jackofshadows]

game is hard.

No, it's not. Besides, there's difficulty levels. If you found game hard on easy though then I have some bad news for youyou have to learn at least some basics about it before complaining.

 

[Ihavenoidea]

game is hard.

No, it's not. Besides, there's difficulty levels. If you found game hard on easy though then I have some bad news for youyou have to learn at least some basics about it before complaining.

I've beaten it, and I stand by my statement. There exist hard games that would be more fun if they had easier beginnings i.e. Rage of Mages 2. In RPGs focused at talking the task of making them easier seems simpler - just add some simple fetch quests/basic ability quests here and there.
Then again, I did my runs of BG 1 and ID 1 before playing ATOM, so maybe I'm just comparing difficulty to easier games.

 

[jackofshadows]

Then again, I did my runs of BG 1 and ID 1 before playing ATOM, so maybe I'm just comparing difficulty to easier games.

Have you played classic Fallout? Because as far as I'm concerned, for anyone who have, ATOM feels piss easy on normal (especially with companions).

 

[onemananadhisdroid]

I like this game. I'm actually impressed how they've managed to include not merely all these locations. But also NPC schedules and day/night cycles, with the two being linked proper. And that on a budget.

If there is one big weakness to the game, and I would love to be corrected, it's that there's various points where you may have to grind for huge chunks of ca$h to unlock further main plot / critical path progression. Except that the quests in and on themselves a) aren't enough and b) oft don't give that much of a reward to begin with. So you end up grinding for xp and money (fat loot) on the world map. And the random encounters on the world map repeat rather quickly. Some of the vendors with the most money meanwhile to sell the loot to also happen to be randomly found on travels on the world map, rather than the settlements.

It's a bit like the 2nd chapter of Baldur's Gate 2. You're tasked to hand xxxxxxx amount of money towards a MacGuffin, upon which MacGuffin would unlock the next chapter and progress the main plot. Except repeating a couple times, depending on whether you manage to have the skills to unlock alternatives (I don't think there are alternatives to collecting lots of rubels for all of these). Plus the random encounters on the world map providing the big money / reward, whereas the actual quests oft would not.


tldr; Basically, I now find myself mindlessly grinding a lot for loot and ca$h on the world map, as the game appears to force me to.

 

[flushfire]

piss easy on normal

The beginning can be rough, it's just sometimes not obvious to someone spoiled with game knowledge and ks/dlc bonuses.

 

[Lord_Potato]

I didn't find it particularly rough. Underrail's beginning is much harder.

Actually challenging encounters of Atom are situated in the late game.

 

[flushfire]

I didn't find it particularly rough.

Like I said, it can be - if a new player decides to create a talker with average dex, he will have a hard time. If a player did not pay attention to the cinematic where it is mentioned to go look for Fidel first and decides to visit the bunker instead, he will have a hard time getting out. If a player decides not to spoil himself with recipes, he will not be able to craft decent weapons early on. Even not starting with the leningrad knife makes things harder. None of these are particularly stupid mistakes.

The only encounters I found challenging are the caravan guard mission and the woodpecker fight, and only because I wanted to save everyone. But in my first game I found the early combat tiresome because I didn't know that caravans were the actual stores and I didn't want to look for recipes on the internet. Piss easy would be something like that never happening in the first place.

 

[Ihavenoidea]

Then again, I did my runs of BG 1 and ID 1 before playing ATOM, so maybe I'm just comparing difficulty to easier games.

Have you played classic Fallout? Because as far as I'm concerned, for anyone who have, ATOM feels piss easy on normal (especially with companions).

Regarding Fallout, I've beaten: Fallout 1, Fallout 2, Fallout Tactics, Fallout 3 (wasn't worth it), and New Vegas. Counting mods also: Ressurection, Nevada, Ardent's Mod, Awaken, Darkfall. I had problems with roaring forest on my first run, on hybrid talker/shooter bulid. I was around level 7 and coudn't get decent gear. Coudn't also find decent quests to grind a bit. Second playthrough I did not had that problem, but I was stuck on first. I mentioned BG and ID because I was fresh after playing them, like 1-2 months, and I've beaten Fallouts much earlier, so I coudn't compare difficulty so easliy there.
I also aggree with flushfire - beginning is rough. Compared to these games I'd say around 3rd Tactics mission (when turrets move and you need to time entering the bunker), and Ressurection when you're chased by ghouls. There can be that moment when you just don't know how to progress since everything kills you. I'm not saying the game shoudn't be hard - I'm saying it offering more opportunities to get xp/loot early/mid would be better in my opinion.

 

[jackofshadows]

I'm not saying the game shoudn't be hard - I'm saying it offering more opportunities to get xp/loot early/mid would be better in my opinion.

Eh, by listening complains like this devs added KRZ catacombs criminal quest chain - there's plenty of free loot and a rusty gun shop.

But searching for opportunities is what defines a player in a such open game like this. At the very least there's always a possibility to farm some bandits, sell shit and buy almost anything necessary in KRZ. It's not particulary fun gameplay but it is kinda mandatory on expert/survival anyway.

 

[onemananadhisdroid]

As I'm grinding for loot and ca$h -- is grinding for levels on this game actually worthwile? As far as I understand it, enemies don't scale as such. There are easier and harder enemies for each area, and their composition never changes. What changes is the % of meeting the harder enemies of an area in random encounters, the higher level you have. https://steamcommunity.com/app/552620/discussions/1/1744480966994850234/

Furthermore, is it true that later on you'd absolutely need speechraft of 100+ to progress the story (Dead City area)?

 

[jackofshadows]

As I'm grinding for loot and ca$h -- is grinding for levels on this game actually worthwile?

Definitely. First and foremost, you get HP. Even when you playing not on the highest difficulty(i.e. ironman), the ability to survive long array of bullets from PK machine gun for example or a few crazy critical hits in a row is always nice. Second, while there's substantial random in the wasteland, all quest and story encounters are set and doesn't scale. Do the math. Third - you need perks after all.

is it true that later on you'd absolutely need speechraft of 100+ to progress the story (Dead City area)?

It's a false assumption, based on

Spoiler

not doing mushroom questline and stumbling on their squad in the DC. In that case, only high speech check allows to proceed peacefully

 

[onemananadhisdroid]

As I'm grinding for loot and ca$h -- is grinding for levels on this game actually worthwile?

Definitely.

Thanks, man! My experience with this fine game is a bit shaped by the fact that apparently my build seems recommended for experienced players of this already. Basically, it's a muscle brute Lone Wolf with a focus on melee (primarily fists, but also weapons) with no much speech etc. skills to speak of (srvival, first aid, and stuff though). Thought it'd be something different for a change. :D

On New Vegas when I had build a similar character he was ridiculously powerful.

 

[jackofshadows]

I've just finished sniper/SMG run. Well, mostly it was just a pistols/SMG/knuckles run since I

Spoiler

abused the shit out of oblivion potion and used it only on 21 level before the very end

I'd like to go full melee here but problem is - wanna some dedicated perks for it as well as devensive ones which is impossible. I hope there will be plenty of encounters in Trudograd with much relaxed perk tree so it would be possible to realize my desire there.

endgamebuildscreen

There's a lot of drugs so base line (bonus points from traits included) is 7(more for import purpose since there'll be no training bonus anymore probably) 6 10 8 7 1 (don't care much about dialogues in a TG) 10 and defensive perks root (praetorian, master shield etc)