Going back over the game a bit to collect my thoughts for a review... eventually..
Atomboy are there any plans to do a balance pass with regards to perks("abilities")?
Here's how I ended the game doing(AFAIK) essentially all content. These screenshots are taken right before the game ends in the very last room after the last battle. I'm level 20, I can't see a way to pick difficulty but I'm pretty sure I picked whatever the hardest is.
While my main character grabbed a few, it's still not
that many. Capping perk cost at 3 or making it based on distance from center would probably help in this regard. I don't think perks felt overly strong for having a couple more.
Let's check in on Dzhulbars
Level 13, big gap between him and my character.
Even if I didn't grab that bottom left perk, I wouldn't have filled out the top right. Mind you, this is taken at the very end of the game with no content left.
And still, many of them are
very weak.
10%? That's incredibly tiny, especially for the investment needed. 30-45% would be more than fair enough for how much damage he takes. In most fights I have him running away just to prevent him from dying!
Same deal here. I hate perks that are just minor bonuses.
How much is 3 dodge, you ask?
10% dodge bonus, and it gets worse the higher level you are.
BTW, I like that Dzhulbars has his own perk tree. Very cool. I heard the slave does too, didn't check. Would be nice if the other three at least had a few unique perks locked to them.
--
Additionally as a tip since I don't think the game mentions this anywhere, if you open the context menu on a party member during combat you can issue commands to them. Works at any time, not just during your turn.
VERY useful for focusing fire, keeping allies alive, etc.,
Atomboy another suggestion for both ATOM and Trudograd: right-click instant context menu. Both games have it available as a mod(highly recommended), consider integrating it into the base game. Having to hold left click for context menu is strange for a PC game.