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

[Black Angel]

So, playing this would be like playing Fallout of Nevada, then?

Spoiler

In case someone wondering wtf I'm talking about, I vaguely remember the translation team, probably Dionis, said something about some of Russian pop-culture references or something being real hard to translate to English in a way that people will 'get it', or something along those lines. I probably remembered it wrong, though, so take what I said here with a grain of salt.

 

[Grokalibre]

 

[Lyre Mors]

This thread has somehow gotten even more monocled in the past couple pages. Thanks for all the thoughts and insights, men. Very interesting stuff.

 

[udm]

Atomboy Will there be a price increase after early access? If so, I'll wait till it's out of early access so you can get more potato.

 

[TemplarGR]

This game is shaping up to be quite good. It won't set the world on fire but it is a great spiritual successor for the original Fallouts. I am surprised there is no hype for it so close to release.

 

[Sloul]

People became skeptical on any game claiming to be a spiritual successor of any shape.
Many projects introduced as such raised and fell, or delivered some games of dubious quality.
Kickstarter was also a source of castration if not butt-hurt for many of us.
Wasteland 2 possibly hold a special spot in this.

Atom RPG is clearly doing better than all the kickstarter RPG we saw, minus a few: E:Conquistador and Underrail for instance.

 

[Atomboy]

Hey guys! This is really fascinating, but I'm busy as hell so I can't get into the fun historical debate Sorry about that. Looks really fun and thought-provoking, as any nice codex thread should!

Anyway!

First matter of business:

Atomboy Will there be a price increase after early access? If so, I'll wait till it's out of early access so you can get more potato.

No! What are we, monsters? We won't even ask money for the first couple of DLCs! We'll get greedy after a few successful games around 2030, don't worry, but this time it's more about proving ourselves to the world, than getting rich quick (although that's also a welcome outcome), so the full game will cost as much as the EA. Can't say anything about the GOG price, since we were told to start talking to GOG only after the release. But I think it will be the same as on Steam? Maybe? I have no idea about their price politics. Too early to think about that. Don't quote me!

Second:

ENGLISH TRANSLATION FOR 0.9 ONLINE IN A FEW HOURS! Just finished it, only needs a quick check-up and upload.
Now, I'm off!

 

[Israfael]

Why would anyone think we would actually use an over-the-top comical parody character to express our heart-felt political views?

Cue in Starship Troopers (the movie). Don't pay attention to such people, they will attack anything that even brushes their beliefs, discussion with zealots of every stripe is virtually impossible.

P.S. Found one thing you were wrong at... "Literate Russkies are probably all over it already, though."

Yeah, bataille clearly underestimates the typical Russian gamer. Most of them like things like "Fallout" 4, late TES games, all modern military shooters and battle-royales. Not many of them know history even at a basic school level (as demonstrated in this thread - I was sure that the Cholera riots are a thing that is widely mentioned in the schoolbooks, as well as how Bolsheviks had to use very harsh methods to combat typhus in the early days of Civil war and post-war period.

Also, most of these sentiments can be expressed with this popular Russian macro, "Ruins of an advanced civilization".

Which can be expressed in the following way (you won't see such sentiments in the mainstream history books, but many academcis still think so) - Soviet union did not collapse on 'its own', as many capitalists like to say, it was dismantled from top-down by the regional elites who were afraid that Gorbie continues what Andropov did and starts purging them. For a premier, he had kind of bad political sense, so his lofty goals of Perestroika and reformation of Soviet economy actually started and accelerated the fall by making the repsective heads of the local Communist parties less inclined to follow the centre's rule. That's how the national conflicts suddenly sprang in Caucasus, Baltic states, Kazakhstan and some other regions that were quiet a few years before Gorbie started his war with the local 'nomenklatura'. That would be not a problem if Gorbie did not try to simultaneously reform the party and make it less influential, which alienated top leadership in the central apparatus.


Why is all this important? People absolutely had no control over their fates (furthermore, all the referenda showed that basically all the people of the Union wanted it to continue, sans the balts), so they felt that their future, present and past was basically robbed by thieving politicians (who, in turn, also freed them of their savings during the early years of Yeltsin's rule). That's why communists had majority in the parliament in the mid-1990ies and that's why Zyuganov should have won in 1996 (and he didn't because of "American collusion" (tm) (C), fraud and his own cowardice). That probably stang even more - a chance to go back was irrevocably wasted and the Soviet dream finally died.

 

[Deleted Member 16721]

Game looks great, I'll buy it on release.

 

[Niklasgunner]

So, how long is it? How does it compare to something like Underrail or the classic fallout? It looks genuinely good but it's getting so little attention

 

[Atomboy]

Game looks great, I'll buy it on release.

Thanks a lot!

So, how long is it? How does it compare to something like Underrail or the classic fallout? It looks genuinely good but it's getting so little attention

It's really hard to name accurate game time in a game that depends on whether or not you read the dialogues and on some of your stats (example: people who would give you a huge, branching dialogue and a quest if your charisma is say 5, won't give you nothing but a line of text if they don't like you and your charisma is like 3). Rough estimates are - When following the plot line and doing only plot-related and most obvious and in your face side quests, you get around 50-60 hours. If you're not in a hurry, and you're an exploring type, you can easily spend 100 to 150 hours in there and still find something new. Our Steam forums are filled with guys who have 300, even 400 hours on record, though I doubt they spent all of them on a single character. Or did they?! There's a lot of unseen stuff in game. Like, from the top of my head, I can remember a 3 hour long quest, the appearance of which in your play-through depends on whether or not you spoke to an old man hidden away in some apartment building in a certain way.

The little attention thing is basically because i'm 50% of the marketing staff, and I use all of my time actually working on the game, since I'm also one of the story writers, and a translator. The game gets sent around to news people and the like only when I have time to spare, and that's a rare thing. Basically we got to where we got by word of mouth alone, that's one of the reasons we love our players so damn much. :D

 

[Deleted Member 16721]

Thanks a lot!


It's really hard to name accurate game time in a game that depends on whether or not you read the dialogues and on some of your stats (example: people who would give you a huge, branching dialogue and a quest if your charisma is say 5, won't give you nothing but a line of text if they don't like you and your charisma is like 3). Rough estimates are - When following the plot line and doing only plot-related and most obvious and in your face side quests, you get around 50-60 hours. If you're not in a hurry, and you're an exploring type, you can easily spend 100 to 150 hours in there and still find something new. Our Steam forums are filled with guys who have 300, even 400 hours on record, though I doubt they spent all of them on a single character. Or did they?! There's a lot of unseen stuff in game. Like, from the top of my head, I can remember a 3 hour long quest, the appearance of which in your play-through depends on whether or not you spoke to an old man hidden away in some apartment building in a certain way.

The little attention thing is basically because i'm 50% of the marketing staff, and I use all of my time actually working on the game, since I'm also one of the story writers, and a translator. The game gets sent around to news people and the like only when I have time to spare, and that's a rare thing. Basically we got to where we got by word of mouth alone, that's one of the reasons we love our players so damn much. :D

You're welcome! This sounds great. So are there a lot of secrets then, secret encounters, items, stuff hidden away that you really have to explore to find? And is there a chance that the game is so huge you may get that once in a lifetime feeling like, "oh wow, I just discovered something no one else may have seen in this game yet!"? Sounds really great though, especially the hundreds of hours of exploration and game time. Will there be a lot of unseen content on a first playthrough then, too? As in, different dialogues like you mentioned, and things you can only see on multiple playthroughs? Thanks for the responses!

 

[Atomboy]

Thanks a lot!


It's really hard to name accurate game time in a game that depends on whether or not you read the dialogues and on some of your stats (example: people who would give you a huge, branching dialogue and a quest if your charisma is say 5, won't give you nothing but a line of text if they don't like you and your charisma is like 3). Rough estimates are - When following the plot line and doing only plot-related and most obvious and in your face side quests, you get around 50-60 hours. If you're not in a hurry, and you're an exploring type, you can easily spend 100 to 150 hours in there and still find something new. Our Steam forums are filled with guys who have 300, even 400 hours on record, though I doubt they spent all of them on a single character. Or did they?! There's a lot of unseen stuff in game. Like, from the top of my head, I can remember a 3 hour long quest, the appearance of which in your play-through depends on whether or not you spoke to an old man hidden away in some apartment building in a certain way.

The little attention thing is basically because i'm 50% of the marketing staff, and I use all of my time actually working on the game, since I'm also one of the story writers, and a translator. The game gets sent around to news people and the like only when I have time to spare, and that's a rare thing. Basically we got to where we got by word of mouth alone, that's one of the reasons we love our players so damn much. :D

You're welcome! This sounds great. So are there a lot of secrets then, secret encounters, items, stuff hidden away that you really have to explore to find? And is there a chance that the game is so huge you may get that once in a lifetime feeling like, "oh wow, I just discovered something no one else may have seen in this game yet!"? Sounds really great though, especially the hundreds of hours of exploration and game time. Will there be a lot of unseen content on a first playthrough then, too? As in, different dialogues like you mentioned, and things you can only see on multiple playthroughs? Thanks for the responses!

Personally, I look at how modern designers try to make their games rollercoasters of sorts - thinking like "Hey, if I spent time and money doing this quest, I need to 100% make sure that EVERY PLAYER gets to experience it!" and do the opposite. That's why we have hidden quests, hidden followers, hidden dialogues, hidden ways to solve none-hidden quests, etc. Like, there was this one quest where you need to say NO to the reward and ask for a book instead, and in that book there is a ritual inside, which VERY cryptically describes a certain in-game location. If you go to that location at a certain time of day and do certain things in a very specific part of the map, something unique happens. Still, our player base manages to find even stuff like that, somehow. But there are some things and places nobody reported of finding, yet. Maybe they did, but didn't say... But who knows. You might be the first one! Speaking of multiple playthroughs, yeah, I'd name at least 3 reasons to do that. One, obviously, is the gender thing. Playing as a woman makes a lot of stuff different, if compared to playing as a guy. Also, being or not being mentally ill changes at least 15 dialogues, there are also companions you can't pick unless you play in a certain way, and as soon as we start making DLCs these companions will give you quests and stuff... So yeah. If you want to see most of the stuff in game, you'll need at least 2 playthroughs.

 

[razvedchiki]

how is the difficulty?

 

[Deleted Member 16721]

how is the difficulty?

I second this question, I hope the game provides great challenge, resource management and "things to think about" while adventuring, including tough combat encounters and the like.

Personally, I look at how modern designers try to make their games rollercoasters of sorts - thinking like "Hey, if I spent time and money doing this quest, I need to 100% make sure that EVERY PLAYER gets to experience it!" and do the opposite. That's why we have hidden quests, hidden followers, hidden dialogues, hidden ways to solve none-hidden quests, etc. Like, there was this one quest where you need to say NO to the reward and ask for a book instead, and in that book there is a ritual inside, which VERY cryptically describes a certain in-game location. If you go to that location at a certain time of day and do certain things in a very specific part of the map, something unique happens. Still, our player base manages to find even stuff like that, somehow. But there are some things and places nobody reported of finding, yet. Maybe they did, but didn't say... But who knows. You might be the first one! Speaking of multiple playthroughs, yeah, I'd name at least 3 reasons to do that. One, obviously, is the gender thing. Playing as a woman makes a lot of stuff different, if compared to playing as a guy. Also, being or not being mentally ill changes at least 15 dialogues, there are also companions you can't pick unless you play in a certain way, and as soon as we start making DLCs these companions will give you quests and stuff... So yeah. If you want to see most of the stuff in game, you'll need at least 2 playthroughs.

Wow, this sounds fantastic! Thank you for the response. Any time frame on the final release?

 

[Atomboy]

how is the difficulty?

That's unanswerable We had the game returned because the player could not get out of the first location, being mauled by insects, we had the game torn apart for being too easy... Most players find it to be on the hard side when played with default settings, but not too hard. For me (and this is my personal opinion, maybe I'm just good (or bad) at the games I mention, I don't know) it's much harder than Fallout 1-2 on hard, but gives you a lot of free space for error and pumping up skills and stats your build doesn't actually need, so it's a fair bit easier than Underrail or POE on hard, where I had to calculate every point and place it perfectly, unless I wanted to be destroyed by everything around me. Still, the difficulty has a slider you can control, and we have ironman mode, so with trial and error everyone will find what he needs.

 

[Atomboy]

how is the difficulty?

I second this question, I hope the game provides great challenge, resource management and "things to think about" while adventuring, including tough combat encounters and the like.

Personally, I look at how modern designers try to make their games rollercoasters of sorts - thinking like "Hey, if I spent time and money doing this quest, I need to 100% make sure that EVERY PLAYER gets to experience it!" and do the opposite. That's why we have hidden quests, hidden followers, hidden dialogues, hidden ways to solve none-hidden quests, etc. Like, there was this one quest where you need to say NO to the reward and ask for a book instead, and in that book there is a ritual inside, which VERY cryptically describes a certain in-game location. If you go to that location at a certain time of day and do certain things in a very specific part of the map, something unique happens. Still, our player base manages to find even stuff like that, somehow. But there are some things and places nobody reported of finding, yet. Maybe they did, but didn't say... But who knows. You might be the first one! Speaking of multiple playthroughs, yeah, I'd name at least 3 reasons to do that. One, obviously, is the gender thing. Playing as a woman makes a lot of stuff different, if compared to playing as a guy. Also, being or not being mentally ill changes at least 15 dialogues, there are also companions you can't pick unless you play in a certain way, and as soon as we start making DLCs these companions will give you quests and stuff... So yeah. If you want to see most of the stuff in game, you'll need at least 2 playthroughs.

Wow, this sounds fantastic! Thank you for the response. Any time frame on the final release?

Hoping for December 18th, probably gonna happen around 26th :D

 

[Alienman]

Atom RPG II when?

 

[Niklasgunner]

Thanks for the response Atomboy , will definitely check it out once it leaves early access.

 

[Anthedon]

Posting here so I don't forget about it when it comes out of EA. Cautiosly because the last few pages make the game look great. Hopefully it's not another Kingmaker bug-wise .

 

[Deleted Member 16721]

Atomboy, do you guys mind if I make a video Let's Play of your game when it releases?

 

[Alienman]

Why would he mind?

 

[SlumLord]

Vodka cures radiation.

 

[Sheepherder]

Bought it. Love it.
Some bugs and technical issues I've noticed: For some reason the intro cinematic when starting a new game lags like crazy. I have to skip it with Esc to be able to play. The fisherman who teaches you how to skin animals in the second area is sitting on thin air.

 

[Atomboy]

Atomboy, do you guys mind if I make a video Let's Play of your game when it releases?

We love letsplays!! It's like the only kind of promotion for us out there! ) So sure!!