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

[HoboForEternity]

coming during winter sale. seems can't afford to release early or later

well, RIP launch sales

 

[TemplarGR]

I really, really wish them the best. It IS a bad period to launch... Let's hope they succeed, their effort definitely deserves it.

 

[Sinatar]

Yea that's a catastrophically poor time to launch the game.

 

[Fenix]

Atomboy hey! How about concerns of this local crowd about release date?

 

[Heretic]

Example: We have an in-game follower, who's an old guy with an explosive temper, and his nickname is Hexogen. Hexogen like TNT is an explosive material, the old guy is very passionate and like I said has this "explosive" quality to his actions, so everything is nice and clear. However if you dig a bit deeper, you'll find a 90's conspiracy theory novel "Господин Гексоген \ Master Hexogen" and if you actually read it, you'll find that the language style in-game Hexogen uses for talking is a direct parody of the writing style writer Alexander Prohanov uses in the aforementioned novel.

I looked around for more about Prohanov's Master Hexogen and found this master thesis about Soviet nostalgia (PDF). Not sure how good or informative it is, I only read the abstract.

But Soviet nostalgia is probably connected a bit to the post-apocalypse in Russian culture as you spoke about it.

 

[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

 

[Wunderbar]

I played it a little and was immediately put off by the sheer amount of obnoxious humor and pop culture references.
This is more of Dungeon Cleaners / Planet Alcatraz, than Soviet Fallout. Although, for some people this might be a good thing.

 

[Jenkem]

I played it a little and was immediately put off by the sheer amount of obnoxious humor and pop culture references.
This is more of Dungeon Cleaners / Planet Alcatraz, than Soviet Fallout. Although, for some people this might be a good thing.

Thank you for saving me from buying this piece of shit.

 

[Doktor Best]

Atomboy Looking forward to the release! Any news from GOG? Did they get back to you by now?

 

[Wunderbar]

I played it a little and was immediately put off by the sheer amount of obnoxious humor and pop culture references.
This is more of Dungeon Cleaners / Planet Alcatraz, than Soviet Fallout. Although, for some people this might be a good thing.

Thank you for saving me from buying this piece of shit.

you're a bit too harsh.

 

[Black Angel]

I played it a little and was immediately put off by the sheer amount of obnoxious humor and pop culture references.
This is more of Dungeon Cleaners / Planet Alcatraz, than Soviet Fallout. Although, for some people this might be a good thing.

Wait, I think "Soviet Fallout" is rather fitting considering this

There's even pages of posts split into its own thread and now it's right here

 

[TemplarGR]

Soviet nostalgia is 100% incline on my book.

 

[FritzedProcess]

I played it a little and was immediately put off by the sheer amount of obnoxious humor and pop culture references.
This is more of Dungeon Cleaners / Planet Alcatraz, than Soviet Fallout. Although, for some people this might be a good thing.

As far as I can remember, Fallout 1 and 2 were chock-full of pop culture references. At least these aren't out of place (guns and technology that were available when the war started, as opposed to prototype rifles from the early 1980s with ammunition notorious for its short shelf life, or shotguns with a very small production run, or outrageous amounts of Desert Eagles because they were all the rage in action films, M:TG parodies, Elvis velvet portraits, 1950s sci-fi designs, WOPR homage, celebrity "Hubologists"... do I need to go on?)

Both Fallouts had also plenty of sophomoric humor (F2 especially). The characters are somewhat quainter in this one, though.

 

[Wunderbar]

I played it a little and was immediately put off by the sheer amount of obnoxious humor and pop culture references.
This is more of Dungeon Cleaners / Planet Alcatraz, than Soviet Fallout. Although, for some people this might be a good thing.

Wait, I think "Soviet Fallout" is rather fitting considering this
There's even pages of posts split into its own thread and now it's right here

i read these threads and they gave me hope for something subtle.

I played it a little and was immediately put off by the sheer amount of obnoxious humor and pop culture references.
This is more of Dungeon Cleaners / Planet Alcatraz, than Soviet Fallout. Although, for some people this might be a good thing.

As far as I can remember, Fallout 1 and 2 were chock-full of pop culture references. At least these aren't out of place (guns and technology that were available when the war started, as opposed to prototype rifles from the early 1980s with ammunition notorious for its short shelf life, or shotguns with a very small production run, or outrageous amounts of Desert Eagles because they were all the rage in action films, M:TG parodies, Elvis velvet portraits, 1950s sci-fi designs, WOPR homage, celebrity "Hubologists"... do I need to go on?)
Both Fallouts had also plenty of sophomoric humor (F2 especially). The characters are somewhat quainter in this one, though.

maybe that's because i'm russian, but these references in ATOM were blatant and all in my face. Fallout bottlecaps references, stalker references, half of the NPCs are reference to some soviet book or movie - i can only suspend my disbelief for so long.

btw i found Fallout 2 obnoxious too, even though I missed half of its references.

 

[FritzedProcess]

i read these threads and they gave me hope for something subtle.


maybe that's because i'm russian, but these references in ATOM were blatant and all in my face. Fallout bottlecaps references, stalker references, half of the NPCs are reference to some soviet book or movie - i can only suspend my disbelief for so long.

btw i found Fallout 2 obnoxious too, even though I missed half of its references.

Ok, my experience is quite the reverse: I don't get most of the references in ATOM, but for me the Fallouts were one pop culture reference after another (not that I saw that as a bad thing, although it got a bit ludicrous in Fallout 2).

 

[Black Angel]

maybe that's because i'm russian,

Ah, I think I can see where you're coming from.

I'm wondering if there's someone who's pretty addressed in western humors and pop-culture references who played Fallout 1&2 back then had similar thinking with you who've played ATOM for the first time here.

 

[Vityaz]

Will I enjoy this game if my only knowledge of Russian culture is Pushkin and Viktor Tsoi's music?

 

[Israfael]

Ah, I think I can see where you're coming from.

Well, there was definitely a lot of people who did not like F2 because of its, for lack of a better word, петросянство. Many others liked it more. Even more did not really care because they lacked knowledge to recognize those tropes.

 

[Soulstones]

Will I enjoy this game if my only knowledge of Russian culture is Pushkin and Viktor Tsoi's music?

Both are too low brow to be mentioned in the same sentence as ATOM, the postmodern soviet existential marxist dialectic of исторический материализм.

 

[Glenda Glenn]

 

[bataille]

I played it a little and was immediately put off by the sheer amount of obnoxious humor and pop culture references.
This is more of Dungeon Cleaners / Planet Alcatraz, than Soviet Fallout. Although, for some people this might be a good thing.

I have had a displeasure of playing Sanitary Podzemeliy, and you, sir, are super duper mega wrong! While Sanitary is a disgusting, feverish Solzhenitsyn- or Shalamov-induced nightmare, ATOM RPG is a pleasant dream you have during a midday nap on a balcony, inspired by a leisure reading of Alex Zinoviev's witty satire!

And if we're honest, 'soviet Fallout' had been a thing long before Fallout 1 got released! 'X fallout' is just a convenient marker for this particular community!

 

[Sheepherder]

Played through the current version several times and while I loved it, I gotta say that itemization and balance sucks.
On weapons:

• Of all the weapon types, automatic guns are undisputed king. Since you're always outnumbered, it's very important to be able to kill one enemy or more per turn. While other weapon types struggle to do that, assault rifles and machine guns achieve that early and require less perks.
• Pistols don't seem to have anything going on for them. Sure, it costs less AP to fire one, but the extra shots do not compensate for the low damage and range. No bonuses to crit chance or damage, no special effects to enhance utility, they're inferior to all other weapons.
• Rifles are a bit better, but the best rifle I found comes quite a bit later than a assault rifle you can buy at the main city and even with all the perks and stats, it preforms poorer.
• Melee requires tons of perks and grinding for a caravan which would sell the best machete. I haven't been able to get it to spawn from the weapon merchant in the city. Since merchant inventory is somewhat tied to player level it only appears after level 12+. And while automatic weapons can start bursting right off the bat, with a melee char I'd spend a turn or two running up to an enemy to get a chance to slash at their eyes, eating lead on my way there.
• Haven't tried shotguns tho.

Perks aren't very good either:

• First square is just +skills, that's boring. Why not something like +AP for movement only or anything other than fucking +skills.
• Perk placement is funny - cheaper reloads come after cheaper shots in the pistol tree. Why place cheaper reloads in the pistol tree in the first place? Is it for that 1-shot high caliber pistol from that quest?
• Some are plain useless, like the crafting one.
• Not many exciting perks.

Hunger system is annoying and half arsed. Reminds me of hunger system in unmodded Stalker SoC.
I had a lot of fun playing a a diplomatic character with followers as machine-gunners, but the combat is not very good.

 

[Doktor Best]

Played through the current version several times and while I loved it, I gotta say that itemization and balance sucks.
On weapons:

• Of all the weapon types, automatic guns are undisputed king. Since you're always outnumbered, it's very important to be able to kill one enemy or more per turn. While other weapon types struggle to do that, assault rifles and machine guns achieve that early and require less perks.
• Pistols don't seem to have anything going on for them. Sure, it costs less AP to fire one, but the extra shots do not compensate for the low damage and range. No bonuses to crit chance or damage, no special effects to enhance utility, they're inferior to all other weapons.
• Rifles are a bit better, but the best rifle I found comes quite a bit later than a assault rifle you can buy at the main city and even with all the perks and stats, it preforms poorer.
• Melee requires tons of perks and grinding for a caravan which would sell the best machete. I haven't been able to get it to spawn from the weapon merchant in the city. Since merchant inventory is somewhat tied to player level it only appears after level 12+. And while automatic weapons can start bursting right off the bat, with a melee char I'd spend a turn or two running up to an enemy to get a chance to slash at their eyes, eating lead on my way there.
• Haven't tried shotguns tho.

Perks aren't very good either:

• First square is just +skills, that's boring. Why not something like +AP for movement only or anything other than fucking +skills.
• Perk placement is funny - cheaper reloads come after cheaper shots in the pistol tree. Why place cheaper reloads in the pistol tree in the first place? Is it for that 1-shot high caliber pistol from that quest?
• Some are plain useless, like the crafting one.
• Not many exciting perks.

Hunger system is annoying and half arsed. Reminds me of hunger system in unmodded Stalker SoC.
I had a lot of fun playing a a diplomatic character with followers as machine-gunners, but the combat is not very good.

Sounds like this game is true to its inspiration after all

 

[Sheepherder]

I'm not sure it is, in regards to combat. In F2 I had a lot of fun playing various combat builds, like a crit pistolero with a magnum, nutsack targeting unarmed with Jinxed and etc. In ATOM I haven't found a "fun" combat build to play. Sure I can kill stuff but it's not very exciting to make a combat char as the perks/weapons/skills aren't interesting.

 

[Paxton]

Sheepherder
Atomboy
Did you figure out what was causing the cutscene problem?
Got my codecs installed and updated my driver (Geforce GTX 760), but still freezing.

Got 8 hours logged so far and having a blast. Great work Atom Team! Very cool!