Great news. You'll also have the first romance scenario, "The diviner girl fell", ready for scripting as soon as the check clears!
Ooh, still holding that middle ground over including romance... Tough decision!
Wishlisted. I like how you managed to translate BG color scheme into 3d.
Thanks! I don't even think this one is on purpose. We just replayed it a lot.
I hope this time around the world feels like an actual place instead of a series of small static set pieces. Atom was fine for a first attempt at an crpg, but every map felt very "artificial" for lack of a better word.
Everyone of these small indie crpgs should study Underrail exhaustively, as an example of how to build an amazing game world to explore.
Well the world will still be location based, not seemless, but ever since Trudograd we are spending more and more time on every location, making it lived in. I learned a bunch of basic unity in the last two years and I can honestly say I spend days on every location making I guess you might call them "setpieces" to make houses lived in and such. Hope it works out!
Atomboy
so the game's gonna be in English only?
In Ukrainian, of course. Their team is hohols + cuckolds for urina.
Yeah imagine this.
Oh come on, that's like the fifth time someone shows off this tweet. Our tweetor guy used a smiley, oh no, pls don't cancel. And they say the west gone oversensitive! Pls no review bomb for smiley face ;[
I know this will get me canceled for kink shaming all across the great stronk East, but I just wanna ruin some people's sexy victimhood fantasies. There are two factors behind us working English-only this time:
1. Working in two languages simultaneously was a rookie mistake, one of the reasons releases of Atom and TG were delayed; took us literal years to eradicate all "russian string appears in english localization and vice versa" bugs. Much simpler and faster to do all in one language, then cleanly translate into others depending on wishlist demands like we stated numerous times.
2. I'm a Latvian, so is the other guy. Both Russian and English are second languages. I use English daily. I use Russian weekly. Naturally, when forced to pick one, I picked the one I'm more familiar with, the one I spoke since the age of 5.
Saying that, it's not like I'm without prejudice. In fact, every time a work call with my Ukrainian friends gets cut off by an air raid siren, I become so overwhelmed with blood boiling hatred and dread, it's a wonder I'm still mostly sane. However, weirdly enough, I don't let these feelings dictate the order in which I create .json files for a fantasy computer game I'm involved with. There are outlets way less petty and cheap.
Hey man! Did you ever try Trudograd? Our writing greatly improved. More so, if you were a very early player of the original ATOM, you might have played before two very large editorial updates to the English of the game. Current texts in ATOM are way better than first year after release!
The experience you described -thanks by the way- might become even BETTER!
As for ATOM, I did play it shortly after release. So my opinion on the current state might be a bit outdated. I will definitely end up revisiting it at some point, but with the backlog I have it might take a while. It's good to know that the experience might be better. I'll bump it up in my list! Which brings me to Trudograd - no, I haven't gotten to play it yet, but I did buy the game on release. Like many people, a mix of events involving the chaos of 2020-22 has further reduced my free time. Now, my backlog has further accumulated with Colony Ship, Pathfinder: WotR, Elden Ring and probably many others. But I will definitely get to it at some point.
And honestly, I'm sure I'll buy Swordhaven day 1, no doubt about it. I believe in your potential quite a bit and I will always encourage any developer that's making the kind of games I want to play.
Thanks dude! Yeah, backlogs can get this way. I really hope when it's our time to shine from your screen, we won't disappoint!
I normally just lurk around here but because a dev is actively monitoring this thread: I'm a big fan of ATOM and Trudograd, and I'm happy to see you guys are keeping at it. Keep on being awesome!
Thanks dude! Trying our hardest!
The iron conspiracy sounds very uninspired. Another black geyser on the horizon?
Okay, so I don't have any proof to back my words and I also see how the name sounds generic, but -and you'll have to trust me on that- it will actually make sense in the plot! Like, both the words will be like the best description of the game you might get. Like, it will literally revolve around "iron" and there will be a conspiracy! Those will be the two things that will bind everything apart from the most minor of quests together in a canopy of sorts. And it will involve a large harbour city of Swordhaven so even the first word will make sense!
Just poppin in to say hey check it out your suggestion is now officially a task in our task schedule
Witness me, father! I am working with the potential players, we are as one!
That's cool,
Atomboy. I'm happy that you found my post inspiring.
Can you write something more about the combat?
Will the player be able to target body parts? Will there be any special actions like disarm, trip, grapple, feint, pushh/pull/throw enemy, pin, bull rush, 5 foot step, charge, coup de grace?
Will there be explosives like bombs, smoke bombs? What about horse combat? Horses/stables system would be a game changer!
What about the inventory system? I've always thought that it would be cool to have a pack mule in IE type of games. 20 years ago a game called Dungeon Siege did this and nobody made something similar to this day. It would be a very nice addition to have it in this kind of game.
One of the things I would love to see in IE type of games is ability to take a temporary job in an inn, farm, etc. You know, like once in a week or month. Darklands from 1992 did this and it was really nice to be able to just get some extra gold this way, helping folks in their jobs.
Thanks for the idea! Hell, I don't think that'll be a huge spoiler, since we already have a public demo in the works and nearly done. So this time I decided to make the combat fully "special action" based. Like, you will have different weapons, each group governed by a special weapon skill. Like "axes and maces" or "spears and polearms". Each weapon will have one attack, like a thrust with a spear, a chop with an axe, etc. Though there will be minor kinks, like polearms and spears dealing a bit less damage if the enemy is right in your face, but step away 1 meter and you get full damage.
But also each type of weapon like a spear or a dagger or a glove with razors glued to it will have a tree of at least 8 buyable "special skills". These will be all different. Like you'll be able to buy "Groin Splitter" for your razor glove and use it to split groins every 3 "rounds" which are "turns" in TB mode or a bunch of seconds in RTWP. These will vary greatly. Like there's a spear skill called "Stab-stab-stab!" which is 3 stabs in one attack for higher damage, nothing special. Or there's a spear skill called "stand thy ground" which makes you unable to move or attack, but in return you auto-attack any enemy that gets near your zone of control during their turn, like Overwatch from other games. Or there's another spear skill I forgor the name of which involves you sticking your spear into an enemy then smashing them into another enemy for a chance to cause mass knockdown which is a condition that makes them unable to move or act for some time.
Some of the techniques are okay on their own, but some are combo-friendly. Like, you could learn the skill "Soft spot" for maces which knocks a foe out cold, then learn the skill "Hammer it in!" which causes extra damage when a foe is out cold. Or there's a skill called "bleed" which makes a foe bleed from a special knife attack, and a skill called "bloodlust" which causes blindness and extra damage if the target is bleeding.
And some techniques are just self-buffs like "savage roar" which makes you lose armor points but gain more damage, or crowd buffs like "bannerman's trumpet" which has a 15% chance to cause panic in a 5 meter circle.
And unarmed is completely another thing with its own mechanics now. Kicks, throws, chokeholds, backflips, spazzing out on the ground drunken master style, etc.
These are all technically finished, but most don't have animations yet, and since I'm the one who's making the balance, they are all terribly unbalanced and unfair, so we'll only show off some of them, like 20 or so. But at least for me, they are pretty fun, because many of them cause ragdolling and other funny effects, like one time I grabbed a lizard and threw it into a spider and then threw my zweihander at them and they got impaled Cepeš style.
One thing I really miss in RPGs those days are truly interesting locations to discover. Meaning that it isn't just window-dressing, but actually internally coherent. In a low fantasy/magic setting that can seem more challenging, but one can always open some history books and research ancient peoples. There is a lot of weirdness out there.
Always nice if even the enemy faction has a bit more depth than merely a different sprite. Even better if that lore is actually reflected in the way the game plays out. Think Exile II.
We're taking a lot of inspiration from historical looks, but I can't predict how folks will react. For example, the village that will be available in the demo is actually done in a very specific historical style, we modelled certain hats, pants and dresses to resemble a certain country at a certain decade of a certain century, using a bunch of books I have lying around... But taking into account most people won't recognize that style, will they think we're just using some "generic villager pack" from unity? I really hope not.
The enemy faction will get the same semi-historical treatment, but again, since we're not using anything fantastical or impractical, like I don't know, lava armor or cockerel wings on shoulder pads, but instead making them look like a certain culture from a certain age, how many folks will see the effort? I sure hope they will!
