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

Will you back?

  • I will consider it!

    Votes: 39 54.9%
  • No! I would never!..

    Votes: 9 12.7%
  • kingcomrade

    Votes: 23 32.4%

  • Total voters
    71
  • Poll closed .

HoboForEternity

sunset tequila
Patron
Joined
Mar 27, 2016
Messages
9,175
Location
Disco Elysium
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
coming during winter sale. seems can't afford to release early or later

well, RIP launch sales
 

Heretic

Cipher
Joined
Dec 1, 2015
Messages
844
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.
 
Joined
Jan 14, 2018
Messages
50,754
Codex Year of the Donut

Wunderbar

Arcane
Joined
Nov 15, 2015
Messages
8,809
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.
 
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Black Angel

Arcane
Joined
Jun 23, 2016
Messages
2,910
Location
Wonderland
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
 
Joined
Jan 7, 2017
Messages
1,370
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

Arcane
Joined
Nov 15, 2015
Messages
8,809
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.
 
Joined
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Messages
1,370
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

Arcane
Joined
Jun 23, 2016
Messages
2,910
Location
Wonderland
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

Augur
Joined
Oct 7, 2014
Messages
169
Will I enjoy this game if my only knowledge of Russian culture is Pushkin and Viktor Tsoi's music?
 

Israfael

Arcane
Joined
Sep 21, 2012
Messages
3,580
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.
 
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Unwanted

Soulstones

Unwanted
Joined
Dec 1, 2018
Messages
78
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.
 

bataille

Arcane
Joined
Feb 11, 2017
Messages
1,073
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

Augur
Joined
Feb 4, 2014
Messages
657
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

Arcane
Joined
Feb 2, 2015
Messages
2,849
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:bounce:
 

Sheepherder

Augur
Joined
Feb 4, 2014
Messages
657
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

Novice
Joined
Apr 7, 2015
Messages
26
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!
 
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