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

[Atomboy]

Atomboy

The lighting you guys have in game is pretty cool (especially say head-lamps in tunnels, or the car at night). Were there any thoughts about implementing areas where lighting matters more than just a penalty to range/accuracy?

For example you have fire-gated, poison-gated, and radiation-gated areas, have you considered darkness gated areas that would require you to use lighting to effectively navigate around -- perhaps link lighting to functions. You did this with electricity too in some of the bunkers.

Maybe even adopt a metro-2033 style 'light on certain enemies causes debuffs' to even influence what direction you should face with a head-lamp, or use torches (could be a melee weapon with a light source radius), etc.

That just might happen. Or not. A few of the guys are doing creepy experiments with combat situations, and I have at least one very dark dungeon planned. Unfortunately I'm not the one to ask whether something like this could work. Would be pretty fun.

I am ready to admit the game is just not that interesting it terms of story and quests. The game failed to engage me on even the most basic level past the first few towns. I really wanted to like this game. Maybe it would be better if I played it in Russian but I somehow doubt it.

That sucks, man! It's not too different in Russian. The humor is the main thing that changes, but if you hated one, you wouldn't like the other.

Atom doesn't even have fanboys. Dude, the NPCs tell you stories and nod and wink to quests or happenings in the game as much as they are for flavor. You never spot an NPC that looks like it does not belong in this world (unless it's a time traveller from the circus or the Warhammer parody thing). NPCs build this world, and ofc you can ignore most of them, there's no problem.

I've never played a game that does NPCs the way ATOM does. I believe there is a reason for that, it should tell you something. The documentary film crew interview approach is boring and conditions the player to ignore the NPCs. If people are ignoring the NPCs, or any content in the game, that's a problem. Saying that people can just ignore NPCs It isn't a good answer to the criticism. It isn't good design. Players shouldn't want to ignore things, they should be excited to interact with them. Imagine if I identified a problem with pistols in the game, and you said, well you can just ignore pistols! It's true, I could just pick a different weapon, but that doesn't fix the problem with pistols. If you were writing a book, and included background stories for every person on the street unrelated to the plot, the book would be bloated, plodding, meandering and tiresome. Any editor would tell you, hey you should cut some of this. It's the same with the game and the NPC dialogue. It should be efficient, interesting and as spare as possible. I'm a person who really likes to read, and I feel like a lot of the writing in this game wastes my time. No one likes to have their time wasted.

Consider the containers in ATOM. You acknowledge a problem:

Also, I recently figured out that containers can just be made to look broken or opened and empty to lessen the amount of containers.

Not every container shown on screen needs to be interactive, it's exhausting and bad design - some can be broken or already opened. I agree! Otherwise, I just start ignoring the containers. It's the same deal with the NPCs. Not every NPC needs a full backstory, some can just give simple barks and that's fine. It keeps the game going at a brisk pace.

This x100. The game needs to be trimmed down from all the small talk bullshit. There is absolutely no need to have every single person tell me about how much they enjoy watching grass grow. Trimming is an essential part of polish.

Like I said to Gunnar, it's just a stylistic choice made because we like to see this style of NPC in games. It's a very polarizing thing so I totally get how some might hate it, but a man must polarize, if it's his dream to see a game with tons of talking NPCs.
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The traditional reply to everyone part is over, so I guess now it's time to share some news about Trudograd.
But there are no news about Trudograd! We're just making maps, writing dialogue, I also finally finished a certain new addition to the game which took me 3 months to balance out and it works good enough right now. I play it on my own sometimes, for hours on end. Making IT was a fun and rewarding experience. Boy I wish I was a programmer, to do stuff like that more often. We also made a very special quest recently. If I wasn't dead inside, I'd cry. It's a real tearjerker. It's really cool when a game pulls those emotional strings in our hearts, make that sweet empathy flow through the veins! Even if the game in question is the likes of Atom RPG... We also have marginal progress on the translation efforts. So if the only language you speak is German, and you want to play Atom, good news, two more years and you're good to go, my friend! Anyway that's about it.

 

[Atomboy]

Damn, I will not be able to play at all tomorrow.

You have three more days! But honestly, the pumpkin encounters are nothing to write home about. Just a questionable little Halloween themed thingy that's kinda fun.

 

[Atomboy]

Oh, nice! I forgot to tell you that we're also on sale with Steam, but as I was writing this Steam died. Rip Steam. We knew you well. And this makes it my fourth post in a row as if I am a crazy person.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

as if I am a crazy person

You're on the codex, so that's a given.

 

[Optimist]

Hey, Atomboy, who do you think would win in a fistfight between you and Kasparov? I'm considering which of the two games is going to be my RPG GOTY, and this is important.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Hey, Atomboy, who do you think would win in a fistfight between you and Kasparov? I'm considering which of the two games is going to be my RPG GOTY, and this is important.

ATOM was released 2018.

 

[Optimist]

ATOM was released 2018.

...oops.

Okay, but it was at the very end of 2018, and I think I only started playing it in 2019.

 

[Lord_Potato]

ATOM was released 2018.

...oops.

Okay, but it was at the very end of 2018, and I think I only started playing it in 2019.

It still got pretty high position in 2018 GOTY poll.

 

[Atomboy]

Hey, Atomboy, who do you think would win in a fistfight between you and Kasparov? I'm considering which of the two games is going to be my RPG GOTY, and this is important.

Well, on one hand I now own guns and knives to overcompensate things, on the other hand Kasparov could bring his pretty artwork and intricate plot to distract and beat me. That game is so pretty! And I like the dialogue a lot. Anyway it'd be mindless bloodshed, because we were *technically* a 2018 release!
Technically, because I can't believe a lot of you actually played and liked it back then. It was so lame until ~January 2019!

Hey, Atomboy, who do you think would win in a fistfight between you and Kasparov? I'm considering which of the two games is going to be my RPG GOTY, and this is important.

ATOM was released 2018.

Technically true!

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Hey, Atomboy, who do you think would win in a fistfight between you and Kasparov? I'm considering which of the two games is going to be my RPG GOTY, and this is important.

Depends on which game's stat system we're using too.

 

[Murk]

Technically true!

 

[Atomboy]

GUYS, ARE ANY OF YOU POLACKS? We're looking into a possible translation option but we have nobody who can tell us whether the test text was translated into good Polish or into bad mecha translated Polish. If you are fluent in Polish I can PM you some translated text, just tell me is it good or bad.

 

[WhiskeyWolf]

GUYS, ARE ANY OF YOU POLACKS? We're looking into a possible translation option but we have nobody who can tell us whether the test text was translated into good Polish or into bad mecha translated Polish. If you are fluent in Polish I can PM you some translated text, just tell me is it good or bad.

You can send it to me. If it's only to spot machine translation from proper Polish I can do that.

 

[Atomboy]

GUYS, ARE ANY OF YOU POLACKS? We're looking into a possible translation option but we have nobody who can tell us whether the test text was translated into good Polish or into bad mecha translated Polish. If you are fluent in Polish I can PM you some translated text, just tell me is it good or bad.

You can send it to me. If it's only to spot machine translation from proper Polish I can do that.

Thank you! PM sent.

 

[Yaar Podshipnik]

Sometimes it seems like 1/3 of the codex is potato

 

[Murk]

Sometimes it seems like 1/3 of the codex is potato

And just like real poolanders, they're nowhere to be seen when there's work to be done.

 

[Atomboy]

Sometimes it seems like 1/3 of the codex is potato

And just like real poolanders, they're nowhere to be seen when there's work to be done.

A few guys actually came to the rescue in PM! Result? Well it seems that the latest translator to Polish had poor knowledge of the language. That sucks! We promised Polish a year ago, but everyone who agrees to work for scraps that we can offer seems to be google translating or slow translating. One day, though... We might just find our man!

 

[Modron]

Sometimes it seems like 1/3 of the codex is potato

10-15% they just brigade shoutbox at times.

 

[udm]

Atomboy will cover be implemented in the base game or is it only for Trudograd?

 

[Lyre Mors]

Atomboy, been playing more with isometric mode and love it. However, do you think it would be possible to have walls go translucent in an oval or sphere shape around the player character if they are obscured by them. I know you can rotate the camera, but some interiors are much too tight for this to be effective. It would also help if there was a highlight option for NPCs that showed up through opaque surfaces.

Sorry if this has already been asked. I feel these additions would make isometric mode the default way to play the game if they're possible.

 

[Technomancer]

I also finally finished a certain new addition to the game which took me 3 months to balance out and it works good enough right now. I play it on my own sometimes, for hours on end. Making IT was a fun and rewarding experience. Boy I wish I was a programmer, to do stuff like that more often.

Teh power armor.

 

[Murk]

I'm imagining a tractor-turned-into-power armor right now, with badly spray painted hammer and sickles, and this guy at the helm.

And the thing is, you actually could make that character in game.

 

[PrettyDeadman]

Anyway, for reasons unknown (probably because the enemy didn't know how important the city was) only a few nukes were launched it's way, and all of them were stopped by the anti-air contraptions Trudograd scientists invented. So there's no radiation in Trudograd to this day. It's a huge city, hidden behind mighty walls, protected by soldiers and cool weaponry. However, there's a problem. Trudograd is a wealthy city of trade, and accepts migrants, so it needs to grow. But outside of Trudograd, every other city of importance in the region, especially to the north, was nuked. So now there are these hordes of poor, sick, angry northern barbarians that reverted to tribalism, and these people, along with hideous mutants, and crazy tribes led by warlords like Syoma Voronok and Cohen the orthodox Barbarian assault everything! So Trudograd can't really outgrow it's walls for safety reasons, and instead grows up, to the sky!

So, what you are saying is that Trudograd is basically a communist New Vegas?

 

[Abu Antar]

Sneak peek at Trudograd

Hello, friends!

Today, we wish to share with you the work we’ve done on Atom RPG’s standalone addon Trudograd so far.

An uncommon point of view for our game, but it demonstrates the new abilities of our engine well.

Here is some concept art for the game. We rely on it when creating new locations.

As you know, we love to create small details that increase the atmosphere of the game. Therefore, the visuals are very important to us.

Trudograd is a large and rich city. Well, at least some people living in it are rich. These folks have custom made homes on the roofs of the overcrowded flat blocks.

We’ll end with something very special. With something you asked us to make for a very long time. Trudograd will feature a powerful exoskeleton armor suit.

Note: the design as well as the visual looks of the suit might change. WIP.

Work on the standalone addon continues as we speak.

Thank you for checking out our progress. And let there be ATOM!

 

[HoboForEternity]

hoo boy