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

[Mud']

How the absolute fuck are you suppose to win the Cartel fight in the playground?

So far I been cheesing my way to victory with grenades but here there is just no way to win it.

First turn I can easily take down only 1 enemy, after my turn ends it becomes an absolute clusterfuck, Fidel and the Detective are filled with lead and they don't even get a chance to shot someone and I am left standing with 10-20 HP surrounded by 8 guys like if it was a Brazzers video.

 

[jackofshadows]

How the absolute fuck are you suppose to win the Cartel fight in the playground?

So far I been cheesing my way to victory with grenades but here there is just no way to win it.

First turn I can easily take down only 1 enemy, after my turn ends it becomes an absolute clusterfuck, Fidel and the Detective are filled with lead and they don't even get a chance to shot someone and I am left standing with 10-20 HP surrounded by 8 guys like if it was a Brazzers video.

You need drugs. Lots of drugs and stims. Buff yourself and your companions at max hp in case you haven't (stop just before the playground and do it, then proceed). Your goal is simple: survive (forget about the detective) something like 2 rounds, then the poor fuckers will run out of ammo. It would be a decent encounter if they hadn't so little ammo, although it's still something. Also use shields if you have them.

 

[thesecret1]

How the absolute fuck are you suppose to win the Cartel fight in the playground?

So far I been cheesing my way to victory with grenades but here there is just no way to win it.

First turn I can easily take down only 1 enemy, after my turn ends it becomes an absolute clusterfuck, Fidel and the Detective are filled with lead and they don't even get a chance to shot someone and I am left standing with 10-20 HP surrounded by 8 guys like if it was a Brazzers video.

That's possibly the toughest fight in the game, tbh. Still, it is beatable (though the detective is gonna die. I can't even imagine the amount of save scumming it'd take to somehow save his ass) – all you have to do is pump everyone full of drugs. Remember that each drug can be stacked twice on a single character, and that foodstuffs also act as drugs, and just juice 'em all up until you have a group of space marines. You'll be shrugging off bullets like it's nothing while massacring the poor sods like their armor is made outta paper.

 

[Alphons]

Nuke the guards with Luck option (or just scare them off with Strength). Saving detective is entirely managable with just 3 of them left.

 

[ironmask]

Does the detective show up in Atom: Trudograd? From what I remember he leaves dead city to investigate the cartel in Trudograd.

 

[Mud']

Remember that each drug can be stacked twice on a single character, and that foodstuffs also act as drugs, and just juice 'em all up until you have a group of space marines. You'll be shrugging off bullets like it's nothing while massacring the poor sods like their armor is made outta paper.

Hold the fucking phone, you can stack 2 drugs? So in theory I could get 4 STR from the drug that gives you 2 Str? Shit I may pass the STR check and make it easier.

 

[DeepOcean]

So, gonna start a new playthrough of Atom, last time I didnt get far because got distracted with other things, now plan finishing it and then move to Trudograd, so, dexterity 10, charisma 1? Is that a good idea? Gonna miss much dumping charisma and luck?

 

[Parabalus]

So, gonna start a new playthrough of Atom, last time I didnt get far because got distracted with other things, now plan finishing it and then move to Trudograd, so, dexterity 10, charisma 1? Is that a good idea? Gonna miss much dumping charisma and luck?

If you're female you can make all checks with char 1, males need a bit more. Luck similarly, you can stack consumables.

 

[jackofshadows]

So, gonna start a new playthrough of Atom, last time I didnt get far because got distracted with other things, now plan finishing it and then move to Trudograd, so, dexterity 10, charisma 1? Is that a good idea? Gonna miss much dumping charisma and luck?

A female can use 3 types of CHAR consumables instead of 2 so yeah, you can dump the stat. Thing is, if you intend to talk with NPCs a lot it would be tiresome to buff yourself all the time so might as well not dumb it completely. Same goes for END: sure you can easily play with just 2 and buff yourself to the skies when it's needed or just put some more points. Luck imo is not a dumb stat by the way, why you wouldn't care about crit chance at all? STR depends on what type of weapon you're going to use, you can leave it at 6 in case of rifles and 7 for auto.

Will all that said, it's not a huge spoiler that the game has... a respec potion. So you can simply set some high INT CHAR and do quests, talk to people etc etc and then when you approach the hardest content stage and a certain way to increase one stat - respec.

 

[agentorange]

Finished the game today. Did not expect to like it so much. Was honestly kind of addicted, playing the game for 6-8 hours a day or something. As some others in the thread have said I think it's more of a worthy sequel to Wasteland than Wasteland 2.

Because of the Codex review and what people had said I expected the dialogue to be non-stop out of place references but really it wasn't bad at all. I liked the writing for the most part and some of the jokes and references were quite funny. It was also impressive how stuff that I expected to be a throw away joke ended up to be preludes to some elaborate and well done quests (like the Pizza Gate questline, was quite creepy). I think the worst thing in regards to references was Mountain Path of Woes which felt like developers had played Witcher 3 and decided they would make a whole area based on that, which felt totally out of place in the game.

I left some stuff unfinished because the game was beginning to get exhausting with how long it is (Didn't bother to do the crater in Dead City, although by the end of the game I likely could have, it would just take too long. And had a few minor quests left like finding a car for the old dude.) I didn't feel like going on full on checklist mode to finish and find absolutely everything, especially since I want to play Trudograd now and don't want to be burnt out. I also think I missed some stuff maybe based on choices or lacking personality, like I never figured out what the purpose of the Maiden Spring area was.

I think one of the best parts of the game was the pacing in regards to equipment and resources. I struggled for almost the whole game with ammo management and money. Even when I found a good weapon it was usually the case I did not have enough ammo for it and would have to rely on worse weapons. It wasn't until I got a ton of stuff in Dead City that I felt like I could stop caring. Although even then the end game fights weren't a pushover for me, like Fallout is once you get power armor and end-game weapons; for the penultimate fight in the Mycelium base I only beat it by laying down timed explosives in the hallway with staggered timers so as the enemies ran through the hall they got blown up and at the end were met by my companions with burst fire weapons and grenades.

 

[Mud']

Finished the game as well, what a fucking ride it was. Thanks to that tip of double stacking drugs it changed everything for me, the Detective survived because I used the STR check and after that the final fight in the mushroom bunker was a pushover, I threw D.A.R.E under the bus and used all the drugs and Sweet rolls I could and just used the door as a chokepoint to burst any idiot that stepped there.

I finished it entirely or almost all in my phone because I searched "Wasteland 1 Android port" in hopes to quench my Fallout itch and boy did this game did it for me. Finished the game with like 140 Skill points unused and Fidel as my loyal companion because I don't know if there were more companions.

Overall I really loved the damn game, like agentorgange said, the game never let up with the pacing, I was always finding new stuff and when I felt powerful the game would throw me a curveball (like the demons of the metro), only when I reached Dead City I started buying all the drugs and ammo I could get my hands on because in the main map I never could get enough, I really liked how all the plot points, main and side quests wise all lured you to the next map.

There were times that I felt overwhelmed by the amount of text, it's crazy to see so much content by a inde team, every fucking NPC has something to say with its own portrait and that blew my mind.

I did leave a lot of unturned stones because I was getting a little burnt out but overall I will still play a bit here and there on my phone to keep exploring.

I already bought Trudograd but I will cooldown a bit before playing it, I just can't wait to see what they improved over ATOM but man I marathon'ed the damn game over the course of 5 hours.

 

[ironmask]

Finished the game with like 140 Skill points unused and Fidel as my loyal companion because I don't know if there were more companions.

There are 4 more companions.

Hexogen
Alexander
A dog
And Galina.

And I guess there's also that slave companion too, though she won't fight. only carry your items.

 

[jackofshadows]

I don't know if there were more companions.

Apparantely you've also missed the entire Maiden Spring "branch", like agentorange. How are you guys even playing like that? It's quite obvious that the game expect you to talk to every NPC no matter how cringeworthy they might be. And how did you get to Playground and still haven't figured out by then how some basic game mechanics work? I'm curious about upcoming TG feedback though with the experience under the belt.

 

[thesecret1]

I never figured out what the purpose of the Maiden Spring area was.

It was your base that you could upgrade. The base functions were pretty worthless, but various people you met sometimes went and settled around the place, sometimes giving you new quests and stuff. Also, it gives you Alexander (the ATOM dude with the blue beret you meet at the start in Otradonye) and Hexogen as companions.

EDIT: Whoops, mistook Maiden Spring for Red Fighter. My apologies. Maiden Spring is a dirthole only useful for the early quest from Dan.

 

[Mud']

Well the Dog died waaay early on because the first turn into the combat he was almost dead and I didn't had any type of range to reach the fight and intervine. As for any difficult fight, my to-go strat was just spamming as much nades as possible, pray for 2 stuns and kill anything that was easy.

Apparantely you've also missed the entire Maiden Spring "branch", like agentorange. How are you guys even playing like that? It's quite obvious that the game expect you to talk to every NPC no matter how cringeworthy they might be. And how did you get to Playground and still haven't figured out by then how some basic game mechanics work? I'm curious about upcoming TG feedback though with the experience under the belt.

I don't remember anywhere saying that you could double stack drugs and in RPGs you can't do that either, so for me it was logical that you can't double stack.

As for Maiden Spring I just fucked the daughter and went my merry way and Red Fortresses I never did anything with it, fought a bunch of spiders and left.

Now here is where i question myself what the fuck happen, I seriously always went out of my way to talk to everyone and that almost made me drop the game but I kept doing it, same with accepting all the quests I could so I have no idea of what went wrong there.


Edit : So i went ahead and read up the Wiki and holy fuck what, how the hell did I miss all that content and stuff to do, hot damn I feel retarded.

 

[thesecret1]

Now here is where i question myself what the fuck happen, I seriously always went out of my way to talk to everyone and that almost made me drop the game but I kept doing it, same with accepting all the quests I could so I have no idea of what went wrong there.

To get Hexogen and Alexander, you have to talk to a dude in Krasnoznamenny hospital (he's one of the patients there) who will give you the quest to clean out Red Fighter. As you're cleaning it out, you will find Hexogen barricaded in one of the houses. Alexander joins once you upgrade the rest area in your base in Red Fighter.

 

[Mud']

To get Hexogen and Alexander, you have to talk to a dude in Krasnoznamenny hospital (he's one of the patients there) who will give you the quest to clean out Red Fighter. As you're cleaning it out, you will find Hexogen barricaded in one of the houses. Alexander joins once you upgrade the rest area in your base in Red Fighter.

WHAT

I thought they were unconscious so I never bother to do anything with them, maybe if they were saying something while in bed I would have approached.

 

[jackofshadows]

I don't remember anywhere saying that you could double stack drugs and in RPGs you can't do that either, so for me it was logical that you can't double stack.

Well, for one thing, if you have played Fallout you should have expect this since ATOM RPG is pretty much the same mechanics wise. But even if you haven't (why would you ever play this then first) then don't you have any tester sense? To try things, to experiment at least a little? When I've first found food which gives +end for 30 min (onion) I didn't test it right away but then I found condensed milk which gives the same bonus but for 12h so I insta-checked if it stack/how it combines. When it's become clear that they stack I thought there's just some hard cap for buffing a stat no matter the source but after a little testing the system revealed itself and it's become crystal clear that it's a loose, wonky-like system. So after I've stumbled at drugs I've also checked it and as expected, it worked on the same principle.

 

[oscar]

Can confirm, I feel tough as fuck after chowing down on some raw white onion.

I like how similar to AOD the game really forces you to take advantage of all its mechanics to win the tough fights. You coast for a while stomping nobodies and get complacent then get your ass annihilated and have to carefully start thinking about how you'll spend your AP, utilising drug and food prebuffs, which enemies to deal with first etc

One quibble is that the rewards for quests often feel hilariously minute for the amount of work. Both in terms of XP and rubles. I'd get far more XP and useful loot from fighting random encounter bandits than doing quests that require me to trudge all around the map.

The Pizza Gate quest is one of the best I've ever seen in an RPG too. I found I took the setting a lot more seriously and played a much more good character because the NPCs were plausible and likeable. The nuclear war being relatively recent was a nice change from Fallout (lots of older characters can remember pre-war Soviet life etc). Humanity not regressing into LARP caricatures too felt quite realistic. Sure there's bandits and cults running around but most people still clung to the old authorities where they managed to survive. What makes fucking sense because generally most people want running water, rule of law and potatoes on their dinner plate.

 

[Vezok]

I am not familiar with the Pizza Gate conspiracy. Is the quest the one in Peregon where a guy is selling shashliks and you go down the container box to discover the truth?

 

[agentorange]

I don't remember anywhere saying that you could double stack drugs and in RPGs you can't do that either, so for me it was logical that you can't double stack.

Well, for one thing, if you have played Fallout you should have expect this since ATOM RPG is pretty much the same mechanics wise. But even if you haven't (why would you ever play this then first) then don't you have any tester sense? To try things, to experiment at least a little? When I've first found food which gives +end for 30 min (onion) I didn't test it right away but then I found condensed milk which gives the same bonus but for 12h so I insta-checked if it stack/how it combines. When it's become clear that they stack I thought there's just some hard cap for buffing a stat no matter the source but after a little testing the system revealed itself and it's become crystal clear that it's a loose, wonky-like system. So after I've stumbled at drugs I've also checked it and as expected, it worked on the same principle.

Well I think in the vast majority of games you can't stack things like stat boosters so I was conditioned to think that way. I did make use of stacking various other consumables though (this was how I beat the pineal gland harvesters in Dead City, by buffing up my strength with drugs, coffee, and one other thing I can't remember so I could scare away the mercenaries.) And I would almost always use condensed milk before going into combat. Also smoking weed and using perfume before talking to some characters, etc.

As much as I love Fallout and replayed it a lot I never really bother with using chems because the game is so easy anyway that I never saw the need. I agree with Oscar that ATOM is similar to AOD in how it forces you to make use of every edge you can get which I like.

One quibble is that the rewards for quests often feel hilariously minute for the amount of work. Both in terms of XP and rubles. I'd get far more XP and useful loot from fighting random encounter bandits than doing quests that require me to trudge all around the map.

Yeah this was a complaint that came to my mind while playing. I wish there had been more unique rewards for quests, rather than only money and occasionally meds or ammo. Not that it needs to be dumping unique gear on you, but something like AoD or Arcanum where you can sometimes be given gear or unique items. I think in all of ATOM I don't recall ever getting a gun or an armor from a quest.

Spoiler

I was pleasantly surprised when I got the stat boosting drug from the cube in Dead City, and ironically that quest wasn't even that difficult.

 

[Feyd Rautha]

How the absolute fuck are you suppose to win the Cartel fight in the playground?

So far I been cheesing my way to victory with grenades but here there is just no way to win it.

First turn I can easily take down only 1 enemy, after my turn ends it becomes an absolute clusterfuck, Fidel and the Detective are filled with lead and they don't even get a chance to shot someone and I am left standing with 10-20 HP surrounded by 8 guys like if it was a Brazzers video.

That's possibly the toughest fight in the game, tbh. Still, it is beatable (though the detective is gonna die. I can't even imagine the amount of save scumming it'd take to somehow save his ass)

I actually did this until I beat the fight with the detective still alive. Don't remember if it was worth it though...

 

[Alphons]

Best part about the shashliks quest is realizing that yeah, you killed the bad guys, but you were actually sent there by far more dangerous people to clean up their competition.

 

[jackofshadows]

Well I think in the vast majority of games you can't stack things like stat boosters so I was conditioned to think that way. I did make use of stacking various other consumables though (this was how I beat the pineal gland harvesters in Dead City, by buffing up my strength with drugs, coffee, and one other thing I can't remember so I could scare away the mercenaries.) And I would almost always use condensed milk before going into combat. Also smoking weed and using perfume before talking to some characters, etc.

As much as I love Fallout and replayed it a lot I never really bother with using chems because the game is so easy anyway that I never saw the need. I agree with Oscar that ATOM is similar to AOD in how it forces you to make use of every edge you can get which I like.

Was it really your first experience with Fallout though? It depends on the overall RPG background as well, of course. But I agree, in Fallout chems become useless once you get your hands on PA, the mistake Atom Team has made with TG, ironically. Untill then however, there're several points where use of chems and stacking'em makes sense: muties in necro (have non-phys damage though so no-psycho), death claws, the hub shoot out, potential caravan encounters... Fallout 2 introduced jet, which is 4 free AP basically with the only real downside that you can get withdrawal during really long fights but other than in oil rig you can always run back or invest in sneak).

You might skip that all by having some non-combat skills, they aren't necessarily combat-oriented games in general - sure, but neigher ATOM RPG. High speech/sneak/luck will get you anywhere. Playground/mushroom optional guys are relatively tough fights but other than that (and even "more" optional slave traders REs and bounty hunters - those appear only if you continuously slaughter caravans) the game is quite easy because of plentiful resources around. You aren't limited like in AoD or Colony Ship. You can always get more stuff. You aren't really limited in Underrail, too but honestly, compared to DOM difficulty there, this is just a walk in the park.

 

[whocares]

I will not eat the bugs. I will not live in a pod. I will not use 2FA.