Junior Adventurer's Guild - March: ATOM RPG

[rusty_shackleford]

@rusty_shackleford , bestow the noble Atom tag upon this noble gentleman above.

Wrong guy

[DagothGeas5]

I started a new playthrough recently to get an achievement that intrigued me and didn't realize my character was also named Alexander until I met Alexander XD I find it amusing due to knowing the character's history, which adds an intriguing layer to what would have otherwise been a simple happenstance

► Show Spoiler

[MrTwinkls]

I started a new playthrough recently to get an achievement that intrigued me and didn't realize my character was also named Alexander until I met Alexander XD I find it amusing due to knowing the character's history, which adds an intriguing layer to what would have otherwise been a simple happenstance

► Show Spoiler

► Show Spoiler

It's lore accurate. There is a **** ton of Alexanders in the ex-USSR. One of the most popular names here even for girls.

[DagothGeas5]

I started a new playthrough recently to get an achievement that intrigued me and didn't realize my character was also named Alexander until I met Alexander XD I find it amusing due to knowing the character's history, which adds an intriguing layer to what would have otherwise been a simple happenstance

► Show Spoiler

► Show Spoiler

It's lore accurate. There is a **** ton of Alexanders in the ex-USSR. One of the most popular names here even for girls.

► Show Spoiler

That is a beautiful bit of information to have! Thank you for sharing

[Valter]

Honorable mention to the fact that the game did not crash once the entire playthrough. Maybe this isn't all that impressive, but it bears merit in the face of today's gaming industry.

[1998]

Honorable mention to the fact that the game did not crash once the entire playthrough. Maybe this isn't all that impressive, but it bears merit in the face of today's gaming industry.

Crashed about 5-6 times for me

Thought I was in the Mars thread

[Valter]

Honorable mention to the fact that the game did not crash once the entire playthrough. Maybe this isn't all that impressive, but it bears merit in the face of today's gaming industry.

Crashed about 5-6 times for me

NEVER MIND

[1998]

Honorable mention to the fact that the game did not crash once the entire playthrough. Maybe this isn't all that impressive, but it bears merit in the face of today's gaming industry.

Crashed about 5-6 times for me

NEVER MIND

Oh wrong thread, nevermind indeed Thought we are talking Mars War Logs here. That thing crashed a few times, Atom stable.

[Tadeusz]

Honorable mention to the fact that the game did not crash once the entire playthrough. Maybe this isn't all that impressive, but it bears merit in the face of today's gaming industry.

I noticed it too. ATOM RPG is pretty solid in the technical part and it's refreshing to see.

[Valter]

Honorable mention to the fact that the game did not crash once the entire playthrough. Maybe this isn't all that impressive, but it bears merit in the face of today's gaming industry.

I noticed it too. ATOM RPG is pretty solid in the technical part and it's refreshing to see.

Not to mention how long the game is. I am under the impression that the longer a playthrough runs for, the more unstable it can become. Not here, no sir. Only prime engineering here just don't look at the companion AI

[Tadeusz]

I am under the impression that the longer a playthrough runs for, the more unstable it can become.

I guess the size of a game world itself shouldn't affect the chances of crush that much. Usually the longer the game session is, the higher that chance (Bethesda's Fallouts have a really bad problem with it), usually because of the memory leaks or some accumulated game errors. I'm glad that ATOM devs didn't cut corners and delivered a technically solid and optimized game. In the modern game dev technical issues are an afterthought it seems.

[rusty_shackleford]

The near instant loading times were, and remain, a breath of fresh air. I probably spend 1/5th my playtime in rogue trader just starting at a loading bar.

[SpellSword]

Victory!

► Screenshots and Ending Spoilers

A warranted fear

ATOM RPG - A warranted fear.png

RATS!

ATOM RPG - RATS!.png

The Big One!

ATOM RPG - The Big One!.png

Can't switch to 'eet zee bugs'

ATOM RPG - Can't switch to 'eet zee bugs'.png

Danger Close

ATOM RPG - Danger Close.png

Four Legs good, two legs bad

ATOM RPG - Four legs good, two legs bad.png

Getting the feeling I haven't been helping the good guys

ATOM RPG - Getting the feeling I haven't been helping the good guys.png

Good dog

ATOM RPG - Good dog.png

Grim

ATOM RPG - Grim.png

He's got a point

ATOM RPG - He's got a point.png

Hexogen is the best

ATOM RPG - Hexogen is the best.png

Guess that is as far as they got

ATOM RPG - Guess that is as far as they got.png

I see too, that you are a man of culture

ATOM RPG - I see too that you are a man of culture.png

Oh, I have all my fingers...

ATOM RPG - Oh, I have all my fingers.png

*Pulls pin* BEHOLD!

ATOM RPG - (Pulls pin) BEHOLD.png

ATOM RPG - Red Flags.png

Second time fishing and out pops this.

ATOM RPG - Second try.png

So much unused space...

ATOM RPG - So much unused space.png

So that's where he came from

ATOM RPG - So that's where he came from.png

Sparkly

ATOM RPG - Sparkly.png

The made me smile a bit

ATOM RPG - That made me smile a bit.png

You sons of *******!

ATOM RPG - You sons of *******!.png

The options in this game! "He's a hero!"

ATOM RPG - (The options in this game!) He's a hero!.png

There are enough radiation mutants already

ATOM RPG - There are enough radiation mutants already.png

This was a good encounter

ATOM RPG - This was a good encounter.png

Those tricky smart people

ATOM RPG - Those tricky smart people.png

With a car you can go anywhere

ATOM RPG - With a car you can go anywhere.png

"Your explanation frightens the man"

ATOM RPG - Your explanation frightens the man.png

Only time will tell

ATOM RPG - Only Time Will Tell.png

► A Few Random Thoughts

Hexogen is great!

Terrible combat and not enough enemy types.

Looting endless trash for no reason.

Speechcraft is king.

Player town was a massive disappointment.

Crafting is poorly utilized.

Lots of quests and places to explore.

Excellent writing throughout.

Overall Game Rating For ATOM RPG: Post-apocalyptic indie game:


I really wanted to rate this one higher but sadly it didn't reach its potential. The writing is good, very good. But the poor combat, useless crafting, lackluster looting and abysmal player controlled town really bring it down. The bones for a better game are here, but it isn't fully realized. ATOM RPG suffers from the same problem many Kickstarter games run into. It has many features but they are just present and not not tied together into the overall game well.

Hopefully AtomTeam will have made improvements for the sequel ATOM RPG: Trudograd. As I said the writing is exceptional, if the other systems had been intergrated a bit better with each other this would be a top tier game so I'm looking foward to the follow up.



@Oyster Sauce

[Tadeusz]

poor combat

What did you find lacking in it?

abysmal player controlled town

Well, it certainly doesn't involve much managing, I thought of it as a storage for the player with some services. Trudograd's player home is more of the same actually.

[Valter]

Huh, I never did find Kostya the Yob.

[SpellSword]

poor combat

What did you find lacking in it?

Positioning barely matters. Targeting specific body parts doesn't produce much of a noticeable effect. For example, I fired into the eyes of every enemy I met and only occasionally would it inflict blind status. Even with blind the enemies would still hit so no real point.

abysmal player controlled town

Well, it certainly doesn't involve much managing, I thought of it as a storage for the player with some services. Trudograd's player home is more of the same actually.

That's the thing, aside from acting as a storage the Red Fighter doesn't do much. The only useful thing is you can manufacture ammo there, but that doesn't justify existence of the rest of the area. The entire town felt empty even when people started to move into it. I think they had bigger plans for this game than what made it to market.

I'm reminded of the player controlled town in Pillars of Eternity, which I had similar problems with.

Huh, I never did find Kostya the Yob.

That elusive bandit escaped me as well. There were hints about Kostya given by an ex-bandit leader in Krasnoznamenny as well as some notes on bodies in the roaring forest, but after that the killer's trail went cold.

Did anyone find him?

[rusty_shackleford]

Hopefully AtomTeam will have made improvements for the sequel ATOM RPG: Trudograd. As I said the writing is exceptional, if the other systems had been intergrated a bit better with each other this would be a top tier game so I'm looking foward to the follow up.

Trudograd is an all around improvement in every area except difficulty. But I imported a character which may have trivialized the difficulty.

[SpellSword]

Hopefully AtomTeam will have made improvements for the sequel ATOM RPG: Trudograd. As I said the writing is exceptional, if the other systems had been intergrated a bit better with each other this would be a top tier game so I'm looking foward to the follow up.

Trudograd is an all around improvement in every area except difficulty. But I imported a character which may have trivialized the difficulty.

I wasn't aware you could continue with your character in the sequel, I'd better hang onto my save file.

The ending mentioned Hexogen moved to Trudograd after the event's of ATOM RPG, so I hope he shows up again to embark on another journey.

[DagothGeas5]

Huh, I never did find Kostya the Yob.

That elusive bandit escaped me as well. There were hints about Kostya given by an ex-bandit leader in Krasnoznamenny as well as some notes on bodies in the roaring forest, but after that the killer's trail went cold.

Did anyone find him?

I found him by snooping around. This is as far as I can say without spoiling. I will leave the rest below, but I truly believe it should be found by oneself so do be mindful before clicking! (leaving this part without spoiler as I myself was thinking he was a "plot pull" for Trudograd and stopped looking actively for him. I recall he was said to have been seen at North or something like that, can't recall, I am probably mixing two people, but remember that at the time I didn't even think the Mountain Pass was an accessible area to the player, as I did see Trudograd was in the snow and thought ATOM's map was the one you see without more world additions, so this bandit was impossible to find due to that. Was very surprised and elated when it expanded instead For anyone that reads this part and became confused, he is not in the Mountain Pass, it is just what I was led to believe, but, as said above, I think I am mixing him with another criminal that was from another quest.)

► Show Spoiler

He can be found in the idyllic "drug village" where you can go to buy passage for the Mountain Pass.
Further spoilers below (this is the last chance to turn back):

► Show Spoiler

His house I think to recall is right at the entrance close to the truck. I felt there was something going on there, though I have not found "the cult" I was looking for, but found a note where he had a list of the names of people he killed and how. I am a bit tired today so I didn't feel like reading his wiki as I might misread and cause confusion, but it should say here the name of the village and more details. He changed his name.
https://atom-rpg.fandom.com/wiki/Konstantin

[Tadeusz]

Positioning barely matters

Hmm, I think positioning won me more battles than I care to admit. Narrow corridors saved me in the final battle and in many others.

Did anyone find him?

I found him without a quest by accident snooping around houses

[Element]

What should I be bumping speechcraft skill to in order to pass the checks in Krasnoznamenni, the Circus, etc? I seem to be failing the majority of them whilst at ~60.

[Tadeusz]

What should I be bumping speechcraft skill to in order to pass the checks in Krasnoznamenni, the Circus, etc?

I think 80 or 100 should suffice for most checks but some may be even higher than that.

[Tadeusz]

Trying currently the Phenomenon: Expedition mod (https://www.nexusmods.com/atomrpg/mods/14) and it looks good so far, on par with the main game. There is a new world map to explore and some new game mechanics. Description claims that the mod supports russian and english languages but version 0.5a doesn't seem to have english. Maybe 0.4c has it?
There's a weird bug with the light inside buildings - it's way too bright. Sometimes changing graphic settings fixes it, sometimes not. I haven't noticed other problems so far but I only started.

[Tadeusz]

I think I've seen most of the Phenomenon: Expedition mod and can do a review.
This mod is playable but it's unfinished and has some annoying bugs (makes me appreciate original ATOM even more though).
Let's deal with the problems first:
- Problem with the lighting: all light sources are way too bright for some reason. May be a specific problem on my part but I never encountered this in the original game;
- Camping on the world map sometimes causes game crashes (quite annoying as there are no cooking pots in other locations and it's necessary to go through this gamble whether the game will crash or not);
- No location designations on the world map;
- One quest script worked poorly (the one with the flowers on the graveyard but it worked after some visit to the location);
- There are many grammatical and spelling mistakes in the text;
- Companions don't get quest experience and encounters give little XP so companions leveling is very slow.

Despite its flaws the mod manages to show a glimpse of what devs wanted to do. I think their ambition was to make a story mod focused more on the survival mechanics as there are few resources available to the player initially and most enemy encounters are quite hard. There are new mechanics such as:
- Faction reputations: some shops become available after a quest for example. I think devs wanted to do more with it but it's quite rudimentary in the current mod state. There is a board with tasks in the city but they are hard to complete usually so I haven't done them;
- New survival activities such as setting animal traps and foraging. There are also new cooking recipes that restore health to the whole party (quite useful as hp regen items are scarce);
- New enemies and equipment.

I may recommend this mod to those who liked original ATOM and are ready to deal with the aforementioned problems. I played version 0.5a and it contained only russian translation, maybe there is an english translation in 0.4c but someone else has to check. This is the only story mod for ATOM afaik so it also shows what can be done in the game engine.

► Some Screenshots

Spooky. Also shows the problem with the lighting.

ATOM_RPG_Phenomenon_Expedition_Screenshot_1.jpg

Cool tree anomaly.

ATOM_RPG_Phenomenon_Expedition_Screenshot_2.jpg

Cool electrical anomaly. This location is inaccessible it seems.

ATOM_RPG_Phenomenon_Expedition_Screenshot_3.jpg

New flower enemy.

ATOM_RPG_Phenomenon_Expedition_Screenshot_4.jpg

[lucky-SVLLa]

The early part of the game looked quite decent, but then the rest of the game's content seemed somewhat barren. Only Trudograd has given me some confidence in Swordhaven: Iron Conspiracy.

[rusty_shackleford]

The early part of the game looked quite decent, but then the rest of the game's content seemed somewhat barren. Only Trudograd has given me some confidence in Swordhaven: Iron Conspiracy.

I found the game has more content the further you go, there's a bunch of expansion areas that were added post release.

[lucky-SVLLa]

However, I have to say that the achievements like Neanderthal, Superhuman, Cosmic Horror, and Indy in the ATOM game are quite interesting. I also speedran this game to complete the No Name, No Slogan achievement.

By the way, ATOM and Trudograd also have native ported versions for Android and iOS. It’s a bit crazy that some people are playing these games on their phones. The proportion of piracy on Android phones is likely relatively large.

[lucky-SVLLa]

The early part of the game looked quite decent, but then the rest of the game's content seemed somewhat barren. Only Trudograd has given me some confidence in Swordhaven: Iron Conspiracy.

I found the game has more content the further you go, there's a bunch of expansion areas that were added post release.

I suppose it's like that, but then I hurried to complete the main story cause I couldn't wait to get into Trudograd. The graphics in Trudograd obviously look much better than those in ATOM. The original ATOM, I think the graphics are not even as good as Age of Decadence.

[Valter]

However, I have to say that the achievements like Neanderthal, Superhuman, Cosmic Horror, and Indy in the ATOM game are quite interesting. I also speedran this game to complete the No Name, No Slogan achievement.

By the way, ATOM also has native ported versions for Android and iOS. It’s a bit crazy that some people are playing this game on their phones. The proportion of piracy on Android phones is likely relatively large.

I'm always surprised when people tell me they play old Final Fantasy games on their phone or something. Mobile RPGs are here to stay and I never saw it coming

[lucky-SVLLa]

Do I need to post screenshots of the main storyline completed here to obtain the ATOM RPG Badge? If so, I have to find my past screenshots or sth; completed this RPG in the past. Also, if I want to post screenshots in HQ, do I need to upload them to Imgur first?