ATOM RPG - Watch T&T/Help Thread

My character is Wolf. He is into martial arts (improves unarmed combat but reduces skill in guns/rifles) and a technophobe (-30 points in crafting and more gun penalties) as his "distinctions" (like traits or personality background, similar to FNV in that they have pros/cons to each one).

His highest abilities, in order, are endurance (health, survival), strength (carry weight, melee, unarmed), and personality (charm/speech), He is meant to be a survival ranger based on the old pre-technology world and melee. No idea how plausible his build will be since I read one complaint was guns outpace melee for damage later on. But so far a fun character.

Playing on easy so hopefully will have more margin for error on his build. Finished tutorial (which was basic but good) and on my first real mission. It is based in Russsia which is pretty cool - so used to "US" games that having a completely different culture and setting is a nice change.
 
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All difficulties are equally challenging, the only difference is (apparently) material rewards. ;)

A hint - when you get the dog companion, set his tactics to escape the "danger zone". Otherwise, all your fights would be protect the silly dog who got AI from NWN's Tomi Undergallows. :)
 
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All difficulties are equally challenging, the only difference is (apparently) material rewards. ;)

A hint - when you get the dog companion, set his tactics to escape the "danger zone". Otherwise, all your fights would be protect the silly dog who got AI from NWN's Tomi Undergallows. :)

I wasn't sure I would be able to get the pooch. There is no way my character would just let the owner die if he could prevent it and I would have to do everything I could to save the owner otherwise I would feel too guilty to enjoy the dog (i.e. if the owner survives he leaves with the dog).

My first encounter on the map was for the dog and the owner died well before I could even get to the battle. But then I died and without a save and the encounter being random I lost out.

Few hours later I had the encounter again and this time reached the owner after he had killed two bandits (of 4). I play melee so no ranged options (I may use a crossbow later though) and so takes a little extra to engage in the battle.

Anyhow I fought alongside the owner and he died. Not sure if I could have healed him with a FEN (stimpak like thing) but at the time I didn't know I could add a FEN to my main slot and then target someone … and not sure if that is only for companions or anyone. Even if I had known not sure I would have made it as it takes AP to open inventory and change things … and he died the turn after I joined him.

Regardless it was mute as I did what I could at that time. So with a bit of guilt I took care of the owners dog and adopted him. I do admit I really like him so a little guilt I didn't reload and try harder to save the owner.

If the dog isn't at full strength I keep him far away but when healthy he joins me. Its a bit easier playing on easy so haven't had to protect him too much.

I am about 18-20 hours into the game now and still no chest armor (although I got a simple hat +3 to survival) and a small backpack. Haven't made it to the bigger city yet. Been doing local quests and exploring. I just entered the first vault/base that is part of the main quest last night.

I like that things are rare and hard to get. Even on survival mode in FO4 I always had ample supplies of stims, rad meds, antibiotics, etc. In ATOM so far they are very rare and very costly. I have to be very careful with money and having limited inventory space (I think I carry too much food and water) makes it even harder to earn rubles. On the plus side I don't have to worry about ammunition at all.
 
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Armor…

Go to KRZ (big city) and accept the quest from the bookstore keeper. Next thing on the world map you'll face a random encounter with several bookburners easy to kill - and a few will drop armor. ;)
Another idea is to craft some (if you don't want to read wikis, a random visitor in "bandit's den" will teach you a recipe for low quality armor).

Another reason to rush to big city is to get a sidekick.

Water, sell. Food, keep.
 
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Armor…

Go to KRZ (big city) and accept the quest from the bookstore keeper. Next thing on the world map you'll face a random encounter with several bookburners easy to kill - and a few will drop armor. ;)
Another idea is to craft some (if you don't want to read wikis, a random visitor in "bandit's den" will teach you a recipe for low quality armor).

Another reason to rush to big city is to get a sidekick.

Water, sell. Food, keep.

Thanks. I have not made it to the city yet. Not sure who I will get as a companion. Pretty happy with my Wolfhound right now :) Also my crafting skill is literally 1 as one of my distinctions is -30 to crafting. So not sure how well he will craft armor lol. Most likely will have to salvage it from a fight or buy it.
 
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All difficulties are equally challenging, the only difference is (apparently) material rewards. ;)
Not really, the only significant difference is coming from the abilities tree which is a very bad design idea (I like a lot this game).

I won't enter in details, but overall:
- At Easy, at level 21 you have 10 abilities.
- At Normal, at level 19 (and 21) you have 8 abilities.
- At Expert or Survival, at level 22 you have 6 abilities.

Beside that non random encounters are the same, xp difference is too small to be significant, drops are the same but spawns in shops have probably different setup except that some seems advantage higher difficulty.

And then I think that random encounters are scaled higher in average, which can involves better drops at higher difficulty. But as scaling has a large difficulty variation, you can get anyway a very difficult combat at Easy.

A hint - when you get the dog companion, set his tactics to escape the "danger zone". Otherwise, all your fights would be protect the silly dog who got AI from NWN's Tomi Undergallows. :)
That's a bad hint, Tactical setup to flee is defining a panic AI behavior, nothing better to kill the dog or a companion.

The right tactical setup is Stay close, plus use more long range weapons. But you won't escape give some manual orders to the dog. Past level 8 the dog becomes pointless only for mood. At best you can continue use it a bit in some combats as a secondary bullet sponge with the order position here so he attracts only one enemy attack, eventually two enemies at most. But in all honesty past level 10 you do better by ordering it stay at base, if it wasn't either for the mood either for some secondary usage.

Myself i use the dog as a second inventory to put here the important notes in current context. Also before it was useful for carrying grenades and dynamite, but now companions won't use them is they aren't only in their inventory it's not much useful. And obviously the dog is still useful for those easy combats you better do close range only.
 
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