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Fallout 3 (The way it could have been)

I bought ATOM RPG off of Steam around the first of September as a pre-release issue. First time I've ever done that but really wanted to get into this. It was only $15 then and the price remained the same with the December release. Go figure. Played up to level 13 or so and got a good idea how it all works and then quit since the full release upgrade was not going to be compatible with my saved games (it wasn't).

This really is what FO3 would have been had the game's developers not gone in another direction. The strategic map is relatively small, but LOTS of stuff to do. It is a bit different than many RPGs in that the genre usually gives you the first 3-4 levels as a learning experience. Well, ATOM does too I suppose. You learn you will die..a lot. You must pay attention as you start out with nothing (literally) and immediately need to find food, some water and some kind of weapon. You need these all the time, but it is urgent at the start. And you don't get much help. One of the toughest game start I've ever played. If you buy it I'd suggest you spend an hour or two on You Tube learning enough to get an idea what you are facing and some information on character builds.

The attached video gives you a decent (sort of) idea what its all about. I really, really like this game. See ya' 'round the wasteland Stalker.

 
Lolz bought this game yesterday because it popped up in my suggestions
 
Following to see whether this is a keeper for you folks in a few months time....... Some of the Steam reviews are not great,,,
 
@Bootie Advice: Besides doing everything you can early on just to survive, your #1 goal should be to hook up with Fidel asap. Just follow the road and travel south to "K" City when you are able. You can find him in the bar on the right side just as you enter the zone. Go through the dialog and get him to join you. This way you have a small fighting chance to survive early combat situations. Oh, you have no actual tactical control of your team members in combat other than same vague general instructions so don't even try.

Advice: If along the way you encounter some random guys fighting, and one has a dog, do everything possible to save the dog. He will join your team as well if he doesn't die. If you can't save him (and have no chance to do so) don't save, exit out and hope you run into him later. He appears randomly.

Advice: Increase your "Speech Craft" skill asap. Say 70+. This will occasionally allow you to talk your way out of lopsided combat situations or allow NPC's to see things your way.

Advice: In your starting town there is an old man in a shack. He asks you to harvest his corn crop. Do so and dialog thereafter will probably reward you with a crappy rifle that's better than a stick. Look closely in the corn field as you should find a useful shovel as well.

Be safe Stalker..
 
OK, made it to L-8. Me and Fidel have just been treading water. Caravans just don't have the weapons and armor I need. Small battles haven't provided enough high value loot to pay the bills. Have had to buy ammo at crazy high prices in K City. Soo...made a new plan. "Red Fighter" is a location N/NE of K City. Head NW o/o the City. Take your first right and follow the road. Avoid all fights with Slavers (or anyone else for that matter). Once there you will find Red Fighter inhabited by giant spiders. IIRC their HP is about 89. There are 6. Kill them all and then talk to the guy in the barricaded house. After a long dialog he will join you. He has a good rifle which I immediately nicked.

Now you will have a party of three (or 4 if you found the dog, which I haven't). Except for slavers you will now have a chance of prevailing in most combats you encounter. You're welcome.

There is one thing that drives me nuts! Friendly fire. Fidel, et al. just blast away and care not my fragile person is in direct line to their target. In you have any extra APs at the e/o your turn always use them to get the hell out of the way of your team members. I kinda thought they would fix this in the final release, but guess not.
 
Oh, nice. You can name your character and I chose "Samantha". Had I thought of it though...

Things got soo much better since I picked up my 2nd party member. I just completed the "Roaring Forest" job with ease where I died multiple times back in the day when I was, uh, uninformed? New problem though. Now that my combat encounters are usually successful I seem to have acquired more loot than I can sell. The gun & armor merchants in K City have horrible prices so I am reliant upon meeting caravans and at this stage in the game they are usually ruble poor. This happened to me last time as well. Time to go store a bunch of stuff until more rubles become available as everyone atm is over burdened to where I can't really carry anything new. I know. First World problem.
 
Advice: Avoid going to the Vault 317(?) despite the suggestions to the contrary. You can't get in without a high lockpick skill or armed enough to kill the local, well armed, bandits in an ambush. Bandits will offer to get you in if you agree to split the loot you find 50-50. If you agree (which I did first play through) they will renege when you get out and take everything. And I mean everything! I've read recently there is an explosive charge to be found nearby that will do the job but I never did or couldn't make it work. Perhaps it was not in pre-release. A subsequent SMG bandit ambush got the job done for me. They have a key. Strangely there aren't that many goodies to be had there, but a lot of plot info comes to light. Although it seems to raise more questions than it gives answers.

Got get Fidel right away! If you find the damn dog let me know where. He continues to elude me.
 
Oh, my. Very, very bad things happening in the City of Peregon. In my pre-release play I didn't investigate this issue much and as a result completely overlooked it. Thinking about it now, I sort of wish I had done so again. In some underground rooms I was searching I found something that moved the game story line almost into X-rated and I was actually sort of shocked. Grim indeed.

Of course, after discovering the secret, I was ambushed on my way out and am damn glad for my high <speechcraft> rating. Even so I had to deal with an automatic rifle and a guy loaded down with FIVE Molotov cocktails in a closed room.

And guess what? Yep. I have to go back to Peregon again soon for something else.
 
Update: Better. Things going quite a bit better after the, uh, Peregon "encounter".
Some mercs hired me to join them in an assault on a slaver gang threatening the neighborhood and we took down NINE of them in a notable gunfight. It went well. Well, except for two of the mercs, but my guys all got out alright. Much loot. There's that.
Subsequent planned and random battles generated more loot and the the caravans seem to have more rubs recently so mattress is bulging with cash. Around 15K IIRC. Problem is I don't have a lot to spend it on atm. Hexogen has a nice AR-15, but it soaks up ammo to the extent I can't use my AV5-36 rifle that has a 15 rnd clip and does 17/23 damage. I'm working towards higher automatic training, but even if I got one too the ammo problem still exists. Grr. Then, I bought a great pistol a little while ago, but it takes 7AP to shoot. Since I only have 10 AP/turn it is of limited use. Seems to me it took less in the pre-release version.
I'm currently wandering around Bunker 317. My high <picklock> skill got me into it, no sweat. Went around the corner and killed the bandits just because they deserved it. Not much material of great value to be found inside, but my packs will be bulging by the time I get out. It is a very large place.
 
Bad feeling about this. Things are going waay too well!
Ever since I got my team equipped with two mid-range rifles and an AR-15 I've been dealing death to the bad guys in big chunks. Things even improved after I got a bullet-proof vest for Samantha and good helmets for her mates. So good that I took down a slaver gang in a random encounter without breaking a sweat.

You wanna know how good things are? I even found the damn dog! He was way in the unexplored territory at the bottom of the map. Geez.

Also, I've got over 30K rubs in cash and little to spend it on atm based on item rarity. Got a nice rifle waiting for me in my pack if I could just fine some ammo for it.

Woof, woof! "Down 'Dogmeat,' down"
 
A caravan had a nice, deadly MG for sale that I couldn't pass up. My guy, Hexogen is more than qualified to use it and I had over 300 rnds of ammo lying around. It take a 100 rnd clip (this should have given me a hint) so I gave him 200 just in case. Got a nice 3-man bandit random battle and set him loose. He killed all 3 from range. OMG! Bad news is he used up about 140 rnds to do it! I'm never going to have enough ammo to shoot this damn thing.

However, if I need to kill something really, really bad... Uh, how do I stay alive if the bad guys get a hold of one of these?

I'm going to go look for a case of grenades...
 
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