Atlas Reactor: A TurnBased, Multiplayer, 4 vs. 4 Deathmatch

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Atlas Reactor: A TurnBased, Multiplayer, 4 vs. 4 Deathmatch

uh zip zoom: May 28, 2003; Sensitive Thugs Need Hugs

Atlas Reactor is a turn-based tactical game that uses the concept of simultaneous turns to create a team oriented multiplayer death match in which two teams of four heroes called Freelancers who work for and against a number of large corporations in a dystopian future. The game lore isn't all that important, but what is important is how the game uses a turn-based system to breathe some new life into the MOBA genre. Polygon has referred to this game as "XCOM Meets DOTA 2," and the comparison isn't far from the mark. However, the way this game takes a turn-based system and makes it engaging, interesting, and entertaining is worth looking at.

The game has a free to play mode in which you can only use a limited number of freelancers that rotates regularly, and can only open one with matrix per day. A loot matrix is a prize box that contains cosmetic things such as skins, taunts, emotes, or ISO (the in game currency you can use to unlock mods or access these cosmetic items; more about mods later). The game is currently in open beta where players can buy-in for $20 and have access to all of the freelancers forever. Kind of like spending your :10bux:

once and never having to worry about it again. Sound familiar? Believe me, many games demand more and deliver less. This viideo explains the concept of basic gameplay and the simultaneous turn-based system that makes It's so original.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13E07c5hfIQ

Simultaneous Turns

In Atlas Reactor, players coordinate tactics with teammates and lock-in actions at the same time during a 20 second "Decision Mode" that occurs before each turn is resolved. Then, players watch their actions resolve on screen together during "Resolution Mode." The game has four different types of actions: Prep, Dash, Blast, and Move. These actions play out respectively during resolution mode, so abilities such as traps, buffs, and shields take place during the "Prep Phase." Abilities that involve character movement, such as dodges and charges, occur during the "Dash Phase." Finally, abilities that involve attacks, such as shooting, slashing, or exploding take place during the "Blast Phase," though attacks that involve movement of another player, such as knockbacks, occur at the end of the Blast Phase. Finally, after all is said and done, the "Move Phase" happens and players move to another spot on the map, ready to begin again. When taking actions in the Prep/Blast phases, you can also move to another position and set up for the next turn. If you choose not to perform an action, you can sprint up to twice your normal movement range on the map.

Freelancers

Freelancers come in three flavors: frontline, firepower, support. They operate pretty much as expected. Frontline freelancers are big and tough and typically deal close range AOE damage. Firepower freelancers have fewer HP but can do more damage, especially to single targets. Support freelancers heal things, shield things, and buff/debuff other characters. Some characters are better at certain things than others, and all of them are customizable using the mod system explained below.

Abilities, Catalysts, and Mods

Each freelancer has five abilities: one Main attack with no cooldown, one ultimate attack with no cooldown, and three abilities that have varying amounts of turns before they could be used again. Using your abilities generate energy, and when a freelancer accumulates 100 points of energy, they can use their ultimate ability, which is suitably devastating and, of course, varies based on the mod selected. Every ability comes with a mod, costing between one and three points. Players use these mods to create a build using no more than 10 points so choosing a mod that costs three points forces a player to choose a mod on another ability that cost less and may be less effective. Before each match, players also select three extra abilities called catalysts that can be used once per game to move yourself out of danger, give yourself a boost of shield or health, or an unexpected boost of energy. Players select one catalyst for each phase: Prep, Dash, and Blast.

Buffs, Debuffs and other Useful poo poo

feedtheid posted:

Feel free to include this handy dandy little helper. When you're examining your hero's abilities, it's the little question mark just at the bottom right of your ult. Hover over it for this image.

There are functionally only a few debuffs/buffs (I'm probably missing something)
Debuffs
Reveal is they can see you
Weakened is deal less damage
Slow is move at half speed
Rooted is no movement at all barring teleports (which blows rear end)

Buffs
Might is extra damage
Haste is movespeed
Energize is generating more energy off of successful attacks

What moves they're actually doing is just down to learning what and when heroes do stuff. A combat log would be super good, but you can mouseover tooltips in each phase as long as there's a bunch of stuff going on and read what characters do.

Hold alt to see what dashes and what catalysts the enemy has available. It'll also show what your allies are planning to do in the next phases of combat.

Also remember there are three(actually four, but whatever, game) phases of combat: Prep, Dash, and Blast (and move!)
Prep generally involves healing and shielding, buffs and debuffs, and some trap-style attacks.
Dash is for getting the gently caress out of dodge and to safety, normally, and sometimes it's really easy to predict where those dash moves will end up, so you can just aim in a different direction instead.
Blast is most damaging attacks, ults, etc.
(movement happens at the end of the turn, and is pretty important! This is where you go grab buffs in the map, health, etc, and where you can also chase dudes simply by right clicking them to follow. Anticipating where bad stuff [mines, bad zones the enemy is laying down, etc] will be will prevent a lot of incidental damage to your hero, and since healing is at a premium with relation to damage, you're gonna want every edge you can get.

Playing with People/Goons (and other important links)!

While the developers at Trion go through great pains to keep their finger on the pulse of the player base by being involved in their Reddit page and on their Discord server, you might just want to play with other Goons. That's fantastic! Here are all the links to resources that will help you get to know the game in more detail and find other people to team up with. I should also mention that a player created a league called Prep Phase, where amateur players can form teams and compete on weekends. The league has been embraced by Trion, who donated the $1000 prize purse for the first season, and has pledged $2500 for the second, which is currently ongoing. I think multiple Goon Squads Could enter and dominate this poo poo easy, and if that idea interests you, meet up in the Atlas Reactor channel on SA Discord to coordinate teams.

Don't miss an opportunity to get in on the ground floor. This poo poo is innovative.

SA Discord's Atlas Reactor Channel
Atlas Reactor subReddit
Atlas Reactor Discord
Prep Phase League website (Guides, Character Builds, Instructional Videos)
Atlas Reactor Website
Atlas Reactor on Steam
Atlas Reactor at Gamescom

Known Goons & Their Glyph Tags

uh zip zoom - GommelNox#2175
Tempus Thales - AwfulCitizen#3048
Stoat - Stoats#4720
Eltoasto - Eltoasto#6473
Deviant - Deviant#1256
jon joe - Fair#2398
d3c0y2 - NewBromance#3331
SoftNum - TenjouUtena#1907

uh zip zoom fucked around with this message at 02:16 on Sep 18, 2016

# ? Sep 2, 2016 21:33

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# ? Apr 25, 2024 16:36

Tempus Thales: May 11, 2012; Artwork by Tempus Thales

[PATCHNOTES] HOLY CATFISH! OPEN BETA * HEADSTART * LAUNCH ANNOUNCED Edition!

9/15/16

Gameplay

Respawn beacons are no longer affected by camouflage.
Oz can now select a move after using Made You Look
Orion - Fate Transfer - Energy Leech mod now correctly increases the incoming energy through damage transferred by 25% to a total of 125%.

Advanced pings
Advanced Pings - While holding down alt, click and hold the mouse button down. After 0.25 seconds, an advanced ping menu will appear! Choose your advanced ping type by hovering over the type you want and then releasing the mouse button (or stay over the X in the center to cancel)

Fill
There is now a �Fill� option in Freelancer Select
This will allow you to choose your Freelancer after getting paired with your team, so you can choose a role that best compliments your team comp
As probably expected, you will not be able to select a Freelancer that one of your teammates already has

Clash
The Clash system has been implemented to resolve a very specific case where two opposing players are equidistant from a location and both choose to move to that same location
Previously the player that locked in first would get to the square, with the other player getting bumped off of it, but this was �hidden� information and it was not clear to players how the winner was determined.
Now, with Clash, both players are bumped off of the target location to an adjacent square If there is a powerup on the target square, neither player will get that powerup if they clash If players are equidistant from a square and they are both walking through it, they will also clash and neither will get the powerup ** If a player finishes on that location while another player walks through it, the player that finishes on that location will get the powerup
This system allows players to plan around this known mechanic and not have to guess on who clicked first. It is part of our larger goal to not hide information from the player and provide a clear set of rules with which to make decisions
The Clash system also applies to evades

UI
There is now a simpler way to choose AI bot difficulty, with choices of Easy/Medium/Hard. You can toggle back to the old stars interface if desired
Added more animations to the in-match HUD to make it clear when abilities are placed and canceled
The cursor will now notify you of how many clicks are required to fully place an ability
Heals over time will now display on the healthbars as dark green
Movement lines no longer display during resolution mode

Orion skin
Orion�s new Colossus skin is now in game!

Reconnect
Reconnect should be much more reliable than before
Existing ground effects will now show reliably

General
Completing a tier in the faction system now results in a system broadcast letting everyone know it has been completed.
The 3d model for the 5th character on your team is now visible (in 16:9 at least) when making custom games with 5 players on a team. Make sure you're all color coordinated! ;-)
Players that have temporary full access are now notified that they are in this state
Many Particle effects now have distortion effects on them
Particle effects will not have a distortion effect when Graphics Quality is set to Low. This increases free memory and, in some circumstances, frame rate.
Various minor bug fixes

Progression Changes
We have dramatically increased the experience (xp) rewards from mission and challenges, and made corresponding reductions from "bonus" xp sources. This was done to grant more satisfying rewards for completing content, and to wrangle the incredible high variance of the GG boost bonus. Additionally, we have slightly reduced the pace of early Season and Freelancer levels to smooth out the reward rate for new users. However, we have also reduced the time to level Freelancers at the top end.

Freelancer Levels
The amount of xp required to gain levels after Freelancer Level 20 has been reduced from 50,000 to 30,000.
Mod Tokens are now awarded at Freelancer levels 4/8/12 instead of 5/10/15. These are given in packs of 6. Up from 5.

Mission Rewards
Daily Mission xp rewards have been doubled, increased from 500-1000 to 1000-2000.
Chapter Missions now award 3000, 4000, or 5000 xp depending on difficulty.
The Chapter 5 Challenge is repeatable. After earning the title, you can complete the Ultimate Challenge again for an xp reward.

Bonuses
Playing with Friends bonus decreased from 50% to 25%.
Bonuses from GG boosts have been reduced. The total xp bonus from GG boosts is now 100%.
Using a GG boost grants a 30% xp bonus to yourself, and a 10% xp bonus to everyone else in the match.
Don't despair -- we all love passive bonuses, but GG boosts are destined for greater things this coming Season!
We will continue to play and adjust these bonuses as necessary. Season Changes
Chapter 5 has been created for Open Beta. You'll be able to experience the true chapter stories and the conclusion of the Trust War starting October 4!
Chapters now contain 5 missions each.
Only 4 out of the 5 missions must be completed to progress to the next chapter.

Season Levels
We have removed some of the rewards from early Season Levels. These will reappear in a different location at launch.

AND

AND

There's a special note that will go live at 8:00am Pacific once we've verified everything is working Open Beta has started!
Atlas Reactor is now in Open Beta and will Launch on October 4!
Everyone will have full access during the Open Beta period
Purchase the game for full access when Headstart begins on 9/30!

Senior Producer James "Kytsu" Karass
https://www.reddit.com/r/AtlasReactor/comments/52waqq/patchnotes_holy_catfish_open_beta_headstart/

Tempus Thales fucked around with this message at 20:01 on Sep 15, 2016

# ? Sep 2, 2016 22:11

Tempus Thales: May 11, 2012; Artwork by Tempus Thales

RESERVED SPACE

# ? Sep 2, 2016 22:12

Noun Verber: Oct 12, 2006; Cool party, guys.

So this is a freemium game?

# ? Sep 3, 2016 15:37

uh zip zoom: May 28, 2003; Sensitive Thugs Need Hugs

Noun Verber posted:

So this is a freemium game?

there are two types of accounts: one that is free, and one that costs a one time by in. This game is in no way pay to win, because the only things you can really buy with money, other than the ability to use any freelancer you want outside of the rotation, are cosmetic things like character skins.

Think of it like something awful, in videogame form. Sure you can browse the forums for free. If you want to get on that real poo poo, it's :10bux:

then you never have to thinnk about it again

Edit: if you use my referral link in the OP, you can see what it's like to have a full account for a week for no charge

Edit 2: OP updated to show video from gamescom

uh zip zoom fucked around with this message at 02:45 on Sep 4, 2016

# ? Sep 4, 2016 02:19

tote up a bags: Jun 8, 2006; die stoats die

Been following this for a while it seems good and pretty cool

edit: Stoats#4720

tote up a bags fucked around with this message at 02:51 on Sep 4, 2016

# ? Sep 4, 2016 02:35

Deviant: Sep 26, 2003; i've forgotten all of your names.

This looks fun, is it fun?

# ? Sep 6, 2016 05:36

Macavity: Jun 29, 2006; There never was a cat of such deceitfulness and suavity.; Fun Shoe

Seems a *lot* closer to Frozen Synapse than XCOM, but FS is a pretty cool game. I imagine the 20-second turns will keep it a lot snappier than FS is and keep you from getting bogged down with considering every possible thing that could happen. Definitely going to keep an eye on this!

# ? Sep 6, 2016 05:52

Grognan: Jan 23, 2007; by Fluffdaddy

Discord is the Uber of Voip, just make a channel on one of the goon servers.

# ? Sep 6, 2016 06:14

uh zip zoom: May 28, 2003; Sensitive Thugs Need Hugs

Deviant posted:

This looks fun, is it fun?

It's a good game. I had fun as gently caress playing in the prep phase league last season (even though I didn't win) and would play in an all-goon team.

The community isn't toxic so enjoy that.

# ? Sep 6, 2016 17:43

Eltoasto: Aug 26, 2002; We come spinning out of nothingness, scattering stars like dust.

Yeah this is a fun game, especially for those of us that aren't too hot at fast twitch FPS games but want some arena pvp.

I'm Eltoasto#6473 if anyone wants to add me.

# ? Sep 7, 2016 08:01

Deviant: Sep 26, 2003; i've forgotten all of your names.

Deviant#1256

# ? Sep 7, 2016 17:07

Tempus Thales: May 11, 2012; Artwork by Tempus Thales

Grognan posted:

Discord is the Uber of Voip, just make a channel on one of the goon servers.

There is already a text and voice channel at: https://discord.gg/AkcVFAX

# ? Sep 7, 2016 23:15

Tempus Thales: May 11, 2012; Artwork by Tempus Thales

Also in case anyone wants to add me to play this bad game, my glyphID is AwfulCitizen#3048

# ? Sep 7, 2016 23:22

Emmideer: Oct 20, 2011; Lovely night, no?; Grimey Drawer

Fair#2398

# ? Sep 7, 2016 23:57

Revitalized: Sep 13, 2007; A free custom title is a free custom title; Lipstick Apathy

Aside from individually learning every character, is there a way to figure out just exactly what sort of buffs/debuffs are happening on the fly? I see characters using moves and I have no idea what they just applied.

# ? Sep 8, 2016 07:53

feedtheid: Oct 17, 2006; we get it, you're too busy fellating Gabe to put yourself into someone else's shoes

There are functionally only a few debuffs/buffs (I'm probably missing something)
Debuffs
Reveal is they can see you
Weakened is deal less damage
Slow is move at half speed
Rooted is no movement at all barring teleports (which blows rear end)

Buffs
Might is extra damage
Haste is movespeed
Energize is generating more energy off of successful attacks

What moves they're actually doing is just down to learning what and when heroes do stuff. A combat log would be super good, but you can mouseover tooltips in each phase as long as there's a bunch of stuff going on and read what characters do.

Hold alt to see what dashes and what catalysts the enemy has available. It'll also show what your allies are planning to do in the next phases of combat.

Also remember there are three(actually four, but whatever, game) phases of combat: Prep, Dash, and Blast (and move!)
Prep generally involves healing and shielding, buffs and debuffs, and some trap-style attacks.
Dash is for getting the gently caress out of dodge and to safety, normally, and sometimes it's really easy to predict where those dash moves will end up, so you can just aim in a different direction instead.
Blast is most damaging attacks, ults, etc.
(movement happens at the end of the turn, and is pretty important! This is where you go grab buffs in the map, health, etc, and where you can also chase dudes simply by right clicking them to follow. Anticipating where bad stuff [mines, bad zones the enemy is laying down, etc] will be will prevent a lot of incidental damage to your hero, and since healing is at a premium with relation to damage, you're gonna want every edge you can get.

feedtheid fucked around with this message at 08:05 on Sep 8, 2016

# ? Sep 8, 2016 08:00

uh zip zoom: May 28, 2003; Sensitive Thugs Need Hugs

Revitalized posted:

Aside from individually learning every character, is there a way to figure out just exactly what sort of buffs/debuffs are happening on the fly? I see characters using moves and I have no idea what they just applied.

I'd say it's a little of both. Though if I recall correctly, when they are applied, the name of the buff/debuff is shown over the character.

I'm sure it's an easy fix to make it more clear, let me know how you think it should be and I will pass the info on. This game is constantly getting quality-of-life patches like this.

# ? Sep 8, 2016 16:00

feedtheid: Oct 17, 2006; we get it, you're too busy fellating Gabe to put yourself into someone else's shoes

Literally a combat log so you can see what the heck happened without the phase disappearing on you while you're reading a tooltip.

Also: do you have any idea how action order is determined?

# ? Sep 9, 2016 06:38

uh zip zoom: May 28, 2003; Sensitive Thugs Need Hugs

feedtheid posted:

Literally a combat log so you can see what the heck happened without the phase disappearing on you while you're reading a tooltip.

Also: do you have any idea how action order is determined?

Action order during the turn resolution is 100% random with a few caveats:

Prep Phase: Shields happen before traps
Dash Phase: 100% simultaneous: if you dash away from someone dashing at you, you take no damage.
Blast Phase: normal attacks happen before attacks that affect movement (rooting, knockback BUT NOT SLOWING)

When you consider the fact that your attack (as well as everyone else's) will still happen even if you are reduced to zero HP, the actual order of attacks become less of an issue.

# ? Sep 9, 2016 17:25

Mister No: Jul 15, 2006; Yes.

Action order is simultaneous, I believe. It's why sometimes bad dudes will have no health but still fire a final shot or get healed at the last moment. It's more noticeable in dash though, when dude dashes from the square you just charged at.

# ? Sep 10, 2016 03:50

Macavity: Jun 29, 2006; There never was a cat of such deceitfulness and suavity.; Fun Shoe

Played an hour or so this morning. It's enormously overwhelming, and not just in the "I've gotta learn all these champions and what they can do" way that most MOBAs have. Every turn you get 20 seconds to anticipate and play around the likely course of action taken by 7 other people. I guess that's true in real-time games, too, but the fact that you're locking in a discrete set of actions rather than organically playing as you go makes your mistakes seem that much more catastrophic.

It's a really cool game, with very slick design and great presentation considering how technically complicated everything is. Just a little too much for me to parse.

# ? Sep 11, 2016 03:42

I Said No: May 21, 2007; jesus dude ur gonna kill someone with that av

Just FYI this is ran by Trion Worlds, who are known for a pattern of making games to draw in an audience and then skewering the poo poo out of them with batshit microtransactions.

# ? Sep 11, 2016 03:45

Eltoasto: Aug 26, 2002; We come spinning out of nothingness, scattering stars like dust.

I Said No posted:

Just FYI this is ran by Trion Worlds, who are known for a pattern of making games to draw in an audience and then skewering the poo poo out of them with batshit microtransactions.

Eh, there's a big difference between games they make and games they publish, this is one actually made by them.

# ? Sep 11, 2016 04:45

uh zip zoom: May 28, 2003; Sensitive Thugs Need Hugs

I Said No posted:

Just FYI this is ran by Trion Worlds, who are known for a pattern of making games to draw in an audience and then skewering the poo poo out of them with batshit microtransactions.

I get the anger here, especially if you are coming from a game like ArcheAge. If it helps, this game is intended to minimize the benefit from things you buy with money. Unless you are addicted to skins, chances are you won't buy anything other than full access if that's your thing.

# ? Sep 11, 2016 13:11

Deviant: Sep 26, 2003; i've forgotten all of your names.

idk this seems fun i'm liking it. it does seem a little chaotic to figure out exactly wtf just happened some times. Basically i'd like more information on the UI all around, especially as a new player when enemies are throwing out particle effects and poo poo i've never seen before and don't know what they do. as it stands i can't look at another freelancer's abilities in the menus while i'm locked in.

# ? Sep 11, 2016 17:45

Det_no: Oct 24, 2003

Does it still run like absolute trash? Running at 40-50 fps on a 970 sure was fun.

# ? Sep 11, 2016 18:13

Deviant: Sep 26, 2003; i've forgotten all of your names.

Det_no posted:

Does it still run like absolute trash? Running at 40-50 fps on a 970 sure was fun.

i get 100+ at 1440 but i'm using a 1080 so maybe i'm not a typical use case.

# ? Sep 11, 2016 18:15

I Said No: May 21, 2007; jesus dude ur gonna kill someone with that av

uh zip zoom posted:

I get the anger here, especially if you are coming from a game like ArcheAge. If it helps, this game is intended to minimize the benefit from things you buy with money. Unless you are addicted to skins, chances are you won't buy anything other than full access if that's your thing.

That's how Trove more or less started - only cosmetics and plenty of ways to access stuff without paying if that was your bag. Around late last year or early this year though that all went out of the window and now you've got things like straight up paying to get chances at gems or level ups or whatever else they've added since I ditched it. Last I heard they are charging $20 for "early access" (read: beta testing) the new class they added and halved the rate they patch the game.

# ? Sep 11, 2016 23:17

Eltoasto: Aug 26, 2002; We come spinning out of nothingness, scattering stars like dust.

I hope that didn't disrupt the Trove competitive scene.

It's because F2P is a terrible model and that promise has been broken by anyone that made it. Cosmetics just aren't going to support a game that requires any decent development budget, so after BDO I now just assume any MMO is going to be P2W eventually. AR is more of a moba or FPS though, and I'm not really worried about the B2P model selling levels, I mean it works on the season model anyway so levels are meaningless and don't make you more powerful.

But I understand the concern, I really hope Trion keeps this the way it is and allows their rep to heal a bit, I really hate the drubbing it's taken after they were so awesome with Rift for so many years.

# ? Sep 12, 2016 03:27

d3c0y2: Sep 29, 2009

If any EU players are looking to play me and two mates are always looking for a fourth person so we dont have a random pub. My name's NewBromance#3331 just add me if you wanna play.

# ? Sep 12, 2016 21:30

feedtheid: Oct 17, 2006; we get it, you're too busy fellating Gabe to put yourself into someone else's shoes

Eltoasto posted:

I hope that didn't disrupt the Trove competitive scene.

It's because F2P is a terrible model and that promise has been broken by anyone that made it. Cosmetics just aren't going to support a game that requires any decent development budget, so after BDO I now just assume any MMO is going to be P2W eventually. AR is more of a moba or FPS though, and I'm not really worried about the B2P model selling levels, I mean it works on the season model anyway so levels are meaningless and don't make you more powerful.

But I understand the concern, I really hope Trion keeps this the way it is and allows their rep to heal a bit, I really hate the drubbing it's taken after they were so awesome with Rift for so many years.

I mean, f2p and cosmetics only has worked for DotA, but valve isn't a normal game studio or publisher, so I take your point.

# ? Sep 13, 2016 06:12

uh zip zoom: May 28, 2003; Sensitive Thugs Need Hugs

feedtheid posted:

I mean, f2p and cosmetics only has worked for DotA, but valve isn't a normal game studio or publisher, so I take your point.

I haven't played overwatch but someone explained their business model, and it sounds similar to what Trion is doing with AR (as well as probably trying to rebuild its image in standing with the gaming community at large).

Also the price goes up to $30 once the game goes live, that's why if you plan to play it now and forever you may as well just drop the $20 on a founders pack or whatever it's called and be done with it.

There are plenty of games out there that cost more and deliver less.

# ? Sep 13, 2016 21:30

CRISPYBABY: Dec 15, 2007; by Reene

Seems like a nifty and well made game. Messed around with it for an hour so I suck but it was cool. Philosophically I've got a bit of a beef with the game though. I'm probably just asking it to be a different game and it's a moot point, but I don't understand why the game has to be 4v4. As in, I'd rather play it as a 1v1 game where each player controls four heroes. Obviously you'd need to make the turn timer longer, but in my head it seems like a more natural way to play.

In most multiplayer games, there's a physical reason for having other players around. You can't control five different people in an FPS at the same time. You can't effectively play five DOTA heroes at the same time. But that's....not really the case in turn based games. The only reason one person can't control a team in this game effectively is because of the turn timer, and that just feels kind of artificial to me. The whole game seems kind of focused on trying to get four people to execute in the same way that one person would. There's no new strategy being introduced by having four people play a team, you're just trying to recreate what you would be doing if you could be controlling everyone simultaneously. To me, it feels like trying to play with teammates is lowering the level of strategy instead of enhancing it. It's kinda like if in CS you had to have one player move your guy and a different player aim and shoot. I guess theoretically making the two of them work together is an achievement of teamwork, but it's an exercise in frustration compared to just doing it yourself. It feels like the game is taking something that's best done by one person and splitting it up between four people.

I guess I heard this game compared to XCOM and got disappointed that instead of being immediately able to implement squad tactics the challenge is to get all the players on the same page in twenty seconds. Which is a whole different problem that some people might be into, but I'm less interested in. It's like, almost a game I want to play because all the systems seem good and cool. Maybe I was just hoping it was something it's not trying to be.

# ? Sep 13, 2016 22:06

Eltoasto: Aug 26, 2002; We come spinning out of nothingness, scattering stars like dust.

That's an interesting idea, and it'd be cool if they added that mode, but it seems like a game would take forever. Maybe not allow respawns in it? It would also be interesting if some of the maps had objectives outside of just kill 5.

# ? Sep 14, 2016 00:07

Zigmidge: May 12, 2002; Exsqueeze me, why the sour face? I'm here to lemon aid you. Let's juice it.

It's like xcom!

# ? Sep 14, 2016 00:08

uh zip zoom: May 28, 2003; Sensitive Thugs Need Hugs

Zigmidge posted:

It's like xcom!

Yes, it's!

Also, the game is now in open beta, and has been seriously patched! Until I get a hold of TT to edit the first reserved post, you can check out the specifics here: https://www.reddit.com/r/AtlasReactor/comments/52waqq/patchnotes_holy_catfish_open_beta_headstart/

tl;dr: advanced pinging system,"fill option" in freelancer select, increase XP bonus from missions and challenges, decrease XP bonus from GG/play with friends boost (GG boosts destined for greater things this coming season), Chapter 5 starts October 4, chapters now only have five missions and require only 4 to advance to the next Chapter

Atlas reactor will launch on October 4
everyone will have full access during the open beta period
purchase the game for full access when Headstart begins on September 30

Edit: I guess all my beta codes are worthless, but I still have a bunch of Citadel skins for Gray that Trion wants me to give away on my AR streams so watch them if you want one

Edit 2: updated OP with new trailer which is awesome and should be watched by everyone

uh zip zoom fucked around with this message at 20:05 on Sep 15, 2016

# ? Sep 15, 2016 19:29

feedtheid: Oct 17, 2006; we get it, you're too busy fellating Gabe to put yourself into someone else's shoes

Feel free to include this handy dandy little helper. When you're examining your hero's abilities, it's the little question mark just at the bottom right of your ult. Hover over it for this image.

# ? Sep 16, 2016 19:38

uh zip zoom: May 28, 2003; Sensitive Thugs Need Hugs

feedtheid posted:

Feel free to include this handy dandy little helper. When you're examining your hero's abilities, it's the little question mark just at the bottom right of your ult. Hover over it for this image.

I should've thought to do that. For what it's worth I think you can get the same information by holding down the alt key and hovering over the freelancer in question. If you can see them, you can see the status effects.

# ? Sep 16, 2016 22:08

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# ? Apr 25, 2024 16:36

SoftNum: Mar 31, 2011

This game is awesome, I'm having a blast even though I'm pretty bad. I think a good comparison is Frozen Synapse as far a the gameplay goes, then Dota teamfights mixed in.

TenjouUtena#1907 is me if anyone wants to add.

Is there a goon Discord yet?

Edit: Does any founders package get the head start days or is it only the expensive ones?

# ? Sep 17, 2016 22:18

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Atlas Reactor: A TurnBased, Multiplayer, 4 vs. 4 Deathmatch

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