Torment Torment: Tides of Numenera Beta Thread [GAME RELEASED, GO TO NEW THREAD]

[Fairfax]

Why so angry? How does that shit work in actual numenera?

 

[Prime Junta]

I feel ripped off. This is no longer a game for PS:T fans. It's a game for complete morons who cheered on the quest compass and the cinematic dialog wheel.

It's like inXile fast-forwarded the , going straight from the turn of the millennium to the Dark Ages, all within the course of developing a single game. Next inevitable step is losing all that reactivity that gets wasted because most people only ever play it once, and going for full retard awesome-button gameplay. Mark my words.

(Now somebody show Fargo's head on Trias the Betrayer. Brias the Betrayer?)

 

[Rev]

It's not like it wasn't obvious, frankly: ever since Saunders' departure it's been one shit news after another about this project, from the endless delays to the console announcement, then the interview fiasco took place to put a tombstone on inXile's already weak reputation.
Going even further back, when they started making more KS than released games the all thing started to stink, and WL2 being an utterly mediocre game was another proof of their incompetence.

 

[Neanderthal]

We'll always have Sigil.

 

[Fairfax]

Interesting. The text from the Codex content has been removed from the beta's files. I don't know if they removed everything from areas not included in the beta or if they actually removed the content, but it's not there anymore.
Here's what it's supposed to be, by the way. (Spoilers)

 

[Manzepio]

Anyone who actually played the game, how much "tech" are we looking at this for this setting? From what I've seen so far it looks incredibly interesting but sometimes I get the feeling it's one of those games that don't know what it wants to be, fantasy or sci-fi.

I really hope I don't trip over a heavily modded M4A1 from "DA FUTURE".

 

[Fairfax]

New companion portraits:

Matkina, Aligern, Callistege, Spectre, Tybir and Erritis (MCA's companion)

What the fuck is that Erritis portrait?

Also, this is the Pat Rothfuss companion:

Spoiler

I don't know how she gets the adult portrait, though.

 

[Mustawd]

This is photo manipulation/paint over bullshit.

 

[Cyberarmy]

Some of them are good/OK at least but still beyond mediocre for a Torment game.
Normal looking human portraits for a so called Torment game is heresy.

Larso one was better,

Because I'm worth it?

 

[Prime Junta]

that Erritis portrait?

...

To clarify my thoughts a bit on what I think went wrong.

It's not the mechanical changes. I haven't played enough to have an informed opinion about them.

It's not the aesthetics. Those are much improved.

It's the way the UI changes interrupt the flow of the game and seize control from you, the player.

Planescape: Torment (and the other IE games) don't treat you like an idiot. They turn you loose and let you poke around, and sometimes update your journal. You're the one who has to figure it out. The UI also stays out of your way. It's there when you need it but, other than the occasional animated cutscene, it doesn't shove its dick in your face.

With T:ToN, it's exactly the opposite. The UI is continuously interrupting you -- with a 500 ms animation when it folds out when you start a dialog, when it centres the camera on something when you're interacting with something, when it blocks inputs and pans around whenever something Important happens. It's also continuously and actively directing your attention to whatever it is the game designer thinks you ought to be paying attention. Like, if your interaction changes something about the environment, it's not enough just to show what changed: instead it behaves like a mini-cutscene, refusing your inputs and panning to whatever it is that changed. I'm no longer playing the game, the game is playing me.

I know this is awesome if you're a complete retard and need to be led by the nose through the thing, instead of liking it when you need to figure things out, but that's not what PS:T is about. There were strong indications of this mindset already earlier -- the extremely infodumpy start, the way there was a breadcrumb trail to Matkina that might as well have been signposted in neon, and so on. They toned it down in the second beta, which made me really optimistic that they actually got it, but now they've doubled down and written that mindset right into the core gameplay.

That is evil and wrong and they have ruined a promising game with it.

 

[Fry]

Because I'm worth it?

Nice to know there are still Mötley Crüe tribute bands a billion years in the future.

 

[Cyberarmy]

True Metal never dies.

 

[jaydee2k]

that Erritis portrait?

...

To clarify my thoughts a bit on what I think went wrong.

It's not the mechanical changes. I haven't played enough to have an informed opinion about them.

It's not the aesthetics. Those are much improved.

It's the way the UI changes interrupt the flow of the game and seize control from you, the player.

Planescape: Torment (and the other IE games) don't treat you like an idiot. They turn you loose and let you poke around, and sometimes update your journal. You're the one who has to figure it out. The UI also stays out of your way. It's there when you need it but, other than the occasional animated cutscene, it doesn't shove its dick in your face.

With T:ToN, it's exactly the opposite. The UI is continuously interrupting you -- with a 500 ms animation when it folds out when you start a dialog, when it centres the camera on something when you're interacting with something, when it blocks inputs and pans around whenever something Important happens. It's also continuously and actively directing your attention to whatever it is the game designer thinks you ought to be paying attention. Like, if your interaction changes something about the environment, it's not enough just to show what changed: instead it behaves like a mini-cutscene, refusing your inputs and panning to whatever it is that changed. I'm no longer playing the game, the game is playing me.

I know this is awesome if you're a complete retard and need to be led by the nose through the thing, instead of liking it when you need to figure things out, but that's not what PS:T is about. There were strong indications of this mindset already earlier -- the extremely infodumpy start, the way there was a breadcrumb trail to Matkina that might as well have been signposted in neon, and so on. They toned it down in the second beta, which made me really optimistic that they actually got it, but now they've doubled down and written that mindset right into the core gameplay.

That is evil and wrong and they have ruined a promising game with it.

You should have seen it coming with the console announcement bruh
As if they would design 2 different Ui's

 

[TalesfromtheCrypt]

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck those assholes. Fuck Kickstarter. Fuck that traitor faggot Brother None and that stupid asshole sea. Fuck sleazy Fargo. Fuck Ineptile.

Fuck em to death.

 

[Israfael]

I think example of Bioware should teach the developers that console kids don't really want RPGs, especially those that are not of 'cinematic' proportions, and that this alienates the people who are actually intrested in RPGs, but alas, auri sacra fames, as the ancients were wont to say

 

[Infinitron]

I suspect public opinion of the idea of Prime Junta reviewing this game has just improved markedly

Don't you think you're overreacting a little, though?

 

[Prime Junta]

Don't you think you're overreacting a little, though?

Overreacting, moi?

...

No. Or, at least, I feel the same now about it as I did yesterday.

The stuff that was always good about this is still good. Problem is that they added shit-flavoured icing on top. I'll see if what's underneath is so good it's worth scraping off that stuff to get to it.

 

[Infinitron]

https://forums.inxile-entertainment.com/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=16931#p178168

I only started playing the beta a couple of days before the new build dropped, and I played through some of the new build yesterday.

The new build, IMO, is a great improvement over the previous beta version. I didn't feel like I had grasped how combat / character stats worked before, and now I think I've gotten a much better grasp on it thanks to the UI improvements and tutorials. Speaking of UI, so much better - a lot of the mouseover text is legible now, and looks pretty slick. I feel like the information I want to access is being bubbled up to me a lot better, so big thumbs up for the UI changes.

Thumbs up for the tutorials too - I'm approaching this as someone who doesn't know how the game rules work, so having them there was very helpful.

That said, while I didn't have a problem with it, if people want different camera options or objective tracker defaults, there's no reason not to have the option there.

Overall, the change between the builds felt to me like a lot of polish had been done on this part of the game, so, from me at least, good work!

Yup, hopeless.

 

[Mikeal]

What the fuck did they do with Tybir portrait? Original was so much better than new one. He looks like a fag now. Same go for Erits and Aligern's portrait was fucked few updates ago.

 

[FeelTheRads]

New companion portraits:

Callistege

What the fuck???????



From a Peggy Bundy look-a-like MILF to an old ugly gypsy.

The fuck is wrong with these people.

Also they all look like they painted hair on real faces. In fact, it kinda looks like they reused some of those faces for multiple portraits.

Shit, they are fucking clueless about what they're doing. What is this, like the 5th pass on portraits and they look worse than ever?

 

[Israfael]

So, was the codex content deleted or no one can confirm yet?

 

[Infinitron]

The Codex content isn't meant to appear in the beta, so the only way to confirm that would be to ask somebody at inXile.

 

[FeelTheRads]

The Codex content isn't meant to appear in the beta, so the only way to confirm that would be to ask somebody at inXile.

Here's the reply, straight from an inXile employee:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9c_KttvQPU

As if they would design 2 different Ui's

That was the most hilarious thing. Actually believing that console development will have no impact and they'll work on two different versions. You must be some kind of Dildolos to believe this.

 

[Infinitron]

I don't know if they removed everything from areas not included in the beta or if they actually removed the content, but it's not there anymore.

Another thing you could do is find out whether there are other areas not included in the beta whose text is still in the files.

 

[FeelTheRads]

It would be pretty retarded to not include it. No matter how much they hate the Codex now for whatever reason, they could swallow their AAA pride and begrudgingly include it, because it was part of the deal.
But if not, it would be a pretty good case to ask for a refund.