Codex Interview RPG Codex Interview: Torment: Tides of Numenera

[Drowed]

As we’ve stated before, we plan for it to be possible to complete TTON without engaging in combat at all. Players can finish or avoid every Crisis using social, stealth, and exploration abilities. Having said that, we haven’t promised that it will be easy. It will likely require very careful decision making and smart character build choices to complete the whole game without throwing a single punch/self-propelled energy projection device.

Spoiler

Nice interview, really. I'm getting really good vibes from this game. (And that scares me.)

 

[jdinatale]

God damn I would love a spy game/RPG set in the early revolutionary America period where you could choose the rebels or the Brits. Jesus someone make that.

No offense, but that game sounds like a piece of shit that you couldn't pay me to play even if it was in a bundle filled with Bethesda and Blizzard games and a copy of Half-Life 3.

 

[Sensuki]

Great interview. Also big thanks to the Torment team for providing detailed answers.

 

[commie]

Share your inside infos!

I have none, I just think he's a bad writer based on http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...-goal-and-much-more.81506/page-6#post-2563102

Fantasy literature is shit...News at 11.

 

[Nihiliste]

Great interview. Pumped for this game.

 

[Azrael the cat]

Wow. I'm hoping that they've got some iron discipline in prioritisation, and are sticking to a reasonably smallish gameworld, as this is starting to sound tremendously ambitious. Aiming for viable zero-combat runs, with multiple options for EVERY crisis, in this kind of game is a different league of ambitious compared to Deus Ex style games, where non-combat is 'just' a matter of implementing and designing around a stealth mechanic (scare-quotes around 'just', because that's still quite a design challenge). Ordinarily, I'm massively impressed by 'multiple options' in this style of game if they apply only to a well-placed smattering of specific instances. PS:T and FO are good examples - lovely reactivity when dealing with significant NPCs and quests, but no rat diplomacy or speaking your way past the general mooks. Obviously it would be better if you extended that reactivity to everything, but that's the kind of thing you just mentally write off as a necessary compromise due to the insane resources it would take.

If they're seriously going multiple options and non-combat solutions for EVERYTHING (assuming that doesn't just mean stealthing past all the content), that would quite possibly be the most ambitious crpg design ever attempted. Could be amazing if they pull it off, but I'm worried it might turn into an Alpha Protocol.

I'm also not sure if it's wise to make that kind of promise mid-development. Nobody would seriously complain if they struggled to implement it and had to cut it back to 'only' PS:T levels of reactivity - except for the fact that they've come out and declared multiple options for every crisis as a core goal. It's also the kind of promise that warps fans perceptions of a game (and I'm including myself in this). When you've been promised this in advance, things which should rightly be mind-blowing, end up feeling like standard mechanics, where you feel disappointed if they don't work, but without that 'WOW!' feeling when they do work.

 

[HiddenX]

Interesting interview - thanks!

 

[Zed]

Kevin Saunders

Nope, don't see him. False advertising!

Heh, funny. Really, where is Kevin Saunders, Zed?

He is standing over our shoulders, watching us answer every question, type every word...

yeah he didn't answer any question directly but Brother None said he was involved

 

[Outlander]

This is partly a matter of personal taste, but I place much less value upon familiarity in new settings. Audiences are a lot more flexible than we often think. To me, it’s more important that character motivations and emotions feel believable and identifiable, regardless of setting. If you create characters who feel and act in a believable way, have problems that players can identify with, and are likable, audiences will tolerate a lot of weirdness in setting details.

Presentation is also a major issue to consider in a new setting. If you try to throw a lot of unfamiliar setting details at a player in the first ten minutes of gameplay (or, worse, in a convoluted opening cinematic), you’re likely to lose your audience. If, on the other hand, you drop them into a world that is full of mysteries, and the player is learning about the new world as an integral part of gameplay and story, their unfamiliarity with the setting can actually be an asset – it encourages a sense of ongoing discovery that can help keep the player engaged throughout the game.

I think problems arise in new settings when characters are flat and boring, stories are clichéd, the audience isn’t emotionally invested in what’s happening, and the creators are relying upon the details of the setting itself to interest the audience. A lot of hard science fiction falls into this trap. Writers can become so focused on communicating the details of the setting that they fail at job #1, which is creating an engaging story.

 

[flabbyjack]

Don't let a little negativity in this thread get you down, developers. We're quite liberal with the trolling here.

 

[ghostdog]

Good stuff.

 

[Dr Schultz]

Are they modifying the dreadful Numegaya system to fit the game better? I sincerely cannot picture anyone building a license upon this piece of crap.

Why? After all game developers have built licenses upon that D&D piece of crap for decades :asd:...

 

[LeStryfe79]

This is partly a matter of personal taste, but I place much less value upon familiarity in new settings. Audiences are a lot more flexible than we often think. To me, it’s more important that character motivations and emotions feel believable and identifiable, regardless of setting. If you create characters who feel and act in a believable way, have problems that players can identify with, and are likable, audiences will tolerate a lot of weirdness in setting details.

Presentation is also a major issue to consider in a new setting. If you try to throw a lot of unfamiliar setting details at a player in the first ten minutes of gameplay (or, worse, in a convoluted opening cinematic), you’re likely to lose your audience. If, on the other hand, you drop them into a world that is full of mysteries, and the player is learning about the new world as an integral part of gameplay and story, their unfamiliarity with the setting can actually be an asset – it encourages a sense of ongoing discovery that can help keep the player engaged throughout the game.

I think problems arise in new settings when characters are flat and boring, stories are clichéd, the audience isn’t emotionally invested in what’s happening, and the creators are relying upon the details of the setting itself to interest the audience. A lot of hard science fiction falls into this trap. Writers can become so focused on communicating the details of the setting that they fail at job #1, which is creating an engaging story.

I have to report you for incorrect use of an emoticon. Sorry, friend.

 

[MicoSelva]

G Ziets Loom is LucasArts, not Sierra.

Ah, that explains a lot. I have played it recently and it seemed too good to be a Sierra game, but G. Ziets' comment put me in doubt.

Great interview. Thanks, Codex staff.

 

[Infinitron]

If they're seriously going multiple options and non-combat solutions for EVERYTHING (assuming that doesn't just mean stealthing past all the content), that would quite possibly be the most ambitious crpg design ever attempted.

I'm not sure you're familiar with what "crisises" are. There'll only be a limited number of them in the game and they're self-contained scenarios. All combat in the game is in crisises - everywhere else, you're in "adventure game with stats" mode.

If you want insane ambition, look at games with open worlds and freeform, globally applicable mechanics, like say, D:OS.

 

[Sensuki]

It's a storyfag game, essentially. Like Torment.

 

[Zeriel]

Yeah, this is probably going to be like Torment without all the filler combat. I'm sure that fills some people with joy, but Torment would feel really weird to me pacing-wise without that combat.

 

[MicoSelva]

Share your inside infos!

I have none, I just think he's a bad writer based on http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...-goal-and-much-more.81506/page-6#post-2563102

I also read the Name of the Wind a while ago, just out of curiosity about Rothfuss.

It wasn't a great book, but I found its highly personal (almost to the point of solipsism) method of storytelling refreshingly different from the usual "kings, castles and armies" fantasy fare, and in that sense it was worth reading.

I'm not a super well-read person though, so perhaps there are other fantasy tales that do that better.

The Felurien incident in The Wise Man's Fear to description of which Roguey links is indeed mock-worthy, but overall as far as fantasy literature goes, Kingkiller Chronicle is really not bad. I read (more like listen to, I have a long commute, so I go through a lot of audiobooks) quite a lot of fantasy and while it is nothing earth-shattering, Rothfuss' world-building skills are definitely above average. Also, disregarding Kvothe's Marty Stu tendencies, the characters in the books are well-done and believable, if somewhat annoying. So, I am not very worried that he is doing an area and a companion, but definitely look forward to the area more.

 

[Sensuki]

Adam Heine

How's that military coup going ?

G Ziets

I tried to watch TURN but eh, the acting was pretty bad in the first episode.

 

[DalekFlay]

It's almost too storyfag, to be honest. My preferred balance is Fallout 2 style, where talking and sneaking can be critical but you still need to hold your own in a fight to some degree. Still I am sure this will be a quality experience due to writing and setting, if nothing else.

 

[RedScum]

Such fame.

 

[Roguey]

Fantasy literature is shit...News at 11.

China Mieville could write a much better companion and area than Rothfuss ever could.

 

[Adam Heine]

Adam Heine

How's that military coup going ?

Not nearly as bad as CNN makes it sound.

 

[abnaxus]

 

[Roguey]

Not nearly as bad as CNN makes it sound.

No democratically-elected government, television or radio, and a curfew sound pretty bad to me, living in the land of the free and all.