Game News Torment Kickstarter Update #4: Legacies and Cults

[Infinitron]

Take portal to Eternity. Detonate one-billion-year-old thermonuclear device. Take portal back. I'm all for this! It'll be the next best thing to shitting all over Forgotten Realms.

Two centuries ago, your divine champion told the people of Dyrwood to grovel at his feet. If you've come on pilgrimage to the blasted crater that was our reply, Godhammer Citadel is *that* way.

 

[Roguey]

The death cult sounds absurd. "Oh my flesh is a cage." Well why don't you just kill yourself then?

The other guys sound like those brain rats. It's pretty funny how safe they're playing this; pretty much every element is analogous to something from Torment. Torment with a twist. The game you remembered but slightly different.

Lack of prerendered backgrounds goal is laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaame.

Why are you such a bitter cunt?

I'm just making observations. I state my observations in a cage-rattling way because I enjoy doing so.

On further reflection it might be better for inXile if prerendered backgrounds are a stealth goal instead of explicitly stated. I imagine a lot of people donating are assuming it's going to be like Torment and look something like Obsidian's Eternity. Announcing prerendered backgrounds as a stretch goal might upset them. There was a similar deal with Shadowrun Returns, when a lot of people thought they were donating to an isometric RPG and suddenly they said "Hey we now have enough money to upgrade from top-down to isometric."

 

[Zeriel]

Yeah, I didn't want to say anything, but the Cults were the first thing I've seen them give example prose for that just sounded godawful. Pure table-top page-filler schlock.

 

[Infinitron]

Pure table-top page-filler schlock.

No more so than the Planescape sects they may be modelled upon.

Or in other words - you say that like it's a bad thing.

 

[Zeriel]

Pure table-top page-filler schlock.

No more so than the Planescape sects they may be modelled upon.

Or in other words - you say that like it's a bad thing.

They struck me as quite-a-bit-less-interesting than the factions in Sigil. Obviously I am hugely positive about this game, hence why I didn't mention it before, but there you go. The Scourges really don't seem on the level of the Ciphers or Takers, but then, I suppose as enemies as opposed to joinable/major factions, they don't need to be.

 

[nihil]

Lack of prerendered backgrounds goal is laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaame.

I don't know if having an art style/tech as a stretch goal would be a good idea. Half the people might not like the sound of it. They should just secretly go with the prerendered/painted backgrounds and show an awesome looking screenshot towards the end of the Kickstarter like P:E did.

EDIT: Oh, missed your later post.

 

[Gozma]

The PS:T Sigil faction stuff was pretty stupid too. They basically picked out the ones that weren't shitty (Dusties and Sensates) and gave them a significant stretch of the game and left the rest of them to to background. So I think the faction stuff could work OK if they don't make it the focus of the game but rather they're just used to give the image of a fleshed out, larger world with politics and ecology and culture etc. that you sometimes intersect, rather than having the entire game just be theater-of-the-PC where everything is of this game and only this game.

 

[Jaesun]

Yeah. The whole faction thing really fell a bit flat in PS:T.

It felt like they had them planned for the game, but then had to just wrap it up leaving them somewhat unfinished.

 

[Zeriel]

The PS:T Sigil faction stuff was pretty stupid too. They basically picked out the ones that weren't shitty (Dusties and Sensates) and gave them a significant stretch of the game and left the rest of them to to background. So I think the faction stuff could work OK if they don't make it the focus of the game but rather they're just used to give the image of a fleshed out, larger world with politics and ecology and culture etc. that you sometimes intersect, rather than having the entire game just be theater-of-the-PC where everything is of this game and only this game.

I can't agree with this (that they picked the non-shitty ones only). I mean, obviously tastes differ, but goddamn. Athar? A bunch of atheists living in the shattered temple of a dead god, who are secretly dreaming up gods of their own? COME ON. I could go on with half the factions, some of them were fucking amazing. But admittedly in Torment's case the factions weren't even properly joinable (I know you could technically join one or two, but it never had any real effect), so they were just there as window-dressing.

Definitely agree that they were just an afterthought, though.

 

[winterraptor]

That basically what all games do. People write for different areas. Like MCA did New Reno in Fallout 2. Obviously other people contributed and added stuff to it too.

It think it was more obvious in Fallout 2 than in other games - the style could change so much. As we all know with New Reno. And they were going to do this similar in Van Buren if I'm not mistaken. Guess it was a given. Something about what I read of it gave me a feeling they were really going to lay on the awesome with reactivity and options, though. I.e. expand on the concept. Ultimately was a form of self-torture to read about such a dead project. And now it's self-torture again in waiting on the true bros to put this shit back in our hands (to some degree).

 

[Murk]

I liked P:Torment's level of reactivity, hopefully they'll deliver as much if not more. A lot of interaction with the game was through dialog but said dialog used stat and ability checks to determine success -- and it allowed things like observing pickpockets to increase your own skill, knowing they'll get to steal some of your gold to do so.

Give me more of that plzzz

 

[commie]

What would be cool, is if we took a "portal" to Eternity. Even if it was just briefly.

Maybe we could take a portal to the rat cave in the first Fallout. With newly added diplomacy options. Andhaira wouldn't have to detonate himself to see paradise.

 

[Jaesun]

 

[FeelTheRads]

What would be cool, is if we took a "portal" to Eternity. Even if it was just briefly.

Maybe we could take a portal to the rat cave in the first Fallout. With newly added diplomacy options. Andhaira wouldn't have to detonate himself to see paradise.

But it would be cool if they had some nostalgia references. For example if W2 had a "Remember Fallout?" written on the box somewhere. You know...

 

[DwarvenFood]

No no, it would have made more sense for Fallout to include "remember wasteland?" somewhere..

 

[General Maxson]

No no, it would have made more sense for Fallout to include "remember wasteland?" somewhere..

There are subtle nods to Wasteland in Fallout...

 

[Infinitron]

No no, it would have made more sense for Fallout to include "remember wasteland?" somewhere..

There are subtle nods to Wasteland in Fallout...

FeelTheRads is referring to the original Fallout box, which said "Remember Wasteland?" on it.

 

[Brother None]

They aren't being paid 1 million for their work. The stretch goal is just a marketing tactic. It's not that all of that money is literally being spent on writers.
We went over all of this stuff last year bro, where were you

You are telling me they are asking and taking money that they arent saying where it will be spent ?.....

All money goes into the game. But adding one writer doesn't just mean you have to cover his wages, it means you have to have a level designer to supplement his work if he doesn't have the expertise or experience for that (some do, some don't) and then artist, modelers and programmers to implement the areas he adds, that is included in the stretch goals (and while it does not scale linearly, expanding the game does expand the production work, especially for modelers and artists, and if you want no delays that means expanding the team (or more realistically if Torment has a similar budget to WL2, keeping the current team together)). Simply put: every dollar goes into the game so both existing and new areas, companions and factions are constantly being expanded and built out. Stretch goals are just there to list concrete additions to the team and game, because just constantly saying "the game gets bigger" is not that interesting for backers.

I'm really interested to see how this "Modular" design thing is going to work, from what I can gather they have the main plot mapped out. But it's designed in such a way as different writers can add either main elements or side elements into the journey. I wonder if that was just PR kickstarter blurb or if they actually have it figured out that much already.

It is pretty mapped out but you shouldn't imagine that means all the details are decided, it means there's a core story and companion group that required one million to make, and once they are there there's a pre-set list of areas and companions we expand into. The meres are a good example of literal modular additions, since they do not tie into the story directly but only in theme and information/power the player gathers, and that means they are very flexible for use, but even within the main story (and you do spend the majority of time in "your own" body) there is modularity. This is all Kevin's job, and he's good at his job. Like...really, really good.

 

[TeknoBM]

All money goes into the game. But adding one writer doesn't just mean you have to cover his wages, it means you have to have a level designer to supplement his work if he doesn't have the expertise or experience for that (some do, some don't) and then artist, modelers and programmers to implement the areas he adds, that is included in the stretch goals (and while it does not scale linearly, expanding the game does expand the production work, especially for modelers and artists, and if you want no delays that means expanding the team (or more realistically if Torment has a similar budget to WL2, keeping the current team together)). Simply put: every dollar goes into the game so both existing and new areas, companions and factions are constantly being expanded and built out. Stretch goals are just there to list concrete additions to the team and game, because just constantly saying "the game gets bigger" is not that interesting for backers.

Thats what i needed to hear. Thank you, ill raise my pledge just for clearing this up.

hiver do come and explain to us again how your production line works douchebag

 

[FeelTheRads]

This thing seems to still be raking about 100k per day. How about that "maybe 30k per day", BN? Huh? Did you already start to chicken out like Obsidian did near the end of their campaign?

 

[Infinitron]

This thing seems to still be raking about 100k per day. How about that "maybe 30k per day", BN? Huh? Did you already start to chicken out like Obsidian did near the end of their campaign?

Dude it's only been four days

 

[Jaesun]

Feel those rads.

 

[FeelTheRads]

I know. But remember that BN was all like "nah, we're only gonna get 30k per day in the weekend".

Feel those rads.

HUrr durr. Does anyone read actually read FeelTheRads' posts?

 

[Brother None]

Our research pointed to the initial fervor lasting 3-4 days with a 3-day runoff that's slightly higher than the quiet period, and the ending up-curve starting roughly one week before the final day, shooting up in the final two days. Weekends also tend to be more quiet (I'm not sure why LB launched his KS on Friday, maybe his research showed other tendencies). Kicktraq (imperfect I know) shows PE's first four days as 706, 482, 195 and 156, and our first four days as 1488, 517, 204 and 118. I hope it sticks at around 50K a day now much like Eternity did, but if it falls to 30K a day, that's ok. A steeper dropoff to 30K was my guess based on what Dreamfall Chapters did. If we do better, then great.

My initial expectations have long since been surpassed, so I wouldn't be shocked if I was wrong again. Happy, more than shocked.

I just opened up our own Kickstarter dashboard. For the numbergeeks, the numbers are:
day 1 1,487,350
day 2 2,005,047 (517,697)
day 3 2,210,055 (205,008)
day 4 2,328,992 (118,937)
day 5 (ongoing) 2,356,105 (27,113)

A pretty typical 3-4 day curve except for the wild day 1.

Did you already start to chicken out like Obsidian did near the end of their campaign?

I do not understand the question

I know. But remember that BN was all like "nah, we're only gonna get 30k per day in the weekend".

Was I?

 

[Infinitron]

For the record, we've yet to see if inXile will be as remarkably successful as Obsidian were in getting pledgers to actually INCREASE their pledges over the course of the campaign.

On the other hand, the average pledge started out remarkably high, so maybe there's nowhere to go up to.