Torment Torment: Tides of Numenera Thread

& replying to all other comments about bland companions:



This is a neverwinter nights module. Kingmaker. It's 10 hours long. There are so few screenshots of it on google I had to get my laptop out and sort this image out myself. You get to choose 2 out of 4 companions at the beginning of the game, all of whom are interesting and pretty unique in backstory and appearance (though their characters could be argued to be a bit stereotypical). In the above screeny you'll see the two I chose, a wererat and a fire dwarf. Seems like a fairly original and interestingly unique companion set-up to me...

Both have voice actors with lots of voice acting during the game. They regularly stop for banter and even argue with each other, sometimes with genuine lol moments. It wasn't perfect and they had no personal quests to solve, no romances (well... wererat!), no resolutions to their sad histories, but at the end of the game they were my buddies and I was protecting them with my life (even though I did consider letting the rat die at one point, playing in proper dead is dead mode, but that was more to do with NWN's shite party mechanics that an issue with the character).

Compare your TToN companions to these. Which of the two looks like a more 'fun', 'engaging', 'original', whatever word you like, companion set?

 

Those look like two locations from the mere where you meet Mazzoff, whatever the Merecaster's name was. The second location had the name Obsidian Plains or something like that.

 

Yeah, because Baldur's Gate isn't popular. I'm not sure about Deus Ex or Torment. Meanwhile, Larian sold a million copies of a brand basically nobody knows besides RPG enthusiasts. PoE is doing fine as well. Something doesn't gel well here. The quote marks around bad aren't needed, they are bad.

 

I'm fairly sure Activision is considering reviving Arcanum to sort of compete with Cyberpunk 2077 and enter the RPG market.

 

The idea that they didn't have money for T:TON because it went into WL2 makes no sense. WL2 alone easily made enough profit to fund $5-10 million game. Plus if you don't have money to make a game, you try to come up with something quick and push it out of the door, not sit on it 4 years and watch the money bleed away.

Besides, some of this shit is just unexplainable, like the excuse that Oasis is gone because they decided Bloom is better pick for major hub. Now I would be fine with a switch like that, if it wasn't for that little stint where they asked for additional funding to "restore Bloom to it's full glory". Nobody mentioned at that point that it means Oasis will be gone. Did they honestly believe people won't notice there's some major bullshit going on here? They couldn't possibly be that dumb.

 

And what happened with the more than 600 thousands units of W2 that were sold? They have money, guys. They just decided not to use it.

 

Fucking Tycho from Fallout was a better companion than all TToN buttbuddies combined.

 

I guess they must have hoped that the game sells well enough that the backer disappointment gets diluted out. Of course, this didn't happen.

 

They sold 600 thousand units of W2? Lol.

 

I know they sold more than 500k the last time I checked, and some fanboy said they sold more than 600k, which is a lot, especially considering the price tag.

 

I see GOG discounting it frequently though, so I doubt most of them are at full price. It's discounted right now, too.

 

It's still a lot of money.

 

Bard's Tale VR?

 

Then what is the explanation for Numanuma being in the state it is in? Even if you "like" it, the cut stretch goals are an objective measure for something going wrong. What, they just decided to cut them for no reason whatsoever?

 

Also, who the fuck thought a console version for TToN was a great idea?

Cause the first time I read about that I nearly laughed my ass off.

I mean, aren't you curious about the process that gave birth to that nonsensical undertaking?

 

brilliant.

just.

brilliant

 

Reminder: Interplay shipped Descent to Undermountain in an unplayable state and heavily promoted "4-player Modem/Network option" as a feature in the game's box, despite that having been cut from the game.



At least reviewers had balls back then... look at dear old CGW's review:

 

The cast, drama and twists and turns surrounding the making of TTON is a better narrative than the actual game has.

 

charlatan
ˈʃɑːlət(ə)n/
noun

1. a person falsely claiming to have a special knowledge or skill.
   "a self-confessed con artist and charlatan"
   synonyms: quack, mountebank, sham, fraud, fake, humbug, impostor, pretender, masquerader, hoodwinker, hoaxer, cheat, deceiver, dissembler, double-dealer, double-crosser, trickster, confidence trickster, cheater, swindler, fraudster, racketeer; More

 

You know, I think Infinitron might be onto something here. The part about Early Access being indicator of sales, I mean.

What if, with $5mln from Kickstarter and probably at least $10 million profit from WL2, they went just crazy overambitious. Let's expand the Bloom into a 3rd city, let's add a ton of VO, let's write one million words because we can afford localization, let's add this, let's add that. And they've basically drawn up a budget for twice of what was gained from Kickstarter. Money. wasn't an issue at that point, we know they had it and more.

They start working on it for a while, everything goes well, then they launch Early Access and it sells like trash. They realize this thing will likely never break even with the current scope. So they're left with a choice to either bet entire company on it and possibly go under, or gut everything possible to get it closer the original budget. And we're left with empty shell of a game.

I mean, this game shouldn't be selling as terribly as it does. The reviews are great, they've had plenty of hype, Techland was vomiting out new trailers every other week. Unless, unless they knew something we don't know.

Edit:

Wasteland has 650k owners on Steam alone, and probably at least a 100k on GOG. They were in Humble Monthly as a lead game, but at that point I'm pretty sure they already moved at least 500k units.

 

I know right! I would love to find out what was going on in their heads. Also only know i realize how much affort and hard work Obsidian put into POE. I mean whether people like it or not at least they delivered what they pretty much promised. Like stronghold for example, yeah it was useless but it still made it into the game, it wasnt cut or The endless paths, they promised 13 levels, they delivered 13 levels.

 

Is Early Access a good estimate for final sales though? I'm thinking a lot of people are disappointed in EA games and hold off on buying them until after they are finished.

 

I have no idea, I was just talking out of my ass brainstorming based on something Infinitron said. Not sure if I should trust a Jew though.