Torment Torment: Tides of Numenera Thread

[Lhynn]

So basically you didn't play it.

And now you know the reason I said I didn't play it. You imbecile, keep up.

 

[Efe]

this is like watching a doctor talk on tv and then repeating same shit to others as facts as if your knowledge has any basis in reality.

 

[Black Angel]

Seeing Lhynn's posts reminded me of that time when he make a thread on AoD, judging the game based on a playthrough where he cheated and gave his characters extra attribute points and hundreds of skill points from the get go or something

 

[Kyl Von Kull]

There are a lot of similarities. Both are in the deep future. Both feature a pseudo-medieval setting sprinkled with super-advanced technology from precursor civilisations and aliens. Both are heavy on the weird and do not even attempt to explain what the precursor civilisations or aliens were or are like. Both have elites who have an inkling of understanding of what the real deal is.

Basically, Numenera is like somebody read Book of the New Sun, really loved it but had no idea why and missed everything that is really great about it, and then just took the most trivial, most obvious bits and built an imitation out of that.

Book of the New Sun is a brilliant, tortured masterpiece. Terrible politics, but you ought to like that part.

I mildly disagree. Most characters in The Book of the New Sun do know how a great deal of their technology works, even if there are still some super advanced precursor relics (and mystical stuff) beyond common understanding. The issue is that their day-to-day tech is so taken for granted that Severian rarely bothers to explain it to us.

Remember, the short framing story has Gene Wolfe discovering this future history and trying to translate it into English. So when Severian describes the city guards as Peltasts, we don’t know if that means men with slings or men with laser guns. How different are the Commonwealth’s destriers that travel at sixty miles an hour compared to the horses they’ve been engineered from? The key is really that the language and Severian’s storytelling combine to make the setting feel very alien.

You could never replicate this sensation in a game where you have to visually depict everything.

 

[Fairfax]

You guys are so full of shit. Unable and unwilling to tackle any criticism and instead attacking the one giving it.

Your "arguments" are adjectives like "dumb" and "retarded", based on books you've never read and a game you've never played. There's nothing to be discussed, you're just a pathetic charlatan lashing out after being exposed.

 

[Farewell into the night]

I played it and it wasn't worthy. I had hopes, I had dreams...

 

[Lhynn]

Seeing Lhynn's posts reminded me of that time when he make a thread on AoD, judging the game based on a playthrough where he cheated and gave his characters extra attribute points and hundreds of skill points from the get go or something

I had played the game without cheating before. And my opinion had not changed.
I did enjoy the game a lot more with those extra points.

Absolutely no regrets.

 

[Lhynn]

You guys are so full of shit. Unable and unwilling to tackle any criticism and instead attacking the one giving it.

Your "arguments" are adjectives like "dumb" and "retarded", based on books you've never read and a game you've never played. There's nothing to be discussed, you're just a pathetic charlatan lashing out after being exposed.

Read the books. Played the game for a bit.

Want me to elaborate on the mechanics just say so you colossal faggot. Truth is you can't even offer counter arguments as to why what I pointed out is any good. All you have left is trying to poison de well.

Stick to Dev gossip, that's all you are good for.

 

[Fairfax]

The Poseur is immunized against all dangers: one may call him a scoundrel, parasite, swindler, profiteer, it all runs off him like water off a raincoat. But call him a Poseur and you will be astonished at how he recoils, how injured he is, how he suddenly shrinks back: “I’ve been found out.”

 

[Lhynn]

Keep trying you sad cunt. Truth is you have nothing.

 

[Okagron]

Worked for Fallout 3, which was nominated for multiple award and won at least one for writing https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1073664/awards

Did Fallout 3 seriously won an award for writing? Did these people actually paid attention to the main story? It's easily one of the most poorly written stories ever conceived. It's literally a story of two groups of people killing each other for the same goal, which is to press a button.

 

[2house2fly]

Wow, just to press a button? What idiots. I played that game, there are a ton of buttons all over the place. They could have just gone and found another button if they wanted to press a button so much.

 

[Luckmann]

Worked for Fallout 3, which was nominated for multiple award and won at least one for writing https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1073664/awards

Did Fallout 3 seriously won an award for writing? Did these people actually paid attention to the main story? It's easily one of the most poorly written stories ever conceived. It's literally a story of two groups of people killing each other for the same goal, which is to press a button.

Let's be clear here, too: It's the same button.

I havent played the game

Then sit down and shut the fuck up, faggot.

but im familiar with the setting

No you're not. You may be familiar with some of the material, but that is not the same thing.

This is the church of Avellone. Planescape: Torment is the holy grail. And us who dare say it is not perfect, are the infidels who need to be put to the sword...

No, you're just fucking retarded, and you'll be called fucking retards.

 

[Kyl Von Kull]

They are examples, but to clarify. The doors as a mechanic mean that wherever you are and wherever you are not is completely at the whims of the narrative. If the narrative requires you to be with someone or someplace, the mechanics of the world make that happen.
The lady is another tool for this. If the players do something you dont like you can simply kick them, or trap them, or punish them how you see fit. They are tools of control built into the narrative, i hate the very idea of them and i think planescape is just pretentious shit that doesnt like to have players ruining its "factions and their philosphies" bullshit.

I mean, if your dungeon master wants to be arbitrary and capricious, it doesn’t matter what setting you’re using. This stuff just gives your DM some setting appopriate cover for doing what they want, rather than making them pull convoluted explanations out of their ass. Also, the way the planes work actually creates some constraints, too.

With a good DM Planescape is fantastic because while, yes, pretty much anything can happen, there are also consistent rules about how and why things work the way they do. There’s a ton of freedom, but that freedom comes with clear consequences.

We had a DM in college who was so good and eventually so in demand that he started charging us for each session. His original stuff, especially for Planescape, was worth every penny.

 

[Lhynn]

No you're not. You may be familiar with some of the material, but that is not the same thing.

Ok, im not familiar with the setting because i didnt play a game that featured it.

I mean, if your dungeon master wants to be arbitrary and capricious, it doesn’t matter what setting you’re using.

You sound like my retarded friend saying "system doesnt matter". It does you twat, it influences every action you can take.

there are also consistent rules about how and why things work the way they do.

No there isnt, half the shit works on a whim.

We had a DM in college who was so good and eventually so in demand that he started charging us for each session. His original stuff, especially for Planescape, was worth every penny.

Everything can be a good story.

 

[Life of the Party]

It has been remarked thousands of times that Christ died under torture. Many of us have read so often that he was a "humble carpenter" that we feel a little surge of nausea on seeing the words again. But no one ever seems to notice that the instruments of torture were wood, nails, and a hammer; that the man who built the cross was undoubtedly a carpenter too; that the man who hammered in the nails was as much a carpenter as a soldier, as much a carpenter as a torturer. Very few seem even to have noticed that although Christ was a "humble carpenter," the only object we are specifically told he made was not a table or a chair, but a whip.

And if Christ knew not only the pain of torture but the pain of being a torturer (as it seems certain to me that he did) then the dark figure is also capable of being a heroic and even a holy figure, like the black Christs carved in Africa.

 

[BEvers]

Another ex-developer popping up in ColinChat:

 

[Roguey]

Imagine a team almost entirely full of passive aggressive soyboys with only Markland and Keenan there to try to drill some sense into them.

Edit: Oh, that's UI guy. Well, the passive aggressive part still stands.

 

[Lhynn]

I found the UI aggressively bad.

 

[MRY]

TemplarGR If nothing else, you're overlooking PS:T's excellent art, voice acting, and music. The other thing is that games that execute everything at A-/B+ level may be better games than those that are like A+ here, A+ there, D here, F there, but ultimately if there's nothing A+ about a game, it's hard to get excited about it down the line, whereas the game that's a mix of great and crap, you can forget/forgive the crap and remember the great forever. Ultimately, that's why I'd recommend AOD in a heartbeat despite areas where it may be significantly weaker than AA or AAA RPGs off the last 30 years: there are things so good in AOD that if you play the game, they'll be a lingering pleasure if your mind for years and year.

 

[BEvers]

Edit: Oh, that's UI guy. Well, the passive aggressive part still stands.

Backer portal guy. UI guy was sser, same as for WL2DC and BT4.

 

[agris]

sser Did you design the UI?

 

[BEvers]

sea is a UI designer, and that's been one of his responsibilities at inXile as well:

Interesting article. There are some good takeaways from it. I've been doing UI design for a couple of years now, but instead of action games it's been on RPGs, which means the information density and needs are significantly different from action games. It's interesting to see the contrast between them, and the different approaches needed when building UI for them. One thing I find myself constantly valuing more and more is playing into the user's expectations. Common placement and behavior of like elements, such as character portraits, health bars, items, tooltips, and so on are extremely important because once you establish how something should behave, players expect it to behave that way forever - and the less friction when introducing some kind of new UI element, the better, because it means there's no extra time spent learning how something works. Interestingly, this is something I see quite a few games fail at, where each UI looks great and the art between them might be cohesive, but the actual design and layout can feel arbitrary on each screen.

That same rule also applies from game to game as well. With a game like Wasteland 2 or Torment, there is an expectation the game should behave similarly to other games in the genre that have come before. Sometimes it's better to follow the norms established by those other games while sprinkling in the improvements we're able to add on top, since players will be familiar with them but appreciate the quality of life improvements. A hidden benefit is that the more conventional you are with your UI, the more it frees you up to do new, creative and interesting stuff where it matters (any unique mechanics you might have that *do* require something brand new). Thanks for sharing!

http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/Oliv..._of_Dreadnoughts_combat_HUD.php#comment286458

I'm doing some of the UI design for Bard's Tale IV, and although art is not really my field, I obviously have an interest in this topic.

https://forums.inxile-entertainment.com/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=17636&p=185230#p185230

Today we've got a brand new update for Torment covering many of the changes and improvements to the user experience we've been making in the last few months, and signed by none other than... gulp, me.

Eric here. We're in the home stretch on Torment, and in the last few months we've been working hard to refine and improve the game. My main role has been to work with our artists and engineers to make our user experience as good as it can be.

Our revamp for conversation text scrolling now has text appear at the top of the interface rather than appearing near the bottom, so you don't find yourself scrolling nearly as much...

That said, a text box isn't in and of itself the most interesting thing, and for Torment we wanted to do something a bit more special. So, we decided to include additional notifications, audio cues and special effects while you're in conversations in order to highlight key moments...

A great example of this is the new "Item Gained" prompt...

We've also made improvements to the fanfare when you get other rewards or status changes. Now, we have animated visual effects that play in key instances – most notably, when your Tidal Affinity changes (it is Tides of Numenera after all), but also for other things like XP gains.

Eric Schwarz
Designer

https://forums.inxile-entertainment.com/viewtopic.php?t=16092

He also presented the WL2: DC UI update: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inxile/wasteland-2/posts/1372343

 

[Infinitron]

Don't be confused by Fake News-bot's ratings. sea is a UI designer

Read your earlier post again more carefully!

 

[BEvers]

They're the same person to me. Have you run an IP check?

Spoiler

sea goes by "sear" on the inXile forums, so "sser" may have seemed like a good compromise to my brain