Torment Torment: Tides of Numenera Thread

[Lacrymas]

I said that he it wrote the game by itself.

I'm glad you didn't assume xir gender.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

Look, I will be the first to criticize the excess of cult personality here. I didn’t say he designed the game by himself. I said that he wrote the game by itself.

What? He didn't design by himself? So there was like, a team of people?

Sweet mother of God, that must have been a nightmare. Can't have too many cooks in any creative endeavor. There was this guy who once wrote a score for a short film with a few other people and it was hell. The final result was utter garbage, unintelligible gibberish and incoherent ideas. I read about it on the internet.

 

[Zorba the Hutt]

Again, there was no huge writing team of a dozen people. This is a misconception that's been around since the Kickstarter. The game was written in practice by basically two people with two or three others helping them. I think PoE may have actually had more people dedicated to writing companions.

I saw you got rid of that earlier post and added "in practice", but maybe that misconception was helped along by updates like this:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inxile/torment-tides-of-numenera/posts/547455
http://tormentrpg.tumblr.com/post/55829417193/the-torment-team-were-gathered-earlier-this-week

Last week marked a milestone event for Torment: Tides of Numenera, as we got many of the writers together in one room to discuss the game.
...
The Torment team were gathered earlier this week to discuss Colin’s story outline and brainstorm, which was “hugely productive, enormously creative” per Colin.

From left to right: Steve Dobos, George Ziets, Monte Cook, Kevin Saunders, Shanna Germain, Tony Evans, Matthew Findley, Colin McComb, Patrick Rothfuss, with Nathan Long in the front, with Chris Avellone present but not on the photo.

 

[Fairfax]

Holy shit, Monte Cook dresses like a 7yo.

 

[Parabalus]

So this is pretty good, the parts after Sagus are better.

Did anyone manage to

Spoiler

save everyone in Miel Avast? I just did and a couple of people died, is it worth retrying? Seemed pretty hard to get everyone though.

There is a guy named Tantalum in the first area after Sagus who gives an unmarked quest, everyone on the codex will love it, be sure to do it.

Who/where is the Codex NPC?

You can't miss him, after you board the zeppelin.

 

[Infinitron]

Again, there was no huge writing team of a dozen people. This is a misconception that's been around since the Kickstarter. The game was written in practice by basically two people with two or three others helping them. I think PoE may have actually had more people dedicated to writing companions.

I saw you got rid of that earlier post and added "in practice", but maybe that misconception was helped along by updates like this:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inxile/torment-tides-of-numenera/posts/547455
http://tormentrpg.tumblr.com/post/55829417193/the-torment-team-were-gathered-earlier-this-week

Last week marked a milestone event for Torment: Tides of Numenera, as we got many of the writers together in one room to discuss the game.
...
The Torment team were gathered earlier this week to discuss Colin’s story outline and brainstorm, which was “hugely productive, enormously creative” per Colin.

From left to right: Steve Dobos, George Ziets, Monte Cook, Kevin Saunders, Shanna Germain, Tony Evans, Matthew Findley, Colin McComb, Patrick Rothfuss, with Nathan Long in the front, with Chris Avellone present but not on the photo.

Not all of those people are even writers, but yeah. Tony Evans, Monte and Shanna seem to have buggered off after preproduction. Nathan Long and Patrick Rothfuss wrote companions but not much of anything else, I don't think. Ditto for MCA ofc.

If there's one thing I've learned from Kickstarters it's that a game's preproduction can be enormously misleading. You go from Avellone/Cain/Sawyer's Project Eternity with low intelligence dialogue responses to Josh Sawyer: The Game. You go from Wasteland 2 written and designed by the guys who made the first game to Wasteland 2 written almost entirely by some Warhammer Fantasy author (Nathan Long).

 

[Zorba the Hutt]

Nathan Long and Patrick Rothfuss wrote companions but not much of anything else, I don't think. Ditto for MCA ofc.

If there's one thing I've learned from Kickstarters is that a game's preproduction can be enormously misleading. You go from PoE with Tim Cain's low intelligence responses to the Sawyer: The Game, from Wasteland 2 written and designed by the guys who made the first game to Wasteland 2 written almost entirely by some Warhammer Fantasy author (Nathan Long).

I just hope Nathan Long's companion is great then...

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

Seriously though, this isn't rocket science. The way larger writing teams are managed, is they probably write extensive documentation and guidelines for writers to help maintain a cohesive tone and style. This is what they most likely brainstorm and discuss in those larger meetings, then every guy/girl goes and writes for himself. MRY can probably explain the process in more detail.

Anyhow, started my playthrough, so have an edgy evening folks.

 

[Lacrymas]

Seriously though, this isn't rocket science. The way larger writing teams are managed, is they probably write extensive documentation and guidelines for writers to help maintain a cohesive tone and style. This is what they most likely brainstorm and discuss in those larger meetings, then every guy/girl goes and writes for himself. MRY can probably explain the process in more detail.

Anyhow, started my playthrough, so have an edgy evening folks.

I think the Lead Writer should write the whole main storyline and make overviews for all the main characters (this includes companions), then read everything the others have written for them and rewrite them if need be. This is in addition to writing extensive documentation and guidelines for everything (fluff lore, side quests, side NPCs etc.). Then have an editor parse through everything. Yeah, a lot falls on the shoulders of the Lead Writer, but that's why xir is the Lead Writer.

 

[Save Versus Stupid]

I just logged in to let you fine gents know that I never played Planescape, was lukewarm on Wasteland 2, purchased a review copy of Tides on ebay and it's for the PS4.

Carry on.

 

[Abu Antar]

Played some more. Completed some quests. Still not a fan of the three first companions that you get. As I said, style is all over the place. I still think it's a decent game, but as I suspected, it will probably not hold a candle to Planescape: Torment. It's annoying, because this could still have been a better product and if managed better, I think it might have been possible for them to achieve something very good.

 

[Stefanos Koutsoukos]

Figured I'd pop in and bro fist (if my ever-adapting dictionary of the galaxy is correct) all the good folk who stand up to exploitation and deceit. Planescape: Torment's legacy should not be besmirched by such a pretender. If Numenera had been quietly released as a small, 10 person indie interactive novel with pretensions of gamifciation, it would have all been gravy. But 4.5M and Torment's name thrown around like a late 19th century whore's jingled veil in order to cash in? Not on our watch.

 

[FeelTheRads]

Look, I will be the first to criticize the excess of cult personality here. I didn’t say he designed the game by himself. I said that he wrote the game by itself.

What? He didn't design by himself? So there was like, a team of people?

Sweet mother of God, that must have been a nightmare. Can't have too many cooks in any creative endeavor. There was this guy who once wrote a score for a short film with a few other people and it was hell. The final result was utter garbage, unintelligible gibberish and incoherent ideas. I read about it on the internet.

Jesus, you're a fucking dumbshit moron. The point is that maybe it's because one person (Avellone) wrote most of it is why it's overall better and more consistent.

I'd also say that it's because he's probably more talented, especially more than some of the no-names that for some reason were stretch goals. But talent is likely a foreign concept to you, all you seem to be able to put together is that people who have played the game are wrong, but you, who didn't, are right.

How the fuck can you be so dense?

durr durr u guise so edgy i know how gaem are maed by ma ny ppl what all gaems are bad lolol

Impressive rhetoric, retard.

 

[existential_vacuum]

So, how does it feel to finally be Tier 1, Codexers?

As someone who hasn't played the beta due to attrocious optimization:
- I find dialogue varying from "fallout 3/4" lvl of shitty to "meh".
- UI sound, unnecessary animation and design itself are irritating (as it was mentioned time and time).
- Small events/encounters/whatever you call'em are interesting but nothing more.
- Effort mechanic is interesting but I sorta abused it (?). Exhausted companion pools to get all the stuff on the reef and told them to fuck off.
- Encountered 2 bugs, one with save files, other with game freezing during loading. Both can be solved, but there is no sticky post neither on Steam, nor on inXile forums which is kinda bad.
Played for an hour or so, decided to ignore all companions and play solo. So far, I'm not impressed with the game.

 

[DramaticPopcorn]

I just logged in to let you fine gents know that I never played Planescape, was lukewarm on Wasteland 2, purchased a review copy of Tides on ebay and it's for the PS4.

Carry on.

You've failed the save.

 

[Save Versus Stupid]

I just logged in to let you fine gents know that I never played Planescape, was lukewarm on Wasteland 2, purchased a review copy of Tides on ebay and it's for the PS4.

Carry on.

You failed the save.

It's fine. (And I'm sure that will be my opinion of the game)

I was looking for something to play, and it's objectively a rpg. I have no expectations.

 

[DramaticPopcorn]

it's objectively a rpg

You've failed the save again

 

[Ravel myluv]

Don't know if this has been posted yet, but here's a French review that contrasts with the overall very positive reviews.

http://www.gamekult.com/jeux/test-torment-tides-of-numenera-SU3050117574t.html#pc

It's a good / very good website that goes quite in depth in their reviews and treatment of news.

To sum it up:
- Very good writting
- Useless mechanisms
- Very poor second part, indicating clearly that a lot of content was cut

 

[Jimmious]

Yeah we got a live one boys! EDGE AWAY

 

[hpstg]

They support controllers, but not Xbox 360 ones. Can't even do peasantry right. Godamn.

 

[One-and-a-half-Ivan]

Obsidian had an update today in their PoE2 figstarter and gave TTON no shoutouts. I thought they were friends

 

[J_C]

Don't know if this has been posted yet, but here's a French review that contrasts with the overall very positive reviews.

http://www.gamekult.com/jeux/test-torment-tides-of-numenera-SU3050117574t.html#pc

It's a good / very good website that goes quite in depth in their reviews and treatment of news.

To sum it up:
- Very good writting

One review says that the writing is very good. Some other says it is terrible. This is why nobody should care about reviews, they are just subjective ramblings of people.

 

[TT1]

Man, that UI... Why everything looks like a winamp skin?

 

[veevoir]

In other news straight from gameplay"

- Lazaret is still buggy as fuck (apparently long beta did not help fixing the location)
- found the legendary artifact
- It is actually quite enjoyable
- I found how it is PST spiritual successor - only one class makes sense (nano) and you dump everything in charisma/wisdom intelligence. With 1-2 artifacts basic nano esotery gives an output of a proper glaive and it is ranged. And you scan thoughts + diplomance

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

Jesus, you're a fucking dumbshit moron. The point is that maybe it's because one person (Avellone) wrote most of it

"Avellone wrote PS:T all by himself,, alone." =====> "Avellone wrote most of it". It's cute how after I caught Lurker King spewing utter nonsense, you're coming with a helping hand, maybe change his words a little bit so he looks less full of shit. It's always encouraging when people with disabilities try to help each other.