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Tags: Eric Daily; InXile Entertainment; Torment: Tides of Numenera
inXile have released what may be the final update for Torment: Tides of Numenera, which adds two stretch goals from the Kickstarter campaign back into the game, as promised back in March - the companion Oom (AKA The Toy) and the Voluminous Codex lore encyclopedia. It also includes numerous other features and improvements, notably two additional Tiers to allow character advancement in the late game. The new Kickstarter update has the details, including a description of Oom:
I guess this is the closest Torment will get to having a Director's Cut. If you've been putting your playthrough off, your wait is probably over. Full patch notes are available here.
inXile have released what may be the final update for Torment: Tides of Numenera, which adds two stretch goals from the Kickstarter campaign back into the game, as promised back in March - the companion Oom (AKA The Toy) and the Voluminous Codex lore encyclopedia. It also includes numerous other features and improvements, notably two additional Tiers to allow character advancement in the late game. The new Kickstarter update has the details, including a description of Oom:
Highlights
Of course, those of you who have chosen to play Torment on consoles won’t be left out - this update will be coming free to you in the near future as well!
We hope you enjoy Oom and the new features, and we’ll be keeping an eye out for your feedback. In the meantime, we thought we’d give you a bit of insight into the Oom’s creation...
Oom - The Toy
Early during the Kickstarter campaign for Torment, we introduced Oom to you as "The Toy", a new stretch goal companion by design lead Adam Heine and Brian Mitsoda (Dead State, Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines). While this companion didn't make it into the initial release of the game, we're bringing it back in our latest update.
Back when we pitched the idea of Oom, it was described as:
The Toy is a changing ball of goo: Is it a pet, an abandoned toy, a dangerous weapon? Whatever it is, it responds to the way you treat it by changing its appearance and abilities to reflect what it perceives as your desires. Its ultimate secrets are... well, you’ll have to find out.
Now that we've received the opportunity to complete Oom, we went back to these ideas, as well as much of the original writing by Brian Mitsoda. We wanted to make sure that Oom was true to the vision proposed early on... but of course, as many of those ideas were thought up prior to us knowing Torment's final game mechanics and storyline, we also wanted to make sure that Oom would integrate well into the game as it is today.
Here is senior writer Gavin Jurgens-Fyhrie's take on Oom:
Oom is a living artifact from a prior world, and extraordinarily loyal to you. A shape-changer and guardian, it is somehow connected to the Tides, and it grants the Last Castoff a deeper connection to them.
It is also a mystery to be solved. Oom does not speak, and even its thoughts are a strange tangle of alien metaphors. It will drive you to increase your understanding of the Tides, and by doing so, you will learn secrets about its long, long past...
Oom is unlike any of the other companions in Torment. For one, Oom is – to use a technical term – a blob of goop, a piece of the numenera left over from a past civilization that has faded into the darkness of history.
If you discover Oom during your game, then it may become a member of your party. Just like the other Torment companions, it has its own quest and storyline you will uncover throughout the game, it can assist you with challenges and in Crisis gameplay, and it will react to the world around you and the characters you meet.
https://twitter.com/Inxile_Ent/status/850403339070316545
But Oom is different from other companions in more ways than just looks. For starters, Oom's abilities are entirely unique to it, and are designed to be distinctly versatile. Oom's basic attack allows it to splorch (to use another technical term) at enemies, damaging them with gooey globs of itself which can inflict multiple special effects. Its other abilities center around helping its allies. For instance, Oom can coat another member of your party with goop, bestowing improved protection and other benefits. Oom is also great with consumable items and cyphers, as any it uses have their benefits apply to not just Oom, but the Last Castoff as well.
We also suggested as part of the initial "Toy" design that Oom would learn from your actions and change to match, and now we have taken that idea one step farther. Oom is a loyal guardian who flows with the Tides, and your Tidal alignment will allow you to not only shape Oom's appearance, but will also allow you to alter its abilities. Over the course of the game, and as the Last Castoff grows more experienced in using the Tides, you will influence Oom's play-style. To see the details, you’ll have to play the new content for yourself!
- New Companion: Oom. Oom is a new stretch goal character who you will discover on your journey through the Ninth World. Oom features its own companion quest, "Servant of the Tides", its own unique abilities for use in combat and exploration, and interactions with various characters throughout the game.
- Added the Voluminous Codex. This new stretch goal feature unlocks lore and character entries as you explore the game world.
- Added a new user interface element to the Inventory Screen which makes it easier to view companion attitudes toward the Last Castoff.
- Added a new user interface element to the Common Panel which better messages the Last Castoff's current Legacy.
- Players can now advance to Tier 5 and Tier 6, allowing players to spend their Experience Points more in the later game. This also allows the Last Castoff to gain abilities from other character types.
- Various balance improvements to Crisis gameplay throughout the game.
- Various balance improvements to exploration gameplay, especially in the later stages of the game.
- Added zoom in/out key binding to the Options Menu. This allows players without mouse wheels to remap the zoom functions.
- Cypher Sickness initialization is now delayed until after Equipment initialization. This should prevent issues where loading a save file where equipment was preventing a cypher explosion would cause input to freeze up (fix may not be retroactive).
- Remove all non-gameplay Fettles from companions when they're removed from the party. This should prevent certain freezes from occurring.
- Numerous small UI fixes.
- Numerous small quest fixes.
Of course, those of you who have chosen to play Torment on consoles won’t be left out - this update will be coming free to you in the near future as well!
We hope you enjoy Oom and the new features, and we’ll be keeping an eye out for your feedback. In the meantime, we thought we’d give you a bit of insight into the Oom’s creation...
Oom - The Toy
Early during the Kickstarter campaign for Torment, we introduced Oom to you as "The Toy", a new stretch goal companion by design lead Adam Heine and Brian Mitsoda (Dead State, Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines). While this companion didn't make it into the initial release of the game, we're bringing it back in our latest update.
Back when we pitched the idea of Oom, it was described as:
The Toy is a changing ball of goo: Is it a pet, an abandoned toy, a dangerous weapon? Whatever it is, it responds to the way you treat it by changing its appearance and abilities to reflect what it perceives as your desires. Its ultimate secrets are... well, you’ll have to find out.
Now that we've received the opportunity to complete Oom, we went back to these ideas, as well as much of the original writing by Brian Mitsoda. We wanted to make sure that Oom was true to the vision proposed early on... but of course, as many of those ideas were thought up prior to us knowing Torment's final game mechanics and storyline, we also wanted to make sure that Oom would integrate well into the game as it is today.
Here is senior writer Gavin Jurgens-Fyhrie's take on Oom:
Oom is a living artifact from a prior world, and extraordinarily loyal to you. A shape-changer and guardian, it is somehow connected to the Tides, and it grants the Last Castoff a deeper connection to them.
It is also a mystery to be solved. Oom does not speak, and even its thoughts are a strange tangle of alien metaphors. It will drive you to increase your understanding of the Tides, and by doing so, you will learn secrets about its long, long past...
Oom is unlike any of the other companions in Torment. For one, Oom is – to use a technical term – a blob of goop, a piece of the numenera left over from a past civilization that has faded into the darkness of history.
If you discover Oom during your game, then it may become a member of your party. Just like the other Torment companions, it has its own quest and storyline you will uncover throughout the game, it can assist you with challenges and in Crisis gameplay, and it will react to the world around you and the characters you meet.
https://twitter.com/Inxile_Ent/status/850403339070316545
But Oom is different from other companions in more ways than just looks. For starters, Oom's abilities are entirely unique to it, and are designed to be distinctly versatile. Oom's basic attack allows it to splorch (to use another technical term) at enemies, damaging them with gooey globs of itself which can inflict multiple special effects. Its other abilities center around helping its allies. For instance, Oom can coat another member of your party with goop, bestowing improved protection and other benefits. Oom is also great with consumable items and cyphers, as any it uses have their benefits apply to not just Oom, but the Last Castoff as well.
We also suggested as part of the initial "Toy" design that Oom would learn from your actions and change to match, and now we have taken that idea one step farther. Oom is a loyal guardian who flows with the Tides, and your Tidal alignment will allow you to not only shape Oom's appearance, but will also allow you to alter its abilities. Over the course of the game, and as the Last Castoff grows more experienced in using the Tides, you will influence Oom's play-style. To see the details, you’ll have to play the new content for yourself!
I guess this is the closest Torment will get to having a Director's Cut. If you've been putting your playthrough off, your wait is probably over. Full patch notes are available here.
