Game News inXile admit that Torment stretch goal content has been cut, including companions

[FeelTheRads]

I wonder what eventually drove them to be like this. I remember they used to be OK a couple of years back, posting here and all.

Since it happened at about the time Techland showed up I think it would be a pretty big coincidence to not be related.
I'm pretty sure they're essentially Techland's puppets at this point, making them say whatever they want, including this bullshit about being open.

And the Codex, well.. it's not good for business to support a site that criticizes your work, right?

 

[Kem0sabe]

I rescind my tacit approval of codex using my work of art as the avatar for McCunt.

 

[Ismaul]

Why is it CMcC that is apologizing though? He isn't the one that fucked up.

Fargo throwing his men under the bus.

 

[Jedi Master Radek]

I think the Toy and the other companion was cut, when the number of party members was reduced to 4.
6 man party (5 companions) out 8 or 9 characters looks nice.
6 man party (5 companions) out of 6 characters looks bad.
4 man part (3 companions) out of 6 characters looks so so.

 

[Ranarama]

Was there a goal to add pointless, poorly written and immersion breaking NPCs all over the landscape? I'd have paid good money to add a transexual whatever to trigger the codex.

 

[Fairfax]

I wouldn't read too much into what Colin said, that comment is pure PR speak. All of them have said this exact same line:

Game development is never a straight line, and it's extraordinarily rare for a project to go unchanged from vision to completion.

Which tells you they had to go through Fargo and/or Techland and that's how they all have to spin it.

I think the Toy and the other companion was cut, when the number of party members was reduced to 4.
6 man party (5 companions) out 8 or 9 characters looks nice.
6 man party (5 companions) out of 6 characters looks bad.
4 man part (3 companions) out of 6 characters looks so so.

Also could have been in the opposite order: "since the 3 companions are out, let's reduce the party size or it looks really bad".

 

[Black Angel]

It's too late to apologize after you've gotten caught trying to lie or hide shit. "We should've communicated when the cuts were made", no fucking shit Sherlock, people have been asking about the companions and cuts for at least couple weeks if not more and they only admitted it after the achievements were revealed. Colin McComb cares more about bitching about Trump in fucking twatter than communicating with their backers. We now see where their priorities lay. I hope people wouldn't let this go but I don't hold high hopes.

People shouldn't even let 'this' go ever since of that Codex Gamescom debacles. But hey, guess what?

Spoiler

GOOD

Spoiler

FUCKING

Spoiler

RIDDANCE

At the very least, we had Swen and co. at Larian who's such a bro, in that not only did they openly, immediately admitted of facing difficulties resulting in them having to cut stuff, they also surprised Bubbles and JarlFrank with having none other than Swen himself with his presence at Gamescom (instead of the planned David Walgrave). This two deeds were already polar opposites of what inXile did here and with Gamescom debacles.

Like there are a TON of companies delivering better RPG's out there?

As if inXile managed to deliver at all. They had, what, 4 crowdfunded projects, so far? And only one of them got finished, while whether or not it delivered is up to debate. And now with their 2nd project being close to release, they were caught red-handed in NOT telling backers that the extra money they've paid ain't worth a damn thing, 'cause they've cut it but they had to use shady business move instead of being up-front and honest with their supporters.

And for other companies delivering better RPGs, well we have Iron Tower Studio delivering a huge RPG, a 10-month developed DR which improved nicely upon AoD's mechanics and now they're currently working on their next major project; Stygian Software who's about to deliver their first DLC for Underrail; Whalenought Studio delivered Serpent in the Staglands (as far as the general reception concerned, I haven't played it so I wouldn't know) and Copper Dreams is coming nicely so far (and also the expansion to SitS seemed like it would be released sometime this year); and maybe some other companies whose games I haven't the chance to play.

I don't give a shit about their public relations.

This is why we can't have nice things.

 

[Infinitron]

Since it happened at about the time Techland showed up I think it would be a pretty big coincidence to not be related.
I'm pretty sure they're essentially Techland's puppets at this point, making them say whatever they want, including this bullshit about being open.

And the Codex, well.. it's not good for business to support a site that criticizes your work, right?

The alienation of inXile from the Codex has been a years-long process that far predates their deal with Techland.

 

[Carrion]

I think the Toy and the other companion was cut, when the number of party members was reduced to 4.
6 man party (5 companions) out 8 or 9 characters looks nice.
6 man party (5 companions) out of 6 characters looks bad.
4 man part (3 companions) out of 6 characters looks so so.

Also could have been in the opposite order: "since the 3 companions are out, let's reduce the party size or it looks really bad".

PS:T had a 6-member party with seven possible companions (at least one of which you could easily miss entirely), while in MotB you had a five-man party with six possible companions, two of which were mutually exclusive. If they really put the amount of effort into the companions that they claim to have done (forgive me for being skeptical about this), having only six companions wouldn't have been a problem. In a combat-focused game you'd want to have a large degree of choice, but in a game like this it'd be fine if you could just have everyone with you, as they're all supposedly important to the main story or themes in some way.

 

[FeelTheRads]

Since it happened at about the time Techland showed up I think it would be a pretty big coincidence to not be related.
I'm pretty sure they're essentially Techland's puppets at this point, making them say whatever they want, including this bullshit about being open.

And the Codex, well.. it's not good for business to support a site that criticizes your work, right?

The alienation of inXile from the Codex has been a years-long process that far predates their deal with Techland.

inXile is not only Brother Gestapo and sea of butthurt. There were others who posted here. And it did seem like the line has been cut at around that time, but maybe I didn't pay enough attention before.

And you're not going to tell me they all dropped out because of individual reasons, right? I mean, whether it came from Techland or from inside, it looks like an orchestrated move.

 

[Jarpie]

Since it happened at about the time Techland showed up I think it would be a pretty big coincidence to not be related.
I'm pretty sure they're essentially Techland's puppets at this point, making them say whatever they want, including this bullshit about being open.

And the Codex, well.. it's not good for business to support a site that criticizes your work, right?

The alienation of inXile from the Codex has been a years-long process that far predates their deal with Techland.

I remember some claims that inXile people got very butthurt when Wasteland 2 got very lukevarm reception in 'codex, starting from some (very) negative feedback on the beta.

 

[Kem0sabe]

Doesn't help that company is full of special snowflakes that are deeply offended by Codexer's anti sjw opinions.

 

[Infinitron]

I remember some claims that inXile people got very butthurt when Wasteland 2 got very lukevarm reception in 'codex, starting from some (very) negative feedback on the beta.

Yes, that's my claim, based on my frequent conversations with Brother None at the time.

Other reasons for alienation:

Politics (Gamergate/Trump)

The departure of Kevin Saunders (who as an ex-Obsidian guy had some respect for this forum and impressed it on the others while he was in charge)

The stress of crunch time and a protracted development taking its toll and making them nervous

And of course, isolated instances of trolling that went too far (calling Adam Heine a cuck for raising orphans)

 

[Fairfax]

I think the Toy and the other companion was cut, when the number of party members was reduced to 4.
6 man party (5 companions) out 8 or 9 characters looks nice.
6 man party (5 companions) out of 6 characters looks bad.
4 man part (3 companions) out of 6 characters looks so so.

Also could have been in the opposite order: "since the 3 companions are out, let's reduce the party size or it looks really bad".

PS:T had a 6-member party with seven possible companions (at least one of which you could easily miss entirely), while in MotB you had a five-man party with six possible companions, two of which were mutually exclusive. If they really put the amount of effort into the companions that they claim to have done (forgive me for being skeptical about this), having only six companions wouldn't have been a problem. In a combat-focused game you'd want to have a large degree of choice, but in a game like this it'd be fine if you could just have everyone with you, as they're all supposedly important to the main story or themes in some way.

I agree, but in TTON's case, having just 1 extra companion would've been risky, because players would've had only 1 replacement available in case they didn't like a companion. This was less of a risk with PS:T because it had 2 extra companions, and very few of them could be considered polarizing. The least liked is probably Ignus, but there's nothing to dislike him per se. Still, you had the core 4 companions and 3 extras to switch around for combat or whatever the player wanted. In TTON they went with stronger, louder personalities for pretty much everyone. Rhin in particular could easily be hated by a considerable portion of players. Having a couple of harmless companions like Oom wouldn't hurt.

 

[Lurker King]

Retardo all threads about politics. I have a list with names to ban, starting with Irenaeus.

MAKE CUCKHOLD PR GREAT AGAIN!

 

[tormund]

It is easy and convenient to blame it on politics, and sure, their SJWy attitudes are obvious. But I think that the fact that people around here are p open about their criticism is the key.
Video game thread on any messageboard tends to turn into hugbox the moment that dev or devs start posting there regularly. It's not just NeoGAF, they're just the most extreme example of it. People here, on the other hand, will behave as they would always do, even in threads about mostly liked games like Divinity or SitS or Stasis.
Most devs just love their hugboxes, and they won't find any here.

 

[Ismaul]

Infinitron
Agreed. But those are their reasons for disengagement from this forum. I think we were still willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, I was anyways. Sure, W2 sucking / not living up to standards made many skeptical, but since Torment's team was different, especially in the writing department, there was still hope illusions.

Then the shit with Techland fucked it up.

 

[Murk]

Read through this whole thread with a contemptuous smirk on my face at seeing the bearers of bad news being Sea and Thomas "Heave the Heeb" Beekers.

The constant "not a straight line" talking point really does betray just how disingenuous inXile is. Tsk.

 

[Infinitron]

Infinitron
Agreed. But those are their reasons for disengagement from this forum. I think we were still willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, I was anyways. Sure, W2 sucking / not living up to standards made many skeptical, but since Torment's team was different, especially in the writing department, there was still hope illusions.

Then the shit with Techland fucked it up.

Sure, and look at the List of Incline thread poll. Even today, it's still #1! (Inb4 downvotes)

 

[Jedi Master Radek]

Also could have been in the opposite order: "since the 3 companions are out, let's reduce the party size or it looks really bad".

This is actually what I meant I used "when" as "at the time" not "because". I think it is obvious they did not cut companions because they wanted to appeal to console audience, but because of mismanagement of funds.

PS:T had a 6-member party with seven possible companions (at least one of which you could easily miss entirely), while in MotB you had a five-man party with six possible companions, two of which were mutually exclusive. If they really put the amount of effort into the companions that they claim to have done (forgive me for being skeptical about this), having only six companions wouldn't have been a problem. In a combat-focused game you'd want to have a large degree of choice, but in a game like this it'd be fine if you could just have everyone with you, as they're all supposedly important to the main story or themes in some way.

Too logical. Press and people who did not play Planescape Torment, but will review and talk about the game may expect that narrative driven game with choices and consequences will have many mutually exclusive companions. Many core cRPG player will think the same at least at their initial gut feeling level.

 

[Jarpie]

I wonder what eventually drove them to be like this. I remember they used to be OK a couple of years back, posting here and all.

Since it happened at about the time Techland showed up I think it would be a pretty big coincidence to not be related.
I'm pretty sure they're essentially Techland's puppets at this point, making them say whatever they want, including this bullshit about being open.

And the Codex, well.. it's not good for business to support a site that criticizes your work, right?

That's exactly what businesses should do, you should continue to work with and try to win over even those who are very critical of your work because it shows to people and potential customers that A) you are not petty, B) you appreciate even negative feedback and criticism and C) you value the business even from those you don't agree with.

 

[tormund]

Retardo all threads about politics. I have a list with names to ban, starting with Irenaeus.

MAKE CUCKHOLD PR GREAT AGAIN!

Please do. Delete the GG thread and turn mentions of politics into bannable offence.

And most devs will STILL never come back due to attitudes of Codex members and heavy open/direct criticism of games. Unless that too is to be conditioned out of membership, with the standard "be friendly and smile when devs are around" attitude becoming the norm as it is on most other big boards.

 

[Ismaul]

turn mentions of politics into bannable offence..

Yeah let's ban Roxor for his politically infused editorial!

 

[FeelTheRads]

you value the business even from those you don't agree with.

Well, if politics has anything to do with it, I think doing business with a forum with a reputation like the Codex is not considered wise. I don't know if there's any truth to that, though... I still have to hear about any company getting rich by turning full-on SJW.

If it's only about the reception of W2, it would be extremely retarded, but then again, there are not many who take criticism well.

 

[felipepepe]

The surprise is not that InXile hides stuff - they've been doing this from the very start. Everything has always been muddy - the console port, the Director's Cut, even who the hell actually directed the goddamn game.

The real surprise is that they learned nothing from all this.

Also, notice that EuroGamer already has an interview on this, but InXile STILL hasn't released an update for their backers. Got those priorities straight bro, good job!