Game News Torment Kickstarter media blitz begins: Campaign to launch on March 6th, Chris Avellone endorses

[Cowboy Moment]

Wait, am I someone's alt?

This is so confusing! I don't remember!!

In the darkness of GD, moderators are swiftly closing upon yet another incarnation of Drog. Certain of his imminent doom, he abandons the account with little sentiment, and embarks upon securing a new host. He has done this many times. Except, this time, something new awakens in the discarded shell...

 

[mindx2]

Brother None, This thing kicks off at 6:00PST correct? What does "Early Bird" tiers mean exactly? I'll be at work at that time and I certainly don't want to miss something cool. Will these things last or be in high enough quantity that when I get home 8 hours later they'll be there? My collector nerves are on end with worry

 

[Jaesun]

Yeah Fargo tweeted 6:00 PST AM. And the early bird tiers are first come only.

Brian Fargo ‏@BrianFargo
And there will be some #torment tiers that are only available on a first come first basis tomorrow. #truebelievers

 

[Brother None]

Brother None, This thing kicks off at 6:00PST correct? What does "Early Bird" tiers mean exactly? I'll be at work at that time and I certainly don't want to miss something cool. Will these things last or be in high enough quantity that when I get home 8 hours later they'll be there? My collector nerves are on end with worry

Nah man, nothing like that. Fairly standard early bird tiers, overall, nothing I expected to sell out in the first day or two, or if it did I'd be p damn happy.

 

[Jaesun]

I Oh please. It we be at 2 million by noon tomorrow.

 

[CMcC]

I know my esteemed colleague (who I can apparently not tag because I am ) has already said this, but this is pretty nerve-wracking. Good thing I've got a liquor cabinet.

 

[Jaesun]

CMcC all you need to do is add the @ symbol before the persons name and that will tag them.

(like ATSYSMBOLBrother None )

And I can imagine you guys are all on edge.

 

[CMcC]

On the bright side, we are all being very polite to each other in email right now. SO FUCKING POLITE, right, Brother None and Adam Heine and ksaun?

(I just wanted to test the @)

 

[Jaesun]

 

[DarkUnderlord]

meh, I'd rather see how Wasteland 2 and Eternity turn out then back another KickStarter so early.

 

[Zed]

meh, I'd rather see how Wasteland 2 and Eternity turn out then back another KickStarter so early.

as in the games being released and you playing them, or seeing stuff like actual gameplay footage and stuff like that?

 

[DarkUnderlord]

As in games released and playing them.

 

[Zed]

Colin McComb is live on some nerdy shit show for nerds.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PtFlcZome4&feature=youtu.be
I'm not watching it, but maybe you are.

 

[Zed]

As in games released and playing them.

ah, okay. with shadowrun returns showing some gameplay this week, and with the WL2 video looking okay, I'm kind of optimistic. but I understand the sentiment of actually playing something, too.

 

[Zeriel]

That guy on the show thingy was ranting about how shitty something was, and I thought he was talking directly to Colin, and was like, "Well, that's extremely awkward".

 

[jewboy]

Seems promising. I just hope they don't go for real time without pause combat. Real time can't be strategic and if it's not even a little bit strategic then it's not fun and if it's not fun then you get something like dragon age. Kickstarter should have an option to withdraw your money if some undecided on feature X is either included or excluded. I'm not that picky about combat. It just has to be strategic and that means either some flavor/variation of turn based or old fashioned RTwP.

 

[Jaesun]

Combat was never a point of the Torment series. It just has that small component.

 

[tuluse]

Colin McComb is live on some nerdy shit show for nerds.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PtFlcZome4&feature=youtu.be
I'm not watching it, but maybe you are.

I watched to see if he had something interesting to say. He didn't and the guy from penny arcade talked for 75% of the time. He didn't say anything interesting either.

 

[Excidium]

Combat was never a point of the Torment series. It just has that small component.

Torment...series?

But anyway, combat being a "small component" won't excuse it for being terrible. It doesn't require massive talent or focus to make good combat, just the developer to put a little more effort in encounter design than spawning random quantities of monsters on each map as it seems to be the case with PST. Not building on top of a terrible combat engine helps too.

 

[Jaesun]

Combat was never a point of the Torment series. It just has that small component.

Torment...series?

But anyway, combat being a "small component" won't excuse it for being terrible. It doesn't require massive talent or focus to make good combat, just the developer to put a little more effort in encounter design than spawning random quantities of monsters on each map as it seems to be the case with PST. Not building on top of a terrible combat engine helps too.

Why is combat important?

 

[Excidium]

Because it is bound to happen when you make enemies or visit dangerous places? Because it's a dramatic life-or-death situation?

 

[jewboy]

Combat was never a point of the Torment series. It just has that small component.

So are you saying it was like Myst, but with a better story? Combat is an important part of every cRPG and the game stands or falls with it. That is why people like me could not get past the first couple of screens in Alpha Brotocol. It wasn't because the story sucked. I never got a chance to even know the Brotocol story because I couldn't get past the awful combat. If the combat in PS:T had truly been as awful as so many claim it was I wouldn't have been able to experience the novel-like story of PS:T either because a cRPG is about more than just the story.

If you removed all combat from PS:T you would have ended up with a good, somewhat interactive, novel and nothing more. As a novel it would face much, much tougher competition. MCA may be the greatest living game writer, but he is very far from being a truly great novelist IMHO. That's a much bigger pond and he'd be a small fish in it.

I have to agree that if the combat is real time and sucky there had better be a way to disable it because it will ruin the game. The cRPG is a delicate and complicated art form that requires a mixture of various elements and they all have to be up to a certain level or the end result is a failure. I guess it's a bit like cooking in that way. All it takes is one rancid or spoiled ingredient to ruin the dish.

 

[Western]

I don't think combat will make or break a Torment game (unless it's total shit) but better combat would certainly be the cherry on top and is good opportunity to showcase Numenera's system. It's a P&P system so turn or phase based would probably be a better implementation than real time, especially if we're getting full party control.

 

[Zeriel]

Torment's combat was also useful in that it tended to reflect the exotic aspects of Planescape--when it was fun, it was fun because Dakkon's Summon Ballista (forget actual name) was hilariously overpowered, because Morte was drowning an enemy in a bunch of rolling skulls, or because you just opened a gateway to a gigantic fucking gun on Primus.

 

[Alex]

Good sirs, what a splendid endeavour!

Please, take my golds right awa... Wait, wha-












Human civilisation is like 6000 years but you make it a BILLION YEARS even though a few thousand would easily suffice!

MONTE COOK! MOAR LIKE U MONTY FUCKING CROOK!!!!! FUKK U FAGGIT ADN UR BILLION YAERS!!!!!!

BILLUHN FUKKEN YAERS WORST DAYH OF MA LIFE

WILL. NOT. PLEGDED.


[/compulsory rage nitpicking] But yes, great video and all, looks quite nice really. Positively surprised.

Ever heard of the Dying Earth subgenre of science fiction (or science fantasy, or whatever you want to call it)?