Game News Torment Kickstarter Update #14: Tony Evans On Combat, Vision Doc and HOLY CRAP Another Screenshot?!

[FeelTheRads]

as a already-backer I can't tell if Kickstarter sent out the 48 hour reminder emails to users who starred the campaign

That's a good question. If I'm not mistaken I was getting the reminder even if I was backer, but maybe that changed because I didn't get anything now.

 

[Kem0sabe]

Also unlike most "Dying Earth" genre pieces, like Vance, Wolfe, Dark Sun, in this one the sun is not reduced and dying. That makes a big difference.

The sun is a big factor in the survivability of the species so far into the future. Would be curious if you could find out, within the Numenera setting, how they deal with the lethal radiation output of a billion year older sun: 1. Changed the orbit of the planet to factor into the new green zone of a 10% brighter star 2. controlled the radiation output of the star itself or 3. shielded the planet somehow.

 

[Captain Shrek]

Also unlike most "Dying Earth" genre pieces, like Vance, Wolfe, Dark Sun, in this one the sun is not reduced and dying. That makes a big difference.

The sun is a big factor in the survivability of the species so far into the future. Would be curious if you could find out, within the Numenera setting, how they deal with the lethal radiation output of a billion year older sun: 1. Changed the orbit of the planet to factor into the new green zone of a 10% brighter star 2. controlled the radiation output of the star itself or 3. shielded the planet somehow.

Dude.

What part of 1Billion years of scientific advancement you don't get?

 

[Kem0sabe]

Dude.

What part of 1Billion years of scientific advancement you don't get?

Just curious about the method used (if he has that info and if it's not a spoiler), not claiming its not possible a billion years from now.

Not everything i post should be taken as a trolling attempt (tho there's a slight chance that it is).

 

[bot]

Also unlike most "Dying Earth" genre pieces, like Vance, Wolfe, Dark Sun, in this one the sun is not reduced and dying. That makes a big difference.

The sun is a big factor in the survivability of the species so far into the future. Would be curious if you could find out, within the Numenera setting, how they deal with the lethal radiation output of a billion year older sun: 1. Changed the orbit of the planet to factor into the new green zone of a 10% brighter star 2. controlled the radiation output of the star itself or 3. shielded the planet somehow.

Science fantasy up in this bitch.

 

[Brother None]

The sun is a big factor in the survivability of the species so far into the future. Would be curious if you could find out, within the Numenera setting, how they deal with the lethal radiation output of a billion year older sun: 1. Changed the orbit of the planet to factor into the new green zone of a 10% brighter star 2. controlled the radiation output of the star itself or 3. shielded the planet somehow.

I think the only time Monte's mentioned this publicly is in the write-up about the time it's set in, which implies the Sun has been altered by one of the previous civilizations.

 

[CMcC]

My comedy stylings fall well short of CMcC I freely admit.

We put the crates in here more obviously because people didn't see them clearly in the Bloom screenshot. We're trying to make the Start to Crate measurement at least -1 year.

 

[CMcC]

(And yes -- that decadent prose is as much a staple of the Dying Earth genre as anything else!)

I wish I'd heard of Harrison before this KS began. I'm reading him now and loving it. The Pastel City is reminiscent of Moorcock's more purple prose stylings, and it's great.

Anyway, that scene, on some level -- a dwarf leading a knight through a magical marsh full of monsters and environmental hazards -- could just as easily be the Fellowship of the Ring detouring through the Dead Marshes. But the environmental details are unsettling; the idea that magic is grounded in a corruption of our natural world through workaday pollutants, the narcotic atmosphere, etc. I just don't get any of that from the second screenshot, while the first does have some of it.

I suppose "Haters gonna hate" applies to me.

But cities always shove their trash someplace else. Note that the Bloom is right next to Sagus Cliff. What better way to foist off your trash and pollution than to shove it into another dimension?

Damn. What was the name of that comic that had a city that dumped all its trash through an interdimensional portal linked up to someone's anus? Not Hate Comics, Palookaville, Peepshow... dammit. Eightball? Great. Now this is going to be bugging me all day.

ETA: It was Ed the Happy Clown, from Yummy Fur.

[EDIT: Incidentally, I'm positive that Monte Cook will have read all the same books I've read in this genre, and more; his nerdscore is much higher than mine, he's been around longer, and this is his real job. So I'm sure he knows what he's doing in this respect. I hope the Torment team reads them, too, and doesn't just rely on the way they're digested into the Numenera source material because then you have the whole copy-of-a-copy effect. (Not saying Numenera is a copy; only that it is drawing upon a tradition.) I think they should be faithful to the Numenera setting, but capturing its vibe would probably be helped by knowing where that vibe comes from. Or where I imagine it comes from, anyway.]

I know for a fact that Monte's read all of Gene Wolfe's Sun books. Also Moorcock (especially Hawkmoon and Dancers at the End of Time), which he called out to me specifically. Vance, of course. Since I'm reading Viriconium now, I totally see echoes of that. I'd be very surprised if he hasn't read all of the major far future staples, along with many of the minors - he does his homework well.

If you've got further recommendations for me, though, I'd love to hear them - and now's the time, before we start locking down details.

 

[Xodetaetl]

Hate to nitpick ANOTHER screenshot especially since this one looks much better and more interesting. What is up with the perspective though? It's messing with my brain or I'm just looking at it wrong.

Isometric.
This is not perspective, not how we see the world, things don't shrink when further away from the point of view.

Btw, a lot of people mistake isometric with top-down perspective, even pro artists and large studios (e.g. Larian Studios).

 

[MRY]

@ Brother None: You've read them much more recently than I have -- it's been almost 15 years since I last read the New Sun and Dying Earth series -- so I trust your reportage better than my memory. I guess partly this is the difference between prose and visual art. Because what I was about to say is, "No one reading either of those series -- Vancian magic system notwithstanding! -- could think for a moment that the setting was a traditional FR-style fantasy." But I suppose that's as much a matter of prose as it is content. Another part of the Dying Earth genre, I think, is the alien quality to what you're exposed to. But there's nothing really alien in that picture, except in the sense of high-fantasy alienness. Everything is instantly recognizable. In any case, my post was mostly meant as responsive to the argument that the second shot should've been posted first; since there's nothing grounding it in dying-Earth or a unique universe, I think that would have been a bad idea. I'm sure once it's touched up and whatever, it will be great, and obviously it's only one piece of a larger puzzle.

@ CMcC: You know, it's too bad you didn't, like me, reading the last book first. There's nothing better in the series than reading The Lamia and Lord Cromis with no grounding at all. Just make sure you stick through to the last book. I don't really have other recommendations. I'm not a Dying Earth expert or anything. (I'm sure Monte is!) You might want to give Just a Pilgrim by Garth Ennis (a comic book) a look. It's more post-apoc than Dying Earth, but it does have the expanding/dying sun, and some great alien moments, the best of which being a walk through a dried ocean full of skeletons of dead whales. Generally, it's stand Ennis camp grotesquerie, though. The other possibility, which is definitely not Dying Earth, but might be useful to read all the same, is the Planet of Adventure tetralogy by Jack Vance. I guess it's nominally space opera or planetary romance; it's way more lighthearted than Torment; but it still has some possibly useful content. I guess going even farther afield is the (to my taste) boring and rather lame Rendezvous with Rama, which is considered the gold standard for humans dealing with alien technology.

 

[tuluse]

I just now noticed that there is a ramp heading up there too, weird. Still doesn't look right upon first glance.

There's a couple of things going on that make it confusing. The ramp is going way from the camera on the Y axis, but closer on the Z axis, and I think it ends up equidistant, so there is no clue for your eye to tell where it is going. Also the stair case has an optical illusion where it looks like the top is level with the platform on the right side, but it's actually higher.

 

[Xodetaetl]

I just now noticed that there is a ramp heading up there too, weird. Still doesn't look right upon first glance.

There's a couple of things going on that make it confusing. The ramp is going way from the camera on the Y axis, but closer on the Z axis, and I think it ends up equidistant, so there is no clue for your eye to tell where it is going. Also the stair case has an optical illusion where it looks like the top is level with the platform on the right side, but it's actually higher.

Read three posts up from here.

 

[CMcC]

@ CMcC: You know, it's too bad you didn't, like me, reading the last book first. There's nothing better in the series than reading The Lamia and Lord Cromis with no grounding at all. Just make sure you stick through to the last book. I don't really have other recommendations. I'm not a Dying Earth expert or anything. (I'm sure Monte is!) You might want to give Just a Pilgrim by Garth Ennis (a comic book) a look. It's more post-apoc than Dying Earth, but it does have the expanding/dying sun, and some great alien moments, the best of which being a walk through a dried ocean full of skeletons of dead whales. Generally, it's stand Ennis camp grotesquerie, though. The other possibility, which is definitely not Dying Earth, but might be useful to read all the same, is the Planet of Adventure tetralogy by Jack Vance. I guess it's nominally space opera or planetary romance; it's way more lighthearted than Torment; but it still has some possibly useful content. I guess going even farther afield is the (to my taste) boring and rather lame Rendezvous with Rama, which is considered the gold standard for humans dealing with alien technology.

Excellent, thank you. It's been a long time since I read Rendevous with Rama, so I'll bust that out again. Right now I'm also reading the Culture novel, "Matter" by Iain M. Banks (and man, what a heartbreak his recent news was). While it's extensively info-dumpy, it's also really good in the sense of describing extraordinarily weird alien technology and how those technologies might impact ordinary humans. Others' mileage may vary, but it was hitting exactly the right chords for me on strange tech and human augmentation that we could have as numenera in the Ninth World.

 

[jewboy]

Since T:ToN is supposed to be science fantasy I hope the writers will also take inspiration from great science fiction settings as well. Iain Banks' creation, The Culture is a compelling and complete world for instance. The latest book in the series was actually quite gamey in feel, but my favorite one is Excession. I would love to see inXile attempt to license that setting from Iain Banks and contract with him to write some of the characters, especially his famously witty drones, for a new game.

 

[CMcC]

Sadly, if we were to license The Culture, it would be from Banks's estate. He's not expected to last through the end of the year.

 

[Captain Shrek]

I just now noticed that there is a ramp heading up there too, weird. Still doesn't look right upon first glance.

There's a couple of things going on that make it confusing. The ramp is going way from the camera on the Y axis, but closer on the Z axis, and I think it ends up equidistant, so there is no clue for your eye to tell where it is going. Also the stair case has an optical illusion where it looks like the top is level with the platform on the right side, but it's actually higher.

Read three posts up from here.

That isometric is confused with Top down has been discussed to death. Read this thread and do NOT forget to Brofist OP.

http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/just-what-is-isometric.69829/

 

[hiver]

Excellent, thank you. It's been a long time since I read Rendevous with Rama, so I'll bust that out again. Right now I'm also reading the Culture novel, "Matter" by Iain M. Banks (and man, what a heartbreak his recent news was). While it's extensively info-dumpy, it's also really good in the sense of describing extraordinarily weird alien technology and how those technologies might impact ordinary humans. Others' mileage may vary, but it was hitting exactly the right chords for me on strange tech and human augmentation that we could have as numenera in the Ninth World.

Matter is not that good actually. Pretty simple setup compared to other novels in the series and rather simplistic McGuffin fantasy resolution of the plot.
"Use of weapons" and other earlier novels have much more... gravitas. And that one in particular will resonate with someone with a PST background.

If you really want to read something dealing with distant future done in a more ... serious manner go for Steven Baxter, Manifold: Space, Manifold: Time and then Vacuum diagrams.
And maybe "Chaga" by Ian McDonald for nano alien infestation of Earth. ("Evolution shore") in the US.
Rama is Disney cartoon compared.

Sadly, if we were to license The Culture, it would be from Banks's estate. He's not expected to last through the end of the year.

Yeah... we heard. I still hope .. maybe.

 

[Kirtai]

"Use of weapons" and other earlier novels have much more... gravitas.

Culture novels with gravitas? Surely not.

 

[Commissar Draco]

Vertical? Or Angled? Also the wooden structure looks much less ancient than stone part no surprise it looks contrasting. You were never in Rome?

 

[Captain Shrek]

Excellent, thank you. It's been a long time since I read Rendevous with Rama, so I'll bust that out again. .

Good luck with that. The book is such a terrible read that it takes a hardcore Sci Fi fan..oh wait.

 

[Cowboy Moment]

Roadside Picnic should be the gold standard for humans dealing with alien technology, goddamnit.

Just like Solaris should be the standard for humans interacting with aliens.

 

[Volrath]

Please don't fuck this up InXile.

 

[LeStryfe79]

Damn! where can I pledge for a signed Elves Handbook? That fucker was awesome! Hope this shit lives up to half the potential of that masterpiece. Well, guess I got nothing else to do but listen to Caress of Steel. So long, fuckers!

 

[hiver]

Culture novels with gravitas? Surely not.

Very Little Gravitas Indeed.

 

[Jasede]

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inxile/torment-tides-of-numenera/posts

new update... the feels
music & animated shot of the screenie in Unity

<3 <3 <3 This will be good, I can feel it in my bones.