Game News Torment: Tides of Numenera Alpha Systems Test Launched

[VladimirK]

The length is not the problem here. The QUALITY is.

"You've reached a velocity that could without irony best be named 'terminal'."

Was this written by a deafmute?

 

[Vault Dweller]

- it's not really an alpha but a fancy chargen
- it's a very enjoyable chargen with a strong PST vibe.

 

[Infinitron]

- it's not really an alpha but a fancy chargen
- it's a very enjoyable chargen with a strong PST vibe.

They're calling it "Alpha Systems Test" rather than just "alpha" for a reason. Ideally it would be a whole series of modules for us to look at, but it looks like they might just skip to the beta sooner rather than later.

 

[Crescent Hawk]

Its looking good. I hope they dont be over descriptive about some story elements. I want it to be mysterious and remain ambiguous.

 

[Turok]

I guess that J_C want a Ultima 9 caracter build system with cards and some questions.

Go play Ultima 9 and be happy.

Is a TORMENT game.

 

[J_C]

I guess that J_C want a Ultima 9 caracter build system with cards and some questions.

Go play Ultima 9 and be happy.

Is a TORMENT game.

No, actually I don't want a character build system at all. Just give me a Call of Duty character and lets go playing.

 

[Cosmo]

"You've reached a velocity that could without irony best be named 'terminal'."

Majority of the text is fine. But you're right about that passage : descriptive texts should be short and to the point.
This is not the place to try and use clever turns of phrases, 'cause it only results in bogging things down when you want to be as direct and material as the action you describe.

But it's true the main fear i have regarding this game is the writers reveling in that kind of unsupervised and needlessly flowery writing (the true pitfall IMHO rather than too large an amount of text).

 

[Vault Dweller]

Overall, it's very well written but there are some bits that strike me as odd or out of place. Like that "five fingers and five toes" bit.

 

[Fry]

"OMG they're making a text adventure!"

Nah. The game will obviously open up as it moves beyond character creation. Some of the text could use an editing pass, but I like where it's going.

 

[Infinitron]

Overall, it's very well written but there are some bits that strike me as odd or out of place. Like that "five fingers and five toes" bit.

You're a newborn consciousness in a world with a variety of non-human sentient species. You don't know that you're in a human body at that point. It's a sentence that tells you something about yourself and the setting in an economical fashion.

You would think this is obvious.

 

[Darkzone]

Overall, it's very well written but there are some bits that strike me as odd or out of place. Like that "five fingers and five toes" bit.

Perhaps this is an identifier for humans in numenera.

Edit:
Infinitron was faster on this one.

 

[Vault Dweller]

You're a newborn consciousness in a world with a variety of non-human sentient species. You don't know that you're in a human body at that point. It's a sentence that tells you something about yourself and the setting in an economical fashion.

You would think this is obvious.

Sure, if the main difference between humans and non-humans is the number of toes. So you're plummeting down to your doom, yet you have time to check the number of toes? Fingers - sure. Toes require an effort (when you're preoccupied with falling) and a strange attention to details. You don't inspect your face (what you don't have any ears but small holes or what if you have 3 eyes or pointed teeth or forked tongue), just fingers and toes. Like I said, it struck me as odd but it's a minor thing and I'm not complaining.

 

[Esquilax]

Sure, if the main difference between humans and non-humans is the number of toes. So you're plummeting down to your doom, yet you have time to check the number of toes? Fingers - sure. Toes require an effort (when you're preoccupied with falling) and a strange attention to details. You don't inspect your face (what you don't have any ears but small holes or what if you have 3 eyes or pointed teeth or forked tongue), just fingers and toes. Like I said, it struck me as odd but it's a minor thing and I'm not complaining.

I think it's more as a shorthand to say that you're human. Like, when a baby is born, you might say "It's a healthy baby boy/girl, with five fingers and five toes." Considering you're something of a newborn baby in the world, even coming out of a cocoon/womb, it feels appropriate, IMO. But then again, I'm not looking at it more in terms of narrative where you're looking at it from a "does this make sense from this person's point of view?" perspective.

 

[kain30]

the alpha test released?? i hope for a january 2016 release date.

 

[Athelas]

You're a newborn consciousness in a world with a variety of non-human sentient species. You don't know that you're in a human body at that point. It's a sentence that tells you something about yourself and the setting in an economical fashion.

You would think this is obvious.

If you're a newborn consciousness, how do you know what the normal amount of toes is for a human?

 

[Infinitron]

Having never awoken as a fully mature consciousness in a new body, I couldn't tell you for sure, but I don't think you need to actually look at your fingers and toes to realize you have them. Imagine a fully developed "muscle memory" activating for the first time.

If you're a newborn consciousness, how do you know what the normal amount of toes is for a human?

And how do you know what a "toe" is?

But the text doesn't say anything about realizing that you're human - it just says you have five fingers and five toes.

 

[Athelas]

I think it might be better to approach it as a case of procedural memory, that is, the procedural memory of the antagonist who inhabited your body. Like how amnesiacs don't forget that basic stuff either.

 

[Jaesun]

Andherewego.jpg

 

[Darkzone]

I think it might be better to approach it as a case of procedural memory, that is, the procedural memory of the antagonist who inhabited your body. Like how amnesiacs don't forget that basic stuff either.

Procedural memory is towards performing certain actions. This is also a kind of long term memory like the procedural memory, it is the explicit semantic (knowledge) memory. The Procedural memory is a implicit memory.

 

[J_C]

It is amazing how people could argue a page about a toe and a finger. Are there any other sentences which are a bit questionable in quality, or this is the only one?

 

[Cosmo]

You're a newborn consciousness in a world with a variety of non-human sentient species. You don't know that you're in a human body at that point.

Thinking about it i think it's only a way of saying : "yup, there's my body all right". Like checking your extremities as a form of reassurance : you exist and you're safe and sound for the time being...

 

[Ulrox]

It is amazing how people could argue a page about a toe and a finger. Are there any other sentences which are a bit questionable in quality, or this is the only one?

Yeah, kinda crazy, but then again, this forum is also where that insane roxor poe review thread happened where every little thing was argued to the extreme. So I feel like I've seen worse.

 

[Grotesque]

this thread has no flair without hiver.

 

[Zorba the Hutt]

Torment is the one game I really don't want to spoil or overanalyse beforehand, but haven't managed to avoid the threads entirely. It's tough to miss out on threads of this quality.

 

[VladimirK]

It is amazing how people could argue a page about a toe and a finger. Are there any other sentences which are a bit questionable in quality, or this is the only one?

Lots and lots of them in this alpha, as far as I'm concerned.

Also people aren't arguing about 'a toe and a finger'; they're arguing about whether the writers have tried to be fancy and failed. Which is, you know, a really common way for writers to fail.

Majority of the text is fine. But you're right about that passage : descriptive texts should be short and to the point.
This is not the place to try and use clever turns of phrases, 'cause it only results in bogging things down when you want to be as direct and material as the action you describe.

But it's true the main fear i have regarding this game is the writers reveling in that kind of unsupervised and needlessly flowery writing (the true pitfall IMHO rather than too large an amount of text).

I think that's a slightly wrong criticism because that's actually not a descriptive passage. It's a point-of-view sentence that's supposed to convey the characters' darkly humorous realization that 'terminal' also means 'deadly'. But you're right in that it would be good writing if only it was to the fucking point. Something like:

"It suddenly strikes you that 'terminal' has another meaning, a considerably nastier one."

Yeah, kinda crazy, but then again, this forum is also where that insane roxor poe review thread happened where every little thing was argued to the extreme. So I feel like I've seen worse.

We're talking about the 'spiritual successor to Planescape: Torment' here. When the beta hits, it will be much worse than PoE threads.