Torment Torment: Tides of Numenera Beta Thread [GAME RELEASED, GO TO NEW THREAD]

[DosBuster]

Considering how every 12 hours or so a new build is uploaded to Steam I'm guessing they're just doing daily release candidates until they find one that passes QA.

 

[Neanderthal]

Nice to see Madonna wi'out make up.

Bit Nurgley.

 

[ArchAngel]

I wonder how much access we'll get of the game in the beta?

They said 10~ hours worth in one of the updates.

So more or less the full game?

 

[Infinitron]

The beta is the city of Sagus Cliffs.

 

[throwaway]

Tybir's a bit of an odd one

 

[Infinitron]

Hey! That's a new one.

I guess that's the orange and pink tunic guy? http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...-go-to-new-thread.79051/page-398#post-3968536

 

[Fairfax]

 

[Joni Odin von Hassenstein]

:incloosive:

 

[srdobos]

Who hasn't wanted Lando Calrissian in their party?

 

[Fairfax]

Aligern [concept by Colin, written by Nathan Long]
Callistege [Colin and Adam]
Rritis
Matkina [Colin and Adam]
Oom
Rhin
Riastrad
Tybir
The Specter

The first four are probably the original ones without the stretch goals.
"The Toy" was announced as the 5th companion in the $2m stretch goal, so that could be Oom (we don't know how they were ordered above, but the name fits IMO).
The rest are unknown.

One was written by Pat Rothfuss and here's what he said about it:

So I called Colin and asked him how he’d feel about me writing a companion.

He asked me if I had any ideas for a character.

I told him I did. I explained the character.

He said it was weird. Not the sort of character that normally gets written into games.

But he also said I could do it.

So now I’m excited. I get to write a companion for the game.

I can’t tell you anything about her except that it will almost certainly be a she.

And she’s not going to be the usual sort of thing, because this isn’t going to be your usual sort of game.

Here's MCA describing his companion:

The companion for Torment was born out of reading the others – I wanted to make a character whose fit, in terms of the RPG mechanics, with the others (ex: what party role was missing that would be needed to round out the party?), and also someone that would be fun and interesting in a party banter situation, as well as with the player.

So the first thought after reading through the companions was – wow, we have a grim bunch. Like, really grim. You feel sad and terrible after reading most of them, although there’s bright points of light (the Toy, for example, and Pat Rothfuss’s character, who is great, and also Nathan Long’s character, which fulfills another important role I’ll get to once revealed). In the end, I recognized one important companion signpost in Torment lies in characters like Morte and Nordom – one provides humor naturally in irreverence, the other provides humor in being a fish out of water. The companion I’m doing in Torment is another take on adding some levity to the situation, whether intended to or not. I’ve played him in a few Numenera tabletop sessions, and so far, he adds a lot of… energy… to encounters. Plus, he’ll be a lot of fun to write, and I think he’ll lead to some interesting adventure possibilities.

The KS update about MCA said this:

Second, he’ll be designing and writing an eighth companion for the game, working with Colin and Monte to craft a companion ideal for both Torment and the Ninth World of Numenera.

Here are the descriptions from the wiki:

• Aligern, a fallen priest who pulls his writhing tattoos from his arms to spill horror upon his foes. [already known]

• Callistege, a nano who toyed with the fabric of space one too many times and now lives a fractured existence, living parallel lives in multiple universes and timestreams all at once [already known]

• Matkina, a cold, calculating jack with a blade in her pocket and acid in her soul, who caries mind-altering mists around her neck, and who has found a way to control light and shadow.

• A sybil whose visions of the world refract through her madness and who can see your other castoff siblings for what they are.

• An ultradimensional traveller who peers through the veil of flesh to the life forces beneath, and who is capable of snuffing those forces with a thought.

• The Toy, a changing ball of goo.

• A boy who seeks only adventure and glory, who leaps blindly into the most ridiculously dangerous situations imaginable and--surprisingly--emerging from them brighter and more powerful than he was before... but whose existence is a torment its own.

7 out of 9 here. First 3 are known, the Toy is sort of known, 3 unknown and only 2 missing.

Pat's companion is a woman, so it's definitely not the last one. I'd guess it's the mad "sybil" (is that a Numenera thing? What does it mean?).
None of these sound potentially humorous besides the boy. Still, if the game files in the alpha listed the companions chronologically (as they were added to the game), knowing he wrote the 8th and considering hisdescription, there's a chance his companion is.....Lando Tybir.

 

[Echo Mirage]

Any chance of a poster like this?

I still have the original one of these in near mint condition.

 

[Infinitron]

The first four are probably the original ones without the stretch goals.

You're probably reading too much into an arbitrary ordering of names in the game's code.

A sybil is a kind of oracle: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/sibyl

 

[Infinitron]

CMcC Adam Heine srdobos ksaun Brother None Which character in the list of companions does Tybir correspond to?

• A fallen priest who pulls writhing tattoos from his arms to spill horror upon his foes.
• A nano who toyed with the fabric of space one too many times and now lives a fractured existence, living parallel lives in multiple universes and timestreams all at once.
• A cold, calculating jack with a blade in her pocket and acid in her soul, who carries mind-altering mists around her neck, and who has found a way to control light and shadow.
• A boy who seeks only adventure and glory, who leaps blindly into the most ridiculously dangerous situations imaginable and--surprisingly--emerging from them brighter and more powerful than he was before... but whose existence is a torment its own.
• A sibyl with no body of her own, who speaks through the mouth of a man whose mind is broken beyond repair.

 

[Fairfax]

The first four are probably the original ones without the stretch goals.

You're probably reading too much into an arbitrary ordering of names in the game's code.

A sybil is a kind of oracle: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/sibyl

It's not just the ordering, we've known more about Matkina, Aligern and Callistege than the rest, and they were shown very early on. Nathan Long also said that more than half had concepts written by Colin McComb from the start, and Aligern was one of them.

 

[Infinitron]

It's not just the ordering, we've known more about Matkina, Aligern and Callistege than the rest, and they were shown very early on. Nathan Long also said that more than half had concepts written by Colin McComb from the start, and Aligern was one of them.

Callistege, Tybir (I think) and another character were first seen in the May 2015 video. Matkina and Aligern are older than them.

 

[throwaway]

Who hasn't wanted Lando Calrissian in their party?

He better be written better than a StarWars character

Any chance of a poster like this?

I still have the original one of these in near mint condition.

The campaign had a poster but it didn't mention being an all-star lineup, tbh I expect them to play it safe and either go with a concept art landscape or the title (/whatever the end-up puting on the Tshirt). For some reason, I can't find the poster on the backer portal though.
On a sidenote, do they fold these Kickstarter posters in a better way than what the original PST got?

 

[StaticSpine]

CMcC Adam Heine srdobos ksaun Brother None Which character in the list of companions does Tybir correspond to?

• A fallen priest who pulls writhing tattoos from his arms to spill horror upon his foes.
• A nano who toyed with the fabric of space one too many times and now lives a fractured existence, living parallel lives in multiple universes and timestreams all at once.
• A cold, calculating jack with a blade in her pocket and acid in her soul, who carries mind-altering mists around her neck, and who has found a way to control light and shadow.
• A boy who seeks only adventure and glory, who leaps blindly into the most ridiculously dangerous situations imaginable and--surprisingly--emerging from them brighter and more powerful than he was before... but whose existence is a torment its own.
• A sibyl with no body of her own, who speaks through the mouth of a man whose mind is broken beyond repair.

A fallen priest who pulls writhing tattoos from his arms to spill horror upon his foes. - Aligern
A nano who toyed with the fabric of space one too many times and now lives a fractured existence, living parallel lives in multiple universes and timestreams all at once. - Callistege
A cold, calculating jack with a blade in her pocket and acid in her soul, who carries mind-altering mists around her neck, and who has found a way to control light and shadow. - Matkina

 

[Infinitron]

Yes, we know about those. My guess is that he's neither of them, but I want to be sure.

 

[Joni Odin von Hassenstein]

:incloosive:

I have some bad news for you: White people barely exist in Numenera. There are more blacks and asians and whites are generally unknown. There are tons of canon transgender NPCs listed in sourcebooks, it is literally star trek people reacting to sexism levels of incomprehensible to think of someone being homophobic etc etc etc

Numenera is basically SJW: The setting.

Spoiler

still a good setting tho

*sigh*
Well, but it's still Torment, so I'm hyped nonetheless.

 

[FeelTheRads]

Token tough guy, token mysterious woman, token black guy.

What could be next?!

Numenera is basically SJW: The setting.

And it goes to ridiculous lengths. Probably 90% of the NPCs described in the sourcebook are LGBGBBQ of some kind of other. I mean, seriously, I don't get brain tumors just because persons of a different sexuality are included in a work (like some here do), but this level of pandering is rarely seen.

And yes, it is pandering. Most of the time there's no reason to mention the sexual orientations of those characters, but there it is right there and you should totally be interested in it otherwise you're a shitlord.

 

[StaticSpine]

I hope some of other companions (the Toy aside) will be non-human

 

[Fairfax]

Good news:

 

[Athelas]

How is that good news?

 

[Fairfax]

Tybir sounds like the game's Edér, if that makes any sense. I think it would've been wasted potential, considering MCA is only writing 1 companion.

 

[Irenaeus III]

The boy sounds more interesting than Lando.