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

[DosBuster]

I wouldn't get hyped yet, yes, the writing was cool. But that's all we saw, we haven't seen any "traditional" crpg elements in action yet.

 

[Infinitron]

Somebody needs to take a look at the game files and see if there's anything interesting in there. I wonder if there's a Unity 5 asset extractor yet...

 

[Infinitron]

Hey, there is! The Unity Asset Explorer has been updated to support Unity 5: http://zenhax.com/viewtopic.php?t=36 (it's actually 1.5)

Disunity doesn't support it yet though.

 

[Athelas]

inb4 someone examines the game files and spoils the entire story

 

[DosBuster]

have done that, they were good about making sure any dialogue or convo files were limited to the correct scope. However, the code is a different story, I recommend going through with warning however: I noticed a lot of cutscenes are in the code.

 

[Infinitron]

have done that, they were good about making sure any dialogue or convo files were limited to the correct scope. However, the code is a different story, I recommend going through with warning however: I noticed a lot of cutscenes are in the code.

Tell me if you spot any portrait images there.

(and by "tell me", I mean extract them all, put 'em in a zip file and upload it somewhere )

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Infinitron]

The history of Adam Heine: http://www.adamheine.com/2015/08/what-ive-been-doing-since-1999.html

What I've been doing since 1999

On Friday, the Torment team released the first Alpha Systems Test, a look at the opening scene of the game and its most essential systems (conversation, mostly).

This is the first time the public has gotten to play (part of) a game I'm making since 1999. The terror and excitement is exactly the same.
— Adam Heine (@adamheine) August 15, 2015​

Shortly after I tweeted that out, some folks wondered what I've been doing, game design-wise, since 1999 (other folks wondered what happened in 1999 which, you know, that's fair).

Here's a very brief look at what happened since:

• 1999 -- Planescape: Torment was released to high critical acclaim (and low sales).
• 2000 -- I got married and left my awesome-but-crunch-timey game dev job for what I commonly refer to as my Office Space job.
• While I was at work (sometimes literally), I designed D&D campaigns and board games, drew crappy comic strips, wrote stories, and programmed games based on those stories.
• 2003 -- I decided I wanted to actually finish something I started, so I put my other projects aside (fourth question down) and focused on writing a novel.
• 2005 -- My wife and I moved to Thailand. I kept writing, but I could no longer pay attention to the game industry (among other things) as much as I used to.
• 2006 -- We took in our first child, and over the next several years would increase our family to include ten children, both foster and natural. Meanwhile, I kept designing RPGs and board games (that never got played outside my house).
• 2008 -- I sent my first novel to agents (and also started this blog).
• 2010 -- I wrote a story that somebody actually paid me for.
• 2011 -- I got an agent and began the search for a publisher (that search is still ongoing, though we've updated the novel it is going on for).
• 2012 -- I started working for inXile and "researched" what the game industry had been up to since I left (read: I played games again and wrote them off for tax purposes).
• 2013-2015 -- I wrote hundreds of thousands of words for game dialogue and systems design. I also wrote a novella, a Pathfinder story, and a number of other things I hope you'll get to read some day.

So there you go. That's what I've been doing instead of (or in addition to) designing games for the last 15 years. Hopefully that also explains why my tastes in games tend to skew oldschool.

 

[Roguey]

Torment had higher sales than Fallout so low is relative.

Low compared to BG, yuuuuuuuup.

 

[J_C]

The history of Adam Heine: http://www.adamheine.com/2015/08/what-ive-been-doing-since-1999.html

America. The only place on Earth where you can raise a family of 10 members for a decade without having a serious job, just doing side projects here and there, and writing short stories.

 

[Roguey]

America. The only place on Earth where you can raise a family of 10 members for a decade without having a serious job, just doing side projects here and there, and writing short stories.

You misread, he doesn't raise those kids in the US, he's in Thailand. Lesi's city even.

 

[J_C]

You misread, he doesn't raise those kids in the US, he's in Thailand. Lesi's city even.

Yeah, true. Still, it is quite an acomplishment.

 

[Orma]

Female protagonist isn't bald in-'game'

 

[StaticSpine]

I actually want to give useful feedback, but I'm afraid I can only produce fanboyism

 

[Abu Antar]

I think the alpha was solid. I know it isn't very much content, but the writing is good. Are descriptions a bit over the top? Maybe, but I was expecting (hoping for) a lot of text. The narrator did a decent job. The sounds are solid for something this early in development, and the graphics does it work for now.
Character movement could need some fixing. I like that the backgrounds aren't static. It was cool to see how they managed to get the floor moving. I wonder if we can have stuff in the world not being static while we explore.

For a character generation system, I think it is one of the best I have seen. No menu where you just click on the stuff you want. It's actually a part of the story.

I don't know how combat will turn out, but I have high hopes for everything else. I think that I might give the alpha another go next week just to see how different choices affect things.

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Fairfax]

My only complaint (besides the shitty performance) is the lack of customization for the character's appearance. Nothing against predefined characters, but once you can change gender, it makes no sense that you can't change the appearance. Does this dumb setting even have other sentient creatures?

 

[Metal Hurlant]

I say, this was a pleasant surprise. Enjoyed the story and was right into it. Ended up with a high speed, high intellect character. I'm anxious to see more.

 

[StaticSpine]

My only complaint (besides the shitty performance) is the lack of customization for the character's appearance. Nothing against predefined characters, but once you can change gender, it makes no sense that you can't change the appearance. Does this dumb setting even have other sentient creatures?

It was said by the devs some time ago that you can't change the appearance of PC.

 

[Fairfax]

It was said by the devs some time ago that you can't change the appearance of PC.

I know, I looked for more info and saw that. Still, makes no sense IMO.

 

[StaticSpine]

One cool detail:

Spoiler

If you fail [might] check while you move the bowl, you hurt yourself and your blood spills into the bowl so when the light liquid drops there the color of light in the room becomes red.

Though I have now idea if it has any impact or it's just cosmetic.

 

[ArchAngel]

I know, I looked for more info and saw that. Still, makes no sense IMO.

Why? Could you change the appearance of Nameless One? At least they let you choose your gender this time.

 

[Transfiguring Roar]

I just played through the AST quickly several times. It seems promising.

For me, there are very few things that need tweaking, and I'm sure they'll be sorted - a few graphical things (lines) need cleaning/hiding, screen scroll rate could be sped up a bit(I think inXile mentioned this), stretching the dialog box up and down could be smoother, a marker when you select where you're walking to would be nice, and game over screen is obviously not final.

Framerate wasn't bad but needs a little improving.
Character animation looked good to me.
I agree with others who say that the VO is good.
Writing is decent, certainly not overly descriptive or detailed imo. I'm actually kind of hoping it'll be a bit more wordy and detailed, but that's me.

Managed to get the blood thing to happen. If you select the option to examine the bowl, it reduces the difficulty of the task (moving the bowl) making it easier to pass the check and thus making it less likely that you'll drop blood into the bowl.

I also managed to get some very different descriptor options at the mirror, undoubtedly affected by the choices that were made.

If they can keep this kind of thing up, this is going to be awesome. Fingers crossed.

Edit: It also occurred to me that this starting area, considering it has 3 doors at the north end, is likely to be the starting point for the cast-off's labyrinth.

 

[Abu Antar]

One cool detail:

Spoiler

If you fail [might] check while you move the bowl, you hurt yourself and your blood spills into the bowl so when the light liquid drops there the color of light in the room becomes red.

Though I have now idea if it has any impact or it's just cosmetic.

Yeah, I got the red tint on the screen. Wasn't sure if it was something that always happens or not.

 

[DosBuster]

I'm going to make a guess and say that the entire final alpha systems test will be the castoff's labyrinth, with the beta expanding out to the first game area.