Torment Torment: Tides of Numenera Pre-Release Thread [ALPHA RELEASED, GO TO NEW THREAD]

[Ninja Destroyer]

Mark "sandals" Morgan and two soundtracks ?

 

[Sazabi]

 

[tuluse]

Numenera has an update too, they have a gallery on their site, with this as the cover image.

Wonder if she'd like to meet

 

[Infinitron]

THE GAME HAS A NAME https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?...585180204830841.144749.552507144764814&type=1

And on the GREAT news front.... Mark Morgan has agreed to compose the soundtrack for our new game. Torment: Tides of Numenera.

 

[Kem0sabe]

I like the name... but why tides? has it a nautical element? should we expect...

 

[Roguey]

I don't like the alliteration in the title. Makes it sound stupid.

Furthemore X of Y is fucking played out http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheXOfY

 

[Surf Solar]

Because they couldn't have just named it Tides of Numenera. Money well spent!

 

[Zed]

Torment - Tides of Numenera
Sounds like a pretty decent death metal band/album name.

Vocals - Brian "Fetus Explosion" Fargo
Synthesizer/Drums/Guitar/Bass - Mark "Necrocorpse" Morgan

 

[Infinitron]

I don't think registering the Torment IP actually cost any money besides the usual lawyer fees. Brother None would know more.

 

[AN4RCHID]

Whatever money Fargo spent on acquiring the rights to Torment is going to be earned back easily during the kickstarter alone, not to mention future sales influenced by the connection to the Torment franchise. So yes, money very well spent.

 

[Kz3r0]

I don't like the alliteration in the title. Makes it sound stupid.

Torment - Numenera' s Tides
Here, much better, no need to pay me.

 

[Irenaeus]

^^

 

[buzz]

I've come to the conclusion that the worst fanbase developers have to please is the nostalgia one.
A greenhorn gamer will eat up any game as long as it is advertised correctly. That leaves room for shitty manipulative games, of course, but also it allows the better publishers and developers to take a couple of liberties with their product.
With nostalgia faggots, you need to do things THEIR way. No room for experimentation.

Case in point with this game. The fact that the issue of RTWP vs TB is even discussed in a topic about what is supposed to be a spiritual sequel to Planescape Torment is quite maddening. Planescape Torment would've been miles better without the combat. Not only because it was broken. Shit, the entire shtick behind TNO was that he can't die, the game basically screamed at us "WE ADDED COMBAT IN HERE BECAUSE ER PEE GEE". I think it was designed with the initial mindset that combat should be avoided altogether.
Or at least make it optional if you can't remove it, completely avoidable by dialogue options.

Note that I don't really want an "adventure game" in the classical sense. I just think that I'd rather have a non-combat oriented RPG for this type of game. You could still have stats and skills useful for conversations, solving puzzles, diplomacy and so on.
Magic/super-technology should be treated more like it was in Ultima 8, with rituals and special uses and awesome custom animations (just like in PT). For attributes, you could have the 3 from d&d: wisdom, charisma and intelligence; then throw in something like perception, willpower and luck. The only attribute iirc that influenced dialogue options a bit outside of the 3 mentioned before was strength.
I'm also not a storyfag by any means, I actually like games with mechanical depth more. I just don't think that plastering JA2's combat system in this game is going to make it better.

 

[Kirtai]

Note that I don't really want an "adventure game" in the classical sense. I just think that I'd rather have a non-combat oriented RPG for this type of game. You could still have stats and skills useful for conversations, solving puzzles, diplomacy and so on.

I've actually been wondering about the dearth of RPGs in the close-to-adventures, minimal combat style. Are RPG developers afraid of their games being labelled adventures? Pandering to combat junkies who'd probably prefer a tactical game with story (or at least an excuse to kill things)? Or is it just the easy way out?

 

[hiver]

So... you are a ..QTE faggot then.
Oh there are two of you. QTE adventure faggots.

The doors are overthere. Fuck off.

 

[Kirtai]

Since when do either adventure games or PS:T have QTEs?

 

[Blaine]

Case in point with this game. The fact that the issue of RTWP vs TB is even discussed in a topic about what is supposed to be a spiritual sequel to Planescape Torment is quite maddening.

That's because PS:T (and indeed all of the IE titles) would have been better games had they utilized proper turn-based combat. Put another way, RTwP was a flaw in the original PS:T, one that many of the "nostalgia faggots" (as you so charmingly phrase it) would like to see corrected. Bear in mind that the very existence of RTwP combat in late 1990s cRPGs was largely due to pressure from publishers to make the combat more "action-oriented"—they believed that this would allow them to broaden their target audience to include impatient simpletons. They were right about that, unfortunately.

Planescape Torment would've been miles better without the combat.

Get the fuck out of here, you waste of space. You human baggage. Apply for a position at EA BioWare—I'm sure they'd be happy to hire you on as a writer for one of their feminized polyamorous visual romance novels. Perhaps Hamburger Helper will allow you to copulate with one of her fat rolls.

Since when do either adventure games or PS:T have QTEs?

I suspect that in hiver's eyes, you've more-or-less allied yourself with that seditious agent of the decline by quoting and partially agreeing with him. I personally don't believe that "minimal combat"-style RPGs must necessarily equate to decline by their very nature, but this thread probably isn't the best place to discuss the merits and flaws of such games.

 

[suejak]

Nah. Torment really doesn't need turn-based combat. In fact, it barely needs combat.

To argue otherwise is to argue for something that isn't a spiritual successor to Torment.

 

[Kirtai]

I personally don't believe that "minimal combat"-style RPGs must necessarily equate to decline by their very nature, but this thread probably isn't the best place to discuss the merits and flaws of such games.

I should clarify that I'm talking about games where most of the combat is done with wits and words, but little in the way of smacking things until they die. Very like my last play-through of PS:T in fact.

And after all, this thread is about a spiritual successor to a game where words could be the deadliest of weapons.

 

[Blaine]

Nah. Torment really doesn't need turn-based combat. In fact, it barely needs combat.

To argue otherwise is to argue for something that isn't a spiritual successor to Torment.

Regardless of how little combat you personally believe PS:T ought to have included, the fact remains that there was quite a lot of it in the game. Your opinion is therefore irrelevant, trumped by that old bastard we call reality. The combat in PS:T would have been improved by a proper turn-based implementation of AD&D 2nd Edition's combat rules.

I should clarify that I'm talking about games where most of the combat is done with wits and words, but little in the way of smacking things until they die. Very like my last play-through of PS:T in fact.

And after all, this thread is about a spiritual successor to a game where words could be the deadliest of weapons.

Ah, but the option to smack things until they die was almost always available, wasn't it? That's a necessary and critical distinction. You can't simply remove combat entirely or tack it on as an afterthought, not without cheapening the experience.

 

[Kirtai]

I should clarify that I'm talking about games where most of the combat is done with wits and words, but little in the way of smacking things until they die. Very like my last play-through of PS:T in fact.

And after all, this thread is about a spiritual successor to a game where words could be the deadliest of weapons.

Ah, but the option to smack things until they die was almost always available, wasn't it? That's a necessary and critical distinction. You can't simply remove combat entirely or tack it on as an afterthought, not without cheapening the experience.

Oh, I never said it should be removed, just that it be minimised. Or, more precisely, that its importance be minimised. I completely agree that the option is necessary. I'd just like some games where it's the last resort rather than the first for dealing with opposition, where physical fights are what happens when you screw up. Or when you're just feeling belligerent of course

 

[Infinitron]

The combat in PS:T would have been improved by a proper turn-based implementation of AD&D 2nd Edition's combat rules.

No, the combat in PS:T would have been improved if good encounter design was a priority in the game's development, which it wasn't.

Turn-based doesn't magically make bad encounters good.

 

[Azrael the cat]

The combat in PS:T would have been improved by a proper turn-based implementation of AD&D 2nd Edition's combat rules.

No, the combat in PS:T would have been improved if good encounter design was a priority in the game's development, which it wasn't.

Turn-based doesn't magically make bad encounters good.

Agreed. Turn-based plowing through gangs of identical trashmobs who all have the same melee attack wouldn't have been pretty.

 

[Blaine]

No, the combat in PS:T would have been improved if good encounter design was a priority in the game's development, which it wasn't.

Turn-based doesn't magically make bad encounters good.

That is true. In what way does that render my assertion untrue? I never said that RTwP was the only problem with PS:T and that a turn-based system would fix everything. I simply said that turn-based would be superior to RTwP and would have made PS:T a better game. So would better encounter design, but that's another issue. Talk about leaping to conclusions and putting words in someone's mouth, eh?

I'm highly amused by the agenda-based "you sure told him" brofists you got for that post, though. Thanks for making it.

 

[Excidium]

Turn-based would only make combat worse if anything. Shit would take ten times as long to resolve.