Torment Torment: Tides of Numenera Thread

[Prime Junta]

I think both are pretty much equally bad. Either they're scumbags or scumbags.

Eh, I dunno. If your GF cheated on you, would it make you feel better or worse if it was because she forgot you were her BF?

 

[Jarpie]

I think both are pretty much equally bad. Either they're scumbags or scumbags.

Eh, I dunno. If your GF cheated on you, would it make you feel better or worse if it was because she forgot you were her BF?

Maybe if she suffered from amnesia like in Memento :D

 

[Prime Junta]

I think both are pretty much equally bad. Either they're scumbags or scumbags.

Eh, I dunno. If your GF cheated on you, would it make you feel better or worse if it was because she forgot you were her BF?

Maybe if she suffered from amnesia like in Memento :D

Yeah, well, they were writing an amnesia story. Maybe it's catching.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

Wow, I honestly didn't expect them to commit to large content updates despite T:TON sales tanking so badly, Better late than never, I guess. Although I kind of wonder if announcing that a week after launch won't kill the sales even more, with people holding out for inevitable DC/GOTY.

Still, I can respect that. InXile may do a lot things wrong, but their the post-release support so far is always excellent.

Nah, it's just out of desperation, and "throwing something small to the backers", like Lacrymas said, they were probably already 80% done. I imagine The Toy was pretty much written already but they didn't finish just some animations, it's pretty much "Damage Control 101 doing as little as possible", only reason they're doing this is to try to pacify pissed off buyers and backers.

Of course it's all PR and damage control, same with WL2 DC, or with Witcher's 3 "free DLCs". Doesn't really matter what their motivations are, as long as we get a better game.

I'd imagine they were always going to patch it heavily, same as WL2. It's a fucking shame that it bombed so badly on the market. As much as I enjoy seeing Fargo get a kick in the nuts so hopefully they get their shit together, but had it sold well the patches would have been much more extensive I'm sure.

In time this might have been much improved game, the potential is there.

I doubt they'd put stuff back unless they'd be desperate, they didn't put back anything cut or make any content changes in WL2DC afaik, and they had reason to make WL2DC with the console ports, there's no such reason in here. The impression I've gotten from inXile people is that they don't have humility to admit they've fucked up, or that they had to cut out sizeable chunks out of the game due screwing around.

They were already dropping hints before the launch that it will be patched and some cut content might be added back, and that it will be free for backers. So I'd imagine that was always the plan, I just figured it would have been scrapped with shitty sales and all. They didn't add content with WL2, but that was a different situation, vanilla VL2 had distinctively different problems that were much more pressing than just adding Reaganites or whatever.

Yeah, it's still a PR move to appease the backers, and the game needs much more than one more companion to restore it to what was promised on Kickstarter...but it's a start.

 

[FeelTheRads]

inXile new propaganda poster:

Know what I hate about this poster the most? Grammar.

"Did you know that... 90 fully unique cyphers"

"Did you know that... 69 abilities obtained from types, foci, companions and through story events"

Some work, some fuckin' don't. But nevermind, let us have our own bullshit poster:

That ending the game 5 minutes in... was that really about how you can die in the intro? Is that something to brag about to modern gamers? I like how they said "end" though, instead of die as if it's some kind speedrun that you can do.

 

[Jarpie]

Wow, I honestly didn't expect them to commit to large content updates despite T:TON sales tanking so badly, Better late than never, I guess. Although I kind of wonder if announcing that a week after launch won't kill the sales even more, with people holding out for inevitable DC/GOTY.

Still, I can respect that. InXile may do a lot things wrong, but their the post-release support so far is always excellent.

Nah, it's just out of desperation, and "throwing something small to the backers", like Lacrymas said, they were probably already 80% done. I imagine The Toy was pretty much written already but they didn't finish just some animations, it's pretty much "Damage Control 101 doing as little as possible", only reason they're doing this is to try to pacify pissed off buyers and backers.

Of course it's all PR and damage control, same with WL2 DC, or with Witcher's 3 "free DLCs". Doesn't really matter what their motivations are, as long as we get a better game.

I'd imagine they were always going to patch it heavily, same as WL2. It's a fucking shame that it bombed so badly on the market. As much as I enjoy seeing Fargo get a kick in the nuts so hopefully they get their shit together, but had it sold well the patches would have been much more extensive I'm sure.

In time this might have been much improved game, the potential is there.

I doubt they'd put stuff back unless they'd be desperate, they didn't put back anything cut or make any content changes in WL2DC afaik, and they had reason to make WL2DC with the console ports, there's no such reason in here. The impression I've gotten from inXile people is that they don't have humility to admit they've fucked up, or that they had to cut out sizeable chunks out of the game due screwing around.

They were already dropping hints before the launch that it will be patched and some cut content might be added back, and that it will be free for backers. So I'd imagine that was always the plan, I just figured it would have been scrapped with shitty sales and all. They didn't add content with WL2, but that was a different situation, vanilla VL2 had distinctively different problems that were much more pressing than just adding Reaganites or whatever.

Yeah, it's still a PR move to appease the backers, and the game needs much more than one more companion to restore it to what was promised on Kickstarter...but it's a start.

Maybe but at this moment I don't buy anything they're saying or have been saying. Once that trust is gone with the customers, it's very fucking hard to regain. I don't think putting stuff back in would greatly help the game, it'd be just IMO more of the same, the problems with the writing and the overall story goes much deeper than that, they'd have to retool the whole main story to make it work IMO.

 

[Abu Antar]

pandering to consoles seems to be the crux of Numa's problems

who the fuck thought it's a good idea

Uncle Brian.

Or maybe he has a cypher equipped that told him to focus on console release. In that case, he can't be blamed.

 

[Turjan]

Incline for Age of Decadence.

Spoiler

You can tell the Council that you created him, also you can wait very long for the Council to have time for you and the hole party gets demoralized

Finally someone notices the Clerk.

I actually really liked the clerk. No joke. He's actually well written, non-cringy, and would've fitted well into a Tormentesque game.

My theory is the idea for this character came from a real life clerk that Brian Fargo had to deal with when filing for his Gamer Shoes™ patent.

No, he is based on the recurrent clerk characters in Jack Vance novels, particularly the clerk from Araminta Station. It probably helps (?) that I spent a decade working in government.

That's cool. It's been a while since I read Araminta Station. It's one of the few novels where Jack Vance actually tried out to bring his characters a bit more to life than usual. The real star of his novels is the setting, and in a way, this clerk is also more part of the setting than a character, which makes it quite fitting.

 

[FeelTheRads]

OK, so apparently MRY will be the next MCA on the Codex. Even has the 3 letters username.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

Maybe but at this moment I don't buy anything they're saying or have been saying. Once that trust is gone with the customers, it's very fucking hard to regain. I don't think putting stuff back in would greatly help the game, it'd be just IMO more of the same, the problems with the writing and the overall story goes much deeper than that, they'd have to retool the whole main story to make it work IMO.

Oh absolutely, I'm not saying they redeemed themselves just by throwing in an (probably already half-finished) one companion and one smaller stretch goal. There's still +10 of them missing, and that's not gonna be forgotten any time soon. I've had plenty of gripes with how they run their business before T:TON was even out, there's a reason I skipped on backing WL3 even though I enjoyed WL2.

In the end though, there's nothing like a good customer outrage to beat the company into shape, so hopefully the trashing will snap them out of their self-important bubble.

 

[MRY]

I love Vance's characters. They all speak more or less the same way, and none of them behaves like a real person, yet I love every one of them. Araminta Station is probably my favorite of his, but the Demon Princes is priceless as well. "Deflated, perhaps."

OK, so apparently MRY will be the next MCA on the Codex. Even has the 3 letters username.

Ha, fat chance. I'd settle for being the next Volourn.

 

[Lord Andre]

I haven't been active in the RPG forums for quite a while so please don't take offense at my ignorance but...

BUT I checked my email a few days ago and apparently the new Torment is out. Naturally I threw money into Fargo's hat at the time so the gog key was waiting for my greedy fingers.

I install, I play a bit, I reach the part where you choose your focus and they're only 3 and they all suck. So I'm like... what the fuck is this shit ? Alt-tab this piece of shit. If these are the only choices, I fucking swear...alright open steam forum...no...no,no,NO...cut content FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK!!!!!!!! WHAT THE FUCK WAS THE FUCKING POINT OF PUSHING THE RELEASE DATE BACK AGAIN AND AGAIN IF YOU CUT OUT CORE SHIT FROM THE GAME...

BROS, I don't have the patience to read through 130+ pages, throw me a bone here, did the lying pieces of shit really cut core content like focci options from the fucking final game and is there at least a massive shitstorm blotting out Fargo's world right now ?

 

[Excidium II]

OK, so apparently MRY will be the next MCA on the Codex. Even has the 3 letters username.

needs more selfies.

 

[an Administrator]

I haven't been active in the RPG forums for quite a while so please don't take offense at my ignorance but...

BUT I checked my email a few days ago and apparently the new Torment is out. Naturally I threw money into Fargo's hat at the time so the gog key was waiting for my greedy fingers.

I install, I play a bit, I reach the part where you choose your focus and they're only 3 and they all suck. So I'm like... what the fuck is this shit ? Alt-tab this piece of shit. If these are the only choices, I fucking swear...alright open steam forum...no...no,no,NO...cut content FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK!!!!!!!! WHAT THE FUCK WAS THE FUCKING POINT OF PUSHING THE RELEASE DATE BACK AGAIN AND AGAIN IF YOU CUT OUT CORE SHIT FROM THE GAME...

BROS, I don't have the patience to read through 130+ pages, throw me a bone here, did the lying pieces of shit really cut core content like focci options from the fucking final game and is there at least a massive shitstorm blotting out Fargo's world right now ?

Game is good, play it.

 

[Jarpie]

I love Vance's characters. They all speak more or less the same way, and none of them behaves like a real person, yet I love every one of them. Araminta Station is probably my favorite of his, but the Demon Princes is priceless as well. "Deflated, perhaps."

OK, so apparently MRY will be the next MCA on the Codex. Even has the 3 letters username.

Ha, fat chance. I'd settle for being the next Volourn.

Be very wary what you wish for.

 

[TT1]

I haven't been active in the RPG forums for quite a while so please don't take offense at my ignorance but...

BUT I checked my email a few days ago and apparently the new Torment is out. Naturally I threw money into Fargo's hat at the time so the gog key was waiting for my greedy fingers.

I install, I play a bit, I reach the part where you choose your focus and they're only 3 and they all suck. So I'm like... what the fuck is this shit ? Alt-tab this piece of shit. If these are the only choices, I fucking swear...alright open steam forum...no...no,no,NO...cut content FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK!!!!!!!! WHAT THE FUCK WAS THE FUCKING POINT OF PUSHING THE RELEASE DATE BACK AGAIN AND AGAIN IF YOU CUT OUT CORE SHIT FROM THE GAME...

BROS, I don't have the patience to read through 130+ pages, throw me a bone here, did the lying pieces of shit really cut core content like focci options from the fucking final game and is there at least a massive shitstorm blotting out Fargo's world right now ?

Well...

From Reddit:

TL;DR - There are 33 measurable stretch goals. 13 were cut. Also, 5 features of the base game were cut or significantly downsized (if you see others let me know).

Let's go through the list. Starting from the bottom. Leaving out vague promises ("more reactivity") and team members joining. If there are any corrections please let me know.

http://i.imgur.com/JmO7ks0.jpg

Stretch Goals

1.2 (million $)

• Gender with reactivity. Yes (one quest available to female and male)

1.5

• New area : Crystal dimension. Yes
• New Novella (Nathan Long). Yes

2

• More mark Morgan Music. Yes (50 songs in game)
• Live Orchestra. Cut
• New area: Ruins of Ossiphagan. Cut (mere only)
• New Companion- "The Toy". Cut. ("Oom, a changing ball of goo.")
• New Compansion - Secret. Cut. ("Satsada, a sibyl with no body of her own, who speaks through the mouth of Riastrad, a man whose mind is broken beyond repair.")
• Novellas (Mur and Tony). Yes

2.5

• Colin's Apology for the book of elves. Yes. (lol did multiple takes because he was snarky )
• Colin plays and commentates PS:T playthrough. Yes
• Novella (Monte Cook). Yes

2.75

• Castoff's Labyrinth - Reflections of companions / NPCs - Yes

2.85

• Expansive Epilogue - Yes (being generous. Wouldn't call it expansive)

3

• Secret Meres. Yes
• Increase legacy from 6 to 11. Yes (but legacies barely do anything)
• New cult - Order of the Endless Gate - Yes
• New Cult - The order of Flaggelants and Austerities. Cut
• New companion - Secret. Cut. ("A crippled beggar who devours magic to feed his addiction to the energies that flow through the numenera—and who can call upon that power to blast his foes with waves of pure force.")

3.1

• New cult - Dendra Ohur - Yes

3.35

• Lacunae - NPCs unique to the labyrinth. Cut

3.4

• Pat Rothfuss writes a companion. Yes (Rhin)

3.5

• Chris writes a companion. Yes (Erritis)

3.6

• Hall of Lingering Reflections. Cut.

3.75

• Increased companion depth, companion quests. Yes.
• Castoff's Labyrinth - alternate exit to another part of the Ninth World. Cut. (???)

4

• Number of legacies increased from 11 to 16. Yes (though legacies stripped down)
• Additional major city - Oasis of Mra Jollos. Yes (Replaced by Bloom, which I consider still fulfilling stretch goal to have two major hub cities. Oasis is mere only now)
• Even more Mark Morgan music. Yes (50 songs in game)

4.25

• Voluminous codex. Cut. There is a physical version but it does not match the "interactive journal" described in the goals.
• Crafting Numenera. Cut

4.5

• Player "Stronghold". Cut.

Castoff's Labyrinth

• 12 Fathoms Reached. Cut (there are 12 fathoms but this counts every floor of the labyrinth, including the one where you are rebuilding your memories and the lobby. And these 12 fathoms are basically quick end game floors. This does not match the backer description "The Castoff’s Labyrinth is a bizarre and interesting gameplay area, one of haunting exploration and discovery. As it grows, its secrets become deeper and more complex. Its depths are called Fathoms, and each brings new secrets and — for the determined — new rewards.")

Cuts to Base Game

• Focuses (now a flat bonus + a few choices of ability at each tier. Originally a key part that defines character)
• Legacies (now only impacts ending slides. Originally high levels of reactivity in items and manifested abilities)
• Italian localisation
• Novella. Originally 7 planned. 1 cut.
• Joinable factions

That is, summing up:

Shitstorm is happening. Steam have MIXED reviews right now

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inxile/torment-tides-of-numenera/posts/1823045

Updated Our Journal (66): Beyond the Beyond

tl;dr: New content coming to Torment, rewards status update, and THANK YOU!

Hello Exiles,

We are now a little over one week after the release of Torment! It's been amazing to see the reception that the game received. The game has been an extremely strong success critically, with praise, awards and even several perfect scores along the way. If you want to read some of the reviews, we’ve done a pair of roundups that you can find here and here, as well as an accolades trailer. More importantly, we've been seeing your feedback throughout the forums, comments and social media.

We've heard from hundreds of you who have reached out to say that that Torment: Tides of Numenera is a worthy successor to Planescape: Torment, and that is something we are extremely pleased and humbled to hear. We'd love for you to get out there and keep spreading the word, leaving reviews, posting comments, sharing your experiences, and more. There’s a lot to discover in this game, and we’re looking forward to seeing you all discuss the story and events of the game for years to come!

When we came to you on Kickstarter, you gave us an incredible opportunity to make a game that would never have happened otherwise. It's through your continued support that these kinds of games will continue to get made. You have our everlasting thanks for providing us the ability to bring these type of games back.

What Comes Next?
Since release, we have been tirelessly reading your feedback, comments, and reports, and using that to plan a few patches for the near future. These will be primarily focused on fixing some pesky bugs that some of our players have encountered, as well as performance and stability optimizations, both on PC as well as on consoles. You can expect to see our first patch coming in the next couple of weeks.

But, we also want to address the longer term. Four years is an extended development timeline for an RPG, and it is a hallmark of our ambition for the game. Torment has the longest script we've ever produced at over 1.2 million words, and provides more nuanced reactivity and more complicated quests and stories than we have ever done before.

Despite that, there were some features we wanted to include in the game that we weren’t able to finish in time for release. Companions, in particular, were a big production trade-off. Not only does a single companion take many months of work from writers, scripters, designers, and artists. Because we wanted companions to interact and react to the game world and conversations in a deep way, their implementation needed to happen later in the development process, when quests and area design were mostly complete. As we were iterating on the companions, we felt the time was best spent building them out deeper as opposed to slamming in a few more on a surface level. These development decisions are never black and white, but we always approach it from a position of what we truly believe is best for the game. As we addressed in a previous update, reducing their number was a necessary trade-off to hit the level of quality we wanted.

But, there's a saying that no work of art is ever truly complete. We certainly know that many of you were looking forward to some of the things we couldn't squeeze into our release build, and it just didn't sit well with us leaving those behind. Now that we have had a time to see your feedback on the game, we also have a better sense of where we can focus our resources to improve.

To that end, we are pleased to announce that we will be working on additional content and updates for Torment post-release. These updates will include:

• Oom ("The Toy" companion).
• Voluminous Codex.
• Crisis system improvements.

Our initial updates to the game will focused on bug fixes, optimizations, and other improvements, while the content additions will come later down the line. Both the patches and content updates will, of course, be completely free for all Torment owners, including backers, PC buyers, and console players. We will have more news on these in the coming weeks and months!

Digital Rewards Update
At this point, most of you have received your rewards digitally and are playing the game (if you aren't please check out our Torment web site, login or create an account, and link up your Kickstarter pledge email if needed).

In the week since release, a few things have been added and updated, so we wanted to call those out for you all...

First, backers at the Lore Seeker, Digital Collector's Edition (PayPal), and Numenera Seeker reward levels and above, are eligible for an Immortal Edition upgrade key. This will let you get many of your digital rewards on Steam or GOG. Many of you requested this and we are happy to oblige! To get this, you can check your Keys page on the Torment backer web site.

Second, many of you who claimed your game key for Steam Early Access asked if you could receive a GOG key for final release instead. We've heard you! We now have an "Exchange" button on our backer web site that will let you exchange your Steam Early Access key for a GOG version of the game. Please note that this can only be done if your Steam key was claimed prior to the game's Feb. 28th release date, and once exchanged, you cannot exchange it again.




Last, as a free bonus to you all, we also have made a Backer Outfit Upgrade key available to all Torment backers. This key will grant you a set of three additional armors at the start of the game. This is currently only available for Steam – however, we are working on a way to provide this content to backers who got the GOG version of the game very soon!

As an additional note, many of you have been contacting us with support inquiries – thousands, in fact! Rest assured that we are responding to everyone as fast as we can. If you need assistance, please be sure to contact us at our support page. If you did write in and haven't got a reply, we will respond to you as soon as we can! We appreciate your patience during this extremely busy time.

Physical Goods Update
We've been getting lots of questions about physical rewards recently, and we're pleased to say they are shaping up great! Here's a sneak peek at the Collector's Edition box and novella set...

Collector's Edition box.

Printed Novella Compilation.
Many of you have messaged us wondering what the status of shipping physical rewards is. To recap, we previously contacted everyone receiving physical goods late last year and early this year, asking them to update their shipping address on our backer web site if needed. Provided you gave us your correct shipping address by January 27th, 2017, you will be ready to receive all your physical goods when they ship. Our first shipping list has now been sent for processing, so shipping should begin very soon!

Note: If you missed the January 27th deadline, or require a sudden change of address, we won't be able to squeeze in that change for the initial shipment wave – however, we'll be in touch about how we can handle late shipments.

Thank you once again to every one of you. If you've enjoyed Torment and want us to help keep making more RPGs, be sure to help us out, whether that's by following us on social media, giving a like or subscribe on YouTube, writing a review on Steam, GOG or elsewhere, or just spreading the word in general. It's your amazing support that allows us to continue making the games we love. We can't stress to you enough how amazing a journey working on this new Torment game has been, and we are excited to see how we can continue to improve it even further.

Chris Keenan
VP of Development

 

[Lacrymas]

I haven't been active in the RPG forums for quite a while so please don't take offense at my ignorance but...

BUT I checked my email a few days ago and apparently the new Torment is out. Naturally I threw money into Fargo's hat at the time so the gog key was waiting for my greedy fingers.

I install, I play a bit, I reach the part where you choose your focus and they're only 3 and they all suck. So I'm like... what the fuck is this shit ? Alt-tab this piece of shit. If these are the only choices, I fucking swear...alright open steam forum...no...no,no,NO...cut content FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK!!!!!!!! WHAT THE FUCK WAS THE FUCKING POINT OF PUSHING THE RELEASE DATE BACK AGAIN AND AGAIN IF YOU CUT OUT CORE SHIT FROM THE GAME...

BROS, I don't have the patience to read through 130+ pages, throw me a bone here, did the lying pieces of shit really cut core content like focci options from the fucking final game and is there at least a massive shitstorm blotting out Fargo's world right now ?

You are the on the Codex, there wouldn't be 136 pages of discussion if it wasn't disappointment and rage.

 

[Once more unto the Codex]

I haven't been active in the RPG forums for quite a while so please don't take offense at my ignorance but...

BUT I checked my email a few days ago and apparently the new Torment is out. Naturally I threw money into Fargo's hat at the time so the gog key was waiting for my greedy fingers.

I install, I play a bit, I reach the part where you choose your focus and they're only 3 and they all suck. So I'm like... what the fuck is this shit ? Alt-tab this piece of shit. If these are the only choices, I fucking swear...alright open steam forum...no...no,no,NO...cut content FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK!!!!!!!! WHAT THE FUCK WAS THE FUCKING POINT OF PUSHING THE RELEASE DATE BACK AGAIN AND AGAIN IF YOU CUT OUT CORE SHIT FROM THE GAME...

BROS, I don't have the patience to read through 130+ pages, throw me a bone here, did the lying pieces of shit really cut core content like focci options from the fucking final game and is there at least a massive shitstorm blotting out Fargo's world right now ?

You are the on the Codex, there wouldn't be 136 pages of discussion if it wasn't disappointment and rage.

And butthurt...lots and lots of butthurt.

 

[Starwars]

You are the on the Codex, there wouldn't be 136 pages of discussion if it wasn't disappointment and rage.

Between the same 5 people as in every other thread.

 

[MRY]

Whoa, it turns out it was Cugel's Saga, not Araminta Station, that the clerk came from. I need more mindworms, clearly.

Here's the scene, in case you're curious.

But maybe (likely?) there is also one in Araminta Station, so perhaps I'm not entirely mad.

 

[Abu Antar]

I guess I will wait a full year before replaying the game. Not that I have actually finished my first adventure yet.

 

[an Administrator]

1.2 million words!

 

[MRY]

In case anyone's curious, Colin and Gavin are taking questions on a Twitch stream. I think Colin is a very good speaker on these subjects. I haven't seen Gavin.

 

[Lacrymas]

1,200,000 words. A 400 page novel usually has around 100,000. People manage to read everything in 25ish hours, which includes running around and not much else?