Torment Torment: Tides of Numenera Thread

[Lurker King]

not being able to follow up on what you learn from scan thoughts quite often.

This is so fucking frustrating.

ToN feels like a shell of what could be an interesting game:

The use of tides and the ability to scan thoughts in dialogues should offer a bunch of opportunities. They don’t.

The combat could be interesting if you had any real classes and character building. You don’t.

The skill checks are the meat of the game and can be abused.

 

[Red Rogue]

First autistic complaint: You have to click on the crier to get his information but a merchant shouts at you about his wares on the same map.

Resuming saved game from the beta worked and so are achievements.

I can't see console players enjoying this.

Because the game is clunky and would be difficult to navigate on consoles?
Or because it's not a game that would typically cater to console players?

 

[agris]

not being able to follow up on what you learn from scan thoughts quite often.

This is so fucking frustrating.

ToN feels like a shell of what could be an interesting game:

The use of tides and the ability to scan thoughts in dialogues should offer a bunch of opportunities. They don’t.

The combat could be interesting if you had any real classes and character building. You don’t.

The skill checks are the meat of the game and can be abused.

it plays a lot like a simple adventure game. absent the kickstarter campaign, I would not have considered this an RPG. More like RPG mechanics (class, skills) poorly adapted to a linear adventure game.

 

[Mark.L.Joy]

What's up with the slow ass moving animations?

 

[Infinitron]

Scan Thoughts being mostly cosmetic is likely an intentional design decision to prevent Nanos being the must-play god class (any more than they already are)

 

[Wolfe]

 

[Shadenuat]

So a loli Myron with a godrock and Erritis are the only really weird companions game has to offer of any interest?
I'm also keeping Matkina because she is op when it comes to gold skill checks.

And where's all the companion dialogue? Are they so front loaded I feel they are?

 

[Red Rogue]

Oh sweet, this guy has a good Channel.

 

[agris]

So a loli Myron with a godrock and Erritis are the only really weird companions game has to offer of any interest?
I'm also keeping Matkina because she is op when it comes to gold skill checks.

i am very interested in this 'godrock', what is it?

 

[Excidium II]

Scan Thoughts being mostly cosmetic is likely an intentional design decision to prevent Nanos being the must-play god class (any more than they already are)

[Intelligence] Maybe it should be an ability inherent to the PC like the one in Divinity 2 then

 

[Lurker King]

it plays a lot like a simple adventure game. absent the kickstarter campaign, I would not have considered this an RPG. More like RPG mechanics (class, skills) poorly adapted to a linear adventure game.

The only thought that crossed my mind is how much content they had to cut. They end up cutting a lot of stuff and it shows.

 

[tripedal]

Is there a way to easily kill yourself?

 

[Wolfe]

Is there a way to easily kill yourself?

Yes, you discover it during the main quest, quite early actually.

 

[Projas]

Is there a way to easily kill yourself?

Spoiler

Use the mirror in the sanctuary.

 

[agris]

it plays a lot like a simple adventure game. absent the kickstarter campaign, I would not have considered this an RPG. More like RPG mechanics (class, skills) poorly adapted to a linear adventure game.

The only thought that crossed my mind is how much content they have to cut. They end up cutting a lot of stuff and it shows.

yeah it feels like european shovelware in some ways

 

[Blaine]

Wait a minute, where in the holy fuck are my backer rewards? My address has been updated and confirmed on the backer site for years now.

Someone link me to the inevitable sincere, heartfelt post in which some developer tenderly explains why they couldn't possibly ship out the rewards until after the game's released.

 

[agris]

Infinitron play it. remove your appologies and any preconceived notions and it ain't a great polished game. from the busy UI to half-baked gameplay components, that's practically the definition of shovelware. the entire crisis combat system is lame, it's the fucking 2-action system from nuXcom! I know how much old-school RPG and strategy gamers loooooove 2 action TB combat. Regardless, it feels half-baked.

 

[Lazing Dirk]

Wait a minute, where in the holy fuck are my backer rewards? My address has been updated and confirmed on the backer site for years now.

Someone link me to the inevitable sincere, heartfelt post in which some developer tenderly explains why they couldn't possibly ship out the rewards until after the game's released.

Trying to get them on eBay before the price goes down?

 

[Blaine]

Wait a minute, where in the holy fuck are my backer rewards? My address has been updated and confirmed on the backer site for years now.

Someone link me to the inevitable sincere, heartfelt post in which some developer tenderly explains why they couldn't possibly ship out the rewards until after the game's released.

Trying to get them on eBay before the price goes down?

Don't fucking give other people ideas, you ass!

 

[Infinitron]

Infinitron play it. remove your appologies and any preconceived notions and it ain't a great polished game. from the busy UI to half-baked gameplay components, that's practically the definition of shovelware. the entire crisis combat system is lame, it's the fucking 2-action system from nuXcom! I know how much old-school RPG and strategy gamers loooooove 2 action TB combat. Regardless, it feels half-baked.

OK so Arcanum is shovelware too? (and "European" to boot?) You're using that term to be edgy.

But tbh what really annoys me is that I hate to see smart people encouraging Lurker King

 

[FeelTheRads]

Trying to get them on eBay before the price goes down?

Better now before people wise up on the game's quality.

Nah, so far I think I'll stick to this one voluntarily as opposed to being forced to keep the W2 one because nobody's buying it.

 

[agris]

OK so Arcanum is shovelware too? (and "European" to boot?) You're using that term to be edgy.

Ok, geographic-agnostic shovelware. I've played my share of it, and game features with this level of inconsistent support and utilization fit the bill. I haven't played/beaten Arcanum since it was released ("HARM!") but it didn't strike me as incomplete in the same way TToN does. I'm not even saying I hate it, although the writing is pretty damn bad and the RPG components aren't elevating it.

Really, viewing it as a simplistic linear adventure game is the best way to avoid disappointment. I don't say this to be edgy or counter-cultural, i'm playing it and that's how it strikes me.

 

[MRY]

it plays a lot like a simple adventure game. ... a linear adventure game.

I don't want to debate anything about TTON's merits, but I've always found this Codex meme (which is often applied to PS:T and jRPGs) dumb. Adventure games are not RPGs without combat. That description might hold for some very "streamlined" modern adventure games, but you could just as easily describe those games as platformers without platforming. The heart of adventure games are environmental and inventory-based puzzles, which are basically entirely lacking in PS:T or jRPGs. Moreover, linear adventure games are really linear -- vastly more linear than any RPG. They tend to offer two or three rooms that you can explore at a time before going to the next one, with no choice in where to go or when.

 

[agris]

it plays a lot like a simple adventure game. ... a linear adventure game.

I don't want to debate anything about TTON's merits, but I've always found this Codex meme (which is often applied to PS:T and jRPGs) dumb. Adventure games are not RPGs without combat. That description might hold for some very "streamlined" modern adventure games, but you could just as easily describe those games as platformers without platforming. The heart of adventure games are environmental and inventory-based puzzles, which are basically entirely lacking in PS:T or jRPGs. Moreover, linear adventure games are really linear -- vastly more linear than any RPG. They tend to offer two or three rooms that you can explore at a time before going to the next one, with no choice in where to go or when.

Wait, what? PST is very much an adventure game wherein you're piecing environmental and character-specific knowledge together, some of which are controlled by RPG-derived statistics, to advance a story. PST has, broadly, a more non-linear approach to how this information is collected, assembled and employed to advance the story as compared to TToN.

You point that "That description might hold for some very "streamlined" modern adventure games" fits perfectly for TToN, based on what I've played. It's all environmental interaction and dialogue choice selection, with a smattering of RPG-derived stat checks gating dialogue options, implemented in in a much more linear package (as compared to PST). You could describe Sagus Cliffs as nonlinear in the same vein as Sigil, but that's doing Sigil a huge disservice.

 

[Jinn]

I've been playing it for about 5-6 hours now, and I haven't felt that it plays like a linear adventure game. I do agree that going into it expecting something more on the side of an adventure game would be a good way to manage expectations. Looking at it that way, I must say that I would probably play a lot more adventure games if they were like this. I actually enjoy the non-combat mechanics and think they're pretty interesting overall (as long as you don't resort to save-scumming, which I haven't even thought of doing yet in this game). The stat integration into these systems seems rather simplistic, but it hasn't bothered me yet.

Overall impression so far: having a really nice time.