Torment Torment: Tides of Numenera Thread

[Sentinel]

I can say for certain that the setting of Numanuma is better than PoE's. Congratulations. How they use that setting, however, will be determined after I play it more seriously. I bee-lined to Erritis as soon as I found out where he is, his character is 10 times more interesting if you have scan thoughts, very interesting use of interactivity. Your choices allow you to dig deeper or find out stuff about characters you wouldn't otherwise. This can be exploited to great effect.

Any setting that isn't designed specifically with a videogame in mind is better than PoE. The only limits of that setting are your imagination. If you're designing a setting for a videogame, you immediately have to think of "how would this work in a game though?"
It's why I'd prefer the return of licensed settings from PnP to cRPGs. Lots more potential.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

the game's not so bad so far. sure the writing don't really live up to planescape, but it's still better than 90% of games out there. the setting is cool, and ironically some of the NPCs i found are more interesting than the 3 companions i find, like the genocide, that O'marrah or whatever his name is who eats people and get their memories, etc.

the companions i got so far sucks tho. (callistege, aliigern and tybir)

Yeah companions are by far the weakest part of the story. Every other NPC I meet would make more interesting companion than the boring bunch I have to run around with. The psionic bartenrer, or one of the robots, or the Genocide, or the lass that trades secrets, or the time travelling surgeon, fucking anybody really would be better than a faggot pirate, little girl and guy with awesome hair, which is who I ended up with.

 

[Parabalus]

So I finished this after ~17.5 hours and overall it was okay. Some thoughts:

• Game feels a bit short. Tier 4 is the max and I hoped you would get to Tier 6. Sagus is pretty much half the game. Ended with everyone overkilling XP except Rhin who was just shy of maxed out.
• Replayability? It's no where near Age of Decadence, but I think another one would be worth it, def. not an instant replay.
• Something about the combat felt very satisfying to me. It's not difficult or deep, but cutting people down just made me joyful. Rhin is so broken it's funny.
• I failed exactly 4 skill checks in the entire game and those could be immediately retried at no real cost. That's a bit sad because the loading tip seems to suggest cool stuff happens if you fail, didn't experience any.
• The ending feels closer to Mass Effect 3 than PS:T. This combined with the above point is my main gripe, it's very hard to fail because you just spend effort to win, and since you end the game with 6k shins and an abundance of potions...
• I didn't have any problems with the writing or UI or SJWs - there is a rather funny comment about genders at the antepenultimate area which will surely trigger people.
• I took Eritis, Rhin and Matkina, they were rather good and worthy. The other three made me want to quit the game. Labyrinth was cool but felt underdeveloped.

I'd probably give it 8+/10, it's good and worth playing, not like it has any competition.

Note: this is in Gaming Press Ratings, where 5/10 means unplayable garbage.

Few questions about stuff I missed

Spoiler

Callistage quest? I didn't have her in my party, Tybir and Aligern autotriggered in the Bloom so I did theirs. Got her book in Sagus and gave it to her.
How do you get specialized tidal affinity before Miel Avast? Only got trained from Rhin slaver, and later from the ghost near the guy who could send her home, but there was a grayed out interaction in Miel.
What can you do with the Nychthemeron in the Valley of Dead Heroes? It's day so he would attack me, had him in my Labyrinth.

 

[Luckmann]

And how come he couldn't find NPC that explains the Tides if he met the slaver and talked with her about Rhin?

Linear causality, do you grasp it?

What was going through your head, when after writing novel-sized papers about T:TON's mechanics, you actually launched it and got completely lost 5 minutes from tutorial area, because there was no quest markers? Would you describe your feelings in that moment as shame, anger, despair, or a combination of those? I'm just curious.

How was it, being born to late, your alcoholic mother bouncing your head against the concrete like a rubber lettuce, dropped like a bad habit? It's too bad she couldn't drop the bottle as easily, or you could've been born normal. Would you describe your feelings in that moment as shame, anger, despair, or a combination of those, when you realized you were different from the other children?

Since your diminutive stature makes it all too easy for the points to fly over your head, let me clarify that I'm calling you retarded because you somehow managed to mix up the Tidal Affinity Skill issue with me having recruited Rhin (which was an awful, awful, awful mistake, due to the shitty design of this game, but also a necessity, again due to the shitty design of this game). Causality means one thing leading to another. In this case it's linear. Do you understand it, or should I draw you a map? Can you grasp it, or are all those extra chromosomes of yours getting in the way?

 

[DeepOcean]

Inxile narrative designer: "Player, I have something to show you, something really good, pay attention to me."
Me: "Dude, I'm busy giving birth to to the babies of an ancient machine, unfortunately, one died, can't you wait? It is a sensitive moment."
Inxile narrative designer: "But I have castoffs to show you!"
Me: "Can I eat the castoffs?"
Inxile narrative designer: "No... why would you want to eat the castoffs?"
Me: "I dunno, on the previous game when you finally meet your other incarnations near the end of the game, it was to eat them, I thought you guys were aping Torment 100%. I ate that pragmatic son of a bitch with pleasure."
Inxile narrative designer: "Look, they are your sibilings, they aren't for you to eat."
Me: Why?
Inxile narrative designer: "Because they share the same plight as you, being the changing god children and all."
Me: "The plight of being a boring human without even a proper name?... Can they have mechanical babies and eat electricity?"
Inxile narrative designer: "No."
Me: "BORING!"
Inxile narrative designer: "The changing God was human supremacist, sorry."
Me: "I thought you guys were progressive types."
Inxile narrative designer: "We are but making them humans was easier... Please go meet them, okay?"
Me: "Okay... if you want so much, will go check them out."
A few hours later...
Inxile narrative designer: "What you think of them? Did you like them?"
Me: "Man, those guys look like they want to set up an angst emo cover band. I always wanted to eat emos on an RPG, can I eat them? You know... there are those cannibal guys, can I join them? At least they would do something useful, being food for me. You know, my name is "Last Castoff", why can't I make this literal, highlander style?"
Inxile narrative designer: "No, we are aping Planescape Torment, not Highlander."
Me: "BORING!"

 

[Luckmann]

So I finished this after ~17.5 hours and overall it was okay. Some thoughts:

• Game feels a bit short. Tier 4 is the max and I hoped you would get to Tier 6. Sagus is pretty much half the game. Ended with everyone overkilling XP except Rhin who was just shy of maxed out.
• Replayability? It's no where near Age of Decadence, but I think another one would be worth it, def. not an instant replay.
• Something about the combat felt very satisfying to me. It's not difficult or deep, but cutting people down just made me joyful. Rhin is so broken it's funny.
• I failed exactly 4 skill checks in the entire game and those could be immediately retried at no real cost. That's a bit sad because the loading tip seems to suggest cool stuff happens if you fail, didn't experience any.
• The ending feels closer to Mass Effect 3 than PS:T. This combined with the above point is my main gripe, it's very hard to fail because you just spend effort to win, and since you end the game with 6k shins and an abundance of potions...
• I didn't have any problems with the writing or UI or SJWs - there is a rather funny comment about genders at the antepenultimate area which will surely trigger people.
• I took Eritis, Rhin and Matkina, they were rather good and worthy. The other three made me want to quit the game. Labyrinth was cool but felt underdeveloped.

I'd probably give it 8/10, it's good and worth playing, not like it has any competition.

Few questions about stuff I missed

Spoiler

Callistage quest? I didn't have her in my party, Tybir and Aligern autotriggered in the Bloom so I did theirs. Got her book in Sagus and gave it to her.
How do you get specialized tidal affinity before Miel Avast? Only got trained from Rhin slaver, and later from the ghost near the guy who could send her home, but there was a grayed out interaction in Miel.
What can you do with the Nychthemeron in the Valley of Dead Heroes? It's day so he would attack me, had him in my Labyrinth.

I agree with pretty much all your points so far, which begs the question how the fuck you can list those bullets and still give it 8 out of 10. A 6, maybe, but that's a stretch.

 

[Grampy_Bone]

What does Rhin do if you keep her? I pushed her through the Time Gate ASAP, seemed like a joke character.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

How was it, being born to late, your alcoholic mother bouncing your head against the concrete like a rubber lettuce, dropped like a bad habit?

This is not bad, I think you might have a future as a writer at InXile.

 

[Bleed the Man]

What does Rhin do if you keep her? I pushed her through the Time Gate ASAP, seemed like a joke character.

She has the best ending of all characters, if you do things right. It's worth not getting spoiled about it. I thought she was the standout character in what is a very middling cast.

 

[Parabalus]

I agree with pretty much all your points so far, which begs the question how the fuck you can list those bullets and still give it 8 out of 10. A 6, maybe, but that's a stretch.

If it was that bad I wouldn't have played it to the end. It has plenty of good sides too, I just listed all the shitty ones. 5/10 is unplayable garbage level like HoMM7, blame the shitty gaming press for rating inlation.

What does Rhin do if you keep her? I pushed her through the Time Gate ASAP, seemed like a joke character.

You can later push her to her 'proper' place or she becomes the strongest character in your team at Tier 3.

 

[alkeides 2.0]

So I finished this after ~17.5 hours and overall it was okay. Some thoughts:

• Game feels a bit short. Tier 4 is the max and I hoped you would get to Tier 6. Sagus is pretty much half the game. Ended with everyone overkilling XP except Rhin who was just shy of maxed out.
• Replayability? It's no where near Age of Decadence, but I think another one would be worth it, def. not an instant replay.
• Something about the combat felt very satisfying to me. It's not difficult or deep, but cutting people down just made me joyful. Rhin is so broken it's funny.
• I failed exactly 4 skill checks in the entire game and those could be immediately retried at no real cost. That's a bit sad because the loading tip seems to suggest cool stuff happens if you fail, didn't experience any.
• The ending feels closer to Mass Effect 3 than PS:T. This combined with the above point is my main gripe, it's very hard to fail because you just spend effort to win, and since you end the game with 6k shins and an abundance of potions...
• I didn't have any problems with the writing or UI or SJWs - there is a rather funny comment about genders at the antepenultimate area which will surely trigger people.
• I took Eritis, Rhin and Matkina, they were rather good and worthy. The other three made me want to quit the game. Labyrinth was cool but felt underdeveloped.

I'd probably give it 8/10, it's good and worth playing, not like it has any competition.

Few questions about stuff I missed

Spoiler

Callistage quest? I didn't have her in my party, Tybir and Aligern autotriggered in the Bloom so I did theirs. Got her book in Sagus and gave it to her.
How do you get specialized tidal affinity before Miel Avast? Only got trained from Rhin slaver, and later from the ghost near the guy who could send her home, but there was a grayed out interaction in Miel.
What can you do with the Nychthemeron in the Valley of Dead Heroes? It's day so he would attack me, had him in my Labyrinth.

How did you get Tybir and Aligern's quests to trigger in the Bloom if you didn't have them in your party? How did you use Rhin in combat?

Callistege has no real sidequest as far as I saw. You can take her to a tomb in the Valley, but that's it, nothing is really resolved.

 

[Parabalus]

How did you get Tybir and Aligern's quests to trigger in the Bloom if you didn't have them in your party? How did you use Rhin in combat?

Callistege has no real sidequest as far as I saw. You can take her to a tomb in the Valley, but that's it, nothing is really resolved.

You swap them in with the Bronze Sphere. Aligerns is bugged, a guy next to Artgalio(he tells you he needs to talk to Aligern) should give you a quest, but I already had the frame(no idea it was related) so it instacompleted when I talked him.
Tybir you talk to him anywhere in the Bloom and you get it.

At Tier 3 Rhin gets an ability which conserves the next cypher used. You can get a cypher from the Foreman in Sagus which fully heals your party, unlimited uses on that. Or just one of the various 30 damage ones.

 

[Lurker King]

6/10 is unplayable garbage level.

Such decline in standards. I blame the left.

Me: "BORING!"

DeepOcean's short stories are better than ToN. Let's make a Codex fundraiser for him.

 

[Lacrymas]

You know... there are those cannibal guys, can I join them?

This is actually a good question, why can't we join them? Why is being extreme only allowed to NPCs? See, this is another thing that pisses me off. I want to do wacky shit if I feel like it! With consequences! Basically, Wasted Potential: The Game.

 

[Jarpie]

The impression I've gotten is that they've cut out like half of the content they planned to make, didn't they also promise we could join several factions?

The fuck happened during the production? Did they spend half of the budget on blow and hookers?

 

[Quillon]

The impression I've gotten is that they've cut out like half of the content they planned to make

We've seen their offices in videos, there are like 15-20 devs cramped together making 3 different games at any given time, what do you expect?

 

[Hellion]

Apparently people liked the (backer-designed) scientist that studies species procreating.

PS. I entered the twitter profile of this Quinn Palmer fellow.

What has been seen cannot be unseen.

 

[vivec]

 

[Chamezero]

Apparently people liked the (backer-designed) scientist that studies species procreating.

Tournament: AIDS of NuMaleEra

 

[Lacrymas]

I guess it's no surprise that these castrated, bland ...individuals... like the writing. This is why we can't have nice things, the only thing their "movement" managed to do is make everyone samey and boring. Congratulations. And how is that good "dialogue", Kevin? That's not dialogue, that's a wikipedia article. Not to mention that syllables aren't the thing that are translated, but words/sentences/meaning. Also, they can't be beyond the range of hearing, unless it's some kind of melodic language where the height of the voice matters, but it's still not the syllables that can't be heard, but the pitch. Seriously, does nobody employ editors anymore? And InXile probably surround themselves in this echo chamber, and not only them, that's probably one of the reasons they blacklisted the Codex, because we don't offer participation awards or sycophantic praise.

 

[DeepOcean]

The worst idea they had was the Changing God having this many castoffs and everybody and his mother knowing what a castoff is. The necessity of handholding the player on this day and age is so strong that you can't have nice things like you getting to discover what the Sorrow is and where the other castoffs are.

 

[Jarpie]

The worst idea they had was the Changing God having this many castoffs and everybody and his mother knowing what a castoff is.

Wasn't the original plan that player character is the only castoff to survive the process? That'd been IMO much better, or at least that they'd been very much unknown and very few around.

 

[KevinV12000]

Well, inXile apparently had a huge day one patch today and everyone's save files from playing on release are now incompatible.

Good work. Top notch.

Holy Hell. Anyone can confirm this?

FAKE NEWS. I don't see anybody talking about this anywhere.

I can confirm that the report I read about a patch rending save files incompatible was not correct. Last night, I dove into the issue and found out what is going on. Here is the deal:

Some save files from early in early release, especially those from January 2016, render the "Load Game" and the "Continue" main menu buttons unresponsive and/or grayed out.

To prevent this from happening, one must delete those save files.

You must have full Admin access on your Windows user account to both see these files and to delete them.

They can be found at: [user folder]/lowlocal/inxile games/tormnet/save files

HOWEVER, if one is playing on Steam and if Steam Cloud is enabled Steam will repopulate or re-create the missing files, even if you delete the entire folder, even if you delete the entire game and re-install.

Therefore, if one is playing on Steam and has this issue: 1) Disable Steam Cloud; 2) Delete old save games file; 3) Re-start Game; and 4) both "Load Game" and "Continue" are now responsive and you didn't lose hours of playtime from day one nor your deep emotional connection to your character.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

The worst idea they had was the Changing God having this many castoffs and everybody and his mother knowing what a castoff is.

Are you saying that citizens wouldn't notice that some tatooted assholes are constantly falling from the sky?

 

[alkeides 2.0]

The worst idea they had was the Changing God having this many castoffs and everybody and his mother knowing what a castoff is.

Are you saying that citizens wouldn't notice that some tatooted assholes are constantly falling from the sky?

Most castoffs don't fall from the sky.

Spoiler

you find out at the ending that you got on an escape pod off a satellite when the Sorrow attacked

But yeah in a few hundred years 10-20 years in each body it seems like there are too many castoffs. They should extend the time period back to one thousand at least.