Torment Torment: Tides of Numenera Thread

[TT1]

 

[DeepOcean]

Here's my take on how to fix some of the problems in TToN: Scrap the intro completely in your mind, don't introduce The Sorrow right from the start, at least not that openly, don't spell it out in the beginning that you're castoff of the changing god but use the amnesis/flashbacks to introduce the concept gradually. Those things would bring back the mystery back into the game, which it's sorely lacking, although the "Hurr durr I can't remember anything" or amnesia thing is so overused in games it has become so fucking grating.

I don't get why devs have to nowdays need to explain and spell out every fucking thing about the setting to the players, I don't remember games like Arcanum doing it either even though it's completely new and different setting.

Arcanum started with you getting out of a dirigible that was shoot down by orks flying on airplanes on the middle of nowhere with a dwarf giving you a ring before dying for reals.
If it was NumaNuma (spoilers of a much better older game, beware newfags):

Spoiler

You wake up and there is a machine destroyed nearby you, the dirigible was shot down by people that are connected with Khergan the necromancer that is on another plane full of ennui about the meaningless of life and want to liberate all of mankind from their prision of flesh. You need to locate the only machine that can kill him as he is immortal, you will need to travel to Vendigrooth ruins to get it. Now go player, we will repeat all this stuff over and over again pretending you don't know already the whole plot, it will be fun!

 

[Creamy Muffin]

Finally finished it. Even though I liked some of the side quests and encounters, and the writing, the main story is irredeemable garbage. It aims way too high and falls flat on its face.

Compared to this, and how disjointed it feels, PoE's story was actually pretty well done.

 

[Sheepherder]

I'm playing a nano. Got an ability that gives an Inspire status effect to my allies. It makes a godawful chiming sound. At first it was annoying, now I'm ready to kill to make it stop. How the fuck do I turn the damn thing off.

 

[Prime Junta]

Okay people, spoiler ahead.

I know this is hard to believe, and few people could ever have seen it coming, but near the endgame there's this Crisis where the Resonance Chamber has been activated and you have to fend off the Sorrow, who shows up at just the critical moment, while it Charges Up or something. I know, creative, we hardly ever see that sort of thing in vidya games. You know what I did?

I hid.

Then I sat there with my thumb up my ass, clicking "next round" and shitposting over here while the enemies marched around aimlessly, and then the Crisis was over.

Seriously, it's like this game was made by people who had a game described to them once. And they claim to have been intensively playing PS:T while working on this, to be sure of getting it right? Haha.

 

[Creamy Muffin]

I'm playing a nano. Got an ability that gives an Inspire status effect to my allies. It makes a godawful chiming sound. At first it was annoying, now I'm ready to kill to make it stop. How the fuck do I turn the damn thing off.

Had the same thing happen. I guess my brain just learned to supress it somehow, or it seemed to go away on occasion.
But it's quite baffling how something like that was even put into the game.

 

[Sacred82]

I know this is hard to believe, and few people could ever have seen it coming, but near the endgame there's this Crisis where the Resonance Chamber has been activated and you have to fend off the Sorrow, who shows up at just the critical moment, while it Charges Up or something. I know, creative, we hardly ever see that sort of thing in vidya games. You know what I did?

I hid.

Then I sat there with my thumb up my ass, clicking "next round" and shitposting over here while the enemies marched around aimlessly, and then the Crisis was over.

To be fair, that crisis doesn't play out very differently without stealth, either.

 

[passerby]

Every bad game is hurting the cRPG genre with their releases. This also includes Obsidian, Harebrained, etc.

While I agree that these other devs didn't delivered classics either, I recognise one major difference between them and inXile:

In the later stages of development, when it is known into what the final product is going to shape, these other devs were reasonably honest and not manipulative, pretentious or lying about what their games are, or are not.
And the press coverage before and after release was reasonably accurate in describing these games.

When I compare W2 press coverage and Fargo's hype of W2 and T:ToN with the actual games my bullshit meter spikes rapidly. That's why I think inXile is particularly harmful.

 

[Creamy Muffin]

I know this is hard to believe, and few people could ever have seen it coming, but near the endgame there's this Crisis where the Resonance Chamber has been activated and you have to fend off the Sorrow, who shows up at just the critical moment, while it Charges Up or something. I know, creative, we hardly ever see that sort of thing in vidya games. You know what I did?

I hid.

Then I sat there with my thumb up my ass, clicking "next round" and shitposting over here while the enemies marched around aimlessly, and then the Crisis was over.

To be fair, that crisis doesn't play out very differently without stealth, either.

Indeed. On first try the encounter crashed on me and I had to restart game.
On second try I just stood there and kept pressing end turn and that was enough, yeesh.

 

[Sheepherder]

I'm playing a nano. Got an ability that gives an Inspire status effect to my allies. It makes a godawful chiming sound. At first it was annoying, now I'm ready to kill to make it stop. How the fuck do I turn the damn thing off.

Had the same thing happen. I guess my brain just learned to supress it somehow, or it seemed to go away on occasion.
But it's quite baffling how something like that was even put into the game.

FUCK! It drives me up the wall

 

[Schizophrenic monolog]

Good turn-based combat is as fast as your mind can process the actions on screen.

Some prosper from neogaf:

KraftyKrankins
Junior Member
(02-28-2017, 10:28 AM)
Quote

#364
In the city now. My god, there's stuff to interact with at every five feet. More text to read than the last Mccarthy I finished. I'm in love.

Lime
Member
(02-28-2017, 11:49 AM)
Quote

#376
Has anyone read the novellas? Are they any good if not recommended readings before jumping in?

kionedrik
Member
(02-28-2017, 01:50 PM)
Quote

#402
Played 3h and the Torment 'feel' is palpable.

This game offers more role-playing in the first hour than most modern RPGs during their whole campaign. Even a random act like talking to a child in the marked leads to some amazing conversations and lore exposition.

More_Badass
My indie-sense is tingling
(02-28-2017, 09:51 PM)
Quote

#489
"Originally Posted by bati

I don't know what it is about the writing in this game but it's like I'm actually watching images instead of text, holy fucking shit \o/."

That's the magic of good writing

Oh man...

Before the game was released, I thought it'll be one of the two: bad or very good.
Now it seems that some think it's the best thing that happened to CRPG in the last years and others who think this game is worst than SHIT!

14 hours into the game, and I didn't make up my mind yet...
Some parts of the game are great and some total shit.

So, i figured out a solution!
I installed PS:T too.
And start playing those two games side by side.

Maybe this solution will help me get some proportions.

 

[Jarpie]

Okay people, spoiler ahead.

I know this is hard to believe, and few people could ever have seen it coming, but near the endgame there's this Crisis where the Resonance Chamber has been activated and you have to fend off the Sorrow, who shows up at just the critical moment, while it Charges Up or something. I know, creative, we hardly ever see that sort of thing in vidya games. You know what I did?

I hid.

Then I sat there with my thumb up my ass, clicking "next round" and shitposting over here while the enemies marched around aimlessly, and then the Crisis was over.

Seriously, it's like this game was made by people who had a game described to them once. And they claim to have been intensively playing PS:T while working on this, to be sure of getting it right? Haha.

The more I see of TToN and hear about it, the more convinced I'm becoming that it was basically just thrown together in maybe 1,5 years, either from the scratch or from the remnants of what they've thrown away. There's no fucking way they've been doing this game since 2013 or 2014.

 

[an Administrator]

I don't remember games like Arcanum doing it either even though it's completely new and different setting.

Arcanum's setting was just your typical Tolkien fantasy + steam engine. Nothing new or innovative. You know there is a reason no one thinks about buying its IP

 

[Skall]

One very small one that's stuck with me was the mutant girl in the Underbelly, that is fishing. She's clearly malnourished and her entire tribe is dead. While it's not nearly as open as the aforementioned encounter with the boy in Defiance Bay, the writing is actually excellent, and the way she behaves, reacts to what you say, and so on, is very emotionally loaded, without the words words words words words words words that plague 90% of the game. The entire thing is just fucking tragic. My only real annoyance with it is that it's so obviously tragic, yet you cannot react to it - this would be an excellent opportunity to hand out some Gold Tide for giving her a coin. Plus points if it ends up backfiring in classic Kreia fashion, with the mutant girl getting mugged because you gave her shins or something. The choice between keeping the Cypher you get from the encounter is also simply between being an ass or being stupid. It would've been appropriate to be able to actually pay her for it; instead, you either take it, or you give it away, you're either an evil asshole, or a good philanthropist. Nothing in-between.

Crooked Qeek was definitely a highlight; the cheerful girl who's beaming with positivity despite the tragedies of her life. Even Fulsome's mind-reading tidbit supported it, and it hit hard with few words. Not the most sophisticated NPC, but worked extremely well in raising the stakes with the accompanying quest.

 

[Skall]

In that twitch stream (page 74) around 2:00:00 he also talks about the character a little. He actually cries when she tells him his story, even though he was the writer. Bless him :D

Link? I trailed off on religiously following the dev updates on TToN, but would like to revisit 'em after I finish the game. Would be interesting to see who contributed what and which elements they felt most passionate about getting into the game.

 

[Once more unto the Codex]

You know there is a reason no one thinks about buying its IP

Uhhhh, according to Feargus, Obs has been trying to get their hands on the Arcanum IP for a while but whatever Big Evil Gaming Corp owns it won't let go of it for any price.

 

[AwesomeButton]

Link? I trailed off on religiously following the dev updates on TToN, but would like to revisit 'em after I finish the game. Would be interesting to see who contributed what and which elements they felt most passionate about getting into the game.

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/125536659?t=01h47m15s

Uhhhh, according to Feargus, Obs has been trying to get their hands on the Arcanum IP for a while

 

[Prime Junta]

Whew, finally finished. Only a couple of those intolerable crises and some more Derp Thawts about legacies and What One Life Matters and such, and then, glory of glories, joy of joys, the ending slides + credits.

Thank the gods it's over. Not the Changing one though, ze's a twat.

Next time I want this kind of entertainment I'll just stick splinters under my fingernails. In that sense at least this was a true Torment spiritual successor.

 

[Lurker King]

When I compare W2 press coverage and Fargo's hype of W2 and T:ToN with the actual games my bullshit meter spikes rapidly. That's why I think inXile is particularly harmful.

I agree that their way of dealing with the audience is awful. I don't know if this is just arrogance or ineptitude. It seems that those reviews from ex-employees saying that the management always ignore the problems are true. But on the other hand, this toxic attitude is hurting them, not the genre.

 

[Grampy_Bone]

They need to do something original next. Something new & creative, like in the old glory days of Interplay.

Well, Rotfuss apparently loves it and he dropped the idea on stream that he might be interested in doing Kingkiller game with them...although obviously it just stream and people talk random shit that comes to their head, so Infinitron stop writing that news post for now.

Patrick FatAss is proof that christianity is real. He's clearly made a deal with the devil; it's the only explanation for why he's published 2 shitty virgin fanfiction novels and received far more praise than any other more worthy and productive writers.

 

[existential_vacuum]

Some people wanted consensus. Thanks to a "Totally fair (and random) Number Generator"™ several posts from this magnificent thread were chosen to express general opinion about the game.

JUST LIKE TECHLAND/INXILE DID ON STEAM

And for those, who own a digital copy of the game but want to have boxed one, look no further! Print this box art and put it on the shelf!
Easy! Simple! Without much EFFORT! Don't forget to cut some content it and fold into a box!!!

what am i doing with my life

EDIT: fixed image hosting fuckery

 

[Excidium II]

the winamp skin comment :tearsofjoy:

 

[Prime Junta]

Sure glad they used that $5M on professional artists. And writers.

 

[Popiel]

Yeah, good place to ask this - is there anything coming from going through all these retrovisions? I did one which screenshot was posted above today, and a couple others.

 

[Excidium II]

Sure glad they used that $5M on professional artists. And writers.

ahahaha