Tides of Torment Numeria Bad News
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inxile/torment-tides-of-numenera/posts/686723
Tides of Torment Numeria will now have turn based combat.
This extremely important issue was decided by a community vote no less.
My excitement level for this game is now pretty much zero.
Tides of Torment Numeria will now have turn based combat.
This extremely important issue was decided by a community vote no less.
My excitement level for this game is now pretty much zero.
3
Comments
BUT WHY?!?!?!?!
But... You shouldn't write-off the game just because of turn-based combat. I personally play BG with so much pausing that it might as well be turn-based, and what got me into BG was Avernum, which was an entirely turn-based affair. In fact for those of us unfamiliar with D&D games like BG and IWD, the concept of RTwP seemed a bit awkward at first. For example even now I find it difficult to spot when my mages have completed their spells in the mess of a high level mage battle. This is much clearer in a pure turn-based system.
That said, I appreciate it is a matter of opinion and preference, if you have tried turn-based games and decided that you don't like them, and normally play BG with bare minimum of pausing, then perhaps the announcement is bad news for you. But for 48% of voters (plus the indifferent voters), it clearly isn't bad news.
However, those that prefer RTwP shouldn't despair. Unless you already did, read this: it contains very good arguments on why this is not necessarily bad news
By the way, I love turn based strategy rpgs (hence my avatar) but they have never worked in this sort of format
Also, I'm more pissed off as to why the hell they put this up for a community vote in the first place.
They are just going to end up with a game designed by committee.
No way the public should be able to make decisions like this about a game. If the devs thought that turn based was the way to go, they should have just done it and had the backbone to stand behind their decision.
In update #25 they said
No, i don't think the combat is THE most important aspect of the game, neither do i think Planescape: Torment was a great game because of it's combat system, but i believe real-time-with-pause is much more dynamic and enjoyable than turn based.
Turn based in RPG games is way more superior in the what BG had. Only good thing about RTwP is you can put in many many boring grindy combats like what BG1 has. I would rather have fun, thoughtful and challenging turn based combat.
ToEE had such good combat, the game was a blast. Its problem was everything else. Infinity games were always made worse by RTwP system.
Fallout 1 and 2 even with its crappy party system had a good combat. And Fallout Tactics had great and fun combat. And then awesome games like Jagged Alliance showcase how you can have good turn based combat with a party and RPG elements all blended together.
And even Shadowrun Returns with its light version of Turn based had more fun combat then Infinity games.
Personally am happy for the decision
That being said, I think the problem here is most people when they hear turn-based imagine the kind of grind-to-win JRPG style of turn-based combat which from what I read on the original post is NOT what they are planning to do with Torment.
They've already addressed that there won't be trash mobs, there won't be grinding, and that this decision is in-line with the rest of the gameplay.
It would seem more jarring to me if I were playing a game where I have to sit and think and plan my responses carefully in dialogue, only to in the next minute have to race my brain frantically to devise clever combat tactics while dealing with monsters that won't wait on me. Granted I know that is POSSIBLE with RTwP, and I am thankful for it, but it's certainly NOT the same kind of system, and does NOT offer the same level of control. in PsT, turns were not well defined, it was easy to waste entire turns of each character doing absolutely nothing.
D&D based games are in their very essence, turn based games, they don't progress until you've made your move. To claim it's somehow unfaithful is a bit of a stretch, I know PsT had RTwP but who honestly remembers that game for it's combat?
Baldur's Gate is kinda a flawed masterpiece if u look at it that way. EPIC story line, immense depth in the combat system and really immersive gaming experience with wonderful NPC interactions...
However some encounters are not well designed and multiple quests in BG 2 are clearly incomplete.
Seriously though, does it even matter? Combat is not going to be in the spotlight anyway: there's not going to be bears or bands of kobolds randomly attacking you all the time. This game will be more about the adventure and story, and to be honest, complaining about how the combat is made would be like getting the perfect sandwich and complaining they didn't let you pick the salad: it's kind of missing the bloody point, don't you think?
And it can dramatically affect the pacing of the game.
The only time I can think of turn-based combat to be objectively terrible is with random encounters: we all remember the rats and stuff in Fallout, how getting to the view of one will force you to stop and wait for it to come at you. If there will be no such things in this came, I will not be worried.
It's NOT "Tides of Torment Numeria".
It's Torment: Tides of Numenera
Madness? This is sparta.
Otherwise, I think both ways can be done well. Temple of Elemental Evil imho had the best interpretation of PnP rules and the most interesting combat.
I do sympathize with those worried about it having an adverse effect on the pacing of the game. Turn based is time consuming and makes reloading SUCK. This doesn't necessarily mean it is a bad thing, especially since in the predecessor the combat was incredibly simple compared to BG or IWD. I mean, was there any really horrendously challenging fight in Planescape: Torment?