Can you imagine? Russian RPG site RPGNuke has made an interview with Colin McComb
- What is the status of the project now?
Colin: We are shifting from limited production to production. What limited production means is that we were creating content for the game, but not at the speed that we might expect during a full production period. Rather, it’s in ways that prove out our ideas and concepts, or that show where the weaknesses in our pipeline are, or that help build the best processes for the whole team. As to whether we had to cut anything: We have! But that’s natural for any project as we assess scope and our desired impact. We’ve tightened up the story in some places, expanded it in others, and tried to make sure that we are focused exactly on delivering what we’ve promised to our backers. We’ve also managed to expand areas that were smaller in the original vision, and I’m happy with where we are as a result of our discussions. The transition from Wasteland 2 to Torment is happening slowly and carefully under Kevin’s supervision. He wants to make sure that the newer members of the team are done with their responsibilities on Wasteland 2, or at least done enough that they can begin to devote serious attention to our project. They’ll start by getting familiar with our tools and our processes, and they can point out places where our processes and documentation need improvement. As more and more of them come over, and as people ramp up on the project, we’ll see a faster pace for production and creation of all our assets.
- New Torment will have turn-based combat system. Not everyone is happy about that... What do you prefer: turn-based or realtime with pause?
Colin: With Planescape: Torment, we didn’t really have a choice, as I recall. We were working with the Infinity Engine, and we were working on delivering an experience that matched (at least in part) what Bioware had done with Baldur’s Gate. We had a much broader latitude to choose turn-based or real-time with pause for this game, but even then we had a difficult decision to make. Having backer feedback was invaluable, and even then, it was a tough decision. The more we delve into the Crisis system, the more I am convinced we made the right choice. My personal preference for games depends on what game I’m playing. I’m not an absolutist in either direction.
- At first glance it seems that Torment: Tides of Numenera replicates a lot of ideas from Planescape: Torment. Do you think this statement is correct?
Colin: I agree with "at first glance" and "seems". That is, it might appear that way superficially, but one could say that of any number of stories. We're intentionally focusing on an intensely personal story, as PST did (though we're talking about issues of legacy and abandonment rather than regret and growth); we're in a strange, alien world, with unusual characters for an RPG. We chose all these similarities deliberately, identifying them as key parts of the Torment experience. But we are also deliberately stepping away from a number of the things that PST did, because we don't want to replicate it. Our mission is to analyze what we loved about PST, and then to make a game that will be a worthy successor to that title, a welcome peer, and hopefully a milestone for future development.
- How do you think: what are the defining features of Torment games (including both: Planescape: Torment and Tides of Numenera)?
Colin: We've defined a Torment game as consisting of four primary pillars: 1. A deep, thematically satisfying story. That is, a story that revolves around a handful of themes that we tie into every aspect of design. What we chose for TTON are legacy, abandonment, and mystery. 2. A world that is far, far different from a standard fantasy/medieval world. We want to take the player out of his or her comfort zone and make the world a fresh, new place for the PC to explore. 3. A rich and personal narrative - that is, the story might feel like a sweeping epic, but in truth it is a very personally directed story, and one that focus specifically on the PC. We're not trying to save the world; the fate of the universe doesn't rest in the PC's hands - though at some point the PC may become responsible for the lives of many, many others, the story remains focused on the PC's personal struggles. 4. Reactivity, real choice, and real consequences are all important for a Torment game. We don't want our choices to be cosmetic so that that we can push the PC through a predetermined story. We want to make this a story where the player chooses the path and feels like the game and the world responds to those choices. While we'll have certain signposts and chokepoints, our goal is to create a game where the player has freedom to make real choices with real consequences.
So here we are… four days remain on the Gullet stretch goal, with a little under $7000 left to raise. Before the stretch goal ends, I’d been meaning to say more about how the Gullet came to be, so if you’re interested in the realities of area design, read on!
I wrote my design for the Bloom in late 2013. At that point in time, very little work had been done on the content side of our game. All we had was a Mere that consisted of two scenes, and we still had to determine the overall look and feel for Torment. My goal was to give our players an experience that was as close to the original Planescape Torment as possible - I played PST a lot while I was writing the design documents, trying to make sure I hit just the right tone and analyzing what worked and what didn’t. One element that sometimes worked… and sometimes didn’t… were the dungeons. While PST was primarily a dialogue-driven experience, it included a few dungeons, strategically scattered throughout the game. Some were purely combat-focused, like the mausoleum in the Hive. Others were a mix of combat, exploration, and dialogues, like the catacombs beneath the Buried Village. I thought the latter worked best. Combat wasn’t one of PST’s strengths, but when it was balanced with exploration and a few dialogues, the whole experience was tense, interesting, and fun. It also contrasted nicely with the dialogue-driven gameplay that preceded and followed it.
So when I designed the Bloom, I decided to include something similar (though shorter in length) – a “dungeon” environment that skewed more heavily toward exploration and discovery. And since players would pass through this area on their way into the Bloom’s depths, it would be set toward the end of the zone… a perfect time to pay off on some of the player’s earlier choices.
That’s how the Gullet was born. This was where old and forgotten things would be found, devoured by the Bloom in the distant past, sinking slowly into its guts, finally coming to rest here. Echoes of the Bloom’s victims would wander here too, including victims the player may have “nudged” to their demise. In the end, all things find their way to the Gullet. (Last week, somebody on the team likened it to the Bloom’s liver, which I thought was a particularly apt comparison.)
I drew up a map on graph paper, numbered the encounter areas (old-school D&D-style), and detailed everything that would happen in the Gullet. When the other leads reviewed the design documentation, they seemed to like the Gullet content, and I was pretty excited to include all this weird and horrific stuff in the game. But strictly speaking, the Bloom could function without the Gullet (and its most important content could be relocated somewhere else), so when we realized that we didn’t have the resources to develop all the content I had proposed, the Gullet became [C] priority. I was sad, but such are the realities of game development.
In the old days (by which I mean 2012 or so), a cut was a cut. If we didn’t have the resources to implement everything we had planned, we made the decision to cut something, and that was that. The cut content was forever lost. But now, in the strange world of crowd-funding, the Gullet has a second chance at life. Will we make it to the stretch goal? I hope so. I think it’ll be fun to prototype our version of a PST dungeon, full of exploration and weird discoveries. If you’ve contributed, thanks for getting us this far… and if all goes well, I’ll see you on the other side of the finish line.
project lead Kevin Saunders: "Both Colin McComb (our creative lead) and Adam Heine (our design lead) are not only accomplished fiction writers (see Adam’s short story currently being digitally published by Paizo, for example), but were also key members of Planescape: Torment. (Adam was a scripter back then, not a writer, but Colin was the second most prolific contributor to PST’s conversations.) We have a good balance there between Colin’s over-the-top creativity and Adam’s more pragmatic perspective.
And there’s George Ziets (our lead area designer), whose 15+ year career has been focused on writing for video games. He’s seen it all and has conversation design and construction down to a sort of science (though he might disagree with my characterizing it that way ). He didn’t work on PST, but has studied it (both as a hobbyist and as a professional) and has almost unparalleled experience in actual time invested in writing for these types of games. (For an example of George’s work, see Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer. He was the creative lead on that project and wrote all of the key story conversations, including the ones with the gods Mykul and Kelemvor.)"
environment artist Jon Gwyn: "The whole team is also playing Planescape Torment every week to keep us grounded in what we are trying to accomplish ( i just found my way out of the Mortuary into the Hive…so I know I have a long way to go)"
@typo_tilly There's very little information about TToN yet. For e.g., the trailer in the OP is still one of the few videos available, if not the only one.
But based on the information the developers provide in their interviews and tweets and blogs it's clear that the main difference between PoE and TToN would be that the former is more concentrated on the battle while the latter is more concentrated on the characters and their actions.
I think there will be wonderful and not so simple dialogues, choices and actions in TToN that will make this game close to Planescape indeed.
On a side note, Design Lead Adam Heine have given an update on the resting system.
"In Numenera tabletop, you get four kinds of rests, each requiring an increasing amount of time: 10 seconds (which you can do instead of your action in combat), 10 minutes, 1 hour, and 8 hours (sleeping). After the 8-hour rest, you get all of your other rests back.
In Torment, we’re simplifying that a little bit, but we are keeping the basic idea. In particular, PCs will have a quick rest available during combat, and sleep will recover all your rest rolls (as well as allowing you to recover stats with any rest rolls you haven’t used yet).
We’re also using Sleep as a means of counting time. So when you Sleep, a day is assumed to have passed. This will have reactivity with certain events throughout each Zone. For example, two guys getting pissed off at each other in a bar might (if you don’t do anything to push them one way or the other) have gotten into said fight while you were gone. So after you Sleep and return to the bar, there might be only one of the guys there with a black eye, or maybe both are gone and the barkeep tells you they got arrested for disturbing the peace, etc.
This way, we give the player more control over how fast time passes, and we can script much more interesting reactivity to time passing without worrying that the player is going to miss it all. (Some players might still miss some of it, and that’s okay, but they won’t miss it because they were taking their time exploring or because they left the game on for an hour while they went to eat dinner)."
Colin McComb has been interviewed at Eurogamer about TToN. It is the first such interview in a while and for the most part, it retreads old ground but there're a few tidbits worth quoting. The interview just confirms my understanding of the future game, that it is concentrated more on the characters and their actions than on the battles.
The role-playing universe Numenera is "less a chess game and more a storytelling game", according to McComb. For Torment that means combat isn't the bread and butter of the experience - story is.
"We are not giving experience for killing stuff," McComb says. "Numenera is about exploration, it's not about killing people and taking their stuff. In a game where we say 'what does one life matter?', we actually want to make it matter." Not, "What does one life matter? Well, about 25XP!"
He goes on: "We have Crises and Tussles. A Crisis is a hand-crafted encounter, a major thing - a major set-piece. Then we've got Tussles for when you screw up a dialogue or get caught picking the wrong pocket. I don't want to call it a trash combat because hopefully it's all going to be entertaining and fun."
[...] You'll recruit companions, which were a crucial element in Planescape: Torment, but there won't be many and you'll adventure in small parties. There's a chance, too, that your companions will die. In fact, based upon your actions, they could already be dead before you meet them.
"If you choose to seek out one companion earlier than another, then the other companion will be gone from where they are - they might be dead," says McComb. "Or they might be in a situation where you're going to have to work a whole lot harder to extricate them from it. Or they might be getting into something that can change the course of the story.
"We're looking at some really deep reactivity here on things that will change. It's not going to be just, 'Are you going to save the kitten in the burning building? Or are you going to come back two weeks later and save them then?'"
He adds: "A lot of people can perma-die. We can find some weird, hand-wavy explanation about why you can save people but there are certainly a number of options where people can perma-die."
There have been a couple of delays to TToN but the end is finally in sight. The good news is it will "definitely" - read: hopefully - be out this year, according to McComb, although it sounds like there's still an awful lot of work to do. The official date is Q4 2015, but that's "probably late 2015" in actuality. There don't appear to be any plans for an Early Access release, but those who backed the game at the appropriate level will get access to an alpha systems test ahead of the game's full launch.
‘What does one life matter?’ gives me chills even more than ‘What can change the nature of a man?’. Oh the possibilities! I really hope it does come out this year, though I would not be surprised if it took a little longer. A lot of thought and work must go into something with this much depth.
WotC would sue them in a nanosecond if they even thought about using stuff from Planescape. I'm kinda glad about it too tbh, as much as I love PS:T it's better that this game stands on its own two legs.
Yeah, I agree, though there'll probably be references, even if of the more abstract kind. Maybe like finding an ancient 2nd ed ADnD Planescape rulebook, or a Nameless One figurine, or stuff like that.
They're worth reading. I'll just leave here these several chapters.
The Plot. Like its predecessor, Torment: Tides of Numenera will be an isometric RPG that emphasizes storytelling and features a philosophical leitmotif ("what does one life matter?"). The game takes place in the Ninth World, a far-future version of Earth where numerous advanced civilizations have come and gone. Although the Ninth World itself is vaguely medieval, the inhabitants often scavenge relics from these past civilizations (the titular 'Numenera'). These artifacts can do strange and wonderful things, and one individual—the Changing God—has used them to become immortal by moving through a succession bodies. Unbeknownst to the Changing God, new consciousnesses arise in his discarded bodies Players will take on the role of one of these bodies, an incarnation known as the Last Castoff. Unfortunately, the Changing God's pursuit of immortality has awakened a being known as the Angel of Entropy, and he's determined to hunt the Changing God as well as his various incarnations. The Last Castoff must spend the game trying to reunite with the Changing God before the Angel destroys them both.
- So, first thing first, “What does one life matter?” is a fascinating question, which also matches perfectly with a CRPG heavily focused on choices & consequences. Was that connection a factor when you picked the main theme of ToN or it is just a coincidence, and how far you want to go down this road (I mean, with C&C)?
- Colin McComb (Creative Lead): It was intentional from the start. We picked our theme of legacy first, but tied in with that was the knowledge that legacy is strongly tied to the choices one makes throughout life. We knew early on that we wanted intense and long-reaching reactivity in the game, and we’ve been building connections both large and small throughout. We’re planning on doing various passes through the game to make sure we’ve got plenty of responses to the player’s choices. One issue with a purely story-related game is that we do have to maintain some control over the plot, so we have to limit some of the reactivity or risk watching the whole thing explode.
- In a nutshell, how will the gameplay of Tides of Numenera differ from Planescape?
- Adam Heine (Design Lead): The most obvious difference will be combat—not only because TTON's combat will be turn-based, but because combat will almost never be just combat. Even the most battle-focused Crisis in Torment might have opportunities to talk to NPCs (e.g. to command allies, sway enemies to your side, to draw out secrets that can aid you in the Crisis, etc.) and to interact with the environment. Crises will be few in number, but that enables us to be more focused, making each one interesting and challenging in its own way. As I alluded to before, exploration gameplay won't have all the locks, traps, and dungeon crawls of the Infinity Engine games. But there will still be plenty of corners to explore and secrets to find. And dialogue, of course, is taking everything from Planescape: Torment—all the depth and choices and riddles of the original. We're adding a couple of minor elements to the gameplay here and there (for example, Numenera's concept of Effort), but this is the part of the game will feel the most like TTON's predecessor.
- Our readers are always eager to learn new details about Torment Companions. Can you tell us something we don’t already know about one or two of them?
- Colin McComb (Creative Lead): Our cold, calculating jack’s name is Matkina. Her original conception was the stainless steel jack, a nod to Harry Harrison’s “Stainless Steel Rat”, and her character arc originated there. It’s changed significantly since then, but the deadly confidence, careful thought, and occasional impulsiveness colored her initial narrative portrait.
The latest Torment Kickstarter update introduces us a new screenshot. Other words are excessive, just look:
The update focuses on the feature called "Effort".
"In TTON, we handle tasks with an Effort dialog. Because Effort is a new mechanic—and a key mechanic at that—we decided to display the Effort dialog every time the player attempts a Difficult Task.
"What?!" I hear you say. "You're telling me I have to click away this annoying pop-up every time I try anything?" Yes, that's what I'm telling you. But it's not annoying at all—the opposite, actually. Part of that is there aren't as many Difficult Tasks as you might think. Each task is uniquely crafted (that is, you won't be picking twenty generic locks in a row), so when there is a difficult task, the Effort dialog adds import to it, making every task a potentially significant event. You don't click the pop-up away. You make a real decision, every time.
("But can't I just reload until I beat the task without Effort?" You could, but in some cases you'd be missing out on content that is only available when you fail some tasks. And anyway, as I've said in the past, savescumming isn't technically any easier, it's just a different way to play.)
What do you see when the Effort dialog appears? This:
The difficulty of the task. By default, this difficulty appears as one of eleven abstract labels (e.g. Routine, Challenging, Impossible, etc.), but you'll be able to change this in the Game Options to show the actual target number (i.e. the Task Difficulty multiplied by 3) or to not show any difficulty at all.
The adjusted difficulty of the task. If you have any skills or assets that apply to the task, then the initial difficulty will be visible but crossed out, and the actual difficulty (what you're trying to beat) will appear beneath it. Note that it's possible to have penalties, such that a task is harder than the base difficulty for some characters. That will be reflected here as well.
When you mouse over the difficulties, a tooltip will display showing you what skills and assets you have that are adjusting the difficulty (if any). This way, we don't have to clutter the dialog with a bunch of text, but you can have access to all the information if you want it.
An icon conveying which stat applies to this task. This determines which Stat Pool the Effort cost comes out of. Most tasks will only allow one stat: Might, Speed, or Intellect. In special cases (usually when the PC has certain abilities), a PC might be able to choose to replace the original Stat Pool with a different one. For example, a Jack with the Brute Finesse ability can choose to apply either Speed or Might to non-combat Speed tasks.
An Effort slider. This allows the player to choose how many levels of Effort he will apply to the task. As he increases the slider, the Effort dialog will show him how much Stat Pool will be deducted and the adjusted difficulty will change to reflect the Effort he's applying.
Sidebar refresher: The first level of Effort costs 3 from the applicable Stat Pool. Every level of Effort thereafter costs an additional 2. If the PC has any Edge in the applicable Stat Pool (another thing you gain each Tier), then his Edge is subtracted from the overall Effort cost. So if a player has 1 Might Edge and purchases two levels of Effort, it will cost him 4 Might (3 for the first level + 2 for the second level – 1 for his Might Edge).
If the PC has 3 or more Edge in the applicable Stat, then the Effort slider will automatically be set to however many levels of Effort that PC can get for free.
What about combat (I hear you say)? Aren't there a LOT more difficult tasks in that?
There are. In the tabletop, Effort can be applied to every roll—and the player always makes every roll. That means Numenera players can opt to apply Effort to attack and defense.
In TTON, the Effort dialog will appear for every attack you make. Our design calls for tactical combat, so each attack decision is already significant. And just like tasks outside of combat, the choice of whether to invest Effort adds to the significance of those decisions.
Defense is different, however. The player is not deciding to be attacked, and the party will likely be attacked several times in a row. We didn't think the Effort dialog would be much fun in that case, turn-based combat or not.
Instead, we're treating Effort on Defense as something you can set (or not) on your turn—a kind of defensive ability that every PC can use. Since most attacks are against Speed Defense, that will be the default Stat Pool used for Effort on Defense, but the player can optionally choose to apply Effort to Might or Intellect Defense instead.
If a PC is using Effort on Defense, the cost will not be deducted unless they are attacked that round and it will be deducted only on the first attack. So you don't have to worry about what might happen if you apply one level of Defensive Effort only to get attacked by a swarm of steel spiders and lose all your Speed even though none of them actually hit.
And of course, if a PC has enough Edge to get a free level of Defensive Effort, they will get that Effort all the time.
Keep in mind that there is still a LOT of playtesting to be done, especially with combat. So the details of all this are still subject to change. But this is how we're thinking of it right now. So far, it's working pretty well."
Normal, huh? To me Aligern looks horribly shriveled up and partial skinless to boot. Well, at least he looks way more handsome than the Fallout ghouls in that aspect.
Couldn't they gave us the chance we can choose whether turn or realtime pause combat. But it will be very good. Anyway it is spiritual successor at all.
- Adam Heine (Design Lead): The most obvious difference will be combat—not only because TTON's combat will be turn-based, but because combat will almost never be just combat. Even the most battle-focused Crisis in Torment might have opportunities to talk to NPCs (e.g. to command allies, sway enemies to your side, to draw out secrets that can aid you in the Crisis, etc.) and to interact with the environment. Crises will be few in number, but that enables us to be more focused, making each one interesting and challenging in its own way.
I think combat will be interesting, turn-based or not ...
Couldn't they gave us the chance we can choose whether turn or realtime pause combat. But it will be very good. Anyway it is spiritual successor at all.
Great news! As I'm sure all of you who have watched it have witnessed, the original video about Colin McComb's visit at EGX Rezzed in London was uploaded incomplete. But now we can enjoy the full Torment: Tides of Numenera event with this new footage! And it has 5+ extra minutes of awesomeness to it.
Comments
- What is the status of the project now?
Colin: We are shifting from limited production to production. What limited production means is that we were creating content for the game, but not at the speed that we might expect during a full production period. Rather, it’s in ways that prove out our ideas and concepts, or that show where the weaknesses in our pipeline are, or that help build the best processes for the whole team.
As to whether we had to cut anything: We have! But that’s natural for any project as we assess scope and our desired impact. We’ve tightened up the story in some places, expanded it in others, and tried to make sure that we are focused exactly on delivering what we’ve promised to our backers. We’ve also managed to expand areas that were smaller in the original vision, and I’m happy with where we are as a result of our discussions.
The transition from Wasteland 2 to Torment is happening slowly and carefully under Kevin’s supervision. He wants to make sure that the newer members of the team are done with their responsibilities on Wasteland 2, or at least done enough that they can begin to devote serious attention to our project. They’ll start by getting familiar with our tools and our processes, and they can point out places where our processes and documentation need improvement. As more and more of them come over, and as people ramp up on the project, we’ll see a faster pace for production and creation of all our assets.
- New Torment will have turn-based combat system. Not everyone is happy about that... What do you prefer: turn-based or realtime with pause?
Colin: With Planescape: Torment, we didn’t really have a choice, as I recall. We were working with the Infinity Engine, and we were working on delivering an experience that matched (at least in part) what Bioware had done with Baldur’s Gate. We had a much broader latitude to choose turn-based or real-time with pause for this game, but even then we had a difficult decision to make. Having backer feedback was invaluable, and even then, it was a tough decision. The more we delve into the Crisis system, the more I am convinced we made the right choice.
My personal preference for games depends on what game I’m playing. I’m not an absolutist in either direction.
- At first glance it seems that Torment: Tides of Numenera replicates a lot of ideas from Planescape: Torment. Do you think this statement is correct?
Colin: I agree with "at first glance" and "seems". That is, it might appear that way superficially, but one could say that of any number of stories. We're intentionally focusing on an intensely personal story, as PST did (though we're talking about issues of legacy and abandonment rather than regret and growth); we're in a strange, alien world, with unusual characters for an RPG. We chose all these similarities deliberately, identifying them as key parts of the Torment experience. But we are also deliberately stepping away from a number of the things that PST did, because we don't want to replicate it. Our mission is to analyze what we loved about PST, and then to make a game that will be a worthy successor to that title, a welcome peer, and hopefully a milestone for future development.
- How do you think: what are the defining features of Torment games (including both: Planescape: Torment and Tides of Numenera)?
Colin: We've defined a Torment game as consisting of four primary pillars:
1. A deep, thematically satisfying story. That is, a story that revolves around a handful of themes that we tie into every aspect of design. What we chose for TTON are legacy, abandonment, and mystery.
2. A world that is far, far different from a standard fantasy/medieval world. We want to take the player out of his or her comfort zone and make the world a fresh, new place for the PC to explore.
3. A rich and personal narrative - that is, the story might feel like a sweeping epic, but in truth it is a very personally directed story, and one that focus specifically on the PC. We're not trying to save the world; the fate of the universe doesn't rest in the PC's hands - though at some point the PC may become responsible for the lives of many, many others, the story remains focused on the PC's personal struggles.
4. Reactivity, real choice, and real consequences are all important for a Torment game. We don't want our choices to be cosmetic so that that we can push the PC through a predetermined story. We want to make this a story where the player chooses the path and feels like the game and the world responds to those choices. While we'll have certain signposts and chokepoints, our goal is to create a game where the player has freedom to make real choices with real consequences.
More can be found here: http://www.rpgnuke.ru/articles/site/del_vey/interview_with_colin_mccomb_eng.html
Also some thoughts from George Ziets, the designer of the stretch goal area:
is
Funded! :DDDD
This is the full size and scope of the dialogue trees the Devs are going to get in T: ToN! What a variety!
All the details are in the most recent update: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inxile/torment-tides-of-numenera/posts/1119445
And there’s George Ziets (our lead area designer), whose 15+ year career has been focused on writing for video games. He’s seen it all and has conversation design and construction down to a sort of science (though he might disagree with my characterizing it that way
environment artist Jon Gwyn: "The whole team is also playing Planescape Torment every week to keep us grounded in what we are trying to accomplish ( i just found my way out of the Mortuary into the Hive…so I know I have a long way to go)"
It all sounds very inspiring. The insight into people working on the game is very useful. More details here: http://tormentrpg.tumblr.com/post/109500221660/jon-on-art-kevin-on-writing
But based on the information the developers provide in their interviews and tweets and blogs it's clear that the main difference between PoE and TToN would be that the former is more concentrated on the battle while the latter is more concentrated on the characters and their actions.
I think there will be wonderful and not so simple dialogues, choices and actions in TToN that will make this game close to Planescape indeed.
On a side note, Design Lead Adam Heine have given an update on the resting system.
"In Numenera tabletop, you get four kinds of rests, each requiring an increasing amount of time: 10 seconds (which you can do instead of your action in combat), 10 minutes, 1 hour, and 8 hours (sleeping). After the 8-hour rest, you get all of your other rests back.
In Torment, we’re simplifying that a little bit, but we are keeping the basic idea. In particular, PCs will have a quick rest available during combat, and sleep will recover all your rest rolls (as well as allowing you to recover stats with any rest rolls you haven’t used yet).
We’re also using Sleep as a means of counting time. So when you Sleep, a day is assumed to have passed. This will have reactivity with certain events throughout each Zone. For example, two guys getting pissed off at each other in a bar might (if you don’t do anything to push them one way or the other) have gotten into said fight while you were gone. So after you Sleep and return to the bar, there might be only one of the guys there with a black eye, or maybe both are gone and the barkeep tells you they got arrested for disturbing the peace, etc.
This way, we give the player more control over how fast time passes, and we can script much more interesting reactivity to time passing without worrying that the player is going to miss it all. (Some players might still miss some of it, and that’s okay, but they won’t miss it because they were taking their time exploring or because they left the game on for an hour while they went to eat dinner)."
http://tormentrpg.tumblr.com/post/110158661810/kevin-adam-on-truth-lie-gameplay-systems
The role-playing universe Numenera is "less a chess game and more a storytelling game", according to McComb. For Torment that means combat isn't the bread and butter of the experience - story is.
"We are not giving experience for killing stuff," McComb says. "Numenera is about exploration, it's not about killing people and taking their stuff. In a game where we say 'what does one life matter?', we actually want to make it matter." Not, "What does one life matter? Well, about 25XP!"
He goes on: "We have Crises and Tussles. A Crisis is a hand-crafted encounter, a major thing - a major set-piece. Then we've got Tussles for when you screw up a dialogue or get caught picking the wrong pocket. I don't want to call it a trash combat because hopefully it's all going to be entertaining and fun."
[...] You'll recruit companions, which were a crucial element in Planescape: Torment, but there won't be many and you'll adventure in small parties. There's a chance, too, that your companions will die. In fact, based upon your actions, they could already be dead before you meet them.
"If you choose to seek out one companion earlier than another, then the other companion will be gone from where they are - they might be dead," says McComb. "Or they might be in a situation where you're going to have to work a whole lot harder to extricate them from it. Or they might be getting into something that can change the course of the story.
"We're looking at some really deep reactivity here on things that will change. It's not going to be just, 'Are you going to save the kitten in the burning building? Or are you going to come back two weeks later and save them then?'"
He adds: "A lot of people can perma-die. We can find some weird, hand-wavy explanation about why you can save people but there are certainly a number of options where people can perma-die."
There have been a couple of delays to TToN but the end is finally in sight. The good news is it will "definitely" - read: hopefully - be out this year, according to McComb, although it sounds like there's still an awful lot of work to do. The official date is Q4 2015, but that's "probably late 2015" in actuality. There don't appear to be any plans for an Early Access release, but those who backed the game at the appropriate level will get access to an alpha systems test ahead of the game's full launch.
This is what the article from Eurogamer says. The rest can be read here: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2015-02-18-getting-re-excited-for-torment-tides-of-numenera
http://www.urbangamingelite.com/features/articles/torment-tides-of-numenera-interview/
http://it-tormentrpg.tumblr.com/Colin_McComb_on_Torment_Narrative
They're worth reading. I'll just leave here these several chapters.
The Plot. Like its predecessor, Torment: Tides of Numenera will be an isometric RPG that emphasizes storytelling and features a philosophical leitmotif ("what does one life matter?"). The game takes place in the Ninth World, a far-future version of Earth where numerous advanced civilizations have come and gone. Although the Ninth World itself is vaguely medieval, the inhabitants often scavenge relics from these past civilizations (the titular 'Numenera'). These artifacts can do strange and wonderful things, and one individual—the Changing God—has used them to become immortal by moving through a succession bodies. Unbeknownst to the Changing God, new consciousnesses arise in his discarded bodies Players will take on the role of one of these bodies, an incarnation known as the Last Castoff. Unfortunately, the Changing God's pursuit of immortality has awakened a being known as the Angel of Entropy, and he's determined to hunt the Changing God as well as his various incarnations. The Last Castoff must spend the game trying to reunite with the Changing God before the Angel destroys them both.
- So, first thing first, “What does one life matter?” is a fascinating question, which also matches perfectly with a CRPG heavily focused on choices & consequences. Was that connection a factor when you picked the main theme of ToN or it is just a coincidence, and how far you want to go down this road (I mean, with C&C)?
- Colin McComb (Creative Lead): It was intentional from the start. We picked our theme of legacy first, but tied in with that was the knowledge that legacy is strongly tied to the choices one makes throughout life. We knew early on that we wanted intense and long-reaching reactivity in the game, and we’ve been building connections both large and small throughout. We’re planning on doing various passes through the game to make sure we’ve got plenty of responses to the player’s choices.
One issue with a purely story-related game is that we do have to maintain some control over the plot, so we have to limit some of the reactivity or risk watching the whole thing explode.
- In a nutshell, how will the gameplay of Tides of Numenera differ from Planescape?
- Adam Heine (Design Lead): The most obvious difference will be combat—not only because TTON's combat will be turn-based, but because combat will almost never be just combat. Even the most battle-focused Crisis in Torment might have opportunities to talk to NPCs (e.g. to command allies, sway enemies to your side, to draw out secrets that can aid you in the Crisis, etc.) and to interact with the environment. Crises will be few in number, but that enables us to be more focused, making each one interesting and challenging in its own way.
As I alluded to before, exploration gameplay won't have all the locks, traps, and dungeon crawls of the Infinity Engine games. But there will still be plenty of corners to explore and secrets to find. And dialogue, of course, is taking everything from Planescape: Torment—all the depth and choices and riddles of the original. We're adding a couple of minor elements to the gameplay here and there (for example, Numenera's concept of Effort), but this is the part of the game will feel the most like TTON's predecessor.
- Our readers are always eager to learn new details about Torment Companions. Can you tell us something we don’t already know about one or two of them?
- Colin McComb (Creative Lead): Our cold, calculating jack’s name is Matkina. Her original conception was the stainless steel jack, a nod to Harry Harrison’s “Stainless Steel Rat”, and her character arc originated there. It’s changed significantly since then, but the deadly confidence, careful thought, and occasional impulsiveness colored her initial narrative portrait.
The update focuses on the feature called "Effort".
"In TTON, we handle tasks with an Effort dialog. Because Effort is a new mechanic—and a key mechanic at that—we decided to display the Effort dialog every time the player attempts a Difficult Task.
"What?!" I hear you say. "You're telling me I have to click away this annoying pop-up every time I try anything?" Yes, that's what I'm telling you. But it's not annoying at all—the opposite, actually. Part of that is there aren't as many Difficult Tasks as you might think. Each task is uniquely crafted (that is, you won't be picking twenty generic locks in a row), so when there is a difficult task, the Effort dialog adds import to it, making every task a potentially significant event. You don't click the pop-up away. You make a real decision, every time.
("But can't I just reload until I beat the task without Effort?" You could, but in some cases you'd be missing out on content that is only available when you fail some tasks. And anyway, as I've said in the past, savescumming isn't technically any easier, it's just a different way to play.)
What do you see when the Effort dialog appears? This:
The difficulty of the task. By default, this difficulty appears as one of eleven abstract labels (e.g. Routine, Challenging, Impossible, etc.), but you'll be able to change this in the Game Options to show the actual target number (i.e. the Task Difficulty multiplied by 3) or to not show any difficulty at all.
The adjusted difficulty of the task. If you have any skills or assets that apply to the task, then the initial difficulty will be visible but crossed out, and the actual difficulty (what you're trying to beat) will appear beneath it. Note that it's possible to have penalties, such that a task is harder than the base difficulty for some characters. That will be reflected here as well.
When you mouse over the difficulties, a tooltip will display showing you what skills and assets you have that are adjusting the difficulty (if any). This way, we don't have to clutter the dialog with a bunch of text, but you can have access to all the information if you want it.
An icon conveying which stat applies to this task. This determines which Stat Pool the Effort cost comes out of. Most tasks will only allow one stat: Might, Speed, or Intellect. In special cases (usually when the PC has certain abilities), a PC might be able to choose to replace the original Stat Pool with a different one. For example, a Jack with the Brute Finesse ability can choose to apply either Speed or Might to non-combat Speed tasks.
An Effort slider. This allows the player to choose how many levels of Effort he will apply to the task. As he increases the slider, the Effort dialog will show him how much Stat Pool will be deducted and the adjusted difficulty will change to reflect the Effort he's applying.
Sidebar refresher: The first level of Effort costs 3 from the applicable Stat Pool. Every level of Effort thereafter costs an additional 2. If the PC has any Edge in the applicable Stat Pool (another thing you gain each Tier), then his Edge is subtracted from the overall Effort cost. So if a player has 1 Might Edge and purchases two levels of Effort, it will cost him 4 Might (3 for the first level + 2 for the second level – 1 for his Might Edge).
If the PC has 3 or more Edge in the applicable Stat, then the Effort slider will automatically be set to however many levels of Effort that PC can get for free.
What about combat (I hear you say)? Aren't there a LOT more difficult tasks in that?
There are. In the tabletop, Effort can be applied to every roll—and the player always makes every roll. That means Numenera players can opt to apply Effort to attack and defense.
In TTON, the Effort dialog will appear for every attack you make. Our design calls for tactical combat, so each attack decision is already significant. And just like tasks outside of combat, the choice of whether to invest Effort adds to the significance of those decisions.
Defense is different, however. The player is not deciding to be attacked, and the party will likely be attacked several times in a row. We didn't think the Effort dialog would be much fun in that case, turn-based combat or not.
Instead, we're treating Effort on Defense as something you can set (or not) on your turn—a kind of defensive ability that every PC can use. Since most attacks are against Speed Defense, that will be the default Stat Pool used for Effort on Defense, but the player can optionally choose to apply Effort to Might or Intellect Defense instead.
If a PC is using Effort on Defense, the cost will not be deducted unless they are attacked that round and it will be deducted only on the first attack. So you don't have to worry about what might happen if you apply one level of Defensive Effort only to get attacked by a swarm of steel spiders and lose all your Speed even though none of them actually hit.
And of course, if a PC has enough Edge to get a free level of Defensive Effort, they will get that Effort all the time.
Keep in mind that there is still a LOT of playtesting to be done, especially with combat. So the details of all this are still subject to change. But this is how we're thinking of it right now. So far, it's working pretty well."
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inxile/torment-tides-of-numenera/posts/1147075
The most exciting part of it, for me, was an image of one of the companions. One of the 8 available companions will be Aligern.
I approve of companions being dressed as glam rockers from the 70's:)
But it will be very good. Anyway it is spiritual successor at all.