Brian Fargo in an interview to the Eurogamer shared an update on a TToN's release date:
"We have to get to our backers pretty soon, the beta version or Early Access or whatever you want to call it," he said, "and that is coming here late summer. The [final release] date gets determined based upon that."
"Planescape: Torment was great. It was a lot of hours. Planescape was like the huge… I hesitate to say dumping ground… but every single idea that I had for a fantasy quest or character I was able to dump into that game and I had so many files built up. Planescape allowed me to do all those things, thank god. So I took up that stuff that had accumulated and gave it a voice."
In terms of TToN, " I’ve done a lot of the core arch for the companion I’m designing for that game, and also I finished the outline for the first graphic novel, and I’m halfway through the second one.
I’m actually really excited about it. I think the setting is really cool and I think Monte Cook, who was also part of Planescape, his design aesthetic really shows through in that world and it’s just as much fun to design for as it was for Planescape."
"Planescape basically took every D&D world and said they’re all connected across the planes, so just about everything you can imagine exists out there if you find the right key and the right door.
With Numenera, it seems like Monte condensed that into one world. The world you explore in Numenera has gone through so many upheavals, going from the heights of technology back to the “stone-age”, that all this residue of all these artifacts and technology are still lying around. That’s sort of the equivalent of magic in that world. Certain spell effects might be the effects of nanites or super-science that people can’t really understand any more, but they can see what the effect is.
Basically, it’s allowed designers to create a Planescape-like effect. You can create just about anything in Numenera and explain it as being one of those previous worlds that existed. It allows for a lot of really cool locations to brainstorm about.
I think the inXile crew has really run with that. They have that entire submerged city that’s almost like a water drop in the middle of the desert. They did a great job with speccing out that one location called the bloom where you go inside what feels like a giant devouring stomach that keeps opening apertures here and there; it’s disgusting! But it’s cool!
Numenera allows for that, and so did Planescape. So I feel like it’s liberating in terms of design, you don’t have as many classic bookends hemming you in."
Wow, that really explains why Planescape was so damn good, in a way. It's probably the same reason many band's debut albums are such monsters. Years of ideas finally being let out.
"I think each game should have a certain ambience or feel about it which sets it apart. I think Wasteland 2 and Tides of Numenera, they definitely set a different tone"
I see there haven't been updated in this thread for 2 months. But there have been several interviews with the developers of TToN during this period.
First, Adam Heine has answered several questions.
-As far I remember, in Torment we will have separate inventory screens for each character, won’t we? And if so, any hope you guys are reconsidering this part of the GUI?
- (Adam Heine): I’m not sure where I might have mentioned separate inventory screens. If I did, it was either very early in design or else a mistake. Our inventory design is based on Pillars of Eternity’s – partially because we had just gotten their codebase at that time (so we could see how they were doing things) and partially because a single inventory screen for the entire party is just a good idea.
Additionally, as you mentioned in the full text of your question, Alessandro, TTON’s weapon sets will be representative, so a single weapon can be used in multiple weapon sets. See this update for more info on that.
- In a another KS update you wrote (quote): “For us, a “puzzle” isn’t an attempt to divine the will of the designer, but rather an obstacle with multiple solutions involving various Difficult Tasks and their applicable Effort and skills”.
Does this mean that Torment won’t have any puzzle/problem with not-so-obvious solution? Which is to say: Will the puzzle-solving elements of the original game be dropped in favor of the effort management of the new one (please don’t do that. If you are not 100% convinced, I can send you my boxed copies of all Quest for Glory games, as a reminder of how you can have puzzles that feel like real puzzles even if they can be solved in multiple ways according to your character skills )?
- (Adam Heine): I can see how your concern might arise from my quote. Rest assured that PST is our primary example in terms of how conversations are designed. “Puzzles” in TTON will take many forms. Simple ones might require one of a couple of Difficult Tasks, but many more will require you to talk to people and pay attention to your surroundings (or at the very least, they will be made much easier by doing so).
What we won’t do is, for example, require the player to decipher an elaborate and unique sequence of actions to collect an item they don’t even know they need. We also don’t want the player to get stuck because they missed some foozle or failed the wrong Task. We are trying to emulate a tabletop RPG session more than a graphic adventure, and that means doing the best we can to anticipate what things players will want to try, and implementing what might happen for each one.
Then, Thomas Beekers and Colin McComb were interviewed by Rock Paper Shotgun.
RPS: Most computer RPGs are based on the D&D model of combat and stats and progression. Does making it more based on something like Numenera, which is less well-known because it doesn’t have that history, does it make it harder to get players to understand or relate to it?
McComb: I don’t think so. It’s going to depend on the tutorialisation that we do in the early part of the game, but from what we have developed right now it seems like we’ve got a pretty good natural progression of accreting these skills so they’ll feel natural to the player.
Beekers: But I think we do have an awareness that we have to tutorialise, not necessarily more, but be aware of the fact that some of these systems are not going to be intuitive. Some of these concepts like not getting XP for a kill is something that we have to present in a way that does make sense to the player. It’s new enough that you just have to tutorialise it better, whereas with a D&D game you can just be like, ‘ach, everyone already knows how this works anyway.’
RPS: You mentioned taking pieces of machinery. How does that crafting system work relative to other computer games?
Beekers: It’s a bit closer to modifying and cobbling together weapons than…
McComb: It’s not like Minecraft. Each item is going to have slots essentially that you can attach stuff to, to create like magnetic effects or fire effects or gravity effects. So suddenly you’ve got a gravity-disrupting sword and you hit someone with it and weird things happen… I don’t know that we have gravity in the game.
After that, Red Bull interviewed Kevin Saunders and Adam Heine.
- You’ve also said that Numenera is ‘not about killing people and taking their stuff.’ That’s a pretty big departure from the classic CRPG formula. What kinds of experiences will be open to the cads, then?
Heine: Although TTON doesn't allow the player to attack just anybody, you will certainly be able to murder a number of people just because they're in your way, or you want to see what happens.
That said, murder is a pretty limited interpretation of evil. If I'm being truly evil, I want to do more than just bully NPCs with my axe. I want to lie to them, manipulate them, and use them for my own ends, all while letting them think they're the one deciding to sacrifice themselves to the Bloom's gaping maw. TTON's opportunities for evil explore this more sophisticated variety.
- The skills system seems like the biggest departure from what I think of as classic CRPG formula. Why the change now, when the old system of specialist lockpick/traps/sneak etcetera worked so well?
Heine: Numenera's skill system is broader and more flexible than that of most RPGs. Instead of saying, "you have no ranks in disabling traps, so you can't even try," Numenera let's any character try anything, for a cost. In Numenera, you have three types of 'hit points' – might, speed, and intellect. These stats are depleted when you're damaged, but are also resources you can draw upon to accomplish challenging tasks.
This puts more power into the player's hands. Want to pick a lock but aren't trained in it? You can spend speed points on effort to make that task easier. Or you might have an ability that lets you 'brute force' the lock, allowing you to spend might instead of speed on that particular task.
Or you might be low on speed – or trying to conserve it for other speed tasks nearby, or a Crisis you sense is coming – so you take the chance that your character might fail this task in exchange for making other tasks easier instead. It's up to you and your situation, making every task an interesting decision.
Additionally, this same system of skills and effort applies to every aspect of Numenera. Shooting an enemy from across the room? That's also a speed task, with the same choices as picking a lock (though obviously you'd need different skills to be already good at it). Dodge a sword? Also a speed task. Now, not only is the player empowered with deciding which tasks matter enough to spend his resources, but the player also intuitively understands how all tasks work after having accomplished one.
- We have mixed memories of the companion system from the old Fallout games. That sounds a bit like the system you’re bringing to Numenera. Is that an accurate comparison? Are companions controllable, or entirely their own masters?
Heine: In combat, TTON companions are completely under the player's control. But just like in Planescape: Torment, they have minds and goals of their own in conversation. They're not going to want to sacrifice themselves for you, for example, without a good reason. If you ask them to risk themselves for you, you'll have to have a great relationship with them, convince them why it's a good idea or risk that they might walk away from you if you ask too much of them.
rpgcodex.net writes that on Friday, 14 the alpha backers got the appropriate emails.
"You're receiving this message because your Torment reward selection (or add-on) contained Alpha Systems Test (AST) access. Thank you for your generous support!
We are now ready to launch the first AST, which we are calling A0, to you. This alpha test will be available on Steam and for Windows (and Mac), and contains a short segment of the game's opening. Our intention with A0 is to gather feedback on our conversation system and, basic exploration gameplay, and the general tone set in the beginning of the game."
For the 47th time, They Updated Their Journal (a new kickstarter update).
"I felt pretty confident in how “Torment-like” these scenes and writing felt, but would it resonate with our backers the same way?
Thankfully, the answer was a pretty resounding “yes”. Part of my task as a producer on these ASTs was processing the feedback from A0 as we moved into production for B0, and I couldn’t help but notice how many feedback submissions consisted of our backers going “brilliant!”, “so far so awesome!” and “keep up the great work guys!” (to quote a few). We printed out a sheet of positive feedback and put this “Wall of Praise” up in the office kitchen for the team to enjoy. It’s great to get a reminder of what we’re working so hard for, and to get encouragement directly from our backers. We greatly appreciate all the kind words you have given us.
Of course, the purpose of these kind of tests is to get an idea not just of what we’re doing right, but also of what we can be doing better so that we can iterate and improve on the current experience. There was no lack of this kind of feedback either, with hundreds of direct feedback tickets and hundreds more posts on our private backer forums. Feedback has ranged from the minute (such as adjustments to the font to make periods and commas more distinct) to the major (such as the responsiveness of the PC when interacting with in-game objects), with much of it useful for our continued work on all different facets of the game.
We have a pretty solid pipeline where each ticket, forum thread, and UserVoice post is seen by at least one producer, who has awareness of our general known issues and technical priorities. This producer then makes a suggestion, task, or bug report and submits it to the relevant lead for consideration and tasking out. This way every report and suggestion gets considered. The experience of previously doing this fan feedback and iteration with Wasteland 2 during its beta and Steam Early Access Game (SEAG) phases helped a lot here.
So what’s next? We have one more AST planned, called C0. This will be the first look at our Crisis combat system, and several team members including our Crisis Design Lead Jeremy Kopman and programmer Matthew Davey are working hard to bring this to completion, though realistically it’ll take a bit longer than it took from A0 to B0. We’re very curious to see what our backers think of this next AST."
Can Companions Die?
"I imagine there are only a small percentage of gamers who would play through a beloved companion’s death, knowing that a happier storyline lay only a reload away. At the same time, if we just let the defeated companions get up at the end of a Crisis, it would take away a lot of the tension of keeping your party alive – despite your player character’s near-immortality, we don’t want combat to be a low-stress, “nothing that happens matters” affair.
Our solution (pending playtesting) is an adaptation from Numenera core rules called Lasting Damage. When a mortal companion drops to zero in all three Stat Pools, they’re out of combat but not dead. When the Crisis is over, the companion will get up but they will be scathed with a Lasting Damage fettle.
The specific effects of this fettle and how to remove it will be tweaked as needed for balance, but in general:
The fettle will have some severe effect, on the order of making all tasks more difficult by two steps. The fettle will go away after the party Sleeps X times. The player can choose to Sleep until it’s gone, but doing so will have other effects on the game. There will usually be a skilled chiurgeon of some sort nearby who can remove this fettle immediately for a number of shins. Sometimes this NPC may be hard to find, or their healing might not be available right away, but the player should be able to heal before most major Crises. With balancing, the Lasting Damage fettle should present a challenge while not being so negative that most players reload. (Some players will reload anyway, of course, but the balance of this fettle is about minimizing that number as much as possible—again, we aren’t going out of our way to discourage savescumming; we’re just trying not to encourage it).
This design allows the player to choose whether they want to spend time or money to remove the fettle, or whether they want to just deal with the fettle until it goes away naturally. There is a cost whichever way they choose, but there is enough choice that players should feel empowered rather than frustrated, encouraging them to play on despite setbacks and to forge their own story.
That said, certain actions the player might take could result in the irreversible demise (or departure) of a companion. But if and when this can occur, it will be at the player’s discretion (or perhaps because the player ignored the dangers, forgetting that their choices will have consequences), not the whim of a random number generator."
"When things get tense (and, more importantly, time-sensitive) in TTON, we enter a turn-based mode. Each individual character, as well as some elements of the environment, take one turn at a time. The order in which characters act is based on an initiative roll at the start of combat. Items, skill training, and abilities can provide an edge on this roll.
In a Crisis, you control the Last Castoff and any companions you may have. When it's a character's turn, they can take one Anoetic Action, one Occultic Action, set up one Defensive Maneuver (disabled for C0), as well as move (with the movement distance available determined by items, skills, and abilities).
The Anoetic Action is a quick, optional action, useful for triggering support abilities and cyphers. These include switching weapons, activating buffs, or employing traversal abilities like teleports – for instance, the companion Aligern can activate his Living Tattoos, providing a buff to the next action he takes. PCs don't need to use their Anoetic Action every turn, but when the circumstances are right they provide an opportunity to maximize effects and add to your tactical advantage.
Occultic Actions are the main actions for the turn. Attacks, most esoteries, and more complex and powerful cyphers consume this action. Alternately, PCs can use this action to interact with objects in the environment or even strike up a (fast-paced) conversation with their enemies. As described in the Crisis Concept document, interacting with objects and people is a key part of our Crisis design. Taking advantage of these options can tip the scales of a combat encounter or even end it outright.
For AST C0, we've chosen to leave the last type of action - Defensive Maneuvers - out for now. There are a couple reasons for this: 1) We didn't feel like the UI was quite ready for primetime; 2) We felt like there were plenty of mechanics for our players to learn as is; 3) The scenario used for C0 occurs early in the game, when your party would have relatively few defensive options available.
When we do include the feature in a future release, Defensive Maneuvers will function as toggles. You use them to set up how the PC will behave off-turn. For example, a crafty jack might choose to trade off some defensive readiness for the opportunity to attack enemies who become flanked or otherwise distracted. A brave glaive might choose to sacrifice for his allies, interposing himself between an enemy and his besieged friend."
The rest of the update explains in detail the mechanics of applying Effort in a Crisis.
If you want a taste of that variety without playing through C0 (or if you don't have Alpha access), you can check out the video InXile has made:
It looks like it's the last Alpha. Next will be the beta.
Also, we have a preview of the game by MyGamer:
"The protagonist does not have to be a male, you can choose your gender upon starting the game. There are also three base character classes, the Glaive, Nano and Jack. The Glaive is basically your typical warrior character, while the Nano is your wizard and Jack is your rogue. They can all be customized to developer a specific combat style or role.
“At the start of the game, the only immediate choice you’ll make is what gender you want to play. Like PST, your name and appearance are predetermined, and you’ll start with 9 in all three Stat Pools (Might, Speed and Intellect). With that, you’ll be dropped immediately into the world,” said Adam Heine, Design Lead at inXile.
“Early in the narrative, you explore several memories and, in doi ng so, allocate 6 additional Stat Pool points while also showing a leaning toward what Descriptor best applies to you. The way you will do this is entirely in-world and part of the story. Your Descriptor gives you a few first Skills and some Stat adjustments, defining a flavor for everything you do.”
Torment: Tides of Numenera will launch at the end of 2015, after being delayed a year from the original December 2014 release date.!!!
I watched alpha test videos. If you build character with highest charisma, could you play the game without to engage in combat? Btw, Inxile said TTON will be relased after summer test build. Could it happen we get TTON and SOD for Chrismas?
@brus , if you read several latest previews/interviws posted on this page , you'll see there're 2 opposite views on whether the game will enentually be released in 2015 or 2016. The official word hasn't changed, though, they still promise "the end of 2015". As for SoD, this thread is not about it.
Regarding Charisma. Well... there are three stats in Numenera: Might/Health (Might), Speed/Agility (Speed), and Intellect/Personality (Intellect), no Charisma stat in this game.
Anyway, if you watch the latest video posted on this page, you can hear the developer explaining that you don't need to fight if you choose right options (and, I presume, if your Intellect is high enough). Nobody can tell you, though, if you could complete the game without ANY fighting. We'll wait and see, I guess.
In the pnp system, a "crisis" is whenever the GM interferes with the players action and forces a narrative. This rewards the player "victim" with xp, and is in fact one of the main sources experience.
This obviously won't be implemented into the game in this way, given that there's no GM and all that. I just wanted to give some background on the term and it's context.
Kevin here. A couple of weeks ago we released Alpha Systems Test C0, the first public view of our Crisis system. This Crisis is intended to be the second in the game. (The game's first Crisis will make its debut in the beta test.) Some of the other Crises involve more exotic situations, but the one in C0 is a great example of how a "normal" combat encounter manifests using the Crisis system. Jeremy Kopman, Evan Hill, and the entire team have crafted an excellent scenario with an array of narrative reactivity that reaches far beyond this one encounter.
The feedback on C0 has been outstanding, and it's been gratifying to see that players grok the core Crises concept and what we're trying to accomplish, which Jeremy described last update. More importantly, we learned a great deal about various improvements to make. As we mentioned in the C0 Release Notes, the UI in particular and communicating the gameplay systems to players are still being iterated on and the Alpha Systems testers have given us much useful feedback that we are taking into account. The team will be continuing to improve the Crisis gameplay experience, as even more of you will see in the beta test release before the end of this year.
Progress on the game is fantastic. We have written and implemented over a half million words. The majority of environment art is completed and being polished. We have assembled an exceptional team, combining skilled veterans from Wasteland 2, superstars from our pasts, and new talent discovered over the course of the project. The project is in great hands, with Adam Heine, Colin McComb, and George Ziets continuing to provide design leadership and direction.
As with any product launch, there will be the inevitable challenges to overcome, but like a finely tuned engine, things are humming along. I'm proud to have played a part in creating and tuning that engine, which is where my unique experience and skills were most beneficial to TTON. With the major creative and production decisions now resolved, and the team charging full speed toward completing the game, inXile and I have decided it is time for me to depart from the studio. I am proud of the project that I'm leaving in capable hands, and while I do not know what I'll do next, I look forward to new challenges and opportunities.
It has been a privilege and an honor to help craft this game for - and with - all of you. I thank you for having given me the opportunity to lead this truly extraordinary title. It was effectively your generous pledges that gave me the job that I have held since I led TTON's Kickstarter campaign. I also thank Brian Fargo and Matt Findley for being leaders of the RPG renaissance we now enjoy, for making TTON possible, and for trusting and empowering me to lead the project through this point.
And, of course, I thank the team for all of their hard work, dedication, and brilliance. You may have noticed that I sometimes favor unusual word choices, which is something the team has occasionally teased me about. Sometimes I find existing vocabulary to be inadequate, and so find or repurpose words. For example, as Adam described a couple updates ago, we replaced the awkward "status effect" with "fettle." Well, another term I found awkward is "team member," so internally I replaced it with "hero." And indeed, the TTON team is compromised of heroes. They will always have my support and I will never forget their contributions.
I am confident that you will be very pleased with this remarkable game, one that you made possible through your faith and trust. Thank you so much.
Kevin out.
When is the game coming?
Hello Exiled Ones,
Chris Keenan here. You may remember me as Project Lead on Wasteland 2 and the recently released Director's Cut. If you didn’t follow that project, here is a small bio: I started working in video games at 15 years old, as a QA tester at Brian Fargo's Interplay. I couldn’t even drive to the office so my dad had to drop me off at work (which is just slightly embarrassing). Most of my adult life has been in game development and I’ve been here at inXile for over 12 wild years.
I will be managing the development on Torment: Tides of Numenera from this point forward. There is a core vision in place and along with the creative leadership of Colin, George and Adam, I plan to ensure the vision is upheld.
As a fresh set of eyes on the project I can tell you it's shaping up to be the awesome experience you all expect and deserve. However, to maintain the quality standard we've set for ourselves, we can't rush through these final stages to get it out the door. Instead, we're going to take the time we need on Torment: Tides of Numenera, which means we are planning a 2016 release.
An important part of our process is getting the game in your hands and iterating based on your feedback. Releasing the Crisis Alpha Systems Tests was a big step for the team. We've been happy to receive detailed feedback on what can be improved, and very gratified to see our backers respond that we're heading in the right direction.
Now, it's on to working towards the beta release. The level art is largely done, and we're making good progress on the general game systems, level design and UI elements . We'll keep you posted on the progress of the beta release in the upcoming updates, as we have full intentions on releasing the beta this year. I look forward to leading this incredibly talented team and working with all of you to bring Torment to completion!
Until next time, Chris Keenan
Guess now I have my reason to look forward next year. Hopefully they will release it in January when I'm having my vacation.
Torment: Tides of Numenera Update #50: A Sneak Peek at the Beta, Backer NPCs, and News TL;DR: status update, new screenshot, George on backer NPCs, forum badge
Hello Exiles,
Chris here. Our team is continuing to work hard on getting the Beta Test ready to deliver to you. Torment is in that exciting stage where things are coming together rapidly, and it's been amazing over the last few months to see so many elements of the game take shape. We want to continue cleaning up some rough edges so that you can have the best experience possible. For that reason, we are planning to release the Torment Beta Test early next year so we can deliver a more polished and complete Beta Test.
We know that you have been waiting for this, and we want to get the game to you as soon as we can, but we felt that the Beta version we could bring you would be that much better with a little more time in development. We appreciate your patience.
We were quite happy with the release of the Alpha Systems Test, in that it allowed us to collect useful feedback on even the smallest elements of the game. We want the Beta Test to be a continuation of that level of collaboration with our community, while also being a great first hands-on impression for Torment. And this is going to be a legitimate hands-on. While the Alpha Systems Tests could be finished in around 20 minutes, the upcoming Beta release will contain over 10 hours of gameplay on a normal playthrough.
While we're working on that, we wanted to share some more info on the game and give you a sneak peek at some of the things you might see in the Beta...
The Order of Truth
We've given you a few glimpses of Sagus Cliffs before. Sagus Cliffs fills a similar role to the Hive in Planescape: Torment, serving as a central city hub in the eary stages and allowing for lots of exploration and deep world-building.
Now, we'd like to share a closer look at the Order of Truth, one of the factions in Sagus Cliffs. Below is a glimpse of their headquarters.
From George Ziets:
The Order of Truth is dedicated to the study of numenera – artifacts of long-dead civilizations that inhabited Earth millions of years ago. Its adherents, known as Aeon Priests, have established enclaves throughout much of the known world. In the city of Sagus Cliffs, far from the lands where the Order arose, the Aeon Priests are few, and not all of them share the high principles of their distant brethren,
Fortunately for them, Sagus Cliffs sits atop a massive trove of numenera, layer upon layer of ancient cities and long-forgotten technologies, waiting to be unearthed. The local headquarters of the Order is inside an ancient starship, abandoned countless millennia in the past and locked in the accumulated sediments of the ages.
Backer NPCs
Ziets here. As backers of our Kickstarter campaign, you probably know that certain pledge levels unlocked the ability to design content for our game – an item (or item description), a monument, or an NPC. In this update, I'm going to talk about the NPCs that were created by our backers... and how we integrated them into our world.
So what does it mean to create a backer NPC for TTON? If you pledged at the backer NPC level, we asked you to provide a name and description for your character, as well as a preference as to where your NPC should appear in the game (e.g., Sagus Cliffs, the Bloom) and what role they should fill (e.g., merchant, cultist, traveler). As TTON has some rather dark moments, we also asked whether you'd mind if we did terrible things to your NPC. Some of our backers provided that basic information and nothing more, while others took advantage of our "Additional Notes" section to tell us about their characters' backstory, motivations, or the reasons their character was important to them. By the time we hit the submission deadline, we'd received about 55 backer NPCs.
Incorporating 55 backer-created NPCs into the game was a challenge, especially because we set high standards for ourselves. It was important to us that backer NPCs feel indistinguishable from other NPCs in the game and be integrated seamlessly into our quest and exploration content. (The quality of NPC submissions was high, which helped a lot. Backers clearly put a great deal of effort into making their NPCs feel creative, weird, and "Tormenty," so most of them fit easily into our setting.)
As I designed Sagus Cliffs, I kept a list of the backer NPCs for that zone close at hand. When I devised a quest and needed characters to fill important roles, I took a look at the list. Sometimes I wouldn't find any backer NPCs that would suit my needs, but often I did.
For example, early in the game, one way of solving a quest results in an optional combat with a rather powerful creature. Players can try to defeat the creature alone, but that will be extremely challenging, so an alternative is to find a few NPC allies in town who'd be up for a fight... and convince them to help. I'd originally planned to create these NPCs myself, but I then found three excellent backer NPCs to fill the roles instead. One of these potential recruits is Aidan Sitabo, a mysterious martial artist, capable of moving at speeds that defy human capability. Players can convince this man to assist them in their fight against the creature. They can also attempt to match their abilities against his and discover the secret of how he gained his abilities. His dialogue (written by Gavin Jurgens-Fyhrie) is pretty entertaining, and even if players don't choose to ask for his help, they can still gain interesting insights and rewards by talking to him.
Other times, when I was designing a particularly weird place, I'd look through the list of backer NPCs for characters who fit the general tone of the location, and I'd add them as one-off characters. Such characters provide some interesting dialogue, usually a reward or two that can be gained by uncovering their secrets, and sometimes a significant (or horrific) choice the player can make. In the Fifth Eye, a tavern that draws powerful psychics and interdimensional travelers like a lodestone, one example of a backer NPC is Almas the Soul Keeper, the last survivor of an interdimensional race who carries the souls of his entire species in his mind.
In a few cases, a backer NPC's story lent itself so well to a quest that I ended up designing a side quest around them. This was a boon to the overall design, as most scenes can always profit from an extra quest or two. For example, one backer sent us an NPC called Omahdon, an enigmatic traveler with considerable knowledge of the numenera who is on a search for his missing "one true love." This seemed an obvious seed for a quest, so I placed him in the Caravanserai district of Sagus Cliffs, and linked his quest to another important NPC in that scene. I was also able to connect his story to the Valley of Dead Heroes, and to use his quest to augment some of the other content in Caravanserai.
These backer NPCs – and all the rest of them – should feel like a natural part of the game, and we hope that you don't even notice a difference between them and the NPCs that we've created ourselves. I think they've enriched our world, and I hope you enjoy them.
We always love to give back to our backers and fans who make this all possible, and today we'd like to highlight a new bonus reward that everyone who backed Torment can get. Now, all backers who get the game with their pledge also receive an exclusive Torment backer forum badge for use on our message boards.
To get your forum badge, please log in with your Torment backer account, then visit the Rewards page and click the "Badge" button that appears on the bottom-right corner of your reward selection. If you need more detailed instructions, you can check here. Of course, if you haven't signed up for a forum account yet, now's a great time to do so, as we're always looking for interesting feedback and input from you.
General News
We also have some big company-related news to announce. For over a decade, we have operated out of Newport Beach, CA. Now, we are pleased to announce our first expansion – we are opening a brand-new sister studio in New Orleans! You can read more about it in this Bard's Tale IV update, as well as in this recent Fortune article which has a few comments from Brian, and discusses some of our plans for the studio going forward. This is an exciting step forward for us as a company. While some of the team is moving to New Orleans, Torment will remain in full production in the Newport Beach office, just as it always has, though it will benefit from some of the NOLA team's work, such as in-house QA and playtesting.
You may be wondering why we chose New Orleans, and there are several great reasons. By going to NOLA, we are receiving benefits from the Louisiana state government, and we also lower our operating costs so that we can add additional months of production to our games. Meanwhile, we are also helping to grow the local games and tech industry and leveraging the top east coast talent that we have been missing out on up until now. In the end, this will make for bigger and better games and let us deliver more titles for you to enjoy in the long run. We consider this the next step in our journey and are thankful for you helping to make it happen.
In other news, our very own Design Lead Adam Heine has a short story in a new Cthulhu sci-fi anthology called Tomorrow's Cthulhu. Read his thoughts on this here, and consider preordering here.
To save the best for last, RPGNukehas an interview with Torment associate producer & designer Thomas Beekers, talking about his winding path into and through the game industry. It could eventually be turned into a short story (or a Lifetime original movie), but for the time being, you can read about Mr. Beekers' journey as a brief interview.
Happy holidays and we will see you in the new year, Chris Keenan The Closer
A day late to post this, but better late than never.
The Order of Truth is dedicated to the study of numenera – artifacts of long-dead civilizations that inhabited Earth millions of years ago. Its adherents, known as Aeon Priests, have established enclaves throughout much of the known world. In the city of Sagus Cliffs, far from the lands where the Order arose, the Aeon Priests are few, and not all of them share the high principles of their distant brethren,
Fortunately for them, Sagus Cliffs sits atop a massive trove of numenera, layer upon layer of ancient cities and long-forgotten technologies, waiting to be unearthed. The local headquarters of the Order is inside an ancient starship, abandoned countless millennia in the past and locked in the accumulated sediments of the ages.
From this new update Kamigoroshi posted, I got the feeling Numenera will have some steampunk tone inclined with Arcanum. I hope they'll get the gameplay right.
Comments
"We have to get to our backers pretty soon, the beta version or Early Access or whatever you want to call it," he said, "and that is coming here late summer. The [final release] date gets determined based upon that."
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2015-06-08-inxile-fallout-van-buren-trademark
This sounds promising, doesn't it?
"Planescape: Torment was great. It was a lot of hours. Planescape was like the huge… I hesitate to say dumping ground… but every single idea that I had for a fantasy quest or character I was able to dump into that game and I had so many files built up. Planescape allowed me to do all those things, thank god. So I took up that stuff that had accumulated and gave it a voice."
In terms of TToN, " I’ve done a lot of the core arch for the companion I’m designing for that game, and also I finished the outline for the first graphic novel, and I’m halfway through the second one.
I’m actually really excited about it. I think the setting is really cool and I think Monte Cook, who was also part of Planescape, his design aesthetic really shows through in that world and it’s just as much fun to design for as it was for Planescape."
"Planescape basically took every D&D world and said they’re all connected across the planes, so just about everything you can imagine exists out there if you find the right key and the right door.
With Numenera, it seems like Monte condensed that into one world. The world you explore in Numenera has gone through so many upheavals, going from the heights of technology back to the “stone-age”, that all this residue of all these artifacts and technology are still lying around. That’s sort of the equivalent of magic in that world. Certain spell effects might be the effects of nanites or super-science that people can’t really understand any more, but they can see what the effect is.
Basically, it’s allowed designers to create a Planescape-like effect. You can create just about anything in Numenera and explain it as being one of those previous worlds that existed. It allows for a lot of really cool locations to brainstorm about.
I think the inXile crew has really run with that. They have that entire submerged city that’s almost like a water drop in the middle of the desert. They did a great job with speccing out that one location called the bloom where you go inside what feels like a giant devouring stomach that keeps opening apertures here and there; it’s disgusting! But it’s cool!
Numenera allows for that, and so did Planescape. So I feel like it’s liberating in terms of design, you don’t have as many classic bookends hemming you in."
The rest of the interview (also covering an insight into an Avellone's personal future) is here: http://www.pcinvasion.com/chris-avellone-interview-game-design-numenera-and-hints-about-his-future
A dig at the genericness of PoE perhaps?
First, Adam Heine has answered several questions.
-As far I remember, in Torment we will have separate inventory screens for each character, won’t we? And if so, any hope you guys are reconsidering this part of the GUI?
- (Adam Heine): I’m not sure where I might have mentioned separate inventory screens. If I did, it was either very early in design or else a mistake. Our inventory design is based on Pillars of Eternity’s – partially because we had just gotten their codebase at that time (so we could see how they were doing things) and partially because a single inventory screen for the entire party is just a good idea.
Additionally, as you mentioned in the full text of your question, Alessandro, TTON’s weapon sets will be representative, so a single weapon can be used in multiple weapon sets. See this update for more info on that.
- In a another KS update you wrote (quote): “For us, a “puzzle” isn’t an attempt to divine the will of the designer, but rather an obstacle with multiple solutions involving various Difficult Tasks and their applicable Effort and skills”.
Does this mean that Torment won’t have any puzzle/problem with not-so-obvious solution? Which is to say: Will the puzzle-solving elements of the original game be dropped in favor of the effort management of the new one (please don’t do that. If you are not 100% convinced, I can send you my boxed copies of all Quest for Glory games, as a reminder of how you can have puzzles that feel like real puzzles even if they can be solved in multiple ways according to your character skills
- (Adam Heine): I can see how your concern might arise from my quote. Rest assured that PST is our primary example in terms of how conversations are designed. “Puzzles” in TTON will take many forms. Simple ones might require one of a couple of Difficult Tasks, but many more will require you to talk to people and pay attention to your surroundings (or at the very least, they will be made much easier by doing so).
What we won’t do is, for example, require the player to decipher an elaborate and unique sequence of actions to collect an item they don’t even know they need. We also don’t want the player to get stuck because they missed some foozle or failed the wrong Task. We are trying to emulate a tabletop RPG session more than a graphic adventure, and that means doing the best we can to anticipate what things players will want to try, and implementing what might happen for each one.
http://tormentrpg.tumblr.com/post/121115558750/adam-answers-fan-questions
Then, Thomas Beekers and Colin McComb were interviewed by Rock Paper Shotgun.
RPS: Most computer RPGs are based on the D&D model of combat and stats and progression. Does making it more based on something like Numenera, which is less well-known because it doesn’t have that history, does it make it harder to get players to understand or relate to it?
McComb: I don’t think so. It’s going to depend on the tutorialisation that we do in the early part of the game, but from what we have developed right now it seems like we’ve got a pretty good natural progression of accreting these skills so they’ll feel natural to the player.
Beekers: But I think we do have an awareness that we have to tutorialise, not necessarily more, but be aware of the fact that some of these systems are not going to be intuitive. Some of these concepts like not getting XP for a kill is something that we have to present in a way that does make sense to the player. It’s new enough that you just have to tutorialise it better, whereas with a D&D game you can just be like, ‘ach, everyone already knows how this works anyway.’
RPS: You mentioned taking pieces of machinery. How does that crafting system work relative to other computer games?
Beekers: It’s a bit closer to modifying and cobbling together weapons than…
McComb: It’s not like Minecraft. Each item is going to have slots essentially that you can attach stuff to, to create like magnetic effects or fire effects or gravity effects. So suddenly you’ve got a gravity-disrupting sword and you hit someone with it and weird things happen… I don’t know that we have gravity in the game.
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2015/06/10/numenera-pc-game/
After that, Red Bull interviewed Kevin Saunders and Adam Heine.
- You’ve also said that Numenera is ‘not about killing people and taking their stuff.’ That’s a pretty big departure from the classic CRPG formula. What kinds of experiences will be open to the cads, then?
Heine: Although TTON doesn't allow the player to attack just anybody, you will certainly be able to murder a number of people just because they're in your way, or you want to see what happens.
That said, murder is a pretty limited interpretation of evil. If I'm being truly evil, I want to do more than just bully NPCs with my axe. I want to lie to them, manipulate them, and use them for my own ends, all while letting them think they're the one deciding to sacrifice themselves to the Bloom's gaping maw. TTON's opportunities for evil explore this more sophisticated variety.
- The skills system seems like the biggest departure from what I think of as classic CRPG formula. Why the change now, when the old system of specialist lockpick/traps/sneak etcetera worked so well?
Heine: Numenera's skill system is broader and more flexible than that of most RPGs. Instead of saying, "you have no ranks in disabling traps, so you can't even try," Numenera let's any character try anything, for a cost. In Numenera, you have three types of 'hit points' – might, speed, and intellect. These stats are depleted when you're damaged, but are also resources you can draw upon to accomplish challenging tasks.
This puts more power into the player's hands. Want to pick a lock but aren't trained in it? You can spend speed points on effort to make that task easier. Or you might have an ability that lets you 'brute force' the lock, allowing you to spend might instead of speed on that particular task.
Or you might be low on speed – or trying to conserve it for other speed tasks nearby, or a Crisis you sense is coming – so you take the chance that your character might fail this task in exchange for making other tasks easier instead. It's up to you and your situation, making every task an interesting decision.
Additionally, this same system of skills and effort applies to every aspect of Numenera. Shooting an enemy from across the room? That's also a speed task, with the same choices as picking a lock (though obviously you'd need different skills to be already good at it). Dodge a sword? Also a speed task. Now, not only is the player empowered with deciding which tasks matter enough to spend his resources, but the player also intuitively understands how all tasks work after having accomplished one.
- We have mixed memories of the companion system from the old Fallout games. That sounds a bit like the system you’re bringing to Numenera. Is that an accurate comparison? Are companions controllable, or entirely their own masters?
Heine: In combat, TTON companions are completely under the player's control. But just like in Planescape: Torment, they have minds and goals of their own in conversation. They're not going to want to sacrifice themselves for you, for example, without a good reason. If you ask them to risk themselves for you, you'll have to have a great relationship with them, convince them why it's a good idea or risk that they might walk away from you if you ask too much of them.
At last, George Ziets, Josh Jertberg and Jeremy Kopman talked on Live Stream. The transcript can be found here: http://tormentrpg.tumblr.com/post/123747668980/updated-our-journal-44-george-ziets-josh
Here is a glimpse of the world map, work-in-progress:
rpgcodex.net writes that on Friday, 14 the alpha backers got the appropriate emails.
"You're receiving this message because your Torment reward selection (or add-on) contained Alpha Systems Test (AST) access. Thank you for your generous support!
We are now ready to launch the first AST, which we are calling A0, to you. This alpha test will be available on Steam and for Windows (and Mac), and contains a short segment of the game's opening. Our intention with A0 is to gather feedback on our conversation system and, basic exploration gameplay, and the general tone set in the beginning of the game."
http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/torment-tides-of-numenera-alpha-systems-test-launched.102127/
The first videos of the Alpha:
So, a new Alpha Systems Test build of TToN is out!
As with the previous Alpha Systems Test, there is no embargo or NDA, so backers have been free to upload their own gameplay footage. Here they are:
So much text. I'm loving it!
On a side note, YT now has 1440p and 2160p videos?
"I felt pretty confident in how “Torment-like” these scenes and writing felt, but would it resonate with our backers the same way?
Thankfully, the answer was a pretty resounding “yes”. Part of my task as a producer on these ASTs was processing the feedback from A0 as we moved into production for B0, and I couldn’t help but notice how many feedback submissions consisted of our backers going “brilliant!”, “so far so awesome!” and “keep up the great work guys!” (to quote a few). We printed out a sheet of positive feedback and put this “Wall of Praise” up in the office kitchen for the team to enjoy. It’s great to get a reminder of what we’re working so hard for, and to get encouragement directly from our backers. We greatly appreciate all the kind words you have given us.
Of course, the purpose of these kind of tests is to get an idea not just of what we’re doing right, but also of what we can be doing better so that we can iterate and improve on the current experience. There was no lack of this kind of feedback either, with hundreds of direct feedback tickets and hundreds more posts on our private backer forums. Feedback has ranged from the minute (such as adjustments to the font to make periods and commas more distinct) to the major (such as the responsiveness of the PC when interacting with in-game objects), with much of it useful for our continued work on all different facets of the game.
We have a pretty solid pipeline where each ticket, forum thread, and UserVoice post is seen by at least one producer, who has awareness of our general known issues and technical priorities. This producer then makes a suggestion, task, or bug report and submits it to the relevant lead for consideration and tasking out. This way every report and suggestion gets considered. The experience of previously doing this fan feedback and iteration with Wasteland 2 during its beta and Steam Early Access Game (SEAG) phases helped a lot here.
So what’s next? We have one more AST planned, called C0. This will be the first look at our Crisis combat system, and several team members including our Crisis Design Lead Jeremy Kopman and programmer Matthew Davey are working hard to bring this to completion, though realistically it’ll take a bit longer than it took from A0 to B0. We’re very curious to see what our backers think of this next AST."
Can Companions Die?
"I imagine there are only a small percentage of gamers who would play through a beloved companion’s death, knowing that a happier storyline lay only a reload away. At the same time, if we just let the defeated companions get up at the end of a Crisis, it would take away a lot of the tension of keeping your party alive – despite your player character’s near-immortality, we don’t want combat to be a low-stress, “nothing that happens matters” affair.
Our solution (pending playtesting) is an adaptation from Numenera core rules called Lasting Damage. When a mortal companion drops to zero in all three Stat Pools, they’re out of combat but not dead. When the Crisis is over, the companion will get up but they will be scathed with a Lasting Damage fettle.
The specific effects of this fettle and how to remove it will be tweaked as needed for balance, but in general:
The fettle will have some severe effect, on the order of making all tasks more difficult by two steps.
The fettle will go away after the party Sleeps X times. The player can choose to Sleep until it’s gone, but doing so will have other effects on the game.
There will usually be a skilled chiurgeon of some sort nearby who can remove this fettle immediately for a number of shins. Sometimes this NPC may be hard to find, or their healing might not be available right away, but the player should be able to heal before most major Crises.
With balancing, the Lasting Damage fettle should present a challenge while not being so negative that most players reload. (Some players will reload anyway, of course, but the balance of this fettle is about minimizing that number as much as possible—again, we aren’t going out of our way to discourage savescumming; we’re just trying not to encourage it).
This design allows the player to choose whether they want to spend time or money to remove the fettle, or whether they want to just deal with the fettle until it goes away naturally. There is a cost whichever way they choose, but there is enough choice that players should feel empowered rather than frustrated, encouraging them to play on despite setbacks and to forge their own story.
That said, certain actions the player might take could result in the irreversible demise (or departure) of a companion. But if and when this can occur, it will be at the player’s discretion (or perhaps because the player ignored the dangers, forgetting that their choices will have consequences), not the whim of a random number generator."
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inxile/torment-tides-of-numenera/posts/1354751
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inxile/torment-tides-of-numenera/posts/1375559
This is the UI (a WIP still):
"When things get tense (and, more importantly, time-sensitive) in TTON, we enter a turn-based mode. Each individual character, as well as some elements of the environment, take one turn at a time. The order in which characters act is based on an initiative roll at the start of combat. Items, skill training, and abilities can provide an edge on this roll.
In a Crisis, you control the Last Castoff and any companions you may have. When it's a character's turn, they can take one Anoetic Action, one Occultic Action, set up one Defensive Maneuver (disabled for C0), as well as move (with the movement distance available determined by items, skills, and abilities).
The Anoetic Action is a quick, optional action, useful for triggering support abilities and cyphers. These include switching weapons, activating buffs, or employing traversal abilities like teleports – for instance, the companion Aligern can activate his Living Tattoos, providing a buff to the next action he takes. PCs don't need to use their Anoetic Action every turn, but when the circumstances are right they provide an opportunity to maximize effects and add to your tactical advantage.
Occultic Actions are the main actions for the turn. Attacks, most esoteries, and more complex and powerful cyphers consume this action. Alternately, PCs can use this action to interact with objects in the environment or even strike up a (fast-paced) conversation with their enemies. As described in the Crisis Concept document, interacting with objects and people is a key part of our Crisis design. Taking advantage of these options can tip the scales of a combat encounter or even end it outright.
For AST C0, we've chosen to leave the last type of action - Defensive Maneuvers - out for now. There are a couple reasons for this: 1) We didn't feel like the UI was quite ready for primetime; 2) We felt like there were plenty of mechanics for our players to learn as is; 3) The scenario used for C0 occurs early in the game, when your party would have relatively few defensive options available.
When we do include the feature in a future release, Defensive Maneuvers will function as toggles. You use them to set up how the PC will behave off-turn. For example, a crafty jack might choose to trade off some defensive readiness for the opportunity to attack enemies who become flanked or otherwise distracted. A brave glaive might choose to sacrifice for his allies, interposing himself between an enemy and his besieged friend."
The rest of the update explains in detail the mechanics of applying Effort in a Crisis.
If you want a taste of that variety without playing through C0 (or if you don't have Alpha access), you can check out the video InXile has made:
It looks like it's the last Alpha. Next will be the beta.
Also, we have a preview of the game by MyGamer:
"The protagonist does not have to be a male, you can choose your gender upon starting the game. There are also three base character classes, the Glaive, Nano and Jack. The Glaive is basically your typical warrior character, while the Nano is your wizard and Jack is your rogue. They can all be customized to developer a specific combat style or role.
“At the start of the game, the only immediate choice you’ll make is what gender you want to play. Like PST, your name and appearance are predetermined, and you’ll start with 9 in all three Stat Pools (Might, Speed and Intellect). With that, you’ll be dropped immediately into the world,” said Adam Heine, Design Lead at inXile.
“Early in the narrative, you explore several memories and, in doi ng so, allocate 6 additional Stat Pool points while also showing a leaning toward what Descriptor best applies to you. The way you will do this is entirely in-world and part of the story. Your Descriptor gives you a few first Skills and some Stat adjustments, defining a flavor for everything you do.”
Torment: Tides of Numenera will launch at the end of 2015, after being delayed a year from the original December 2014 release date.!!!
http://www.mygamer.com/torment-tides-numenera-preview/
If you build character with highest charisma, could you play the game without to engage in combat?
Btw, Inxile said TTON will be relased after summer test build. Could it happen we get TTON and SOD for Chrismas?
Regarding Charisma. Well... there are three stats in Numenera: Might/Health (Might), Speed/Agility (Speed), and Intellect/Personality (Intellect), no Charisma stat in this game.
Anyway, if you watch the latest video posted on this page, you can hear the developer explaining that you don't need to fight if you choose right options (and, I presume, if your Intellect is high enough). Nobody can tell you, though, if you could complete the game without ANY fighting. We'll wait and see, I guess.
This obviously won't be implemented into the game in this way, given that there's no GM and all that. I just wanted to give some background on the term and it's context.
Also, Kevin Saunders launched a blog entitled "Reactivity" earlier this month - http://reactivity.ghost.io/.
The blog's first post appears to imply that he's been off the TToN project since the end of September.
Fortunately for them, Sagus Cliffs sits atop a massive trove of numenera, layer upon layer of ancient cities and long-forgotten technologies, waiting to be unearthed. The local headquarters of the Order is inside an ancient starship, abandoned countless millennia in the past and locked in the accumulated sediments of the ages.
From this new update Kamigoroshi posted, I got the feeling Numenera will have some steampunk tone inclined with Arcanum.
I hope they'll get the gameplay right.
I hope I didn't post already seen gameplay.
I get a mental erection every time that I watch it.