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Torment: Tides of Numero Uno


Blarghagh

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I personally enjoyed Wasteland 2's combat.  It's doesn't quite reach X-COM's level of depth, but I found enough tactical options at my disposal to satisfy me, and putting together a good plan of attack and executing it well was always enjoyable. 

 

/shrugs

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🇺🇸RFK Jr 2024🇺🇸

"Any organization created out of fear must create fear to survive." - Bill Hicks

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I personally enjoyed Wasteland 2's combat.  It's doesn't quite reach X-COM's level of depth, but I found enough tactical options at my disposal to satisfy me, and putting together a good plan of attack and executing it well was always enjoyable. 

So in other words, you love it when a plan comes together?

"Now to find a home for my other staff."
My Project Eternity Interview with Adam Brennecke

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I personally enjoyed Wasteland 2's combat.  It's doesn't quite reach X-COM's level of depth, but I found enough tactical options at my disposal to satisfy me, and putting together a good plan of attack and executing it well was always enjoyable. 

So in other words, you love it when a plan comes together?

 

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🇺🇸RFK Jr 2024🇺🇸

"Any organization created out of fear must create fear to survive." - Bill Hicks

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  • 3 months later...

Have to ask, to anyone in the know, are Jacks the equivalent of Thieves in 2nd edition AD&D (skill monkeys with situational deadliness in combat if they are used correctly) or the modern interpretation as Assassins and Weaponsmasters?

Quite an experience to live in misery isn't it? That's what it is to be married with children.

I've seen things you people can't even imagine. Pearly Kings glittering on the Elephant and Castle, Morris Men dancing 'til the last light of midsummer. I watched Druid fires burning in the ruins of Stonehenge, and Yorkshiremen gurning for prizes. All these things will be lost in time, like alopecia on a skinhead. Time for tiffin.

 

Tea for the teapot!

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Everyone here see our latest update. It has an expansive look at Obsidian's conversation editor tools (albeit adapted for our use), I figured that would be of interest to this crowd?

Thanks for the peek. Did you guys have to ask permission from Obsidian to show off this stuff or is this just not a big insider deal?

"Things are funny...are comedic, because they mix the real with the absurd." - Buzz Aldrin.

"P-O-T-A-T-O-E" - Dan Quayle

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Have to ask, to anyone in the know, are Jacks the equivalent of Thieves in 2nd edition AD&D (skill monkeys with situational deadliness in combat if they are used correctly) or the modern interpretation as Assassins and Weaponsmasters?

They don't really have an exact AD&D analogue, they're more like a mix of warrior/rogue with a bit of mage. "Jack-of-all-traits". Rogue is probably closest.

 

 

 

Everyone here see our latest update. It has an expansive look at Obsidian's conversation editor tools (albeit adapted for our use), I figured that would be of interest to this crowd?


Thanks for the peek. Did you guys have to ask permission from Obsidian to show off this stuff or is this just not a big insider deal?

We asked them if it'd be ok yes. It's their tools so it would've been rather rude to just show it without checking.

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inXile line producer

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  • 4 weeks later...

New Colin McComb interview

 

 

Hi Colin, I need to confess that I’m really excited about this interview. I fell in love with Planescape many years ago and never fully  recovered.  I could talk for days about your past works at TSR, but for the sake of our readers’ patience I’ll remain focused of Tides of Numenera.

 
I don’t think anyone who ever fell in love with Planescape falls out of love. Getting to talk to Zeb while he was developing the boxed set and working out how the Lady of Pain deals with troublemakers in an airport bar was great fun; actually working on the line was such a pleasure and a privilege. The Planescape team was composed of tremendous people, and the setting was so imaginative and evocative. I’m still grateful for the opportunity.
 
You’ll notice Monte and Ray are both involved with this project – we’d have loved to get others of the team involved with Torment, but they had other obligations, sadly.
 
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)?
 
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.
 
You’ve stated before that you’ve chosen the Numenera license mostly because of its setting, but  as far as I know Torment’s story takes place in uncharted territories. I mean, parts of the Ninth World not covered in the Corebook. Why? And is there any chance we are going see parts of the Steadfast/Beyond in TON?
 
You won’t see any places from the Corebook, but some will be referenced. We didn’t want to risk conflicting with anything Monte Cook Games had planned in the Steadfast; as a younger setting, it still needs to establish some meta-campaign narrative. The Corebook was still being worked on when we began planning Torment, so we all thought it would be better if we built out beyond the Beyond and we could integrate the two areas later.
 
I’m under the impression that the Endless Battle is going to play a huge role in Torment’s story. Can you tell us a little more about this conflict?  Additionally  -  given the fact that ToN is a game about legacies - is it safe to assume that the player will be able to influence the outcome of the war? 
 
It’s funny that you should ask about that, because the Endless Battle came up in story meetings just recently. At the risk of handing out spoilers: It does play an important role in the game, both symbolically and narratively. Born out of an argument between the Changing God and the First Castoff, it has become essentially a feature of the landscape over the last several centuries. Much like the everlasting storm of Catatumbo, it’s almost a force of nature by this point. Think of the trenches and craters of World War I, and then add time distortions, gravity fields, sentient machines, and nightmare creatures released from other dimensions, and you’ll start to get an idea what it’s like.
 
At this point, the two sides are at a stalemate, but they push and prod for incremental advantage. Victory isn’t in sight for either side, but neither are they willing to admit defeat – they are fighting for ideological principles now, for their reputations, for some other reason – and so, despite the First being dead and the Changing God not involved in the fight, the Endless Battle continues.
 
It is not safe to assume that you will be able to influence the outcome of the war. On the other hand, I don’t know that you should assume you can’t.  
 
The Castoff’s Labyrinth has the potential to become  a great gameplay feature, but how important is it going to be for Torment narrative? As a writer, are you trying to accomplish something in particular through the Labyrinth or it’s “just” another location?   
 
The Labyrinth is a place in the Last Castoff’s mind, and since most of us spend a significant amount of time in our own minds, we want to reflect that possibility as part of the narrative. It’s a good place for us to experiment with ideas, and perhaps to play with some thematic elements.
 
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?
 
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. 
 
Bonus question: after the astonishing success of TTON you are confirmed as Creative Lead of the third Torment game, set in a different universe and  powered by a new ruleset . The choice is entirely up to you. What will this universe/ruleset be?   
 
We’ve loved working with Monte Cook Games, and they’ve been a fantastic business partner, but since you’ve said a different universe/different rules…
 
Do I get to keep working with the same team? Because if we’re together again, I think in this imagined future we’ll take a swing at inventing our own world and our own rules. Given that I’ve created and developed a number of different worlds now, and given that Adam is doing great things with the rules, and given that George and Kevin are brilliant, I don’t see any reason we wouldn’t create our own world completely under our own control. Why, we could blow up the world and no one could stop us!
 
Uh, hypothetically speaking, of course… 
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🇺🇸RFK Jr 2024🇺🇸

"Any organization created out of fear must create fear to survive." - Bill Hicks

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  • 3 months later...

An interesting term used in the latest Numenera update: Fettle. I was sure I knew and had heard the word from somewhere and was muttering to myself when in passing Mrs Nonek told me it meant to be in good shape, or was a process used by metalworkers in some manner. I wonder how a group of Californians came across such an obscure northern English term?

 

Good update however.

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Quite an experience to live in misery isn't it? That's what it is to be married with children.

I've seen things you people can't even imagine. Pearly Kings glittering on the Elephant and Castle, Morris Men dancing 'til the last light of midsummer. I watched Druid fires burning in the ruins of Stonehenge, and Yorkshiremen gurning for prizes. All these things will be lost in time, like alopecia on a skinhead. Time for tiffin.

 

Tea for the teapot!

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An interesting term used in the latest Numenera update: Fettle. I was sure I knew and had heard the word from somewhere and was muttering to myself when in passing Mrs Nonek told me it meant to be in good shape, or was a process used by metalworkers in some manner. I wonder how a group of Californians came across such an obscure northern English term?

 

Good update however.

perhaps they, y'know, read books n' stuff.

 

*shrug*

 

didn't send us scurrying for a dictionary.

 

that being said, am doubting we has ever used the word save to insert annoying alliteration into a conversation... as, frankly, we do indeed feel in fine fettle today.  am not certain we has ever seen/heard fettle used divorced from fine.

 

'course, we can just chalk this up to substandard english education that produces a generation o' kids that is more apt to recognize dumbledore as real when shown pictures o' the headmaster o' hogwarts side-by-side with winston churchill.

 

HA! Good Fun!

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"If there be time to expose through discussion the falsehood and fallacies, to avert the evil by the processes of education, the remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence."Justice Louis Brandeis, Concurring, Whitney v. California, 274 U.S. 357 (1927)

"Im indifferent to almost any murder as long as it doesn't affect me or mine."--Gfted1 (September 30, 2019)

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An interesting term used in the latest Numenera update: Fettle. I was sure I knew and had heard the word from somewhere and was muttering to myself when in passing Mrs Nonek told me it meant to be in good shape, or was a process used by metalworkers in some manner. I wonder how a group of Californians came across such an obscure northern English term?

 

Good update however.

 

If you read about history of metallurgy you probably come across that term (as in metallurgy it is used to describe loose sand or ore used to line the hearth of a reverberatory furnace in preparation for pouring molten metal.) and then when you look up what it means you probably also find its other meanings, which come handy when you want to put obscure terms in a game that you are making. That would be my guess :).

Edited by Elerond
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I was discussing the word with Mrs Nonek and apparently her great uncle was a Fettler (to the extreme detriment of his lungs) at some steel mill called Fox's, and that's probably where i've heard the term used before. Though one can imagine that side of the family using the term to indicate their constitution, as their dialect includes many such oddities. I didn't know the term had reached across the pond, though I suppose it arrived with mass steelworking, and I know that there were quite a few Yorkshire folk emigrated to America.

 

Thinking on it in terms of what Mr Elerond states, it does make sense for the Ninth World, and it's nice to see such an obscure term used rather than falling back on the usual faux Latin that we're all conversant with.

Edited by Nonek

Quite an experience to live in misery isn't it? That's what it is to be married with children.

I've seen things you people can't even imagine. Pearly Kings glittering on the Elephant and Castle, Morris Men dancing 'til the last light of midsummer. I watched Druid fires burning in the ruins of Stonehenge, and Yorkshiremen gurning for prizes. All these things will be lost in time, like alopecia on a skinhead. Time for tiffin.

 

Tea for the teapot!

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  • 3 months later...

Doesn't look that good tbh, the visuals I mean.

My only issue with the visuals is that the characters look like they're floating above the ground, but it's alpha, I assume that will be addressed.

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🇺🇸RFK Jr 2024🇺🇸

"Any organization created out of fear must create fear to survive." - Bill Hicks

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  • 3 weeks later...

Soooo, inXile just replaced the project lead for TTON and pushed the release to sometime in 2016. Not that I really mind pushing the game back because better later than buggy. I'd rather not have TTON resemble WL2's Los Angeles in terms of everything wonderfully working as intended but I wonder what lead to that decision. Something (or everything, rather) about the way they worded that e-mail rubs me the wrong way.

No mind to think. No will to break. No voice to cry suffering.

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Sucks to hear about Kevin Saunders. MotB was really good. Pipe dream is for him Avellone and Mitsoda to collaborate on a small scale indie project together. Find a couple artists, programmers, and a sound guy then boom.

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"Things are funny...are comedic, because they mix the real with the absurd." - Buzz Aldrin.

"P-O-T-A-T-O-E" - Dan Quayle

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Sucks to hear about Kevin Saunders. MotB was really good. Pipe dream is for him Avellone and Mitsoda to collaborate on a small scale indie project together. Find a couple artists, programmers, and a sound guy then boom.

I don't know enough about game development to accurately asses the impact of this change. Is project leads vision for the game the absolute truth, or is the process more collaborative effort where the lead simply has last say on things? I mean does it REALLY change the way the game's going to turn out if one person gets changed ?

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