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Torment: Tides of Numenera |OT| What Can Change The Nature of a Man?

From the averages it looks like original Torment was at least 1/3 longer. Generally new torment 25-35 as an average, and old Torment was 35-45.

Planescape Torment had a lot of annoying filler combat between the actual content that we love the game for though, so that might not be saying a lot.
 

bati

Member
Are any quests in the first few areas time sensitive? My party is pretty wiped after the fight with
Peerless
and I haven't rested since the game started, done most of the quests in the reef, market area, government district and the area with tavern.
 
Are any quests in the first few areas time sensitive? My party is pretty wiped after the fight with
Peerless
and I haven't rested since the game started, done most of the quests in the reef, market area, government district and the area with tavern.

The
execution sidequest
is time sensitive. But you will get a warning after resting that X days are left, and it only takes a few minutes to resolve.

I've come across one other quest that appeared time sensitive. I didn't rest during that one, though, so I'm not sure what kind of countdown you're looking at.
 
I'm not a english native speaker, but I found some of the prose to be unfamiliar. A lot of it actually. But I don't think it's a bad thing. In fact, it humbles me. I feel I learning something new, but I am not sure if I understand the meaning of all of the colorful descriptions.

I've also never played such a story heavy game before. It's unusual for me, but I find it intriguing so far.
 
Unfortunately, your inactive party members don't gain any experience so once you settle on a party composition you're highly incentivized to keep at it with the rare exception of quests for your other companions. There's also only one Glaive NPC in the game and that limits things a bit if you like having a well-balanced group.

Just gonna spoiler these names.
I went with diplomatic Nano, Rhin, Erritis and Matkina and found that it covers every imaginable situation. On top of having characters with Edge in all three primary stats for skill checks, Erritis and Matkina can both do great damage with the right weapons, Rhin ends up being super overpowered with cyphers and I built the Last Castoff for battlefield control/buffing/debuffing.

Thanks. I suspected inactive companions weren't getting any XP. That's disappointing, particularly because I did a lot of Sagus Cliffs quests with characters I may drop, but oh well.
 

Moff

Member
The
execution sidequest
is time sensitive. But you will get a warning after resting that X days are left, and it only takes a few minutes to resolve.

I've come across one other quest that appeared time sensitive. I didn't rest during that one, though, so I'm not sure what kind of countdown you're looking at.

apparently I missed
the execution quest
I talked to the guy right at the start, did I have to come back later to start the quest?
and what about the guy with the captured creature in the middle of the market? I never got a quest there either
 

Conezays

Member
I'm not a english native speaker, but I found some of the prose to be unfamiliar. A lot of it actually. But I don't think it's a bad thing. In fact, it humbles me. I feel I learning something new, but I am not sure if I understand the meaning of all of the colorful descriptions.

I've also never played such a story heavy game before. It's unusual for me, but I find it intriguing so far.

Don't feel bad! The game's text is definitely verbose, and (intentionally IMO) a bit long-winded. Props to playing such a game as a non-native speaker.
 
I'm not a english native speaker, but I found some of the prose to be unfamiliar. A lot of it actually. But I don't think it's a bad thing. In fact, it humbles me. I feel I learning something new, but I am not sure if I understand the meaning of all of the colorful descriptions.

I've also never played such a story heavy game before. It's unusual for me, but I find it intriguing so far.

They're using intentionally complicated and flowery language. It reads more like something that is trying to be artistic and deep than a normal story. I wouldn't worry. I guarantee you 95% of people would understand all the descriptions on the first read. I work with writing and reading in English every day as a core component of my job and I have to read some of the stuff multiple times.

It's certainly not a bad thing - i'm loving the game - but it might have been better had they toned it down.
 

Lister

Banned
I actually think Expeditions Conquistador was an example of something pushing RPGs in an interesting direction at least. No Truce With the Furies and Age of Decadence are other good examples of doing something interesting with the medium.

In what ways?
 

bati

Member
This is definitely a disappointing aspect of the game. I wish they wouldn't have done that.

I can see why they've done it but yeah, I think it will lead to metagaming in the future as people come up with different party comps and quest orders to acquire the right npcs asap.
 

MartyStu

Member
And an important, gameplay warning about
Rhin
which I'll double spoiler:

If you ever dismiss her, she's permanently gone.

I do not know if that is intentional on their part, but that is a pretty nice touch for that companion.
 

HK-47

Oh, bitch bitch bitch.
I can see why they've done it but yeah, I think it will lead to metagaming in the future as people come up with different party comps and quest orders to acquire the right npcs asap.

Or someone mods the game.
 

HK-47

Oh, bitch bitch bitch.
Yes, original Torment being AD&D is irrelevant (it's relevant for the other games where mechanics are an aspect). But it is relevant that Torment was Planescape. And that already was just a pale version of Planescape itself. Just a scratch on the surface.

Numenera, the source material itself, doesn't hold a candle to Planescape. I feel that the same translates comparing original Torment to the new one.

I guess if someone simply took the original Ravenloft and dug in what was written at the time, this already would make a better game than anything based on Numenera. Those old settings are far, far more interesting than anything surfaced in the last years.

Not even close. Several of the supplemental new World of Darkness settings and Eclipse Phase are far more interesting than Ravenloft IMO. Hell if you want gothic or medieval horror, Vampire the Dark Ages is the real setting to play in. I also dont see what Numenera is so deficient in. Planescape doesnt have an equal as a setting inculding its contemporaries.
 

Durante

Member
I played for around 2 hours just now.

The good things are that I like the overall style, the writing, and the setting so far. And those might be the most important aspects of a Torment game. The stat system also seems interesting. Oh, and I have no technical issues at all (with 3 second load times and consistent 60 FPS).

I'm more ambivalent about the UI. Compared to Wasteland 2, it's an improvement, but some things are inexplicably clunky nonetheless, especially in combat. Also in the not-sure-yet category are some of the choices which feel forced this early in the game.

Finally, I find the graphics a tad disappointing. I fully realize this is a Kickstarter game, and what that means for budget, but I feel like e.g. PoE did a better job with the map background quality and its consistency. Also, the character animations in Torment are amateur to a level I didn't expect. None of this is a huge criterion, I just feel like they could have done a bit better.
Oh, and the same goes for the VA of some characters.

I actually think Expeditions Conquistador was an example of something pushing RPGs in an interesting direction at least.
Sadly I primarily found it to be an example of a game not having the diversity of content to justify its playtime (not even by a long shot).
 

Sinatar

Official GAF Bottom Feeder
One of my party members has a speech bubble over their portrait and they keep saying they want to talk to me but I can't find any unique conversation options to talk about. Is there some special way to trigger these conversations?

EDIT: It went away when I did a zone transition, must have been a bug or something.
 

DiscoJer

Member
I'm not a english native speaker, but I found some of the prose to be unfamiliar. A lot of it actually. But I don't think it's a bad thing. In fact, it humbles me. I feel I learning something new, but I am not sure if I understand the meaning of all of the colorful descriptions.

There is a literary tradition of sorts to use unusual, more poetic language for far future fantasy stories. Arguably started by Clark Ashton Smith and popularized by Jack Vance in his Dying Earth stories and later Gary Gygax who imitated Vance
 

FlyinJ

Douchebag. Yes, me.
Does anyone find the ear-splitting crunch-woosh noise that plays whenever you start a conversation extremely annoying? Why in the hell is it so loud?

I turned down sound effects to make that noise play at a tolerable level, but now I can barely hear any other sound effects.

I hope they either patch that or someone can mod it out.
 

Fantastapotamus

Wrong about commas, wrong about everything
So I've been playing for maybe 2 hours so far, which means I mostly run around the city looking at everything and talking to everyone.
So far I like a lot of what this game is doing. One thing that seems odd to me is though are the exp. I gain around 2 exp for discoveries etc which seems extremely inconsequential seeing how I already need 180 for the next level. I'm not saying the game should shower you in levels and experience it just feels like they are just there to give me the feeling that I have accomplished something when the real accomplishment should be the conversation and world building that just happened. It's like climbing Mount Everest and getting a cookie at the top. Sure, I'll take it but if you wanted to reward me this seems a little weak.
Not really a problem though since I would be okay if I got no xp from that, more of an observation.

Not really sure what to think of the pool system, I'm not the biggest fan so far but I'm also not sure how I would replace it.

I'm also not really sure about my character story either. The set-up is amazing but the early parts worry me a little. I loved that in Planescape nobody really gave a shit about what I was because in the twisted world of PS:T a dude who regularly comes back to life probably isn't out of the ordinary. Yup, here I am again, a quasi immortal being and my floating skull buddy. Move along, nothing to see. Not really certain I like how so many people already tell me how special and magical and powerful I am. Then again, I'm only 2 hours in, so it would be unfair to judge the game after basically nothing happened.

Two distinct RPG types. You prefer to read more or combat more?

To be fair you do also read a lot in Pillars. It's not like that game is just a series of battles. Though combat obviously plays a much larger part than in Torment.
 

jtb

Banned
Can anyone who played Pillars tell me which one is better? I'm trying to decide to get Pillars of Eternity or this.

Get Pillars if, for no other reason, it always makes sense to buy a game that's been patched, supported, re-balanced than one straight out of the box. Just my two cents.
 

Jag

Member
Can anyone who played Pillars tell me which one is better? I'm trying to decide to get Pillars of Eternity or this.

I've played through Pillars twice, not sure I will even finish this one. I've always liked my RPGs more combat heavy though.
 

QFNS

Unconfirmed Member
This game feels surprisingly close to the tabletop system (spoiler which I also backed, but haven't played since my group hasn't been interested). The XP system is a bit different and the tides stuff isn't part of it but it REALLY feels like a table top game in quite a few ways. The long bouts of exposition, and backstories for lots of random NPCs really make it feel like a real place. It's like an idealized version of an RPG town when your DM is an author with tons of free time.
 

Massicot

Member
And an important, gameplay warning about Rhin which I'll double spoiler:

If you ever dismiss her, she's permanently gone.

Pretty big spoiler about that character:

For me, she came back in the last act of the game as an adult, it was really touching. I completed her "quest" or whatever by talking to someone in one of the slums in the Bloom
 
To be fair you do also read a lot in Pillars. It's not like that game is just a series of battles. Though combat obviously plays a much larger part than in Torment.

Wait. So are you saying this game has more reading than Pillars? I thought Pillars is known to be heavy on reading?
 
See, I think you're misinterpreting what I'm saying. I of course accept that there are differing viewpoints on games, but that's a completely vapid thing to say. When you adopt a position of 'well everyone's entitled to their opinion' that is, while of course true as an abstract proposition, it leads to a useless relativism where nobody can really claim 'Game X is better than Game Y' and you get slipping standards in gameplay where games which have barely any actual gameplay like Assassins Creed can be regularly reviewed in the high 9s and 10s.

Then stick to discussing your own opinions instead of saying dumb arbitrary things like nobody will regard PoE as a classic. That just invites a stream of people responding to the contrary.

Wait. So are you saying this game has more reading than Pillars? I thought Pillars is known to be heavy on reading?

Way, way more reading in Numenara.
 

Eusis

Member
Pillars if you like combat, Torment if you like interesting quests.

Back in the day:
Icewind Dale if you like combat, Torment if you like interesting quests.

The more things change 😄
Admittedly isn't Pillars a bit closer to the Baldur's Gate side of things? Granted I guess you could go Icewind Dale and just make a party of generics, and admittedly I didn't play that much since I heard how it was more "combat focused" and didn't really care to play versus the more story focused games.
 

The Wart

Member
Wait. So are you saying this game has more reading than Pillars? I thought Pillars is known to be heavy on reading?

Both have a lot of reading, but in Torment* navigating dialogue trees is the primary form of gameplay. You have to pay attention and put together pieces of information you hear from various places. In Pillars, the primary gameplay form is fighting your way through dungeons and wilderness areas; talking matters and you can make choices that change who you fight and/or cause you fight more or less, but it always comes down to combat in the end.

Torment also has a more fantastical, surreal, "anything can happen" tone, whereas Pillars has standard high fantasy trappings but is actually fairly grounded, falling somewhere between typical D&D and The Witcher.

*Haven't aaaaactually played Tides yet but from everything I've heard it is very much like Planescape in that respect.
 
I'm not a english native speaker, but I found some of the prose to be unfamiliar. A lot of it actually. But I don't think it's a bad thing. In fact, it humbles me. I feel I learning something new, but I am not sure if I understand the meaning of all of the colorful descriptions.

I've also never played such a story heavy game before. It's unusual for me, but I find it intriguing so far.

Also anything you don't understand, that you might think is important you could post here for clarification. A lot of it is intentionally verbose and not necessarily for the betterment of the story or experience as a whole.
 
Ok I seriously need help. How do I dismiss a party member? And if I do, how do you get them back? I have a full party but I want to recruit a different one. I can't because it's full as far as I can tell.
 

LiQuid!

I proudly and openly admit to wishing death upon the mothers of people I don't like
Can anyone who played Pillars tell me which one is better? I'm trying to decide to get Pillars of Eternity or this.

I tried to play Torment first, for about 3-4 hours and was having a pretty poor time. It's very verbose, I wasn't engaged by the world and it's not combat focused at all, and what little combat/mechanics there was just irritated me more than excited me. I started playing Pillars today and got immediately hooked. It was much more what I was looking for. More adventure + combat and less just sit and read NPC dialog for large stretches of time. Ended up playing that game for something like 6 hours straight and can't wait to get back to it.

I don't want to crap on Pillars cause I'm sure it would get more interesting if I stuck with it and met more of the characters and stuff, but honestly if you're just getting one, I can already tell you that Pillars is a much more balanced gameplay experience. I'm mad at myself that I waited 2 years to play it.

Ok I seriously need help. How do I dismiss a party member? And if I do, how do you get them back? I have a full party but I want to recruit a different one. I can't because it's full as far as I can tell.

If you initiate dialog with any character there should be an option to dismiss them.
 
Has anyone here really spoke to
Rhin
? for some reason, she's an odd ball of a young child but yet she's interesting on how she speaks and of course other elements that I will say here for Spoiler reasons.
 
I tried to play Torment first, for about 3-4 hours and was having a pretty poor time. It's very verbose, I wasn't engaged by the world and it's not combat focused at all, and what little combat/mechanics there was just irritated me more than excited me. I started playing Pillars today and got immediately hooked. It was much more what I was looking for. More adventure + combat and less just sit and read NPC dialog for large stretches of time. Ended up playing that game for something like 6 hours straight and can't wait to get back to it.

I don't want to crap on Pillars cause I'm sure it would get more interesting if I stuck with it and met more of the characters and stuff, but honestly if you're just getting one, I can already tell you that Pillars is a much more balanced gameplay experience. I'm mad at myself that I waited 2 years to play it.



If you initiate dialog with any character there should be an option to dismiss them.

Don't be. The game you're playing now is very different from the one at launch. It got like 10+ polishing and rebalancing patches
 
I love that I've played ten hours, advanced the main story quest once, and have six rotating party members. I've done a ton of quests. I have yet to fight beyond the tutorial in your mind. This is a great tribute to PS:T.
 

Eusis

Member
Man, I hope I don't NEED to get through Crisises in the future (or that they get easier later on) because I've died at each one beyond the very first. Which works OK without my other characters dying admittedly, but god damn.

Might also have just messed my character up period for combat, or not really know what to do best for combat.
 

Conezays

Member
Man, I hope I don't NEED to get through Crisises in the future (or that they get easier later on) because I've died at each one beyond the very first. Which works OK without my other characters dying admittedly, but god damn.

Might also have just messed my character up period for combat, or not really know what to do best for combat.

For me, so far there's been conversation choices that you can choose which prevent combat from occurring. Of course this means that you have to go with a choice which you may or may not agree with for your character/situation, etc. or if there are stats preventing as such. Regardless, I've been able to avoid combat making these choices; not sure if there are 100 % mandatory fights later on. I'm about 5.5 hours in doing various side quests and enjoying the game quite a bit.
 
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