Torment: Tides of Numenera is a highly anticipated RPG, however it appears that inXile has removed some content from it; content that was promised via the game’s Kickstarter stretch goals.
According to inXile’s Eric Schwarz, the game’s companions have been reduced from 9 to 6. As Eric claimed, inXile found that the more far reaching and reactive its companions were, the better they felt and the more justice it did to the original Planescape: Torment. As such, the team decided to reduce the companions to 6, even though it promised – via a stretch goal – to offer 9 companions.
As Eric said:
“The companion roster has been slightly reduced from our initial plans. Throughout development on Torment, our philosophy has always emphasized depth and reactivity in our storyline and in our characters. We know you would not be satisfied with anything else. During development, we found that the more far reaching and reactive our companions were, the better they felt and the more justice it did to the original Planescape: Torment. This trade-off meant we were able to add more companion conversations, banter, voice-over, quests, and story endings. We did not want to leave some companions feeling shallow, with storylines that felt incomplete, or be forced to shove them into the late game.”
In addition, the crafting system has been completely removed from the game. As inXile’s sear claimed, the crafting system did not fit Torment’s gameplay, which is why inXile decided to completely remove it, despite the fact that this system was promised via another stretch goal.
“The main one that I haven’t seen mentioned, but should address, is crafting. During development, it became very clear that a traditional crafting system wasn’t meshing. We had some early design done, but everything ended up feeling like an MMO-style system, and that just didn’t fit Torment’s gameplay. Instead, we repurposed those resources, adding significantly more and better Cyphers and Artifacts to the game.”
Some users were also upset by the fact that Oasis, an area that was meant to be the second major city of the game, will now be a smaller area. Instead of Oasis, inXile decided to use Bloom as the second major city area of Torment: Tides of Numenera. Bloom was originally meant to be a smaller area, however inXile was fascinated with the Bloom’s darker, more Tormenty feel. As such, the team decided to switch Oasis with Bloom.
“You may have noticed we’ve been showing off the Bloom a lot lately, and that’s no coincidence. Despite being one of the earliest locations we showed, the Bloom was originally intended to be smaller than it ended up being. Though we initially planned for the Oasis to be our second major story hub, over time our fascination with the Bloom’s darker, more Tormenty feel, led to it being recast as the game’s second major city hub instead. We felt creatively this was the right thing to do, and the change did not shorten the gameplay experience.”
Torment: Tides of Numenera is currently planned for a February 28th release!
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Companions from 6 to 9? Ok, I can deal with that. But removing the entire crafting system? Damn, I was looking forward to that. I love crafting my gear and what not in rpg’… what a bummer… Let’s see how this turns out
My main gripe with crafting systems in just about any RPG, is that the system is mostly for slight improvements, whereas you always end up finding really good loot or get end-game loot that dwarfs whatever you can craft.
I would really, really love for a dev to craft an RPG where you can actually skill up your craftsmanship and actually create unique tools, weapons and armor that can be comparable, if not that bit better than what you find in dungeons.
In other words 9 is too much for console players.
Console players would likely cope just fine. Console hardware crippled by the mobile-oriented AMD Jaguar CPU however…
The peasantry can’t deal with more than a few buttons. Analog at that.
First off, 69 is my favorite number and secondly, I had no idea there was a crafting system to begin with so none of this bothers me.
“The companion roster has been slightly reduced”
A reduction of one third aka 33.33% is only ‘slight’ in his opinion? Sugarcoating the facts is one thing but that’s just plain laughable.
Just tell it us straight rather than insult our intelligence with such painfully transparent and wholly unconvincing PR damage limitation.
So it beings. I’m not following this project but I know a lot of people are expecting it to crash and burn.
nothing but lies and delays from these guys…. and bugs…. cut content… more lies….
yea who cares about kickstarter campaign goal promises right? lets have PC gamers back our games and then divide our resources for console versions instead. “focused on making it on PC first” my *** Inxile.
Not really liking Inexile, they release a prominent PC genre of game to consoles at the same time. Meaning they are paying less attention to the PC build and crowd. If they would’ve gone the larian way of releasing on consoles after the game is done on PC I would’ve liked them better. Especially considering it was the PC players who kickstarted it.
I don’t understand why crafting needed to be cut, they just had to make it non-essential. My bullshit detector is going off on their MMO statement.
Designing, implementing and testing a crafting system requires a considerable amount of time and resources. Crafting was never a highlight of PST and certainly isn’t a necessity for every game. If the developers believe that a crafting system wouldn’t improve the game, it’s entirely their decision to not do it.
Game development is not an exact science. Lots of ideas that sound good on paper don’t actually work out in practice and end up getting cut. Personally, I’d be disappointed if they felt committed to delivering on stretch goals if said stretch goals weren’t actually offering anything of value.
It is not necessarily just about crafting. the way they are dealing with the situation is the real issue. they talk about how crafting didn’t fit Torment’s style, yet the voted turn-based somehow does fit apparently so i highly doubt they have an issue with crafting not fitting Torment’s style to begin with. then they cut 3 out of 9 companion choices that was promised. instead of spending a part of their budget to make console versions possible ASAP they could first make sure to deliver the best experience on PC, which is what they promised in their campaign.
It’s random, mainly because the vast majority of these indie RPG games are mostly and majority wise, backed by PC players and not console players, especially not console players since they have pubs and their brand owners who bid for them instead.
Consolized dreck. Keep it.
Apparently not.
Just leave it at console RPG’s can’t handle……….
The more we get close to the release of the game, the more we discover things that aren’t in game. No italian localization, no crafting, less companions…there’s still a month, I hope we don’t have to follow this path
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1108fbeb54290f2f6bfae6f9ffc195f6b6717c616ade533df01baa93f60a702f.gif
If only it was possible to add stuff later for free like say cdproject
i have total confidence that the game is going to be great. I don’t care about crafting but 6 companions are a lot less than 9. With 3 max companions at a time having 9 meant you could have 3 very different play through s. I am only going to pay it once so it doesn’t bother me. Having 6 deep written chars is better than 9 shallower ones
Eh, the companions thing is a shame, but I’d rather have 6 good companions than nine where a few felt shallow. I don’t give a crap about crafting. Also, lol at all the PC elitists whining about consoles in the comments. Never change, guys.
When you are so much better than peasants , why not act elite, 4k and 60fps+ or go home.
There’s literally no difference between 30 and 60, but keep telling yourself that so you don’t have to face the fact that you’re wasting money on unnecessary hardware, lol.
I have played the beta and I really like it. It has echoes of PST….but stands on it’s own…The classes could be better IMO, but the game play,story, and immersion into the world of Numenera has been great! Crafting has never been that important to me but I do understand why some people like it, but with a complex story I mush prefer to find items that have significant lore, and or have a few craft-able items at best that have true meaning…
Inxile has done a good job(not great) and are catering to PC gamers at the same time bringing real RPG to the consoles. Put it this way? Would you rather not have them in the here and now and have a void in the games they make or:???? I prefer having them even if they may not be “perfect” to one and all. I am satisfied….
So hilarious reading these “PCMR” elitists when if they truly knew how little it takes to add a crafting system and 3 more companions on a technical side. The minimum pc requirements for this game are hardly anything better than a potato to begin with.
It’s understandable why there’ only 6 companions. Adding 3 more can cause a huge change throughout the game, and if it’s done poorly it’ll show poorly.
it’s also understandable why there’s no crafting system. It was an idea implemented just for the stretch goals side of things. The original didn’t have it. It probably really felt loose and separate, and above all, it more than likely unbalanced the game mechanics.
They should put their time into making a better game and of course take out what hurts it. Even if it they said it was to have it. If it doesn’t fit easily and won’t make it all fun, then cut it. It’s that simple.
Just goes to show you that InXile Entertainment are incompetent with their $4 million budget.
I don’t disagree with any of their reasoning.
InXile is shady.. best be wary of them for any future projects.