Game News Torment: Tides of Numenera Alpha Systems Test Launched

[Trip]

Well, I'm not sure how else to say it, really. It's self-evident (and off-topic). It's well documented that constraints (be they artificial or not) activate the brain's problem-solving mode. -> Creativity. There are whole (actually working) methodologies based on that, not to mention hundreds of artists claiming that this is how *it* works.

And in that vein, maybe the Alpha Test should've tried to play around a little bit with the "You're nowhere, and you suddenly remember X" convention. At the least, make these initial memories relevant to the plot later, please?

 

[Ulrox]

Torment Tides of Numenera has plenty of constraints in the fact that they have 10% of the funding that bigger AAA game developers have, and self imposed constraints in that they want to top planescape torment in literary competence.

 

[Grotesque]

Well, there's nothing to even hint that diving faster would kill you

Oh, yes there is. It's called common sense.

 

[Karwelas]

Well, there's nothing to even hint that diving faster would kill you. The world is Numenera, so that's not a given at all.

You know, there is that little thing that almost nobody heard of... It is called physics. And part of it called gravity. It still work.

 

[Athelas]

Oh, yes there is. It's called common sense.

Actually, you're falling from space and falling with any speed from such a height would kill you. Also, you're supposed to be immortal. So Trip's observation is quite apt.

 

[Crescent Hawk]

I long the day where something like Torment gets made as a FPS like Myst.

 

[Excidium II]

Oh, yes there is. It's called common sense.

You know, there is that little thing that almost nobody heard of... It is called physics. And part of it called gravity. It still work.

How unfamiliar are these two with this type of setting?

 

[Sordid MCA/Prosper Hybryd]

I long the day where something like Torment gets made as a FPS like Myst.

Something liek this?

 

[Karwelas]

How unfamiliar are these two with this type of setting?

Hey, I have basic knowledge about Numenera and still, Gravity is kind of force that should be damn respected when you fall down from space.

 

[Darkzone]

Karwelas
Gravity is not a problem in most cases. It is the velocity resulting from the gravity or simply said the speed resulting from a fall of great heights or being in Orbit, then the drag with the resulting temperature and then the very fast stop.
You have to have a certain velocity so that you are in an constant fall around the earth, and if you fall towards this gravitational well called earth you have to change the length and orientation of this vector.
The jump from 40 km height was therefore something special because the drag does not slow you down as much as you descend towards earth, because the atmospheric pressure is only going up in the lower part of the atmosphere (10km above see level):
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipe...national_Standard_Atmosphere_space_diving.svg
The Drag is proportional to the velocity of an moving object and there also the temperature at the surface of the object, but the drag slows considerably down the falling object. The terminal velocity of a human is around 56m/s, which is about ~180 km/h. This is naturally always deadly for a human if the human hits any water or earth surface. A fall from 10m height, which could cause considerate injuries to a human but is surviivable, is about 14m/s. The live and death thing lies in the question of the negative acceleration of the fall. Now the hero / in of the story seem to have a helping unknown hand in this part.
Ok i go now to sleep and if you wish further explanation then write it and i will explain this... or so.. tomorrow.

 

[Crescent Hawk]

Yes something like Zeno clash but a more subtle surreal approach like Arzach, and more mysterious like Myst.

 

[Grotesque]

How unfamiliar are these two with this type of setting?

It seems I am familiar with the setting same as the authors of this game are if they also think that choosing to plummet toward the planet at even a greater speed is plain retard and you deserve a game over screen seconds within the alpha.
Guess they also thought that nanites & shits are not the answer in the face of oneself stupidity.

Also, you're supposed to be immortal

I think the immortality was canceled when the Universe decided you need to die for being too stupid for opting to dive head first toward a planet.

 

[Excidium II]

Playing with those sorts of expectations is the whole point of using such settings. I hope there's some traps for people that think things should be logical and respect the laws of physics too.

 

[Trip]

Also, unhinted insta-death is sort of an 80s gamebook thing. Don't see how it seriously can have a place in 2015, at the very beginning of a narratively sophisticated game. -> standing by my word they put it in as a gag. (And yes, Numenera + dreamspace where it seems all of this happens = maybe diving just won't kill you. And honestly, as Athelas said, if you fall from space, you will die, flattening yourself to slow down or not, so the other options don't make much sense either.)

 

[Bester]

And honestly, as Athelas said, if you fall from space, you will die, flattening yourself to slow down or not, so the other options don't make much sense either.)

There have been cases of people reaching terminal velocity and surviving after the fall. It rarely happens - you must land on some steep slope covered with lots of snow, be extremely lucky, etc, but it's doable.

 

[Trip]

Well, in this case you land on a crystal surface, if I remember correctly. Anyway, the whole free-fall episode is pretty bizarre, and not reallly in a Numenera "good weird" way.

 

[Infinitron]

Also, unhinted insta-death is sort of an 80s gamebook thing. Don't see how it seriously can have a place in 2015

Joined:
May 24, 2015

 

[Trip]

Meaning? (Apart from the fact that quoting joining dates is something of a tic around here.)

 

[Karwelas]

Meaning?

Meaning - you still must learn much, young fagawan.

 

[Trip]

You do know I wasn't born on the date I registered, right? Neither did I start reading the Codex just then. Neither did I start playing RPGs just then. Just saying.

 

[Transfiguring Roar]

It's the date of your Codex birth, and that's all that matters around here. Before that date, you were in a womb, sheltered, now you must fight for survival.

 

[Ulrox]

Meaning? (Apart from the fact that quoting joining dates is something of a tic around here.)

It's elitism, pure and simple. Older members believe themselves superior to newer members because they have spent more of their life on a forum arguing pointless things, instead of achieving actually important things in life. Other forum's that I have been a part of slowly tended towards elitism also. I suspect that there's a good psychological reason behind this.

 

[Trip]

Well, whatever, pondering what forum posters think of one another and why is a fool's game anyway.

 

[Transfiguring Roar]

It's elitism, pure and simple. Older members believe themselves superior to newer members because they have spent more of their life on a forum arguing pointless things, instead of achieving actually important things in life. Other forum's that I have been a part of slowly tended towards elitism also. I suspect that there's a good psychological reason behind this.

Joined: Jul 19, 2014

 

[Darkzone]

Well, in this case you land on a crystal surface, if I remember correctly. Anyway, the whole free-fall episode is pretty bizarre, and not reallly in a Numenera "good weird" way.

Before you land on whatever it is, something is slowing your fall. The question is what is helping you and why it is helping you. Are you the one who is doing it? Or is it an instance like you, that came before you, that is doing it? Could is be that you have prepared this even before you existed? And that is Torment how it should be.