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Game News inXile admit that Torment stretch goal content has been cut, including companions

Infinitron

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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Tags: Brother None; Eric Schwarz; InXile Entertainment; Torment: Tides of Numenera

The Torment: Tides of Numenera Kickstarter campaign in 2013 was a merry affair, with numerous stretch goals fulfilled. Now, nearly four years later and with indications that the game's development may have been troubled, some people have begun to wonder about the state of those stretch goals.

It started when local inXile sceptic Fairfax claimed earlier this month that The Toy, a unique "living ball of goo" companion who was a $2M stretch goal, had probably been cut from the game, based on its near-total absence from decompiled beta files and promotional footage. Another companion named Riastrad had also probably been cut. These claims were strengthened by the absence of said companions from Torment's Playstation 4 trophy list (spoiler alert). Faced with this evidence and the subsequent unrest on their official forums, inXile's Eric Schwarz was finally compelled to respond a couple of days ago:

Hi guys,

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.

That said, we certainly haven't shut the door on Torment’s development. We still have a lot of early work done on other companions and are open to continuing to work on the game. We can say that any DLCs or expansions that we put out will always be free to our backers of that game, so there is no need to worry about paying for any additional content in Torment.
But before that happened, Fairfax raised the possibility that another piece of content, the Oasis of M'ra Jolios, had also been cut from the game. The Oasis was to be Torment's "second major city" and was a $4M stretch goal. Unlike The Toy, areas from the Oasis had appeared in recent promotional material from inXile, but it was still suspiciously absent from beta files and the PS4 trophy list. To this claim, Thomas Beekers responded on the inXile forums:

Hey everyone. The Oasis is still represented in the game, and as some of you have pointed out, we've shown it several times before in screenshots and media.

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.

As a result, the Oasis ended up taking on a smaller role, but you will still be able to visit it during the game.
Finally, realizing that something was up, a user on the inXile forums asked about the state of yet another piece of stretch goal content - the Voluminous Codex, a kind of fancy customizable in-game journal/lore compendium that was added to the game when the Kickstarter campaign reached $4.25M. Eric Schwarz replied briefly:

We're still going to release the Voluminous Codex, but we're now planning to offer it as a separate lore compendium outside of the game.
Regardless of how you feel about their responses, it's now clear that despite an extended development cycle, a ready-made engine from Obsidian, an existing ruleset and a simple, restricted combat model, inXile have had significant issues with the management of Torment's development. There's no telling which of the game's many other stretch goals they may have also backed out of. I would strongly recommend that they publish a Kickstarter update clarifying this matter. People paid money for these.
 

vonAchdorf

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Regardless of how you feel about their responses, it's now clear that despite an extended development cycle, a ready-made engine from Obsidian, an existing ruleset and a simple, restricted combat model, inXile have had significant issues with the management of Torment's development. There's no telling which of the game's many other stretch goals they may have also backed out of. I would strongly recommend that they publish a Kickstarter update clarifying this issue. People paid money for these.

I bet you enjoyed writing these lines :D
 

Infinitron

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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
P.S. The reason why I didn't post this earlier?

1) I was waiting to see if any other stuff would show up, like the Voluminous Codex response. (Nah.)

2) I wanted to shill for the game, but Fairfax convinced me not to. (Nope.)

3) I was lazy. (Ding ding ding!)
 

Volourn

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Well.. at least I didn't KS this EPIC FAIL... I won't eb so tormented.


Now, WL2 and BT4... *shudder* I'm gonna need to be wasted to tell my tale of woe to all bards in every land. :(
 

Somberlain

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inEptile does it again.

pKTvxFV.jpg
 

Fairfax

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UPDATE 1: Crafting is gone. Labyrinth+extra features and expanded epilogue confirmed.

Confirmed to be cancelled/changed:

5th companion: A fifth companion will be added to the base four, “the Toy”, a changing ball of goo: Is it a pet, an abandoned toy, a dangerous weapon? Whatever it is, it responds to the way you treat it by changing its appearance and abilities to reflect what it perceives as your desires. Its ultimate secrets are… well, you’ll have to find out.

Oasis of M'ra Jolios and More Mark Morgan Music: At this Stretch Goal, we are also adding the major city location of the Oasis of M’ra Jolios (the underwater city in the desert whose concept we sent in Update 11 and whose wallpapers are available on our website). And we are adding even more Mark Morgan music, which of course will be included in the game’s digital soundtrack and audio CD rewards. (We’ll want more music to properly convey the mood and atmosphere of the new areas and companions we’ll be adding – including the Oasis.)
Supposedly replaced by the Bloom as a major city. One are confirmed to be in the game, along with a couple of Meres.

Voluminous Codex: We always intended for Torment to have a journal that would log your discoveries within the Ninth World. Not the kind of Journal that tells you exactly where you need to go next and what you need to do – you are an RPG connoisseur after all, and don’t need us to hold your hand. But what you might like is a journal to catalog your travels and discoveries, one to which you might refer when some past details elude you. One of your suggestions that we really liked was to take the journal quite a bit further. At this Stretch Goal, we are doing that – we’ll expand the journal, giving you more lore, more creature and character portraits, and more information on interesting/important events as you come across them. As with the rest of the game’s user interface, the journal will be highly customizable to suit your tastes.
May be offered as a "separate lore compendium outside of the game".

7th Companion: Another surprise companion is added. You want blood? You’ve got it.

6th Companion: A sixth companion has been added, but we’re leaving this one mysterious for now.

Unless you consider the Spectre an actual companion, which doesn't seem to be the case.

We have committed to at least English, French, German, Italian, Polish, Russian, and Spanish. We may support other languages later if enough players are interested.
Italian localization has been cancelled. InXile is offerring refunds.

This Kickstarter is focused on making the best computer RPG possible and we are focused on PC (Windows), Mac, and Linux. Other platforms may be possible at a later time, but all funds from this Kickstarter will focus on making the best computer gaming experience possible.
Brian Fargo also promised the PC version would be released before any potential console releases, but it'll be simultaneous instead.

Crafting Numenera: The numenera may be beyond our understanding, but they aren’t beyond our use. This Stretch Goal allows you to learn the tricks to combining the numenera into your own custom cyphers and artifacts. This would not be a rote crafting system, but one that includes some puzzle-solving elements (though not what you’d call a mini-game) and that is tied into the world and narrative. This is yet another idea we started to explore early on for the game, but that felt out of scope for our original budget. But at this Stretch Goal, we can confidently commit to restoring this aspect of our design vision as well.

Possibly cut/delayed:


Colin will do a developer commentary Let’s Play of Planescape: Torment.
Said he's focusing on TTON, but still going to do it.

Mark Morgan will create more music and use a live orchestra to record it, and we will offers the soundtrack in lossless FLAC format as well as mp3.
The live orchestra hasn't been confirmed.

Hall of Lingering Reflections: This gathering place offers unique opportunities and tools to help you defeat your foes. It is a living museum, a history, a prison. This subterranean vault is a place of memories, a vault of pain and laughter, built by a forgotten power for forgotten reasons. The memories of its denizens are frozen in time, and so they have no knowledge of the passage of the centuries beyond these walls. Its doors open into smaller worlds, pocket dimensions that house these shells in a simulation of their memories. But who lies hidden here? What secrets might you unlock? And is it possible to spirit one of this company away as you seek your creator?

Brian Mitsoda joins the writing team.
AFAIK there's no information whatsoever regarding his contribution as a writer.

Player “Stronghold”: In your struggle to find your legacy, there may come a time when you want someplace more permanent to call home (or perhaps not so permanent or not so much a home). At $4.5M, we are implementing a player stronghold that you may come across in your journeys. The stronghold will be a playable area, a personal hub and base of operations, and it may come with its own quests or difficulties. What will it be exactly? We’ll explore further to see what makes the most sense for the game and narrative. Some of the ideas (from us and from you) vary from a personal airship to a hidden location in your mind, to an alternative dimensional pocket. What it won’t be is your typical cozy home - it will fit the atmosphere of Torment’s story and Numenera’s world. We’ll surprise you with what it may be (and perhaps its form will even depend upon your choices within the game).
I think they've said it's still in, but haven't shown anything yet.

Colin McComb's Torment novella

Monte Cook novella: A seventh novella, penned by Numenera creator Monte Cook, is added to the compilation! (This novella will also be given as a bonus reward to Numenera backers @ the $20 Tier (EBOOK FAN) or higher, regardless of whether they back Torment.)
The two novellas are still planned.
 
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Infinitron

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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Fairfax If you want to go crusading with this, you need to be more plausible. The Oasis is in the game - you'll be dismissed as a troll if you just say "it's gone". Also, for example, Rothfuss is actually credited as a main writer (not additional writer) so he probably did write his companion, right?

re: the novellas, you don't need to link to my post, here's the recent Kickstarter update that mentioned them: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inxile/torment-tides-of-numenera/posts/1744425
 
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FeelTheRads

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I even forgot about that Codex thing. Funny to read this now:

We always intended for Torment to have a journal that would log your discoveries within the Ninth World. Not the kind of Journal that tells you exactly where you need to go next and what you need to do – you are an RPG connoisseur after all, and don’t need us to hold your hand.

:lol:

The "codex" made way for exactly that kind of journal in the end.
 

FeelTheRads

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But hey, you can play the game on your PlayStation(TM)!

sea's dream, afaik.

Anyway, with all these problems it's pretty obvious that they had to take a shitty deal with Techland because they ran out of money. At this point Techland are literally wiping their dicks on Fargo's face while he keeps on babbling about how they're in control and independent.
 
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despite an extended development cycle, a ready-made engine from Obsidian, an existing ruleset and a simple, restricted combat model, nXile have had significant issues with the management of Torment's development.

The way I remember this game being pitched it was insanely ambitious, with AoD-style xtreme scripting inserted into every combat encounter, and quest states changing over time as you took naps. A systemic "complex" combat model would've been a development cakewalk compared to that.
 

Fairfax

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Fairfax If you want to go crusading with this, you need to be more plausible. The Oasis is in the game - you'll be dismissed as a troll if you just say "it's gone". Also, for example, Rothfuss is listed as a main writer (not even additional writer) so he probably wrote his companion, right?

re: the novellas, you don't need to link to my post, here's the recent Kicsktarter update that mentioned them: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inxile/torment-tides-of-numenera/posts/1744425
I was updating the list. :M

As for Rothfuss: it's just based on his own work and lack of information. I looked for blog updates and interviews, and Rothfuss himself hasn't mentioned TTON since 2013.
The only confirmation we have is that he wrote what the "Companion Design Document":
The CDD is a 50 to 70 page behemoth of a document where the character’s back-story, personality, and story arc are finally turned into actual dialog
Some of the companion writers, such as Chris Avellone and Patrick Rothfuss, don’t continue on to the Global Dialog creation. We don’t need them to become experts at the conversation editor, and a full time designer can use their CDD to implement the dialog. (Though the original writer later does a pass on the implemented content to make sure it stayed true to their voice.)

Doesn't say confirm that he (and MCA) wrote any dialogue, designed their quest, etc. I guess the CDD counts as writing a companion depending on how you look at it, so I'll remove it from the list for now.
 
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Sannom

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I'm a bit confused by the Voluminous Codex, I can understand why they would cut the "extremely customizable" part, but an in-game encyclopedia can't have been that hard to create, right? Unless they wanted to go further than what PoE did, perhaps include a better editor for journal entries and a search engine?
 

Ovplain

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I really do not know how to feel about this. I'm really excited about the game, but part of me does feel a bit agitated. I mean, some content got cut, fine. It happens, I understand. Or I would have understood, if the game didn't go from 'PC Exclusive' to 'multi-platform' at launch. That bothers me. The thought that they might've diverted funds/time away from making 'the best computer gaming experience possible' and towards making it a multi-platform title at launch. That'd suck. Nothing against multi-platform games, but that wasn't what was promised!

And yeah, the game's a month away and this is the first time we're hearing any of this?
 
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PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015 Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire Serpent in the Staglands Bubbles In Memoria A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire
I really do not know how to feel about this. I'm really excited about the game, but part of me does feel a bit agitated. I mean, some content got cut, fine. It happens, I understand. Or I would have understood, if the game didn't go from 'PC Exclusive' to 'multi-platform' at launch. That bothers me. The thought that they might've diverted funds/time away from making 'the best computer gaming experience possible' and towards making it a multi-platform title at launch. That'd suck. Nothing against multi-platform games, but that wasn't what was promised!

And yeah, the game's a month away and this is the first time we're hearing any of this?

You should feel like inXile mismanaged a crowdfunded project, took a bad deal with a publisher, and has since been engaged in a spin heavy damage control mode where backers get the shaft and the Codex gets blacklisted. The customer comes last, the same as with AAA publishing.

As far as emotions go, I recommend cold indifference.
 

Darkzone

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The entire project seems to have been mismanaged from the beginning till the end. 5 millions backer raised funds, Wasteland 2 income, Techland money and then still this cuts. This is like if Trump would allocate 20 billions for the wall and in the end the it would result in building a 1 meter fence on the mexican border. The inXile employees seem not to be that productive.
 

AMG

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Codex vs inEptile war in full swing I see.:hero:


By that I mean that combat generally only takes place in certain times and places. Easily controllable, no unintended side effects, no need to take care of the consequences of any NPC in the game getting killed.
Wasn't it pitched like that from the beginning? I thought they called fights "crises" to highlight the fact that combat only takes place as specific scenarios and that there is no "freeform" murdering.
 

Fairfax

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For the Codex, the uncomfortable part is that it's probably mainly ksaun's fault. (not for being a dick and hiding them, but for the cuts being necessary in the first place)
How so? He was fired/let go in October 2015. It was early in the game's development, and he wasn't responsible for decisions such as holding the game's production back so that half the team could work on WL2 DC.
 

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