Tyranny Pre-Release Thread

[Bubbles]

Maybe the third male companion was reserved for DLC.

 

[oneself]

I think they lost a good lot of the BioWare audience once they said "no romances".

No romance?

 

[yes plz]

yeah, i wanted to bang Verse

 

[Starwars]

They've done a good job on updating the models since PoE, that's for sure.

I dig a lot of the worldbuilding stuff in the game, and the concept of the Spires seem pretty cool. It's just a shame that a lot of game mechanics seem so very... boring. It's like you have this awesome concept for a Stronghold. Weird Spire things that you can teleport between and shit, damn. But they allow you to do among the most boring stuff when it comes to crafting stuff in games... weeee? I mean, one of the lessons they've talked about in PoE is that the stronghold mechanic was too "mechanical" and lacking in anything else. I hope they don't do that with the Spires because, again, the mechanics themselves are very par for the course.

 

[Infinitron]

At least these mechanics appear to do useful stuff. The PoE stronghold was a system that had a bunch of moving parts that spun their wheels but produced almost nothing of interest (daily ingredient and cash pickup, yay)

 

[veevoir]

Is there yt version?

 

[LESS T_T]

New dev diary about the stronghold: http://blog.tyrannygame.com/2016/10/27/dev-diary-12-spires

Dev Diary #12 – Spires

In our last developer update, we introduced you to Kills-in-Shadow (affectionately known around the office as “Killsy”), one of your potential Companions and a member of the Beast race on Terratus. For today’s update, I wanted to talk more about the player’s base mechanic, which we revealed yesterday during a live stream.

Two of the most prominent features of the world of Terratus are the Oldwalls and the Spires. We mentioned the Oldwalls in our update about the Bane and showed some gameplay inside the Oldwalls in a previous stream. The Spires play a prominent role in the game’s narrative, and also serve as the location for the player’s base.

As you explore the Tiers you have the opportunity to gain access to several of these Spires. Claiming a Spire unlocks several gameplay benefits:

Reduced Travel Time: Each Spire is magically linked with the others. Once activated, you can teleport between your spires, reducing your travel time through the Tiers.

Upgrading Your Spires: Once you’ve acquired a Spire, you can spend money to build an upgrade on top of the Spire. You can find the details of each upgrade below. Each upgrade provides different benefits to your party, among them providing different rest bonuses when you rest at your Spire. You receive the bonuses for all of your upgrades when you rest at any of your spires.

Hiring Recruits: Once an upgrade has been built on top of a spire, you can begin hiring recruits to work for you at that upgrade. Recruits provide several functions for your party: they can train your party members in skills, they can sell unique weapons and armor, and they can produce new items for your party while they’re out adventuring.

Recruits can come from many different factions in the game, including from your enemies. With the right price, some members of factions that hate you are more than willing to work for you at your Spire. Some recruits are only available if you make certain choices during Conquest.


Spire Upgrades

There are four possible upgrades you can build on a Spire. Each upgrade can only be built once and cannot be removed once built. So once you choose to build a Training Ground, you’ll need to find another Spire before you can build the Library.

Once an upgrade has been constructed, it costs money to maintain. Each month than an upgrade is active, you must pay its maintenance cost. If you don’t have the money for the maintenance cost, then the upgrade is suspended and you no longer receive any benefits of the upgrade until you can pay it again.

Infirmary: The Infirmary upgrade provides a place where healers and alchemists can gather. Once this upgrade is built, you will be able to brew your own potions and poisons and prepare various plants to be safely consumed by your party. This upgrade can be vital to ensure your party’s survival – especially on harder difficulty modes.

Library: Once constructed, the Library upgrade attracts Sages and scholars from around the Tiers. After all, there aren’t many great libraries left after Kyros destroyed the Vellum Citadel. The Library allows your recruits to research hidden lore – from powerful magical Sigils that allow you to enhance and customize your spells, to stories of ancient Artifacts that you might be able to forge anew. Players who want to get the most out of the Spell Crafting system will make the Library and priority.

Forge: Smiths throughout the Tiers, including Kyros’ Forge-Bound, will be amazed at the Forge you can construct on one of your Spires. Building this upgrade allows you to increase the quality of your weapons and armor, improving their damage and defense characteristics. The Forge also allows you to create unique Artifacts and special named items that you won’t find anywhere else in the game.

Training Grounds: The greatest weapon masters and mages in the Tiers are drawn to the Training Grounds. Once constructed, you’ll be able to attract the finest skill trainers, able to increase your party members’ skills to the highest ranks.

~Brian Heins, Game Director

 

[Infinitron]

Whew, good thing I was too busy/lazy to write my own summary of the stream before this came out.

 

[veevoir]

So are there are at least 4 spires that are easy to get, so no casul will be pressured into hard choices?

 

[agris]

I hope Tim's prisoner concept is put to better use in Tyranny.

 

[vonAchdorf]

In the stream they stumbled regarding Kyros' gender as well, so either it has changed or it's variable.

if you don't complete the terms of the edict he that has been issued

 

[Sacred82]

In the stream they stumbled regarding Kyros' gender as well, so either it has changed or it's variable fluid.

ftfy

 

[vonAchdorf]

I get the feeling that the internet discussing this is part of their marketing strategy.

 

[Sacred82]

no shit, morally ambiguous companions, the nature of üvül and Kyros the Overtranny. Such blatant pandering usually only results in circlejerks on the official forums though.

 

[Neanderthal]

Them Spires sound much better than stronghold, though still not a fan o restin bonuses.

 

[DemonKing]

What if the player character is Kyros?

Revan would approve.

 

[Efe]

What if whether Kyros is a man or woman, we can still be assured of nothing?

 

[Covenant Ringthane]

This shit has actually made me bother to get off my arse und debüt auf dem Kodex. Enjoy a strawman typifying the dumb libruls that have made me a centrist, then my wordy rambling concerns for the game itself. Spoilered for illiterates or people that hate walls of text.

Spoiler

Is Kyros a horrible, CIS-gendered scummy opressor (man), a misguided, sadly CIS-gendered internal misogynist (woman), or a gloriously progressive hero that inspires us all (transgender)?

If a man:

Typical modern day, dyed-hair-ruiner, feminazi SJW landwhale: "Opressor! Why are standard body types seen as attractive, instead of my big beautiful body? Ruling over womyn and having them fight in wars! Womyn should be kept safe and protected! Does he have womyn-only welfare? No he doesn't! CIS-gendered scum!"

Cucked SJW male ally: "But landwhale, he's made true equality happen. Of course, that doesn't excuse the fact that heterosexual sex is allowed. He's probably white too. Hey Steve, dick me and my wife extra hard tonight, okay?"

My 90-year old grandmother, a proper self-made woman and actual feminist: "Good for him. He ignores gender, so merit matters. Fucking lazy youngsters, whinging 'cause they don't wanna work like I had to. I built that balcony out there with my own hands, was the first female Dangerous Goods Inspector in my country, and when my husband's abusive ex-wife tried to kill me baby daughter, I beat the shit out of her. What do these bitches do? Complain."


If a woman:

1: "Internalised muh-sogh-un-ee! Sure, she is a womyn, but no true womyn would let men walk around without being spayed like the rapists they are! Letting men hold authority, no wonder there was a rebellion!"

2: "She's not one of us, and is a filthy imperialist whore that obviously takes capitalist dick. *whispers* I'd still let her fuck me with a strap-on though. Elooeez, do you think you could let your hubby masturbate tonight?"

3: "Did she conquer it herself? Good for her. If she inherited it though, she better get her shit in gear - spoiled brats get either manipulated, or the shit kicked out of them."


If a transgender man (woman-to-man):

1: "Why did you get a penis? Yo could have done so much more! At least identify as a woman - then you could join in lesbian orgies, and sort the true lesbians who accept your penis as feminine from the conservative spies."

2L "What a hero! Feel free to fuck my wife till she divorces me."

3: "Stop trying to get people's attention, you fuckwit. We don't care and don't want to know."


If a transgender woman (man-to-woman):

1: "You're scum, trying to join the superior gender. Fuck you!"

2: "Fakhri, why did you change? You can't cuck me with my girlfriend any more? So, uh... Fakhriyya, if I break up with Maddy, can we be together with your brother Aziz?"

3: "Stop trying to get people's attention, you fuckwit. We don't care and don't want to know."


If a blob, eldritch abomination, or other genderless species:

1: "Gender is a social construct, so all is well. *a moment later* REEE! I can't whinge about pseudo-semantic stuff!"

2: "Gender is a social construct, so all is well. *a moment later* REEE! I can't whinge about pseudo-semantic stuff!"

3. "Good for it. It ignores the alien concept of gender, so merit matters."


Now, onto das spiel selbst.

This whole gender thing reminds me, the devs cited The Black Company* as an influence. There's a lot of similarities between Tyranny and the first BC book - evil empire with the ruler having immense magical power (Kyros vs the Lady), a rebellion to free "the people" (Oathbreakers vs the Rebel), hatchet men who command armies, govern and generally sort shit out (Fatebinders vs the Ten Who Were Taken) super-strong wizards in service to the empire (Archons vs the Ten Who Were Taken), factions jockeying for power (Scarlet Chorus/Disfavoured vs the Ten Who Were Taken, with the Back Company as a pawn) and defeated enemies being forced into service (Scarlet Chorus/Disfavoured vs the Ten who Were Taken). So, why the concern? Surely they've just ripped off everything from the first book I mean, made an original universe highly inspired by it, Obsidian dindu nuffin, they iz good goyim.

Well, one thing I haven't seen so far is petty evil. I'm not talking about being a petty bastard who does things for the evulz, rather the small things, evil done for convenience, greed or laziness. Like paying someone who employs a prison workgang $20 to give the 'gang a shitty meal on the outside, to save an extra $10 that would be spent on a proper meal inside. Something missing from this that was in the Company is moral ambiguity. Sure, from the outside the Lady and her empire were obviously evil, but once you got in there you saw that she was all for law and order, organisation and efficiency. The Rebel, self-proclaimed liberators, weren't all for liberation. They were power-hungry wizards and generals, whose armies raped, destroyed and pillaged rather more than the defending forces did. I don't want the Oathbreakers to be purely good - sure, they can be mostly good, that's fine, but there should be people in it for power, and it should be unclear whether living under their rule would be a better deal than what they've got now. I'm faintly sceptical of the two-faction political manoeuvring, but I assume that it'll have things like regional colluding or under-the-table deals instead of "you-are-one-of-the-Disfavoured-therefore-fuck-you-without-thinking-about-how-I-could-use-you-to-assassinate-my-boss-and-get-a-power-base". Please let there be more shades of morality than "angel", "mercenary" or "demon". Give me a good reason to pick certain options, instead of making it obvious which path will give you the best outcome (like Megaton. I nuke a town and get some money, or I don't and have merchants to sell to and shit to steal). On Megaton, don't give me a few big obvious buttons that change the whole landscape, unless you justify it really well.

My main issue though, is that the more I learn about Tyranny, the more little niggles appear and alarm bells go off in my head, and for quite a few I can't qute figure out what my instinct has problems with. None identified have been truly deal-breaking, but disappointing. I can put up with a lot of shit in games. KoToR and PS:T's combat, Alpha Protocol's... gameplay, or whatever it was I didn't like about it, Arcanum's unfulfilled potential, and Dragon Age's blandness, although that last was a real struggle by the end.

Lastly, I wasn't really a fan of PoE, although I pirated it soon after release. I've heard good things about 3.0 that might make me try it again. Ultimately though, my dilemma is this: I'm probably gonna buy it anyway. It looks the closest thing so far to a evil campaign, or a decent Magical Kwanistan power fantasy. It's got an empire, shit to do that isn't "be good if you wanna get anywhere", offers a time limit to keep the first act nice and focused, and has Tim Cain involved. It's pretty much a guaranteed purchase of a game I suspect is going to be deeply, deeply flawed. Do I buy now or on sale, that's the trouble. I'm still somewhat hopeful, but my realistic side says it'll most likely be mediocre.

*It's fucking great. The beginning is a bit disorientating, but push through. I recommend it heartily, but especially if you: like dark fantasy; hate purple prose; hate idealistic stories; think wizards should figure out how to make them selves near unkillable and only lived long enough to do that through killing anyone that might know a weakness; like morally gray stuff; like political manoeuvring; dislike battle scenes; like cynical stuff; don't mind a bit of rape and swearing; or are in the military.

 

[Ivan]

what is Kyros is a eunuch?

 

[SausageInYourFace]

What if Kyros is ..

Spoiler

..only a myth?

 

[pomenitul]

What if Kyros is ..

Spoiler

..only a myth?

So this is going to be Obsidian's grimdark take on The Boss of It All? Seeing as PoE taught us that everything ends in disappointment, I can actually see this happening.

 

[Andhaira]

Hookay I had forgotten all about this.

Can anyone give me a quick low down on the system, and what character generation is like? What classes are available, and how many PCs in my party?

 

[Sannom]

It's skill-based, so no classes. You can take three companions (out of six) with you. Character creation consists of an origin, a primary expertise (bonus to combat skills, basically), a secondary expertise, attributes and then skills. After that, you play (or not, you can skip it) through a small CYOA called "The Conquest" to determine how you dealt with the conquest of the Tiers.

 

[Infinitron]

Hookay I had forgotten all about this.

Can anyone give me a quick low down on the system, and what character generation is like? What classes are available, and how many PCs in my party?

Everything you need to know is in these two videos:
http://www.rpgcodex.net/article.php?id=10372
http://www.rpgcodex.net/article.php?id=10429

 

[Andhaira]

It's skill-based, so no classes. You can take three companions (out of six) with you. Character creation consists of an origin, a primary expertise (bonus to combat skills, basically), a secondary expertise, attributes and then skills. After that, you play (or not, you can skip it) through a small CYOA called "The Conquest" to determine how you dealt with the conquest of the Tiers.

What the fuck. That makes me want to play a real-er rpg instead, like DA:Origins or Skyrimz.