Tyranny Pre-Release Thread

[Space Satan]

Sawyer ould make it even worse. With noble tribals struggling against the soulless industrialism

 

[Infinitron]

The conquered societies of the Tiers appear to have been small but reasonably advanced feudal kingdoms, not crappy tribals.

 

[Sacred82]

I wanted to spend some time with Barik outside of his armor (which sounds naughty when I write it like that).

 

[Sannom]

Sawyer ould make it even worse. With noble tribals struggling against the soulless industrialism

It's that example you used, Sawyer used the exact same one a few years back, on his Formspring I think.

 

[Bubbles]

We're doing a hand-on demo of this fine game at next week's Gamescom, and there's a good chance that we might even meet Brian Heins himself! Any questions or comments can be directed here.

We don't know what the content of the hands-on will be, but it might very well be the siege battle again; you could suggest things that we might do differently from the published videos or any detailed gameplay aspects we could explore.

 

[Infinitron]

We don't know what the content of the hands-on will be, but it might very well be the siege battle again

In the most recent stream they said they would be doing another combat stream soon - a different scenario with higher difficulty. It's possible that scenario will be shown at Gamescom first.

 

[Sannom]

Nothing new, but I quite liked Vox Ludicus' summary of the roles our character and the (revealed as of this time) companions will play in the game :

https://voxludicus.com/2016/08/09/the-characters-of-tryanny/

Some Tyranny artwork apparently hung on the walls of Paradox's offices :

We don't know what the content of the hands-on will be, but it might very well be the siege battle again; you could suggest things that we might do differently from the published videos or any detailed gameplay aspects we could explore.

Did they send you the survey they sent to other publications for E3?

Not sure what you could do that would be really different from the three points of view we've already seen... maybe try the dialogue option "About this Edict..." when the Chorus and the Disfavored clash at the entrance of the bastion?

 

[Neanderthal]

Not how you impale somebody, far too quick and corpse drops to bottom, you stick fairly blunt stake up their jacksie an wait for gravity to work its way through body until it bursts out somewhere near their shoulder usually. Long an painful.

 

[Bubbles]

Not how you impale somebody, far too quick and corpse drops to bottom, you stick fairly blunt stake up their jacksie an wait for gravity to work its way through body until it bursts out somewhere near their shoulder usually. Long an painful.

That wasn't an option in Tyranny's case, since the impaled victims need to keep their underwear on.

 

[Sannom]

New dev diary, and there has been a change of plans. Rather than talk to us about the Bronze Age-inspired setting, which Heins apparently didn't have the time to do, we get a companion presentation about Lantry :

https://blog.tyrannygame.com/2016/08/10/dev-diary-8-lantry/

Not how you impale somebody, far too quick and corpse drops to bottom, you stick fairly blunt stake up their jacksie an wait for gravity to work its way through body until it bursts out somewhere near their shoulder usually. Long an painful.

Considering those seem to be for effect, what's make you think there were alive to begin with?

 

[Nael]

YouTube version of recent stream:

that main menu screen

and comic-like art looks like dragon age

Vault Dweller

"Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery."

Is this true or does this just piss you off VD?

 

[Infinitron]

They decided to do another companion overview: https://blog.tyrannygame.com/2016/08/10/dev-diary-8-lantry/

Dev Diary #8 – Lantry

In our last dev update, we introduced you to Verse of the Scarlet Chorus. Originally we intended to discuss the Bronze Age nature of our world for this update, including some talk of itemization, but unfortunately I didn’t have time to put that together this week. So instead, we’re going to introduce you to another of our Companions – the Sage Lantry!

Lantry is a Sage of the School of Ink and Quill. He’s a man of letters and numbers, a student of magic and nature, and an archivist obsessed with the accurate accounting of important people and events. His school is famous throughout the Tiers for amassing knowledge from all throughout the known world, but the Sages are even more famous for rarely sharing this treasure trove of learning with outsiders, despite their claims of preserving knowledge for the betterment of mankind. The Sages revel in knowing a little bit about everything, and Lantry is no exception – in his long years he’s learned the Sage’s traditional Preservation magic, as well as the arts of Healing and Concealment – styles of magic long ago pilfered from other Schools and Guilds that the Sages now boast as their own.

His life’s work has been contributing to the Chronicle, the running archive-of-all-things built over the ages through the long work of hundreds of Sages. Lantry uses his arcane training to witness history where it happens, as it happens – for him, magic is a tool to gain access to the battlefields, backroom dealings, and hidden ceremonies that most have to read about after the fact. For Lantry and other Sages driven on this pursuit often seem to live very long lives – a fact most Sages will laugh away as the byproduct of loving your work, but is in truth the mystic side effect of decades of use and practice of Preservation magic.

As a student of history, Lantry has a certain adoration for Kyros, for no one has the power to define the unfolding march of events quite like the Overlord – nobody in recorded history even comes close. So when Kyros’ armies came to the Tiers, Lantry was one of the Sages to argue for surrender – but his was the dissenting voice among the elders, and the Sages fortified their library stronghold of the Vellum Citadel in defiance of the Overlord. Old enough to know a suicidal plan when he hears one, Lantry fled the Vellum Citadel before the full force of Kyros’ wrath descended upon the Sages, in the form of an Edict of Fire that turned the mountainous archive into lava-soaked ruin.

~Matt MacLean, Lead Narrative Designer

Combat Role
Lantry was designed to be an efficient support character and a “jack-of-all-trades” of sorts. Being a well experienced Sage and learned traveler, he is the only companion to possess three unique talent trees. While these paths of specialization are not as deep as with other companions, they allow Lantry to be far more diverse in the development of his abilities.

Lantry is also an experienced spellcaster, which further adds to the flexibility of his kit. While capable of performing a number of roles in the party very well, we expect many users to find Lantry’s ability to heal, buff, and support the party to be extremely valuable.

In Combat, Lantry is skilled at wielding thrown weapons. He favors a set of iron throwing knives etched to resemble writing quills.

When designing Lantry’s talent trees, we wanted players to really feel like Lantry could fill nearly any gap in the party structure. Lantry’s Preservation tree focuses on supporting the party from the back line by buffing allies with renewing magic, healing them, and even bringing them back from the brink of unconsciousness. His Sage tree excels at emphasizing the use of spells and abilities that debilitate foes to aid the party. Finally, Lantry’s Quill tree shifts him into a deadly offensive thrown weapon specialist.

Below are some of the abilities available to Lantry:

Charged Throw: Lantry gains the ability to passively channel magical energies into his Quill as he throws it. Charged Throw makes Lantry’s thrown critical hits trigger explosions of arcane energy, damaging all nearby enemies.

Quillstorm: Raising his hands to the sky, Lantry forms a writhing cloud of arcane quills. With a wave of his hand, each quill is sent raining over his enemies, cutting deep and causing a lasting Bleed effect.

Stance: Mage Slayer: Lantry’s knowledge of workings of magic have also taught him how to quell it. While in this stance, each of Lantry’s attacks can silence enemy spellcasters and apply a lasting penalty to their magical abilities.

Watcher’s Judgment: The wrath of a Sage brings with it many levels of magical debilitation. With Watcher’s Judgment Lantry can charge his weapon and unleash a burst of energy on impact. This attack severely diminishes the enemy’s defenses against magical attacks. If Lantry can perform this action from stealth, the enemy is also Paralyzed.

Renewal: Lantry uses Sage magic to restore the party’s weapons and armor to pristine condition, increasing the protectiveness of armor and the ability for weapon’s to penetrate enemy defense.

Second Breath: Producing a small vial from his garbs, Lantry moves to a fallen comrade to revive them in battle.

Lantry has the answer to nearly any problem. Abilities like Renewal and Second Breath are largely helpful and can sway the tide of battle or even help to find victory in the face of defeat. With so many options available to him, one of the greater challenges when playing Lantry is simply deciding which area of the battle he is needed most and how to get him there. While a well-timed Silence attack might prevent a powerful spell from being cast, there may also be an ally nearing defeat who could use healing. Positioning Lantry on the battlefield where he is both safe from danger and can respond to as many opportunities as possible is key to playing him effectively.

Through flexibility, support, and high impact decisions, Lantry is an invaluable companion and a boon to any party.

~Nick Carver, Systems Designer

 

[Bohrain]

So far, the companions sound like comic book villain henchmen - which is about as much characterization you can do in three paragraphs I guess.
I'll probably end up preordering the game anyway since I have low standards.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Vault Dweller

"Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery."

Is this true or does this just piss you off VD?

 

[Zombra]

So far, the companions sound like comic book villain henchmen - which is about as much characterization you can do in three paragraphs I guess.

At least comic book evil sidekicks are colorful. So far we've got a stubborn fighter who had a spell cast on him once (making him the most interesting of them so far), a cruel fighter who likes fighting, and a headstrong sage who seeks knowledge.

Even with 1/3 the word count in their biographies, Montaron and Xzar are ten times more fascinating than these cutouts.

 

[Excidium II]

Even with 1/3 the word count in their biographies, Montaron and Xzar are ten times more fascinating than these cutouts.

And they had a relationship with each other instead of just orbiting the PC.

 

[Infinitron]

I think the fact that he's a collaborator/traitor is interesting.

 

[Zombra]

I think the fact that he's a collaborator/traitor is interesting.

Who? Lantry? He's not even a real fifth columnist, just a guy who said I like the invading leader, let's surrender - then ran away when his housemates decided to fight and die anyway. An actual story of betrayal would indeed have been more interesting.

 

[Sannom]

and a headstrong sage who seeks knowledge.

Lantry doesn't seek "knowledge", he seeks to witness and write down history as it happens. He's like a fantasy version of a war reporter! I like it.

 

[Athelas]

So far, the companions sound like comic book villain henchmen - which is about as much characterization you can do in three paragraphs I guess.

At least comic book evil sidekicks are colorful. So far we've got a stubborn fighter who had a spell cast on him once (making him the most interesting of them so far), a cruel fighter who likes fighting, and a headstrong sage who seeks knowledge.

Even with 1/3 the word count in their biographies, Montaron and Xzar are ten times more fascinating than these cutouts.

Montaron and Xzar don't even make sense as characters: they're spying on you...while constantly bragging about how they're going to kill everyone. And their being spies and evil are about all we learn about them (well, other than Xzar being mentally unstable, but that makes him being a spy even more illogical). BG1 characters are pretty much RTS characters: a collection of amusing sound bites (although the partymember in-fighting is cool, the fact that BG1 party members will murder each other makes them even more one-dimensional).

Meanwhile, Lantry's status as a 'spy' (well information gatherer) is actually conveyed through a believable backstory and gameplay mechanics.

 

[Zombra]

I think that's my problem with Obsidian lately. They seem to think that "believable", "sensible", "interesting", "lore-drenched", and "well-written" all mean the same thing.

 

[Hyperion]

I don't give two shits about his character's backstory as it's always going to be cliched in some regard. I'm more concerned they pull the same shit Bioware did with Dragon Age 2 where, much like Anders, he's the only healer available for most of the game. 2 "mandatory" members in a game with a party size of 4 is pretty shitty.

 

[Roguey]

I don't give two shits about his character's backstory as it's always going to be cliched in some regard. I'm more concerned they pull the same shit Bioware did with Dragon Age 2 where, much like Anders, he's the only healer available for most of the game. 2 "mandatory" members in a game with a party size of 4 is pretty shitty.

This isn't a class-based role playing game, pal.

 

[Hyperion]

This isn't a class-based role playing game, pal.

Except each character has 3 talent trees that specialize them into roles. So, yes, it is "skill-based" but each character is going to have a few things in which they excel. Wild stab here, but I'm guessing Berik isn't exactly going to be a guy that will focus on being your healer if he's taking every hit and (presumably) at risk of casts being interrupted at every turn.

Just because there aren't classes doesn't suddenly eradicate the necessary archetypes to successfully overcome the combat challenges.

 

[Roguey]

Except each character has 3 talent trees that specialize them into roles. So, yes, it is "skill-based" but each character is going to have a few things in which they excel. Wild stab here, but I'm guessing Berik isn't exactly going to be a guy that will focus on being your healer if he's taking every hit and (presumably) at risk of casts being interrupted at every turn.

Just because there aren't classes doesn't suddenly eradicate the necessary archetypes to successfully overcome the combat challenges.

You can if you build and play him that way. Learn by use, he gets better at the things you actually have him doing.

He probably won't be the most optimal choice for healing but it's not like Obsidian designs games that require optimal builds.