Torment: Tides of Numenera - Post-Funding Update #26

:S I voted for RTwP so I guess you can say I'm on the losing side but if they deliver an experience half as good/strong as PS:T it'll still be the 2nd best game I've played.

The only thing that's more or less clear about this vote is that'll discourage similar future attempts.

Well, I have yet to play a 100% TB RPG that I actually enjoyed. At least not as far as I recall. I'm one of few players who plays Arcanum using real time combat almost exclusively. I can't even imagine how long it would take to complete that game by playing it in TB mode only. The random wolf encounters alone would take hours.
 
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Well that is definitely not how the game played for me!
I finished it for the Second time as a technologist a few months ago on fast turn based.
I need to check how much time it took in all but I distinctly remember combat flowing pretty smoothly…

Now if you want to speedrun through a game so you can get to the next one or do a couple of playthroughs back to back I can see (and respect) how TB in general might put you off…
 
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Now if you want to speedrun through a game so you can get to the next one or do a couple of playthroughs back to back I can see (and respect) how TB in general might put you off…

It's not really about speed runs, it's more about getting through the boring part to the good stuff. I've heard plenty of developers claim they're going to somehow cut down or skip the trash and make it all interesting, but that's a load of rubbish as the major villains have to be above everyone else. I consider it nearly impossible to not have trash in a proper RPG, as I've never seen one that came even close. Also, RPGs are generally designed for several viable approaches/character builds/team setups, so once you've played a few dozen of them and know how to make fairly powerful characters, combat will obviously become quite a bit easier (and thus boring if it happens in slow motion).
 
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Maylander, you have almost 5000 posts on RPGWatch and you don't enjoy turn-based games? I'm shocked!

But honestly, many people do correlate turn-based games with being boring. I don't find that to be true at all, but everyone's tastes are different.
 
It's not really about speed runs, it's more about getting through the boring part to the good stuff.

Well I happen to like the early stages of an RPG when I am weak and fighting puny enemies, the character building and progression, the feeling of accomplishment when I become too powerful for the early enemies etc etc.

I also like to take my time on games, steeping in the world and atmosphere…
Definitely not one to skip to the "good" stuff… But as Fluent said, different tastes and all :)

I agree though that we haven't really seen an RPG thus far that completely skips on the trash mobs… Who knows maybe Inxile will pull it off ?!

Lastly, for me Arcanum just wasn't a particular pain on Fast TB even with the random encounters. If you build your character and party competently they were done with on a couple of turns… Especially on late game. That is why I was surprised by your comment. Now if you said Wizardry 8 TB I'd have agreed completely with you ;)
 
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Well I happen to like the early stages of an RPG when I am weak and fighting puny enemies, the character building and progression, the feeling of accomplishment when I become too powerful for the early enemies etc etc.
Don't we all love that. That's probably the reason level scaling/matching mobs isn't fun. After so many hours to train my hero up, oneshoting those annoying creatures from the game start feels satisfying!
 
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So, there is this video by smudboy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FE1ehjIWMs0
What really confused me, was that he said that the Turn Based Combat messes with the already established metaphysics of the game world (basically how the game world works).
He says that in the TB games (like Final Fantasy Tactics) the reality of the game world is that character are really in the TB combat when they fight, that it's not just what we as players experience. (that FFT characters also perceive their fights in TB combat system)

Here is my exchange with him.
http://i.imgur.com/LAUyJIs.png

Am I crazy? Does he just not understand abstract system, that TB combat isn't part of the reality of the game's world?
Do any other supporter of RTwP think the same as him? Or anyone for that matter.

Because if that is the case, I can understand how some can complain that TB breaks immersion. But still…
 
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Maylander, you have almost 5000 posts on RPGWatch and you don't enjoy turn-based games? I'm shocked!

But honestly, many people do correlate turn-based games with being boring. I don't find that to be true at all, but everyone's tastes are different.

Picturing Chess played in RtwP mode...
 
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Yay, turn based. I've yet to play a party-based game that sought to model tactical combat that was any good in real time. The real time with pause nonsense Bioware introduced was a PITA because because I ended up pausing every few seconds to micromanage everything, anyway. The Plan and Go thing is Jagged Alliance BIA worked surprisingly well, and I wouldn't have minded something like that, but it seems that wasn't on the table. I just hope they do the turn based combat sensibly. Customizable keyboard shortcuts for everything people do all the time, and right-click context menus for complex orders like following a couple way points and hunkering down behind cover and so forth. I've been playing Jagged Alliance Online a bit lately and they got it about half right. Along with everything else they did. Half right, is the story of that game. Pity. If I still had any sympathy for games with potential that didn't quite deliver, I'd be hoping they'd finish the job. But I know by now that nobody ever revisits old games that were almost good to do them right.
 
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Maylander, you have almost 5000 posts on RPGWatch and you don't enjoy turn-based games? I'm shocked!

But honestly, many people do correlate turn-based games with being boring. I don't find that to be true at all, but everyone's tastes are different.

I do like TB games. I love Civilizations, Age of Wonders, Heroes of Might & Magic and so on. It's hard to pull off and balance a solid TB system though, especially if it's not the main focus of the game.

Picturing Chess played in RtwP mode…

Chess is a perfect example of a TB style that I really like. It's also a perfect example of something that is far, far more complex than any RPG developer is going to pull off as a combat system. The depth and balancing is amazing, even though it seems simple.

Even if they could somehow develop it, we'd end up with 100 pointless two-hour matches against morons and then finally face Magnus Carlsen at the end. And then we'd lose. Badly.
 
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So, there is this video by smudboy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FE1ehjIWMs0
What really confused me, was that he said that the Turn Based Combat messes with the already established metaphysics of the game world (basically how the game world works).
He says that in the TB games (like Final Fantasy Tactics) the reality of the game world is that character are really in the TB combat when they fight, that it's not just what we as players experience. (that FFT characters also perceive their fights in TB combat system)

Here is my exchange with him.
http://i.imgur.com/LAUyJIs.png

Am I crazy? Does he just not understand abstract system, that TB combat isn't part of the reality of the game's world?
Do any other supporter of RTwP think the same as him? Or anyone for that matter.

Because if that is the case, I can understand how some can complain that TB breaks immersion. But still…
He's a bit too hyperbolic for my taste and obviously realises what you're trying to explain to him but as far as I'm concerned the point about violating the way the given world functions stands. For all the TB-master-race BS turn-based creates a conceptual problem for the immersion of a lot of people.

At this point I can only hope they'll try to reduce such immersion/flow breaking elements as much as possible. Starting with hexes instead of the squares they have, no doubt, ported from W2 or even better invisible vectors would make a massive difference.
 
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Dear Green Place
as far as I'm concerned the point about violating the way the given world functions stands.
That is just the thing, it doesn't.
Similarly how in pen & paper RPG, the turn based combat doesn't mean the world you play in function differently when in combat, it's simply an abstract system.

I can understand if it messes with your immersion, if you simply prefer that everything you see be in sync with other things you saw and you don't like abstract system to suddenly be in your real time game. But don't hold that your preference of things is an absolute fact. Realize that there are people that don't think the TB combat is part of the game world, that people simply like TB combat in their games because they like playing P&P RPG combat and would like to see it visualized in pretty graphics.
The Temple of Elemental Evil is prime example. It's basically p&p D&D brought into a video game format.

I know this isn't your problem, but his problem. He simply holds that game-play is part of the game's narrative and is presented as is on the screen, no abstracts allowed.
So for some reason he doesn't hold p&p RPGs in the same standard as he holds video games, when many TB games are simply emulation or reiteration of board games. (he also holds that his definition of narrative is an absolute truth, and that anyone who thinks otherwise is simply ignoring the "plot holes" or are fine with "metaphysics" being changed all the time.
 
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