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

According to the new post-funding update for Torment: Tides of Numenerait seems turn based combat has won the vote. Techincally it was a tie, but inXile has decided they want turn based combat. Read the whole update for the reason behind the choice.

Updated our Journal: Decision

TL;DR: Combat vote results completed – statistically it was a tie! Torment: Tides of Numenera’s combat (and Crises) will be turn-based combat. We’ll address concerns expressed by Real-Time with Pause fans in our design.

Your participation in the combat discussion and vote has been terrific! Almost 20% voted and over 2000 comments were made on our forums alone. That’s twice the turnout I expected, and it’s great to see all of the passion our backers have for the project. I’d like to thank everyone who got involved.

It’s been an exciting vote! The leading system changed a couple times early on and the final tally is: 7,267 TB, 7,052 RTwP and 782 Indifferent. With the vote at 48% to 47%, and with those who voted “indifferent” being more than triple the difference between the TB and RTwP camps, it is essentially a draw.

As we explained in Update 24, we were leaning toward turn-based combat because we believe it’s better suited for the kind of tactical complexity we're looking for through our Crisis system. We believe it’s a stronger fit for bringing narrative elements, including dialogue with NPCs, into hand-crafted combat situations. We have considered the vote, but more important than the vote are the comments (not just in our forums, but on many of the community forums and articles on this topic). Your comments have helped us greatly in understanding why people have the preferences and concerns that they do.

We have decided to go with turn-based combat. Ultimately, there are no losers here. This is all part of the process of making an RPG we are all passionate about and we think you’ll like Torment’s combat even if you voted for RTwP. While we have not been looking forward to disappointing half of our backers, we were happy to find that many of the reasons people gave for disliking TB and preferring RTwP can be addressed through the details of our combat system and encounter design. I’d like to go over some of the more common comments we saw either for RTwP or against TB and explain how we will address them.

More information.

You can not really say it won as much as it reaffirmed where they were planing on going with the development any way. It might have been different if there was maybe a 70+ % in favor of RTwP but the vote was basically even. They are making the game the way they see fit but it is good to see them looking for input from the fans too.

I urge everyone to read the comments. The anger from some people is staggering.

As for me, I'm happy. RTwP isn't my favorite system.

The only turnbased I play is Civ V.
For me, turnbased chops it up to much. feels constricted and less immersive.
But that is a personal preference.

No Numenera for me then.

C

well, read the article again, and very much depends on how they succeed with their vision

Some backlash was inevitable regardless of which system was picked I think. Curious how many people threatening charge backs will actually go through with it. Probably a learning experience for determining the combat system in advance for future projects.

While I voted TB I do agree there can be issues with it depending on how the game is designed. As with all these projects, we'll just have to hope for the best and wait and see.

It's clearly designed for TB since they didnt want to include "trash mobs" anyways (this is where TBwP makes a lot more sense). The anger is very unjustified.

As expected.

As for the comments at Kickstarter: disgusting, on both fan sides. inXile divided their audience in two opposite groups.

YYEEAAAAAAHHH!!!!!!! Finally, truth has won! D

But, unfortunately, because of the almost equally divided sides, inXile should do a RTwP and a TB mode to make everyone happy.

Took a look at NWN2 recently - because I liked NWN1 immensely - and found there realtime with pause, it was an immediate turn-off for me. While still playing Baldur's Gate Trilogy RTwP fits there maybe better. In NWN2 my mage was basically pounded into the ground instantly by MMA-style "goblin"-like mobs at beginning of the story. The 3D combat area of NWN2 - especially the awkward free camera - was impossible to see through in real-time.

Originally Posted by mercy
YYEEAAAAAAHHH!!!!!!! Finally, truth has won! D

But, unfortunately, because of the almost equally divided sides, inXile should do a RTwP and a TB mode to make everyone happy.

Took a look at NWN2 recently - because I liked NWN1 immensely - and found there realtime with pause, it was an immediate turn-off for me. While still playing Baldur's Gate Trilogy RTwP fits there maybe better. In NWN2 my mage was basically pounded into the ground instantly by MMA-style "goblin"-like mobs at beginning of the story. The 3D combat area of NWN2 - especially the awkward free camera - was impossible to see through in real-time.

I don't understand, NWN1 wasn't turn based. It was also RTwP. I do agree that the camera in NWN2 was pretty bad.

I voted for RTwP, I totally don't care that it didn't win.

Also, people will get pissed off every time you allow them to vote or when you have to tell them that they won't be getting their cookies because they burned (i.e. the reasons why developers don't want to talk about features before they are in the game and working).

Hardly surprising - they were pretty much planning to do this anyway it seems. I am still not keen on TB, but I would have bought the game anyway (although a lot more cheaply, I went for an expensive tier - stupid nostalgia) so I am not going to fume and perform and stamp my feet. Ultimately we'll have to see how they implement it. I still haven't had time to read the post fully, so I'll do that first. This has also taught me to read KS pitches more careful and not just view things with my trusty rose-tinted glasses. I will no longer commit to higher tiers, for any game I think. Just too much uncertainty in most campaigns.

I voted RTwP because I prefered this system but will accept TB without problems too. But agree about many RTwP fans being childish and crying about lies and such, inXile was clear from the beginning about deciding the combat system and they never cited combat as being included in the list of things they considered for a espiritual sucessor of PS:T

Excellent.

They should not have done the vote. But yeah, others may learn from that.

Originally Posted by azarhal
Also, people will get pissed off every time you allow them to vote or when you have to tell them that they won't be getting their cookies because they burned (i.e. the reasons why developers don't want to talk about features before they are in the game and working).

Yeah, but most times you could simply argue "Don't buy it". In this case it's more delicate.

Voted turn based but would have been happy either way. The rage is humorous at best and pathetic when at its worst. Wait for the game and play it, then decide if it was a good choice or not.

I'm fine either way, but why didn't they just state what the game would be before it was Kickstarted?

Daniel.

Originally Posted by darklord
I'm fine either way, but why didn't they just state what the game would be before it was Kickstarted?

Daniel.

I'm pretty sure they hadn't decided. From what I've read it seems they where leaning more towards RTwP in the beginning, but didn't want to make a decision until further along with the gamem and during development they shifted from RTwP to prefer a Turn based system instead. Had the vore been leaning heavily either way I guess they would have had a hard time deciding against the backers. But it didn't, so they got to choose what they wanted.

Well, that was the last game I backed from inExile. Next time I'll just wait until it's done and buy it if it seems like something I'll enjoy.

Well, I've now read the update - and I can't say that it adds much to what they said in earlier posts. Lots of "…we will strive too…" "..we'll try…" etc as a sop their jilted RTwP backers. I have not changed my mind based on this update, not that it matters much at this point.

@Maylander - quite so! Sadly, we all stampeded in based on our feelings for the original. I really have spent way too much on KS - but I think I've burned the madness out of my system now ;-)