Torment: Tides of Numenera - Interview @ Gamestar.ru

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Gamestar.ru has an interview with Torment: Tides of Numenera leads Colin McComb, Kevin Saunders and Adam Heine.

First we get more details on the story.
Tell us about the story and the world of Torment: Tides of Numenera in more detail? Who is the main character? Whom he will fight?

Colin: The Ninth World of Numenera is a far-future Earth — a billion years in the future. They call it the Ninth World because they say that eight great civilizations have come and gone on the earth: civilizations that onceacted as the hub of star-spanning empires, or that mastered the folding of time of space, or who had mastered the shaping of worlds, and more. They have left an indelible imprint on the face of the planet, and they share another feature: they have all vanished, leaving behind remnants of their knowledge and their tools. Now humanity rebuilds on the shattered ruins of these ancient civilizations, in a world filled with the unimaginable energies of forgotten races, and begins to discover its place in a universe that is very, very different from the one we know.

It’s against this backdrop that our story begins. A man decided he did not want to die — his reasons are lost to time — and discovered a way to grow a new body and transfer his mind into that new body. Over the course of thousands of years, he has lived countless lives in countless bodies… but what he doesn’t know — or perhaps doesn’t care to know — is that when he leaves those bodies, they don’t die. Instead, they begin their own lives in near-immortal shells, with no memory of the mind they housed before.

Something about the process has awoken an old enemy — the Angel of Entropy. It finds the Changing God and vows to eliminate his works, and now it hunts the PC.

You play the Last Castoff — a shell of the Changing God, on the run from the Angel of Entropy, in a desperate search for answers in a world where it seems nearly anything is possible.
Then came the gameplay questions. This is only three of them.
What about the gameplay? What can you say about the role-playing system of Tides of Numenera?

Adam: We're adapting the system for Monte Cook's tabletop RPG Numenera. Numenera has a ridiculously smooth tabletop system, with only three character statistics, broad skill definitions, and a strong emphasis on collaborative storytelling. But we won't be creating a computerized version of the tabletop game—that would be too simplistic for a CRPG. Instead, we're working closely with Monte to adapt and add to the tabletop rules in a way consistent with Monte's vision for the game, while still being complex and interesting enough for a CRPG.

We're still at work adapting it, but what we do know is there will still be three character stats. There will be a defined set of skills, including some skills not found in a typical RPG. And we're working on ways to adapt Numenera's unique GM intrusion and XP mechanics.

How much the player will be free in choosing what he will do? Will an open world be in Torment: Tides of Numenera?

Adam: It won't be a true open world in the sense that you can go wherever you want in search of the next story thread. But giving the player choices that matter is very important to us. So while the player might not be able to walk all over the world map until they meet certain story beats, they will have a variety of choices of how to reach those beats, each of which will have a significant impact on the story and the world. Additionally, though the story beats may determine which locations the player has access to, they will have significant freedom of movement within those locations.

How serious our choices and actions will affect the storyline? How many endings will be in the game?

Adam: Like I said, one of our primary goals is to give the player choices that matter. They won't be easy choices either. You might be asked to choose between sacrificing a companion or allowing a village to be destroyed—or you might find a third option which will have consequences of its own. The theme driving the story is "What does one life matter?" and throughout the game, you'll find that your choices and actions matter very much.
More information.
 
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Three character stats....and what sounds like skill trees. :(
 
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What I adored in BIS' Torment was the class switching of the main protagonist during the game, so instead of playing the whole game as one class and practically adapting the whole party to your class, you had an option of adapting your character to the party or to the world. In a way, that made the question to have Ignus in the party or not very easy to answer since you'll cover for his highlevel spells if needed by becoming a mage yourself, etc. Could never understand why a thing like that was not in any game before or after (at least I haven't seen it).

Three classes, or as stated stats, in the new game, don't sound bad to me. In fact, if we'll get the class switching during the gameplay again, can't wait!
 
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Ummmm.... he does say immediately after the line about three stats in the tabletop game that "we won't be creating a computerized version of the tabletop game—that would be too simplistic for a CRPG. Instead, we're working closely with Monte to adapt and add to the tabletop rules in a way consistent with Monte's vision for the game, while still being complex and interesting enough for a CRPG."

Which to me reads that the game they're developing will likely have a more complex system than just 3 stats and a set of broad skills.
 
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