Hey, what's going on???

Andaar Amberfire · Post by **Andaar Amberfire** » Thu Jan 03, 2002 12:13 am

The P:T forum is dead? Nooooo...I love this game. Oh well, I will have to start a topic then. The Nameless One may have gotten his mortality back, but this forum didn't.

Hmm...a topic...a topic. Gotta be interesting. New insults for Morte? Nah, that could get out of control. Life, death and it's symbolism in P:T? Nah, too philosophical. Ah...I know...

Who are your fave chars? Yea, that'll do.

Seriously though...I think that my favourite characters would have to be:

1. Vhailor - There's something strangely appealing about a axe-wielding, law book-bashing, red-eyed maniac with a really spooky voice. 'Nuff said.

2. Annah - She's got dangerous curves, wears nothing but a few leather seatbelts, has a no-nonsense scottish accent and of course, she has a tail. She's definitely one of P:T's more interesting characters, as she adds to the storyline a fair bit and has a very unpredictable personality.

3. Morte - A floating skull with an attitude. Morte is one quick-witted bone-box (that's all he is

). But underneath his endless insults, lighting-quick wit and his suave womanising (yea, right), Morte is a very loyal and friendly skull.

Well, there's my top three. But let's not forget 4. Dak'kon 5. Fall-From-Grace 6. Ignus. Nordom isn't in there cause I haven't used him before.

Anyways, cya

Andaar Amberfire
Lawful Good Cavalier
Servant of Amaunator
Aerie's b*tch

Mr Sleep · Post by **Mr Sleep** » Thu Jan 03, 2002 4:50 am

Didn't you just put all of the characters down?

Why has the P:T forum died....well i am a huge devotee but haven't played it for about 6 months now, i guess time just moves on, i don't doubt pretty soon i will find a decent excuse to start playing it again

I totally agree with the Vhailor thing, the definition of cool

fable · Post by **fable** » Thu Jan 03, 2002 10:08 am

I don't think the game ever really took off the way Interplay intended, but if anybody has questions, at least this forum is around to answer 'em.

1. Vhailor - There's something strangely appealing about a axe-wielding, law book-bashing, red-eyed maniac with a really spooky voice.

Why? You can get all that by just watching a Sunday morning preacher on television. Or tune in anytime to the Christian Bible Network. Scary, indeed.

2. Annah - She's got dangerous curves, wears nothing but a few leather seatbelts, has a no-nonsense scottish accent and of course, she has a tail. She's definitely one of P:T's more interesting characters, as she adds to the storyline a fair bit and has a very unpredictable personality.

So much the intended cheesecake that Interplay even added an animated sequence showing her crouching near your character after you're felled.

I find all that silly as hell, but her character is probably the best CRPG example of a ninja later in the game. It was fun having her shift into the shadows, then take out enemies one by one in dangerous areas until she'd cleared 'em.

Never much cared for Morte as realized, though his potential was great. His taunts could have easily been better, IMO.

Omar · Post by **Omar** » Mon Jan 07, 2002 5:22 pm

I liked the Nameless One much. It was just the mystery surrounding him, the things you discover about his past,etc., what made it such a great experience to play through the game with him. And the fact that his class-swapping made him very flexible and a challenge to develop

Too bad though, while here in Holland you might be extremely lucky when you find ToB, almost every games/electronic store has a copy or two of Planescape Torment

I think it was quite a flop over here...unbelievable.

Aegis · Post by **Aegis** » Tue Jan 08, 2002 3:45 pm

I thought Dakkon was the best.

fable · Post by **fable** » Tue Jan 08, 2002 7:53 pm

Dak'kon was great, perhaps my favorite character as such, although I really liked Fall-From-Grace, Annah, and Nordom, too. Even Ignus had his, um, charms.

Aegis · Post by **Aegis** » Wed Jan 09, 2002 9:51 pm

In a very firey, crispy critter sort, I suppose...

fable · Post by **fable** » Thu Jan 10, 2002 8:12 am

Originally posted by Aegis:
<STRONG>In a very firey, crispy critter sort, I suppose... </STRONG>

Oh, yes, definitely. You have to agree that the party NPCs in P:T were definitely distinctive. I remember Guido Henkel (the game's Senior Producer at Black Isle, who got unceremoniously pushed out the door a short while before its release) quoting the developer of the Planescape universe as calling its inhabitants "philosophers with clubs." And swords, knives, fire missiles, etc. Great fun.

turtlespit · Post by **turtlespit** » Wed Jan 16, 2002 3:49 am

I just finished Torment the other day. The whole game was simply superb - great story, well developed, interesting characters, and some really super spell effects. My only complaint was the 640x480 resolution - which was a bit of a letdown after BG2's 800x600 - but after you get into the story it doesn't matter.

Question is - why did Torment bomb commerically? Was it that the setting was too weird and wacky for 'normal' CRPG'ers? Lack of marketting? Or just back luck?

I read so many positive reviews about it - it's a shame it never got the commercial recognition it deserved... it makes the probability of a subsequent title rather low.

Hopefully somebody will do something 'planescapy' with NWN...

Mr Sleep · Post by **Mr Sleep** » Wed Jan 16, 2002 5:08 am

Originally posted by turtlespit:
<STRONG>Question is - why did Torment bomb commerically? Was it that the setting was too weird and wacky for 'normal' CRPG'ers? Lack of marketting? Or just back luck?</STRONG>

Personally i never liked the packaging, i know this sounds a little bit pretentous but i would not have impulse bought a game that looked like PS:T does.

I honestly can't think why it didn't sell, i think BG was helped greatly by the D&D franchise something that PS:T missed greatly. It might have been a culmination of things, although i don't remember any other superior games being out at the same time.

fable · Post by **fable** » Wed Jan 16, 2002 8:54 am

My guess (and it's just that) is that a lot of people decided to play a mage and pumped up their character's Intelligence, only to discover that they had dialog options which let them circumvent a lot of combat. This has led to a myth that P:T is a game with virtually no combat; and nothing could be further from the truth. As in Fallout 1/2, only more so, it's all a matter of the character you create. If you like 'em big, dumb and tough, your fighter will take his party through rampaging hoards; but if you go for the extra dialog approach of high intelligence and wisdom, you'll be offered the opportunity to work out puzzles and tangle with opponents less frequently.

But I still see some people claiming that P:T is without combat. That's what killed it, IMO.

Mr Sleep · Post by **Mr Sleep** » Wed Jan 16, 2002 4:40 pm

Also there was not much of a community created surrounding PS:T there were no mods, very few patches and not very many fan sites.

For a game like Unreal Tournament or some such there is a huge list of sites all supported by *ahem* Gamespy *ahem* and they end up with pages and pages of news, reviews etc. This unfortunately never happened to PS:T which is a great shame

fable · Post by **fable** » Wed Jan 16, 2002 9:52 pm

@Sleep, very true. What's disgusting is the way a game like Diablo is promoted as an RPG and gets tons of websites, while a genuine RPG like P:T is poorly promoted, and gets little attention.

Andarian · Post by **Andarian** » Sun Feb 03, 2002 10:49 am

Originally posted by fable

Oh, yes, definitely. You have to agree that the party NPCs in P:T were definitely distinctive. I remember Guido Henkel (the game's Senior Producer at Black Isle, who got unceremoniously pushed out the door a short while before its release) quoting the developer of the Planescape universe as calling its inhabitants "philosophers with clubs." And swords, knives, fire missiles, etc. Great fun.

The "Philosophers with clubs" thing is the reason a lot of power-gamers didn't like it. I am going to depict a scenario with the dumbest sort of power-gamer that exists.

"Diublow twoooo, funfun!! Hackslash, killkill, bloodgore, fightfight!!"

"Peeepole sai funnee thingieees me no get, playnescaype boriyng."

You get the idea. It isn't nearly as extreme a case as that, but thats the idea. Even the dumbest of rocks can enjoy killing stuff, but it takes someone who can comprehend some philosphy to understand and enjoy planescape.

der Moench · Post by **der Moench** » Sun Feb 03, 2002 3:54 pm

Originally posted by Mr Sleep

Personally i never liked the packaging, i know this sounds a little bit pretentous but i would not have impulse bought a game that looked like PS:T does.

I honestly can't think why it didn't sell, i think BG was helped greatly by the D&D franchise something that PS:T missed greatly. It might have been a culmination of things, although i don't remember any other superior games being out at the same time.

I am just starting out this game, but I remember when it came out in stores, and I had the same reaction as you, Mr. Sleep: I didn't like the looks of it. The only reason I got interested in it was I (can't remember how/why) stopped by the website, and was pretty interested by the whole "factions" thing. Then I came back here and looked through some of this forum, and decided it sounded like a good game. So far, so good. I wish I had more free time, because the game feels like you need to spend a fair amount of time with it to keep everything straight - can't just stop in for an hour or two per week and complete this or that quest. Maybe I'm wrong about that, though. Like I say, I've just started.

Sojourner · Post by **Sojourner** » Sun Feb 03, 2002 4:17 pm

I had the same negative reaction to the packaging, too. I like the Forgotten Realms setting, so Torment didn't appeal to me at first. Then I saw the trailer for it and thought "Wow! That looks interesting!" So I bought it and the next thing I knew, I was sucked right into the game. Now, there are some features from it that I wish they would incorporate into the BG series.

Oh, and my favorite character would have to be Morte. Love his dialog and Litany of Curses ability.

Mr Sleep · Post by **Mr Sleep** » Mon Feb 04, 2002 6:52 am

Originally posted by Sojourner
Now, there are some features from it that I wish they would incorporate into the BG series.

I agree, like the flaoting Dias, it was so much easier to use IMO.