Torment Beamdog's Planescape: Torment Enhanced Edition

[Azalin]

Just with the preorders this is already the top selling title in GOG's front page over Shadow Tactics which is on sale

 

[Robespierre]

Sounds like aVENGER is good at making decisions. Genuine to the man.

Spoiler

For now...

Indeed. I'd like to be in his position : Just don't do anything, fondle the codex by claiming that you are tr€€w to the "original, sell your shieeeeet 20 j€wros.

 

[LESS T_T]

aVENGER Hey, just a minor gripe, not to undervalue you guys' effort over this and I guess this is likely business side of things. But I don't like that Beamdog doesn't specify original developer in store page.

It's same for other stores and Beamdog's previous releases.

Compare that to how Nightdive is doing for Turok 2 remaster:

And System Shock 2 re-release (which Nightdive gave much less effort on remastering compared to Turok games):

Yeah, many people who buy these releases probably know that who the original developers are, but I think omitting original studio's name is not a good way of respecting the legacy.

(Sorry if this was pointed out here, I just skimmed 10 pages of this thread.)

 

[The Fish]

aVENGER how was the soundtrack remastered? Was Mark Morgan involved?

We had access to the original, uncompressed versions of the music tracks which were then used for the remastering process.

Mark Morgan wasn't involved directly.

Does that include this one?



I don't think it was in the game itself...

 

[syllopsium]

Excellent, cross platform Torment at last! I'll be buying, and Numenera too when I have time..

Presume it'll still work well with 4:3 monitors, I still don't have anything 16:9/16:10, but what I do have is mostly 1600x1200

 

[CRD]

Well, it looks like they did a good job updating the game so a new generation of players can play it.

I just hope that the quinns mods can come to this edition so we can have the full approved experience by the community through the years and the original one in an updated package.

sold here, nice job Beamdog.

 

[Lilura]

With the pathing routine greatly improved I'd like to see SCS for PS:T.

 

[Fairfax]

aVENGER Hey, just a minor gripe, not to undervalue you guys' effort over this and I guess this is likely business side of things. But I don't like that Beamdog doesn't specify original developer in store page.

It's same for other stores and Beamdog's previous releases.

Compare that to how Nightdive is doing for Turok 2 remaster:

And System Shock 2 re-release (which Nightdive gave much less effort on remastering compared to Turok games):

Yeah, many people who buy these releases probably know that who the original developers are, but I think omitting original studio's name is not a good way of respecting the legacy.

(Sorry if this was pointed out here, I just skimmed 10 pages of this thread.)

It's a Beamdog thing.

The splash screens in the Enhanced Editions only show WOTC, Atari and Beamdog's logos. Here's BG2EE, for example:



Now look at the intro to Nightdive's Turok 2 remaster. It does include their own, but also the original one:



The PST:EE intro will be just like that, and they've already changed the main menu to remove credits:

With no mention of BIS, Interplay or TSR in the store page, intro or menu, new players won't know the original creators unless look for that information or watch the credits. The vast majority won't, of course.

In the not too distant future, new players will associate the IE games with Beamdog, and D&D with WOTC (this one already happened, I believe). Old grognards will yell at clouds and and sing the praises of the original developers, but they'll be too heavily outnumbered to change conventional wisdom.

 

[ShadowSpectre]

Fix that shit Beamdog.

 

[LESS T_T]

It's a Beamdog thing.

Yeah, that's my gripe. It's the same for other releases and stores, including their own store.

Maybe it's something to do with the deal with WotC, maybe not. Or maybe they just don't want to deal with trademark things. (But AFAIK even Bethesda left the intros intact with Fallout 1, 2, and FO:T, and clearly specifying the original developers in the store pages.)

Either way, I don't like that, and yeah, they should fix that shit.

 

[Melcar]

Oh wow. GOG wants me to pre-order the EE.

ESTOY USANDO MI TELEFONO MEXICANO!

 

[Sherry]

Hi.

gosh. Gosh! GOSH!

It is so much right is anyone else thinking that? It is $26.29 when I visit GOG okay and that is too much for me to pay to play I think but on Beamdog it is $19.99 so I do not know what is going on and did nothing to order and went on my way right?

But then I am playing some NWN modules because GOG had it for free right and I follow the NWN thread here and got suggestions about what to play after I finished the game and there is a raffle for 10 free PT:EE games at the NWN site just like there was one for Numenera.

So all I had to do was give my GOG e-mail and a name to enter the raffle then I got +1 raffle entries for visiting the site each day during the time the raffle is on so maybe I can get a free copy.

Anyone else interested just has to go to the NWN site and there is a big banner with a link to enter the raffle that is what I did and tomorrow I will do it again to get another entry into the raffle and my fingers are crossed.

Thanks,
Sherry

 

[Goral]

Without the source art, the only way to update the EE versions would be to re-create the movies and portraits from scratch and I felt that doing that would alter the feel of the original game too much.

Which translated from PR talk to normal means you didn't want to spend money on this.

 

[Goral]

For people asking about the integration of the PST Fixpack: we contacted Qwinn in the early development stages of PST:EE and obtained permission to use it.

Will he be credited at least?

Edit:

We obtained permission to use the Unfinished Business mod, but decided not to after some internal discussions.

You mean too much work that is.

 

[TT1]

https://www.pcinvasion.com/planescape-torment-enhanced-edition-interview-qa

INTERVIEW
Planescape: Torment Enhanced Edition Interview Q&A with Alex Tomovic

POSTED BY: PETER PARRISH MARCH 28, 2017

Beamdog’s latest Enhanced Edition has been revealed today as the acclaimed Planescape: Torment. To find out more about how the project was conceived, the involvement of original Lead Designer Chris Avellone, and the updated features present in the Enhanced Edition, I sent over some questions to Beamdog’s Project Lead, Alex Tomovic.

Here’s what he had to say about the joys and difficulties of getting Planescape: Torment ready for a 2017 re-release, and the emphatic desire to not change or add anything to the game’s celebrated story.

PC Invasion: How did this collaboration between Wizards of the Coast, Beamdog, and Chris Avellone first come about? Who made the first approach about an Enhanced Edition of Planescape: Torment?

Alex Tomovic: We are very thankful to Wizards of the Coast for allowing us to bring the timeless classic that is Planescape: Torment to modern devices and make it available to a wider audience. When Trent [Oster] and Cameron [Tofer] came to me with the idea for the Enhanced Edition, my very first thought was to contact Chris Avellone. As a huge fan of the original game, I felt very strongly that Chris needed to be involved right from the start. Fortunately, it all worked out and we are very happy to have Chris reprise his role as the Lead Designer for the Enhanced Edition.



PCI: Were there any rights or licensing issues to sort out in order to make this happen?

AT: Not really. Wizards of the Coast have been very supportive of our efforts.

PCI: The big, broad question: what’s new to the Enhanced Edition?

AT: The Enhanced Edition of Planescape: Torment features a native 4K user interface, remastered music, Steam achievements as well as a number of quality of life improvements such as quickloot, combat log, area zooming, journal searching and object highlighting. It runs flawlessly on modern devices and operating systems including the latest versions of Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS and Android.

PCI: When working with the older code, what was the most challenging new feature to implement?

AT: Planescape: Torment featured a number of unique spells with amazing visuals that were often linked to in-game cinematic sequences. Porting that spell system over to the new engine was definitively the most challenging part of the process and we are very satisfied with the end result.


PCI: Is there anything you wanted to include as a feature but were unable to do so?

AT: We didn’t have access to the source art for the original animated portraits and movies. Had that been the case, we would have loved to include higher resolution versions of both in the Enhanced Edition.

PCI: You were able to work with Chris Avellone on this release; do you recall any particular bugs or nagging gameplay issues that he was especially eager to fix after all this time?

AT: Chris requested to personally proofread all the text from the original game. This was something that he wanted to do for a long time and we were happy to oblige.

PCI: Was there any temptation, as you have done in the past with Enhanced Editions, to try to add new characters to Torment?

AT: None whatsoever. As the Project Lead of the Enhanced Edition, I felt that it would have been impossible to add new content to the game without changing its unique atmosphere and tone. I firmly believe that the story of Planescape: Torment stands strong on its own, which is why I focused the team’s efforts on making improvements to the technology behind the game, rather than making any changes to its content.



PCI: Regarding the remastered music – I know that with Grim Fandango, for example, DoubleFine had access to higher bitrate originals to use over the compressed in-game versions. Is that the case with Torment, or did you have to go in an ‘clean up’ older files? And was Mark Morgan involved at all?

AT: We had access to the original, uncompressed versions of the music tracks which were then used for the remastering process. Mark Morgan wasn’t involved directly, though we are very glad to have his music in our game at the best possible quality.

PCI: Of all the potential companions in the game, who is a ‘must-have’ for your own party?

AT: For me, that would be Dak’kon. Without spoiling anything, getting to *know* his story and seeing it unfold over the course of the game is an incredible experience. Not to mention that a multi-classed Fighter/Mage is very versatile in combat.

PCI: 2017 has turned out to be a pretty major year for the Torment name. Have you played any of inXile’s Tides of Numenera and, if so, what did you think?

AT: Sadly, I haven’t had a chance to play Tides of Numenera yet due to my busy schedule. I did back it via Kickstarter on day one and I intend to play through it when time permits.

PCI: With both Baldur’s Gate titles and now Torment in Enhanced Edition form, are they any other dream projects you’d like to see Beamdog to tackle next?

AT: Speaking purely for myself, I would love to work on something akin to the Gothic game series by Piranha Bytes.

 

[oldmanpaco]

Without the source art, the only way to update the EE versions would be to re-create the movies and portraits from scratch and I felt that doing that would alter the feel of the original game too much.

Which translated from PR talk to normal means you didn't want to spend money on this.

IDK can you imagine how much we would bitch if they redid the portraits?

Also I'm sure it's been covered in one of the other EE threads but is aVENGER assigned to the codex to keep people from heading over to the beamdog forums to spread our version of constructive criticism?

 

[Goral]

IDK can you imagine how much we would bitch if they redid the portraits?

They could have contacted the original author of these portraits, so even if he didn't have the source files any more, fans would forgive slight changes if they were made by the same person.

BTW: https://af.gog.com/mix/beamdog_is_the_parasite_of_the_industry?as=1649904300

Edit:

Fucking added to my wishlist bitches.

(((Infinitron))) did that too, do you really want to follow his footsteps? DO YOU?

Edit 2:

Altering those within the base game (without making it optional) didn't feel right to me.

Again with this PR talk...

 

[Bigg Boss]

Sure, fans are forgiving motherfuckers I tell ya. This is Planescape. The holy fucking grail of RPG's. You think fans will forgive any minor fault?

 

[CRD]

IDK can you imagine how much we would bitch if they redid the portraits?

This.

If people are complaining for even the tittle screen, imagine if they just changed the slightest bit of art.

I would have loved to see everything that is pre-rendered at more resolution, but, if they don't have the sources there is nothing they can do.

Oh yes, of course, they could call bill gates and elon musk to fund and build a remake with world class artist while maintaining all the code and so, but this is real world.

EE is what we got, an improved, updated, almost untouched and fixed experience of a cult classic, enjoy it or don't but throwing a tantrum for things that are not going to happen is beyond childish.

 

[Lilura]

Planescape Fallout. The holy fucking grail of RPG's.

Fixed.

 

[Goral]

Yeah, many people who buy these releases probably know that who the original developers are, but I think omitting original studio's name is not a good way of respecting the legacy.

These parasites did the same thing with the trailer.
http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...n-coming-april-11.114375/page-23#post-5038063
http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...n-coming-april-11.114375/page-24#post-5038300

 

[Lilura]

In addition [to the FAQ], here are some design decisions that we made (Alex Tomovic is the PST:EE Project Lead):
No new party members, quests, NPCs, areas or cinematic movies
No new writing by anyone except Chris Avellone. In case you're wondering, Chris wrote a couple of new journal entries, adjusted a few special ability (i.e. Morte's Skull Mob) textual descriptions and composed the text that is displayed on the new "Welcome Screen". He also designed the Steam Achievements (wrote the text and specified the icon appearance) and named the new main menu buttons (i.e. Options = Alter Senses)
No changes to existing writing except for a proofreading pass of the original game text by Chris Avellone (he asked to do this)
No kits/classes/races/spells/items from BG2 or IWD
No changes to the combat and general gameplay
No "Story Mode" or "Heart of Fury" difficulty settings
No multiplayer
Note that when we say "writing" we're referring to the text that the player can access within the gameworld i.e. by talking to NPCs, inspecting objects, spells, items and the journal. That doesn't include text that is accessed outside of the gameworld such as the technical descriptions which explain how new UI options like "Zoom Lock" or "Hardware Mouse Cursor" function. The descriptions of those options were written by the developers who worked on implementing them, not by Chris Avellone.

Soundtrack.

We had access to the original, uncompressed versions of the music tracks which were then used for the remastering process.

Mark Morgan wasn't involved directly.

Outlines and sprites.

And for people asking about the black outlines and blurry sprites, here's a pixel perfect 1080p screenshot with most of the EE options turned off.

[Image omitted]

That should be the closest to the original game + widescreen mod.

Portraits.

We didn't have access to the source art for the original animated portraits and movies.

Without the source art, the only way to update the EE versions would be to re-create the movies and portraits from scratch and we felt that doing that would alter the feel of the original game too much.

Combat AI.

The combat and general gameplay of the original game were left unchanged for PST:EE.

Altering those within the base game (without making it optional) didn't feel right to us.

PST Fixpack.

For people asking about the integration of the PST Fixpack: we contacted Qwinn in the early development stages of PST:EE and obtained permission to use it. During development, the fixpack has undergone a thorough review by the PST:EE team and Chris Avellone was consulted whenever there was uncertainty. As a result, all objective bugfixes have been integrated into PST:EE.

Note that some of the more subjective fixpack changes have been deliberately left out for PST:EE because they contradicted the original (Black Isle) developer intent. This is not Qwinn's fault, as he didn't have access to the original PST design documents (which we do) nor to the PST source code (which we also have) so he had no way of knowing. As an example, PST:EE leaves out the fixpack change that gave enemies the ability to run towards the player while engaged in combat. The original design documents and the source code both confirm that enemies were deliberately prevented from running in that situation.

Unfinished Business.

We obtained permission to use the Unfinished Business mod, but decided not to after some internal discussions.

If/when the mod is updated for PST:EE people will still be able to install it, if they are so inclined.

Source: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/861001/#Comment_861001

 

[Sykar]

Alright Codex people, PST:EE is now live. There's a FAQ section on the Beamdog website which may answer some of your questions. In addition, here are some design decisions that I made as the PST:EE Project Lead:

• No new party members, quests, NPCs, areas or cinematic movies
• No new writing by anyone except Chris Avellone. In case you're wondering, Chris wrote a couple of new journal entries, adjusted a few special ability (i.e. Morte's Skull Mob) textual descriptions and composed the text that is displayed on the new "Welcome Screen". He also designed the Steam Achievements (wrote the text and specified the icon appearance) and named the new main menu buttons (i.e. Options = Alter Senses)
• No changes to existing writing except for a proofreading pass of the original game text by Chris Avellone (he asked to do this)
• No kits/classes/races/spells/items from BG2 or IWD
• No changes to the combat and general gameplay
• No "Story Mode" or "Heart of Fury" difficulty settings
• No multiplayer

Note that when I say "writing" I'm referring to the text that the player can access within the gameworld i.e. by talking to NPCs, inspecting objects, spells, items and the journal. That doesn't include text that is accessed outside of the gameworld such as the technical descriptions which explain how new UI options like "Zoom Lock" or "Hardware Mouse Cursor" function. The descriptions of those options were written by the developers who worked on implementing them, not by Chris.

So all you did was essentially making a version using most of the free mods which anyone with half a brain can install in under 30 minutes for free by themselves and adding some minor completely superfluous gimmicks to it, and for that you guys and gals want to be payed 20 bucks for it.

Another glorious cashgrab, and you guys even pretend like you were the developer of the game.

What a joke. If at least people could chose to buy the original version instead of the EE but somehow they are not available anymore on Steam and GoG. I wonder why...

 

[aVENGER]

aVENGER Hey, just a minor gripe, not to undervalue you guys' effort over this and I guess this is likely business side of things. But I don't like that Beamdog doesn't specify original developer in store page.

Not up to me, there are legal reasons why the store pages are like that.

That said, the PST:EE in-game credits list the original developers, just like all the previous EE games did.

 

[Lilura]

Hey aVENGER, can you confirm that the pathing routine was improved? It looks like it in the vid.