Gather unknown signals from deep, silent space · By
Remove the trigger warning. Not only is the game a HORROR game(the genre should be all the warning ANYONE needs), it just adds more time before you can even start the game. Also, it bugged out on me a while back and I COULD NOT click through it. So the game was rendered literally unplayable because of it.
EDIT: Just redownloaded and checked again. Still bugged. Still unplayable
EDIT2: Downvoting me doesn't magically make me wrong.
I like the new base layout, and the new trash piles are a welcome change to just having random bits everywhere that could potentially get stuck in a wall and make noise for eternity (not to mention how I was always finding extra trash bits I somehow missed), although I'd appreciate if they could be somehow set so that if a random object falls on top of one, targeting the random object takes priority over targeting the trash pile (So I don't have to pick up the entire pile just to get one object that fell onto it). Also I do wish there were more crafting uses for some of the scrap types.
I hated the new control system at first, but it's grown on me, and I can't ever see myself going back to the "every interaction requires a numerical menu) system. I recently loaded up my old 0.8.2 game to toss some stuff into the mailbox and I just found the old controls kind of awkward. Although I still haven't fully figured out how throwing stuff from your hand works yet. I keep doing it on accident but can't figure out how to do it on purpose.
The new coordinates and hashtag systems have their pros and cons. The new coordinate system definitely feels more interactive, like I'm actually triangulating signals from space rather than just clicking on circles, but it does start out really slow and clunky at the start of the game. The floppy disks I like because it's impossible to screw up typing out the hashcode now, but at the same time I keep forgetting the damn things- both at the base when I leave to get the codes and at the satellites after I actually get the codes; also it feels a tiny bit less interactive than the previous version, since you're just plugging a thing in and waiting until it finishes now. Also the CR towers- I'm hoping that's a bug with them right now. I remember them burning out that fast back in the original 0.9.0 release, then a version or two later the decay rate was slowed down significantly to a much more reasonable level, and now it's back to the old rate again.
New ATV I'm still not fully a fan of. It's way more clunky than the old model, and even with the overcharged engine it still has trouble getting up slopes the old ATV got up easily. Also logs and rocks are way more of a threat to the new ATV- so many of them that the old one just ramped off of that the new one crashes into and comes to a complete stop (although at least the bumper upgrade was a huge help in maintaining its durability in that regard).
I do like the new physical upgrade system (although granted, it was a little unintuitive to figure out how to get them installed at first), and the new crafting interface and drone are godsends.
All in all 0.9.0 I definitely consider an improvement, but I'm not quite sure it's ready to be called "stable" yet. There are still a TON of bugs in this version. Was planning on recommending this game to a friend, but I'm probably going to recommend he start back on 0.8.2 until some of the more egregious ones are fixed.
Bug report : coordinate towers constantly breaking without any reason with their decay TURNED OFF in save settings all fuses and towers break on opening save and when in game they break constantly i repaired cr3 and by the time i got home it exploded again at daytime in perfect weather without clouds
Other towers have broken too with their decay turned off previously while they had 2 fuses installed it fried them all at once and broke towers at same time without thunderstorms
please add module to shop to make coordinate towers completely impossible to break and fixing them automaticaly even if they still somehow do for like 1000 points each or rewrite their code so they dont explode for no reason
gamemode is story difficulty normal game version a09j_0001
I like the directions it going but have issues with the Coordination towers. The mini game for it is kind of blah and would rather just have to replace the fuses and be done, especially since the towers are already far out there. The towers should also be on the map and digital map so we can find them easily. I should be able to tell on the signal finding computer if a tower is down and not get a signal found and lined up to fine out one of the towers is down. The Coordination Towers feel like they go down to easy. I understand if a storm takes it down but I just replaced the fuses and went down again the next day in game. Also I get we can put more fuses in it to make it last longer but not sure if thats the best directions because the issue with system like that it really turns to whats the minimum I need not to be annoyed by it. Maybe do different quality of fuses and only have three fuses to put in. I get the direction of them to be a point sink but I can also see it being just a pain in butt or a point drain.
I enjoy the floppy disk for hash codes and enjoy the new base design. The only other suggestion I think we should have a choose on what degrades system wise like server, transformers, and radio towers in the game creator because we are getting to a point it feels like a maintenance simulator over finding space signals. I get at the start its like that but you should basically get to focus on finding signals and doing light maintenance unless something really bad happens.
Keep of the good work Devs!
First time player, so this is all new to me. Just reached day 48 <End of Alpha>, here's what stood out in terms of things to improve:
As has been said, coord radars are a problem. They chew through fuses too fast, with no upgrades like the transformers get to mitigate decay in-game. Fuses themselves are expensive to buy and there's not enough glass scrap available to reliably craft them.
Boars (or rather, the "combat" with the Boars) seem really out of place for the game's feel, especially since they apparently stick around forever, even after the failed siege on the treehouse. They're also very janky; half the time if you try to hook them to something, they zip into another dimension, with only a faintly heard explosion in the distance signalling their death.
The tutorial should really emphasize the importance of calibrating your satellites more. Or add a line mentioning it on the paper stuck to the server room's console, would help a lot.
Food fatigue is absolutely crippling for the first week, since MREs are all you really have. It also just doesn't really add anything in terms of enjoyment even when you can deal with it later on.
Would be nice if you could connect a hose to your power washer.
Even though toolboxes are cheap, it still doesn't feel great seeing your ATV wheels take so much damage from debris in the road and forest. Maybe add some sturdier wheels to the store or crafting list.
Finally, Kerfurs' pathfinding is wack. Not once was mine able to fix a single downed server without getting stuck on a corner or railing, or just "failing to find" the server. Maybe Omega is better, I never found out because bunker keycard is glued to the stairs.
I would appreciate an option to remove dreams. At least in ambience mode.
A lot of them are quite creepy, and it gets annoying when I just wanted to recover some stamina but kept triggering dream.
The "press ragdoll to exit dream" feature/unintended feature seems to be gone now, so I can't even get out if it except waiting it out :(
Also, back in 0.8.2, I reported some scary events that can trigger in ambience mode(super fog and Skerfuro), not sure if they are fixed yet. I didn't see it in the change log. It was when 0.9 alpha was already out and 0.8's bug report form was closed, so I understand if my report didn't make it to the developer.
I've read other people's comments and I'm already scared of the coordinate towers. The tutorial mentioned something about them, but I haven't seen them once yet. The tutorial is way too raw.
I created a new world, ran to the base, then went to the log by diving into the river. Only I couldn't get out of the water even after 15 minutes. I never use the ATV, I usually run on foot, but now I can't run because the mountains, slopes slippery and impossible to walk on. That's exactly why I couldn't climb out of the water. Before, I'd walk through the forest and climb hills no problem, but now I have to stick to roads, and even they might lead to dead ends if you go the wrong way. I don't know in which version they changed this, but it didn't click for me...
The new disks—I don't like that they fall to the floor. It'd be easier if they stuck out from where you inserted them, like sticking out of the computer so I can grab them calmly. Also giving 3 signals right at the start is cruel. Because of that, I rushed to create an Omega Kerfur, but ended up quitting due to a bug with the key card. By the way, about Kerfur—he doesn't always notice when something's broken. With the sd.calall command I can see what's broken, but Kerfur somehow doesn't see it.
The trash now being in piles is pretty interesting. But my game lags more from lighting than trash. Especially the corridor lights, even though my PC is powerful and extra lighting settings for better light are off. I've also noticed that if you pick up trash and put it in bags too quickly, at least 1 or 2 bags end up disappearing behind the textures. Because of this, you have to pick up trash slowly.
Also tell me, didn't transformers used to show the current percentage on them before? Is there any way to check the transformers' charge level percentages (not in the console)? Speaking of the console, there’s a note hanging on the base that says “Alpha Base - home, base” — I was hoping they’d added the commands `sv.target home` and `sv.target base`, but in the end, that note just confused me.
(If I translated something incorrectly into English or something is unclear—please ask)
Agreed with most of your points.
I used to exclusively use the ATV, but now they are so maintenance heavy I just have to leave it at the base and run on foot. It went from "useful if you have fuel" to "better not bother with it at all. The slipping is annoying but you remember the paths after a few times.
New transformers still shows percentage, just that you'll have to open the maintenance panel, and there's a little screen on the lower right corner.
The note is just wrong now. The to target the base the command is `sv.target root`
I'd really like to have an option to change the control scheme back to the original one. I really don't like it when one button does multiple things in games, and also I'm really bad at adjusting to change, especially when I'm as familiar with the old controls as I am. If there was just a button in settings that changed all the controls back, that would be very nice, and that way people who like the new controls can still use them. Best of both worlds! Other than that, I love the new base. ATV is a bit irritating to have to keep repairing, same with the new towers, but with some adjusting I'm sure they'll be a little less annoying.
I love the new trash piles. Now that you get resources out of them I don't want to just bag and sell, which means my base stays messy longer but is even more satisfying to clean. Maybe make them drop two scrap instead of one or make them smaller? It feels like they lose 75% mass when shoveled. The individual piles that you need to use to get items out of hold 6 and are flatter than the clumps.
The new base is also fantastic. More stuff everywhere, it feels more previously lived in and also manically abandoned.
The new way signals are downloaded is also fun, more engaging to have to triangulate and being rewarded with easier adjustments. More physical stuff everywhere for all the chores makes me happy - using floppy disks for daily tasks instead of having to type out hash codes is great! Same for the transformers and servers. I like more mini games and I appreciate that transformer maintenance only requires one of them instead of all of them. The physical module upgrades are also a fun replacement for the previous console upgrades and for the transformers.
I was initially a little irritated that the new ATV always requires fuel, but then I realized that this is an excuse to put more mannequins in the wood chipper for coal so it's not too big a problem. Thematically, I think wheels take too much damage from regular use. It's not a resource problem - tool kits are cheap enough - but tires don't have durability that degrades (except the treads, which wouldn't wear down on the soft ground around the base and you wouldn't be able to repair anyway). I think it would be cool to replace that with an air pump and pressure - you periodically have to pump the tires up, if you over-fill they explode. Maybe add leaks that slowly drain the air if you run over nails or take really big falls and patch kits to repair them, something like that? Also the way it eats gas seems off. It probably shouldn't just drain constantly whenever you hold forward no matter what is happening. I know you can just tap the throttle repeatedly and let go but that's just annoying. Maybe it should drain less fuel depending on how much effort it takes to maintain top speed? Also towing things with the ATV and hook is a lot worse now. I get more leverage with just a hook on foot even on very heavy objects.
A lot of people have complained about the coordinate towers and I have to agree with them. I like the idea of maintenance on them, but fuses are way too expensive, even if you craft them, for how often they break. I had CR2 go down, I fixed it, and while I was heading back to base it went down *again*, and this happened on at least two different days. They need to be able to soak more damage before they break (maybe add upgrades?), or you should be able to repair a fuse for less resources / scrap it into more of the components, or they should cost less in the store, maybe let a Kerfur fix them. A server upgrade is permanent and only costs 25 points, or is made with a metal, electronics, and plastic, and lasts forever. Vs a fuse that costs 50, is made from metal, electronics, glass, and wire AND breaks every time you turn your back on the tower. ("Mind your step" is very funny, it catches me every other time and I turn around and chuckle whenever I trip.) Also, ADD THEM TO THE MAP, PLEASE.
Speaking of the economy, 900 points seems like way too many for the big flashlight. It's a great upgrade and I appreciate a good cost to escape the fiddling annoyance (so much of the game is trying to make everything less directly annoying and time consuming to get your job done, of course!) but it's somehow 400 more expensive than Kerfur, an entire autonomous robot. Bandages are also a little expensive. One bandage is 35 points. That's two food boxes and change!
Cooking and farming are also good times. No notes, I love growing potatoes and oranges and baking bread. You should probably need to add water to the coffee machine instead of just bumping the coffee bag against the machine.
Control scheme - I also don't care for the new "hold the button" scheme and would like a toggle to revert to how it worked in .8x when I want to use vs activate.
It would be nice if the daily drone also provided a drive box but I understand if Dr Bao wants to be stingy or whatnot. :-D
Dreams - they seem to occur way too often now and take far too long to complete successfully. I struggle with actually completing them to begin with, sometimes it seems you just can't, and being punished with -30 stamina is a lot. Maybe shorten them but also shorten the reward, or reduce the penalty? Also, the one time I finished the boulder dream successfully I was still flung out of my sleeping bag on the floor so hard I immediately bled to death even though I was wearing a helmet, which was funny but also incredibly annoying.
Overall it's been a great update and I look forward to seeing what comes next!!
TL;DR: Good Job :)
Really enjoying the update so far. I'm on day 37.
My only other experience with VOTV was I think update 8.2 (and even then, I only made it to around day 7 or so. This was about a year ago I think? Maybe a little less?)
----------- Main Game Loop -----------
I like it! I don't remember the old game loop too well, but I'm finding this one to be very intuitive by comparison.
-Coordinates:
Finding coordinates is straight forward and easy to grasp. Ping all the signals, move the screen over to one, make a triangle around it with the three dishes and press enter. Easy, straight forward, good. The loooong cooldown of the ping/dish setup was annoying, but it incentivized me to upgrade the cooldown speed which I did, and found myself with much more time on my hands to do other things now that I wasn't spending so much time at the coordinates station.
-Downloads:
Good stuff. I don't remember it being much different from the old version, but again it is straight forward and easy to grasp. I never bought the upgrade that automatically syncs the polarity (right,left,linear) for the download table as finding the correct one only takes about 4 seconds to do it manually. Why waste the points to save 3 seconds?
I don't think it's explained very well how the satellite's integrity values affect the download speed, but I gathered that by running sd.calall every now and again made downloading faster.
-Playing:
Mostly straightforward and easy to grasp, but I wonder if its full of red herrings or am I just unlucky?
I have NO IDEA what the spectrogram/visualizer is used for from a practical standpoint. I understand that it visually displays audio waves, but I never found that to matter in any meaningful way. Maybe I just was never lucky enough to find an event/anomaly that would make it useful, but after 30 or 40 drives, tweaking the SARV knobs every which way for every drive and seeing nothing interesting or meaningful, I wonder what the point of it is? Other than that, it was simple to use for the main gameplay loop.
-Calculation Station:
Again, straight forward and easy to use. Plop in the drive, move it to the buffer, press start.
I bought the upgrade to automatically begin calculations again from level 0 to 3 to save time, and it was a worthy investment.
I'm not sure what maintenance exactly is required to keep calculation speeds high, but I just made it a point to keep as many servers active in the base (which I think are what's used for calculation speed) as I could, sd.calall often, and never let more than 3/4 satellites stay down at a time.
-Upgrades:
I recall in the older version, it was really difficult to understand what upgrades would do before you bought them.
It's much easier to understand what upgrades will do before purchasing thanks to the categorical tabs, but I think they could be renamed/explained even further as some things are a bit vague/ambiguous.
(What does Ping_Speed do? I understand Ping_Cooldown reduced the cooldown between pings, but making the pings faster? Aren't pings instantaneous as soon as you press enter/shift? Is this instead referring to the rate at which lines are drawn to form a triangle? I have no idea.)
(Detector_Strength vs Detector_Quality? I understand the quality upgrade makes the image sharper and leads to praise from the people I'm sending data to for 'clear images', but what does Strength do? Is it ALSO upgrading the quality in some way? Is it just making the download of the image faster like with Detector_update_frequency? I'm not sure, it's a little vague.)
(Radar History... I'm not sure what the usefulness of this is? You can see how long ago that events/anomalies were hanging around the map? What use is this if they're gone now? Why do I need to know more/less entities were here from 5 minutes ago?)
-Tape Logs:
Easy point income is welcome. Especially in the early game when nothing is upgraded, so there's always at least SOME points coming in that will keep you alive if nothing else.
-Server Maintenance/Minigames:
Hey! New minigames! Wow!
I loved the addition of more minigames. Doing the same basic math quiz over and over was boring and repetitive. Having many more is a welcome change.
My favorite minigame is the Password Guesser, though my biggest gripe is that there is much more "junk noise" characters than words, making visually scanning the entire thing a bit tiresome.
(Also the first time I saw the maze minigame, I fully expected a jumpscare like that one viral youtube video lol.)
Having a Chance_To_Fail rate on the sv.request action attached to the satellites that are not upgraded was a good incentive to make me want to upgrade them; on top of the bonus that upgraded satellites don't break down as often. Good change!
-CR towers and fuses:
Wow... Ok, this was a struggle. I had no idea why I couldn't use the coordinates table any longer. I made sure all servers were at 100%, all power breakers on - didn't realize there were three towers you had to maintain via a minigame. I don't think this information was communicated very well that the player needs to check the CR towers, what they do, and where they are. They're not marked on the map like the satellites and transformer stations, which I assumed displayed all the critical gameplay loop locations. I had to actually go and look up on the internet why I couldn't use the coordinates any more, and only then found out the existence of CR towers. Fuses also feel very expensive to craft in my opinion. I'm happy for what they do as I don't enjoy the CR minigame (I'm dumb and can't do those kinds of puzzles lol), but it took me a long time to discover I could make copper wire myself instead of buying it from the store, and its very resource expensive if you're crafting fuses. Buying fuses for 80c does not feel worth it at all.
-Transformers:
Good choice of minigames for the transformers! You only need to do ALL the minigames if a transformer goes down completely, so that's good incentive to visit them regularly and keep them topped off instead of letting them hit zero. Minigames themselves are easy to grasp and don't take too much time. They're also on the map/poster so you can plan your route when doing dailies that much more efficiently.
----Complaints----
Just to bullet point some complaints, some of which I've previously stated.
*Spectogram/Visualizer seems useless. I can't seem to find a reason to use it.
*CR tower importance does not feel well explained. I don't recall it being in the tutorial or having a note to notify me how crucial CR towers are, or where they are.
*Fuses seem too credit/resource expensive.
*Naming Errors! There are outdated notes that call objects by the wrong name! The note that mentions "Accumulators" needs to be changed to "Rechargeable Batteries" or vice versa.
--------------- Spoilers Warning Ahead -------------
-Events:
I've noticed a decrease in events from 8.2 that I would label as "Uncharacteristically Wacky", such as the car that spawns on you with the cognit hazard license plate, the walking cognit hazard man, the Sun That Melts Your Skin Off, etc.
I don't know if this was a decision to remove these events or if I just have been extremely lucky in avoiding them, but I consider this a good change! In their place, I've encountered more events that play on my imagination/interpretation which has lead me to spooking myself more than the game does, making me wonder about the mysteries, intrigue, story, and possibilities of what's going on. This is a much more enjoyable experience than "LOOK OUT A CAR!".
The Cognito hazard Man was pretty scary from what I remember, but maybe a bit too scary as I did not want to continue playing the game much more after that lol.
I really enjoy the big events with lots of polish and animation. Pyramid Guy and the group of giant spider robot things were fun to discover for the first time.
---
I enjoyed the tree house near Victor site. I like that I was able to venture in and even loot some useful gear and even the posters on the wall which now decorate my garage. I tried to open the crate outside, of course. It shocked me, so I decided to hook it up to the ATV and drive it home. When I tried though, an invisible person attacked me and took their crate back... And also their knife from the treehouse that I tried to stab them with lol. I also liked that the treehouse was locked out afterwards, making me feel like my actions had a tangible impact and now these nice campers were pissed off at Dr. Kel, the tinfoil hat wearing, breaking and entering thief who stole their super soaker water guns and posters.
The events in this update are very enjoyable! Most of them are scary/spooky, some are more of a tame 'let your imagination wonder', some even beneficial (surprisingly), and some are just kinda funny. Thank you, ATV washer bro o7.
I found myself not really wanting to explore the radar blips too often in the early game as I was far more focused on gathering enough money that I could upgrade things so I wouldn't spend ALL DAY just doing the game loop/Feeding myself. As I upgraded, I had more free time, and explored more. Though oftentimes exploring radar blips was a waste of time, as when I got there, the blip had disappeared/moved/simply wasn't visible to the naked eye. I'm only up to one video camera, and it hasn't been all that useful in catching things I wouldn't have otherwise normally seen. Video cameras are expensive, and I only vaguely know some hotspots the blips have been congregating.
-Random Notes: (Still Spoilers)
TURNING OFF SHADOWS LET ME PLAY THIS GAME!!! With shadows on, I get like 19 FPS in the base. Shadows off, I get 60. I wish this information was presented to the player in a much more 'in your face' kind of way, as it seems many people have this issue.
Took me way too long to find the hiking boots. At a glance, they just look like rubber trash, wasn't until day 17 or so that I moused over it and realized they were hiking boots. 17 days too late are better than never I suppose! I'm just glad that a 2 foot drop doesn't kill me any more.
One Cigarette causes permanent coughing? That seems way too punishing for wanting to smoke the one cigarette you find in the TR station. Yea, I fixed it with heavy meds (thanks google), but that's a steep point cost for smoking a single cig.
The Weeping Angel Mannequin was spooky at first, but now he's just annoying. I'm not scared anymore by the sound of a door opening behind me and the scrape of wood on concrete. I know exactly what made that sound, and I'm going to beat him to splinters for the 40th time again. This seems like an event that should end after the 3rd or 4th time, escalate into something worse, or removed entirely. It stopped being scary a long time ago, he's just an annoyance now.
Keycard bug! You probably know by now that the keycard is bugged. I used WinRar instead of 7zip so I don't know if that's the culprit, but I can not get into the secret base, nor do I have an old save to transfer a card via mailbox. I did peak inside in sandbox mode, would have been nice to open it the intended way, but I will not be building any helper robots this update. u.u
I googled where to find the note that explains how to build cooler frames. There wasn't much incentive for me to clear out the trash of the TR room other than to get the electronic scrap out. The note is also incorrect now, it says "Accumulators" instead of "Rechargeable Batteries" (Thanks google)
I've played enough now that I don't need to use the compass to find home base, but sv.target home/alpha/base do not work as implied via the note on the base's console stickynote.
I like the food fatigue mechanic! It makes sense Dr. Kel would get tired of eating the same 3 things for weeks and gives good reason to explore/search/buy some food. It's what made me bother to start farming potatoes. HOWEVER- It didn't incentivize me enough to give fishing a try. I found the fishing rod, but the amount of food/food variety I have is enough to make me not want to bother fishing. Fishing in video games is notoriously boring, while I don't know how fishing is handled in VOTV, I'm not really in any hurry to give it a try as MREs + potatoes and canned food are pretty sufficient. I'm sure there's an event/treasure related to fishing, but I don't feel that compelled to try it.
Sugar - the cookbook says 4 sugar cane makes a sugar bag. I've tried putting sugar cane on the workbench, on the cutting board, cutting with a knife, I can't seem to make sugar out of this sugar cane. The cookbook doesn't say what method to use, just that 4 sugar cane makes a bag of sugar. I don't know if this is a bug or if there's some mechanic I'm missing or what?...
Woodchipper - I thought the woodchipper would be a massive game changer. I could finally turn all these wood scraps into coal and fuel the ATV more reliably!... Unfortunately the hopper for the woodchipper is inconvenient/clunky, I wish it would act as an interactable inventory so I wouldn't have to feed it one piece at a time. And then I found the secret room that gave me 100 coal pieces, so I feel like I'm set for life now and the woodchipper was a waste of money.
The drone tower, after 37 days, has never had any issues. It's never gone down, the drone has come every day without fail, I've never climbed it to fix it as it's never broken down. I'm not sure if this is a bug? The health on the cw.check says 3, and its been at 3 for 37 days.
Speaking of the drone, I like that it acts as an alarm clock in the morning. It's a nice punishment for going to bed too late >:)
Insomnia demon dreams - Cool concept that solving the dream sequence will reward you with full stamina (and even full hunger?), but some of them seem too difficult/unsolvable. The dream where you just have to run around a room dodging shadowy figures is cool the first time, but the 2nd and 3rd you realize that it takes just as much time, if not longer, to dodge all the shadowy figures as it does to just wait out the sleep timer. It's kind of boring to run in a circle that long, so I'll just run into the figures and force me out of the dream so I can sleep normally.
The dream where the walls close in on you - I can't figure out how to solve it. I try interacting with all the interactables, knock the table over, clip out of bounds on accident by hugging a corner, I don't know if it can be solved or not.
Cleaning the base seems like a herculean task. After 37 days I've only cleaned the garage, the main lobby, and the hallway that connects the two. There's ALOT of junk, scrap, and trash all over the base. Alot of it is useful, but when you just want to clean for the sake of cleaning, you kind of have to pick between organizing all this VALUABLE AND USABLE CRAFTING MATERIAL, or chuck everything in the drone. I went with "Clean the garage and the windows in front of the main consoles, and everything else will remain dirty cause I can not spend valuable time sorting through all this junk into different storage containers that only sorts by 'most recent'". Also, I can't figure out how to efficiently remove the divider curtains that are in the base that you might see in a hospital. They can't be chopped up with a hacksaw, and they're too big to fit through the front door. I just stacked them against the wall (or thrown them into the garbage pile that is the cubicles in the main room of the base)
There are a couple of bugs to report, but I didn't use 7zip so I can't report bugs/know if WinRar is the issue... So I won't.
If you read this entire ramble, please enjoy a cookie.
EDIT: Just parroting something another forum post said: Most of my time has primarily been spent doing the main gameplay loop. I've had little time to go out and explore as doing so usually means not doing the main gameplay loop. Ie, not getting paid. You already make very little money in comparison to the cost of many things in the store, it's a very hard choice to make between making money or exploring the world, and you may not even find anything interesting while exploring! I spent a full day out of bounds scraping my face against the world border - I did eventually find the abandoned wooden walled village ruins, but I had 20 stamina by that point and had to hurry + fight off a living cheese wheel.
I also agree about the FPS dropping due to lighting and shadows. This has been dragging on from previous versions, and simply turning on the corridor lights makes it impossible to stay at the base normally—you just want to run off into the forest.
God, the drone is like an alarm clock - I wanted to walk up and break the drone. Huh... that's an idea....
Lot of good points here, just want to mention that:
1) Those hospital curtains in the signal room can be picked up by holding R and then carried out. I just took them to the workbench and scrapped them into plastic. Also you can break the office cubicles with any melee weapon/tool (crowbar, shovel, axe, etc.) and then move the individual dividers.
2) sv.target alpha to set the compass to base has worked for me, wonder if it's a bug specific to you or something. But base/home don't work. I think of it like I'm targeting the servers in Alpha Base.
"With shadows on, I get like 19 FPS in the base. Shadows off, I get 60."
Settings -> Graphics -> Advanced-> change "Graphics RHI" from DirectX11 to 12 or Vulkan. Engine just can't handle shadows in DX11 mode for some weird reason. TBH 12 probably ought to be made the default; you'd kill like 90% of framerate complaints, and it's not like any GPU old enough to top out at 11 is gonna have the horsepower to boot this thing anyway.
I hate it. the controls are awful, the signal thing sucks ass to use now, the whole base looks awful, the fence around the base makes it harder to leave on the atv, you are FORCED to play the tutorial before being able to play, and at least from what i saw playing the new update for a bit, they removed the vents.
A lot of my likes or gripes for this update have already been touched upon by others, namely the coordinate towers. I appreciate their presence, especially since once you have Kerfur-O you no longer need to venture outside for transformers, servers fixes, or reports, so they remain one of the only maintenance tasks that force you to leave the safety of Alpha Base. It's good, even if I would rather stay inside. But they're definitely overtuned; in my first week I had to replace so many fuses. Thank god I found the crafting recipe or I would've been broke the entire time.
On the other hand, everything else about the game feels fantastic! I'm loving the new controls, don't really understand all the hate or "clunky" descriptions but a toggle for the old control scheme might be a nice addition. I love the flow of the workstation, now that it's in order of the signal process. The triangulation "minigame" for signal scanning imo is fun, but can get a little tedious pre-upgrades.
One bug that I've really noticed is when using the computer, when you're using the Database tab and clicking around, you can't use ESC to exit the computer. You first have to either click a different tab, or as I've been doing click on the edge of the screen once or twice after which ESC works for exiting. It's annoying but not game breaking or anything.
All in all I'm loving the update and can't wait for what comes next!
EDIT: P.S. Minor issues, the drone is now SO loud and won't leave until you hit the drone call button. I like that it stays until you're ready, but turning down it's volume would be great. Also I noticed you no longer receive a drive box with the drone delivery, not a huge problem and there's certainly surplus boxes around just the base, but it does seem a little odd for something that's required for your daily task.
Also major FPS issues in the base, while it's fine outside it. I know it's due to lighting and shadows, and in fairness I'm running the game on a somewhat dated PC now, AND I'm aware that the game is still in Alpha and isn't fully optimised, but it is something I hope can be improved in the future.
I've been trying 0.9 and it's just unpleasant to play, excessively tedious at best. I was trying it out on Ambient to get a feel for it and I feel like I can say that I would've dropped it quickly if I was new.
The things 0.9 does better than 0.8.
- The drone is probably one of the few outright improvements, it just fits better even if it's loud. The bag is nice too, much easier to move around than the crates left by the drone in 0.8.
- The new little paths to previously disconnected satellite, I noticed it with India and how I didn't need to just turn into the trees to get to it.
- The trash piles are pretty nice, they make cleaning up a bit easier and faster than hunting for small scraps.
Mixed changes.
- Base is much more detailed, but it's so cluttered and damaged that it's going to take forever unless you're bringing in a sellgun, mop, rake, and wall repair tool in the mailbox. If you're not bothered by the mess, then you'll be fine.
- The map looks much better, there's a lot of detail. The bridges look better, the roads look better and feel easier to drive on, the forest looks like a proper forest. However, the forest's new density means you won't travel much of it unless you like walking.
- The ATV has a lot of interesting modifications you can make to it, going by the shop. However, it feels much less powerful, more fragile to drive around, and you can't just keep the lights on.
- The new controls are more simple but much slower. I could see a new player picking them up easier.
- The physical modules are whatever, the radar modules look interesting but that's about it. I don't know why they explode when I try to install them though.
- I didn't see any of the new server repair minigames, I just got the classic numbers one so I can't really comment, but it should make it less repetitive and I appreciate having the toggle for each of them in the world settings to have the option of disabling any of the ones I'd find too unpleasant.
Downgrades in 0.9 compared to 0.8.
- The new signal detection minigame takes ages, ping cooldown is required to avoid having signals vanish as you triangulate. It was frustrating to have the signal vanish just as I was putting in the third CR position or getting the lines drawn, and it happened 3 times in a row.
- The floppy discs work well for flavor, but do add more tedium. You don't need to double check the hash, but the error rate makes it take longer than if you quintuple checked the hash. Transferring to a zip drive, while understandable, just adds a bit more annoyance.
- The CRs themselves and the fuses. Just more early game pain to deal with, thankfully they can be disabled in settings.
- Transformers have a new set of minigames and seem to fail faster than in 0.8.
- MREs are just terrible, not even worth trying to use. Barely give any food, Kel won't eat much of them, and they've got a chance to give food poisoning on top of that.
- It feels petty, but the drives don't go into your hand when you pull them. It's slightly more annoying, even more so because the new controls make holding items take a little bit longer.
- The damn wind. While it is thematic, between it, the buzzing of flies, and the constant stomach rumbling of Kel refusing to eat MREs, I started to go a bit mad.
Overall, 0.9 feels more immersive and flavorful to me than 0.8 does, however that doesn't make it more enjoyable to play.
you've got really fair points here, I just want to mention a couple things that might help:
Hope this helps a bit!
So that's how the modules work then, I didn't really spend that much time looking in the basement since I'm used to there not being much there. It makes sense and I can see how it's intended to make the breakers more important. I just guessed that I needed the wrench because I saw the impact driver in the shop and the panels were new and didn't come off with the screwdriver.
As for the minigames, being able to toggle them in the menu was something I immediately saw and liked.
In hindsight, just holding R to pull the drives out of the slots to hold them makes sense. It just didn't dawn on me since I'm used to 0.8's controls.
hey idk if I'm doing anything wrong but the CR towers in my game keep malfunctioning so much is not even funny, like i bought like 500 hundred worth of creds in fuses and they still fail so much at least one of them is down at all times and I'm kind of soft locked cuz i can't even sell signals as when i repair one another one is already down . I really thought fuses would help but nope and now i don't even have credits to buy more gasoline for the constant travels between each CR. I'm wondering if my game may be bugged or something, is this normal? or should I just reset from day one? I'm getting very frustrated because at this point the gameplay loop for me feels like the Sisyphus myth
big flashlight is way too good. needs to have its power consumption increased at least a bit so it doesnt effectively outmode the crank flashlight
ATV upgrades should have their prices reduced at least a bit
in relation to above, some store items should get "discounts" on certain days of the story timeline, or if you get your weekly gold star. A to encourage players to get items that would make their life easier they might not otherwise bother with due to the cost, as well as to sort of tell them "hey this thing exists. you MIGHT want it. maybe. no reason. wink. ;P"
trash piles should be +Rable to immediently take a piece from instead of having to E+R+R E+R+R ect. also running over one should occasionally make you trip and kick out a trash piece from the pile :P
UV lights should make filth decals glow so you know if youve missed any (especially on windows/the atv)
coffee machine is also too good. needs to have a limited supply & take coins like the other vending machines
axe is too good, at least for how quickly you can get it. despite kel's canon implement being a crowbar (shown by the alien gift) I and i imagine a lot of players with at least a semblance of exploring skills would find the axe at least within the first week and then never touch any of the other melee implements :P should be gated behind something, the red plant portal in the cabin maybe? or the lake corpse locker? i kinda like that one.
hacksaw time on supply crates should be reduced & make it so instead of wood gibs + scrap it just gives the scrap
atv should get an upgrade that lets you choose a custom file as the honk eheh
satilite computers & servers should be tied to the downloading breaker instead of the computations breaker
related to above, a more visual version of the computer breaker screen would be nice too.
I love the new art direction, and all the physical module ideas and whatnot, as well as the new minigames for maintenance, but I'm mixed on the new control scheme and the coordinate towers are a pain and overwhelming on top of all the other early game busywork. It's just a lot to deal with right off the bat, and I'm finding it difficult to find the time to go out exploring on Normal difficulty.
pls pls pleasseeeeeeeee add a way to toggle to old controls!!!!!!
I love this game so so much but I simply cannot get back into it with the new controls.
I find they're extremely clunky, very unintuitive and super immersion breaking ( <- emphasis on this). I have truly tried to be able to get over the change because I'm sure some other people had problems with the old system as well, but i just cannot get over it. I believe a toggle would be best of both worlds if this is possible <3 Loved the old controls because it felt like I had much more of an impression on the world around me. With the new controls, it feels like I'm piloting a robot instead of playing a game
I just sent a bug report, apparently in the tutorial every time I enter any console/panel/screen/minigame, my mouse is moved an inch to the right, having the 'action' moved an inch to the left. Not only that, but when I try to fix it with various options, sometimes my POV will just zoom in on the upper left corner of the screen making me unable to do anything from that point on. Tried quitting and restarting, tried saving, tried alt f4, tried alt tabbing, changing tabs, nothing worked. Probably won't be playing it until I get an answer or it gets fixed, because it's super annoying when doing the minigames or tasks.
Что ж, думаю пришло время для большого фидбека. Думаю, я наиграл достаточно времени, чтобы что-то сказать.
Первое что я хочу сказать - я не ругаю игру, я люблю её и часто в неё играю. Мне хочется просто высказаться, что раздражает, что нет, что я считаю сомнительным, что нет, такое. Мне многое нравится, но я хотел бы сказать, что мне не совсем понравилось в новой версии.
Итак, игра по-прежнему классная, какие-то вещи стали неплохим решением, какие-то сомнительным, но в целом пока всё неплохо. Первое, что отличает 0.9.0 от предыдущей - управление. Прежнее было несколько непривычным, но простым, к нему очень быстро привыкаешь, проблемы исчезают и можно спокойно играть. Новое управление не особо сложное, но оно неудобное, искусственно замедляет процесс, и возвращаясь в другие игры ты подбирая предметы вспоминаешь, почему R не работает. Не знаю, почему было решено самую привычную для всех кнопку E-подбор переставить в другое место, но это не самое лучшее решение, а долбить E+R до бесконечности отнимает время. Можно пожалуйста куда-нибудь воткнуть уже возможность вернуть старое управление, люди реально об этом просят. Да и жать Е для всего взаимодействия и особенно для открытия контейнеров неудобно. Можно его не менять, просто добавить возможность его переключить.
Второе - просадки фпс, чем больше света, тем тормознее, в к-версии фпс снова падает с 60+ до 15-20 посекундно, такой баг былш в ранних версях 0.8. Было бы круто оптимизировать всё к релизу и подправить физику, потому что с физикой проблема. если раньше что-то застревало в стенах и мебели и стучало до победного, то теперь предметы просто проваливаются под текстуры. Я не смогу сосчитать случаев, когда при выкладывании из инвентаря нужные мне вещи просто проваливались под пол без возможности вернуть их кроме перезагрузки сейва, наверное не нужно объяснять, почему это несколько раздражает.
По атмосфере, ну, из игры исчезла какая-то легкость и веселье, игра стала нуднее. Горы мусора так же отвлекают его уборкой - можно до бесконечности тыкать в E+R, это быстро надоедает, если мести шваброй, что ж, это быстрее, но часть всё равно улетает под текстуры пола. Мне, однако, понравилось что можно убирать кучи мусора лопатой, но чтобы разобраться, что из этого принесёт большую пользу, требуется много времени. Плюс, электронного мусора всегда не хватает, это очаровательно, вносит некоторое разнообразие в рутину и планирование, что выбросить\продать, а что нет)) С другой стороны, кор-геймплей стал несколько однобразнее, и мне не особо понятна необходимость перекидывать коды с одного флопика на другой, выглядит как искусственное затягивание игрового дня. Но ок, пусть будет, хотя о зип-диске очень просто забыть. Плюс, изменение сложности в процессе игры руинит бонус ко всей неделе, игра просто не засчитывает то, что ты выполняешь после изменения сложности все задания, а иногда сбрасывает и не засчитывает отправленное. Тут ещё можно добавить, что с новыми изменениями (проклятые координатные багованные вышки, стоимость предохранителей, неоправданная стоимость расходников для создания и их бесполезность) играть стало не сложнее, но нуднее, а это немного повредило атмосфере игры. Это как рубить дрова - утомляет. Ну и разумеется, за это игра мало чем вознаграждает, ты тратишь больше, чем получаешь. Нет ничего нового в телескопе. Сотрудники вообще никак не реагируют на уникальные сигналы, их ответы однообразны и надоедают - им отправляют сигналы с космических кораблей, а они в шары долбятся. Ну скучно же, можно наверное добавить какую-то реакцию. Плюс, всё это обслуживание тарелок, ломающиеся постоянно сервера, ВЫШКИ эти очень сильно отвлекают от ловли сигналов. Да, со временем, если прикладывать старания, много стараний, очень много стараний, всё приходит в норму, всё ломается медленнее (кроме вышек ), появляется керфур, появляются деньги на апгрейды, но... сейчас до этого момента трудно не бросить игру. Это не очень хорошо. Не скажу, что поначалу прям дико сложно играть, однако для новичка игра слишком агрессивна и не вознаграждает. Словом, какая-то часть фана исчезла. Грустно. Пока набегаешься, пытаясь привести всё в рабочее состояние, нет ни времени, ни желания исследовать карту и вовлекаться в события. Чаще думаешь "как же не вовремя" они наступают. Игра будто не может понять про что она - изучение сигналов из космоса и исследование окружающей хтони в странной долине или уборку мусора и беготню по горам для починки оборудования, что-то есть такое поломанное в балансе между этими двумя геймплеями. Плюс... ну вот эти сборы хэш-кодов. Они были уникальными, ты проверял правильно ли ты написал всё это, можно было жениться на керфуре, он называл тебя тупицей, если ты посылал его второй раз за день за отчётами. Ну да, новый вариант реалистичнее и логичнее. Но скучнее. Неинтереснее. Может быть, стоит в таком случае добавить взаимодействия с керфуром? Мне кажется, если что-то отбираешь у игрока, стоит восполнить это чем-то другим таким же - люди не просто так полюбили 0.8.2.
По поводу багов или подвешенных в воздухе камней особо нечего говорить, это всё фиксится. Но хотелось бы высказаться о звуках - я не знаю, ЧТО так громко и низко гудит в комнате обработки (не процессинг сигналов и не помехи определителя частоты), но можно пожалуйста добавить опцию выключить этот гул или сделать хоть немного тише? От него очень быстро устаёшь. Плюс завывающий ветер, всегда, везде, постоянно, в любое время, просто отвал всего, он достал. В остальном звук и эмбиент потрясающие, хотелось бы побольше музыки, конечно, но это уже идеал)
А, грибы! Зачем убрали ачивку по сбору грибов? Только в игре их начало появляться достаточно, ачивка исчезла. Зато добавили ачивку за поедание тараканов, спасибо конечно, но это отвратно, мило, но отвратно)
Остальное в целом нравится. Садоводство стало полноценнее и лучше, картинка прекрасна уже сейчас, спасибо за такой потясающий туман, смотрится чудесно. Свет красивый. Хотелось бы ну... что-то типа набора цветовых пресетов, но это так, чисто пожелание. Новая база очень нравится (было бы оооочень круто добавить то милое клетчатое одеяло на стандартный матрас и заменить звук подушек с бетона на подушковый, так неуютно, если это не прикол конечно)), будет интересно узнать, пустят ли нас когда-нибудь однажды за дверь в бункере и морозилку. Дадут ли жениться на керфуре. Открыть секреты поселения за забором. Столько ожиданий и надежд, в общем. Я действительно очень люблю эту игру и желаю для него только лучшего.
Ну и хотелось бы добавить, оставьте пожалуйсто ветку, поддерживающую kilo. Это пипец как атмосферно и мило, именно такие вот вещи придают игре своего собственного очарования. Я очень надеюсь, что она не потеряет его к релизу.
