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This game has been dealing with crashing issues for the past few years, and some of us who want to play it have come together to try and find some solution to the issue on the player level. Im making this in order to bring attention to the issue on a larger scale in hopes of getting more ideas for fixes.

The issue in question: On quite a few computers, launching the game will result in the game running smoothly for ~1-2 minutes, before suddenly crashing for no identifiable reason.

Note: This is NOT an Operating System issue. We do not have enough evidence to conclude if there is correlation, but what we can say is that at least 1 system running Windows 10 suffered the issue, and at least 1 system running NixOS Linux didnt suffer the issue. Steam Proton was used, but another system running Manjaro Linux did not see any benefit of using the same proton version beyond a basic performance improvement.

Will post possible solutions when we get them, and if we find one consistent we will bring light to it both here and the Pendrake Games Discord.

Quick question: any ideas if this doesnt work for Windows 10? 

Friend of mine has this issue with Windows 10, I also have this issue but Im on Linux

Sorry for the late response, I dont often go onto Itch.io so I dont often check my messages and responses on here.

You're right, my apologies.

This is a recent problem caused by the new update overhauling the map and countless models, including the signposts.

At the time this response was made, I would have said that the issue probably would have been just because of the fact the 0.8.0 builds were experimental at the time, but the final 0.8.0 build was released the day after and there are still issues. The signs are more correct than they were, but Im noticing that a lot of them are now unlabeled, which will continue to cause issues. If you dont use the sv.target feature like me, I would recommend having an external map on you so that you have a fair idea of where you are.

Again, this is a problem caused by a *massive* overhaul to the game, so its not just negligence on the part of the devs. This recent version has added significantly more than was usual for a single update, so issues like this are bound to pop up and will likely be ironed out next update.

The following is(at least what I think is) the same signpost, just in the final 0.8.0 build, just to highlight the *new* issues.    

I understand why people may not vibe with this game, as it has tons of interactions and features it just expects you to either find for yourself or to just know. However, I feel as though most of these arguments are either not an entirely valid criticism, the game being close to but not specifically what you wanted, or a lack of considering the fact that its not just in early access, but that its in public *alpha*. That said, you do have valid points, so Ill go over my opinions.

1) This is partially valid, partially not. As far as direct asset rips go, you are 100% right, but uninformed. It has been previously established that ripped source assets are only in to help keep the game in a playable state for alpha, and that there are plans to replace all of those, such as in the case of several sound files within the last few updates. As far as certain elements, like the focus on the crowbar item and the overall physics, its intentionally there to emulate the feel of source games, which is a key point here because the game is *not* trying to sell itself as a completely serious title. It uses this jank and the wackiness of most encounters to separate the horror out into manageable doses, and I think emulating the source engine was a good choice for something to emulate.

2) Understandable complaint as far as item interaction goes, the game needs to do a better job teaching about hotkeys. Makes the game way easier. I can see how the movement controls may throw people off, but I think its more of a preference thing. As far as most other things, especially with the recent update, I personally feel they handled it well, though I think the old keypad system was better.

3) Many people have already mentioned sv.target, even if its in unnecessarily condescending ways for certain people. Despite this, I really dont like this complaint anyways. All the satellites are either along or perfectly between the cardinal directions of main base. I can honestly say Ive almost *never* used road signs for finding satellites, and any problem Ive had was purely my own skill issue. You could say that its unclear where each is, but after a few in game days you begin to recognize where everything is relative to each other.

4) Devs already said they dont want multiplayer, though I agree with your assessment with co-op. 2 player mode would definitely improve the game's replayibility(?) just through proxy of making the long wait times more bearable. That said, I dont agree with the idea that the map is too large. If you're getting that impression, you need to get farther along progressing your signal processing and/or use the ATV to save time. The game takes a fucking *while* to complete, so you're not really gonna *not* have time to explore the entire map. You probably should be familiar with a majority of the map by your first 2 in game weeks honestly.

5) 100% agree, you can turn off a majority of the restrictions in the settings by hitting the E tab, which brings you to experimental settings. I turn off everything relating to food as well as physics damage, just because it turns crashing your ATV from a funny, occasionally annoying event into an unnecessary punishment for something you arent always at fault for.

6) This point is, in all honestly, either completely misinformed, delusional, or both. This game is *NOT* Signal Simulator, and invoking the name as though it means something is like saying Halo is bad because it isnt Call of Duty. VotV is *also* a carefully designed, thoughtfully made passion project, but one that is, from the start, decidedly *NOT* intended to be Signal Simulator. It has its own ambitions, and this can be clearly seen with everything they already crammed into the regular game. If whats at the surface level of the base game isnt enough for you to see this you can instead look at the secrets and easter eggs that can get so convoluted their existence rivals those of whats found in the Battlefield games. Theres even an entire fucking ARG built into the tutorial. All of this is to say, either you're too wrapped up in the idea of "Signal Simulator 2" that you cant actually recognize VotV for *its* own passions, or you simply dont know enough about the game to be able to make this kind of statement in the first place. Sorry if I took a turn into being an asshole here, but it genuinely infuriates me seeing people take a platform that they can use to make actual criticisms and instead make some generalized buzzword slop and slap it on here without even providing and *example* of what they're talking about, which is what this specific point was.

7) The trash and grime is supposed to be something to pass the time with, but as someone mentioned before you can put the trash in an item box. You can even sell it for thousands of points if you get all the trash, its actually quite insane tbh. I personally dont like it either, but thats because every time you do  a new save you have to clean it up again, and I make new saves all the time. I also believe that the trashbag roll should cost as much as 12 points, as much as the price of the trash bags individually, the game doesnt need economical strategy based around the cost effectiveness of cleaning up trash. As far as criticizing the treatment of the place, though, the lore and overall design of the facility makes it clear that this facility has been a death trap for decades, so it goes abandoned for long periods of time because its just not worth the risk of operating and losing personnel. The organization you work for seems to be on a shoestring budget, which is why they gambled with running the facility themselves.

IMMEDIATE EDIT: Apparently, I was wrong about one detail. The game isnt in Alpha, its in Pre-Alpha.

Hi, I and the creator of the "Tutorial Secrets" thread have had the same issue. Ive recently found out that the way to prevent this is to turn on your player physics damage, itll give you a bit of damage but force you to crouch instead of ragdolling when you fall onto the boxes. You wont need it again afterwards, so grabbing the core(which is still there, just in a different location), ragdolling, then switching back to no player physics damage wont cause further issues.

Took a bit of time, but I managed to get into the window I was talking about. The first 2 pictures shows the path you need to take. Run and crouch jump off of the pipe that leads to the window, you're aiming to fit into the window. You may be able to mantle on, but not from the pipe below it and if you're moving quickly it'll be really inconsistent. Took me 15-20 minutes of trying to get inside. Once you get in, keep going. You'll eventually end up where you need to be. Once you've committed, theres no way back. Make yourself comfortable, theres little else you can do.

Found out about this secret courtesy of The Voices Network on youtube.


                                                                          Run along this pipe and crouch jump^^^^

You're in. Go deeper.

Commit. Deeper.

Welcome Home.

Unfortunately, at least to my investigations, it appears that the current iteration of the ARG ends at exactly the same point as it does in the previous version of the game, it has just been slightly modified in mostly insignificant ways, barring the blood room fiasco. The following is images exploring one secret in the room after the pipe room and the actual end of the current ARG pathway, at least to the best of my knowledge. There is one more secret I have mentioned in an earlier post. I have not explored that secret yet, though I intend to at some point tonight. For now, this is everything I have.

I learned this information, as well as both of the new secrets I am putting up, from a channel called "The Voices Network" on youtube. I would recommend checking them out, as they release high quality videos on complex secrets in VotV and deserves some attention for how in depth their coverage is. Its honestly impressive how much knowledge they have.

The following is a path to an easter egg relating to the streamer The Jolly Wangore. You will need the crowbar to access it, and it is hidden in a vent similar to the secret vent above the servers.

The vent should be low to the ground, and is in the room with the secret tile button that will bring down the ladder.


The following is the actual end of the current ARG as far as I know. In order to access this, you have to parkour along the row closest to level with the top of the "Echo Chamber" until you get to the 4th doorway along that row. In the back, you should see a vent leading to the final room.

^^View from inside the doorway, looking out^^

Unfortunately, it appears that we are still in the wrong place at the wrong time. Further investigation is warranted, but there may not be much else to the story yet.

I have reached the last point we were at. Ive learned some secrets, so I will be exploring all of those before making a further report. So far, very little things that are new have occurred, but I have noticed *some* details.

As it turns out, you need to have player physics damage on in order to access the drained blood room. I normally have this off because I think the implementation is poorly thought out.

I will be continuing the search from this point.

After you discovered the new room, my friend and I decided to go back to previous versions we downloaded to investigate. As it turns out, this white room with a door is something that has appeared back in at least pa07_0005. We only checked the previous versions we had downloaded, so the only versions of the game we have confirmed its existence in is pa07_0005, pa07_0010, and pa07_0011. My opinion is that the door likely doesnt pertain to the issues caused by the current update, but that it may have some significance in the future. I saw a reputable source for VotV secrets on youtube reveal a similar hidden passage in a window of the pipe room after the maze, so its likely that whited out rooms with doors in them are going to be a common motif throughout the levels of the arg. It should be noted that the door was not, at least from my memory, the same door, but rather a copy of the Panopticon's prison doors.

Update: I managed to get a friend interested in the tutorial ARG, and this evening we did an investigation into the new update. Specifically, my friend managed to mod in the ability to negate the ragdoll effect of falling by lowering player gravity and managed to use this to enter the blood room safely.  I approved this method of investigation for 2 reasons: the first is that the boxes seem to be set up to allow you to fall through safely, but for some reason arent properly arresting momentum; the second is to determine if the radioactive capsule was still in the blood room or if it wasnt.

We managed to confirm that the radioactive capsule is still in the bloodroom, although it was on the ground rather than in the window. He picked up the capsule before thinking to take a screenshot, but heres a recreation of its placement.

Additionally, we managed to get a screenshot of inside the blue pipe.

It is a possibility, judging by the texture used for the far blue pipe, that there is supposed to be an alternate way to enter the blood room. This texture is the same one used for the trapdoor that is unlocked by the 3 radioactive capsules, which is why Im mentioning this. The purposes of this investigation was to confirm the further existence of the capsule in the blood room, so we will not be looking into this lead any further with the use of mods.

Update to this: Ive broken the boxes at the bottom of what used to be the blood room by using high explosive devices (Gasoline canisters) to see if taking the entire fall would fix it. It did not. Will continue to experiment.

Ive started investigating, and found that the pipes in the room are the perfect size for a capsule. Maybe the capsule is hidden in the one that is just now suddenly clogged?

Im pretty sure there are some objects that you can carry that have a physical hitbox in the item rooms. Maybe bringing some of those can help prevent the fall damage? Its a long shot, but there might be just enough. Currently busy with things, so I cant check myself for the next few hours.

Also: If you're planning on doing the other secrets as well, do this one first. It will reset your progress unless you're prepared

Heres a few secrets that I found

Right before you go into the room with the 3 water slides, theres a series of signals tapes, all of which hold the same signal "unnamed". Collecting these and taking them down the slides, you can play and process them. Here are their levels in order.

For the second and final secret I found(that wasnt already posted) you're going to need to use the Debug Teleport button(for me its [Num Pad .], you can check at the bottom of the keybinds). This will take you to a secret room in the tutorial that is completely isolated. It starts off in almost a lobby before entering a section that somewhat resembles a church imo, but theres likely no significance.

EDIT: It should be noted one of the fountains in the "church" isnt running, this may have some significance but Im not betting yet. No screenshots unfortunately, it was a detail I remember but didnt capture.

Anyways, thats all the new things Ive found so far. May post later, but its unlikely that Ill uncover anything relatively new.

Thank you for sending this. I had already discovered the ragdoll trick, but I didnt figure out that I was supposed to leave for a *very* long time. I have several screenshots from other secrets I discovered in the tutorial, but I will be posting them later.

As far as the vent is concerned, I did discover that but I was trying to be down low about that with the "red herring" quote.

Sorry if this may be a bit obvious and I just didnt realize how, but how am I supposed to access the vent in the server room? I see it, I just cant reach it, and throwing the crowbar isnt helping to break the vent. Is there something Im missing?

Edit: Red Herring :)
Now Im stuck in the blood room, so yayyy???

So far, my experience with the new update has been fantastic. The new base design makes it feel as though your station is undermanned, I like how the main entrance and garage were basically swapped, and the meat locker in the basement is really good at making you feel as though you cant be safe in your own home. Additionally, I like how the Ariral's(?) events were done, and that the radio tower was given functionality. I have experienced what I believe to be a new event and I have to say hats off, I was literally having a panic attack during that sequence, which is how it should have been. 

I do have one criticism, and I know I can turn it off, but I hate the damage system. More specifically, I hate the damage system in relation to the physics of the game. The physics system is the perfect level of jank for the game, it is crazy enough to feel like a break from the horror, and manages to balance being an nuisance and a punishment pretty well. For example, you're driving on a bridge and your ATV decides to hit the railing for some reason, You find it hilarious at first, are slightly annoyed at the time wasted getting up and getting your ATV off the railing, but that annoyance is fleeting. The damage system changes this. Several times while driving I was thrown off course randomly and into objects I couldnt avoid in time. This has even gotten me killed on occasion. Beyond that, it no longer feels funny when such events happen because now Im getting punished with player damage that will limit your FOV, thereby worsening your ability to navigate even more and likely causing more accidents. This also gets rid of the fleeting annoyance, because now Im constantly aware that I have to get a medkit unless I want to risk dying. The game already had a system to punish reckless driving in the form of ATV damage, but player damage through physics(beyond fall damage, to a certain degree) is bound to cause issues where players take damage that wasnt their fault and have to live with it until they get medical attention or until it goes away.

Sorry for the rant, my opinion of the update is still really positive, and Id consider it a 8/10 with the physics damage off. I find most of the new features to be really good for the game going forward, though I really feel like physics damage is counter productive to that.

Most of what you've listed here was implemented to add a level of difficulty by requiring some level of time and resource management. I personally see this as a good thing, as most people find the game more engaging with such features, and while I do see a precedent for advocating for the ability to turn each of these things off, removing them completely is not good for the game at all, especially when so many mechanics rely on them.

As for the trash, I like the concept, but I dont like the execution that well. The activity of cleaning up the station isnt hard, only a little bit tedious, which is a good thing in my opinion. It is a problem that you want to fix, and takes just enough effort to feel somewhat taxing while being easy enough to fix within the first week were it not for the following problem. The act of cleaning up the trash piles is a resource sink that doesnt need to exist. I shouldnt have to pay 15 points for only 12 trash bags that barely make a dent in the trash piles of a single room, and it really kills the cleaning mood in my opinion.

Review on the new update, at least what Ive been able to see so far:

-The new base design is nice. I think the fact that the new base is higher quality than the rest of the map makes it feel out of place when looking at it from a distance, but that could also easily be me having gotten used to the old base.

-What could be said about the base can also be said about the gate and likely any other structures that has been heavily modified, though the feeling of them being out of place isnt as prevalent, either due to size or due to them being less frequently visited.

-Talking layout of the new base specifically, it is superior to the old base. Its numerous empty rooms makes it feel significantly more lonely, as though there should be more people working here. Additionally, it puts different functions into their own separate locations, which while making them less accessible does make sense. I also like how the Meat Locker has been added, setting up a foreboding area of the base thats meant to be alien to the player.

-The damage system is, frankly, poorly designed. I get wanting to have a damage system when making entities that are supposed to be a threat to the player, but at no point should it have interacted with the physics system. The physics system from before was janky in an endearing way, and the fleeting nature of its consequences helped hide its issues. The damage system does the exact opposite, creating a long term punishment for things that may have been small, minute mistakes or not even the fault of the player. I managed to die because my ATV decided to take a random sharp turn into trees *TWICE*. Neither time did I have the proper time to react, and there were several other close calls with the ATV physics between those two points.

Overall, my opinion on the update is that the new changes to the base and points of interest are high quality and well designed, though this higher quality does alienate the areas from the surrounding environment, and not in a good way imo, but its not enough to the point that I think that we have to go back, just keep moving forward with the environmental design. The damage system is a good idea for introducing new forms of danger in the future, but things like fall damage and momentum damage has no place in a game where janky physics will decide to introduce themselves randomly. This is my only issue with the update, but its enough of a problem to really hamper my mood about it. Everything else, and even just the concept of a damage system in general, are good additions and will likely be healthy for the game's success.