Having played an embarrassing amount of VOTV the past few days,I have many, many thoughts on the new content and will be sharing it here (everything touched on is accessible in the tutorial or first 10 minutes so no real spoilers)
The good:
Busy work. Giving us, the player, more nonsensical work to do that fits perfectly into a setting like this, is perfect. Makes it feel closer to what an actual "job" would be in this setting as it were. Generator repair being more than slamming your face against a button a few times, the magnetic tape recording setup and having to send the reels, even the new hashcode system which gets the sleep deprived / dyslexic seal of approval.
The vibes. Going from the 0.8 to the 0.9 building architecture, you feel less like a D-class or expendable researcher from the SCP universe, and more like an actual astronomer- albeit in a dated building- in this setting. Of course not much changes realistically, but you feel less like a sacrificial lamb and more like an employee. Same with the new lighting setup, it feels more like you live in some middle of nowhere facility where light is scarce and the natural order is omnipresent. live by day, rest and shelter by night.
Hashcodes. So, this is something I personally suffer with- I am severely dyslexic and so the hashcodes have always been something I ignore until later, but by then it's a non-issue with points. So, using the new system feels both realistic in universe and solves the mild accessibility issue tenfold. Plus, more busywork moving the information from floppys to the zip.
The drone. Moving from a clamp setup to a cloth bag feels realistic and helps the feeling of inconsistency in the tech level of the facility and the people you work for. Now, if you told me this was all set in the 1980/1990s, I would honestly believe you. However if you also said this was modern day, it would still be plausible.
The mess. This facility is thrashed. Reclaiming the base is a multi day if not a multi week endeavor. Going from a few minutes to a few hours of real time, it's so satisfying to reclaim the facility. Plus, crafting materials are plentiful from the trash making any late game crafting much, much easier. Seriously, thank you.
ATV. Thank you for making this feel so, so much better. Upgrades, modular repairs, and so on. Battery aside, I do also miss the skyrim horse level of vertical mobility, I can also understand why it had to change.
The bad:
Bugs. Bugs galore. Clipping, random mach-5 launches, meta paranoia for literally no reason/events bugging out, Bao demanding literally an impossible ask of 5-7 signals a day, the experimental settings not even fully working, WHY CANT I FIX THE SINK. Plus the optimization is much poorer. My rig is a beast, and even I'm having performance issues. Now, I am no fool, I know this is meant to be the first steps into a major release. This is why I am bringing these up as to provide guidance where to work and what to dig into.
Day-locking content. Most people that play this game now know about the funny setting and what it brings, and not having access to it in my first playthrough / within the first 7 days feels bad. Not to mention day/night speed cycles, other settings, and generally making the game feel more interesting to play being barred behind forcing you to play vanilla for many days. Legit, it took me a few days of on again/off again playing to muster through this problem to actually start enjoying the game. Then the bug mentioned from earlier, the day/night speed not even working unless you mess with files, this in particular put a sour taste in my mouth.
All in all, solid 7.5/10 update. Visuals good, changes good, good direction, and a massive step forward into being a great full release game I want to buy when it comes out. Bugs and locking content behind days played hurts the longtime players that want to see the new stuff and still feel like its silly VOTV. Once those are fixed, this is hands-down a major improvement.
A few problems that personally I believe need to be changed:
1. settings locked behind X amount of days. Why? It makes certain settings feel useless.
2. Bug fixes galore, day speed not working, a certain structure's absence, ZIP drives becoming errors when exiting and reloading a save, and so on.
3. Some QOL changes, like making the ATV function a little better (Battery, sturdiness of wheels).
Aside from these small issues, the update is grand. The bugs are bad enough I'm personally waiting for a bugfix release before getting more in depth
I have been a long time player and viewer of VOTV content and just ambient horror games in general.
Here are my notes on VOTV:
Exploration is heavily disincentivized early game. Which is a shame given the environments are quite beautiful
Idea to solve this problem: Allow the signal processor to queue up signals like the signal player station, thus allowing players more opportunity to explore
Alternative idea: give points for exploration so players can still enjoy the game no matter how they play, E.G. finding items off the beaten path, or exploring and experiencing anomalies (Lantern as a prime example) thus making interacting with events more enticing rather than just "surviving" them.
The sense and feel of the lab being filled with outdated and decrepit technology compared to the more "modern" outside is quite nice. Gives the sense that you are there just to run the equipment, or act as a D-class personnel from the SCP universe to stay the hand of some eldritch entity for a little longer, or to gather what information you can before you die. Especially with the new boxes, K-O, and even the drone that delivers stuff or the one you can buy. Really gives the sense of either a tight fisted group seeking to penny pinch or give the bare minimum to keep things running
Sharing VOTV content:
This game is very fun, and offers the opportunity to be able to show off what you can do and what you have done in your time playing. This then incentivizes others to play to see how and what they do. So on and so forth. However, especially with co-op horror games becoming a very prevalent thing, I would suggest adding in a multiplayer mode as to allow for a greater reach to a broader audience. Now, I am no programmer so I won't tell you how to do your job, however, I will offer ideas and what they might provide. Basic one being simple peer-to-peer multiplayer. Simple as, no frills or anything special. Another idea is to make a separate version/program that runs as a server, that people can connect to like a minecraft server manager. Think modded minecraft servers. No idea how realistic or possible either one of those are, but as someone who has played this a lot and has wanted to share this game with other people to play with, this is something I would say is relatively important. Especially with REPO coming in recently and showing that the market for co-op horror is still very much alive.
Final notes:
This game is amazing, a masterclass in ambient horror- a game where you are witness to the universe and the mysteries rather than the target of supernatural wrath- minus when the angry spirits notice you. You are but one of many that has entered this place, and likely won't be the last if the corpses of your predecessors are anything to go by. You can run, hide, or even fight, but you are not a soldier, you are a scientist, a scholar, human. Wits and intellect will be your method of survival, and when all else fails, running is always an option.
