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"Voices Of The Void" Pre-Alpha

Gather unknown signals from deep, silent space · By mrdrnose

Not really impressed

A topic by KoboldShenanigans created Aug 11, 2024 Views: 3,450 Replies: 22
Viewing posts 1 to 13
(6 edits) (+4)(-43)

To begin with, I gave this game a pretty decent chance. I love SETI Sim games. But honestly it just felt bad.

1. Feels like I'm playing a very very poorly done half-life mod with obvious source engine rips. Nothing unique about it.
2. The controls are severely clunky
3. Road markers need a serious overhaul. Even following them it's still very easy to get turned around or lost. Grueling for hashcodes, which you honestly could just do at the Base terminal ... no reason to grab it from a satellite, is just a massive chore. Only reason you should have to go to them is to do maintenance (server reboot). 
4. The map is far too big without it being at least a 2 person co-op (which if you actually used the right engine, you oculd eaisly find tutorials to make it happen. both UE5 and Unity (which Signal Sim was made on) make it easy to do. (Plenty of experienced people who played and loved SignalSim would be willing to help you if you looked for them on the steam forums. Both on remaking the game in a more up to date engine, and helping with Mod Support & Co-Op functionalities. )
5. The food system is completely jank. If I need to feed the dude, then it needs proper system in place to facilitate it. It's honestly more of just an annoying pain in the tail. I play a SETISim to enjoy myself and relax, not get annoyed.
6. Signal Simulator was lovingly made, a proper passion project, decently polished, and easy to manage. While VotV, just feels like a full regression trying to be something it's not, while on an even older engine. It has potential but doesn't seem like it started off on the right foot. 
7. The trash ...why? Is that how you think SETI Tech's treat their facilities? Even the less manned remote ones have a decent amount of cleanliness about them. If you want us to clean up junk ... then make it less of a chore. Supply the trashbags for free, put in a cart to trolly the trash bags to the bins (and maybe have the doors be toggle instead of auto), or better yet ... let us SELL the trashbags at the drone. Even with Half-Life it could be made a much simpler process.  Please rework it.
I can see the potential it 'may' have a chance at. But as it stands now I just don't see it being taken advantage of.

(1 edit) (+17)

You misunderstand the concpet of the game. May this be inspired by the "Signal Simulator" and it's genre, but this game it's completely different from what you think. So let me start from the third: about the roads/navigation, have you ever looked at the commands in base or any other terminal? You can basically target any satalite by "sv.target "sat. name"" and follow the red triangle of a compass on the bottom of ur screen, you can easily lead your way by doing so, no need to always follow the sings/roads all that. Travelling around the map is important for this game, since you can stumble upon some constructions, find pieces of (unfinished yet) lore inshort, exploration is important, you really shouldn't just sit in your cage searching for signals, tho yeah this game is about searching signals, but doing other stuff may just be more interesting than just monotonous work, forgot to mention that there's a crafting mechanic, you can create yourself a robot-wife to gather hashcodes and fix servers/transformers for you, since i can agree getting hashcodes everyday can be annoying but exploring map can still play a great role in ur play. This game has a big map for a certain purpose, why haven't you asked that yourself? About Co-op, the game is made on UE4 and yes devs could do co-op but they straight up have no experience for that, as well as trusting ppl online may not be a great way of learning how to make it functional. Food may be a pain in the ass but have u sniffed around the settings? You can easily disable the food tolerance if it gets on your nerves, mate. Trash betrays the lore as well, like do you really think everything is going to be shiny and clear after tons of stuff happened to previous employee? And of course you can sell trash by buying item box and putting all the trash there, have you ever properly checked store? But also don't forget that this game is in Pre-Alpha, meaning it's not even alpha version yet. It's a heavely unfinished project which you can goof around in, compared to Signal Simulator, a lot of stuff is going to be added.

(+3)(-3)

Out of all the replies, at least yours was properly informative. I wasn't aware of the sv.target command nor the item box taking trash bags. I'll have to give that a try. Thank you for being respectful in your comment which is more than I can say for anyone else that posted in this thread. 

(+10)(-7)

1. Skill Issue

2. Skill Issue

3. Skill Issue

4. Skill Issue

5. Fair Enough

6. Skill Issue

7. Skill Issue

(1 edit) (+6)

Besides the comparison to Signal Simulator, which this game isn't trying to be, you can absolutely sell trash. You just need the item box and then put the trash bags in there.  How do you think you're supposed to get your big starting bucks, actually working? Nah, it's garbage day get selling.

(+2)(-1)

Why not give the player an initial supply of money from the very beginning?

(+6)(-1)

Nobody ever said science pays well

(+2)(-1)

Extra points for realism goes to VotV

(+4)(-1)

It is not Source game...


boo

(-13)

Yet every sound is from half-life. Interesting. 

(+4)

It's supposed to be a imitation of source games made by Valve. Probably as to make the game feel a bit more spooky, as most old source games usually have a weird eerie feel to 'em. And the game engine used by the game currently  is Unreal Engine 4.

(+1)

I just realized most of what i said was already explained by another person, man

(+4)(-2)

it's literally pre-alpha, what the f do you mean?

(+7)(-2)

Dude was wrong about everything, typed out a thesis paper, and dipped. Honestly mad props for being super loud and wrong

(+11)(-3)



hope this helps op.
(+8)

I don't think anyone else in these comments mentioned this, but if you hate the trash that much OP, you can literally just get rid of it in the game selection screen. 

So, you select your save file, click "reset slot" (doesn't actually reset your slot right away) and it brings up a menu of things you can select to reset. Just check the "clean dirt & trash" box and then apply. Almost all of the trash and dirt on your base will be gone (the setting isn't perfect and misses a dirt stain and trash pile here and here). You'll still need to pick up all of the individual pieces of trash, such as the soda cans and papers, but I recommend taking those over to the workbench in the garage and just piling them on top until you can craft something. Most things need "scrap" to craft, and that's exactly how you do it. 

Although the game is in pre-alpha, there's TONS to do and explore, and I recommend taking your time with the game. Things will get easier the more points you earn, and you can even gain an assistant if you really don't want to get the hash codes yourself (I really recommend getting some scrap crafted for your assistant). The game has come a long way, I mean before there wasn't even gravel paths, so it was easier to get lost! 

And, if you're really that impatient with things and want to have an easier time collecting signals and not having to worry too much about other things, you can always edit your save file and cheat yourself some points. That way you can get the assistant within the first couple of in-game days, and even upgrade everything so things break down less often. 

(+3)(-1)

sounds like a skill issue to me :skull_with_cool_sunglasses:

(+4)

the source engine sounds are placeholders for sounds they haven't gotten sound design for, they're replacing these sounds with actual custom ones or just buying the sound libraries for them, most sound effects in stuff like half life 2 are stock sound effects anyways, having sound effects associated with the source engine 

not that i have anything against the developer of signal simulator, but that game was not really polished, the gameplay was excruciatingly slow, even by votv's standards (don't get me started on the "power efficiency" system), there were plenty of bugs that lasted months longer than they needed to to get patched, if they even got patched, and the events used in it were just "look at this cool thing happening"

(+6)(-1)

Fundamentally, you're coming at this game the wrong way. It's not a signal searching simulator like (most) of Signal Sim. It's primarily a horror game with lots of silly elements, where the signal searching is more of a vehicle to take you to some of those events.

That's why you have to make a trek to the dishes to get the hash codes every day. It's the game attempting to put you in a situation where something happens, or at the very least putting you in a situation where you're uncomfortable because you're outside the "safety" of the base. It's why the base is so dirty; it makes you feel like something went wrong. It's why the game doesn't support multiplayer, despite being made on Unreal Engine; to give you the sense of seclusion and solitary confinement in the forest. All of it works together to try and make you feel alone and scared.

TL;DR

This isn't a SETI-Sim. It's a (silly) horror game.

Also, I hope the socially-stunted kids shitting on you doesn't turn you off from the game. Being a free horror game, it's kind of attracted a lot of the...shall we say, FNaF kids. Not helped by the fact that the game is comedic and has plenty of memes in it. 

(1 edit) (+2)

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.

to be fair on the third point, some of the road signs are just straight up wrong
for example;


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.    


yeah, while the latest version is still way better than the test build, i don't think it's really polished that well, i don't know why they are likely working on a bigger update when the current version isn't fully patched
road signs have always been a terrible way for navigation, even if they functioned they'd be super confusing
the game is set in the middle of the woods so it's more designed on the use of landmarks rather than signs that tell you where everything is, the road signs to me are nothing but for immersion