The pink wisp swarm event should happen later in the night, as the wisps currently all immediately despawn because it's too early in the night for them. I have found that the event happening at 21:XX rather than 19:18 fixes it.

Gather unknown signals from deep, silent space · By
Various pre-placed 'important' objects like tiles and skulls should be made static until interacted with, similarly to how the chicken burgers do it. I cannot tell you how many times I have randomly lost one of them because it got knocked away from it's spawn location to god knows where before I found it.
Are you on version 0.8.2 or higher, and if so, did you create this save on a version before 0.8.2?
If you are on 0.8.2, but you created this save on an older version, you will need to eat the old desk prop to get rid of it. Hover over the desk until an interact menu pops up, and then try eating it repeatedly until it vanishes.
I'd love an option to disable dreams. Or for ambience/sandbox mode at least.
But I understand if they are part of the intended experience of the game.
I exclusively play ambience mode and a few of them really spooks me. Now I just watch out while sleeping with my finger on the "reset position" key. Found a person on reddit that said they have a friend with thalassophobia and the rising water event made them unable to play the game. When someone commented such a toggle would broaden the audience, and I tend to agree. And there's no risk of watering down the game if this option is locked out for story mode.
Well, i haven't played ALL that much of the story, nor infinite, as i got to day 15 for now, so some things that i would like to see in game might already exist to some extent.
Starting from my current view on the current build, i'd say it is marvelous, as now we got an actual treat, for that i have already died (i know this is actually from 8.0 i believe, but only happened to play the game now), and the new locations and base looks, the only thing i will complain about the current base is the butchery (the hanging meats place in basement), but that might be because i am too early in game, but it doesn't fit much on the theme of a base, leaves it too in the open that "this place might not be normal", i think you could have it hidden, like the previous base setup had a long ladder down to an eerie room.
In terms of bugs, again, i am too early to cite all of this, the only one i have experienced is that i dropped a tile and it vanished, or at least entered a prop which i have no access to.
For things i'd wish we could get in the game, either some sort of "time capsule" more like we have in Subnautica (but i believe it wouldn't fit much in the game), and, more reasonably, a sort of entity index, might be in game clues of certain characters, entities and all, or a straight up help/tips tab telling about the entities in game.
The Hints and tips menu gives you some tips on certain events and entities where it might not be super obvious what to do (use keywords to search for through the spoiler-marked ones), but the game otherwise just leaves you to discover everything by yourself.
If the game does give you hints/tips about certain entities, it should absolutely be through in-game notes left by previous workers. TR_1 has notes that have already done this; they hint at the appearance of a certain entity to help you identify it, then give you a hint for the crafting recipe of something that should help you deal with it.
I actually never knew about this letter, is it placed on an obvious place or under the rubbish or something? Also, i am quite aware of some entities, mainly the already existing ones from 6.3 to 7.x i believe. Yet, the game seems to have so many new things and i do have quite some trouble getting to certain areas, not knowing how to explore properly.
I love the game, but the controls kind of ruin things for me. Clunky and way too many things to remember. I can never remember the key combo for granular item placement, and there is nowhere apparent to see what it is besides going back to the tutorial. So a key combo list in the pause menu would be nice. And it would be nice to have more control over key mapping. For example I want to map alt-r to a single key like q, because I'm not a fan of the alt-key combos.
What I'm talking about with the precision placement (shift-alt) doesn't seem to be referenced anywhere in the hints and tips that I can find. I do feel silly suggesting a key combo list when there already was one, though precision placement still doesn't seem to be mentioned anywhere except the tutorial.
Game's feckin cool, the source-inspired graphics and physics are simultaneously fun and creepy, the sounds equally so, and it scratches that SCP itch that got me absorbed into that universe.
Also, game works pretty much flawlessly on Linux CachyOS through Proton (specifically "proton-cachyos-10.0-20250702-slr-x86_64_v3") in case there's any thought of "i wonder if steam deck/linux would be difficult", tl;dr not at all.
Had to do almost no tweaking aside from my own performance edits to the Engine.ini - I had to change how small object rendering and shadows work to lower GPU usage from 80% to 60-ish% at 90-120 fps, which the 80 was already fine to be clear, but I'm in a small room in the middle of a desert, so the less hot air blasting out the better lol.
I also almost exclusively play with Velma mode (fun), 50% game speed (ADHD, but also weirdly this makes it creepier since tension builds slower, personal preference cause I like psychological horror), and 'food tolerance' disabled (to match me IRL, i can eat a single thing 4 times a day daily and be fine...plus the character is Kellin and I'm Kevin so :shrug:).
Important notes:
Great game so far, and one i think will be on my favourites permanently, even in its unfinished state.
Oh also, more Kerfur animations/sounds/interactions? :3
I would play with Alternative Interact mode, since it's a toggle-grab thing, but numeric keys don't work, only the scroll wheel does. i like precision, I dont like having to use my wheel to do quick things slowly.
I think this was done so that you can use the hotbar while hovering over objects, cause I have pretty frequently seen that complaint. I also would not really recommend using Alternative Interact until the next update, as some aspects of it seem to be broken currently.
ATV handling upgrade in the future? Currently controls like a blimp lol.
I'm pretty sure 0.9 will have an ATV rework, which should hopefully make it a bit easier to control.
I think beehives should be a bit louder and maybe have some sort of visual indicator, like bees swarming around the area beneath them or them dripping honey. Maybe it's just me, but I honestly find it very difficult to find their exact location with just the ambient buzzing noise the hive makes, so making them even a bit easier to locate would help a ton.
yeah strongly agree with KevUndead up there that the inventory hotbar being some kind of sliding FIFO buffer of the last items you interacted with makes it pretty awful to use, and the fact that the default icons for a bunch of the most-used tools are just "3 pixel wide dark grey smudge on a black background" aint helping matters.
anyways, here's another little UI gripe: the positioning of the prop action menu way off to the prop's right on the screen creates problems with some of the bulkier props. Especially the workbench. Like here, take a look at this screenshot:

A workbench, a pile of crumpled paper bits, a couple gasoline bottles. My cursor is hovering over the workbench; when I hit the "E" key, what's going to get crafted? A Molotov or a chunk of paper scrap? It's impossible to tell right now because standing close to the bench has bumped the crafting menu completely off the right side of the screen. It would probably work better if the positioning of that menu could be restricted to, like, inside the actually renderable screen space.
I'm really trying to enjoy this but there's just something about the complexity of the controls that is driving me to frustration.
Grab/Hold/Collect, I just don't like it and I don't get why Hold and Collect aren't just the same thing and why Grab doesn't just work by holding the Use button.
Having to press jump twice to mantle instead of just being able to hold jump is also frustrating me.
This is all probably just a me issue because I assume the control granularity is part of the whole experience, unfortunately that's just not my cup of tea.
Edit: Alternative interact mode is better, still a bit too much granularity but I can play it for now.
Edit Edit: Why, when I press R, do I try to put an item in my hotbar instead of dropping it?
Edit Edit Edit: WHY IS IT ALT-R? Also I rebound it to middle mouse to see if it was a bug or something and when I go to switch it back it won't change back to R! I'm gonna come back to this game in a few updates I think. I love LOVE the vibe but the controls are not for me.
To be fair, the tutorial does explain the R vs Alt-R thing, but for people used to normal WASD-controls in games I agree it's a bit clunky.
I like the complexity, personally, but some things should be tweaked slightly to accomodate players like yourself who struggle with it, and to improve the experience for those who don't, as well. Even I don't use the default; I rebound 'ALT' mode from Left Alt to K (one of my mouse's 24 side buttons), among other things.
I would like upgrades for the transformers so they last longer, or maybe make them solar-powered to remove the need to reset them, or at least slow the process down.
Add a handheld radar. It might not sound that necessary, but it would be useful if I could hold it in my hand to see where the enemy or whatever it is
I wish for a chaotic gamemode with increased chance of random sht happening. These don't necessarily have to be full-fledged events, at least simple buffs or debuffs from time to time, funny signals, visual effects or spawning objects. In order not to ruin the spirit of the game, it could be available only after completing the campaign. It's just that I'm going through the campaign for the fifth time. Also i would like to see much more multi-stage crafting from components scattered throughout the map. Thank u.
I would like a small quality of life change which would add a digital map "seat" to the front of the ATV to the store. Or the ability to hold items while riding the ATV.
I have a colander for memory and my sense of direction is awful so I have to rely on the sv_target command a lot. It would be much more immersive if I could look at the digital map while riding around to figure out where I'm going. Right now, the only way to do that is to get off the ATV and look at the map but the digital map doesn't show the direction you're facing, I don't think, making the whole thing not worth the hassle.
I know you can nail the digital map to the ATV and everything and I've done that in the past but it's a buggy, band-aid solution which resulted in me losing the digital map in the past.
I would also like to see the opposite of the "Solar" gamemode. The gamemode would feature an eternal night. Kind of like the Halloween event but the time would actually go on as normal.
I was thinking making the daylight hours into the "regular" night while the night hours would trigger the spooky super darkness event which would persist through the entire night.
I really like the super darkness event but it's pretty rare and overall inconsequential so giving it more "depth", so to speak, would be pretty nice.
I also don't like the dream events. Most of them exist to waste the player's time. The attack of the shadow mannequins and the horizontal water chase thing can be pretty easily circumvented and they "reward" the player with a full sleep meter, but... if I wanted the sleep meter I'd just drink coffee, an action which would take me considerably less time than the repetitive dream sequences.
I don't get the rising water one at all. I think I've seen in some videos that you need to climb to the top of the pillars using little off shoots or whatever but I can never find those.
I don't know if it's a thing, as I now realize I never bothered to check, but I would like an option to "cancel" the nightmare event by pressing the ragdoll button, ending the nightmare prematurely and losing sleep like you normally would when you "fail" a nightmare event.
I would like to see more reactions from our employers. For example: if I send 15 bags or raw, human meat and enough bones to assemble at least 4 human skeletons back to HQ I'd like something more than just "package received, bro".
Doesn't have to be super dramatic. Something like "Package received. [Amount of points] have been added to your account. ... Please don't send us those things again, Dr.Kel..." would be perfectly acceptable.
Speaking of HQ: I would like a fake-out chain of events. The player would either get a direct line of communication with one of the cool doctors, the ones which send you sushi, or a series of notes arriving randomly with your orders/the midnight drone. In the communication/notes we would get words of reassurance/hints/whatever for a few days after which the entire thing would just stop as if it nothing happened.
The event can conclude with either nothing, a reveal that it was the aliens fucking with you all along or a cryptic message from one of the not cool doctors which would say something like "your situation is beyond our control, Dr.Kel" or straight up "[the cool doctor] has been terminated" which would reinforce he whole "you're alone against the world" thing the game has got going on.
I would like additional options for events. Specifically, I would like a menu slider for how often the "unique" signals appear. Right now, it feels like they are very rare, They are most probably rare on purpose but you know.
I HATE the tractor beam event. The fucking aliens had nothing better to do so they low grav'd all of my stuff off the ground and scattered it all over the place. I don't fucking want to sort through all that shit AGAIN! Space ain't gonna scan itself, god damn it!
Also, Kerfur Omega is WAY too expensive now. Every single part now requires "inferior" Kerfur parts, so that's a MINIMUM of a 2500 point investment, not to mention all the other stuff you have to get. Why bother? By the time you get one story mode will already conclude for most casual players.
I get that that's the price for convenience, as Kerfur-O can literally do your job for you, but it's not worth it.
I've been playing this game non-stop for the last couple days and now my left hand is kinda messed up. Not sure if it's related to the game but the, uh... unique controls definitely aren't helping.
Last but not least, PLEASE add an upgrade for the satellite rotation speed. It is PAINFULLY slow early game. "Hide" it behind the "funny setting", if you must.
That's all for complaining. Now it's time for the good stuff!
I like the new models. They're much different from what the game was going for in the early versions but I don't think they're out of place.
I REALLY like the fact that inferior Kerfur can now be FULLY controlled from the computer, despite the fact that the option has now been locked behind a 400 point paywall. Absolutely worth it.
I'm not sure if I should thank my new hardware for this but the game runs a lot better now. In the previous versions the lights in the base would cut the FPS in half, leaving the player with around 26 FPS while inside the base. Even when I used glowsticks so I could see where I'm going at night, sparingly too, I still got like 40 FPS, at best. Now the game runs at a stable 60.
I like what you're doing with The Hole. It's very neat and I'm excited to see what you'll do with it next.
Same goes for the "asshole" at the bottom of the lake. Quite intriguing.
I didn't get a chance to check it out for myself yet but the promise of farming is interesting. It makes sense, considering the ever-elusive story of the game.
Wolfgang is awesome! Furfur's okay, too.
I REALLY like the Argemwell music! You can turn that into a very rare signal with the funny setting on. That'd be pretty cool.
The wall building thing is pretty neat. Anything which allows the player to customize the base to make it truly their is always welcome!
Can't wait for the wooden wall panels and flooring you are definitely going to add at some point lol.
I know you can nail the digital map to the ATV and everything and I’ve done that in the past but it’s a buggy, band-aid solution which resulted in me losing the digital map in the past.
When you use nails to attach something to the ATV, I recommend also connecting it to the ATV with a hook, that will at least prevent you from fully losing the item if it falls off.
Additionally, if you are fine with using mods, there is a mod that adds a purchasable map holder for your ATV.
If you don’t know how to use mods, there is a guide for it here.
I don’t get the rising water one at all. I think I’ve seen in some videos that you need to climb to the top of the pillars using little off shoots or whatever but I can never find those.
There are actually two rising water dreams, with one needing you to find a door on one of the pillars, while the other has you climb to the top of a pillar.
You can easily identify them from the surrounding environment, the door dream consists of tons of pillars across a large area, while the climb dream is in an enclosed room with 4 pillars near the corners and 1 in the center.
I don’t know if it’s a thing, as I now realize I never bothered to check, but I would like an option to “cancel” the nightmare event by pressing the ragdoll button, ending the nightmare prematurely and losing sleep like you normally would when you “fail” a nightmare event.
You can do this by Debug Teleporting while in a dream.
If you have a numpad, enable Num Lock and press “Num .”
If you don’t have a numpad, go into binds in the settings and look for “Debug TP” somewhere at the bottom, then rebind it to a different key.
Every single part now requires “inferior” Kerfur parts, so that’s a MINIMUM of a 2500 point investment
A single Kerfur is disassembled into 3 parts each, so you only need to buy 2 of them for a Kerfur-Omega.
As far as I know, 0.9 will likely make creating a Kerfur-O a bit easier in some way, even if it isn’t a direct change to how you actually make it.
this quickly became one of my comfort games in ambience mode
given the game gave me so many tools to make the world mine, for me to work or goof off however I wanted
calculate optimal potato to dirt bag ratios to fill boxes better
go down the back of the signal tower using a half hook rather than climbing the ladder
breaking my knees over jumping too high over hills and gosh darn it taking pictures of my base after I worked so hard to make it feel and look like a cozy lit home with all sorts of lights that I bought from all my work
it felt like a game that I've been looking for, for a long time... a game despite its issues not being obnoxiously broken nor infuriating at its core or janky (the only jank I've seen is minimal in my eyes compared to so many full release games I've played honestly)
just... comfort...
that was until day 50 when an entity showed up
I understand this is supposed to be a horror game and that the developer(s) may have put a lot of effort into them
but I just wish to ask for at least the option to get rid of entities entirely and focus on the ambiance of it... in the ambiance mode?
lean a little more to the ambiance horror if you still want that? like an isolating feeling of a liminal space?
so my recommendation is for there to not be a 50 day cap of ambience before it just... ends
Edit: I've started a new save! I'm playing it on easy ++ with 50% day speed
it feels horrifying not because of the entity that will show up in day 50, but that if I waste even a second doing nothing in the game I will feel like my limited number of days will be utterly wasted
so... that's a unique probably unintentional form of horror I didn't think I'd have in ambience mode
kind of funny given what it was meant to be
also to the comment under me:
thanks for replying! I guess it makes sense if the priorities were on the other modes... maybe that 50 day of calm limit wasn't intentional
perhaps a limitation on the game? given you can start from day 1-50 when making a new save and the ambience mode stopped working as it was supposed to on said 50th day
I have no idea
anyways- will continue farming those potatoes
i've been playing this game for days, and honestly i enjoy it so much, this game is brilliant. but here's my feedback to few things that needs to be fixed, and some ideas. let me start with things i think that needs to be changed or fixed
- collecting trash and cleaning up the place was one of the things that i enjoyed, except for the small trash part, i haven't found an easy way to do it, picking up items then going back and forth to the box to put them there is frustrating, i think it would be great if i can use the trash bag to collect the small trash too, and like 1 bag collects 1 pile, 1 back should like collect 15 small trash or something like that. that way i can clean everything with bags then sell them.
- i think there should be a garbage collecting system, what's the use of having trash cans around the place if you just store trash inside them just like any other container, wouldn't it be better that once a day, something comes and goes around the trashcans and collects all the garbage ?
- the tutorial is good, and explains everything, but i think a hint system would also be bit helpfull, specially for new players, i was kind of lost at the start even after playing the tutorial
- the map is confusing, i don't use it because i can't really know where i'm going with it, wouldn't it be easier to have the server's names on the map instead of just single letters ?
- i think there should be a health bar since injuries can accure during the game. that way i can keep track of my health and know when to trat myself
- there's a problem with falling, when trying to get up quickly by pressing control and space, you something fall out of the map. and in my case, i was so low on food and sleep, and was few steps from the base when i fell out of the map, and it teleported me back to the gate
- i'm experiencing some fatal errors which i'm not sure what causes them, first time happened is when i closed a cabin door, whenever i die from a fall there's a 70% chance a fatal error will happen, and sometimes when driving too fast and a hit a rock it happens, so probably something that's related to collision.
- the daily task is kind of boring to be honest with you, i'm enjoying cleaning and fixing more than the daily task, specially the hash codes, it's a good idea, but i think each day new tasks should occure, doing the same thing over and over isn't that fun, maybe add new tasks, give the player vacation days which they can use to do other tasks. mix up new things
lastly, this project is great, and keep up the good work, i can't wait to see what's comming in the next updates, i wish i could support you with money, but for now, all i can do is at least help you by pointing out few things to improuve the game.
i haven’t found an easy way to do it, picking up items then going back and forth to the box to put them there is frustrating
Not really much that can be done for the item collection itself, but if I am going to be picking up lots of stuff, I usually bring the container I plan to place them in with me, saves a lot of trips back and forth.
A seemingly heavily WIP vacuum tool was recently added to sandbox, so hopefully that will be made into a normally usable tool for cleaning up small items in a future update.
i think it would be great if i can use the trash bag to collect the small trash too, and like 1 bag collects 1 pile, 1 back should like collect 15 small trash or something like that. that way i can clean everything with bags then sell them.
I think version 0.9 will actually have a change that will help with this. Trash piles will now be made up of small trash items piled together, so you will probably be able to pile together several small trash items yourself to bag them.
i think there should be a garbage collecting system, what’s the use of having trash cans around the place if you just store trash inside them just like any other container, wouldn’t it be better that once a day, something comes and goes around the trashcans and collects all the garbage ?
Even if this would be kind of convenient, I honestly don’t see why this would logically happen. It’s not like anyone comes out here to collect the trash anymore, and I don’t think very many of the other lifeforms around here care that much about your trash. Item boxes already work well enough for this, they cost only 10 points each, have 1,120 volume worth of storage, and even give you money back for sending off items.
the tutorial is good, and explains everything, but i think a hint system would also be bit helpfull, specially for new players, i was kind of lost at the start even after playing the tutorial
The red and yellow flashing and wobbling “Hints and tips” menu does have some extra info on things the tutorial doesn’t mention. It doesn’t help with everything and some info might be worded badly or even outdated, but it’s good enough. Search for your question with the search bar at the top of the menu using keywords related to any question you have.
the map is confusing, i don’t use it because i can’t really know where i’m going with it, wouldn’t it be easier to have the server’s names on the map instead of just single letters ?
Probably depends on the person, but I find it easier to navigate while thinking of the servers as their individual letter, rather than their whole name. I feel like the map could become crowded or hard to read if each server was shown on it with it’s full name.
i think there should be a health bar since injuries can accure during the game. that way i can keep track of my health and know when to trat myself
A Thermometer can be used to directly check both your health and your max health, but I find the damage vignette alone to be good enough to show how injured you are. You also lose the ability to sprint while under 25 health, which is another indicator for that.
the daily task is kind of boring to be honest with you, i’m enjoying cleaning and fixing more than the daily task, specially the hash codes, it’s a good idea, but i think each day new tasks should occure, doing the same thing over and over isn’t that fun, maybe add new tasks, give the player vacation days which they can use to do other tasks. mix up new things
Version 0.9 will majorly change the gameplay loop, which will definitely come with a new daily task system of some sort. I do not know whether or not it addresses your issues with the current one, but it should at least shake things up a bit.
Different systems are gonna have their performance bottlenecked by different parts, obviously, but on my machine at least (ryzen 5700x3d, radeon rx580) I found the framerate was dramatically improved by turning the draw distance up as far as it would go. Yes, up. Maxing out the draw distance literally took my framerate from thirtyish to a solid sixty. It's like whatever culling method the engine uses to sort the world's objects into "draw" and "do not draw" is so computationally expensive that it's actually way more efficient to tell it "screw it just draw everything IDGAF" and let the z-buffer sort em out.
this is more a feature request then feedback
and this is ENTIRELY something that isnt possible with real 3d printing
but could we get matcaps for 3d printing?
matcaps (material captures) is a trick where you uv map a texture onto a surface based on the viewing angle
it would open up a lot of creative options for meshes (like fresnels or gem / crystal materials)

This is more of a QOL request:
It would be great if we could place Held items directly into storage containers without putting them into our inventory first. Right now, the process of putting things into containers is a bit tedious if I don't have the inventory space to pick them up. First I have to make space in my inventory, Collect the item I want to store, stash it, and then pick up what I dropped. It would be way easier if I could just Grab or Hold it, and press a button on the container to stash it. Alternatively, if Held items showed up in the inventory menu, then I could just put open the container, and stash it that way.
Been enjoying the game a lot, but I wonder if it might be worth to try to add some 'cause and effect'/longer term events to the game.
A lot of events currently feel like they are very 'It happens to you for a bit and then is done' style. Stuff like the super heavy fog, red sky and such is cool and atmospheric, but it can eventually feel like when an event happens, you know it is a one-off thing that will be gone after it did what it wanted to do. Kind of hard to explain, but I guess they have a sort of disjointed feel, which is natural due to how the (non-story) events work.
Random thought I had to deal with this would be to maybe have 'sub events' and such. Like an event could spawn a ~spooky~ item on the map, and as long as it is around, other things can pop up. Like some alien artifact that causes weird shit to pop up intermittently around the map, not super frequently but enough to make a player wonder what's up until they finally go investigate the weird dot on the radar. Or an entity that needs to be engaged in some way or events will keep happening (There is that deer related one which is already a pretty good example). Basically stuff that makes the events feel more connected, even if they don't necessarily all are.
Of course, this is way easier said than done and this is mostly from the perspective of someone who spent way too many hours playing this game already. Not to mention that with horror, making cause and effect too clear can also take some of the mystery out so even if such events were added, figuring out the fine line between giving the player clues on what causes what, without removing the dread of uncertainty is a difficult task. So uh... good luck with that, lol
It isn’t truly infinite, but you can extend its overcharge time by continuing to microwave it after it becomes overcharged. I microwaved it for somewhere around 5–15 minutes and it lasted for almost a week, which only ended when I accidentally left it outside of a container for 20 minutes after cleaning out my inventory.
Love the idea of this game, saw a video on youtube and after a little bit of detective work I did find it here on Itch and installed it. Sadly, I did not make it past the first tutorial room, I don't have the patience for this kind of user interface anymore, reminds me of Deus Ex or System Shock, both games I could not get into due to similar design decisions. Anyhoo, good luck to the devs.
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.
I suggest installing metal blinds on the windows in the main room so that they can be opened and closed as needed. All the other windows have bars, but the large windows in the workroom are not protected. I believe this can create a sense of security in the main room.
Additionally, you can install an emergency button on all the doors, allowing you to lock them with a single click instead of running around the floors.
Is there any way to actually include an error when "Fatal Error!" pops up? I could be wrong but it looks like a failed try-catch reply which means there must be an error message to give more specifics. It would make debugging as a user/bug reporting so much easier than just saying "After running the game for 3 hours it suddenly hit a fatal error and kept repeating that even as I tried to open it. Either restarting the PC and/or reinstalling the game fixes it."
That last comment is an issue I keep having but my biggest ask is to provide some kind of error log so I can either fix what's wrong if it's on my end or report it properly to you.
Thank you - ૮꒰ ˶• ༝ •˶꒱ა ♡
The control scheme seems to be quite the object of contention, so I have my own suggestion, to simplify things:
MOVEMENT
| WASD | Move |
| Mouse | Look |
| Space | Jump |
| Shift | Sprint |
| Ctrl | Crouch |
INTERACTIONS
| Mouse Wheel (while looking at something) | Scroll through the possible uses for the item under the crosshair (if it can be grabbed or taken*, those are options 1 & 2) |
| E (while looking at something) | Confirm the action chosen above |
| Mouse Wheel (while holding something) | Hold the object closer or further |
| E (while holding something) | Drop |
| R (while holding something) | Take the object into the currenty selected hotbar slot |
| Left Mouse Button (while holding something) | Throw |
| Right Mouse Button (while holding something) | Rotate the object with your mouse |
*You can only grab something if you're empty-handed. By "grab" I mean holding the object in front of you. By "take", I mean taking it into your inventory.
INVENTORY
| Numbers 1 through 9 | Select a slot in the hotbar (immediately equips the item in it. If the slot is empty, it makes you empty-handed.) |
| Mouse Wheel | Select the next or previous slot in the hotbar (same rules as above apply) |
| Left Mouse Button | Use currently equipped item |
| R | Take the currently equipped item out of your inventory and hold it out in front of you |
MISCELANEOUS
| F | Toggle flashlight |
Notes: precision placement and the ability to throw your currently equipped item are redundant, since you can do both from holding the item out in front of you. Having to equip/unequip the item in your currently selected hotbar slot is unnecessary.
Any controls that vary their function from being tapped or held down can create accessibility issues.
The previous builds of the game were already a hurdle for new players, hurdles that could be leapt with dedication, but the systems introduced in 0.9 are an even bigger hurdle that, as a long time player, I feel negatively impact my enjoyment, even after giving them a fair amount of time to learn. This is all a roundabout way of saying I liked how the signal searching, drive boxes, satellite calibration and ATV worked before this update.
I understand the point of simulator games is to provide an experience that gives the player a hassle, but there is too much going on in this latest update.
The unskippable tutorial sucks. I would rather skip it and have all the text in an easy to read PDF as I play the actual. The tutorial is good, it works but it completely turned me off from playing the first time i tried it and the second time had enough time waiting around for me to write this out. The new scanning part is cool. The transformer is cool but the nobs suck. That is mostly a skill issue on my part. The tutorial completely took the winds out of my sails both times I tried it. The tutorial is nice and I am sure it is really good but from the second I got to the desk I was overwhelmed. Besides when I brute forced the transformer I did not retain a single thing. It all looks cool and I am sure that I would love it but I still have no idea what the floppy disks are for. The new controls suck but that is also a skill issue on my part.
Gods, I have to give you money sometime. Despite my gripes, this game is not only free but wonderful and keeps getting updates.
TLDR, please make the tutorial skip-able. Please put the text from the tutorial in a PDF or some kind of in-game book.
Also i hard crashed when I ragged dolled into the place with the burger and key card. I clipped into the wall when I stood up. I saw past the walls and got a fatal error. Also when right this i got a in the corner pop up saying i couldn’t save in mid air.
You most likely fell out of bounds when you ragdolled in the corner and you will always crash when falling out of bounds in tutorial, it's sort of like an anti cheat for all the secrets in the tutorial that hopefully haven't been removed in the new version, seeing as i couldn't find a way to open secret areas and stuff.
This is the best game that I can't play. I can't get over the confussing interface and that's a shame, I want to play it but it is simply too convoluted atm. Tutorial is nicely presented, and I managed to get throu it after a first aborted try, but once you are actually playing the game, remembering the little nuances of how to perfom the simplest of actions overwhelms you.
I have some suggestions. I started the game and got completely overwhelmed by the workload, then proceeded to play almost two months in infinite mode to git gud, so sorry if some of the things I suggest are already somewhat present in the story mode.
`fishing for specific signals could be a big part of the game. Maybe the player could get special requests from one of the scientists to get, for example, signals from gas giants, and doing so would increase your relationships with the specific scientist, which would make them send you bonus mail with their personal lore and advice about more esoteric game mechanics, like the rituals, that regular players would otherwise only learn about from reading the wiki?
There could also be specific requests, like getting a signal that is sure to show up at a certain coordinate on the star map that day.
And to that end, there should be a little more to detection in general, like, maybe signals could have different tells, which could give away what type of object the signal is from?
`some rare signals could be super difficult to download, but in an engaging way: they could change their polarities, fooling auto-polarity detection mod, and they could shift their frequencies, requiring you to sit there and actively fish them. They could be the late game challenges.
`listening to some signals could cause special events to happen, like with that white box that crashes your entire grid if you try to save it's signal- you should be afraid that what ever is there in the void knows that you heard them. There could also be special objects in space, like massive cosmic animals whose signals are invisible on the screen, but don't dissapear, so you can find them by carefully hunting them blind and poking around.
`and add more interstellar space jams! I still keep the Hobburg data drive on my desk.
`for a game about working with intricate machinery, there could surely be more to fixing stuff than pressing a button? Everything should be able of breaking in more ways, and some maintenance should require higher interaction, like with the oven, and the first step of fixing should be inspecting the thing to figure out what exactly is the problem. There could be some "manual of repairs" put in the base, which would detail such interactions, like in the game "Tin Can". Have you heard of it? I think that game is very topical here.
`I wish there were more interactions with the spirits than just burning the mannequins and destroying the deer carcass, like with that disgusting bucket-kvass and the nightmare demon. And with the wisps too. There could be rituals to befriend them, perhaps to the extend of making them mostly ignore the player, allowing them to observe and learn something from them.
`Mannequins are very annoying in general- they just teleport behind you and fall over. They could at least be malicious by default- making the player trip on any contact with them, so the player could be minding their own business, then suddenly get tackled by one.
`Fall damage is way too high- no monster or alien is deadlier than a three meter drop. Reloading is the devil of gaming, so suddenly having to reload because you missed a drop just sucks.
`There is no reason why in this game "dying" couldn't just make you wake up several hours later with badly crippled max health. Reloading is the killer of immersion.
`Ragdolling is always fun, but why not allow the player to clumsily crawl during it? That would allow some really cloustrophobic caving, and would allow the player to survive a broken leg.
`The hints say that mailbox only transfer items around the same type of games, but it doesn't and that is for the best, I hope you won't change that.
`If you sleep in the lower bunk and get woken by a nightmare, or just choose to ragdoll there, you glitch out and die. That's not right.
`What about brushing teeth? You hold a tooth brush, use tooth paste, get 5 stamina every 8 hours.
`Why no rare, stalker-like anomalies? It would be fun to investigate anomalous areas with weird gravity or some other changed game physics' rules.
`There could be extra form to request vacation days. Maybe the player could get an off-day "token" every week, but then could wait and stack a few of them to later request a four day vacation, or something? Also, loans are stupid. How about 1000 credits, return 1100 in two weeks?
It'd be great if ambient mode specifically did not include ANY kind of meta-paranoia events, especially when it comes to Krampus. I am playing the ambient mode specifically so that I can just focus on getting signals and money, and having this dude popping up is quite frustrating for not being able to sleep. I theoretically might not mind him (or at least not hate him) in the base game, as it could be a good way to throw players off for a while and force them to adjust by getting the ingredients for the Brew, but him being a forced entity in ambient mode as he is just kinda irritates me. I also imagine that people playing ambient might also not want to be scared, as that's why I originally started playing ambient mode, so having no meta-paranoia events would be wise from how I see it.
I'd suggest at least adding either a "Krampus mode" to the ambient settings so that players can turn him on/off as they like, and preferably keep him off by default if this idea is applied to the ambient mode. I think he kinda needs work anyway - there's really no warning nor clear indication that you can even make something to get him to fuck off, so that might be a good addition as well - but again, this is something that I could theoretically see being a good idea in the story mode.
Edit: I just discovered that he can get on the roof, so I'll be waiting to play more until there's some kind of change with him. I don't have the money to get everything for the Brew, and even if I did, I don't want to run around the base like it's Scooby-Doo.
this is the first time i've played the game and i've been almost completely spoiler free. i've really been enjoying it so far but i think how sleep is handled during events could use improvements. obviously not being able to sleep during them is a good thing but the fact that you get stuck in a loop of ragdolling when you're at zero stamina really sucks and i've actually died from ragdoll physics damage in that scenario. the fact that the insomniac still attacks the player is an issue too. the first time i encountered the insomniac was during an event so i couldn't sleep and i thought the event WAS the insomniac. because the game wont let you sleep i just got attacked by the insomniac over and over and over and got ragdolled over and over and over until the event ended. i still don't know what the event was supposed to actually be.
maybe freeze the stamina meter until the event ends or if the player gets attacked by the insomniac and is unable to sleep because of an event it could reset their stamina to 30? idk
also i think that resetting a transformer that went out should reset it to 100, not 15. the average player is not going to actually read the number and realize they need to hit it twice and it will make it unnecessarily hard for them (i didn't realize it did that until i read the wiki lol)
anyways, great game keep up the good work. i'm sorry if i'm missing information about the development i'm trying to stay spoiler free until i finish my first playthrough :)