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"Voices Of The Void" Pre-Alpha

Gather unknown signals from deep, silent space · By mrdrnose

Task Replacement for Math Based Puzzle to Fix Server

A topic by walecheski created 34 days ago Views: 1,017 Replies: 12
Viewing posts 1 to 6
(+3)

I playing the games for some weeks and I really enjoyed most of the mechanics presented by the game and the retro computer style. I know, the game is in Pre-Alpha and probably a lot of the game will change and I like to suggest an replacement for the Math Task that don't make much sense in real-world computer maintenance. I think that the game can explore some puzzles based in CLI (Command Line Interface) as you do to check the servers response, where need to restart the server and to do it run some simple command as "sv.restart" or manually press some button to turn-off, wait and turn-on. I think that this match the style of others mechanics very well and is pretty intuitive. Other suggest is to effectively replace some electronics inside the server, and being a slower task, is probably good to reduce the frequencies that a server fails, i like this suggestions because the upgrade for more resilient servers, become high-end electronics, while cheap electronics you can get from "Electronic Scrap" that fails more frequent. And, getting high-end electronics, this should get better performance in the main computer too.

(+1)

I like the math minigame and would not think any of your suggestions would improve anything. All your suggestions are just easier, more passive alternatives. Might be cool as an alternative for a difficulty setting, though.

(+2)

But the math minigame is easy too, is possibly to solve in 10~15 seconds, and that’s ok, the point is not about difficulty. What I propose is a task more engaged with the lore of old retro computers, something that justify the needed for maintenance. For me the minigame feels generic.

(+1)

The fact that all terminals are networked and share the same commandline, but I can't get a hash i can write down on paper of a server remotely is also unrealistic. At the end of the day, that's just how computers are in basically all media: unrealistic. 


Though... that too would be an easy fix, by making it like "oh, the report is too big to transmit in 24h by wire, so you have to use sneakernet" and have you use drives.

(+5)

Counter-argument: Keep the math game, but include additional minigames for some variety, and to lore-ish-ly make some sense (i.e. math game is cause a server only needs recalibration, a wires game could be used if a server somehow had a hardware failure, etc).

(+4)

I'd definitely like to see more minigames as well.

From what speculation I've heard, it sounds like Dr. Nose is already changing the minigame to include floppy disks that you'd insert into the servers, rather than having to do the math minigame at all.

Though while I think it'd be cool if they did include some actual coding concepts, being able to do it from the base totally destroys the point of the game - you'd just sit in the base and not have to engage with the outside world at all. Theoretically you can do this with Kerfur and the Omega, but not only does it (at minimum) require an excess of money, it's also something that builds on top of the servers, since there's various little experiences to be had alongside them - sometimes they'll break down or have other issues that require the player's attention, so they're usually reliable, but not always. (Especially when it comes to the base Kerfur models, since they're limited by power and the single wheel.)

With this in mind, however, I would like to see more done with the console/computer in future updates, as I like the idea of being able to influence the outside world in some manner like with the aforementioned Kerfurs, cameras, roomba, and the drone, or at least those of us who've been playing for a long time could have something to do while sitting at the computer. (Of course the primary goal of "go outside and get spooked by stuff" should still be a main focus, but increasing the number of minigames would be neat, IMO.) I'd like to have some kind of hacking minigame that takes inspiration from the Welcome to the Game series, something that might require you to set up things in either the immediate area or the far-reaching area that can be messed up. I'd imagine this would need to be much more basic than what the WttG series does, since that's presumably not Dr. Nose's area of expertise, but something with a "call and response" mechanic could be a neat idea. Maybe toss in a reward of a tiny increase in satellite rotation speed to give players an incentive to want to engage with it.

I imagine that the "hacking minigame" would need to be on a timer in a similar way that the servers within the base are, maybe a little alarm goes off every ~15-30 minutes to let the player know that a 5-10 minute hacking window has opened, and after that ends, the player will have to wait for another window to open later. Again, similar to the servers, but different this time. And this could be something that the player could totally ignore. I'd also say that inclusion of a "hacking minigame alarm" in the modules section of the computer would be wise.

(1 edit) (+3)

Adding something with programming and coding to the game will ruin the whole gameplay for many players, since not everyone knows/understands programming even at a basic level. And considering the fact that at least one person complained about simple math problems that he can't solve due to health issues, this could ruin the gaming experience for people with disabilities in a heck of a lot of ways.

(2 edits) (+4)

Then it needs to be made simple enough for the average player to be able to grasp it.

Same idea with finding the signals themselves- look at Vinesauce Joel, Criken, or Charborg as examples of the difficulty curve in the main gameplay loop; (I myself did not mess with the signals for about 5-10 hours at first playing because I didn't understand it, but now I can do it in my sleep.) eventually the player's interest in the surrounding game will lead them to learning about it so that they can engage with it sufficiently. The same will happen with any well-designed mini-game, the rules need to be explained sufficiently so that everyone can engage with it.

I'm not suggesting that MDN adds in some high-level minigame that requires 10 years of coding to understand, I'm suggesting that there be some kind of minigame with mechanics that can be easily grasped added. If Dr. Nose really wanted to spell things out for players, what they could do is add the commands to the side of the console with a sentence or two explaining what said command does. Hell, if need be, there could be written explanations in the "help & tips" pop-up on the pause menu in case people need even more guidance. 

There are already ways people can learn about the currently existing tasks in the game.

Also my suggestion would not be a requirement for progression - as I said before, "this could be something that the player could totally ignore."

(+1)(-1)

I dont have a problem but the game did not explain or point me towards how to solve these issues and i had a really, REALLY hard time figuring out in the tutorial what to do with the servers or how to solve these problems because 4+7 = 11 and theres no 11... or did he mean the absolute value of 4+7? That would still be |11| and it would mean i'd stay +11 so in what kind of format am i require to choose the numbers now?!

Same with  |2-7| which = |-5| = 5 which is fine but the game could atleast tell this to the player in the tutorial...... and im still guessing regarding numbers above 9.... 

The games math secuence and early tutorial regarding the servers really needs a better tutorial i have struggeled a lot to figure these out and most of the time i  just resort to guessing..... or re-doing it until i got a plus sequnce that didnt go over 9..... I dont think this is perticularly good IMO. 

(+1)

(-2)

Thanks, but i already figured it out after 20 minutes of fiddling around with it. Pretty strange to put the 2. number in for no reason… the logic there still kind of confuses me why it was done in a such a way. 

(+3)

It's in the tutorial, but it's worded as "just always take the last digit ", in math terms, it's the  "modular 10 "  of the  "absolute value" of the addition or subtraction. 

Absolute value means "if negative, make it positive " and is denoted with putting it in |bars|.
Modular means if you go under 0 or over the mod number (10 in this case), you end up at the other side. just imagine a circle.