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(+1)

Tried the new test and it suggested that I reset events and objects. After doing so, I teleported below ground and fell through the world. the teleport button doesnt work and.... well, it looks like my save-file is broken now D: PS: is the easter egg-related signals a bit too frequent? Gotten lots of them

(+2)

fecal funn

(1 edit) (+3)

I first heard about this game through Vinesauce Joel over on twitch, and I immediately fell in love with the premise to the point that I actually signed on for Itch.IO just so I could properly give this game my money. This needs to see a full release, it's incredible.

(+1)(-1)

I am fascinated with this game... it definitely has the potential to be great... its already amazing. I just hope there are some story elements that happen while playing like on day 10 or something the alarm goes off and the screen shakes then the front glass window shatters or something like that... then the rest of the game that window would just be open... I liked signal simulator, my only problem was there was very little action... either way this game is awesome so far. keep up the good work!

(+1)

This is a awesome game did not expect it to be a big game where its a demo have to say this will probably be even better when u finish it keep up the good work going to give u a 5 star and have to say i got gmod and portal vibes and i also loved that this video is part 1 witch is me completing the tutorial will be making a part 2 of me playing the story mode hope you like the video

Ah damn my laptop just barely can't run this at comfortable and consistent frame rates. Good game though.

(1 edit) (+2)

Thank you for the frequent updates! I tried your new test build, and thought I'd dump my impressions here. The new inventory system looks nice, but a double click to place an item feature would be appreciated. The knob for polarity is a nice touch, it helps differ it from the power buttons. I'll edit this reply if I find any more differences.

EDIT Thank you for fixing the brakes on the ATV, and the disable fines for satellite hash task is chefs kiss.

(+2)(-20)

There's something i hate really much, why everybody gets angry when i say my opinion about something? you are broken inside if you can't let somebody tell their opinions!

Someone said yesterday:

"if you dont like the game why bother commenting, many peaple enjoy this game and love the way its made"

no, that's the wrong thing to do!

everything have to be criticized! if it's right to do, because criticism is needed to make the game better!

There are people that liked and people they don't, if you say to not comment if i don't like, it's censure!!

And telling people to not criticize it's really sad...

It's like telling people to not tell their opinion about the games, and we all are free to say everything we want about games and other stuff!

Understood clowns? :)

I hate those people that just say: "you're old, and wrong"

and i only told my opinion!!

You are crazy!

The people nowadays don't know anymore to criticize, and that's really sad, all of them have a really sad life, poor them :)

That's the last thing i wanted to say.

(+9)

Hey, you okay? You sound kinda angry.

(-8)

sure i am angry, i hate these people :/

(+6)

Have you, maybe, tried not being angry?

(-7)

hmm, no, because there are so much people that are stupid and make me angry, but..., uhh..., i will try to not be angry

(+10)(-1)

sounds like a skill issue to be honest

(+10)

Cut the bullshit, you're just spitting hate, that's not giving your opinion, you can criticize without making an ass of yourself.

(-8)

yes, i hate these people because they just doesn't want you to tell your opinion, it's so wrong? it's their fault

(-8)

i am not the one spitting hate, they are the ones that are spitting hate, think about this.

(+6)

They are just giving their opinion about you, is that wrong?

(-7)

no, you are not understanding, your comment is no sense, i was talking about the people that says that i can't tell my opinion, they said that if the game is good, if i didn't like it i should just shut up, and that's censure! everybody is free to tell their opinions, there can be people that liked and people that didn't, but everybody have to be free totell their opinions, understood?

they didn't said their opinions, they just told me to shut up and to don't talk, and it's ridiculous because i can say if i didn't like a game or another thing.

but nowadays people is just evil, that's the truth, shame on all these persons...

(+9)

What you wrote wasn't critique, it was an accusation out of anger about the game using mechanics and stuff from Source, which is notable for being free to use.

You have not been censored, nobody has deleted your comments.

Offering constructive criticism is always encourage but what you wrote wasn't constructive. It was bashing, and people are right to call that out.

If your comment was deleted it would have been censure, or if you were forced to alter it. But no one has forced you to do shit. You just need to realize that this is a public forum and your critique can be critiqued and just yelling "unfair" won't make it happen any less.

(-8)

no, i was the one that deleted my comment, because i wrote a new one after that.

but you didn't understood, i was talking about people trying to censure me by saying to shut up and that because some of them liked it i have to shut up, that's censure.

And i understood that it was free use, i understood that like some hours ago, but perhaps you didn't see my comment, just read my comments, i wrote that.

(+6)

Reread what Azfaa said, because they are correct here.
There's a difference between constructive criticism, which is very important in creating anything to improve, and just calling something shit.

What I could see of your comments, they appeared as the latter rather than the former.
Others told you to shut up because there wasn't any constructive feedback you gave, just plain shit talking.

Or at least from what I could see, I have missed your very first comment, but even if it did include actual constructive criticism, it no longer matters because you deleted it.

Let me give you an example.
Saying something like "I didn't like your game, parts like X and Y really annoyed me, you could try doing X or Y to fix them" would be constructive criticism that could help the developer to improve their game.

As another example let me quote some feedback from my own project: "Stalkers have a lot of HP. A lot. They're incredibly annoying, but electrical bolts are awkward to use (...)"
That was very constructive and helped shine some light on a balance issue involving one enemy, which helped me improve it and make them less annoying to deal with.

But writing something like, quoting, "THIS GAME IS A COPY OF HALF-LIFE AND PORTAL" won't include anything constructive at all, so people will of course call you out, not only for not providing any actual feedback for the game, but also being wrong about your statement.

(+3)

For someone who's so vocally hung up on the ability to criticize, you've yet to offer any actual critique. Screeching in all-caps that this game "ripped off" Portal isn't critique. Signing off your post trying to preempt people replying to you also isn't critique, but it is a remarkably thin-skinned and transparent attempt to deflect critique of yourself.

Maybe you'd be better at critiquing if you tried ripping off some actual critics. It'd at least be a starting point, as opposed to whatever this embarrassing display is.

Deleted 208 days ago
(+3)

Bro we just givin our opinion on your opinion. Just dont have bad takes lol.

(+2)

yes. people should be allowed to criticise things that other people put on the internet. so why are you freaking out that people are criticising your halfassed criticism lmao. don't dish it out if you can't take it

(-3)

what they said isn't criticism, they just said to shup up, that's a criticism? i don't think.

(+3)

people are telling you in so many different ways that your criticism is poorly made and not useful. their criticisms of your opinion are not any less valid than your all-caps rant about how this game is a copy of half-life. if you're going to complain on the internet, people are going to complain back, and you're gonna have to learn to live with that.

(-3)

i am not talking about this game.

when i said that comment i was talking in general, and that "shut up" comment that was wrote to another my comment on another game, was very rude and no sense.

that's what i wanted to say.

(+3)

then stop commenting here lol

(+3)

Kinda just wanna play this game just for signal searching. No spooks, no creepy forest atmosphere, just me looking for signals and researching them.

Then again, I assume that's what sandbox mode is?

(+9)

Infinite mode is for signal searching only, Story mode has events and spooks

(+2)

love this game, thank you for making it :)

(1 edit) (+2)(-1)

Solid game, absolutely love the atmosphere.
A forest is a perfect location for a game like this, not a desert like in Signal Simulator

Might as well ask if a steam release is planned once the game is done?
I'd buy it in a heartbeat, but I am unable to pay on itch.io, so that's a problem for me.

My only suggestion currently is maybe the backpack could be made less awkward to use?
I wouldn't mind if it increased the inventory space by 4 slots instead of having to drop it, take out what you need and put it back.
Edit: Also a screenshot button would be neat.

Anyways, great stuff you've made and I am interested in seeing where you take this.
I just bought two red glowsticks and attached them to a tree a fair bit away from the control room window, so the next night is gonna be fun.

Oh and one more thing, please don't include a "storm area 51" button on the main menu.
For Joel's sake.

Deleted post
(+1)

Its in the Appdata folder.

Ex. X:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\VotV

Oh! Nice... thanks for telling us :D

its cheatin time

(+3)

For those still struggling with the reports here is what worked for me. Send the satellite's hashes in the order the email tells you to do and type the satellite's names all lowercase.

example:

when the email tells you to do reports on

Whiskey

Sierra

you write it like this

whiskey *hash*

sierra *hash*

Also you should send all the signals you were tasked with that day in one box and put the note with hashes on it (unless you have more than 8 signals) because when I was first doing it I did half of the signals and later it wouldn't accept the other half because it thought they were duplicates. sorry for my bad English I hope you can understand what I'm trying to say. Enjoying the game so far.

quick question, is the hash everything for example j2Ht35K or just the numbers in them?

Everything

okay than you

(-34)

THIS GAME IS A COPY OF HALF-LIFE AND PORTAL, BEFORE WRITING STUPID THINGS AGAINSTS ME, CHECK IF WHAT I SAY IS TRUE, AND YOU WILL SEE THAT IS TRUE! JUST CHECK A PORRTAL AND HALF-LIFE GAMEPLAY, YOU WILL SEE THAT THEY STEALED THE HALF-LIFE SOUNDS, AND YOU WILL SEE THAT LIKE IN THIS GAME, IN PORTAL THERE'S A ROBOT THAT ALWAYS TALK TEACHING THE PLAYER, THERE ARE THOSE WHITE ROOMS, EVERYTHING IS STELEAD FROM HALF-LIFE AND PORTAL, JUST UNDERSTAND THAT, BECAUSE IF YOU WILL WRITE STUPID THING, YOU WILL JUST SHOW EVERYONE THAT YOU ARE A CLOWN :)

(3 edits) (+9)

some sound libraries are free for anyone to use, others you can pay to use other libraries in games stop making yourself look dumb


https://freesound.org/
^^ free sound library for anyone to use for anything they wish, as proof

:)

(-14)

don't say dumb to a stranger, you will never know what can happen ;)

however, ok, the sounds are ok, but the idea of the game was copied from Portal, you can see it playing the demo!!

just play the tutorial and you will see that it is almost equal to portal!

(+3)

The tutorial has nearly nothing to do with the story mode in the game. Just the mechanics like searching for signals

(+8)

Low quality troll aside, other than the sound library points that were raised by other people, there's also the fact that this game very clearly references Valve's games.

The entire tutorial is a reference to Portal, that is correct, even down to the "cake is a lie" and "evil AI kills you" parts, but there's nothing actually stolen there.
Just because of the use of white rooms with an AI (which is also a reference to HAL 9000 from the Space Odyssey) tutorial, it doesn't mean it's instantly stolen from Portal.

I mean, if we really want to be that petty then might as well mention that Portal "stole" things from Half-Life 2, which "stole" from Half-Life 1, which "stole" from Quake, which "stole" from Doom and so on.

Oh and also, aside the tutorial when you start the game you see two things, those being "node graph out of date" and GMod-styled hint popups.
You can't get a more obvious reference than that.
And since this game is running on Unreal and not on Source, those were purposefully coded into the game as a reference and not just a leftover.

(+5)

There fucking references

(-8)

hmm, if they are references, i think it's ok, but the demo was horrible so i won't play the full game

(+1)

Doesn't say much when we clearly live in Clown Community

Reject humanity, embrace clown

(By the way you should be proud, rather than feel bad! You got a straight 22 downvotes which is a record from what I've seen! Well done. Also hopefully you listened to some of the criticism)

Deleted 1 year ago
(+7)(-1)

if you dont like the game why bother commenting, many peaple enjoy this game and love the way its made

(+1)(-7)

because i am free to criticize everything, everyone is free to criticize!

(-8)

so? if people liked the game i can't comment if i didn't? there are people that doesn't know that this game was copied and i want them to know that!!

(2 edits) (+4)

you're old, and wrong 

(-7)

your existence is useless, you are stupid commenting something like this after my comment, you know that clown?

(+5)

Have you even played either of those games? There is absolutely no similarity, and no, the sounds are not "stealed." Using sounds from something else is not stealing them. There is nothing wrong with using placeholder assets, especially for a free indie game demo made by a single person. Shame on you.

Next time, please consider not commenting something so incomprehensibly stupid as this. You sound like you're six years old.

(-6)

how can you say that there's no similarity when the creator stealed the sounds of half-life? are you f*cking stupid!!? just check a gameplay of half-life and you will see that the sounds are the same!! and Portal, that is another game, you can see that this demo is almost equal to that game!!!

you are a f*cking clown man! you commented something stupid without even checking if what i wrote was true, you are a clown, haha

(-6)

you are the six years old kid, not me!!

(-6)

people doesn't know anymore to criticize, and it's really a bad thing, criticism is needed to make the games better, but you people of these years don't know that, you are ignorant and childish like hell!

(-6)

yes, is stealing, using sounds from another game is absolutely stealing you stupid! the sounds have some sort of copyright! but you don't know that, you just want to defendthis game with no sense reasons! every creator have to make his sounds for his game, with his story and his creativity, and not stealing things from other games!!

but i have no words, how the f*ck can you say that using sounds is not stealing? come on, it's obviously stealing!! my god, the people of these years just don't know anymore to criticize when is right to criticize!

(+3)

they weren't stolen from half-life? half-life got almost all of their sound effects from sound libraries (which is something a lot of games do) games specially from that era rarely made all their sound effects in house but rather paid someone else to use sounds already out there, same for many textures

only thing half-life did to those sounds was to be the most famous one to use them

(-5)

ok, i understood now

(1 edit) (+1)

Love the game - the tension is amazing and...hoo boy, do NOT run out of stamina. Uh, if I had one suggestion it's PLEASE fix the driving and controls for the ATV. Driving is an absolute necessary thing so...why does the driving feel so terrible? It's hard to get anywhere and the brakes don't even work half of the time.

Brakes works, but if you try to park in a slope or the likes, it will start to slide. It sounds like you might be hitting the "sprint"-button when you're driving and its making it very difficult to steer. So if you're surrounded by trees or rocks, try letting go of the sprint-button to steer before using it again, psudo-fixing the steering for a moment. My few tips! till an update is out(if its being worked on further) :D 

I can understand a little bit of sliding, and yes...you almost have to quickly drive around everywhere. The game expects so much from you early on that it's impossible to catch up meeting daily goals without speed. I just want the ride to be a bit more smoother to control..it feels like driving a tank

w... why shouldn't I run out of stamina? 😟

I don't want to spoil anything. You should try it ;P

(+1)

Hey hey, Vargskelethor's stream brought me here and I had to buy the game for 20+ usd to support - I'm having tons of fun with it. Is there a preferred place where you'd like feedback, suggestions and/or bugreports?

(+3)

Big thanks for Your support!❤️

You can report bugs in discord server preferably, or right here in the comments.

I got stuck in a giant hole and it won't let me use the cheat menu to get back

(1 edit)

oh yeah that's a problem (The game used to teleport you back to base after you left the game, so you just had to quit and than play the save and you'd be fine... but it doesn't do that anymore does it?)

(1 edit)

its sorta a intended feature, your ment to use the atv to get out cuz the atv is basicly a mountain goat

(+1)

There is a reset button for resetting various parameters in the main menu for the save file, but I'm not sure which might reset the position. Try resetting the player stats and see if that helps.

(+1)(-2)

can you add some jumpscare (alien / wild deer) road kill event for joel if you can? :)

(+2)

I think good unknown anticipation gets Joey where you seriously don't know the limits or possibilities and can only draw fearful conclusions. Like the "objects in the woods" discovery and the footsteps. I just hope there's not another fourth-wall breaker like Signal Simulator with that hangar of Alien eggs.

There is :) he just hasnt found it yet but hes seen glimpses

(1 edit)

When i try the tutorial or even trying to play it tells me that my node graph its out of date or smthing like that and then everything is black :(

(Edit) Nah, my dumb ass have the fov at 100 and it was like zooming to outer space...

is there any way to turn up the gamma so it isn't so dark? it's dark in the base, even with the lights and the flashlight on. why?

is this intentional, or is it a bug? i'm using an AMD graphics card, and playing it through wine on Ubuntu.


I have a similar configuration. This happened the first time I directly launched with Wine. I ran the tutorial and only certain surfaces were lit and my flashlight only seemed to work on that surface and go off into blackness. I launched through Lutris and these issues resolved.

Truly when in doubt, use Lutris. It can set up a much more compatible wine prefix than you could manually

(1 edit)

ah i see. thanks! i will definitely try this eventually. i wonder if i can get Steam Play to work with external games, since proton seems to work great with games.

It's fairly simple to get working. On the library page, near the bottom, there's a button to add a game. I'm sure you can figure the rest out yourself, but it'll open a drop down in which you would be wise to select the option to add a non-steam game and direct it to the game's executable. Be sure you hit the "Add Selected Programs" button before closing the window. Right click the newly added game, hit properties, compatibility, then force whatever proton version you feel like,

would you happen to remember how you did this? i used the "Install from .exe" (or smth) option from lutris. I selected VOTV.exe, and clicked "Install". It launched the UE4 prerequisites installer, and after i installed that stuff, the installation window said "Program exited with code 1536".

i love your game but i'm a huge weenie. i never play horror games because i'm super easily spooked and become legitimately distressed, but i really wanted to play the management part of this. it was going well but then i found the picnic and almost shit myself. then a dream happened and now i just can't play it.

godspeed in making your cursed game, but i am condemned to watch from afar. my only hope is that one day, far in the future, you implement weenie mode, in which there are no real spooks but the signals regularly mock me for being a coward.

(+6)

Losing points from not completing a task should be removed, or at least heavily nerfed. The punishment should be not getting any points, going into the negative is too much. Especially when you get tasked to submit 7 signals in a single day, it's not possible.

(+2)

The dev knows, he's fixing it

(1 edit) (+11)

i know reports are fucked and even i dont know why
i fixed everything i had ill upload new build soon

(+2)

okay, nice

pleas update gmae the IRS aliens are coming for me because i have -28 points pleas i cant pay rent/.

(+2)

i feel like the report feature needs to be changed.

The reports are confusing and i still don't know how to do them properly (and im not the only one that struggles to do them) and that you get fined if you don't complete them is a pain


maybe make it a bonus thing that you don't have to do

Keep the same system (going out and checking codes) but do not require us to write them down in a document. Would still like to have to interact with a paper after getting the hashes and affixing it to a box.

yes that's what i hope the dev does

found a bug were i lose all of my money when i quit the save... that's it, not much more to it

(+1)

Hey, I just got this bug too, I lost 25, but then when I sent in a package with 1 level 0 signal (worth 5) it showed 30, so I guess I didn't lose the money it just didn't display it. Maybe try earning a little and see if it fixes that.

(1 edit)

interesting,ill try that 


Edit:yep that's exactly it


(1 edit) (+1)

[Update: Appears that keeping paper sheet out of inventory resolved the report inconsistency, being asked to check again. Now I generate the hashes, go back to base, tear a sheet and set it beside the terminal to copy name/hash info., then carry to the box and assemble the drives & report for drone pick-up. Works everytime.]

I'm glad to find I could play the demo easily on Linux. I added it to Lutris and launched with Wine.

I also became a bit confused about submitting daily reports, which seemed straightforward at first. The paper seemed to detach from the box once I called the drone, or I'd get emails saying to re-submit the hash of a satellite that changed. I got a little confused if this was intended or if I did something or if it was just bugs.

This is great, though, and love watching Joey streams of it.

(4 edits)

Excellent find regarding the reports! That was driving me crazy.

Edit: Damn, it didn't work. Tried it just as described, but no difference. Seemingly correct report is failed. No reaction to corrected reports. Penalty keeps growing.

I wonder if there is some way to reset the penalty? Perhaps editing the save-files?

(+1)

Oh, that sucks to hear. I had a negative penalty when I last quit playing and loaded the save to find the point count reset to 0, and that's when I started doing it the way I described. I see there's a new update coming soon attempting to address all the Daily Reports comments.

(+1)

Thankfully, the point-bug is only visual. The correct amount is there and as soon as the value changes, it will be correct again.

i hate the report system

I made it past the tutorial but then as soon as I got into infinite mode and into the base, I started getting really motion-sick from it. Damn shame, 'cause this looks fun as hell.

(+2)(-3)

Would be fun if you'd black out for 6h or so if you get thrown off the Quad Bike from crashing into something too hard. Im sure it would get to some people if they wake back up in the middle of the night.

(2 edits) (+1)

Alright, now it seems to have bugged out. They asked for Mike and Romeo. I got the hash codes, but got told the report was incomplete. So I went and got them again (Romeo hashcode has changed) and sent it in, but I did not get any confirmation at all. And now I was penalized 50 points.

Please add an option to disable the report penalty - I keep failing half the reports, but I don't know what I'm doing wrong.

Edit: It seems that, if you complete the drive-part of the daily request, the report-part stops working.

(2 edits) (+2)

I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong, but the reports are very hard to get accepted. Sometimes they work just fine, but other times, I am told to complete the report and have to redo it all over again - despite the hashcodes being exactly as they should be.

Could it be as simple as an accidental blank space is enough to invalidate the report?

(+1)

nah not just you, I have no clue how to do them either

(+1)

absolutely fantastic game, i can't wait to see what it becomes.

do you plan on making a mac version? i have an extra 20$ steam card around if you want pay i don't know if thats allowed though

The problem is i need Mac to make a Mac version, and idk if using VM will help

ohh ok

(1 edit)

do you know of any good virtual machines for windows? i can tell its a really good game good job but i'm on mac lol

edit: for windows as in a virtual machine that has the windows software

For the time being you can use wine to run windows apps on Linux or MacOs.

Is it just me that when a new update comes out and download it all my saves break

(+1)

The saves might break because big update adds a bunch of new stuff like events and objects, and new objects that has been added in new version wont spawn on old save which might create some problems

usually all objects with physics(And servers for some reason) disappear making it impossible to play the game on old saves

(1 edit)

I keep getting daily tasks that require 9 tapes!

the max you can fit in a box is 8! and you can only submit one at a time!!

good game though! Also I keep accidentally pressing the c key when i want to zoom and I fall on the floor.

If you submit a second box it will work. Not ideal, but you'd just have to send in two boxes for that day.

yeah I figured it out eventually

(2 edits) (+1)

Been playing the latest update every single day since it was released and have enjoyed every single moment! And despite having maxed out the upgrades, bought every single item, and found a ton of little secrets - I'm certain there are still things I've not seen.

Absolutely stellar work MrDrNose!  

I did also find a pair of bugs, so on the off chance you haven't caught them:

- Certain items (Food boxes, Signal cassettes/recordings, Security Cameras) can be duplicated by aiming at a storage object (such as the backpack) and rapidly clicking.

- When drinking Coffee while the Hunger is at 100+, it says you are not hungry, but still increases the sleep meter without depleting the coffee itself.

- The bed, when flipped, is nearly impossible to right back up as it keep bouncing like crazy when turned upright.

- The rugs/carpets sometimes seem to break during reload into a game. They all turned into blue square rugs and vanished when folded.

(2 edits) (+2)(-1)

Played through the entirety of story mode over the course of three days, and it ended up being genuinely one of the most horrifying experiences I've had in a while; the game is incredibly good and scary. However, there are a couple of things across the game that I found to dislike, or have come up with ideas for, so I'll list them off here now:


First off, it is incredibly easy to feel safe in your own home. In a game like this, it's incredibly essential to feed the player's paranoia as much as possible, as half of the time they are staying in complete solitude, waiting for the next scary thing to happen. You can purchase around 8 levels in the server stability upgrade, and you'll basically never have to go out again, allowing you to just process signals every day and get the daily objective bonus quite easily. There isn't anything that requires you to go outside either, besides the occasional entity radar signal every now and then. During my playthrough of the game, I experienced about 6(?) events; mannequins in the windows and doors, the power shutting off, zero gravity mode, huge tremors shaking the ground, that one god forsaken picnic ship in the north-west appearing in my radar every day, the hash code spam emails, and the third ship floating far north. I wasn't actively going out of my way to avoid them, either. But the one that scared me the most was the hallucination ghost that appeared in the corner of the player's eye; and then straight up jumpscared them. This one was the most effective at making me paranoid of even my own home, as for the rest of the playthrough I was constantly looking at the same spot where the ghost had attacked me. The other thing to make me paranoid the most was the entity that would appear during the night on the radar, slightly shifting up and down. Had I not been determined to catch it on camera, I would've probably never found it anyways. I set up cameras in the south-east section of the map, because for some reason the radar direction is flipped from the actual map (what's up with that anyways), so when I realized my mistake I became incredibly paranoid of the day segments as well, for I had been walking into the alien territory with no worry this entire time. However, this second experience happened much much later into the game, near day 14ish. Besides the hallucination ghost basically giving me PTSD for the rest of the playthrough, there really weren't any moments where I actually felt like I wasn't in control of my base; cameras were able to completely cover all ground near me and I had been careful enough with the locks and memorized the locations of objects to be able to navigate even in the pitch black darkness. The only time I felt like even my own defenses weren't enough to cover my skin was due to one of my doors randomly making the error noise, which would only play if I tried to open a locked door. At that point, I had completely ignored the radar in order to huddle under a bunch of boxes in the bathroom (or is it bedroom?). It didn't really help that the main gameplay loop is a bit too repetitive, without much variation, with the little variation that is being easily removable via the upgrades system. The radar being able to tell me if there were any entities or not made going out in the night to fix satellites much much less mentally taxing, which is probably an unintended consequence of terrorizing the player by letting them know if there is actually an alien hunting them. Also, the daily task bonus for obtaining the satellite hashes is fairly inconsequential, and is only really worth it if some of the satellites on the list are also broken as well. A solution to this would be to allow the player to send only some of the satellite hashes instead of all of them, and increase the amount of satellite hashes required per server stability upgrade. Overall, you can just find signals, complete the daily tasks, remove the hassle of going out via upgrades and then make big bank till the end of the story mode without there really being anything to stop you from doing so, cause why would you go out in the middle of the woods to find the very obvious posing threat? Are you nuts?

So, some things: First off, it would probably be best if the radar became incredibly nerfed, making it only find entities in a MUCH much smaller radius around the base, aprox. halfway from any satellites in the main inner ring. From here, it could either become upgradeable allowing the player to see further, or allow the player to actually purchase more radars to set up near other satellites, giving them reason to go out more in order to verify the logs and whatnot besides fixing or anything else the game might offer. If needed, the player can be incentivized via earning credits in some way from these logs.

The game's landscapes are incredibly beautiful, and I found myself setting up cameras in specific locations in order to catch certain views at sunrise or sunset, so I found it a bit disappointing that the game doesn't take much advantage of that aspect. As of right now, the map is just a big empty space with not really any memorable locations besides the satellites, and perhaps the initial entry gate. I was thinking perhaps some areas are darker, more narrow and hard to traverse than others, basically blocking the player from using the ATV or any other shortcuts, making them basically memorize the path and general surroundings as "that one place I REALLY don't wanna go to", maybe even the fabled nuclear reactor mentioned in the welcome email. Perhaps there could be a power supply building that the player has to sometimes perform maintenance on (even during the night), or else their base runs completely out of power and becomes unusuable; said building could also warn the player beforehand if such event would happen, and it would be much more uncommon than servers breaking down in order to not make it as much of a hassle as going down to every single satellite seperately. Perhaps some satellites would break down in a way that couldn't be detected by the machinery at base, and you'd need to climb a watchtower high up on one of the mountains, allowing the player to have a view of the entire valley, and see which satellites are in need of fixing, giving them a way to memorize the locations of the map via certain enviromental signs. If this is too much of a hassle for the player, even just having certain "landmarks" to allow the player to memorize segments of the map without requiring them to just look at the map or do sv.target all the time. After all, there's not really any reason to actually use the pre-constructed paths instead of the ATV, unless you forgot to fuel at home. Maybe there could be a supply shed out west that the player can visit when needing to stock up on some supplies; such supplies couldn't be taken to home either.

But easily the best and most important way to scare the player is to just simply make them as paranoid as possible, despite there being no scares or events happening. Making certain events rarer, and creating mini-events to build up the tension before the next big scare would be a good way of making the repetitive loop of getting signals and fixing satellites much more varied and interesting before a starfox spaceship decides to take a picnic in the middle of the woods. Such mini events could be objects simply falling down before a player enters a room, like buckets in a supply shed or curtains in the bathroom. Other ways would be just playing indiscernible noises from the woods that the player just cannot tell what it actually is (such things are common occurrences in wooded regions, even if there aren't really any animals), or door opening, closing and error noises playing in the middle of the night. Under no circumstance should the player truly feel safe at any place, at any time. They should always be doubting whether their own equipment and defenses are capable of even protecting them from the smallest of things.

I found the eyes that would build up into a complete creature when you are low on stamina as being one of the best examples of building up paranoia in the player; looking at it makes it disappear, making it basically be something that only exists in the corner of their eye. However, limiting it to existing only when the player is low on stamina would only incentivize the player to sleep more, thus skipping the nights and days. A good way of making more hallucinations appear, without requiring the player to be low on stats, is to have these mini-events start appearing the most after a unique signal is heard, such as the "end is near" skull signal playing. After the player hears it, the could begin hearing hums and clanking in the middle of the night, basically raising their own tension through the roof, making even the simplest of tasks like going out to fix a satellite the worst thing they could have ever done. Or maybe the player could be afraid of the hole in the ceiling of the garage by making a certain alien peek in at certain points. Perhaps certain cameras far away near a spotted activity zone could sometimes turn off, and when the player comes to turn them on again a mannequin or something is there. Maybe these suggestions would be too evil for a game like this, where each big event is far inbetween, but with a payoff worth more than anything, but making those events pop even more via pre-built tension would be perfect to making the player as uncomfortable as can be, and would elevate the playing experience to a whole 'nother level.

I'm not sure how much I should say here, considering I haven't experienced all of the main events yet, but I believe there should be more large-scale events in the middle of the night, that instead of making certain aspects or locations of the playing field, it would make the entire region the player finds themselves in completely altered either physically or in the player's eyes. Perhaps one night lights from the sky could raise giant stone monoliths out of the ground, or the river could turn blood red as the forest critter crickets are tuned to an all-time maximum. Hell, turn the sun into an alien or something. Most of the events right now are honestly kind of inconsequential, besides going "Yeah. Aliens exist." or "wtf!! !". Altering the player's perception of the land around them is enough to make even repeating the same satellite fixing a completely different experience.

Another thing I found issue with is the lack of information in the shop screen: you really don't know if half of these items actually have any use bundled with them, or even what they do. I had no idea how absolutely terrible the low quality camera is compared to the medium, or the untitled item at the bottom being an arcade. I expected the crowbar to have functionality too, such as the player being able to hold it and then click on the supply crates in order to open them, but it ended up just being decorational. I don't even know what the server repair and protect kits even do. Perhaps adding a tooltip when hovering over the items would help a lot in making such information clearer, much better than adding the information on the help screen. Also, cut the price of decorational, non functional items by half, such as carpets, plants, etc. 50 credits for a rug is absolutely insane, especially when you could be spending it basically nearly tripling your ping speed, or be used for purchasing 25 drives, and you need multiple of those in order to make them even have an impact. A lot of these decorational items could be given hidden functionality by making them become affected by mini-events and whatnot, making even the player's own furniture a point of paranoia. Also, add a room or two to the players base purely for decoration purposes. Getting them to feel homely and then pulling all that safety under the rug by having an alien pop up in their hub of wonder for a split second is enough to send the atmosphere of the game into the, well, atmosphere.

Probably one of the coolest moments in the game was the initial walk to the base in the middle of the woods, illuminated by the lighting sticks in the ground. The ATV is great for making the walk to the satellites not a complete time waster, but it's a shame there aren't any other scenic moments in the game. Perhaps have the ATV break down sometimes, and it requires taking it to a repair facility for a while, by having it be taken by the delivery drone? Maybe during then server failures would be lowered down, but other misc. tasks could have higher priority, allowing the player to take in new views.

Some other minor nitpicks:

- Make sleeping faster or more efficient. It's a pain in the ass to waste time doing nothing when for some reason you can't do 1st grade maths to fix your servers yet you can handle complex government machinery to obtain signals from space. Make the player suddenly wake up due to a loud noise in order to not make sleeping overpowered, if needed. Add paranoia.

- Add flowers, mushrooms, and a lot more colors to the woods. Maybe even some edible stuff to make running out of food mid-trip not as much of a pain in the ass. Said mushrooms could be poisonous too, making the player hallucinate events.

- Portable map that doesn't cost 250 credits, aka an actual map screen. However, it shouldn't actually tell the player's current location, only a view of the region's terrain, like the map at home. Another way to make the map more useful is by allowing the player to set the compass target to wherever they click on said map, so getting to specific locations won't make you as lost. I found planning ahead what route I should take to fix the satellites incredibly rewarding and fun, so seeing it be able to be altered when a new satellite goes down would be a way to not make going back to the base to find the map a chore.

- Remove delivery crate wood remains. Absolute laggy, loud pains in the ass. Getting a woodchipper for them should not be required.

- Setting up some furniture in specific spots such as the bed in a corner is kind of impossible, as there isn't really any way to make the player be able to nudge the bed into the correct position, making it awkwardly angled half of the time, cause you cant get into the corner to move it and you can't push it either.

- I found the throwing mechanic fairly underutilized. Maybe some satellites need to have something thrown at them in order to calibrate properly? Or there could be an attic whose ladder can only be activated by throwing an object to dislocate it. Don't know why there was such focus on this in the tutorial despite being not really used, other than being a nudge to source games.

- Count drones activated just before the next day as if they were for the previous one, and make drones accelerated by sleeping as well. I had it happen to me thrice where because I had all the drives set up for a daily task yet the drone took too long to deliver and as such I had completely wasted 2 days in a row. Not fun.

- I loved cleaning up all the garbage in my base, but I wished there were more wastebaskets available. Roombas are for the lazy man only.

- Make the water, well, water. Allow the player to float and swim in it, and have the ATV slightly float up as well. Maybe it'd be too much of a hassle to find the bridges that way, so perhaps there could be some building involved and the player can just either build rudimentary ramps or brides?

- The notepad has a weird bug where you can click on a previous spot, but typing a new character sends you back to the end of the text you've written. Kind of annoying for filling reports. Also, add an actual journal / diary / whatever to the game, in order to immerse the players more. Have some pages be changed with alien writing in some events as well, to spook the player more.

- Despite me saying that server stability is overpowered, PLEASE don't make the early game stability as bad as it is now. You'll basically NEVER have all the satellites fixed at the same time unless you invest either some or all credits into upgrades. Not fun, at all.

- Low stats should affect exclusively running and hallucinations. Not being able to do server fixing because I was .1% lower than required as I scramble to get to the satellite in time is bullshit; the only stat to keep track of should be fuel.

- Later on I had my game freeze for a moment when saving new signals and opening the laptop, which was caused by there being too many signals. I had to delete a bunch of them, but it was incredibly slow and time consuming. Making a maximum of 32-ish signals, but having the oldest one be automatically deleted would be a great way of cleaning clutter. Another thing is I found storing "special" signals on seperate drives incredibly fun. Having a drive rack and allowing the naming of drives would be an incredibly fun mechanic that could tie in with some events adding drives with creepy signals onto them.

- Please don't make the alien ships exclusively the triangle ones. I found them extremely silly cause they could only remind me of starfox, and the picnic didn't really help. Adding noises like humming and other unexplainable stuff would help quite a lot, besides changing the shapes and whatnot.

- Found quite a couple of typos and pieces of weird grammar. Not sure how they got through to a release.


Voices of the Void has been an incredible experience overall, and I hope to god this game continues being worked on, cause this has been probably my favorite horror game in ages because of how well executed the tension in this game can be. Paranoia is key to making a game like this work. I hope the dev succeeds in polishing this game up to a full release, because the potential that there is right now is absolutely killer, and can elevate this game to the highest of highs.

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Well-said. After playing this for a few weeks, you summed up my thoughts almost exactly (I also asked for some added color, patches of wildflowers and such). One note, the crowbar does work beyond being purely decorative; you can flail it or throw it, and some of the secrets can only be found by doing this. If you haven't already, I strongly suggest joining the very active Discord server, and posting these suggestions in their appropriate channels, as that gets a lot of active visibility, as well as crowd-sourced involvement with the dev and the players. -neezdutz

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yeah, I played a bit more afterwards and rediscovered the crowbar; it rids of all the laggy crate remains very fast and honestly better than the woodchipper (to be fair it should probably be something you get from the start in order to give it a use before you find better alternatives) and while it can break the supply crates too, it takes a stupidly long amount of time and bashing to do (throwing the crowbar didn't help either).

Though as for the discord server, I visited it for a slight period in order to do just that, but in general I'm not a fan of public servers, whether it be because of the fast-paced medium of discussion or just general wariness of any large discords, so I was looking for an alternative way to contact the dev. But I suppose I'll look into it again if it nets me better results. cheers :beers:

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Ok so lesson learned don't join the discord

why?

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