Having played an embarrassing amount of VOTV the past few days,I have many, many thoughts on the new content and will be sharing it here (everything touched on is accessible in the tutorial or first 10 minutes so no real spoilers)
The good:
Busy work. Giving us, the player, more nonsensical work to do that fits perfectly into a setting like this, is perfect. Makes it feel closer to what an actual "job" would be in this setting as it were. Generator repair being more than slamming your face against a button a few times, the magnetic tape recording setup and having to send the reels, even the new hashcode system which gets the sleep deprived / dyslexic seal of approval.
The vibes. Going from the 0.8 to the 0.9 building architecture, you feel less like a D-class or expendable researcher from the SCP universe, and more like an actual astronomer- albeit in a dated building- in this setting. Of course not much changes realistically, but you feel less like a sacrificial lamb and more like an employee. Same with the new lighting setup, it feels more like you live in some middle of nowhere facility where light is scarce and the natural order is omnipresent. live by day, rest and shelter by night.
Hashcodes. So, this is something I personally suffer with- I am severely dyslexic and so the hashcodes have always been something I ignore until later, but by then it's a non-issue with points. So, using the new system feels both realistic in universe and solves the mild accessibility issue tenfold. Plus, more busywork moving the information from floppys to the zip.
The drone. Moving from a clamp setup to a cloth bag feels realistic and helps the feeling of inconsistency in the tech level of the facility and the people you work for. Now, if you told me this was all set in the 1980/1990s, I would honestly believe you. However if you also said this was modern day, it would still be plausible.
The mess. This facility is thrashed. Reclaiming the base is a multi day if not a multi week endeavor. Going from a few minutes to a few hours of real time, it's so satisfying to reclaim the facility. Plus, crafting materials are plentiful from the trash making any late game crafting much, much easier. Seriously, thank you.
ATV. Thank you for making this feel so, so much better. Upgrades, modular repairs, and so on. Battery aside, I do also miss the skyrim horse level of vertical mobility, I can also understand why it had to change.
The bad:
Bugs. Bugs galore. Clipping, random mach-5 launches, meta paranoia for literally no reason/events bugging out, Bao demanding literally an impossible ask of 5-7 signals a day, the experimental settings not even fully working, WHY CANT I FIX THE SINK. Plus the optimization is much poorer. My rig is a beast, and even I'm having performance issues. Now, I am no fool, I know this is meant to be the first steps into a major release. This is why I am bringing these up as to provide guidance where to work and what to dig into.
Day-locking content. Most people that play this game now know about the funny setting and what it brings, and not having access to it in my first playthrough / within the first 7 days feels bad. Not to mention day/night speed cycles, other settings, and generally making the game feel more interesting to play being barred behind forcing you to play vanilla for many days. Legit, it took me a few days of on again/off again playing to muster through this problem to actually start enjoying the game. Then the bug mentioned from earlier, the day/night speed not even working unless you mess with files, this in particular put a sour taste in my mouth.
All in all, solid 7.5/10 update. Visuals good, changes good, good direction, and a massive step forward into being a great full release game I want to buy when it comes out. Bugs and locking content behind days played hurts the longtime players that want to see the new stuff and still feel like its silly VOTV. Once those are fixed, this is hands-down a major improvement.