I WANT THE OLD MENU BACK I HATE THIS HOLD E HOLD R SHIT
Gather unknown signals from deep, silent space · By
I disagree, holding stuff isn't bad its just awkward. Once you get used to it, it actually gets quite intuitive and much easier to move stuff around. Some general tips:
If your trying to move a heavy object around, hold shift and tap e for like, a quarter of a second. You should see a thin white line connecting your cursor to the object. This lets you move stuff around SO MUCH EASIER!
While holding an object you want to sell (old monitor or chair ect), you can shift left click to put it into the drone sell bag. Meaning you can sell stuff you wouldn't have been able to normally.
Tap "e" then "r" to quickly put the item your looking at into your inventory. Clean up trash piles at lighting speed!
Honestly quite appreciate the effort into fixing performance, when this first came out I struggled to get 50 fps if all the lights in the base were on, now it's the slightest hiccup here and there. Also appreciate that servers by default seem to break way the hell less, I recall multiple satellites a day would break for me early in 0.9's versions and that got overwhelming fast lol
Some story beats are just way too easy to miss unless you've gone out of your way to have a friend guide you or googled it. I recently watched a friend do a blind playthrough with no backseating and they missed so much of the main story beats. barely anything spooky or intriguing happened to them. Just because they weren't at the right place at the right time. I think there should be some more wiggle room on some events. Things that fly by too quick or you just miss entirely if you're not around. I imagine for some events you're going for a fleeting glance kinda vibe. Leaving the player speculating about what they saw. But a lot of the time. If you don't know what's happening or aren't there for it most players just write it off or have to instantly go to google to actually understand what just happened.
That being said it's easy to point out an issue but not have a solution. I think a good idea would be to let the watch be a base equipment item. You're not really gatekeeping much by selling it. And upgrade it a little. Let it be linked to the bases radar and ping off when activity is detected there. Thus forcing or prompting the player to go there and be there. with added wiggle room for actually seeing or having a chance at seeing what is going on before things zoom, run or teleport away.
Another peeve is that you're reworking things to be tedious I feel. I understand that the vision changes along the way but it feels like development time gets spent trying to make people who have gotten well versed with the games lives harder. I was not a big fan of the addition of the new towers, the rework of the hash code system and the controls. I understand that it may be innovation and trying to make players leave the base once they get too comfortable but I feel like it was just making the game harder for the sake of making it harder. It didn't add anything. It just made people sigh and roll their eyes. Taking them away from things they found fun to have to go and fix something out of the way just to accomplish their main job. Do I have a solution for the 'issue' of players just becoming base dwellers? No. But I didn't think that solution landed either i'm sorry to say. (note after thinking. maybe i'd feel better about it if those towers broke waaaaaay later into a playthrough. Around the average time people acquire something omega. )
Apart from those. The only thing I that bothers me is that the most recent updates and patches seem more unreliable than older versions. Some main story beats still do not work in the current version. I know it's likely a tedious test process considering it's a long playthrough game. But it really detours me from returning for a fresh playthrough when I know some things just aren't going to work.
All that being said I don't mean it to sound too critical I know it's in alpha. I love the game and the ambition it's going for. I can't count how many times i've recommended it. Keep up the work!
Story beats are WAY to easy to miss. I just did a blind playthrough of days 1-8 and I only saw the normal spooky stuff. I think a better solution would be to have story stuff happen in multiple locations around the map and delete the duplicate events once the player sees one instance of them.
As for your other point, honestly, I disagree. I think there should be MORE stuff outside the base and MORE minigames forcing the player out. The whole point of money is to spend it on either cleaning supplies/vanity, immediate necessary resources, preventative items (like fuses) or upgrades / upgrade modules. If you don't want to run around the map, buy upgrades to prevent stuff needing so much upkeep. This will give you ample time to pursue more stuff at the base.
Like a server upgrade is only 25$.
There are 24 satellites in total, 8 outer ones, 4 mid ones, 12 near ones.
You can upgrade each server 3 times.
For max satellite stability, its only 1800$
But you can heavily reduce the running around early game with just 300$
Outer 8, two upgrades each, that's 400$ Mid one upgrade each is 100$
So for 500$ you cut down your overhead running around by an insane amount!
With all the trash you sell that's practically nothing early game.
transmission upgrades cost 125$ and there are six slots for each. SO FUCKING USEFUL! Either split the diff on all of them or get comfortable running back and forth between one or two.
I honestly spend the majority of my money on these upgrades!
I know the game is still in alpha and basically everything is subject to change, but I can't wrap my head around all of the revamps that were made in 0.9. Even after multiple replays of the tutorial, I can't figure out how to triangulate the nodes to search for signals or how to use the floppy/zip drives at all. And this is coming from someone who's old enough to remember when we still used to use those drives in our actual computers! I really hate the new transformer puzzles too. The tutorial is just badly written overall and it doesn't do much to help you understand how to deal with all these new mechanics. Plus the towers. The towers! I turned off the tower decay as soon as I realized how big of a problem it was going to be. You shouldn't have to deal with something so insistent and demanding that early on in the game, it should only start to become a problem much later on when you get some useful tools and equipment. The game's progression is anything but natural right now.
It just feels like a lot of unnecessary busywork was added to the game. Sure, for some people, it might feel cheap or boring to become a base dweller once you get a Kerfur-O and a bunch of other things to help automate certain mechanics of gameplay. But for people like me who just enjoy the cozy job simulator aspects of the game, I really like getting to that point where I can spend most of my time in the base, working on signals, and just chilling out with some videos playing on the in-game TV. I like having a routine to follow (wake up around 6-8am, get my daily signals while Kerfur repairs servers and gets hashcodes, mail everything out on the drone by 6pm, then chill in the base until midnight and go to sleep). It's cool if there are little interruptions for that schedule from time to time (like story events, or a transformer going down, etc.), but in 0.9, these interruptions are constant. You don't get that relieving wind-down process at the end of the day, it's just non-stop action and maintenance until your stamina is so low that you have no choice but to go to bed. It doesn't feel like a job simulator anymore.
And to all the people who say "you don't HAVE to do the daily signal or hashcode tasks if you don't want to, it's just bonus money", that mindset just defeats the whole purpose of the game and the story surrounding it. If Dr. Kel went out to the forest just to goof around in the base, get swept up in constant maintenance, and never have an opportunity to send any signals back to ASO, what the hell is the whole point of him going out there in the first place? What's the point of the story at all? You're supposed to BE Dr. Kel, collecting signals from space and learning the truth behind what happened to his predecessor. 0.9 doesn't give you any opportunities to experience that.
Voices of the Void peaked in 0.8. I hope the EternityDev team recognizes that and is planning on returning to form in the next update.
Skill issue lol
But on a more serious note, no your right it is hard figuring a lot of this out. I googled most of it but there should be a better way of explaining what's going on in game. Triangulating isn't hard, you just have to make sure the line between nodes is not touching the edges of the blips. Probably making your triangles too small. As for floppy/zip stuff, its easy if you know what your doing.
-Look at your email for the three satellites your supposed to visit
-Cross reference the names with the map for the order you should visit them in
-Go next door to your server room, look at the console
-sv.target (name of the satellite your wanting to visit) Example: sv.target tango
This sets your compass to point towards the satellite, meaning no more BS guessing, alternatively buy a map
-Grab a floppy disk with at least six uses on it (which you can see when plugging it into your computer)
-Drive to the salellite,
-Put the floppy into the server
-Look at the console
-sd.request aka get data and put it on the floppy
-sd.eject aka eject the floppy from the server
-sv.target (next satellite)
repeat all this twice
-sv.target reset to reset your target back to normal
-head back to base
-throw the floppy into your computer
-move data with the viewer tab
-eject floppy
-put the zip drive in
-move data with the viewer tab
-eject zip drive
PROFIT!
Also turn down the day speed to 0.7 and you will have a much easier time managing stuff.
Also try ambiance mode if you don't want to be interrupted by spooky stuff every five seconds.
The key issue with all of that info is that I had to rely on you, a third party source, to teach it to me. And you even said yourself that you had to Google these things when you were still learning. If you have to step outside of the game to learn how to do something, that's bad game design. I'm not saying the tutorials need to hold your hand the entire time, but they sure as shit don't explain any of that sufficiently. It either means that the tutorial needs a major rework, or the mechanics themselves are unnecessarily complicated and need to be dialed back to whatever was working previously.
The tutorial needs a small rework guaranteed. That much we can agree upon. However, I think the use of a tutorial should be discouraged by the developers. So here is my solution.
The tutorial should be available at any point but never forced by the game devs. In fact, I think it should be put under the help section instead of the main game mode selection. It should be available if people REALLY get stuck and need to actually see the process step by step for certain tasks. It should be more like an open room with several sections dedicated to individual problems and their solutions. That way if there is something specific a person struggles with, they only need to visit that one section.
I honestly think figuring out the stuff is half the fun. It forces the player to rely on contextual information to put the pieces together.
So instead of a tutorial, I would purpose a couple major changes.
-A user manual located in the base some place obvious (maybe also add it in the shop if lost but retain only the pages out find)
-An extension to the zero daily requirements in the beginning of the game (maybe start daily tasks on day three or something)
-Random daily requirements and generally more various kinds of requirements and maintenance things (but ease up on the intensity)
-The first daily requirement would be super simple, only requiring one signal (zero level), the tapes, one datapoint from a satellite dish (that's preset to be near by and maybe one or two additional easy requirements)
-You would get an email pointing to the location of the manual (to be found in a very obvious spot)
The user manual would initially be filled with a detailed explanation on all process, commands and how to do all the mini-games. Then throughout cleaning up the base, you get additional pages that point to secrets, bonuses, advanced processes, ect ect. You would get these pages, either by finding them or after several days you get a random page (if you haven't picked any up). Then you could also do some TUNIC kinda puzzles, where you have to reference multiple pages in the manual to get a code to open a door to progress a bit further. ect ect.
The main issue is wasting too much time, effort and energy in a game that demands consistent stream of attention to monitor stuff. I think if days were a tiny bit shorter, but with an extended grace period during the first two to three days (zero daily requirements), it would smooth over some learning curve bumps. Maybe have an introduction to requirements day on day three. Asking for the bare minimum stuff. The tapes, one signal at zero level and one near by satellite dish data that's easy to get too. Then append at the bottom of the email, *read user manual in the security office for more information* or some other BS. Giving players information without cramming it down their throats.
When my brain actually functions and I connect the dots, my jaw dropped and I felt so DAM smart. When I realized that the names of the satellite dishs were just the NATO phonetic alphabet. It was an amazing feeling. Being thrown at a problem with no obvious solution or necessarily all the pieces? Liberating and peak game design. Hellish to begin with, but DAM is it so much more refreshing then ANYTHING I have recently played.
We are trained by most video games, that the solution to any problem in the immediate area can be found in the immediate area. Example? Zelda, use ____ item to solve this dungeons gimmick. I could list countless other games but you get the idea.
Go back to October 5, 1987, maniac mansion hit store shelves. A point and click adventure game with such incredible ass backwards logic and boundless possibilities, it pushed the limits on critical thinking. There are so so so SO many ways to get soft locked in that game. Not to mention that the game won't tell you your fucked. So unless you had nintendo power or some walk through, you could fuck yourself over and not even know it! However, the game is fucking awesome for that very reason. Its balls to the walls hard. It pushes your critical thinking and attention to detail to the limit. You have to play it, replay it and replay it like 10 times more before you learn where everything is, the requirements to get X items, the individual character skills necessary to get said items ect ect.
What makes it awesome is that critical thinking. Instead of most puzzle solving games that block you from making a dumb choice, maniac mansion says "sure, go ahead!". You start thinking things through instead of mashing everything with everything else. Oh, my end goal is this, therefore, I need to get this and this and this which means I need these skills, this that and the other and I need to insure that I setup this properly!
I guess my over arching point is, being left in the dark forces creative problem solving and forces logical contextual problems. The solution isn't a better tutorial or even a tutorial at all. Its conveying just enough info and forcing the player to learn to fill in the gaps. The only thing I looked up requesting the info from the satellite dishs.
Regardless, go listen to the maniac mansion theme on the NES. Holy fuck the sound track is so good.
Can we get a setting to turn off daily deliveries?
While I know it doesn't cost me anything, I hate getting free stuff.
I would much prefer to earn everything.
Then spend my points on drives, reels, MRIs ect ect.
Thus forcing me to balance what I spend money on.
Also stops the daily grabbing of items from the drone.
I literally can't fit anymore MRIs in my fridge... PLEASE HELP!
Multiplayer would be awesome too but I get how it would be a hard system to manage with the time skipping and stuff.
Maybe all players need to sleep to fast forward time?
Any person sleeping while waiting for other players has reduced sleep effectivness?