Phasmophobia | 2024 Roadmap and Beyond...

[Moonface]

This game is by one guy right? They definitely deserve the recognition for their work, even if the talk around the game seems to have gone rather quiet nowadays. At least it feels like it has to me.

[Mr EliteL]

I've been watching more Phasmophobia now more so than Among Us recently, mainly due to finding someone I like to watch play it. First sat through an entire 1 hour+ video on YouTube, which I could've easily skipped through or view the thumbnail preview on the length the video had but chose not to. Insym is their username and he streams on Twitch where he gets videos for YouTube and he plays with his audience, sometimes with people he already knows too. That video was on Bleasdale Farmhouse and the team had trouble finding where the ghost truly was, and being on Professional the ghost messed with them.

Anyway, seen all the maps now, and cool to hear there's plans for two more maps after Prison. Do agree the game and creator deserves that award.

[Dragon Lord]

This game is by one guy right? They definitely deserve the recognition for their work, even if the talk around the game seems to have gone rather quiet nowadays. At least it feels like it has to me.

Started out as one, but he's hired a team now. I think he has maybe three other people working on the game with him? I can't remember the exact number. I expect if the popularity of the game continues to grow, the team will get bigger and bigger. 

A lot of the streamers I watched play the game haven't played it lately, which is a shame. Several of them have opted to just mindlessly play World of Warcraft now instead, which has tanked their viewers, so probably wasn't worth it in the end. Unsurprisingly, no one wants to watch someone mindlessly grind a boring ass MMO like WoW for 12 hours over watching a game that's interesting like Phasmo.

[Moonface]

In relation to streaming I'd say this game has the same flaw that Fall Guys does, in that the game isn't bad or anything, it just doesn't have enough to be sustainable long term for content creation. Either the content starts to retread old ground or the streamer just burns out on the game from doing more of what they've been doing because they've seen everything. New maps and ghosts will be the only thing that brings it back in a large way I think.

It's the same for a lot of other games too, I just used Fall Guys because it was one of the other big trending games of the year that has also started to fizzle a bit and suffer with player burnout.

[Mr EliteL]

This isn't much but the streamer I watch plays solo too, and he's come up with challenges to set himself for runs. He uses a randomiser wheel to pick a number of challenges from 3 to 8 types like using only starting items, no thermometer, no evidence, low or max mouse sensitivity, walk only sideways, no sprinting, no closing doors, always talk to the ghost even during hunts, survive a number of hunts, candle light only, play with lights off IRL, no sound but chat is his ears to so many more. Made watching and him playing quite interesting. The first time I tuned into a live stream and he's doing no forward key plus two more that I forgot, but he has his most intense hunt yet with the ghost like a few frames away from killing him, to another one with candle only in the School map being his most spooked run yet and he's at Level 1400+. He also does with others but I've mainly watched him do solo recently. In like the 5 or so days I've watched the stream.

I know that's down to the player themselves if they want to add ways of playing the game and not exactly the game itself issuing the challenge.

[Dragon Lord]

 always talk to the ghost even during hunts,

Interesting fact that I've learned about this. I watched a video that was randomly on my suggestion feed of someone who was putting this to the test to see if the ghost truly can find you based on your voice during a hunt. He proved that the ghost can NOT hear you during a hunt, and talking will not put you at any more risk than normal.

He let the ghost intentionally kill him so he could watch, then had his friend hide in a room/closet/locker during multiple hunts (and they tried on multiple maps), and despite his friend talking the entire time, and also saying "trigger words" during the hunt, the ghost was unable to find his friend, despite walking right by the closet/locker he was hiding in multiple times. Not a single one of the ghosts they tested this out on were able to find his friend from him talking, proving that ghosts do not pick up on your voice during a hunt and them finding you is 100% reliant on line-of-sight, and if you're hiding in a room and the ghost happens to find you, it's just because you got unlucky and that room was one of the rooms on the ghost's path for that particular hunt.

[Mr EliteL]

Ah, so they can't detect you by voice in a hunt. I was wondering when watching a run on Bleasdale Insym went to the kitchen and stood by the kitchen table (not dinner table) waiting for the ghost to follow him so he can loop around the table whilst calling out the ghost, but the ghost never came and it happened multiple times (ghost was in the attic). Also in Tanglewood, or the house with one car the same happened for the garage, he stood there at the back waiting while talking and beeping the car too. Sometimes the ghost turned up just before the hunt finishes even though there was plenty of time of it to go there and chase if it could detect by voice.
Maybe there'll be an update for that to happen.

[Dragon Lord]

Yeah, it's been believed since the game came out that the ghost was able to find you by your voice if you were talking, so it was interesting to see that video and have that be completely debunked. Unfortunately it does remove a layer of the fear/anxiety factor of the game, knowing that if you accidentally make a noise in your mic while hiding, the ghost won't be able to pick up on it.

It also ruins my plan of ever trying to lure a ghost to someone I'm playing with by yelling at it during a hunt. Now I'm going to have to lead it there when it starts hunting and hope that it's not a revenant so it doesn't catch me immediately instead.

[Moonface]

So is this in general the ghost can't hear your voice, or does it also count for when using that one device that is used to ask if the ghost is present? Since that one device makes it seem the ghost reacts to you talking to it, but instead of being a way to talk to the ghost it is now basically the only way to communicate with a ghost via speech. Is that right?

[Dragon Lord]

The ghost does respond to your questions via the Spirit Box, yes. But it's only ever responded to certain questions, so there's no randomness to it. So asking the ghost how old it is will still get a response via the box (if it's a ghost type that uses Spirit Box). It's just that during hunts, the ghost can't actually find where you are via your voice, which was something that everyone believed could happen.

Saying certain words (the "trigger words") will still anger the ghost as well and cause it to become more active and could potentially start a hunt. Though they also tried having the friend yell trigger words + the ghost's name during a hunt and that also did not cause the ghost to find him.

All they proved was that calling Thomas Thomas a little bitch while he's hunting won't actually get you killed, unless you just happen to be hiding in a place that Mr. Thomas was going to go check to start with.

[Moonface]

The developers should make the ghost find you for talking during hunts but not mention it in any patch notes just to mess with everyone. Better yet make it randomly happen so people can't just easily figure out that it changed and keep thinking they're just coincidences. XD

[Dragon Lord]

So they are apparently testing out some improvements to the ghost's AI in the Beta right now. I haven't looked to see what exactly the improvements are supposed to be, but I'm assuming smarter tracking/better pathing during hunts. I've been watching a stream of it tonight, but so far I haven't noticed any major differences from the ghost's behavior prior.

[Karo]

I got a question for those that have played this would you say it has replayability and has a fun gameplay loop? If it just a game you play once and don't pick up again don't think it'd be worth it to pick up, but hey if I can enjoy it everytime this might be up my alley!

[Mr EliteL]

I watched a little bit last night, from what I noticed ghosts do listen to voices during hunting now, and on Professional difficulty the breaker/fuse starts off. Although in the instance I saw for hunts it was on one of the houses and the player hid in a closet then spoke to the ghost, it came to the closed closet and continued to walk into it. The player even opened one side while hiding behind the still closed half, but didn't die. Also when playing with another player the ghost will not change target when a player is in it's sight even if the other player is following and yelling behind the chase. However that might not be fully true depending on the distance of the players, as the ghost was right behind the initial hunted player when I watched.

Glad the AI has been improved a bit, but yeah still needs some more I think.

@"Yuri" : Kinda depends, there is quite a bit to do in the game. You start with the 5 small maps on Amateur difficulty until you level up to 5 when the medium maps unlock as well as Intermediate then Level 15 for Asylum and Professional. There's many items to use but you have to get enough money to be able to buy them, although you'll always get at least starter items to use if you don't have money. Some items are able to detect things quicker than the starter items (I believe), get a better torch and things to protect yourself from hunts. You have to use the Photo Camera and catch photos, seems to be anything that gets a note above the photo (like Fingerprints, Ghost, Interaction, Bone, Ouija Board etc) grants a bit of money although there's a limit ($40 or something for photos), completing 3 objectives and getting the correct ghost also earn money plus experience (you want to fill the photo album with noted photos). With 8 maps and 2-4 more on their way, 12 ghosts to try to find, play solo for more difficulty, play with up to 3 more people (friends or random people), there's at least a good chunk to do. Perhaps when we play and come back to you or someone happens to record, that'll be good time to see if you want to join in? {NOTE: I haven't actually played yet }

If anyone's interested in what the team are doing, check this.

[Dragon Lord]

I watched a little bit last night, from what I noticed ghosts do listen to voices during hunting now, and on Professional difficulty the breaker/fuse starts off. Although in the instance I saw for hunts it was on one of the houses and the player hid in a closet then spoke to the ghost, it came to the closed closet and continued to walk into it. The player even opened one side while hiding behind the still closed half, but didn't die. Also when playing with another player the ghost will not change target when a player is in it's sight even if the other player is following and yelling behind the chase. However that might not be fully true depending on the distance of the players, as the ghost was right behind the initial hunted player when I watched.

Glad the AI has been improved a bit, but yeah still needs some more I think.

I'll have to see it tested some more to see if the voice thing is true and not just a coincidence of the ghost just happening to go into that room in its pathing.

The second thing you brought is also something that will need to be tested more. Do you know what the ghost type was? Because Banshees have always acted like that (they'll pursue their one target no matter what is happening, they'll even go right next to you and you'll be safe as long as you're not the intended target). So if it wasn't a Banshee, that's actually a bad thing. It gets rid of the threat of the ghost turning towards you if you decide to screw around during the hunt. I hope that's not true and it happened to just be a Banshee.

Also this is a type of game where you need a good team of friends to play it with. Beyond the initial fear when you first start and are learning the proper way to play the game, the game will get stale if you don't have a good group to play with. Have the right group and you can get hundreds of hours out of this game just by having fun and dicking around with the ghost and having all sorts of hilarious situations happen because of it.