Phasmophobia | 2024 Roadmap and Beyond...

[Moonface]

That sucks. Thinking about it, it'd also be nice if the corpses of players could be different too depending on the death. Imagine if the axe killer could place a decapitated head somewhere but leave the body or vice versa so that players get confused about what room the person died in.

[Dragon Lord]

I think it's that way right now because of VR players. If you're playing in VR, the hands come around the side of your head and over your eyes. Maybe now that he'll have some help on the game, he might make different kill animations for VR and non-VR players.

I know when the game first launched, the Banshee could show up as whatever player it was stalking. So if you were in the room by yourself and suddenly you saw yourself standing across from you, you'd know that the Banshee was targeting you (pending that all players in the game were using different models). Though that got taken out... not sure when, but it hasn't been in the game for a long while.

[Moonface]

There might not be much possible for additional VR deaths except for what appears on screen beforehand. I looked up deaths for Half Life Alyx and no matter what happens to the player, every death basically turns the screen black rather than showing a first person view of someone collapsing or being launched from an explosion, etc. The same also happens in Resident Evil 7 when VR is enabled, whereas without it the camera actually moves during death sequences. Of course anything more than just a pair of hands will still be an improvement, but the best approach might be to have the deaths animated more without VR.

Also, that thing with the Banshee sounds awesome and I can't believe that it got removed. It'd be awesome if on Professional difficulty the Banshee was able to mimic another player too, because then you'd be on edge about who you're around, especially if they've left your sight for a moment. Imagine looking behind you thinking it's your buddy but they actually split off from you and you don't realise that it's actually a Banshee. That would be so intense! XD

[Dragon Lord]

I'd love for him to bring that back as well, but make it so that the Banshee can disguise itself as someone while its hunting. Though he'd have to disable the heart beat/foot steps while it's hunting when disguised, since that would be too much of a giveaway. Instead players would have to rely on good team communication prior to the hunt, so you know exactly who is around you. If you know no one was around you, but you see a teammate, then you know it's likely the Banshee.

Maybe make it so that when the Banshee gets within x amount of distance of the player it's chasing, the disguise wears off and you get that moment of "OH SHIT!" before you die.

[Dragon Lord]

So the game just received a pretty big update today! There's a lot of changes, from new graphics, to new items, two new ghosts types, evidence for some ghosts has changed (Revenants now need Ghost Orb, for example), ghost sounds are different -- and much more!

I've been watching one of the Phasmo streamers I follow play the update for a bit here (unfortunately she keeps disconnecting during games), and wow. The ghost groans are much creepier now, and you can hear them at all times, instead of just when you're in the ghost's line of sight. This means that when you're hiding a locker now, you can hear the ghost getting closer because of its groan.

The adult female ghost (the one that is all stitched up), now sings "Ring Around the Rosy" when she shows up, instead of just humming like she did before. Much ceepier.

Ghosts are also MUCH faster during a hunt, and the time between hunts is also reduced. There is now a sprint now that lasts 3 seconds, with a 5 second cooldown. Normal walking speed has been changed to be the speed of the previous sprint.

There's so many more updates to the game too, but I think the creepy factor of the game just shot up by a LOT. It's awesome to watch. She hasn't encountered a child ghost yet, but I cannot wait to hear what the child ghost does when it shows itself now.

EDIT: Almost forgot one of the biggest, and most important, changes to the game. The ghost can now hear your electronic devices when it is hunting. Hid in a locker when it started hunting, but still have your EMF or Spirit Box on? Well, the ghost now knows exactly where you are and it's coming for the booty. Not sure if Flashlights have the same effect yet, but if it does, this game just got so much better during hunts.

[Moonface]

I saw there was an update but didn't realize it was going to be something this big. The one change I'm really happy to see is sprint actually being what it says on the tin, and not that ".1 faster than walking" speed it was prior to this. I hope there's tactical ways to use it and it's not just a case of sprinting as soon as you encounter the ghost and getting away; I want to consider when to use it and be punished if I pick the wrong moment.

I've also still never seen what any of the ghosts actually look like in this game. Can you only see them when they're about to kill you or do they manifest during hunts?

[Dragon Lord]

Some other new things/changes I've seen now:

-Flashlights and lights in the house will no longer constantly flicker when the ghost is hunting. Instead, your flashlight will only flicker when the ghost is near you during a hunt, and lights in the building will act the same way.

-You can now carry a video camera with you, and it'll allow you to look for ghost orbs while in the house instead of having to set-up a camera and then go back out to the truck.

-The ghosts seem to be much more active than they were before. They are constantly moving things, throwing things or showing up.

-It is looking like having your flashlight on during a hunt DOES let the ghost find you.

Not sure if the death animation is still the same, as she has yet to be killed, but once I see it, I'll update on whether or not it's been changed.

@Moonface - The ghost will manifest when it hunts (either in its physical form, or in its shadow form). The ghost can also manifest randomly at any time. It'll either just stand there, or it'll walk towards you, and when it gets to you, it'll disappear and you'll hear the "AHHHHH!" in your ear. As I just mentioned, ghosts seem to be MUCH more active now, so I think you should be able to start seeing them a lot more often.

There was always a problem with the game where you could go an hour and never have the ghost show itself outside of a hunt, so hopefully that'll be an issue of the past now.

[Moonface]

I'd like if lights could flicker randomly when not near the ghost, just to put players on edge about if the ghost is actually near them in that brief moment but then realise it was just a random flicker. Do you know if ghosts can also find you easier if the lights are on in the location? I'm wondering because if a flashlight being on can attract them to you, then I assume you stand out in a dark room and wouldn't if your light was off, so if the lights are on you wouldn't be hidden by the darkness.

Seems this update was received well though, or at least had enough to entice people back, since it put the game back into Steam's top 10 most played list over the weekend: https://www.githyp.com/phasmophobia-cree...on-update/

[Dragon Lord]

So there's eventually going to be another update coming to the game called "Horror 2.0" that's going to add a lot of more spookiness to the game. The changes this update will bring are:

New Ghost Events
Ghost Events Overhaul
Hallucinations
New Death Rooms
New Death animations
Sound Overhaul / additions

I love the sound of new death animations. Hopefully this means each ghost will have their own unique animation (such as the ghost with the axe actually using the axe to kill you).

So yeah, this past update was just the start. Sounds like he's actually ready to start making this game a true spooker now that he has a couple of people working with him.

[Moonface]

I don't really see the point in making new death rooms, considering you're in them very briefly and then put into spectator mode. I wonder if they'd do rooms themed around the maps, the ghosts, or just give them random themes?

Definitely looks like the game is going to be turning itself around in terms of development. I'd love if the game can add Steam Workshop support for custom maps like CS:GO does, because that would open up so many opportunities for new content without all of it having to come down to the developers to add maps.

[Dragon Lord]

So the game received another huge update today! Instead of typing out everything that changed, you can go read about all of the new additions and changes over on Steam.

I've been watching a couple of streamers play since the update and the changes seem really cool. I love that Nightmare really spikes the difficulty of the game! Especially since the ghost continues to hunt after killing a player, killing a player extends the hunt duration and the ghost can kill multiple players at the same time! One of the streamers I was watching had her and one of her teammates die at the same time while hiding in the same closet. Awesome that the ghost can just chain kill the entire team now. 

Ghost being able to change its room is a huge pain in the ass. You can waste so much time trying to get evidence in the room you found the ghost in, only for the ghost to have moved over to the next room. This change could be absolute hell on a map like Asylum if the ghost can change from upstairs to downstairs and vice-versa. 

You no longer have access to the monitors that show team Sanity level or Activity level inside the building now. This makes it impossible to easily tell if the ghost is a Demon/Banshee or not, though the Banshee can still start a hunt at 100% Sanity.

The ghost only giving 2/3 evidence on Nightmare is kind of interesting. Now you have to rely on watching the ghost itself to see if you can see any signs of what it could be. To the point where you may have to let the ghost hunt you just to try and figure it out (for example: Let the ghost hunt, it moves at you extremely fast, you smudge it and go hide. Bingo, you know it's a Revenant). 

I think one of the hardest changes now is that when the ghost shows itself, all your equipment will freak out and the lights will flash. This makes it extremely difficult to tell if it's a hunt or not. You might just think it's a ghost event and surprise! You're dead. 

Addition of weather effects seem kind of neat. I haven't gotten to see how much they actually mess with things, but hopefully I'll get to see soon.

Can't find any information on the powers of the four new ghost types, but the fact that one of them is called "The Twins" has me super excited about what it can do. Sadly I haven't seen either of the streamers I've been watching encounter that one yet while I've been watching.

All-in-all, pretty exciting update, even for someone like me who only watches the game right now.

[Mr EliteL]

Liking the sound of a new difficulty. I lost interest in this a bit when the player I usually watch often wins quite easily as he's a very experienced player and dies very rarely, so I was concerned if I do play the game I'd become too good and would stop playing. But now if Nightmare and also changes to the other difficulties, it makes me want to watch again.

I'm kinda hoping the new ghosts' info won't be available for a while so players have to find on their own, forcing them to trial for them in perhaps lower difficulties to find out what they are. The Twins does sound the best, finally an excuse to have two ghosts to look out for. When you think you're running from one, the other appears around a corner you're trying to flee to, oh no! Perhaps they've also made them either spawn together in the same place or separately. Or one hunts, their hunt ends then second one starts their own hunt. That would be great.

[Dragon Lord]

The Twins are indeed two ghosts at once, and they can either be in the same room, or in separate rooms. They can also hunt separately, so yes, you can have one of them hunt, and then immediately have the other one start hunting from a different location.

The grace period between their hunts is also shorter, due to them being separate ghosts, and this can mean consecutive chain hunts in a row.

Strength: Either Twin can be angered and initiate an attack on their prey.

Weakness: The Twins will often interactive with the environment at the same time.

So they sound like they could be the deadliest ghost in the game after the Revenant, or the easiest, depending on circumstances. If you're playing in a group and both you and someone else report activity in different areas of the map, then you likely know that its the Twins. However, if you're all together, or if you're playing solo, you're not going to figure it out based on that and will have to find all the clues before they start to endless chain hunt your ass.

Also the new difficulty is mixed for me. At first it sounded great, but after watching it a while, it's pretty butts. Only getting 2/3 clues means that you're left guessing what the ghost is every single time, because hunts are now far too dangerous to spend time trying to observe the ghost's behavior during it. You don't have the chance to see if it's moving fast or slow. You have to basically get hidden immediately or else you're dead.

And since the ghost can now chain kill and killing resets its hunt timer, you can't even do good ol' Banshee roulette to see, since it'll kill its prey and then immediately turn and kill you. I guess maybe if it ends up targeting someone else in the house instead of you after it kills its initial target, but that's taking a huge shot in the dark.

A lot of long time Phasmo players aren't too keen on Nightmare right now either. Surviving might be a little too hard and spending all of that time only to have to guess in the end regardless is pretty butts. Hopefully they change a few things about Nightmare to make it more worthwhile. Professional has a lot of the changes that Nightmare has, just not as extreme, so it's not that different and you don't have to just take a 33% chance to guessing the ghost right.

So yeah, Nightmare sounds good on paper, but is lacking in execution. Definitely needs some fine-tuning if they want people to actually play it. It's fine in a four-player group, because honestly it sounds like Nightmare is more of a "have fun with your friends" type of mode than anything else. I guess even the Devs said they don't expect many people to actually stick to playing Nightmare much, which just has me wondering why even make it then?

[Moonface]

The Twins sounds like it could be one of my favourite ghosts to encounter whenever I play this again. If a group splits up, normally only one of the individual parties is at risk because only the ghost is alone and can only hunt one person/group at a time. Knowing that I'm not necessarily safe if someone else is in another area of the map and reports the ghost being present in their area unless I know the Twins aren't the ghost occupying the map means I can't just hang back and send someone else ahead to scout. Same as if everyone sticks together they could run from a ghost only to end up running into the other twin.

I don't really get why weather was added. A large amount of the maps are inside, so only somewhere like the new Maple Lodge map can actually benefit from the weather effects visually. Any of the maps that were in the game at launch would only benefit if the noise of rain or whatever could make it harder to hear things inside. It would be neat if in stormy weather the power could go out by itself so you don't know if the ghost turned it off or the weather did it.

I still wonder how this game could work out if they ever allowed players to control the ghost. Even if not directly, at least having options to guide the ghost to do things, but they're on timers or there's point limits so you can't just spam everything or chain things back to back, but have to strategically determine what to use and when. A little bit like the sabotage options in Among Us.

[Dragon Lord]

So another new ghost type was added to the game! This one being called "The Mimic." Now, I haven't looked up what it does exactly, but from what I could piece together from watching streams, it mimics the abilities of other ghosts. What makes it most interesting though is that it will change which ghost it is mimicking throughout the match. I'm assuming it randomly picks a ghost power to get when it starts a hunt, as that's the only time it could actually make use of copying another ghost's power.



This might be my new favorite ghost though. This ghost can be unbelievably dangerous because during one hunt, it could be copying something mostly harmless like a Shade, but then the next hunt, it's copying the powers of a Revenant, but obviously you have no idea.



Here are some more changes made to the game in the recent update!



Cursed Possessions



Several new items have been added: The Cursed Possessions.



Each location will feature 1 of 6 items, randomly chosen at the start of each contract. There are several spawn points for each item, so get searching!



Cursed Possessions trade sanity for information, but be warned; using these items can cause an additional negative effect, so think carefully if you want to anger the ghost for the rest of the investigation.

• Music box
  Reports show paranormal entities singing along to this haunting melody. Don’t get too close or you may get a nasty surprise
  
• Tortured Voodoo Doll
  Force a pin into the doll to trigger a reaction from the ghost, but you may lose more than you gain
  
• Haunted Mirror
  A visible portal into the spectral realm, dare you peer inside to find the ghost’s room?
  
• Summoning Circle
  Risk your life by summoning the ghost and trapping it temporarily. Don’t stay too long, it’ll break free eventually
  
• Tarot Cards
  A deck of ten random cards, each with a unique mystical property
  
• Ouija Board
  The Ouija Board is now classed as a Cursed Possession, and has received new visuals
  
• You must now say "Goodbye" to finish talking with a ghost on the Ouija Board, or else...
  
• The Ouija Board is no longer guaranteed on Nightmare, due to the new Cursed Possessions and ghost identity changes
  
• The Ouija Board will no longer have a chance to fail questions
  
• The Ouija Board will no longer play an additional sound when spelling double letters
  
• The total number of Ouija Board spawn points have been reduced on Prison, Asylum and High School
  

Ghost Identities


Nightmare has been a successful addition to Phasmophobia, but we've all found some ghosts are just too hard to identify with only two evidences. 

We never intended for Nightmare to be a guessing game, so to combat this, some ghost types have received new abilities, passives and other adjustments to make them feel more in line with their journal descriptions, and most recently added ghosts. 


Shade

The Shy ghost, often hiding itself in plain sight, only showing itself when truly necessary



Poltergeist

The ghost that loves to throw things, watch out!



Banshee

The singing Siren, luring ghost hunters near and far

The banshee's rare ability to hunt at any sanity percentage has been moved to the Demon



Demon

The most aggressive and dangerous ghost we've ever witnessed



Jinn

These ghosts love to chase, hide before they see you



Hantu

The cold has empowered these ghosts so much, it's starting to show



Mare

The thing that goes bump in the night, thriving in darkness



Oni

New reports show many more sightings, maybe these ghosts enjoy the fear in people's eyes



Yokai

Be quiet, you wouldn't want to wake it up



Yurei 

Masters of insanity, making anyone crazy who comes into contact with them



-Ghosts will now only use their physical form during hunts, instead of shadow or translucent forms

-All ghost abilities have been adjusted to make them happen more often and more consistently



To read more about these new additions, and the various bug fixes and other changes to the game from this update, click here!

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So, things I love about this update:

-Obviously love the idea of the Mimic ghost, and it'll probably be my new favorite type. 

-I like that the Demon is now the one that can hunt at any time, since it was always described as the most dangerous ghost, but yet the Banshee was the one who could initiate a hunt at any moment (though Revenant is still probably the overall most dangerous ghost). 

-I like that they added some new questions to the board for some added flavor, like asking the ghost how it died. I think I heard a streamer also ask the board "are you going to kill me?" and the ghost answered "Yes." 

-The new cursed possessions are actually pretty cool. The Tarot Cards has the chance of drawing the Death card, which will cause the ghost to hunt immediately. The board can also shatter into pieces (not sure what exactly triggers it) and may also cause a hunt to start upon its shattering. Haven't seen the music box, voodoo doll or summoning circle yet, sadly.

These changes are just making me more and more excited to finally play the game myself when my new PC arrives. Just need to find a group to join me for it now.