The Void difficulty and errors

[Mogg]

Not sure how people are finding this game easy. Have they retried it from start so many times to get the hang of it? Sounds tedious if that is a requirement to enjoy a story.
I've restarted countless times this game. Bought CD, a download from somewhere else and now the one on steam. I have to wonder if other peopl aren't playing with some kind of mod or they were just lucky to get what they need when they needed it.
I am either always flooded with color (nerva and lympha) or I am absolutely starved. I can sustain existance, but I can't make progress very well. Planting one tree of each in the first garden (the first sister's) causes problems since they don't return sufficient amounts as needed. Also it doesn't help that the donor glyph is so easily ignored by the game. Doesn't make sense to be able to plant something without it, as you can't drop color into the world without drawing the donor glyph (for fireflies and such). It is stupid to be able to attack a tree/shrub to give it color.
This here,
http://forum.ice-pick.com/viewtopic.php?p=101816#p101816
the patches that were made available, they were said to cancel the casting if the donor glyph was not done correctly. Nice job, however steam version of this game seems to have been altered in some way as no files are overwritten when using the patches. No overwritten files suggests they aren't being called by the program. Yes, I have tested it. The patches don't work for steam version.


These following issues below existed before I turned to try out a patch because I thought steam would release the game patched and have the options available for difficulty. My mistake to think steam was a competent game distribution platform.
I have never had an issue of being bounced off ceilings and monsters in such extreme ways in other versions. Most notable three areas: Firsts sisters area where there is a bent root/tree. Jumping into or onto it flings the character away. 2nd sister on the left that likes silver/emerald, in the cave opening. Jumping here will result in being vaulted/bounced quite strongly around, the other is killing the Pangolin which upon death knocked me through the play area walls and into oblivion leaving me stuck out there with no way to resume playing. I wasn't even standing in a spot it should be able to reach me, but somehow it flailed about and struck me. Not only tedious to beat, but frustrating that it seems there is nowhere safe to stand upon its death, close enough to be able to reclaim all the color it drops.

Many functions of the game don't work the way they are explained which is quite a bad thing. Glyphs aren't drawn correctly in the examples (donor), or function entirely different than described. Someone went through the effort of changing game elements yet failed to update the text and tutorials. This isn't a steam thing, it is a global thing when the game was tweeked from the russian version to cater better to other players. Certainly makes the game more difficult seeing how I have to fiddle around with things to see what works.
A lot of mechanics are never explained within the game, one major feature never having been even implemented.

How are all the ways color is wasted?
*when your nerva is full, converting more is wasted excess
*using color not in a glyph, eg. attacking, growing plants
That's as far as my knowledge of this exists since that is all I've been told.

How does waste matter?
*It doesn't, unless some smart sprite has ammended this aspect.

What is realm damage?
*something the game never tells you nor does it mention how it happens. There is also no level of indication except for the monsters that you find. There isn't even anywhere to tell you how you can fix this.

How do you attack brothers?
*when you fail their task.
Only known way for me, and only then you will firght the brother that gave you the task. I'd like to know how to directly engage them. There are just so many that there is no way to protect the gardens in any way.
Traps don't do their job...

How to hurt bigger monsters?
Seems there is a color wheel at top right. Only big monster I've fought so far was the Pangolin. Only gets hurt from colors it shows. Really is ♥♥♥♥♥♥ that it demands specific colors to fight it, given the nature of how difficult color is to maintain in required quantities.


If anyone wishes to help me out, it will certainly be appreciated.



EDIT:
Shedding some light on my previous post.

The patches do work. I just needed to restart the entire game from the beginning. Something that doesn't seem to function is predator damage and health, not that it matters. I will add, it does change the way you need to play too since you'll have more color available to mess around with. No idea if realm damage functions as described, and I have no way of finding out either.
For those who want a little less struggle, both medium and easy patches are found here:
http://forum.ice-pick.com/viewtopic.php?p=101816#p101816

If anyone wants to know the mechanics behind color and realm damage, I've found this post quite useful.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=150427296

[LamplightBlue]

Originally posted by Mogg:

Not only tedious to beat, but frustrating that it seems there is nowhere safe to stand upon its death, close enough to be able to reclaim all the color it drops.

Sounds like a bug. Never had it happen to me, so seems like you were just unlucky. Also, you can stand literally anywhere you want in the level and you will still get the colour as it flies to you.

Originally posted by Mogg:

What is realm damage?
*something the game never tells you nor does it mention how it happens. There is also no level of indication except for the monsters that you find. There isn't even anywhere to tell you how you can fix this.

Ire sort of explains realm damage, but I don't remember if the effects of silver are ever properly explained. Other ways to minimise it are constantly drilled into you throughout the game though, such as don't waste colour -- meaning if you can do something without using colour (e.g. dodging around predators instead of fighting them), you should ideally do it that way.

Originally posted by Mogg:

How do you attack brothers?
*when you fail their task.
Only known way for me, and only then you will firght the brother that gave you the task. I'd like to know how to directly engage them. There are just so many that there is no way to protect the gardens in any way.
Traps don't do their job...

Traps work just fine actually, so I'm not sure what you mean. As for attacking the Brothers, there is a way to do it that becomes available at a certain later point in the game. Don't want to spoil it, but you'll know it when it happens.

Originally posted by Mogg:

How to hurt bigger monsters?
Seems there is a color wheel at top right. Only big monster I've fought so far was the Pangolin. Only gets hurt from colors it shows. Really is ♥♥♥♥♥♥ that it demands specific colors to fight it, given the nature of how difficult color is to maintain in required quantities.

Bosses will be hurt by colours not on the wheel actually, the only difference is that the colour highlighted on the wheel does more damage than others for as long as it is highlighted.



As for general tips, save very, very often in separate save slots if you aren't doing so already -- ideally never overwrite a save and save every time before entering a chamber. Other than that, not sure what else to tell you -- the game wants you to strike a very specific balance in the way you manage colour and that is very difficult initially, but it is possible. I'm on my second playthrough at the moment and I'm not finding it hard at all anymore -- you just have to keep trying until you crack it.

There's also a very detailed walkthrough that will guide you through it step by step if you want to use that. https://www.gamefaqs.com/pc/970707-the-void/faqs/62846

[Mogg]

Originally posted by LamplightBlue:

Sounds like a bug. Never had it happen to me, so seems like you were just unlucky. Also, you can stand literally anywhere you want in the level and you will still get the colour as it flies to you.

That is odd because the video I was watching and in my game the color never flew to the character. In the vid the player was knocked off the ledge because he basically stood directly under it after it died XD. He lost all that color it had dropped.
At least I was still in the zone... well, I wasn't kicked back into the void. Perhaps I was so far outside the game area the color didn't find me. Even if it had, I wasn't able to leave since I couldn't move anywhere.

Originally posted by LamplightBlue:

Ire sort of explains realm damage, but I don't remember if the effects of silver are ever properly explained. Other ways to minimise it are constantly drilled into you throughout the game though, such as don't waste colour -- meaning if you can do something without using colour (e.g. dodging around predators instead of fighting them), you should ideally do it that way.

It still isn't explained very well. I had to search forums and playthroughs to find out exactly what is considered waste. There's moments the brothers state you are wasting color when in fact you aren't. So you can understand my dilema.
For example:
Painting a sister to talk with her, its not waste yet brothers keep telling me I am.
Casting glyphs on appropriate targets - that isn't waste, but does cause realm damage. Excess color used to grow plants doesn't do realm damage.
If your nerva is full, excess converted does not do any realm damage at all, but is wasted.
Silver is mentioned in one sentence that I interpreted differently than it is supposed to function. I think it was comparing it to gold or violet, saying it does the opposite XD. Poor translation.
This is just nitpicking on game design of the English version. No idea how bad it was in the original.

Originally posted by LamplightBlue:

Bosses will be hurt by colours not on the wheel actually, the only difference is that the colour highlighted on the wheel does more damage than others for as long as it is highlighted.

Using other colors must be incredibley insignificant. When it gets to half way health, only Azure was hurting it. I've been smacking it with fodder webbed at roughly 30-35 color. I am using steam version of the game so whatever version it is, is the one I am playing.
Going to try it again, new game.

Originally posted by LamplightBlue:

As for general tips, save very, very often in separate save slots if you aren't doing so already -- ideally never overwrite a save and save every time before entering a chamber.

There is a manual save somewhere? I have yet to find it. There's a Load in the main menu.
Quick Save (default F5) only has 2 slots it seems, automatically swapping out old for new and there is no way to rename them. Looking at the ontrols there is nowhere a button to open a save screen either.

Originally posted by LamplightBlue:

Other than that, not sure what else to tell you -- the game wants you to strike a very specific balance in the way you manage colour and that is very difficult initially, but it is possible. I'm on my second playthrough at the moment and I'm not finding it hard at all anymore -- you just have to keep trying until you crack it.

There's also a very detailed walkthrough that will guide you through it step by step if you want to use that. https://www.gamefaqs.com/pc/970707-the-void/faqs/62846

[/quote]

Yeah. Preserverence!
I'll beat this game eventually.
Just wish I'd stop bouncing off stuff. Even falling onto objects and npcs pushes me distances. Funny that the bats will push ne a bit before they do any sort of damage. I've had one push me out of its attack path. XD

You wouldn't know if there is a button that fills one of your hearts 100% full without the wait? It is so tedious to click and wait every time when moving color around. Since it is a pivitol game mechanic, it is horrendous to be bogged down with so much slow management.


Something I do wish to share,
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=150427296
has been nice info.
AND the patch works... no idea how it works, but on easy, 75 color in body grants 100% bonus, need less color to fill sister hearts and plants, and it also fixes the voices. I am getting dialogue / whispers that I had not heard and far less repetition. All the colors whisper what they do instead of just a few.
Is this mode easier? You'll have more color at your disposal but you will hear a lot of complaining "you are wasting color" because your nerva tends to get full and you haven't other colors early in the game to convert instead. Certainly gives you more leeway in color use. As far as critters and such, you still take same amount of damage from things, and things still take the same amount of color to kill. At least non-bosses and non-brothers do.
Since there is nowhere an indicator of realm damage, I have no way of knowing if the reduced realm damage works or not, just like the npcs not being easier.

It may be "cheating" but I am in for the story, not over complex near hidden system that require me to reload and redo large portions of the game. Especially if I want to discover all of the endings.

Thanks for the reply.

[Cassilda]

Yes there are thing in the game that actually don't work properly or don't do anything but none of it is important stuff.

The mechanics of the game are not properly explained because you are meant to figure them out yourself. Realm dammage is something you discover as part of the story for instance. The Brothers and Sisters will give you hints on the game mechanics, but they are ot always honest with the player.

In fact the first chapter is meant to teach you how to preserve and not waste color. Playing in easy mode kinda defeat the whole point. Its called Famine because you are supposed to be starving.

A few tips to survive the first chapters:
1. Scrounge every bit of color you can find. Learn to lure firefly and how to mine asap.
2. You don't have to fight predators, but defeating the ones in Pharynx will get you an extra Hearth from the nameless sister. More hearths mean you can hold more color.
3. Learn how to draw the donor glyph, it actually need to be slightly slanted.
4. Never fill a tree at less than full capacity.If you don't have a lot of color use the small trees you can find in the firefly reservation.
5. Wait for the end of a cycle to seed your garden then you can harvest immediatly at the beginning of the next one.
6. Progress forward. Stragnation is death. The more of the void you explore the more color and garden you will have acces to.
7. You can use an empty palette to move trough the void. Help save a few points of color.
8. Listen to what the Borthers and Sisters have to say.

As for the Brothers, you can obviously fight them when they attack you, but as part of the story progression you will find the Ordalia Glyph that let you defy them.

[Mogg]

Informative. Thankyou, Decarcassor.
Ordalia Glyph. Nice. I'll keep my eye for it.

[Cassilda]

One last thing I forgot. You are meant to use the Web Glyph to fight the giant predators, you will find it as part of your progression. Its not really worth bothering with the color when fighting them, since Web is not a glyph you can time properly. So just use whatever color you can spare and fill your hearths with crimson for the extra dammages.