spirit box broken??

[ISKI]

whenever the everything else doesn't work, like ghost writing, or emf level 5, and spirit box is also an option for the "ghosts" it's almost always 90% the spirit box. so is the spirit box broken? or am i just not doing it right? i ask it things and it keeps saying "nothing detected"

[RequiemsRose]

If it says "nothing detected" that means voice recognition is at least acknowledging what you said. When it doesn't, it just keeps flicking through channels. It does seem like getting responses can sometimes be harder lately though. Sometimes it says it the first time I ask something, other times we can have it running the whole time and MAYBE get one "kill/leave" when a hunt starts or something.

[CPT Chthonbeard the Pirate]

Spirit box must be in the dark to work first thing. Second as RequiemsRose said, it requires voice recognition to work normally. If voice recognition doesn't work, it will provide random responses if the ghost triggers it every 10 seconds instead.

To find out if your voice recognition is working go back to the title screen and go to audio options and do a voice recognition test and see if it responds to "Show us a sign." If it says "We hear you" you should be good to go with the spirit box.

Ghosts aren't guaranteed to talk to you through the box, even if it's a talker. To increase your chance of talking, you can try using it's name. Also note that some ghosts will also only talk when you are alone.

Edit: Finally, if you have push to talk enabled, you must use it to use the spirit box. If you have it disabled, you can just talk normally.

[alt]

Just a note. I always believed the Spirit Box had to be in a dark room to work. I had it work in a fully lit room on Tanglewood recently.

The Spirit Box isn’t as “fast” as it used to be pre Halloween update. It’s consistent in if it is a ghost that will use the Spirit Box. It will come... Eventually.

[Myth Alric]

I have push to talk and the spirit box always worked for me when I spoke, even without pushing the button. I have not done that since the recent update, since people think it is weird that I am standing there not talking. So while I am not 100% positive it still works I can absolute confirm you used to be able to speak on the spirit box even if you don't speak out loud using push to talk and I think you still probably can.

[CPT Chthonbeard the Pirate]

Originally posted by Myth Alric:

I have push to talk and the spirit box always worked for me when I spoke, even without pushing the button. I have not done that since the recent update, since people think it is weird that I am standing there not talking. So while I am not 100% positive it still works I can absolute confirm you used to be able to speak on the spirit box even if you don't speak out loud using push to talk and I think you still probably can.

This sounds like your voice recognition might be broken at that point and are getting random responses. Either that or are falling prey to a bug they were supposed to have fixed.

Originally posted by altruistic:

Just a note. I always believed the Spirit Box had to be in a dark room to work. I had it work in a fully lit room on Tanglewood recently.

The Spirit Box isn’t as “fast” as it used to be pre Halloween update. It’s consistent in if it is a ghost that will use the Spirit Box. It will come... Eventually.

Lighting is weird in some of the houses. I'm not going to argue that point. I've thought I was in a lit area and had it work as well, when I closely examined the area, I found that people standing where I was at the time cast no shadow, so I think the game counted it as having no light.

I think the lighting engine still needs work, but it'll get worked out eventually. MIght be worse in VR too, I don't know.

[Quineloe]

Can you trigger the box just by dumping it in the room and eventually it will trigger from the normal talking that occurs between players?

[Bullied by Pigeon]

what ive read in data mined stuff is that calling ghost name reduces the chance of response for a set duration.. but increases chance for it to hunt.

[CPT Chthonbeard the Pirate]

Originally posted by Skemooo:

what ive read in data mined stuff is that calling ghost name reduces the chance of response for a set duration.. but increases chance for it to hunt.

https://github.com/azsry/phasmophobia_mechanics/issues/7
If you're talking about this, it's the opposite of what you say. It goes from 66% to 100% when you use the ghost's name.

[Quineloe]

So basically you can say the name during the no-hunt phase (disregarding Pro difficulty of course) and trigger all kinds of responses with no repercussions and therefore are more likely to identify the spirit box as evidence?

[RequiemsRose]

Originally posted by Quineloe:

Can you trigger the box just by dumping it in the room and eventually it will trigger from the normal talking that occurs between players?

A lot of teams dump it in the room and (eventually) get a response if it is a ghost that uses it, but I have noticed it often does so based on saying things that may be mistaken for the pre-existing trigger phrases by the voice detection, or by simply using those phrases as you speak. Like you may be asking your team where THEY are in the walkie talkie and end up with a response from the ghost. "Is anybody in the truck?" also seems to commonly get mistaken for "is anybody here?" by the ghost; and for some reason I've gotten a surprising amount of age responses (when it says "old/adult/young") to team mates asking each other "where is everybody?", no idea why.

You may also get responses when no one is talking or asking questions, sometimes when no one is even in the room, though that often happens just before a hunt or during a hunt.

[CPT Chthonbeard the Pirate]

Originally posted by RequiemsRose:

Originally posted by Quineloe:

Can you trigger the box just by dumping it in the room and eventually it will trigger from the normal talking that occurs between players?

A lot of teams dump it in the room and (eventually) get a response if it is a ghost that uses it, but I have noticed it often does so based on saying things that may be mistaken for the pre-existing trigger phrases by the voice detection, or by simply using those phrases as you speak. Like you may be asking your team where THEY are in the walkie talkie and end up with a response from the ghost. "Is anybody in the truck?" also seems to commonly get mistaken for "is anybody here?" by the ghost; and for some reason I've gotten a surprising amount of age responses (when it says "old/adult/young") to team mates asking each other "where is everybody?", no idea why.

You may also get responses when no one is talking or asking questions, sometimes when no one is even in the room, though that often happens just before a hunt or during a hunt.

If you are getting random responses, you or someone else has a broken voice recognition at that point. That is the only problem. The game can recognize that your voice recognition has broken after the fact, or that it started working again and stop giving random again supposedly.

[Lucifer]

Originally posted by Skemooo:

what ive read in data mined stuff is that calling ghost name reduces the chance of response for a set duration.. but increases chance for it to hunt.

Common misunderstanding. Saying the name (or any recognized phrase) has a chance to try a generic response. Triggering a generic response increases the activity multiplier.

For the ghost to perform a random activity, it has to generate a random number equal to or higher than the current activity multiplier... so, the higher the activity multiplier the less chance the ghost randomly does something - this has no effect on triggered activity like more VOIP recognition or the trigger to hunt after returning to idle phase.

Nothing you do or say can increase the chances of hunting, that’s entirely based on sanity levels.

[CPT Chthonbeard the Pirate]

Originally posted by Lucifer:

Originally posted by Skemooo:

what ive read in data mined stuff is that calling ghost name reduces the chance of response for a set duration.. but increases chance for it to hunt.

Common misunderstanding. Saying the name (or any recognized phrase) has a chance to try a generic response. Triggering a generic response increases the activity multiplier.

For the ghost to perform a random activity, it has to generate a random number equal to or higher than the current activity multiplier... so, the higher the activity multiplier the less chance the ghost randomly does something - this has no effect on triggered activity like more VOIP recognition or the trigger to hunt after returning to idle phase.

Nothing you do or say can increase the chances of hunting, that’s entirely based on sanity levels.

It can indirectly affect the chance of hunting though, as some activities do have a chance of decreasing sanity. E.g. Throwing things, manifestation, ghost events. You're just not guaranteed to get those. You're not in control, the ghost, a.k.a. RNG is.

[Lucifer]

Originally posted by CPT Chthonbeard the Pirate:

Originally posted by Lucifer:

Common misunderstanding. Saying the name (or any recognized phrase) has a chance to try a generic response. Triggering a generic response increases the activity multiplier.

For the ghost to perform a random activity, it has to generate a random number equal to or higher than the current activity multiplier... so, the higher the activity multiplier the less chance the ghost randomly does something - this has no effect on triggered activity like more VOIP recognition or the trigger to hunt after returning to idle phase.

Nothing you do or say can increase the chances of hunting, that’s entirely based on sanity levels.

It can indirectly affect the chance of hunting though, as some activities do have a chance of decreasing sanity. E.g. Throwing things, manifestation, ghost events. You're just not guaranteed to get those. You're not in control, the ghost, a.k.a. RNG is.

True. You can trigger activity that drops sanity or returns the ghost to idle phase but it’s RNG based not a direct result of your actions.

[CPT Chthonbeard the Pirate]

Think of saying the ghost's name as more of a "fast forward button" on his activity phases... kind of. You get it to do more stuff, but it also might do more things that drop your sanity as well. It's good if you either need more evidence or can't find it for some reason and the ghost hasn't been cooperative, but bad if you're running out of time and the ghost has started killing.