phasmophobia has become a survival horror game where you do nothing but die all the time

[Snoot Boops]

it seems that no one is having any fun anymore in this game unless you're some die hard player of this game. i don't have very many hours in this game but every time i come back to it the tools that were once useful for locating the ghost or ghost room or anything that has to do with finding the ghost in general are becoming less and less useful. it's at the point now where i feel as if i'm just dead weight to the rest of the group. ghost box wont work, book doesn't work, candles don't work, cameras (god forbid its raining or snowing inside of a sealed house) don't work, emf reader doesn't work. nothing works. my mic works though so i guess cussing out the ghost right before i die is so far the best thing that i'm still able to do.

i once had a basic idea on how i could find the ghost or the room it was in but now i feel as if i'm dead weight in games i join. this is on any difficulty setting as well. its no longer fun. the game seems to have been made to appease only 1 person and that person is used to promote the game. i guess they're using him as some form of standard base line for his entertainment or as the expectation from the community? news flash, not everyone is a jobless bum that spends every waking second on this game making youtube videos. i'm not going to say his name but i'm sure we all know who i'm talkin about here.

it took several weeks playing this game in the small amount of free time i have to even be able to use the tools and understand how they work, and now they don't work anymore at all no matter what i do. cool, look, emf 5........ when its hunting...... its not me or my game. it's these insane difficulty adjustments being made to the game.

i don't want to spend an hour of my time being hunted before i find the ghost room with 0 pills and instant hunts every 10 seconds. i also don't want to find the ghost room in 2 seconds after walking into a building either. there has to be some middle ground here.

i've become massively proficient in finding hiding spots because all the closets are stuffed with ♥♥♥♥ and i've become more than proficient in bringing in everything from the van and into the building where it gets no use because no one can find this ♥♥♥♥ anymore because the tools are now useless.

what happened to this game? it's not a ghost hunting game anymore. it's become a survival horror game.

[Dark Star]

It sounds like you're just not willing to get used to the new difficulty rework. It's still very much an investigator type game, but at the same time survival. You have to keep your sanity in check while you move around the house looking for the ghost.

Get to the power on and go get a thermometer to find it.

[DasaKamov]

Originally posted by Onyx:

what happened to this game?

The game evolved and became more fleshed out.

Feel free to lower the difficulty level until you become more familiar with the new mechanics.

[Thundercracker]

Originally posted by Onyx:

it seems that no one is having any fun anymore in this game unless you're some die hard player of this game.

not true. the vocal minority comes to complain here, but they do seem to be the minority.

Originally posted by Onyx:

i don't have very many hours in this game

noted. i'll remember this for one or more of your later points.

Originally posted by Onyx:

but every time i come back to it the tools that were once useful for locating the ghost or ghost room or anything that has to do with finding the ghost in general are becoming less and less useful.

this is an early access game under active development. you should read the patch notes, so then you know what does and does not work anymore.

Originally posted by Onyx:

it's at the point now where i feel as if i'm just dead weight to the rest of the group.

we all started somewhere.

Originally posted by Onyx:

ghost box wont work, book doesn't work, candles don't work, cameras (god forbid its raining or snowing inside of a sealed house) don't work, emf reader doesn't work. nothing works.

box works, book works, candles work, cameras work better than ever, EMF works. box is usually the first evidence i get, assuming it's a box ghost. for box to work, the lights have to be off in the room, and you must be alone in the room. book can be tricky if there are a lot of things in the room with the ghost for it to interact with, you can take steps to make the ghost more likely to interact with the book by removing everything else you can. candles have changed, you have to hold them for them to work now. on fog maps, you can see orbs even without night vision. everywhere else, you can actually see the orbs from the camera without having to go into the truck. EMF reader has not changed at all, aside from it's graphical model. oh, wait, it does not catch EMF 5 during hunts, that's the sole EMF change.

Originally posted by Onyx:

my mic works though so i guess cussing out the ghost right before i die is so far the best thing that i'm still able to do.

that's probably WHY you're dying. cuss words are among the triggers that "angers" the ghost.

Originally posted by Onyx:

i once had a basic idea on how i could find the ghost or the room it was in but now i feel as if i'm dead weight in games i join. this is on any difficulty setting as well.

assuming you dont ask the luigi board anything, on amateur you should have ~20 mins before most ghost types can start a hunt. are you just not asking the people you play with how you can help, if you feel like dead weight?

Originally posted by Onyx:

its no longer fun. the game seems to have been made to appease only 1 person and that person is used to promote the game. i guess they're using him as some form of standard base line for his entertainment or as the expectation from the community? news flash, not everyone is a jobless bum that spends every waking second on this game making youtube videos. i'm not going to say his name but i'm sure we all know who i'm talkin about here.

i dont watch anyone play this game, and i have a lot of fun playing it. i do not spend every waking hour playing it, and i've learned everything just fine. the devs have not done anything i've outright disliked in the game, and i tend to agree with their changes. you should not make such a broad assumption about as massive a group of people as the players of this game are.

Originally posted by Onyx:

it took several weeks playing this game in the small amount of free time i have to even be able to use the tools and understand how they work, and now they don't work anymore at all no matter what i do. cool, look, emf 5........ when its hunting...... its not me or my game. it's these insane difficulty adjustments being made to the game.

since so little of what you listed actually changed, yes, it is you. you did not learn those things in the first place, you are saying. you dont even recognize that you cannot get EMF 5 during a hunt.

Originally posted by Onyx:

i don't want to spend an hour of my time being hunted before i find the ghost room with 0 pills and instant hunts every 10 seconds. i also don't want to find the ghost room in 2 seconds after walking into a building either. there has to be some middle ground here.

sounds like someone is trying to brute force pro or nightmare. bump the difficulty down till you learn how things work. again, no pills and draining sanity as fast as you can, you've still got ~20 minutes before most ghosts can hunt on amateur. there is no shame in dropping the difficulty to learn, i have to do it myself, most major patches.

Originally posted by Onyx:

i've become massively proficient in finding hiding spots because all the closets are stuffed with ♥♥♥♥ and i've become more than proficient in bringing in everything from the van and into the building where it gets no use because no one can find this ♥♥♥♥ anymore because the tools are now useless.

more evidence you're trying to brute force higher difficulties. more hiding spots are blocked the higher the difficulty setting. so "if all the hiding places are blocked!" what you're telling us is "i play on too high difficulty!"

Originally posted by Onyx:

what happened to this game? it's not a ghost hunting game anymore. it's become a survival horror game.

it's both, and always has been.

[galacticcorgi]

Phasmo is and always was about sanity management. It sounds like you aren't managing your sanity and you need to check that your mic isn't catching background noise.

[Snoot Boops]

Originally posted by Terrorsaur:

it's both, and always has been.

let me be a bit more clear. it has become nothing but being about survival and nothing else.

"you dont even recognize that you cannot get EMF 5 during a hunt."

wOw, rEaLly. you DonT sAy. it was a joke about it only working when the ghost passes electronic objects that are turned on but doesnt work any other time in any room that theyre on in. even directly after a ghost interaction with an object the emf stays at the default blue 1 light. apparently you missed the obvious sarcasm. so i have to spell it out for you now too.

"since so little of what you listed actually changed,"

except that it isnt just me that the tools arent working for. any group ive joined doesnt work for them either. ive sat through numerous matches with people several hundreds of levels above me that cant get anything on any of the provided tools in the game, not including just the starting tools. it gets to a point 3 are dead and everyone just has to take a wild guess with 0 evidence found. this is at ANY difficulty level.

"more evidence you're trying to brute force higher difficulties. more hiding spots are blocked the higher the difficulty setting. so "if all the hiding places are blocked!" what you're telling us is "i play on too high difficulty!""

i think while you were busy being an ass you forgot the part where i mentioned that i dont need closets to hide. i know where to go without them. but hey, whatever floats your boat to try to insult me.

"that's probably WHY you're dying. cuss words are among the triggers that "angers" the ghost"

its ALREADY hunting when i do that because im sick of spending 40+ min in a match with 0 evidence i just want out. idc if it kills me.

[Fihrst]

Originally posted by Onyx:

Originally posted by Terrorsaur:

it's both, and always has been.

let me be a bit more clear. it has become nothing but being about survival and nothing else.

"you dont even recognize that you cannot get EMF 5 during a hunt."

wOw, rEaLly. you DonT sAy. it was a joke about it only working when the ghost passes electronic objects that are turned on but doesnt work any other time in any room that theyre on in. even directly after a ghost interaction with an object the emf stays at the default blue 1 light. apparently you missed the obvious sarcasm. so i have to spell it out for you now too.

"since so little of what you listed actually changed,"

except that it isnt just me that the tools arent working for. any group ive joined doesnt work for them either. ive sat through numerous matches with people several hundreds of levels above me that cant get anything on any of the provided tools in the game, not including just the starting tools. it gets to a point 3 are dead and everyone just has to take a wild guess with 0 evidence found. this is at ANY difficulty level.

"more evidence you're trying to brute force higher difficulties. more hiding spots are blocked the higher the difficulty setting. so "if all the hiding places are blocked!" what you're telling us is "i play on too high difficulty!""

i think while you were busy being an ass you forgot the part where i mentioned that i dont need closets to hide. i know where to go without them. but hey, whatever floats your boat to try to insult me.

"that's probably WHY you're dying. cuss words are among the triggers that "angers" the ghost"

its ALREADY hunting when i do that because im sick of spending 40+ min in a match with 0 evidence i just want out. idc if it kills me.

if you're not lying out of frustration it seems like a bug.
But you are lying so only way to prove you are not is by capturing video evidence of all you described happening.

I'm saying its possible, my friend keeps getting hunted constantly no matter what he does.

[Senyin]

It's not just you. It's everyone i know.
The hardcore fanbase is defending this game but it's really at the worst it has ever been for the casual players.

Me, the husband, and a handful of friends would grind the hell out of this game because it was so fun and horrifying. My favorite moment was looking at the cameras in the van and seeing a closet door swing all the way open and a ball roll out.
I lost my ♥♥♥♥ and didn't want to go back into the house.

Now-a-days you are lucky if the ghost decides to give you 1 of the 3 evidence before it decides to hunt you. Not to mention you can't even see the awesome ghost models anymore, just a /shadow/ or straight invisible.

There so little activity that it's basically a waiting simulator.

Me, the husband, and the others have stopped playing after this latest update. We are all hoping for some big changes to make the game horrifying again and less difficult.

I have 1 friend that I know that is still trying to enjoy this game, but it seems like even he is starting to reach his limit.

[DasaKamov]

Originally posted by Senyin:

Fanboys and Fangirls are defending this game

Ah yes, the "my personal opinion is RIGHT and everyone else's personal opinions are WRONG" argument.

[Dark Star]

Originally posted by Senyin:

Originally posted by DasaKamov:

Ah yes, the "my personal opinion is RIGHT and everyone else's personal opinions are WRONG" argument.

Don't think you know what a Fanbase is. I mean, hell, did you see the Undertale Fanbase? It became so toxic a person was literally fed NEEDLES in cookies as /punishment/ for killing the characters in the game.

I'm not saying everyone in a fanbase is insane, but there are some people like this currently lurking around in Phasma and it's terrifying how far they will go to defend this game.

It still has a few good points, but it's fallen a long way.

Though, thanks. I should have just put Fanbase not Fangirls/boys.

It's fallen a long way in your opinion. I'm enjoying it more than I used to and find every update more interesting than the last one.

Originally posted by Senyin:

It's not just you. It's everyone i know.
The hardcore fanbase is defending this game but it's really at the worst it has ever been for the casual players.

Phasmaphobia is overall a casual game.

Originally posted by Senyin:

Now-a-days you are lucky if the ghost decides to give you 1 of the 3 evidence before it decides to hunt you. Not to mention you can't even see the awesome ghost models anymore, just a /shadow/ or straight invisible.

There so little activity that it's basically a waiting simulator.

I had multiple rounds today where the ghost starts activity as soon as I enter the house. It's definitely not like this for me.

[Kaisoku]

Considering I've had the game for a year and only have ~120 hours in it (and level ~250), I'd say that I'm a casual player. Often I only have 1-2 nights a week that I can play.

For a while there, I'd maybe play once a month. The game was too easy (thermo basically made ghost room finding trivial), and hunts were very easy to manage.
Once the initial thrill was gone (where you didn't know if you could be hunted at any time, etc) then the game became stale. Game longevity was a HUGE problem...

The changes made in the past 6-8 months have made it so the hunts have become more inherent unknowns: certain ghosts will behave differently, hiding spots simultaneously became more prevalent but you also had to be more careful (quiet, and then equipment needed to be off).
Just the change to the ghost actually searching where it last saw you and keep speeding up if it saw you right away was a huge change in how you had to deal with getting away from the ghost properly.

The game needed skill to play, and the thrill/scariness has only been increased with each change; new ghosts' quirks (hunt early if it blows out your candle, or if you talk near it, etc), equipment only flickering when near the ghost, ghost events being similar to hunts (takes a while to learn the 'tells' that it's doing an event, not a hunt, so another thing that you can develop a skill around), etc.

As a casual player I no longer feel burnt out of playing the game after only a handful of sessions.

As it stands, I still play Amateur/Intermediate with my kids, and play Professional with my friends, so I know very well the difference in gameplay in the varied difficulties.
We literally never get hunted on Amateur or Intermediate... not unless we wanted to (my kids stay in the van, I go in with a smudgestick to get an objective or something).
Professional we get hunted nearly every game, but unless I'm doing something stupid or extremely unlucky, I never die (my last death, I accidentally squeezed myself out of the door I was hiding behind when I clicked to hold onto it... should have just left it alone).

I am by no definition of the word "hard core", but I can recognize when a game will get stale without proper changes to the game play (I experienced it back in January/February).
The game is more fun now than before, and has more staying power.

And if you play on the lower difficulties and pay even a little attention to your Sanity, you can easily avoid dealing with hunts. If my 9 year old can play with me and do fine (while goofing off and dumping salt in the truck, or burning all the smudges accidentally), then the game hasn't gone "hard core".

[VanillaLucia]

Originally posted by Senyin:

Thanks for the input. I realized I could have simply used Fanbase.

Corrected to: - The hardcore fanbase is defending this game but it's really at the worst it has ever been for the casual players.

There is no need to start splitting parts of the fanbase off between who is "casual" and who is more "hardcore." The fact of the matter really is that the game was too easy for a very long time in regards to the risks (hunts) and now that those have been ironed out and reworked the developers are on track for what they intend to add and implement for "everyone" that enjoyed the game. If the game is no longer enjoyable to you then there is absolutely no problem in saying that - but I see it as problematic when you start singling out groups of people as being the reasons why the game is no longer fun for you when the developers have been following what the community has wanted overall while keeping close to their vision of what Phasmophobia was intended to be.

[BrackObama2]

Balancing and changes are to come. It won't stay like this forever.

When it comes to difficulty, you need to get used to it, that's it. I myself have only around 55 hours in-game, even tho I bought it on release. So I'm not a hardcore gamer by any means, many people who bought this game last month have like three times more of playtime than I. Still, I like it a lot, it's one of my favourite games.
So I have been trough all changes, trough all updates and this game changed a lot, like night and day compared to what is was on release. Still, it's a good thing, since it was very, very easy and repetitive. It really doesn't take that much time and effort to get used to it now. Even the nightmare difficulty is not impossible to do, well of course it isn't, otherwise it wouldn't be in-game. There are some things you need to learn and pay attention to, but that's good, isn't it? Or you would rather play a game where you don't need any brain activity at all and which you can finish with closed eyes? Casual games are great way to unwind after hard day, but those games usually target certain type of audience and have something special about them. Phasmo would die if it wouldn't move from casual game to a game where you need a few brains cells to be able to finish it.
Back in the days finding ghost room and surviving a hunt was like a walk in a park on a sunny day. Now it requires a bit more time and effort, that's a good thing.

If you don't like it, sorry, but there is no such game that would appeal for everyone. I have bought some games that I have never returned past some point of their development too, since they changed too much and I no longer like them, but that's normal, that's what you get with EA games. It sucks, but that's the reality. In such case buying finished game is better.

[Mr Giangy]

Git Gud

[Sonicle]

Originally posted by Senyin:

It's not just you. It's everyone i know.
The hardcore fanbase is defending this game but it's really at the worst it has ever been for the casual players.

I'm starting to believe that "casual players" are really people who don't play games at all.

Originally posted by Onyx:

but every time i come back to it the tools that were once useful for locating the ghost or ghost room or anything that has to do with finding the ghost in general are becoming less and less useful. ghost box wont work, book doesn't work, candles don't work, cameras (god forbid its raining or snowing inside of a sealed house) don't work, emf reader doesn't work. nothing works. my mic works though so i guess cussing out the ghost right before i die is so far the best thing that i'm still able to do.

Whenever I read these posts about people complaining about difficulty, I always give them the benefit of the doubt before I judge them, having said that....no one in their right mind in the entire history of Phasmophobia has ever used the writing book as a tool to find the ghost. I have seen player use the spirit box as well, but in early/older Phasmophobia it was less reliable because there were not as many ghosts that respond to it, and it's been generally accepted, that the quieter players are, the easier it is to hear the ghost do stuff. Candles keep your sanity up, they're not ghost hunting tools. Video cameras are actually something I use all the time now, especially since 9/20 ghosts have ghost orbs, you almost have a 50% chance of easily finding the ghost room. Yes, the game is buggy but you can still use the camera, a ghost orb doesn't look like snow or rain. ........ Emf reader....doesn't work? Sorry what? That's just straight up bs.

Originally posted by Onyx:

i once had a basic idea on how i could find the ghost or the room

Use your ears. Same as day 1. Use your ears to find the ghost. It is that basic and simple.

Originally posted by Onyx:

the game seems to have been made to appease only 1 person and that person is used to promote the game. i guess they're using him as some form of standard base line for his entertainment or as the expectation from the community? news flash, not everyone is a jobless bum that spends every waking second on this game making youtube videos. i'm not going to say his name but i'm sure we all know who i'm talkin about here.

Insym represents probably 90% of the playerbase. I've yet to ever join an intermediate/amateur game (that wasn't hosted by a low level). If you think anything he does in the game is hard/challenging, maybe gaming isn't for you. I say this because the bar is really low in Phasmophobia.

Originally posted by Onyx:

i don't want to spend an hour of my time being hunted before i find the ghost room with 0 pills and instant hunts every 10 seconds. i also don't want to find the ghost room in 2 seconds after walking into a building either. there has to be some middle ground here.

Turn on lights, use your ears.

I've noticed that there have been a handful of these threads recently, I swear the people posting these threads must not play any sort of FPS games, Phasmophobia even on Nightmare is still a relaxed game, there are no advanced/difficult mechanics other than looping - Which is running around in a circle, we all did it as kids.

[Sonicle]

The only troll here is you, I'm still waiting to hear what "og" mechanics they have removed from the game other than ghost footsteps. I'm not sorry that the game is no longer, "grab thermo, instantly confirm ghost room, get all evidences and shut the door before 4mins have passed".

Also you've already shown a clear fundamental misunderstanding of how EA works.