Tales from the Void WIKI & FAQ

Hi, after having received a lot of good questions about the game from the community, we thought it was time to do a FAQ. This will be frequently updated as new player questions are received and also include our own tips for playing Tales from the Void.

FAQ Part 1

FAQ:

How many days does the campaign last?
The campaign lasts 3 acts, each with 5 days/missions - so 15 days/missions in total (no matter which of the scenarios you choose).

How long is the playing time?
A successful playthrough of a campaign usually takes 6 hours on hardened (medium) difficulty. Longer on veteran difficulty, shorter on rookie difficulty.
Most players will probably not complete the campaign on the first playthrough, so realistically you can expect more than 10 hours of playtime, before having completed the game the first time.

How many different levels does the game have?
The game features 28 different missions, based on more than 20 unique asteroids.The first act has the most different missions, to ensure more variety if the player restarts the campaign.

Is the game linear?
The story is linear, but the missions occur in a random structure within each of the 3 acts.
Each mission is designed as a semi open maze, where there are a lot of opportunities to explore the environment, find hidden secondary objectives and complete the mission in various ways/ using different strategies .

How is it rogue-like?
The game is not a 100% roguelike, but we are using some elements of the genre:
The marines die permanently, the levels are randomly arranged within each act, you get random loot that can improve your chances. You have resources that can run out and result in “game over”.

What are the events?
There are over 50 random story events that sometimes pop up in between missions. Each event contains a small story, with a hard dilemma to make at the end. Events can cause you to lose or gain resources, new equipment, new marines.

Do I have to win all missions?
No. You do not have to win all missions in order to win the campaign, as long as you have resources left (marines, air, food). Generally you can afford to lose a couple of missions and still be able to beat the campaign. You have to beat the 3 boss levels though (but can still retry them if you fail them, as long as you have resources left)

What happens if you lose a level?
You lose the resources you paid to play the level, and do not get any loot. You do progress one day further in the campaign though. There are 3 boss level at day 5,10 and 15 that you have to complete to go on. You can replay these levels however (until you run out of the resources it costs to retry).

Are there save points during a mission?
No, not really. If you fail a mission, you have to retry it (and pay the ressources).
A good tip is to start exploring with one or two scouts, and then if and when things get nasty, you can call down an extra marine (call in the big guns). As long as one marine is alive you can call extra marines down near him. But ff all active marines are dead, you will have to spawn from the start of the level.

Is there loot?
Oh yes!
Each time you succeed a mission, you get loot. - There is also loot from random events.
And you unlock loot for all future playthroughs, each time you game over or complete a scenario.

Are there crates?
Yes.
We are proud to say, that the TTC is very low in our game (TimeToCrate) - just one of the games' many qualities :)

How many different kinds of weapons and loot is there?
There are more than 100 different weapons and utilities that you can unlock.
Many of the weapon types have at least 3 quality variations.
For instance the rocket launcher ranges from rusty quality, to HE (high explosive), Repeater, Homing etc. If you manage to unlock a number of the high end weapons and utilities, your survivability odds will dramatically improve!

How are the marines different?

• Scouts: light and fast, good for exploring the terrain and out-manoeuvring hostiles.
  
• Engineers: can use special weapons and utilities, like the mine layer.
  
• Gunners: travel slowly across the terrain, but carry powerful weapons.
  
• Sergeants: can be unlocked as loot during and after a campaign, they move almost as fast as scouts, have slightly more health, and can carry all weapons available in the game.

How does the movement work?
You draw on the ground and the marines follow the line. You can combine the drawing mechanic with the more dynamic, but limited boost, which is useful if your marine is in danger. On thin paths the marines can easily fall over the side, and on certain ice bridges, the paths can collapse. Beware of these areas.

How can I move the whole squad?
You can assign (and unassign) nearby marines to follow the path of a specific soldier. A green circle marker will show which marines are near enough, and they will have a yellow arrow in their portrait to show they are following.
Be careful using the follow mechanic of the marines when in combat or on very narrow ledges. Following marines will also not boost by themselves, letting them maybe miss a jump. In tricky move situations it is safer to micromanage the marines.

Is combat automatic?
The soldiers spot and look at enemies by themselves. Some weapons they will fire automatically at the nearest enemy. You can toggle these weapons to only fire manually. All other weapons (typically AOE weapons and special devices) require manual targeting.
You have to move the marines around, to dodge and ensure they are in range and have Line of Fire (some weapons have a minimum range - indicated by red colour when targeting).

Is there friendly fire?
Yes. You have to be careful and avoid friendly fire. The marines will try to avoid shooting direct fire weapons if there is another marine blocking the line of fire.
Notice the ring around the crosshair of manual fire weapons - this is the area of effect of the explosions. The closer you are to the center of an AOE weapon, the harder you get hit.
- So sometimes it is ok to hit a marine a bit, to get an alien.
Note: you can also get aliens to hit each other, which can work wonders, sometimes.

Can I control more than one marine at a time?
In some way yes.
You can have one marine order the rest of the marines to shoot at a designated target (if they are within range and have LOF). Watch out for friendly fire though, when doing this. Also you can have the marines follow each other, like described above. When in pause mode, you can also draw movement paths of several marines, and once play resumes, they will carry out their orders simultaneously.

How do marines die?
A marine dies, when his health reaches zero (by getting hit or being pushed into stuff). A marine will regenerate health over time automatically.
A marine can also die by getting toppled violently (e.g. getting hit by a big rock or being propelled into something) - the more hurt a marine is, the easier he can die like this.
Finally a marine can die by falling into the void.

What happens when a marine dies?
The marine dies permanently and is removed from your roster. All his weapons and equipment remain, so you can reuse his gear on the remaining marines, in the next missions.

FAQ Part 2

When should I use pause?
The pause mechanic is extremely useful when there is danger (press “spacebar”).
Always use pause if your marines are in danger of falling over the edge or about to get hit by something. Then use boost to dodge or get safely back on the path. During combat the pause is extremely useful for placing the targeting exactly where you want it, and to plan evade maneuvers if aliens get too close..

Can you give me some combat tips - advanced tactics?
There are many ways to succeed in the void, some of our favorites are:
Attract alien attention with a fast scout, that dodges around. Then use your nearby marines to shoot at the aliens from afar. - This tactic also works well with e.g. the flare gun, that attracts the aliens attention. You can also ‘pull’ the aliens, by getting their attention, then run back towards your other marines, waiting in ambush.
Some weapons works great in combination. E.g. fire some mines, then fire an implosion grenade near the alien, to pull the mines towards the alien. Or use the stun-gun to stun the aliens, while a long-range AOE weapon is shooting at them.
Also we recommend trying to ‘lead your shots’. Do not target the aliens, target the spot where they will be, in a few seconds.

Can you speedrun the game?
Yes. Some of the levels can be “broken” and speed run in surprisingly short times. It is quite fun to explore and exploit the level design. We have made a thread on the Steam forum, where we have noted down some of our own results.
This kind of meta-game will of course not give you the greatest score and loot for the level, as this is determined also by the number of kills and collection of secondary objectives.

How does loot work?
When you get loot during mission, you can use it in the upcoming missions in your playthrough (until you complete the game or game over).
The marines do not gain levels, but their performance will of course improve, as they get equipped with better gear from the loot. And you can just assign unused equipment from a dead marine to a new marine.

How does the campaign loot roll work?
After winning or losing a campaign, you always get a campaign loot roll, that you can use in all subsequent campaign playthroughs. Here you can pick 2 of the 4 possible loot items, that will be part of your starting equipment. You can choose between more soldiers, special sergeant heroes, equipment and weapons.
The better your campaign score, the more awesome the loot roll is - so completing a campaign gives you much better loot than if you game over after 3 days :).

Is there controller support?
No. For now the only way to play the game is with keyboard and mouse. We might look at controller support later, if there is demand for it.

Linux support
Not at the moment. This is something we will look at it in the future, if there is demand for it.

Mod support
We would love to see you players create some cool mods for the game! Go ahead and ask us any questions, so we can support your ideas.

How can I make cool screenshots?

• You can pause the game (with no visual slowmotion effect) using P.
  
• You can hide the GUI using H.
  
• Line of sight lines for the individual soldiers can be hidden using X (deactivating automatic fire).

Please share your groovy screenshots!

Game Controls

Game Mechanics

Tool Tips

• Switch between marines by pressing 1-5.
  
• Press X to hold fire - makes you move faster near hostiles.
  
• Weapon icons marked with a crosshair symbol require manual firing.
  
• Press Q/W/E to activate manual fire - target within the green area.
  
• Press D to call in fire from nearby marines.
  
• Press F to have nearby marines follow the active marine.
  
• Press space to freeze time and plan your next step. Press space again to start time.
  
• Some weapons have a minimum range - shown with a red circle when in manual fire mode.
  
• The portraits of the marines glow yellow when in danger and red when hurt.
  
• Weapons have a cool down timer while reloading.
  
• When a marine dies or falls into the void, he is lost forever.
  
• Keep an eye out for secondary objectives when exploring asteroids.
  
• Keep an eye on your resources, be careful they do not reach zero.
  
• Do not feed unknown creatures, they will take more than you bargained for!
  
• Give a marine some breathing time, and he will compose himself and overcome the pain quickly.
  
• Hostiles temporarily turn red when hurt. This is the time to strike hard
  
• Hostiles can also be killed by tipping them over, while they are hurt.
  
• When a marine is lost, he will be remembered (and his equipment can be reused).
  
• Pull off a longer jump by boosting several times while in the air.
  
• Use boosting and special equipment to dodge incoming fire.
  
• Secondary objectives improve loot in the categories: Food, Air, Weapons, Equipment, and Soldiers.
  
• Kills, time, casualties, difficulty level, and secondary objectives affect your loot when completing a mission.
  
• Slowing down or pausing during missions does not hurt your mission score, time spent in these modes is disregarded.
  
• Boost to change direction quickly - use to avert fatal dives off edges.
  
• A cup of tea a day keeps the nightmares away.
  
• Respect the void men, it is a formidable enemy.
  
• Coordinated attacks from several marines take hostiles down faster.
  
• Scouts are light and fast, good for exploring the terrain and out-manoeuvring hostiles.
  
• Engineers can use special weapons and utilities, like the mine layer.
  
• Gunners travel slowly across the terrain, but carry powerful weapons.
  
• Use a lighter marine to scout ahead, call in gunners directly into heavy conflict areas.
  
• Lure the hostiles closer with your scouts and have your gunners lie in ambush for a surprise attack.
  
• Fire a flare gun to confuse the enemy and divert their fire.
  
• You cannot pick up secondary objectives if there are hostiles nearby.
  
• Remember to equip utilities when you equip marines.
  
• Beware of friendly fire.
  
• Appoint a leader when selecting marines, this marine will be the first to set foot on the asteroid.
  
• Lead your shots - target the ground in front of an enemy, to compensate for their movement.
  
• Some plants in the void have special abilities, like emitting powerful streams of air.
  
• Scout a level with one or two marines, deploy more when engaged in combat.
  
• Complete a mission by moving one marine to the extraction point and secure the area.
  
• Hostiles have limited viewing range - however, firing at them will draw their attention.
  
• Hostiles seem to communicate - alert one and you might attract more.
  
• Abort a mission and receive no loot - but the remaining marines live to fight another day.