Phasmophobia - cjdxn
Welcome back, we’ve got an update for you.

The long-awaited asylum overhaul is finally here, along with much much more...



With Custom Difficulty we’d like to invite you to participate in the Apocalypse Challenge v2 (thanks to our extra testers yesterday).

The event will start in the coming days, keep your eyes peeled for an announcement on discord.

Earn yourself 3 unique trophies for your collectible cabinet, just by playing the game!

To earn the trophies, simply do the following:
  • In Single-player, complete all 4 objectives and get a ghost photo in Sunny Meadows Mental Institution with the following Custom difficulty multipliers
  • 15x or more: bronze
  • 20x or more: silver
  • 24x or more: gold
  • Show off your trophies in your display cabinet!




A new difficulty where you can create your own games!

Modify existing difficulties or create your own, come up with crazy challenges or just have fun.

Each option is tied to a reward multiplier, so you can still earn money and XP from your Custom games.

Player
  • Sanity Pill restoration amount
  • Starting sanity
  • Sanity drain speed multiplier
  • Sprinting use allowance
  • Sprint recharge time
  • Sprint duration
  • Flashlights being broken
  • Losing Items on death toggle
  • Player speed multiplier
Ghost
  • Number of evidence given
  • Chance of changing favorite Room
  • Interaction amount
  • Event frequency
  • Hunt duration
  • Grace period duration
  • Fingerprint chance
  • Fingerprint duration
  • Disable hunts
  • Kills extending hunts
  • Roaming frequency
  • Ghost speed multiplier
Contract
  • Setup time
  • Weather
  • Number of doors starting open
  • Amount of hiding places
  • Sanity monitor state
  • Activity monitor state
  • Fuse box map visibility
  • Fuse box starting state
  • Cursed Possessions quantity
  • Cursed Possession choice(s)
You can save up to 3 Custom Difficulty presets in the main menu



Sunny Meadows Mental Institution
The Asylum has been completely recreated from the ground up, featuring more distinctive room designs, a morgue, hospital wing, courtyard, and experimental area. Be warned, the ghost will lock each wing's main door when it hunts, so prepare an escape route while you're safe.



Sunny Meadows Mental Institution - RESTRICTED
Sunny Meadows is not only a large location but five small locations in one! The new location selection board allows you to vote to play a smaller, more restricted version of the asylum. Each time you enter, you will be given a random section to investigate, with the other sections blocked off or locked. This should help those who prefer playing smaller maps, and offer some variety each time you play!
Unlocked at level 22



Camp Woodwind
A small version of Maple Lodge Campsite, featuring a brand new layout and much fewer rooms. Perfect for those looking for a quick outdoor retreat!
Unlocked at level 19





With the current system, often when a ghost interacts or throws an object, it barely moves. To remedy this, we've reworked how a ghost's throw works to make sure it's impactful, noticeable, and more exciting each time. Some ghosts have had their abilities and traits tweaked too.

All ghosts
  • All hunting and event sound effects volume will now drop to 0% when at least 20m away, instead of just being quiet.
    Note: This should also make the Myling strength more noticeable
  • The singing sound caused by the music box playing will now drop to 0% volume when over 20m away
  • Throws now have a minimum ‘Throw Power’, to avoid small throws
    • 1 - 3 Power (previously 0.1 - 2.5 Power)
  • Objects are now thrown higher, resulting in much more consistent throws
  • During hunts, objects are thrown more often
    • 50% chance to throw an object in range, every 0.5 seconds
    • Poltergeist - 100% chance to throw an object in range, every 0.5 seconds
Poltergeist
  • The Oni super throw has been moved to Poltergeist, as it is more thematical
    • 2 - 6 power (previously 0 - 5 power)
Oni
  • Oni has received additional traits:
    • Oni will now drain double the sanity of a normal ghost during ghost events
    • Oni can now be seen for longer periods when flickering during hunts
Demon
  • Demon's rare ability to hunt above 70% will now happen more reliably
Jinn
Jinn’s sanity drain ability has received adjustments
  • The ability will now trigger if you're in the same room, or within 3m of the ghost
  • The ability will now create EMF at the fuse box if any player is drained, not just the host




Through the in-game journal, players can now report others who they believe are breaking our terms of service.
  • Player reports will be reviewed by our team and punished accordingly, depending on the offense
  • Bans are progressive and increase in duration for multiple offenses, some offenses may start further in the chain than others
    • 2 days
    • 7 days
    • 30 days
    • Permanent
  • You may also be banned from abusing the reporting system, e.g. spam reporting players
  • To report a player, open the new ‘Recent players’ tab in the journal, and click the report icon next to that player’s name
  • If banned, you will still be able to play single-player games


  • Due to paranormal entities appearing in our base of operations, Ghost Huntin' Distribution has moved everyone into a new office! A warehouse has been converted with a shop, new investigation boards, access to the truck, and a staff room (coming soon)
  • Player ID cards have been added
  • A ‘Detailed Statistics’ page has been added to the post-game screen
  • A long-term stat tracking page has been added to the journal for various player and ghost stats
  • You will now connect to the last region you were in instead of connecting to your best ping region
  • The journal is now usable in the Main Menu room
  • Steam users can now view and add friends through the new ‘Recent players’ journal tab
  • Weekly challenges have been added
    More will be added with the Progression Update
  • Shortcut buttons have been added to jump between the Location Selection, Main Menu, and Shop screens, additionally you can use the keyboard arrow keys for navigation
  • The whiteboard in the Truck has been replaced with a progressively updating Investigation Board
  • New collectible cabinets have been added to the lobby, try to fill them both!
    • The first time you use a Cursed Possession, it will be added to your collection
    • Collecting each type of bone will add it to your collection, some need to be collected twice!
      More collectibles will be added, closer to the full release of the game
  • The shop has been moved to a separate computer in the lobby
  • Players can now create loadouts for their equipment
    Additional loadouts will be added with the Progression Update
  • You can now view Daily and Weekly challenges in the Truck
  • Equipment items are now placeable back onto the truck’s equipment wall
  • You can now take photos of new interactions to gain extra rewards
    • D.O.T.S. ghost
    • Used Crucifix (1 or 2 uses)
    • The salt pile (when a ghost steps in it)
    • Ghost Writing will now display as ‘Ghost Writing’ instead of ‘Interaction’
  • When the ghost attempts to hunt but is blocked by a crucifix, it will now create an EMF 2 reading
  • Added a house candle to Grafton
  • Arabic now has text and voice recognition support
  • VR players will now see a loading screen to help with loading jitters
  • Save files will now create a backup and automatically restore if they corrupt



  • Controls for equipment have changed to become consistent
    • If an object is placeable, it will always use the secondary button (default: F)
    • If an object is usable, it will always use the primary button (default: Right Mouse)
    Note: This means that smudge sticks are now used with Right Mouse! Don't forget it!
  • Collecting the bone will now grant more rewards when playing on larger maps
    • Large - $30
    • Medium - $20
    • Small - $10
  • The photo ‘point’ system has been removed, instead, players will receive a set amount of money and XP per photo they take. This also allowed us to even out the rewards for photos, so that getting a certain ghost type won't become a "feels bad" moment for what photos you can take
    • $5 - 3 star / $2 - 2 star / $1 - 1 star
      • Dead body
      • Interaction
      • Fingerprints
      • Footsteps
      • Cursed possessions
      • Salt pile stepped in
      • DOTS ghost
      • Ghost writing
    • $10 - 3 star / $5 - 2 star / $2 - 1 star
      • Used crucifix
      • Dirty water
      • Bone
    • $20 - 3 star / $10 - 2 star / $5 - 1 star
      • Ghost
    Note: Photos are no longer affected by the difficulty multiplier, but with these changes, you'll be getting more money than before!

  • The photo priority system has been improved
    • Items are "scored" by distance and how close they are to the middle of the photo. The top "scoring" item will give rewards
    • Ghosts will always take priority over other items
    • The reliability of the system has been improved
    Note: This also means that you will always get interaction photos before fingerprint photos, get those UV lights back out!
  • The placement highlight mechanic has been reworked
    • You will only see the highlight when holding down your designated placement key (PC: default ‘F’ / VR: Trigger) and release to place
    • Moving the mouse left/right whilst the F key is held, will rotate the highlight object
    • You can now place and rotate the tripod
    • Various equipment's placeable areas have been adjusted
  • The fuse box has received a new design, when in house and farmhouse locations
  • Sanity drain for “Hide and seek” is now 0%
  • The key in the truck has been moved to hang next to the door keypad, instead of on the desk
  • Increased rewards for all Daily Challenges
  • Rewards for playing on medium and large maps have been increased
  • You can now view 10 photos in the lobby room (increased from 6), from your previous game
  • To improve performance, objects will no longer render when behind closed doors
  • Adjusted the visuals for skyboxes, for each weather, so that they are more realistic
  • Improved the heavy rain and snow effects and performance
  • The main menu options screen has been removed, and is now accessible only in the Journal
  • Some locations have been renamed
  • When dead, players can now see doors, but walk through them
  • The volume of the guitar being played and camping stove toggle, has been lowered
  • Ghosts will no longer see you through the trees by the cabin in Maple Lodge Campsite
  • Ghosts can no longer set these rooms as its favorite in Maple Lodge Campsite:
    • Entrance
    • Central path
    • North path
    • North East path
    • Picnic area
  • Rebaked occlusion in Maple Lodge Campsite which may improve performance
  • The Journal default button on a gamepad is now “select” instead of D-Pad up
  • Room names for the Sound Sensors will now be in the room they are placed in, instead of the room you were standing in when you placed it
  • Candles will now extinguish when placed into your inventory
  • Ghosts now use the sprinting footstep sound when hunting on dirt floors
  • Reduced RAM usage for fonts, this is significant in languages with many characters
  • Adjusted several lights bloom values
  • Adjusted campfire particles and bloom


  • Fixed long-distance roams, chance is now:
    • High - 30% when wandering
    • Medium - 20% when wandering
    • Low - 10% when wandering
  • Fixed ghost changing favorite room’s chance, for example:
    • If a ghost long roams and ends up in a new room, do a chance check
    • Low - 33%
    • Medium - 66%
    • High - 100%
    • Then do a check based on insanity (e.g., 30% sanity = 70%)
    • If successful for both chances, change favorite room
  • Goryo will now have half the chance of other ghosts to long-roam instead of double
  • Myling will now decrease the audible range of its hunt audio, instead of only footsteps.
  • If you have less than 16% sanity when lighting the last Summoning Circle, the ghost will now hunt instantly after being summoned
  • When the summoning circle is lit, the ghost’s position will now sync faster for non-hosts
  • Fingerprints on camping lamps will now be the correct size
  • You can no longer place objects on the truck ceiling
  • Fixed a rare issue where the voice recognition would not work due to an empty voice models file
  • Picking up a tripod with a camcorder attached by someone else, will no longer break the camcorder
  • You are no longer unkillable when hiding under stairs or similar objects in some locations
  • The hiding spot next to the cabin will no longer get you killed
  • Grafton’s upstairs locker can now be blocked
  • Bleasdale’s workshop locker can now be blocked
  • Having ALT as your push-to-talk button will no longer keep your voice active after alt-tabbing
  • The toilets upstairs in Edgefield now flush
  • Ghosts will no longer affect the living room collider when standing on the basement stairs in Tanglewood
  • You can no longer glitch behind the small tents to access safe spots
  • The Mare will no longer stop attempting to do its light switch ability after you use the light switch several times
  • Doors will no longer spin when closing for a hunt


If you experience any issues or want to give feedback, please join the official Phasmophobia Discord: https://discord.gg/phasmophobia
Thanks,
The Kinetic Games Team
Phasmophobia - cjdxn


Players can report each person they play with once a day, using the in-game journal. This system will prevent people from spam reporting against someone they may not like or have an issue with.

Every report is viewable by the development team and filtered in a way so that we can ban people accordingly to their offenses and the number of reports received. We can also see who reported them, at what time, and much more.

You won't be banned because one party decided to “troll report” you for being bad at the game.




When banned, you will be notified in-game with an error message alongside the remaining duration of your ban. Bans will stop players from entering the multiplayer part of the menu, but they may continue to play singleplayer games.

Bans are progressive, and the duration will increase with each offense, ultimately ending with a permanent ban. Being banned for something more extreme (eg hacking or racism) will fast-track you to a more extreme ban.

Nothing in our ban system is automatic, meaning we have full control over bans and can cancel them at any time.



Below, we’ve provided some examples of things you can look out for when reporting a player, and things to avoid doing so you’re not banned from the game.

Different players may have different preferences, (for example swearing) so it would be wise to check with players before disrupting everyone's experience.

Intentionally causing a bad game experience for other players will result in a ban. For example, this could be using exploits such as safe spots when you have been asked not to, trying to get other players killed, not letting players leave the game, purposely wasting equipment etc.

Below are only examples and are not a complete or exhaustive list of bannable offenses.

Hacking / cheating
  • Third-party tools
    • Speed hacks
    • Adjusting the ghost’s behaviour
    • Killing other players instantly
  • Game files
    • Modifying your game files
    • Texture or model replacements (Excluding post processing such as Reshade)
Hate Speech / verbal abuse
  • Racism
    • Racial slurs
    • Discrimination
  • Sexism
    • Kicking players because of their gender
    • Insults based on gender
  • Harassment
    • Following a player between lobbies
    • Kicking the same player over and over
  • Offensive language
    • Swearing profusely
    • Insulting other players
    • Homophobia
Griefing
  • Ruining games
    • Holding games hostage by not entering the truck
    • Hiding useful items from other players
    • Joining a game then going AFK for long periods
    • Purposely wasting all camera photos
    • Breaking Cursed Possessions straight away
  • Abusing the report system
    • Reporting people for no reason
    • Spam reporting the same person each day
Username
  • Offensive in-game name
  • Inappropriate in-game name
  • Circumventing the in-game banned names



If you feel your ban is unjust, you may join the Phasmophobia Offical Discord (discord.gg/phasmophobia) and submit a ticket to our Modmail service. Provide as much evidence as you can, and we can review your reports and ban as necessary.

We're looking to make public Phasmophobia lobbies a more fun, safer space for everyone, not to ban people for the sake of it. We hope these changes will put many players at ease, and make Phasmophobia multiplayer lobbies a more enjoyable experience.

Thanks,
The Kinetic Games Team
Phasmophobia - cjdxn
Welcome back ghost hunters and truck dwellers, we've got some news for you!

We thought we'd spend a short moment recapping how development has gone over 2022, and give you an updated version of the roadmap we released earlier this year.



The original 2022 roadmap

As you can see, things didn't exactly go to plan!

Originally the VR overhaul was planned to release earlier than April, allowing us to get knee-deep into Custom Difficulty's development. As it took longer, we pushed Custom back a couple of months and gave the community three smaller patches of content to fill the gap in content.

The new updated roadmap


This roadmap now more accurately represents what we achieved this year, and what we plan to do moving forwards. We want to be transparent and realistic in our plans to make sure we don't have to delay things in the future or force mini updates to fill gaps.

Development doesn't always go exactly to plan, so in this new roadmap, we're allowing a bit of extra room for things going wrong. If things go well, that just means we can be ahead of schedule and push updates earlier.




That's right, the Custom difficulty update is coming this month, and it's a big one. We've squeezed in loads of extra things and even a few new [REDACTED] for you to enjoy, all will be revealed when the update trailer drops very soon.




As you can see, the Progression update is still split into parts, and most of it has been pushed back into 2023. However, some of the original 'part one' has been moved into its own, larger update, the URP upgrade, including a huge weather effects overhaul, new lighting, and more.

The Progression updates will be the biggest programming and art overhaul that Phasmophobia will ever receive, with many systems, models, and animations getting completely reworked or created from scratch. Hopefully, by us splitting this into several smaller updates, this allows you to experience new things slowly over time, instead of having to wait six or more months for one massive patch.




After progression is finished, we'll get onto the last part of Phasmophobia that needs reworking. Horror 2.0. We'll be replacing all of the ghost models and adding a plethora of new effects, events, sounds, and interactions to scare you out of your skin.

But what about new locations and reworks? Fear not, locations will be created and reworked alongside these other updates, and we'll be able to release them with other content, or on their own, as soon as they are finished.

We hope that this preview has shed some light on our development plans, and we'd like to apologize for our misjudgment in the original roadmap.

If you experience any issues or want to give feedback, please join the official Phasmophobia Discord : https://discord.gg/phasmophobia
Thanks,
The Kinetic Games Team
Phasmophobia - cjdxn
Welcome back we've got some news for you!

As we're nearing our testing phase, this will probably be the final preview before the Custom Difficulty update is released!

Any information and images are Work In Progress (WIP) and may change drastically before releasing



We've had a tonne of questions on what settings will be available to customize your games, so we thought we'd shed a little light on what's to come!

Every single setting that you can change in Custom Difficulty is tied to a reward multiplier. This means you could recreate Nightmare difficulty, and only change a couple of settings, to get similar rewards!

We've tried to make every setting's multiplier fair, based on the advantage or disadvantage it may bring to your investigation.

Do you want the ghost to be slower and the player to be faster? Sure thing, but you'll get fewer rewards!

Fancy making the ghost a speed demon and disable player sprinting? Go for it! And you'll get extra rewards for doing so!

A quick peek at the Player settings you can change



Custom is all about choice, and in the future, we may add more settings to push the boundaries even further.

Want more cursed possessions? Want to choose which ones? How about none?



We've even added presets to get you started!

You can load up any of the default difficulties as a starting point, or you can make something from scratch. Also, you can save up to three of your custom settings as presets for future use!

We can't wait to see what games the community comes up with, and the carnage that will come from it.



Finally, we'll be setting a special challenge with an in-game reward, for those brave enough, with the launch of the Custom Difficulty update. More details on that soon!




Unlike it's predecessor, Sunny Meadows is crammed full of things to make it feel used, abandoned, and messy.

The hallways are far from empty, they're scattered with the remains of what used to be; beds, moved bookshelves, rubble, and chairs. Not only does this create more visual diversity, but it also makes those tense chase sequences more stressful, as you have to find the path between these new obstacles.



Even the hospital wing has dividers, beds, and wheelchairs blocking your path...



Sunny Meadows has several different sections, each with their own theme and assets. Some areas are designed to be completely different, like the yard or chapel, to make each investigation feel unique.

Dont get caught out in the open while searching for orbs...



What other secrets does this abandoned asylum hold?



That's it for Development Preview #5. We'll catch you with some more teasers soon!

If you experience any issues or want to give feedback, please join the official Phasmophobia Discord: https://discord.gg/phasmophobia
Thanks,
The Kinetic Games Team
Phasmophobia - KineticGames

  • Spanish can now use Windows voice recognition
  • Brazilian Portuguese can no longer use Windows voice recognition

If you experience any issues or want to give feedback, please join the official Phasmophobia Discord : https://discord.gg/phasmophobia
Thanks,
The Kinetic Games Team
Phasmophobia - KineticGames
Welcome back ghost hunters, we've got some news for you.

Since changing to the new voice recognition system we have received amazing feedback for the new supported languages and platforms. With this feedback we have realised the new voice recognition didn't quite match the quality of the Windows voice recognition so we have decided to add optional support for the Windows voice recognition back in!

This update is a small but much needed update as all future content and fixes will be going into the custom difficulty update as it gets closer to release. It currently only supports Windows 10 and 11. You can read the patch notes below.


  • Added an option in the main menu to change back to the old windows voice recognition. This will only be available if your language and platform supports it.
The full list of supported languages are:
  • English
  • French
  • German
  • Japanese
  • Chinese
  • Spanish


  • Fixed the Reset text on the controls screen being bigger than the button for some languages

If you experience any issues or want to give feedback, please join the official Phasmophobia Discord : https://discord.gg/phasmophobia
Thanks,
The Kinetic Games Team
Phasmophobia - KineticGames

  • You can no longer light other players smudge sticks


  • The Phantom will now disappear when a photo is taken of it by non-hosts
  • Ghost footsteps will no longer stop spawning during hunts for fast ghosts
  • VR players can now hear the Truck footstep sounds
  • VR players can now grab objects when not connected to the server
  • Each Spirit Box will now have the same type of sounds
  • Fixed a bug where ghosts wouldn’t play footstep sounds on all surfaces they walked on
  • Fixed several issues related to the ghost not checking for players behind doors
  • Ghosts will no longer wander far away multiple times in a row
  • The Maple Campsite CCTV counter will now show the correct values
  • The campfire will now show the correct temperature on the Thermometer
  • The campfire will now increase the room temperature for everyone when lit by another player

If you experience any issues or want to give feedback, please join the official Phasmophobia Discord : https://discord.gg/phasmophobia
Thanks,
The Kinetic Games Team
Phasmophobia - KineticGames

  • Removed the extra chances to get a Deogen, Thaye and Moroi


  • Fixed an issue where some languages were getting the same responses on the spirit box and Ouija board for all questions asked
  • The Thaye will now answer questions correctly

If you experience any issues or want to give feedback, please join the official Phasmophobia Discord : https://discord.gg/phasmophobia
Thanks,
The Kinetic Games Team
Phasmophobia - cjdxn
Welcome back we've got some news for you.

We're glad that you're all enjoying the v0.6.2 update!

The next major update "Custom Difficulty" is getting closer and closer every day. So today we want to show you a couple of new big things, to keep those hype meters cranked up to the max.

Any information and images are Work In Progress (WIP) and may change drastically before releasing



Some of your keen eyes may have noticed the lack of an add/buy button on the new main menu screen.

Well, Ghost Huntin' Distribution has been kind enough to upgrade some of our systems!

You'll soon find a new computer set up in the main menu room, for all your buying and selling needs!



You may also notice a brand-new, highly requested feature has finally made an appearance: Loadouts!



That's right, no longer will you have to buy individual items (or ALL of them) every time you want to start a contract. With Loadouts, you'll be able to set up a template, buy only the items you are missing, and add them all with just a few clicks!

In the future Progression Update, you'll unlock an additional loadout every time you prestige!




We've managed to sneak past Patient 07 lurking in her new home, and grab a quick photo of the Sunny Meadows floorplan!



The number of rooms has been brought down considerably when compared to the current Asylum, but fear not, it's still plenty big enough for ghosts and investigators alike to get lost amongst the long corridors, dense rooms, and smashed lights.

That's it for Development Preview #4. We'll catch you with some more teasers soon!

If you experience any issues or want to give feedback, please join the official Phasmophobia Discord: https://discord.gg/phasmophobia
Thanks,
The Kinetic Games Team
Phasmophobia - KineticGames

  • Ghost footsteps now have different sounds depending on what the Ghost is walking on, similar to players


  • Updated Deogen weakness description to stop some confusion
  • Reduced the volume of the truck footstep sounds
  • Improved the rate that ghost footstep sounds play
  • Improvements to load times
  • Adjusted how the Thaye’s weakness works


  • The Thaye will now answer questions correctly
  • You can now open the new ghost type pages in VR
  • The Deogen’s speed changes are now smoother
  • Ghost footsteps will no longer play when the ghost isn't moving, including the hunt grace period
  • Non-VR players will no longer accidentally light nearby smudge sticks when holding a candle or lighter
  • Fixed the missing characters on the tutorial tv screen for non-English languages
  • Fixed an issue where some steam names were being renamed to “reserved name”

If you experience any issues or want to give feedback, please join the official Phasmophobia Discord : https://discord.gg/phasmophobia
Thanks,
The Kinetic Games Team
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