u/brownchubb

PROS and CONS of Voyage

So to start off I want to preface this by saying I do really enjoy Voyage. I like that it's fresh, and you guys are trying something new. I've had a lot of fun playing it as a longtime AI Dungeon subscriber. I’m mainly writing this because I do want this game to succeed and flourish. These are just my opinions though.

PROS:

• Worldbuilding. Absolutely my favorite part of the game. I have for sure spent more time in the Creation JSON part of Voyage, developing Worlds, a map, fleshing out unique characters and then playing and seeing them is VERY sweet. For example: making some dude named Alfredo, a pizza shop owner who throws anchovies at walls, then playing the story/adventure doing a completely separate plotline and running into him naturally, fills me with such a sense of satisfaction. I could see a lot of players and writers really enjoying that. There’s a lot to the menus I’m finding out, and even remixing another player’s world and seeing for example: “Oh this is how they make quests generate so often…” there is an element of if you want good interesting worlds, you have to keep learning the nuances that could expound upon them.
• Voice TTS. When it's good, and the voices match the character, and the flow of the story is good, this element of the game is awesome. I think I’ve even heard of a blind player that has played Voyage and this enthuses him which is dope. I would love more TTS voice types, or if you guys even added a TTS element to AI Dungeon I’m sure players would love that.
• Multiplayer. I’m mainly a solo player, probably much like your fan base. But the couple times that I have played with my buddies it has been a blast. I think going forward In my own playtime, I personally wouldn’t be too focused on this element of the game though.

CONS:

• Manual Editing/ Editing on the Fly. There needs to be an option for manual editing of dialogue and action descriptions. I mean we can only rely on AI for so much realistic writing. There is just a human element that’s needed sometimes to push stories along or if plainly the AI just completely messes up something strange or turns the story into nonsense. I shouldn’t have to pull up an entirely different menu and ask the “Narrator” to make this change, it’s irritating that I have to do it so much, so it eventually exhausts me and mainly pulls me out of the flow of the game to the point where I sometimes end up giving up on a run. 
• Asking the Narrator for EVERYTHING. Said a little before. I do really enjoy that you guys removed the archetypes for the narrators ( i.e. Freya, Apocalypse, etc), it was convoluted for no reason at all. But yes asking the narrator for every little minute change you want, and then also having to confirm it again is immersion breaking. It’s also a toss up sometimes if the narrator is completely brain-dead or actually efficient. I love having the narrator for large scale changes like asking the narrator for example: “Going forward I’d like more blood and gore in the story” or “generate me a few abilities pertaining to firebending then give them to me”, then the narrator executing that is awesome, what it should be for.
• Verbosity Setting: Just straight up doesn't work for me. I found that removing: “- End the beat once the player action and immediate reactions are resolved, without adding a final mood summary or teaser” from the Story instructions helps lengthen turns somewhat. But yeah, for me, the narrator just decides how long an action/turn will be.
• Portrait Generator/Map Image Generator: There's mods for this I realize. I do find that for some reason putting CAPS in the generated portrait section for characters and maps makes the AI actually listen to it for some reason. Like when writing a noir story and I wanted npc portraits to be in Black and White, I would put : “must be in black in white” didn’t work but, “MUST BE IN BLACK AND WHITE” did. Just something little and small I guess.