All you need to know about the parabolic microphones in phasmophobia after the latest BETA patches and if it is useful now.
Tested on BETA build 6119267, Server V0.25.5, Professional
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Will you use the paramic now? How would you improve it?
Well at least now it doesn’t spike up to 24 so it’s actually useful lol
Honestly I think they could tweak the normal hearing range/the volume of specific sounds. You can hear some sounds (doors particularly) from surprisingly far away and that kind of defeats the purpose of using the parabolic microphone (like in the example at the end, where the mic is picking up sounds you can already hear fine).
EMF5 is 10 tho, if the other EMFs are lower, couldnt you then put an active EMF reader in ghost room or near something the ghost can interact with, then carry this outside or in a safer room to confirm EMF without being in the room at risk?
Why did you edit the thumbnail? it was interesting!
para mic still useless… when you found the room, you could have had salt in your hands and just listened to the noises and walked in that direction…
The paramic will only be useful if it measures noises that you can't hear yourself. Making it update more and giving it a measured angle at which the noise is coming from might be a good way of improving it.
that potato talking and kissing at the end of the video is Creepy as phuck
god dammit just let us hear the real audio from the parabolic mic
Genius!!! Thx!!
love ur vids idk how u go in the building with out being scared lol
buttcheeks clapping – NOTHING sad ;__;
Right click alt usage – Live playback over the mic, louder. So even though the display doesn't update so quick, you'll hear what the mic hears ahead of time. Also your friends can scare the crap out of you by burping near you while you're holding the live playback button lol
How to improve it? Look to reality for what it actually does. It focuses sound to a microphone which amplifies and in some cases applies audio compression to the signal and plays this amplified and enhanced sound to the user via headphones. So, make the parabolic mic turn down all of the player's local sounds and amplify the sounds in the direction the mic is pointing for the player.
Yeah it still feels pretty weak. I would rather just go in with a candle to keep sanity up and listen for the ghost with my ears.
This is a weird ASMR video…
So.. am I wrong in thinking that the sounds need to be weighted drastically differently than they are? I've only briefly tinkered with it since the adjustments and couldn't really notice a difference, if I"m being honest- but from what was said and shown here, it kind of feels like anything short of an actual manifestation is likely to be obscured by your teammates turning on lights and closing doors as they go.
Also, I had no idea the range was- and still is- as short as it is- no wonder it didn't remotely help with what I thought it was designed for (the asylum and school), even putting aside the seemingly haphazard values for each "sound."
I would honestly just completely revamp the paramic. Make it so that it actually works like a real parabolic microphone in that it will amplify and play back any sounds in the direction it's facing. Maybe make the screen display a waveform.
Also make the dish itself transparent.
Now the paramic is pretty useful, thanks psycho!
The Parabolic Microphone is hampered by the fact that it picks up background interference. In contrast, the other hand tools (that is, those that you hold in your hand) do not, and are artificially adjusted to only give relevant information. This, of course, is not a realistic depiction of how these tools work. Not to say that the game has to be realistic to be good, but this double-standard does no favors for the parabolic microphone.
To summarize this point, background interference needs to apply to all tools, or no tools. This is a bare-minimum requisite to even begin to make the parabolic microphone useful.
Secondly, it requires a secondary objective associated with it. The other hand tools, those being the photo camera, EMF reader, and Thermometer, have one. This means that those tools can generate you income through merely using them. The parabolic microphone is on one hand unreliable (as already mentioned) and doesn't generate the player money through its use.
Thirdly, the tool is large. While this has no real consequence to the player while using it (I've heard some complaints about it taking up too much of the screen, but I myself have not found it to be too big of an issue) it DOES take up a lot of room in the van. Internal volume within the van is an unchangeable limiting factor, and having three parabolic microphones taking up such a large section of shelf space makes the mere existence of the item a major hindrance.
So, to conclude, these are the changes I would make:
•Remove the ability of the parabolic microphone to detect undesirable sounds, and narrow the range to ones that are pertinent to the ghost. Otherwise, include the EMF reader and Thermometer showing false positives to balance the kit.
•Give the parabolic microphone a secondary objective to reward players for using it.
•Reduce the number of parabolic microphones on an investigation to one. Two at most. Even if it were buffed to the extreme, there'd likely be no need or outstanding desire to equip your entire team with them. Especially since much more ubiquitous ghost hunting equipment, like the EMF reader, is limited to two items per investigation.
Bonus conjecture: Were I developing the game, I would have given the parabolic a dual-purpose utility as a hand tool, and as a device that can be mounted on a tripod. When mounted on a tripod, it would have functioned like the current wall-mounted sound sensor, thereby providing the functionality of two tools in one and clearing up space on the van for more glow sticks, new types of tools, etc. That being said, he already purchased the asset for the sound sensor and so replacing it would be a waste.
Ugh, if the range of the para is the same as ears, then its STILL useless. IRL, parabolics was developed to enable hearing things at distance, like across a block. One of the uses it was developed for was listening onto conversations a block away during covert surveillances. Other uses included observing (or more accurately, listening) wild animals at a safe distance hopefully to see natural behaviours without the influence of these strange looking 2-legged creatures lurking close by.
Now I'm well aware of the issues one must deal with with real parabolics. The slight lag (sound processing does introduce a miniscule delay), the super sensitivity to directional aiming (a tiny milimeter movement could instantly throw off your listening to something a half mile away, just like binoculars are similarly affected by the tiniest movement when looking at something from a distance away), are the two main "features" of any significant directional magnifiers.
IF the parabolic had a much greater range (ie: hear clear to the opposite end of the large maps), then it may be of use in locating the ghost's home base. Or at least generalizing where it could be. Asylum, east or west wing? Up or down? Then moving to the back area across from the entryway, front or back? Basic triangulation. Once the broad area has been determined, then can ditch the parabolic and zero in on the more immediate area of activity on good old mark one feet.
Always thought it had a range of like half a map, otherwise what's the point.
Explain the new activity monitor board, that's really tough to understand now.
“Butt cheeks clapping = Nothing” 😂😂😂
The latest update got rid of the death twerk 🥺😢
Had a shitty day, came to watch video to then be rewarded by a kissing potato 💋
… Butt cheek clapping.. HAH!
If certain ghosts had certain ranges for the mic, I think it would be a fun idea to poke with
None of Joe Biden's executive orders are being registered, Joe Biden is an Imposter POTUS.
that's what they call a ghost poop, i think
The paramic should be changed into sort of a infrasound-device.
There are "theories" that abandoned places and houses emit a certain sound frequency that gives some people an eerie feeling, a sort of "fear frequency". I don't believe that is true, but this is a game about ghosts, so it could be a fun game mechanic, as we already use sound, in a way.
Maybe, similar to the Thermometer, there should be certain noise frequencies at all times throughout the house. The ghost room could have another frequency in intervals. I say in intervals, because otherwise we would just have a pre-nerf thermometer situation again. The sound frequencies of the house could range between 0.1-0.5 for example and the ghost room could have a teeny tiny different range, maybe 0.1 to 1.0. The paramic would need to be more sensitive then though.
That way, you would never be really sure where the ghost is if all the sounds of the players accumulate, like steps, swapping items, turning items on and off, walking up and down stairs, opening and closing doors. You'd basically need to remain silent for a short moment and be out of range from other players in order to really pin down the ghosts location. The reason why I'd change the way the mic works is simple, and it has been like this since the paramic came out, and was basically demonstrated again in the video. Once you hear something, you point the mic into the direction of the noise. But you already heard it, there's not really a need for visual approval. It's still pretty much useless the way it works now, unless you're playing without sound for like a challenge lmao.
By being infrasound, it would literally transform the audial information that we as humans wouldn't be able to hear or locate into visual information, like the spiritbox that "taps" into the spiritworld to also give us visual and audial information.
Later on, you could even double down on that mechanic and make certain ghosts emit tiny differences in frequencies if you're being perfectly silent, the lights and the breaker being off, because even electricity emits infrasound.
I feel like the paramic could be useful if the sound readings would stick around for much longer (5 seconds or something, think EMF-like). Right now, if you hear a noise the paramic will only read it for a very short time. This makes the paramic kind of pointless when it comes to figuring out where a sound came from. If it can be solidified as a tool you can use to locate the sounds it could actually have a use and be a fine item. Even at it's current range. This might require reducing the cone again slightly.
One way to improve the mic is to have the ghost room's light make a small hum that only the mic can pick up. Another is to have someone hold the mic in the building while it sends readings to the map in the truck of every noise it picks up (this could work if it also tracked where the player was so that the guy in the truck could tell them directions to the sound).
In asylum before the patch, this was my go to tool.
i almost choked on my coffee at "Buttcheeks Clapping" lol
There needs to be a change of the mic, more helpful finding the ghost and not being too heavily effected by you and your mates
Make it like a real parabolic microphone. It amplifies sounds wherever its pointing and maybe add some ambient noises you don't hear normally (like walls creaking, rat scratching in a wall, ect.)
Alright the buttcheeks clapping test just earned you a sub. Killed me
I'm really curious about if the Para mic can possibly work from outside certain buildings like the prison exercise yard or the high school. I'd test it out, but I don't have a pc.
Could you test if its true that ghosts hear you even if you are using push to talk for non distance chat?
I loved the old parabolic.. I used it all the time and found the ghost 95% of the time with it.. I dont see why people tought it was crap.