It’s been almost a month since Once Human launched. In that time developer Starry Studio has been dealing with cheaters, gameplay overhauls, and a wave of feedback from players that the team has been taking in its stride. It doesn’t matter if it’s account-wide cosmetics or changes to doors, Starry Studio is listening and trying to offer solutions. Next on the chopping block are in-game interactions and audio optimizations, with plenty planned for this month and beyond.
There’s an awful lot to get through regarding Once Human’s feedback on interactions and audio, so I’m going to break it down. First up is keybinds, and while Starry Studio notes that it already made some new ones available on Thursday August 1, the team assures the community that more will be available throughout the month as well.
“We’ll also allow players to customize the interaction button, the free camera building mode button, and the vehicle mode button,” Starry Studio writes. Making the free Steam game as comfortable as possible for every style of play is the way forward, and the continued focus on gamepad and keybind options is doing just that. You can also expect an option to turn off weapon switching via the mouse wheel this month, alongside the ability to turn off the tips that keep reappearing every time you enter or exit your territory.
I’ve also found that Once Human’s heads-up display (HUD) is incredibly cluttered, with mountains of text on the left-hand side at any given time. Starry Studio has heard similar complaints, and assures us that “In the future, players can go to the settings and customize what modules are included in their HUD.”
Doors are also proving to be a big problem, so Starry Studio says it will up their interactive distance by 30%, making it easier to open and close them while exploring.
Starry Studio also outlines its plans for improving the general state of Once Human’s sound effects, with plenty of adjustments on the way. More music tracks are coming to the radio, and weapon sounds are in the midst of an overhaul as well. “We already have a plan in place to optimize [weapon sounds],” Starry Studio writes. “Especially the fade-out sound effect, which will become smoother in the future.”
The team also notes that player feedback on the sound effect when getting hit has been mixed, with the volume being either too high or too low. So before making a judgment call, the team is going to further test the sounds and optimize from there. If you want to read up on the full changes, simply head to the ‘Interaction and Audio Experience’ Dev Talk channel in the official Discord.
While Once Human has only been on Steam for a month, it’s this kind of open communication from Starry Studio that’ll keep the community alive. Issues big and small are being looked at, and we have clear messaging on what’s going to change and when. If Starry keeps this level of openness going, Once Human could stick around for a while yet.
That said, Starry Studio is still mostly focusing on Once Human’s struggling servers right now. The team wants to optimize the online issues above all else, even going as far as to delay the upcoming account-wide cosmetic fix to do so. So if you’re reading all of these plans worried that the focus is shifting, it isn’t.
In the meantime, we’ve got everything you need to know about the next Once Human server wipe, alongside all the Once Human codes for free rewards.
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