The new forums will be named Coin Return (based on the most recent vote)! You can check on the status and timeline of the transition to the new forums here.
The Guiding Principles and New Rules document is now in effect.
[The Forest] Releases next month (April 2018)! Are you a bad enough dude to save your son?
joshofalltrades
Class TraitorSmoke-filled roomRegistered User regular
Class TraitorSmoke-filled roomRegistered User regular
This was the #1 game on Steam on May 30th and may still be up there in terms of popularity, so it was surprising to me that we didn't have a thread for it.
What is The Forest, you ask?
Here's a video of one of my favorite LPers kind of going through the very early game:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1kwtKwz7Xs
It looks really interesting! Right now it's only single player, but it is just in alpha. Everything I've seen looks really pretty so far, for as early a version as this is:
Here's some high resolution screenshots, so I don't tick off the mods.
For now, this is the largest screenshot I can post here (just watch the video, seriously)
The crafting system looks slightly different than Minecraft or Rust. You select your recipe, place the outline of what you want to build, and then you gather the necessary ingredients at your own leisure and apply them to the project until it's completed. You can set traps for the natives or wildlife, build shelters and walls, or... effigies made of body parts?
One of the other interesting things I saw is that violently killing folks will splatter your body with blood, which needs to be washed off to stave off infection. In fact, it's recommended to stay near a water source for numerous reasons.
More details! (from the official FAQ):
The Alpha is $15 and gives you full access to the entire game when it releases for good, as well as every update along the way.
Have you tried this yet?
What is The Forest, you ask?
The Forest is an open world survival horror game currently in development for PC.
Build, explore, survive in this terrifying first person survival horror simulator.
The world
Enter a living, breathing forest with changing weather patterns, plants that grow and die. Tides that roll in and out with the day/night cycle. Below ground explore a vast network of caves and underground lakes.
Complete player freedom
Chop down trees to build a camp, or start a fire to keep warm. Scavenge food to keep yourself from starving. Find and plant seeds to grow food.
Build a small shelter or a large ocean side fortress. decorate your home with found items. Lay traps and defenses to keep a safe perimeter.
Gameplay
Explore and build during the day. Defend your base at night. Craft weapons and tools.Bunker down during the evening or bring the fight directly to the enemy.
Fight or Hide
Use stealth to evade enemies, or engage them directly with crude weapons built from sticks and stones.
A new type of open world, survival horror experience
Defend yourself against a clan of genetic mutant enemies that have beliefs, families and morals and that appear almost human.
For PC and Oculus Rift - Alpha Version Coming May 30 2014
Here's a video of one of my favorite LPers kind of going through the very early game:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1kwtKwz7XsIt looks really interesting! Right now it's only single player, but it is just in alpha. Everything I've seen looks really pretty so far, for as early a version as this is:
Here's some high resolution screenshots, so I don't tick off the mods.
For now, this is the largest screenshot I can post here (just watch the video, seriously)
The crafting system looks slightly different than Minecraft or Rust. You select your recipe, place the outline of what you want to build, and then you gather the necessary ingredients at your own leisure and apply them to the project until it's completed. You can set traps for the natives or wildlife, build shelters and walls, or... effigies made of body parts?
One of the other interesting things I saw is that violently killing folks will splatter your body with blood, which needs to be washed off to stave off infection. In fact, it's recommended to stay near a water source for numerous reasons.
More details! (from the official FAQ):
Will you support motion controllers for those actions performed in the trailer? (wood chopping, smashing heads, carrying birds)
We haven’t announced official support for motion controllers yet, but we will be aiming to support the most popular motion controllers as the virtual reality platform develops.
Will this game run on my computer?
We haven’t released official hardware specs, but we aim to have the game run well on as broad a range of hardware as possible.
Will there be co-op?
Co-op is not planned for the initial release. However adding some form of co-op play will be one of our focuses after the initial release of the game.
Will there be a peaceful mode?
Yes. You will be able to play the game as a more traditional survival/exploration simulator, with the horror elements effectively disabled.
Where can I buy the game?
The game will be available on Steam . We are also looking into other different options for selling the game and will update this question when things are confirmed.
How much will the game cost?
The initial Alpha release will cost $14.99.
Who is making this game?
Endnight Games is a 4 person indie studio based in Vancouver, Canada. We also make significant use of outside contractors, depending on production needs there have been anywhere from 5 to 10 people working on the game at a given time.
What game engine are you using?
Unity 4.
Why does it look so good for an indie game?
With our background in VFX and the use of some very talented artists/coders we have been able to aim as high as we can for the visuals of the game.
Will there be a wiki for the game?
Our official wiki will be on http://theforest.gamepedia.com
Will I be able to build shelters anywhere? such as a hill, on the island or in a cave.
Currently you can build structures almost anywhere above ground.
Will there be more than one type of shelter?
Yes, you will be able to build many types of shelters, from basic leaf-covered to large wooden cabins and more.
Will the axe be an item I can craft in the game?
Yes, it is possible to craft simple axes from items in the environment.
Will you be able to climb trees or mountains?
Currently you cannot climb trees, although enemies in the game will make use of them. Access to mountain areas will be blocked off in the first alpha release.
Can you build defensive structure or bases in the caves and underground?
Not at this time.
Are there different suits you can wear like camouflage or ghillie suit like thing?
There will be clothing you can craft. As well you can cover yourself in mud/leaves as camouflage. Everything will be made from items found in the forest.
Are there bows and arrows in-game?
Not at this time
Will there be different areas like different cave (sedimentary, igneous or/and metamorphic caves) and will there be different surface environment with like different animals to hunt or kill (is there hunting?) and different plant areas like marsh, jungle, plains?
There will be different small animals you can hunt. There will also be different environments based on North American forest. The environment will include caves, swamps, lakes and mountains.
Can you scavenge from your plane?
Yes you can.
Can you play as a female character?
Not for the initial alpha release.
Why don’t you guys give more regular updates?
We are a very small team working tirelessly to get the game finished. We get carried away making the game.
The Alpha is $15 and gives you full access to the entire game when it releases for good, as well as every update along the way.
Have you tried this yet?
joshofalltrades on
+2
Posts
I'm really intrigued by the concept of The Foresr but I've heard nothing from the people who've played it. Which is kind of a bad sign I guess?
Shogun Streams Vidya
I set up a decent shelter on the beach, thinking it'd be far from patrols and close to water. Unfortunately, as I set up my really nice fire pit and okay shelter, two dudes just happened to be checking me out. I fought them and got knocked out.
When I woke up... let me reiterate what Big Classy said. NOPE.
Another really cool thing I've noticed is that the plane never crashes in the same place. You can't plan around that. I'm not really sure how procedurally generated the world itself is, though.
I really would like to buy it, but I don't buy into early access games until I get a feel for how commuted the debs are.
Like, I don't know if I've ever seen a prettier Unity engine game.
Okay, i have lived past the first day.
I found a great way to survive against the enemies.
The beach is perfect mainly because if you find the boat (out of my 7 attempts to survive i have been able to find the beach without dying 3 times and each time i did there was a boat there)
Combine the rags and alcohol to make Molotovs. These are your MAIN SOURCE OF ATTACK. (for now at least)
The Molotov is the only one that has been able to allow me to survive past the first day and they are everywhere along the beach. (the alcohol anyway, though i have been able to finds several rags in cases)
the cannibals have a set pattern, as far as i can tell, and if you take out the ones that patrol your beach front property you are pretty free to settle there until you go further into the forest.
Edit:
Two things about molotovs, it takes some practice to get the aim right (for me at least) and when you swap them out, they always drop and set you briefly on fire (prolly a bug)
I only make enough for how ever many enemies i see.
Edit2: fixed some errors
The way it's supposed to work is that you build a shelter and resting there saves your game, but that's currently non-functional.
Aside from the save system not working, your base should be a combo of a) defensibility (building on top of or at the bottom of cliffs, with the cliff at your back, saves you a lot of fortification effort) and b) access to resources (mostly trees). Lugging logs around eats up a lot of time, so the closer you are to trees, the faster you can build a base. Also, you can carry two logs at once, which is good for saving time. If you don't mind having your effort wasted while the save patch comes along, then also keep in mind that the locals don't like fire; if you can build enough fortification such that a fire will block access to the inside, surviving becomes MUCH easier. If you want to fish, ponds with fish have fishing spears around them (they looks like sticks, but are actually spears and fill a different inventory slot). Don't cook more than one thing at a time right now, or you can lose one or both items. Lizard skin functions as body armor, which is a very good thing to know.
The AI is also a bit wonky, the cannibals will walk directly into your campfire and set themselves alight, and the damage will constantly stun-lock them. I've been trying not to exploit that.
EDIT: Missed your edit, Ninja. You edit Ninja.
Anyway, considering this is still in alpha I am very impressed. Have I said that yet?
I choose the beach with the ship and the cliff and like Ninja said, its best to set actual shelter/base on the cliff there. There are fish in the ocean as well, you just need to walk along and find them.
like i mentioned before LOTS of bottles of alcohol along the beach, and the only good cannibal is a dead cannibal.
You can easily have something like a dozen cannibals show up at night on the beach, whereas somewhere more inland and hidden better might have half that in a given moment. Plus, the beach was really annoying to me because of having to constantly truck logs back and forth.
Oh, something else to keep in mind that only large boulders actually block movement, so don't rely on just thinking that because a surface is steep that it will keep cannibals away. If there aren't actually boulders to block movement, then the ground will work as normal.
I got so good with Molotovs that i could take 2 out with one, and the cannibals would scatter.
It would allow me time to reposition and try to hit 2, but one is enough.
Rinse, repeat.
EDIT: The benefit is no cannibals jumping you from the trees or sneaking up on you.
It's a bug, but one thing you can do right now is, if you find a flare gun, repeatedly go into your inventory screen and click on it with the flare gun already equipped; you'll drop a duplicate, but you get something like 5-10 flares added to your current flare gun, with no need to reload.
Do this a dozen or so times and you basically have a zillion fireballs you can rapidfire without reloading. Is it broken? Yes. It is also hilarious to spew fire everywhere and burn all the bad guys effortlessly? Definitely.
If so I'm going to scare myself stupid soon.
PSN: SirGrinchX
Oculus Rift: Sir_Grinch
Though, sometimes I think that the survival genre may not be for me. The games always catch my interest, but when I got bored pretty quick playing Don't Starve. Minecraft held my attention a little longer, but I've still never put more than a couple hours into a world. But, maybe the horror element, enemies, and plot will make The Forest more engaging.
I like minecraft, like ALOT and this game itches that scratch along with the horror survival aspect as well.
Come on save fix!
They plain should not have been allowed to release in this state. Sure, Early Release means bugginess and stuff, but if the game is out-and-out broken, then it's not really a game yet, is it?
EDIT: Aaaaand loading a save lost my big axe, along with all of my uncooked animals, lizard skins, soda, booze, circuits, medicine, cannibal parts, and partial constructions. So the save system technically works, but only in the slimmest sense.
EDIT: New new patch says it fixes items disappearing after saves, but my initial save file might be borked because it isn't showing my items. Gonna start over and see what happens.
ANOTHER EDIT: Alright, here's a list of stuff to watch out for from the current version:
2. It seems like you can only cook ONE of each animal type per fire per load/rest cycle. In other words, you could cook a rabbit and a lizard on one fire, but then you have to rest/reload if you want to cook a lizard or a rabbit on that fire again.
3. Partial structures DO NOT persist when loading saves. So if you had 40 logs into a cabin, rested to save, quite, and reloaded? The whole cabin disappears and so does all your work. Finish construction BEFORE you save.
4. Traps only reset when you reload (and possibly when you rest); plus, rabbits and lizards can set off traps, which is pretty annoying since they wander all over the place and get pretty much all the traps set off.
5. DON'T pick up other stuff while carrying logs, because the log number system bugs out; you can end up with stuff like finishing construction, but the game says you have find six more logs. Reloading seems to fix this.
6. Any dead animals you were carrying for cooking disappear on a reload. A minor annoyance if you build a base in an area where animals spawn, since you can easily track down new critters in a minute or two.
7. Loading a game seems to set your hunger at something like 50%, so you want to get some food pretty soon.
8. Aside from animal bodies, all your other inventory items seem to stay now when you load a save.
One thing I really hope for is for the devs to work on pacing. The game kind of throws a lot at you really quickly, and I think the slow drip approach would just be killer for a game with the sorts of enemies you deal with in The Forest.
If they do a good job I certainly hope the governor grants them a reprieve on their sentences. Though no idea how they could have landed in jail at their debutante ball.
Lack of saving does not make the game non-functional. You can play it, roam around, kill cannibals, do all that stuff till you die. It's $15 and has a lot of ambition, I normally never buy Early Access stuff but this is a worthy cause.
Sharks are in, among other things.
That bird kept "landing" on my hand every 20 seconds. It lasted for an entire day until it finally became too much for me.
I was in the middle of a fight with the cannibals in the middle of my camp which I had accidentally set on fire and was basically swinging the axe for all I was worth.
"I DO NOT HAVE TIME TO ADMIRE YOUR BEAUTY, BIRD, I AM FIGHTING FOR MY LIFE!"
A few off the top of my head:
- Saving/loading sometimes clears my inventory
- Saving/loading kills all animals in the world. They're all gone. Nothing left.
- Buildings sometimes won't finish. The blueprint remains flashing with 1 piece remaining, and I hear the sound when placing the final piece, but nothing happens
Would love the ability to take down a structure and remove an unfinished one.
Hope they release some of these fixes soon.
1. Saving works reliably, and saving can be done independently of sleeping. NO MORE LOSING ITEMS FROM LOADING A SAVE. You also no longer lose half your energy after loading a save. And in-progress structures no longer disappear after loading, so no more having to commit the time to complete an entire structure before saving and quitting.
2. Critters and the locals don't seem to randomly disappear completely after a certain amount of time. This was a major problem, as it becomes difficult trying to stay alive eating berries.
3. A peaceful mode, for those so inclined to be undisturbed. Not my cup of tea, but good for learning the layout of the island without being harassed.
4. DELETING STRUCTURES. Yes, you can finally delete blueprints. You have to delete them after placing them, but it totally works and is totally great to finally have.
5. All the material containers have been significantly upgraded. A single stick container holds something like 4-5 times what they used to, and rock containers (also new) can store a ton of rocks. Log holders take 7 logs now instead of 5.
6. LOG SLED. This may not seem like such a big deal and it's a rough feature right now, but basically, you load this guy up with several log and push it wherever you want. Big, big timesaver.
7. Mid-range dwellings. Used to be that you had either a crappy lean-to or had to gather literally dozens and dozens of logs to build a big cabin. Now you can build a small cabin or tree fort with just 30-something logs.
To show what the game looks like where it's at right now, here's a brief album showing nighttime, the base I got together in a couple in-game days, the assholes you find at night, and a sunrise. The complexity of the locals has gone up a bunch, both visually and with how they interact. There seems to be at least two tribes now and I think I was starting to suss out the visual differences between them, as well as the distinct behaviors of each (one type seems more human, the other more feral). The important thing is that they all want to eat you, but absolutely will fight each other over dinner rights. I couldn't get a SFW shot of the crowd (crazy cannibal mutants don't believe in clothes), but there was probably a dozen of these guys altogether, from both tribes, standing around my fire, which is why I was freezing my ass off up in my tree fort. They can also climb regular (un-forted) trees like crazy, which is great for scaring the shit out of you when they jump down out of them.
Pretty pleased with the direction the game is going. The visuals are bizarrely good for a project of this level, and the overall design seems to be steering well away from the likes of DayZ and whatnot where the point of the game is to kick you in the balls and say you should like it. It's not an easy game, but this is a pretty primitive level of survival so that's okay; it really is very survival-oriented, and the singleplayer aspect means you can focus on that instead of whether or not some dude with a sniper rifle is hiding outside a town to snipe random people for fun. Very far from complete and there are plenty of bugs (animals loooove to run through fires, and the rabbit hutch doesn't work right), but they're making some good choices here. Lots of indicators for a lot more survival details as well; the pedometer they give you at the start is pretty simple now, but lists things like "fluids" and "calories" on there, which I assume means having to eventually maintain a certain daily intake of food and water. There's a placeholder image for a drying rack as well, which would presumably be for drying meat, and several (currently inaccessible) pages in the crafting book for what looks like a bunch of different things like medicines and foods and whatnot.
So if you've been holding off for a more robust, playable version, now would be a good time to take a look.
The game itself already seems headed towards a very good dynamic system. The plane already lands more or less randomly, and the encounters with locals are also random. Sometimes you'll be completely undisturbed through a whole night, sometimes you get swarmed by loads of bad guys. I think the game gives you a break at least the first couple of nights, though, so you can get built up a bit. After one bad night, anybody that plays will figure out real quick why those log walls are a good idea; trying to fend off even just a few of the locals with nothing to keep them in front of you is really problematic.
Just with little more cannibalism.