The other Early Access game I’ve been following for a long time had another set of patch notes come out. It’s funny because I had a few discussions (we’ll call them that, yeah) about H1Z1 on Twitter recently, mainly with how it’s Early Access and not finished and how I’m stupid for buying into games like that. The Forest came up at the tail end of one of those discussions, and the other participant in the conversation said something along the lines of “you just don’t like to buy finished games do you?” I have to say it now, buying The Forest in Early Access was one of the best decisions I have made. I don’t usually buy into it. Sure you get into a game before people who wait for the finished product, but, like an MMO, it is constantly evolving and changing and I love seeing what comes next. Of course you’d have all of the changes all at once if you waited for the finished product, but you do get something that those who wait do not: the ability to send feedback and help to shape the game.

I’ll be getting that same benefit from playing H1Z1 in Early Access, and if you have been following it on Twitter and Reddit, you’ll see that the devs are actually listening to player feedback and looking at improving things that the players want changed. The same deal happens with The Forest. Early Access isn’t a bad thing, that is unless the devs are shady. I have been choosy in the EA games that I want to support, and thus far haven’t been burned. It’s been a great experience and one that I will continue to enjoy. With all that said, on to the new version of The Forest:

Hey Everyone,

This patch introduces proper Steam multiplayer support. You no longer need to open ports or give people your ip address. Simply click and invite friends or make a public server. Hint: make games private if you don’t want anyone who you haven’t invited to join.

We’ve also improved crafting, added paint, a craftable berry pouch, fixed a bunch of bugs and lots more, all listed below.

Old save games should continue to work, however if you notice anything weird start from a new game to ensure everything is up to date.

As always, please continue to post your bug reports and feedback in the Discussions area of the Community Hub or send them in to support@endnightgame.com
Version 0.12 Changelog:
Steam multiplayer! No more manual ip entering or having to open ports! You can now invite friends to play and they can easily join your game through steam!
MP Client loading added – will now keep client player stats and inventory when client continues a multiplayer game (buildings are still saved on server)
Improved craft item multiview placement on crafting mat
New item added: Rabbit skin
New item added: Rabbit Pouch (can be crafted with 2 rabbit skins)
New items added: Collectable blueberries, snowberries and twinberries (approach bushes whilst holding rabbit pouch to collect)
New item added: Blue Paint (can be crafted by combining 2x blueberries with tree sap)
New item added: Orange Paint (can be crafted by combining 2x Marigold with tree sap)
New upgrade recipes: Stick/Upgraded Stick + Blue/Orange paint
New upgrade recipes: Rock/Upgraded Rock + Blue/Orange paint
New upgrade recipes: Plane Axe + Blue/Orange paint
New upgrade recipe: LizardSkin + tree sap + 15 Leaves = Stealth armour!
(audio)New leaf wind rustle and ambient wind sounds zones added
(performance) Optimized collision on cave wall chunks
(performance) Added some optimizations to distant enemies, disabling physics checks etc
(performance) Improved material memory usage in inventory
(performance)Improved memory usage over time
Added some small streams to world
Entering water in caves will now make player cold. (Hint: Build a fire to warm up)
Entering water at night will also make players cold
(audio)New cave 2 waterfall sounds added
Fixed cassette player overlapping pedometer in inventory making it unselectable
Fixed tree houses not falling when tree is cut down after loading
Fixed bug where you could build structures in trees which already have something built
Fixed crash clearing not removing trees on loading a save game (fixing issue where trees would sometimes block exit from plane or from home you’ve built near crash site)
Fixed bug that caused inventory to stay up when dying while in inventory
Fixed bug that allowed players to craft items for free after closing inventory while having a valid recipe ready on the crafting mat
Fixed missing material cave dead ground
Fixed energy mix inventory info
Fixed generic meat floating above fire
Fixed some a.i. issues where enemies would find players almost instantly
Fixed bug where building would sometimes break near standing fires
Rock and stick pickups added to caves, along with some new body parts
Crafting progress bar! You can now see if the items you are adding to the crafting mat are building towards something.
Crafting recipe output images! You can now see what item you are building towards on crafting mat
Fixed overbright moon
Enemies will now attempt to jump over small player built items (benches etc) instead of getting stuck
Cave 2 – added sky opening to big lake room letting some light in
Tree attack animations added to armsy
Mid and close trees can now be torn up by armsy
(multiplayer)After being downed in a multiplayer game, player will enter an injured state. In this state they can choose to restart, or wait to be revived by another player. A kind player with medicine can approach downed player and heal them, or a mean player can hit them with a stick.
(multiplayer) Days survived screen will appear for a few seconds after players are killed and before they can respawn.
Balanced enemy amounts at night to limit players being swarmed by 15 enemies at a time
(multiplayer) First bash at performance improvements.
Increased range animals will spawn from player to avoid pop-in
Fixed some bugs with enemy pathfinding
Added a repeat delay for enemies spotting player and screaming
Increased vision range on enemies slightly
Fixed bug where placing a building near a fallen log could break the placement orientation
(multiplayer) Fixed bug where fire would appear overbright for other players who didn’t start fire
(multiplayer) Increased chat log visibility length and history
WalkyTalky locking feature removed (can now equip another utility item without stashing it first)
(audio) Fixed missing underwater sounds
(audio) Fixed bunch of 2d sounds which could be heard in multiplayer by both players (hammer audio, enter water etc)
(Multiplayer) Can no longer have more than one set of corpse items waiting to be retrieved. Dying will cause your current items and location to be the corpse items.
(audio) cave rock sound will now correctly play when walking in caves
Added more stick, rock and cash pickups to caves
Fixed bug where opening inventory would sometimes give you a black screen!!!
(audio)Player jump breath and land sound effects added
Fixed bug where killing leader of a group could sometimes cause the other members to stand around corpse doing nothing
Toy robot added to sleeping Timmy hand
Broken toy pickups added to world, along with new examine item animation
Paper money can now be used in place of leaves to start fires
Paper money can now be found in some suitcases
You can now build structures inside caves (although fires are most practical)

Obviously the big news here is the Steam multiplayer integration, which I had a feeling (and I believe I mentioned needing to happen) would come soon enough. Now you don’t have to know someone with a copy of the game, you can get matched up with people via Steam. That’s a huge step in the right direction. I love all of the systems this game has to offer thus far, and I know that eventually I’ll get some co-op going. It’s not massive like H1Z1, but it’s still different enough to keep me interested in both. This game keeps getting better and better.

#theforest #patchnotes