*NEW(10/21/2016)* Official Q&A Thread

[Survivalist]

Q&A's will be posted as we gather questions. The more questions you post, the more Q&A's we can do. For now, The most asked questions, questions we can easily answer, or the ones that pique the most interest will be picked.


So please, drop a question, or if you see someone asking something We might be able to answer in the rest of the hub, please direct them here.


And if you have suggestions or Ideas please post them in their respective subforum, rather than here. This helps ensure they are seen and passed on properly.

Ideas and Suggestions Subforum: http://steamcommunity.com/app/242760/discussions/2/


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Q&A 15: 10-21-2016

Q: It’s been quite some time since the last Developer Q&A, Can we get a bit of insight into why they had stopped?

A: The previous Q&A’s seemed to develop a theme of feature requests and other questions we found difficult to give a good answer to without making any promises one way or another. With the nature of Alpha development, some suggestions and mechanics may seem like a good idea at the time, but may ultimately get pushed back or out of the picture entirely to make way for things of higher priority or more cohesion to the theme of the game as a whole

To improve how we approach these Q&A’s we’ve tried to paraphrase the most common concerns and questions in order to allow us to give better answers.

Let us know if you feel we’ve missed an important question and we’ll update to include it.


Q: Some players feel the game has not been progressing with recent Version updates, what does the team think of this and what has been the main focus recently?


A: It can sometimes feel like that internally for the team also. With bug fixing and polishing systems instead of necessarily adding more content it can feel like we’re just swimming in place and not moving forward.

We do hope that the feel of the game has improved, and even though some of these changes are subtle that they add up over the course of a few patch cycles to a much more polished feeling experience.

Along with our patch releases, there is a large focus on finishing the story and getting that content into the game. The work on this is hard to show without being a massive spoiler to players, making it really difficult to share progress on this part of the game with the community.


Q: Would expanding the team increase the speed of development? And how much has the Team grown since release?


A: The team has expanded since release. When the first alpha came out we were a team of just 3 people, over time this has increased and is often around 15 people with some coming onto the project for brief periods to work on specific features, and others working on a more full time basis.


Q: Will it become more difficult to survive in the future? Resources are very abundant in the current version.


A: Balance is a really difficult one, especially as the game is still changing, even very subtle changes can make things drastically harder or easier for players.

Food and water are something we are looking at balancing further in the near future.


Q: Are there any plans on changing the difficulty level for the enemies?


A: We’re planning to address the difficulty/balance of enemies during the mid to late game stages over the next couple of patches. We’re looking into increasing the aggressiveness of certain enemies the more days the player can survive, as well as giving them more ways to assault large bases that players typically have built by the later stages of the game.

Q: Will the game eventually have a more realistic sky, with better clouds?


A: There are a bunch of shader and tech improvements we want to make as we move towards a final release. Among these is the sky shading which definitely needs improvement.


Q: How do you feel the addition of Multiplayer has impacted development?


A: One of the biggest challenges since releasing multiplayer into the game has been balancing the teams work on multiplayer, versus work on the single player experience. We had originally underestimated the amount of work that getting the game to play in co-op would require. We had done simple tests early on and the basics of getting two players in the world was simple, however getting a.i, complex player animations, and the complicated building system all working was much harder than we ever thought.

Adding multiplayer has definitely added challenges to development, but we do feel that it’s a mode a lot of players enjoy and that adding it into the game has improved the overall experience.


Q: How does the team plan to handle the story progression/ending in the current alpha stages?


A: Originally we had planned on not opening up more of the story until the game’s final release, however we have found the feedback and input from the community extremely valuable and so want to get input on the entire story before final release.

We may put a warning text up when players are entering an area that they may prefer to wait until final to experience.


Q: Will the music seen in earlier versions, or any music at all, be making any sort of reappearance in the future?


A: We have some great music tracks for the game but felt it became too repetitive and took away from the suspense and scares when players could hear the music and know an enemy was nearby. We have a great composer (Gabe Castro) that we work with and would love to figure out a way to implement more of his tracks into the game. He’s also responsible for the music in our last couple trailers and some of the subtle music stings in the game, such as when the player looks at his bloody hands after the plane crash sequence.


Q: What are the current focuses in development, and how does the update process operate for 'The Forest' in general?


A: We try and prioritize what we feel are the most important issues and bugs affecting the current experience, whilst also making progress on our overall goal for a final game.

Due to the tight patch releases there are always a couple features that get dropped and moved to the next patch.


Q: How do enemies find player camps?


A: Enemies can be attracted to player camps by lit fires, particularly at night. Bright fires at night will generally draw enemies to investigate the area. Most player generated noises can attract enemies as well, chopping down trees, dropping large objects or throwing things can attract attention. Dead bodies can also attract nearby enemies. There are also parts of the map that enemies will tend to patrol more often, such as villages, cave entrances and beaches. Building your camp too close to these areas can dramatically affect the amount of encounters.


Q: There has been a lot of focus on Building recently, has the focus shifted from Survival horror or do you plan to maintain a good balance between horror/building in the future?


A: The building was always intended as a way to compliment the survival and horror mechanics in the game. One of the earliest visions for the game, was a player alone at night in a cabin they had built, and outside they could hear the noises of enemies trying to get in.

We feel that the more polished and easy to use the building system can be, the more players can become immersed in the world, and therefore more scared.


Q: Any plans for a creative mode as a option?


A: Yes, this is planned.


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And that's it for this weeks Q&A! Thanks to the Community for sending in your questions, and all of your support for the game these past months. Also a big Thanks goes out from myself as well as the whole community to Endnight games, for taking the time to do these, even while working hard on this wonderful game. Your hard work is much appreciated and we all look forward to seeing the game grow and thrive into a big part of the survival game genre!
May we all have Another amazing year!

[ComBo]

Thanks!

[deadering]

This has me beyond the hype I thought possible. I'm especially interested in the new planned mechanics and really hope they decide to add combat dismemberment (if it is realistic, i.e. fire axe but not knife) and the falling trees.

The biggest thing I did not know existed in the game was exposure and think it's a really cool addition. If they add seasons like they mention it would be awesome trying to keep warm through the winter. Living in a comparable place in the USA it would really strike home with me and really open up a whole new method of play and an incredible layer of depth.

The thing I'm saddest to hear is not planned are other predators. I think the occasional mountain lion or other such creature would be interesting, though I agree it would detract from the game's focus if it happened too often.

I'd love an outside force to be present both not on the side of the player or the mutants, depending on if it fit well. The concept of the monster from Lost was such a mysterious and compelling one and I think a similar situation could work well within The Forest. Obviously this game is unique and should strive to be so, but that singular concept could be a good addition, depending. It would be best as an extremely rare event that would be devastating to anyone and anything in the area that did not escape in time. Maybe some ancient terrifying mutant from the deepest depths that has lost it's mind and become feral? Some supernatural presence in the Forest that relates to the origins of the mutants? I think many concepts could work, but it's too early to tell as an outside observer.

[DarkM4773r]

Will co-op be available as a "local" multi-player or will it only be server based? As in local, I mean split-screen.

[Shiva]

thanks for all questions !

[Croa]

Thank you ! Very interesting... OMG 3 days left !

[Shiva]

3 days !Yeah *-*

[DarkM4773r]

Originally posted by MrCroa:

Thank you ! Very interesting... OMG 3 days left !

If you're referring to my comment, thank you. Also, thank you to this awesome team of developers. :)

[Croa]

Originally posted by DarKm4773R:

Originally posted by MrCroa:

Thank you ! Very interesting... OMG 3 days left !

If you're referring to my comment, thank you. Also, thank you to this awesome team of developers. :)

No I was referring to the Questions/Answers.

For your question, I don't think splitscreen will be even considered.

It will be online or lan multiplayer if it's happens i think.

[DarkM4773r]

Aww, shizzle. I'm still t!ttilated.

[DarkM4773r]

I just figured that if you're in that kind of environment, it'd be best to have someone trusty with you to not axe you in the back while thoughtfully gathering supplies. I wonder how the matchmaking will function.

[Croa]

If it's co-op then matchmaking is not very suited for this kind of game. I hope you can host a server and give the address to peoples you want to play with.

[DarkM4773r]

True, true. That sounds like a great idea.

[Survivalist]

Originally posted by DarKm4773R:

Originally posted by MrCroa:

Thank you ! Very interesting... OMG 3 days left !

If you're referring to my comment, thank you. Also, thank you to this awesome team of developers. :)

PC survival games don't usually have Splitscreen, But we'll see.

[NaBeHobby]

-Are you trying to focus realism in the game? If so, what materials are you using for research? Have you gone camping out in the wild for reference?
-What are you planning to do for sound effects? Are you going to go outside and record real sounds?
-Will rain boost stamina?

[Survivalist]

Originally posted by NaBeHobby:

-Are you trying to focus realism in the game? If so, what materials are you using for research? Have you gone camping out in the wild for reference?
-What are you planning to do for sound effects? Are you going to go outside and record real sounds?
-Will rain boost stamina?

Rain will make you cold and wet, draining your stamina/energy faster. I know that for sure.

Everything else might be added to the Post-launch Q&A, if they can do one.