Reminder Ancient Forest is terribly designed

[mewlynx]

Monster pathing constantly overlaps, excessive verticality makes monster transitions take minutes, overall layout is confusing, there is so much random terrain for monsters to clip into, some areas have individual verticality that causes the monster AI to behave in frustrating ways, Jagras are everywhere and aggro basically instantly to deny fast travel, and the map is overall just way too big for its own good.

[Galewyn]

Some things in this post I disagree with but I do find it a bad map. The reasons I find it bad are LONG travel times while yes there is camps to unlock for fast travel that doesn't excuse long travel times as the non flying things have to walk it which can take a good minute or two. Which what makes the limping even worse as it makes it's travel time even longer which on top of that it usually is just slightly faster than you doing so. Which in turn makes it so if you use melee weapons you can't attack it while it is running.

(Also who thought that hollow giant tree area is a good idea?)

Second reason: This is the first map of the game, why does it have to be a maze?

[A]

I wish maps were even bigger :P However, yeah. I do agree on the excessive verticality; somehow the solution I think is to unlock all the camps, but what if I don't want to google where they're at to unlock them? All those climbing, you'd think they'd put those grapple bugs to traverse faster.

Edit: God, the trauma on scaling the verticality to that "peak" with the dam and suddenly your hunt decides to fly away right as you're about to sling it for attention.

[dyne2alex]

I still remember chasing flying enemies in the forest only for them to fly away as soon as Iget there.

[The High Seraph]

Lol I remember one of my friend raged really hard during Ancient Forest Kushala Quest . Multiple layered and maze like structures are still tolerable . But downed monster head entering the trees and cliffs are worst part of this map .

[~KeNnEtH~]

Yeah, I agree that there is a little too much vertical layering and sometimes this sends the scout flies and monster AI bonkers.

It actually reminded me of Dark Souls kind of layering when I first played the game.

It was a maze and it really took quite some time to get used to it.

[Tregrenos]

Even today, my Palico asks me if I know de wei and spits on me if I hesitate for even a second. Every time I think I know de wei my damn Scoutflies break my neck to face me in the other direction. You know what it's like to be ♥♥♥♥♥ slapped by a hundred fireflies? It sounds like a single group clap in an auditorium that close to my ear. By the time I find the Rathalos I'm already at half health, out of stamina thanks to all the spit causing a water debuff and the damn thing flies back up to it's nest the moment I get close!

[BlaqkShadw]

I hate that most of the areas you fight in are small and cramped. Also, fighting Vaal, Velk, Kushala, and Rajang at that tree area in the east is absolute trash.

[RustyRed]

It's mostly the central area of the forest that becomes problematic but for the most part, I'd say it's one of the better designed maps.

The worst parts are where Anjanath/Zinogre goes to sleep. ♥♥♥♥, I can't remember for the life of me how to get there without scout flies, despite hunting Zinogre for 50-100 times.

[Bloodwest]

That's probably the worst map in my book as well. Lots of verticality, cramped ares to get pummeled by monsters, difficulty of navigating through levels. Pretty much everything player of this game would hate. Unlocked camps and raider ride greatly helps dealing with that but can you even consider level design to be good if you rely on stuff like that to make it viable?

[Toxi]

this still holds true even now..

I think Hoarfrost reach is how this map could've been, if they cut down on the needless vertical layouts on top of already existing vertical layouts, the part in the middle where the Anjanath rests has a ridiculous amount of segmenting paths and not even ones that intersect with one another that would make them easier to remember, but rather One way paths to very specific locations..

At least now with Iceborne thanks to the mounts, we don't have to worry about it much.

[RustyRed]

Originally posted by toxicitzi:

this still holds true even now..

...

At least now with Iceborne thanks to the mounts, we don't have to worry about it much.

And then Banbaro comes in to block you from using mounts, and you don't have a farcaster due to using a generic capturing loadout that you haven't updated since you first started playing.

[Toxi]

Originally posted by xuthan:

Originally posted by toxicitzi:

this still holds true even now..

...

At least now with Iceborne thanks to the mounts, we don't have to worry about it much.

And then Banbaro comes in to block you from using mounts, and you don't have a farcaster due to using a generic capturing loadout that you haven't updated since you first started playing.

maybe so.. but it's a lot better than how it was in world.

[RustyRed]

Originally posted by toxicitzi:

Originally posted by xuthan:

And then Banbaro comes in to block you from using mounts, and you don't have a farcaster due to using a generic capturing loadout that you haven't updated since you first started playing.

maybe so.. but it's a lot better than how it was in world.

It certainly is. I feel bad for people who don't have mounts and have to run manually.

[rattopi]

It's nightmare for ranged hunters and it felt like the place wasn't designed to fight monsters larger than Raths.

[Greb]

I used to think the Ancient Forest was the best region because of how complex and over designed it was, making the rest of them look all basic and under designed overall, lol.

At this point though it just feels like a nightmare to navigate, it's only fun when you're not actually hunting and you're just wandering, gathering and the like. It's kinda nice sitting up in the top where Azure Rathalos likes to chill out, looking down at Astera HQ and stuff. There's also a couple of little neat places where no fighting ever takes place like small shallow pools and stuff too, but when you're not gathering (and gathering is such a small part of this game really) they're just excess clutter.

The central area with the falling rocks, and especially the area behind Camp 11, if you ever get lazy and decide to let the scoutflies guide you you're basically doomed to waste a few minutes figuring out where the hell you are, until you give up and just warp back to camp. It's also annoying to move from one part of the map to the other though, it'd be hell if you couldn't warp to each camp even with the Raider Ride thing.

Fighting there though, damn. That map needs to be like a "ring" of locations connected around a much wider, big central tree that has a giant bowl shaped arena to fight in under the roots, with an area above it inside the trunk, followed by more arena type zones going up through it and finishing at the top of the tree and the canopy too. Drop downs from the tree trunk + canopy into the surrounding areas, and one or two vine shortcuts on the outside of the tree or something too.

It's also easily the worst map for corridors and tiny tunnels, I remember once witnessing a Bazelgeuse flying through a small tunnel designed for a Great Jagras and it was really stupid lol, its wings clipping through the terrain was an afterthought considering its main body shouldn't have been able to even fit.

It's got all that variety but it feels like the two most common areas you end up in are next to Camp 8 and Camp 11, and those areas are both really cramped.