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Honky Dong Country
Feb 11, 2015

dogstile posted:

I wonder if they have anything planned to mark the second year of early access.

I want options to become even more of a crazed savage. I already don't build big bases, instead opting to move between several camps I've built across the map. I build a hunting shelter, stone fire, two basins, two gardens, and a meat rack at like four locations and move from one to another when things get too hot.

With bone armor I can easily take on larger patrols, who I then butcher and hang their meat on a rack, burning some to replace my armor, and slapping the rest on an effigy at the site of the kills. If I've got extra bones I've been building bone fences around my various camps. On my current run only a small handful of cannibals have made it away from me alive.

I guess what I want is for them to seem more...aware when a player is being just as scary a monster as them? Like when there's only 3-4 of them they should seem a lot more terrified when patrols of that size have been coming after you and never coming home. I know the player is supposed to be the prey here but I just wish scare tactics against them worked better. Like they'd stop engaging with small groups constantly and instead drag a pack of mutants up from down below and come at you with a mob.

I've seen some pretty big attacks before but I just don't feel like they escalate like they should when the player is actively hostile and every bit as savage as they are. The AI in this game is overall pretty great but it seems like it's all built around the player living in fear and turtling up, which isn't always the player's response.

Also I'd love to see the sanity system go in and watch my current guy go completely batshit from all the long pork he's been chowing down on lol.

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dogstile
May 1, 2012

fucking clocks
how do they work?
I want them to keep going with the "who is the monster here" goal that they initially wanted to do. They wanted the player to think that maybe the island residents weren't all that bad, but its kind of hard for me to feel sympathy for butchering them since upon meeting you they do the following:

1. Stare
2. Run away if alone, bring back group. If in group they advance
3. Try to surround you
4. If they surround you, proceed with murder. If they don't, proceed with murder.

Every goddamn time.

Honky Dong Country
Feb 11, 2015

dogstile posted:

I want them to keep going with the "who is the monster here" goal that they initially wanted to do. They wanted the player to think that maybe the island residents weren't all that bad, but its kind of hard for me to feel sympathy for butchering them since upon meeting you they do the following:

1. Stare
2. Run away if alone, bring back group. If in group they advance
3. Try to surround you
4. If they surround you, proceed with murder. If they don't, proceed with murder.

Every goddamn time.

Yeah I'm with you there. I go to great lengths to be the scariest thing in these here woods, drat it. :colbert:

Honky Dong Country
Feb 11, 2015

Oh hey new update. Weapon customizing is pretty sweet but now suddenly cannibals aren't dropping teeth. I started a new game: four days and close to two dozen kills later and I haven't got a single tooth.

my bony fealty
Oct 1, 2008

Oh hey, a thread for The Forest! Or as I call it, "Tree Chopping Simulator." I've sunk about 40 hours into the game over the past couple months. The most recent 0.40 update broke the save I had been playing for a while - had built a nice custom cabin on an island in a lake, and upon loading after the update all the doors to the cabin had disappeared. Of course I had saved from my bed inside the cabin so I had no way to get out. Luckily I was planning to start a new game anyway. Now I've been building a base on that peninsula with the big tree near the yacht.

This game has so much potential. I'd really like to see a more robust farming system. And real guns because it would be very satisfying the headshot the mutants.

Anyone played with VR? I've gotten genuinely scared a couple times and can imagine that VR would be a perfect fit.

Another question - is there any easy way to connect different constructions than trial and error? Trying to connect stairs to a platform, for example, always takes me a few tries to line up the elevation properly.

Jo Joestar
Oct 24, 2013

dogstile posted:

I want them to keep going with the "who is the monster here" goal that they initially wanted to do. They wanted the player to think that maybe the island residents weren't all that bad, but its kind of hard for me to feel sympathy for butchering them since upon meeting you they do the following:

1. Stare
2. Run away if alone, bring back group. If in group they advance
3. Try to surround you
4. If they surround you, proceed with murder. If they don't, proceed with murder.

Every goddamn time.

It took a lot of defending my fortress from the cannibal hordes, but the cannibals eventually started sending out 'human' sacrifices to me. What I'd sometimes get in the night, instead of a raid, was one of the big grey cannibals approaching me on his own, kneeling down near me or my fortress, and quietly sobbing to himself. They don't try to attack at all, even when I start hitting them with an axe.

Squish
Nov 22, 2007

Unrelenting.
Lipstick Apathy
So you are now their greatest fear.

That's awesome.

dogstile
May 1, 2012

fucking clocks
how do they work?
I had that happen too, but if you leave him alone or kill him, raids will happen again the next night regardless.

Its a cool mini event though.

SolidSnakesBandana
Jul 1, 2007

Infinite ammo
There's a pretty sweet Steam guide that goes a bit into how the AI works. It's really really cool.

pantslesswithwolves
Oct 28, 2008

Ba-dam ba-DUMMMMMM

I feel like my cannibal AI resets or something, because every time I load up a game, I go through the same early game phase where the cannibals nervously regard me before starting to attack in earnest. Guys, I'm wearing the bones of your buddies as armor and your dad's skull is next to a dozen others on a stick outside my sprawling fortress- you already know I'm not a nice guy.

My coolest standoff entailed getting into a staring contest with a big group while I was in a treehouse, eying each other down while I held a nocked arrow. They gradually slipped off into the night, one by one.

Squish
Nov 22, 2007

Unrelenting.
Lipstick Apathy

suboptimal posted:

I feel like my cannibal AI resets or something, because every time I load up a game, I go through the same early game phase where the cannibals nervously regard me before starting to attack in earnest. Guys, I'm wearing the bones of your buddies as armor and your dad's skull is next to a dozen others on a stick outside my sprawling fortress- you already know I'm not a nice guy.

My coolest standoff entailed getting into a staring contest with a big group while I was in a treehouse, eying each other down while I held a nocked arrow. They gradually slipped off into the night, one by one.


I've built a fortress in Goose Lake that is accessible only via rope from platforms, and the main centrepiece is a custom platform that's nearly max height. I have targets set up around the perimeter and tonnes of noose traps, birthday traps and deadfalls. I had actually logged the entire region but each update would respawn the trees so now it's much more densely packed with traps and trees.

Even armsies and virginias are just katana fodder. Now that bone fences are a thing, I think that'll be the next aesthetic improvement to tell the natives that this poo poo is my turf, and they'd best tread lightly.


You wanna have at it bro? Your bones will look good adorning my wall.

Promontory
Apr 6, 2011
I thought this was just one more Minecraft clone added to the pile, but the AI stuff sounds really interesting. Are there any estimates on how close this to being completed? I'm wondering if I should jump in now or wait until release.

Jo Joestar
Oct 24, 2013

Promontory posted:

I thought this was just one more Minecraft clone added to the pile, but the AI stuff sounds really interesting. Are there any estimates on how close this to being completed? I'm wondering if I should jump in now or wait until release.

It's got some rough edges and unfinished pieces, particularly story-wise, but it's essentially a complete game. I don't know how long it's going to be until it comes out of alpha, but the recent updates have focussed on story content, and filling out the crafting system with things like houseboats and bags for crafting materials and so forth. The core of the game is pretty well established, and like it's been said before, the cannibal AI is one of the best parts of the game.

Also, if anyone wants to build defensively, rock walls are definitely the way to go. They're completely invulnerable to cannibal attacks, and you can stack them on top of each other so cannibals can't jump over them. I've set up a 2-story fort made of rock walls and foundations on one of my saves, with the gate only being accessible by a staircase, and the only thing that's ever managed to hurt me while I was inside was a Virginia that jumped over the walls.

Edit: Actually, that's probably my main complaint with the game as it stands. The cannibals generally have a good AI, but they're quite limited in how they can move, and it's easy to not bother with traps and just set up a base that the cannibals can't ever breach. That's really at odds with the sense of tension and danger that the game tries to create.

If I wanted to fix that, I'd probably improve the cannibal AI's pathing (so they don't get confused around stairs), and make it a bit easier for them to get around - make them able to swim and climb rock walls, for example. That would make building invulnerable bases more difficult, and would make traps more important to your base defences.

Edit^2: If anyone is interested, someone on the Steam forums made a long post about how exactly strength and athleticism work.

Tl;dr: Athleticism points build up very slowly as you sprint, or dive without a scuba tank. Athleticism points can be reduced by diseases, and if you're overweight then your Athleticism is reduced by some percentage (but you can get your Athleticism back up by losing weight). Eating chocolate bars and drinking soda is inherently fattening. So is eating when your fullness meter is high. You lose weight very quickly if you starve yourself (which means you risk losing strength, see the Strength section), but your weight falls or rises to the 'normal' range if you eat relatively healthily (meat and berries, only when your fullness meter is low but before you start to starve).

Your strength can only change at a particular time each day, the same time that you woke up on the island. Your character has a hidden meter measuring the number of trees he's chopped down recently, and if it's above 5 at that point then your strength can change. The number of trees in the meter is constantly and slowly falling, though. If you've been eating well then your strength goes up, but if you've been going hungry too often then you lose strength instead.

Jo Joestar fucked around with this message at 02:42 on Jul 27, 2016

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dogstile
May 1, 2012

fucking clocks
how do they work?
I would actually hold off on buying this game. As much as I love it, hunting for food is never a problem past the first 10 minutes, neither are the cannibals scary after the first hour. It's really cool for that period however.

Also, chopping logs for days

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