The Forest

[GORDON]

The cons: No human opponents.

This seems like a HUGE 'pro,' to me.

I was watching the video of this game last night in the Steam store, I hadn't looked into it at all. I was watching and I was instantly disgusted when I saw it looked exactly like Rust.... and suddenly I realized why I has disgusted by Rust:

It's all risk, almost zero reward.

It's impossible to build anything in Rust, or ARK, or any other survival game I have seen (I've not seen any others), in which you have a chance to create anything that persists, and thus be "rewarded." If you don't have a massive gang of friends, don't bother. And, as I am a PK magnet in Rust, I see nothing but risk. The last time I played Rust I managed to get enough resources to build a bow, then I got AKd. I respawned and started again, an airplane or something was dropping a crate on top of me, and I got PKd.

I tried ARK, then everyone quit when I joined, literally after that same night.

So when I see this game is just Co-op vs. AI, it tells me there might be a chance for rewarding gameplay.

Let me know, and I will consider purchasing it.... but I'm not going to spend the money and have everyone quit when I join. So make sure about that, first.

[Leisher]

Well, three of us played Saturday night not counting the other guy in this thread that apparently has the game and wants to join us (Troy). It's also in Early Access, yet has somehow still managed to be interesting enough that I've put a lot of hours into it.

We played for several hours Saturday and our base isn't remotely done and food/water is a serious issue. We didn't even go exploring and certainly haven't begun to touch the cave system...

For $15 the replayability is there. Hell, I consider it fun even without the co-op. I assume we'll be possibly playing again this weekend (we haven't played since Saturday as I've been fighting this flu).

[Stranger]

Oh yeah, that's the other issue that I'm not sure about, Leisher probably knows more about it though.

It looks like for us to play in the same game that we have started, Leisher (being the game creator) would have to be playing too. Meaning I couldn't just log in and gather supplies and do what not unless he was in game. I know Cake said he was able to save the game but I thought he said he wasn't able to load it up and play it solo.

[Leisher]

Right. As of right now, whoever hosts has to have the game running for us to play.

Not that big of a deal considering it has a storyline and we want to go through it together.

I think if Gordon joins, we'll have to start over (NOT a big deal at all...I kind of hate our base.). I can set the server for 5 people and that should, theoretically, leave a slot open for Troy...?

[Leisher]

That last comment gave the wrong impression I think.

The game can be played solo, and is honestly fun. It's Rust without assholes.

The co-op mode, we'll have to schedule our games, ala all the other co-op games we've ever played.

[Troy]

Schedule a session and I'll be there. Weekend is thankfully open.

[Leisher]

I should be on all weekend. My gaming rule applies: If I'm online in Steam, I'm free for multigaming. I don't want to schedule a time because that's when something will come up.

[Leisher]

Cake, Stranger, and I had a good time re-visiting this last night.

The game has changed a lot.

We crashed, got a base built that was just giving us the right amount of resources and the baddies showed up. Not enough to scare us away. It also allowed us to go hunting.

Still TONS more of the game to go. We barely scratched the surface of the island, and haven't touched any of the caves yet.

If you forget, The Forest is like Rust, but without the assholes.

[Leisher]

Even though it's out of EA, a free update was just released that includes crossbows, new buildings, two new monsters, hang gliders, and more.

[Cakedaddy]

When you said "out of EA", I thought you meant EA.

I've been playing with it today. I was going to point out there are things I didn't remember. Log cabin being one. I don't remember well enough to know if the building system changed, but it seems different. You have a survival book that you can look through and pick things to build.

I can't find turtles to make the water collectors. I'm always thirsty. Fought my first bad guy and shot him with arrows. When I pulled out my axe, he ran away. About two days later, I found his body just outside my house.

It has a dedicated server now too.

[Cakedaddy]

I've started exploring the island now. At first, I was running around and then struggling to get back home before dark. A few times I was running blind, in the dark. I'm building small cabins around the island now so I have shorter runs. The island is big and full of danger. Killed a mutant spider person tonight.

I also got distracted and went afk for a minute, but didn't pause the game. I came back to being hung upside down in a dark cave. But they left all of my stuff on me. Explored the caves for a bit, but then exited and restored from my last save. Didn't want an afk session to be part of my story.

The natives, so far, have been easy to kite and kill with my bow and arrow. However, they are starting to hunt in groups. At least they did tonight.

I'm still learning general survival skills and exploring the crafting system. I've collected a few random clues, or something. But not doing anything with them yet.

Anyone want to setup a night and play?

[Leisher]

Let me finish Witcher 3 and I'll join you. I want to get it off my plate as I'm thisclose to being done. I believe I have 1 more part of the main story to finish and I'm 25% and 75% done with the two expansions. I thought I'd be done Sunday night, but it looks like I'll have finished it by the weekend. Then I can load up The Forest and do refresher sessions so we can co-op it.

Would it be more efficient to build a base together or build separately early on in the game? Set up different bases and spread out the baddies...

[Cakedaddy]

I don't know that spreading out the baddies will be an issue. They seem pretty random. I'm playing on normal, and after 10+ days in game, they haven't been much of an issue. Maybe it will ramp up the bad guys with more people in the game making it necessary for us to travel together.

However, spreading out to cover more of the island might speed things up. I find random stuff all over the place.