Endnight Game's Sons of the Forest is a spiritual successor to The Forest (2014), a huge hit that's still popular in the survival horror genre. We're in early access because Endnight Games set out to make the ultimate survival horror simulator, and we're at the point where they need the community's feedback and involvement to further improve the game in the right direction. 

Our findings from the SOTF Discord Community's interview with Endnight Games

Community Q&A with Endnight Games

Q. Kelvin and Virginia for that matter scale poorly into the late game, will Endnight allow the player to give Kelvin / Virginia more commands or other things to do, if not will we see more companions in the future that add more variety? (Popular & Most Asked)

A. We have big plans to keep adding tasks Kelvin can complete, some ideas in progress are having him help construct a wall around your base, or fortify/repair the base when needed. For Virginia, we plan to add more to her A.I., particularly by giving her more bravery if she has a weapon, and also depending on how many mutants/cannibals she has killed.

Q. Who is the character we play, will we get more background/lore on them and the other characters in the game? (Kelvin, Eric, Timmy, etc…)

A. There will be lots more lore and story pick-ups as well as extra cutscenes and new areas that will work to expand and flesh out the story

Q. Will we see improved gore/dismemberment mechanics?

A. It's not currently on our list of things to add but always looking for ways to improve the effects

Q. What happened to the various scrapped ideas of the game? Such as Kelvin's original name of “Robby” and the Night Vision goggles, solar panels, climbing axe, battery charger, etc.

A. Lots of features are partially in and will be coming in future patches. Kelvin actually had a few different names over the course of his development, we originally called him ‘Zombie Boy’ then Robby which is what we refer to him internally, and finally settled on Kelvin.

Q. Does Endnight plan to add faster form(s) of transportation?

A. We do have what we think is a really cool idea for this but don’t want to go into details in case it isn’t as fun as we think it might be, or doesn’t work well with the environment.

Q. How does Endnight plan to tackle cheating and griefing? We’ve seen forms of griefing such as killing companions and other players.

A. This is always really tricky, our hope as developers is that people just be nice to each other but unfortunately that isn’t what happens. We added the trusted system as a base tool to handle playing in public open servers. We will also be looking into some ways to limit griefing risks and expand tools for hosts.

Q. Is anything planned for ‘The Forest’ after full release such as updates to VR and bug fixes?

A. Currently, we are focused on making Sons of The Forest a really good early access experience for players and will decide on future plans once the early access process is close to completion.

Q. This was a question frequently asked by the community. Is a console port planned for after the full release?

A. We would be really excited to bring the game to Playstation and possibly Xbox after the Early Access period but we do not currently have any firm plans. Right now we want to just make this the best PC game we are able to.

Q. Many players are asking for features, but they may already be WIP. Could we be given a roadmap of features and additional content coming in the future that you can currently share? This will prevent many repeated requests, and improve the overall community experience.

A. We don’t want to promise features that might not make it, but also like surprising players with cool stuff that they might not be expecting. We do read all the comments and feature requests and try and implement the best-fitting ideas.

Q. Will there be an expansion of the crafting system? Currently what you can actually craft is very limited.

A. There will likely be new items you can craft as we see what items players want and what would improve the game.

Q. How does Endnight plan to improve the pacing of the game? Players are finding the GPS system to be locating the entire story for them immediately instead of overtime which would give more incentive to build/explore. People have suggested possibly adding a compass and the ability to mark points of interest instead.

A. We have a bunch of ideas we are currently discussing internally but don’t get have a perfect solution. We do agree it’s an issue and some players are just running all the way to the ending instead of living/existing in the world.

Q. Will there be more building options, currently the free-form building while very unique is also very limited in what you can actually do, such as the ghost blueprints?

A. There will be new ghosts added as well as improvements and extensions to the free-form system.

Q. Does Endnight plan to add more enemies & mutants or change the ones currently within the game? Some players have expressed how little they see them or how little variety they seem to have.

A. We have at least one character that wasn’t ready for the first launch and there may be others we add over time, including variations on some of the current enemies.

Q. Cannibal camps are currently very small and other than fighting the player, the cannibals don’t actually do a lot when it comes to their own communities, will we see an expansion of their camps added over time?

A. We do have plans for this, adding more ambient actions for the cannibals to do around their villages and also visual improvements such as more types of structures they can live in to give the different camps more variety.

Q. When will support for dedicated servers be implemented? (Popular & Most Asked)

A. This is something we are working on in the background but we don’t have an exact date yet.

Q. Does the team plan to add additional building materials and a robust crafting/cooking system? (Popular & Most Asked)

A. We do have a prototype of a more advanced cooking system and it will likely come into the game in a future patch once it’s further developed.

Q. Why was Early Access announced so late, what are the plans after Early Access?

A. We really struggled with deciding if we would delay a further 6 to 8 months or release in Early Access and have the community help us get the game to the finish line. We had such a good experience with our first title in Early Access that we eventually decided that would be the best idea.

Q. Will we see more wildlife, such as bears, and wolves?

A. We don’t currently plan on adding bears or wolves, but possibly other animals.

Q. What will the bi-weekly updates look like, will it be QOL or will we see the addition of new things and improvements over the game?

A. We will likely alternate between 2-4 week patches depending on what we are trying to get in. Each patch will include different things, from further story/cutscene additions to new features and items along with lots of bug fixes and other improvements.

Q. Has the success of SOTF made the team evaluate how far they want to take the game and maybe push back the 1.0 release?

A. We have a rough estimate of 6-8 months but will be constantly re-evaluating as the development progresses. We really just want to make the coolest game possible.

Q. The developers said before they wanted to do DLC and Workshop, is the workshop still a priority and is DLC still planned post-launch?

A. We should be able to talk more about this further into the Early Access period.

Q. How does the team plan to expand on the hunting/survival aspects of the game?

A. We do have some ideas but nothing concrete we can share yet.

Q. Will we see more prefab buildings and stuff from the first game or will everything be new?

A. We’re trying to add mostly new stuff, but if something that was in the first game makes sense and is fun we are not opposed to adding it.

Q. Will the island/environment be expanded upon to make it more challenging?

A. There will be updates to the environment throughout the Early Access period.

Q. Will the Log Sled make a return? (Popular & Most Asked)

A. This is one of the really cool things about early access, internally we didn’t realize how much people really liked the log sled, and due to the number of bugs it had in the first game we were not sure if it was worth putting back in or not, but in the last week since release, it’s become clear that it’s something players miss.

Our viewpoint

Now that we have an idea of what kind of direction Endnight Games' Sons of The Forest is taking, it definitely gives us comfort that the developers of the game are very interested in improving the game in more aspects than one, which we should expect from any game that is released in early access. Currently Rated at 67,000 Positive Reviews on Steam. 

Conclusion

Upon reading the Q&A with Endnight Games we definitely feel excited about the possible changes & updates that could be coming to the game. To cite some examples, more interaction with our companions Kelvin & Virginia towards base building & improved combat capabilities, new craftable items, advanced cooking, more customizable base building, more depth into Faction AI, more wild animals, and most of all dedicated servers that will be announced down the road.

This only means that Sons of The Forest has a promising road in the coming 6-8 months of development. With how difficult this game currently is to play alone, it is a good reason to jump into the game with you and your friends on our upcoming dedicated servers! Sign up for our waitlist now and get your reservation ahead of time!

Join our Sons of The Forest server waitlist and pre-configure your server today!

Learn more about The Sons of The Forest at our blog: https://hostari.com/blog/what-types-of-bows-and-arrows-are-in-sons-of-the-forest-cleouygpf30831jpjiq8utw6i​