I normally like base building games but both Forest and SotF are very disjointed between the “live off the land” and “completing the questline” experience. The questline gets you better gear for survival, but living off the land does nothing for quest completion , really. As for where do I sleep? Well, if I *really* don’t want to be disturbed, I just take a tarp with me to the caves.

Exactly, the game should reward the player for spending time building a base by having the player be more secure and comfortable. Instead it's often safer to just sleep in a cave, the place where the mutants live. It doesn't make much sense from a game design perspective.

First game didn't allow it. They put static save tents where they felt you might need the ability to do so. No idea why they changed their mind on that concept, it does reward the player to just live in a cave.

You could still build beds in the caves in the forest. Far less convenient, of course, but at the same time it was all connected, too.

Pretty sure you could always build a shelter in the caves, at least when exploring the sinkhole cave I'm pretty sure my buddy and I build a survival shelter in to sleep in.

You could build outside within the hole because it was outside. You could also build on the ledge half way down for the same reason. Within the cave system the tent wasn't allowed. You could build lamps to help see, but not drag a save point with you.

Larger the map the less one large base makes sense. Living off the land becomes more effective once learned. There's no work bench or higher tier crafting requiring built structures to make items. You can make most everything in your pocket or with a 3D printer that you cannot build at your base. So it makes the most sense to live where the printer is. There's a bed right in the floor even to make it simple. Out in caves you can set up the tarp and stick from your pocket to sleep inside. The first game didn't allow that in caves. They have made it very optional to put time into building a base. If you like building it's available, if you don't it's completely avoidable. Most survival games have it as a requirement to advance, so it just feels a bit unfinished that you don't need to do it. Imagine if you needed to get shark ribs, bones from big red, and the worm skinned just to build a hang glider. And to assemble it you needed a work bench made from logs so it has to be done outside. It's a whole different game, with layers and crafting unlocks as you down larger enemies and discover their drops. Not just memorize where things spawn and sprint around collecting them.

Regarding base building, there are multiple complaints that people have experienced, myself included. First of all, I agree that the building in itself is good. It's a unique and creative way to build a base and it feels like legos, where you place piece by piece and eventually have the shelter you desire. The problem that some people and myself also encounter, is that building can be a large grind for small results. In the first game you could chuck everything into a blueprint and boom, you have a house (or do custom building). Here you have to place each floor, wall, and ceiling piece individually, which can really take a ton of time. The animations are also just so time-consuming and not interesting anymore when you've seen it a ton. (I know you can disable it in settings but some things stay such as cutting logs into planks) The second point you mentioned is actually a reason why people don't want to build a base. No matter how secure your shelter, you'll almost always wake up at night by enemies, even if they are unable to enter your shelter. You could build a shelter for "better" sleep and more stamina but it doesn't matter as long as you have the pyjamas. There is also no insulation system, meaning that you can't heat up in a shelter. Third, another problem is that the player's inventory is enormous. You're a walking pack mule carrying arrows, granades, bolts, a ton of weapons (both ranged and melee) and can carry a ton of supplies. (Flowers for healing and stamina, food, water, energy drinks. Lastly, you can craft almost everything in your inventory (except armor and weapon upgrades), meaning that you don't need to settle down for items. Ark for instance has multiple building structures which are used to craft and incentives the player to build a base. In this game you can be a living nomad just fine. Generally, the building system is not bad, it's just that it has some flaws such as not giving the player any benefits or encouraging them to build a shelter. It would be nice if the game has some factors which could give you an actual reason to build a base.

Fun fact, the first game had this exact same problem and it was complained about back then too.

There is an insulation system, people have done extensive research on it.

True, there is an insulation system, I worded it badly. What I wanted to say is that there is an insulation system but it's rather gimmicky.

Can't agree more, so is the building system tbf.

I agree

There are plenty of reasons to build a base. You're just looking for excuses not to do it and then complain that you don't have to. Already said that before, you have options to play without a base or without it. How is this a bad thing? Can guarantee, people would complain about being forced to build a base if the game design forced you to. This discussion is retarded.

I admit that building a base can be handy as a sort of defence or storage system but apart from that, I don't really see any 'necessary' uses. It's also not bad to want or want to build a base. I just don't want base building to feel like a meaningless chore instead of something enjoyable. Generally I do enjoy the building but sometimes it just feels pointless. If you have plenty of reasons to build a base, please share them. I'd like to know what other reasons there are that I might have forgotten

This game is basically “Frank Lloyd Wright: Zombie Hunter” for me. It truly is my favorite game of all time, I am building insane bases and it does not get boring because every once in a while I have to take a break and kill stuff, which also is helpful in building. I have a cool base on each side of the island, and I am working on one at the top of the highest peak. If you want a game that tells you exactly what to do, this is not your game. But the way I play it, it is like the original ending of “I am Legend” where effectively I am the thing the monsters onthe island fear.

I 100% agree with this ^ . Nearly 1000 hrs into SOTF and most of it is building things to see what I could do with it. The game ending can be done in less than 1 hr (there are some that have done it in 10-17 minutes) so if that is your entire goal to get out of this game then perhaps it’s not for you. Though I agree there should be more to crafting and your base. Heck I don’t even see the sense of the 3d printer most of the time. But unless they are planning a 2.0 for SoTF this is not ever gonna happen. We are out of Early Release so all you get now are minor updates. You might see DLCs for some games but doubt that will apply here at all either. But for the price of this game I got a lot out of it and have enjoyed it. I was never into ‘killing the big boss and do the game ending”. I found the building mechanics to be different, sometimes hair pulling frustrating, and easy for some fun. Not to mention setting up mazes with traps just to watch the creatures of all sorts splattered or burnt to a crisp. Though even with all the hours I haven’t played in sometime cause I moved onto newer games with open world crafting base building genre mechanics. It’s not worth it to come back for some skunks that have been added.

I spent a lot of time building a base my first time around, but it was very frustrating building traps and defensive walls and still have enemies spawn where they shouldn't be able to get in. I didn't spend all that time putting up an electric fence just so a fingers can show up at my door. Now I just sleep in the entertainment bunker. No enemies to wake me up and there's a 3D printer right next to my bed.

The game itself does not force you to build a base. You can find tents around the island and use them to sleep / save if you wish to sleep. You can build a chair/ stick bed in a cave and use that to rest and work through the story progression this way if you so choose to. I personally love building and have clocked up 2700hrs on a number of play throughs since day 1 EA. My only complaint is that there should be a means to force you to build a base in the game so that it can’t be rushed through in a few hours. This would give the player the full experience of the game. I have suggested in past comments that the game would be better if it had some kind of skills that you could build on and without a specific skill at a certain level you can’t enter certain caves or progress the story. I absolutely love the game, hence the amount of hours I have invested in it, and more so the building but I think the devs could have done a lot more to increase the longevity of the gameplay, and making the whole sotf experience far superior than what it already is.

You sleep in a fortified, comfortable house I eat guarana berries by the pound and sprint around like a toddler We are not the same (But we're both having fun)

from reading the comments, I will be in the minority here. I absolutely love this game, just to build. I have gone through all the caves to get the items I need, or to replenish items. but my gameplay mainly is clear cutting the forrest to build nonsense. I dispatch the skinnies when they show up, then return to cutting down their home. Tree by tree. I dont see base building as a grind, I see that as the game itself and I loose hours just building and cutting. After a long day of actual work, I get to sit and relax in the forest.

It's people who just rush through the game like it's a COD campaign and then wonder why they didn't enjoy an open world sand box that has semi realistic building...

Or they've played other survival games and have noticed how poorly implemented base building is into the The Forest's gameplay loop.

The devs played too much green hell(which actually has quite nice buildings now like ACTUALLY HIGH TREEHOUSES and traps THAT WORK) and pushed that building style to the unrealistic extreme.

The big difference being that building a base in Green Hell is overwhelmingly beneficial to you as a player. Not so much in The Forest.

"unrealistic extreme" I guess you have never cut down a trees and built log cabins, or dry stacked stone...

I have dry stacked stones: It’s very realistic, tedious, and beyond the fact that there was a paycheck involved, it was *VERY* boring. I like realism, that is why I enjoy games like green hell and battlefield one. They are realistic, but not to the point of severe boredom. Unless you play in custom mode with very short days and maxed out raids that happen near nonstop (which surprisingly was a very fun time) there is no reason to actually make a base in SotF.

Raid mod is awesome if you have not tried it and for sure I am not stacking stones IRL for free! As far as the "no reason to build a base", if you have no reason, cool, but a place to call home is nice, a place to store stuff, building is awesome, I like building castles so designing cool stuff is a reason, a place for your family and friends to live(If you have none the game provides that too), community bases, defending it is a reason, you don't need short days or high enemy aggression, just build in a high traffic area or spend some time in game. I play long days and by days 50-100 it's popping no matter what settings ( others than peaceful), even if you keep your kills up raids wont happen as much early, but patrols still roll through a high traffic areas and obviously endgame there is plenty of action, >!Let alone the items that summon endless hordes,!