Regular update: Patch 01
Endnight Games released their first official update for Sons Of The Forest on the 9th of March, 2023. In this regular update titled Patch 01, the team has released a huge list of changes that includes new features, bug fixes, performance optimizations, and balancing changes. This update has a lot to cover, so let’s get into the major highlights.
New features added with Patch 01
A handful of new items made it into the game with the Patch 01 update. Some of the major things include:
- The Hang Glider
- The Binoculars
- Virginia leather suit
- Defensive wall gate
- One-sided apex structure type
The Hang Glider is a big deal because players now have a method for traveling across the island other than hoofing it. The only potential drawback to the Hang Glider is its size—players cannot store it in their inventories, so they must carry it around and remember where they left it.
Players aiming to complete the Fashionista achievement will be pleased to know that the missing article of clothing, the Virginia leather suit, is now in the game for players to loot.
Additional changes
- Small furniture items can now be picked up and placed again or thrown to destroy them for resources.
- Additional story elements have been added—be sure to go back through the caves and bunkers for these!
- A new boss fight was added to the food bunker.
- Options were added to hide player names and projectile reticles.
- Cannibals can now jump out of trees to attack.
- Fish Traps now catch fish every 5-10 minutes underwater unless the season is winter.
- Placing a stick on the interior of a door will now lock it from the other side.
Balance changes with Patch 01
Unsurprisingly, the first update for SoTF included much balance work, and we were not disappointed. Balance changes help features and mechanics better match the developers’ vision for how the game should work. These changes usually aren’t solidified until the developer sees how players interact with the game.
Balance changes
- Sleeping now incurs a cool down, meaning players must plan their sleep wisely and utilize chairs and benches to manage their fatigue.
- Thirst and hunger no longer drain the rest/fatigue meter, which helps reduce the dependency on sleeping.
- Sitting in a seat now boosts the rest/fatigue meter more.
- Sleep now has the potential to be interrupted by enemy encounters.
- Berries now grant slightly more effect to hunger/fullness.
- The fire drain rate increased.
- Energy drinks were nerfed to provide less hydration and energy buff.
- Herbs and mushrooms had their hydration and hunger/fullness effects tweaked.
- Kelvin automatically stops fishing after some time without being told to take a break.
- Shotgun damage was halved 🙁
- Creepy mob health will now scale with the number of players in a multiplayer instance.
Improvements and optimization changes with Patch 01
Lots of great improvements made their way into the Patch 01 update. These changes focused primarily on game-breaking and performance improvements.
Change list
- Improved animations for the red cannibals.
- Fix for logs sometimes becoming quite bouncy in deeper water.
- Performance improvements for world locators.
- Important items are now force equipped upon looting or collecting.
- Moose and Deer animations were adjusted for better pathing behavior.
- Door placements now depend on the direction the player is facing. When the player places a door, the interior side of the door will always face them. TLDR; stand inside the building when placing a door to set the door facing the proper direction.
- Benches can no longer be placed too close to other objects that the player would get stuck when dismounting.
- Fix for various LODs sometimes not updating correctly.
- LOD optimizations for the Wall Torch.
- The food bunker was updated to fix some lighting issues, and added a radio.
- Players can pick up the Puffton’s table cards in the food bunker.
- DLSS version updated.
- Many improvements to audio performance and output, including:
- A reduction in stuttering,
- CPU overhead,
- Cannibal audio and vocals,
- High wind audio loop reduction
- Reduction in max footsteps playing at once.
- Fix for the audio loop sometimes not ending when the player finishes climbing down a rope.
- Fix for the repair tool spamming sound effects leading to improved performance.
Incorrect behavior fixes
The Endnight team fixed a hugely-impressive list of bugs in the Patch 01 update. Please refer to the developer patch notes to see the full list of bug fixes. The fixes we found most impactful to gameplay include the following:
- Sticks no longer allow players to glitch through locked doors.
- Kelvin no longer cuts down your treehouses!
- Underwater ghost blueprints will now render and enable players to complete their builds.
- Players no longer slide down steep slopes when in their inventory or the building book.
- Fixed some cases of multiplayer clients being able to duplicate logs.
- Fixed some incorrect key icons for keyboard actions.
- Fix for client players not loading into the correct season when rejoining a saved game.
- Fix for players sometimes getting stuck in bad states after triggering actions during a ground attack.
Thanks for reading, and see you in the next update!
