Jan 15, 2025
View on Steam↗Rafts, Defensive Wall Blueprints, Fixes, Improvements and more
4/5 Significant
Sons of the Forest adds buildable rafts, a procedural defensive wall system, and significant aiming improvements for all ranged weapons.
Key Changes
- 13 new buildable raft structures and a mooring post added for water traversal
- 2New procedural defensive wall system allows drawing wall paths for Kelvin to build
- 3Improved aiming and trajectory for Crossbow, Shotgun, Slingshot, and all Bows
- 4Players can now revive teammates while swimming in multiplayer
- 5Kelvin upgraded with faster swimming, better following, and climbing abilities
- 6New holder structures for the KnightV and Hang Glider
- 7Steam Game Recording support added
- 8Extensive performance optimizations for physics colliders and structure culling
- 9Fixed a rare memory corruption crash and improved multiplayer transform syncing
- 10New secret findable player outfit added to the world
All Changes
🔨Building(19)
- newRafts: Added 3 new buildable raft structures
- newMooring Post: Added new mooring structure for watercraft
- newKnightV Holder: Added KnightV holder structure
- newGlider Holder: Added hang glider holder structure
- newDefensive Walls: Added procedural defensive wall placement system allowing players to draw wall paths
- changeBuilding System: Skip place animation option now applies when adding logs to ghost structures
- changeShelves: Golf cart batteries can now be added to shelves
- changeStructures: Built structures now only register a single hit for scatter shots like buckshot
- fixDefensive Walls: Fixed being able to turn defensive wall supporting other structures into gates
- changeDefensive Walls: Added height restriction between defensive wall logs to prevent weird shaped gates
- fixBuilding System: Fixed numerous cases of built structures placed on freeform structures not saving their link
- fixFirewood Storage: Fixed thrown firewood not sliding into place on firewood storage structure
- fixGore Chair: Fixed gore chair and couch ghosts not being placeable at previous locations if cancelled
- changeFurniture: Chairs, benches, and couches on edges of structures now require enough room for the player to stand up
- fixDeer Rug: Fixed being able to place floating deer rugs
- fixHunting Shelter: Fixed shelter ghost having collision before logs were added
- fixGold Plated Floors: Fixed gold plated floors sometimes reverting to normal when off screen
- fixBuilding System: Fixed fireplace, deck rail, fence and fence post types not linking with supported screw structures
- fixWall Planter: Wall planter anchor is now centered to match placement detection
🏹Combat & Weapons(11)
- buffRanged Weapons: Improved aiming for Crossbow, compound bow, crafted bow, shotgun and slingshot
- buffBows: Improved arrow path to match trajectory when shooting bows
- fixRanged Weapons: Improved ranged weapon calculations to ensure impacts are detected when starting inside a collider
- newVines: Shooting tree vines with bows and guns will now break the vines
- fixTactical Axe: Fixed tactical axe neutral attack poses having over-rotated spine causing jerky transitions
- fixLaser Sight: Fixed projectile path when using laser sight equipped weapons
- fixTactical Bow: Fixed FPS affecting accuracy on the tactical bow
- fixAnimations: Fixed left and right hand animations getting out of sync when hit while reloading
- fixChainsaw: Fixed chainsaw secondary attack hold sometimes interrupting when not hitting anything
- fixRifle: Fixed rifle bullet being briefly visible next to camera after firing and stopping aim
- fixRanged Weapons: Fixed shooting ranged weapons while moving causing trajectory issues
🤖AI & Companions(10)
- buffKelvin: Kelvin now has a faster swim animation used most of the time
- buffCompanions: Kelvin and Virginia can now pull themselves up out of water at edges with collision
- changeKelvin: Kelvin will now swim towards the player he is following
- changeKelvin: Kelvin now has blood and wetness support on all outfits
- fixMuddy: Fixed issue where a muddy could enter bad state during jump/climb if the tree is damaged
- fixDemon Boss: Fixed some cases of demon boss getting stuck on trees and rocks outside
- fixKelvin: Reduced Kelvin ragdoll clipping and pop when dying from injured state
- fixHelicopter: Fixed a case where a helicopter could continue circling a camp indefinitely
- fixAI Navigation: Lake nav cut mesh improvements to fix small islands where AI could get stuck
- fixKiller Whale: Fixed a case where killer whale could appear stuck in place for clients
⚙️Gameplay Systems(9)
- newMultiplayer: Added ability to revive players when dying while swimming in multiplayer
- changeDeath Mechanics: Player will enter water death state if they die out of water and then fall into water
- changeWorld Map: Extended world bounds to allow for more area to use rafts
- newClothing: Added secret player findable outfit
- changePhysics: Throwing a dead body into water now creates splash and ripple particles
- buffHell Cave: Player will no longer be cold or freeze in hell cave
- changeDriftwood: Reduced the mass of driftwood
- changeFire: Blocked interacting with fires while swimming
- nerfRepel Shrine: Player no longer gets solafite back when the repel shrine consumes it
💻Technical & Performance(9)
- newSteam Features: Added Steam Game Recording support
- changePerformance: Optimized drying racks and fire physics rigs for better performance
- changePerformance: Optimized colliders for Firewood, Bone Chair, Bone Chandelier, Stick Chair, Bone Storage, Firewood Storage, Log Storage, Rock Storage, Stick Storage, Hunting Shelter, Leg Lamp, Mannequin, Planter, Rain Catcher, Repel Shrine, Arrow Storage, and Weapon Racks
- changePerformance: Optimized physics colliders for items added to Log, Stone, and Firewood storage
- changeAudio: Increased network audio events location accuracy
- changeVisuals: Improved motion blur overall quality
- fixStability: Fixed a rare case of memory corruption that could lead to crashes
- changePerformance: Optimized structure placement line CPU cost
- fixMultiplayer: Improved multiplayer transform syncing
🐞Bug Fixes(11)
- fixVisuals: Fixed fire effect appearing in air when lighting a dead body
- fixUI: Fixed bug in rebinding menu when in Portuguese language
- fixRabbit Hutch: Fixed collecting a rabbit from hutch as multiplayer client not working when already holding one
- fixMultiplayer: Fixed enemies visibility on clients when host is in Timmy hallway cutscene
- fixPuffy: Fixed Puffy rendering not disabling in cutscenes or when far away in MP
- fixTutorial: Fixed missing tutorial when Pufftons cutscene ends
- fixMultiplayer: Fixed MP player hits with burning weapons not lighting other players on fire
- fixAnimations: Fixed fall animation playing until chat box is closed if opened while falling
- fixCooking Pot: Fixed cooking pot disappearing when fire is destroyed in multiplayer
- fixBig Head Mode: Fixed big heads growing/shrinking randomly after turning Big Head Mode off
- fixDedicated Server: Fixed Dedicated Server not saving when game is set to creative mode
Summary
New Building & Traversal
This update introduces three new buildable raft structures and a mooring post, significantly expanding water-based traversal and base building. A new procedural defensive wall system allows players to draw wall layouts for Kelvin to complete. Additionally, dedicated holders for the KnightV and hang glider have been added.
Gameplay & AI Enhancements
Combat receives a major boost with improved aiming for the crossbow, bows, shotgun, and slingshot, alongside more accurate arrow trajectories. Kelvin has been upgraded with faster swimming animations, the ability to pull himself out of water, and better following logic. Players can now also revive teammates while swimming in multiplayer.
Technical Improvements & Fixes
The patch includes Steam Game Recording support and a massive list of optimizations for physics colliders, structure culling, and multiplayer synchronization. Dozens of bugs ranging from visual glitches to memory corruption crashes have been addressed to improve overall stability.