The Forest, BIS and WGL 5.0

[mandoble 1]

The Forest v1.71 WGL 5.0 version <- EDIT Fixed weapon type.

The Forest (BIS standar)

Version needed: OFP 1.96

Type: SP Mission

Islands: Malden

Addons needed: Mikero's editor update, WGL 5.0 core (only for WGL version).

Languages: Spanish, German and English.

Play at night, play alone

[mandoble 1]

WGL version had a problem with weapon type names, the effect is that player does not lose his weapon when attacked by wolves or ghosts.

Fixed now:

The Forest v1.71 WGL 5.0 version

[igor drukov 0]

This mission is a J E W E L.

Even if, like me, you're not much into the magic and zombie side of OFP, it is well worth playing this one.

It's got everything the most demanding players look for :

<ul>[*] a plot

[*] immersion

[*] atmosphere

[*] action

[*] professional cutscenes, including intro and outro (and you don't want to skip those, man)

[*] well-balanced difficulty.

On top of that, it's a real demo of scripting skills, serving the greater interest of the mission, not aiming at dazzling you with the author's genius - even though they wind up doing just that.

All in all, one of the best missions I have ever played in OFP, if not the best. How fantastic to see yet another piece of work pushing the OFP envelope to reaches that seemed unthinkable.

Top notch work, congratulations buddy !

[xawery 0]

Downloading now, sounds great! There's tons of ghost/zombie/monsters missions for OFP, but very few of those come with an interesting, well-written plot. Judging by the comments, this is one of those rare missions!

One question though: does the dialogue come with voice-overs? If not, I'd be willing to contribute. I (and a few friends) have experience in voice acting, as well as access to professional-grade recording equipment.

[mandoble 1]

Thanks for your comments Igor.

Xawery, The Forest has nothing, I mean absolutely nothing in common with zombie-like or monsters missions. You may be surprised

The mission does not have voices for dialogues, it would be quite difficult as it supports spanish, english and german.

[sanctuary 19]

I said it for an earlier version, but i say it again, this is a must have mission.

One of the very rare mission in OFP i played that was not only very atmospheric but gives you this special immersion feeling that is extremely difficult to do as a mission maker.

Definitively the best horror themed mission i ever played, with a very good story supported by really incredible effects.

A must have Mandoble work, like any of his releases, that confirms that he is a scripting genius.

[Guest Ti0n3r]

I've only been playing this for about 5 minutes. ...But this is superb!

Everyone must download it

[william1 0]

i'm gonna try , it looks interesting !

[xawery 0]

Thanks for your comments Igor.

Xawery, The Forest has nothing, I mean absolutely nothing in common with zombie-like or monsters missions. You may be surprised

The mission does not have voices for dialogues, it would be quite difficult as it supports spanish, english and german.

Hi Mandoble,

I used the "ghost/zombie/monsters" qualification as a reference to the general category of horror missions, which I believe your mission is a part of (though I haven't even played it yet ). It's good to hear that it's going to differ from the rest! I love games/films/books where the tension is created by leaving things out, rather than throwing dozens of burning dogs at the player. Gah, can't the sun go under any sooner?!

As to the voiceovers - I can see how having three different language versions can complicate things, but if you use subtitles it shouldn't be a problem, right? It worked quite well for the excellent Retaliation campaign. Voice acting adds (IMO) a lot the immersion, and that's what tense missions are all about!

Can't wait to try it!

Regards,

X.

[berghoff 11]

Waaa this is quite an interesting 'mission' considering what OFP is made for. I have played it but sadly I was killed by that 'thing'.

Nice work ! I like these kind of maps.

And I agree with Xawery that this mission could use some voices.

[mandoble 1]

Well Xawery, play the mission, then if you still think it is worth the effort (voice acting), tell me.

Thanks for your comments Sanctuary

A side note for WGL version players. Due to a problem with WGL BIS objects, the original mission healing fountain (that with the statue of an animal above) was switched by the large stone fountain, so big that the player cannot get close enough to drink from it. So, you'll only can heal your wounds using the first aid fox inside the tent near the jeep (just at your starting point).

This problem is not present in the BIS version.

[xawery 0]

Well, it has finally gotten dark around here. Time to fire up OFP and play The Forest

THE FOLLOWING TEXT MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS!

Excellent, excellent work Mandoble. Truly outstanding! The atmosphere that you have managed to create is fantastic. And those creaters... Black wraiths gliding over the ground, followed by an entourage of colourful lights... Strange beasts lurking in the shadows, ready to drag you away... And those sounds! Great stuff.

Still, I think voiceovers wouldn't be a bad idea, especially if they would substitute the subtitles. The Forest is a very dark mission (literally, I mean), and those bright white subtitles really make it difficult for the eyes to adapt to that darkness. But that's just an afterthought, the mission is extremely enjoyable as is!

Oh, and about that fountain: I've played the WGL version, and all you need to do is 'clip' through the outer edge of the fountain. This will bring up the 'drink' option.

Regards,

X.

[mandoble 1]

Hi Xawery,

There will be a patch for WGL 5.0 (I mean WGL patch, not Forest patch) to correct the statue fountain object missing. If I change the radius now, after installing the patch you would be able to drink from the fountain while being noticeably far away from the fountain itself.

With or without voices, the subtitles should remain there. Else the mission would be limited only to those able to understand the spoken (not just written) languange used for the voices. If you are still interested into adding voices to The Forest, PM me.

Talking about languages, Alex C. did a quick translation of The Forest into russian. Russian speakers may reach this version here: The Forest v1.7 (BIS version, russian languange)

Also, if any of you is interested into adding other languages to the mission (for subtibles), just tell me.

Ah, and these creatures biting and dragging you around are wolves

[william1 0]

i have finished it, it took me a lot to find the girl but finally i did it !

a very nice story and even more achieved visual effects , i have like it very much , it is like a short movie , congrats

[zombie1 0]

Great mission! Very good intro and overview! I liked it how the ghost's could kill you to, cause the purple one went straight trough me and I went flying away.

[CameronMcDonald 146]

Sweet mission, though I tried playing it with sky packs on, and was totally blind due to the rain. I still managed to finish it though, it just took a ton longer (and a lot of shooting in the dark for the last bit).

[dmakatra 1]

SPOILERS:

Very lovely mission, however I am stuck in the southern woods. I've tried everything to no success. What am I supposed to do? I've explored every corner of the woods and I even tried following the drop-particles but nothing works. Help please?

[mandoble 1]

dmakatra, have you already found the girl's spirit and talked with it?

[Marcus-Ergalla 0]

Hi Mandoble

I've played your mission a few days ago and I have to say that it is a really nice mission. The effects and the atmosphere are great! Keep that work on!

Greetings M-E

[dmakatra 1]

dmakatra, have you already found the girl's spirit and talked with it?

Yeh.

[karantan 0]

You're probably stuck trying to find the way to the woodcuters' hut? The pass to it is thru the woods left behind the castle ruins.

[dmakatra 1]

You're probably stuck trying to find the way to the woodcuters' hut? The pass to it is thru the woods left behind the castle ruins.

Yeh, that did it. Cheers mate.

SPOILERS TO COME

OK, now for some comments. I played it (except the last bit) like it should be played. With a surround-sound headset, alone at home and all lights switched off except the computer display. I've played at 1 AM of course as well, can't play this when it's bright outside.

At first I was a bit confused because I felt the sounds were coming from all directions and I wandered off in about 20 minutes before I found the first encounter. I'd make the sounds come clearer from the south because I was all over the place and it sort of lost it's charm when you've already seen most of the spooky stuff and you're not even halfway through.

I'd remove the guard post tower as it was kind of silly being dragged round on the ground by wolves when you were 3 meters in the air.

Finding the woodcutter was fine, that was just me being stupid, so you don't have to change that. Although the drop particles around the ruins puzzled me. Is there any deeper meaning behind these or are they just a cool effect? Because when I was getting desperate I started to follow them and that just made me even more confused.

The intro needs some voiceovers otherwise players will lose interest. It's not a bad intro, but it's too slow told to become interested if there's no voiceovers. This goes for the rest of the mission as well, voiceovers are simply vital in these kinds of missions.

Another thing, what's with the happy ending? Make the player become cursed, or make him go to court-martial for killing civilians or something. You can't have a happy ending in a horror missions!

I thought up loads of other comments when I played but I never wrote them down because that would ruin the game since the atmosphere was so tight. So I'm afraid these few will do. But I am safe to say that this is the only successful OFP-horror mission out there. It's the only one that got my tempature to rise. All other horror missions out there are just bad excuses for shooting something different than Russians.

By the way, ever thought about adding music by Lustmord or Kammarheit or some other Dark Ambient-musician? Now that is some scary shit to listen to, and I think it'd add greatly to the mission. Perhaps something in the line of Kammarheit's Asleep and Well Hidden? Seriously, check it out, it'd make the mission so much better. Add me to MSN and I'll help you find something.

[xawery 0]

Funny you should mention this dmakatra. I was listening to Lustmord via winamp when playing this mission. Dear lord but this man makes atmospheric music...

[mp_phonix 0]

I downloaded it but havn't played yet.

Is it hard ? because I played 1 zombie mission called "The cult" i think that was made by berghoff I think and it was very hard

[dmakatra 1]

Funny you should mention this dmakatra. I was listening to Lustmord via winamp when playing this mission. Dear lord but this man makes atmospheric music...

Yup, I personally prefer Kammarheit though, as he makes more ambient Dark Ambient than Lustmord. The great thing about Kammarheit is that unless you listen carefully you can hardly tell there's music playing because it just flows right through the background. You can hear Lustmord all the way through so to speak, so it depends on what you want to achieve with the music. But Lustmord or Kammarheit, whatever one choose it's still feckin good for films, missions, whatever.

Trivia: Lustmord made the music for the film 28 Days Later.