Estranged: The Departure News

There have been reports of users impersonating me on Steam and Discord, which sometimes involves a phishing attack (a fake Steam support thread directing users to contact "Alan Edwardes Official" on Discord).

This is not me - here's some tips for spotting a scammer:

• I will not communicate with you via Direct Messages on any platform
• I am alanedwardes (previously Alan Edwardes#3608) on Discord, and only communicate via discord.gg/estranged and the Steam forums for the Estranged games
  
• If you are added by a Discord profile with my name, it is an impersonator, and the account should be reported to Discord Trust and Safety via https://support.discord.com/hc/en-us/requests/new
• If you are added by a Steam profile with my name, it is an impersonator, and the account should be reported to Steam Support via https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/4D07-D139-587C-2080
• I do not work for Valve (Steam), and will never ask for account passwords, or money (I will not send a direct message to you in the first place)
  

Here's a short message from Alan Edwardes (Liam Jones ???), explaining the situation:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
Stay safe!

Alan

An update with cheats and translation updates is now available for Windows, macOS and Linux!

A player screenshot from Discord user Badbadalex1#5096

New Cheats

The following new cheats (requested on the forums) are available to spawn Arque guards with, equipped with various weapons:

• spawn guard - Pistol
  
• spawn guard rifle - Assault rifle
  
• spawn guard shotgun - Shotgun (AI don't use this, just one scripted scene)
  
• spawn guard rat - Rat Tracing technology
  
• spawn guard laser - Assault rifle with high-powered laser

Language Updates

The following languages have also received updates from the translation community:

• Czech
  
• German
  
• Persian
  
• Finnish
  
• Portuguese
  
• Slovak
  
• Turkish
  
• Vietnamese

I'm always around on the forums, or on discord.gg/estranged if you'd like to report bugs, or provide feedback.

Thank you for playing Estranged!

Alan

I'm going to pretend it's already June as I released a late may update - an update is now live on Steam for Windows, macOS and Linux, including an improved intro sequence and fixes!

New Wake Sequence



I recently published a blog post about creating motion-captured camera sequences using my phone, and I have now used this technique with the "wake" sequence in the Prelude (at the very start of Chapter 1).

This technique isn't perfect, but allows you to simulate more subtle and "human" movements and I'll be using it with future camera animations of this kind.

Weapon Firing Fix



I want to thank everyone that helped report this bug and provided me with the information to track it down - especially on the forums.

Previously, when picking up a new weapon, if you went back to your old weapon and tried to use it again, you'd see the effects of it firing without it actually firing. This bug only affected a small percentage of players since swapping back to your previous weapon is quite a rare thing to do (because typically your next weapon is an upgrade).

I apologise for not catching and fixing this bug sooner - since I'm wearing multiple hats (including QA) it's easy for me to get tunnel vision with regards to what I'm testing.

The bug is fixed, and we can now rest easy knowing we can defend ourselves against Sokol-Glockner's skilled marksmen.

👀

As ever, I'm around on discord.gg/estranged, and post more frequent development updates there if you want to keep up with Estranged (check out the #dev-screenshots channel).

Thanks for playing Estranged!
Alan

There's a new Steam beta branch called gi-tech-demo, which is a version of Estranged: The Departure with only some of the levels included to showcase dynamic global illumination in Unreal Engine 5.



The Prelude level (Chapter 1 from the menu) has been adapted to allow you to control the position of the sun in the sky with the keyboard, and allow you to toggle it on and off.



All lighting in this beta is calculated in real-time, while the live version of Estranged: The Departure uses pre-computed lighting.



The live version of Estranged: The Departure won't change to use this technique, this is purely a tech demo to showcase the latest global illumination technology in Unreal Engine 5, which released into Early Access on May 26th.



To check out the tech demo, pick the gi-tech-demo branch from the "Betas" tab on the "Properties" menu for Estranged: The Departure. You need Windows, and a graphics card which supports DirectX 11 and above. This branch will not be kept updated, and does not focus on stability/performance.



To get updates like these and screenshots from development, join Discord: https://discord.gg/estranged

Thank you for playing Estranged!
Alan

A build is now available for Windows, macOS and Linux containing improvements and bug fixes.



Bug Fixes and Improvements

The following changes are included in this build (1.5.42):

• Disables async loading thread since testing on other platforms revealed some instability
  
• Improves the slider UI element when adjusted via the keyboard and gamepad
  
• Adds a loading spinner to show while menus load
  
• Adds quick menu transition animation
  
• Adjusts stream-loading point in sp07 and removes vent grate (the first sewer)
  
• Allows the stream-loading spinner to be visible at the same time as the "LOADING" banner on slower machines
  

If you haven't joined already, you may be interested in the Estranged Discord server.

As ever, thank you for playing Estranged!

Alan