Estranged: The Departure News

There's a new build on Steam for Windows and Linux! This build includes graphical changes, gameplay changes and some general work on stability.





There have been changes to the sky and sun/moon light in general, but specifically in the forest and beach areas the lighting and overall visual style has been overhauled.





The game now uses screen space reflections throughout, meaning that reflections look much crisper and update in real-time.



Previously, when picking up an object, it would be teleported, rather than moved using the physics engine.

This update brings physical simulation to held objects, so they interact with the world and other physics objects in a more robust manner. A side-effect of this is that they feel a little springier when held.



Some (unfortunately not all!) toilets in Estranged are now flushable. This was a requested feature. I'm not kidding!

• Adds -lowendmachine command line switch to force blocking on load (instead of background streaming of levels)
  
• Adds a small loading indicator to the HUD to show when level streaming is happening
  
• Replaces current loading screens with a spinner
  
• Adds a splash screen on startup to replace the splash screen in the menu
  
• Switches to the deferred shading pipeline - this allows more graphical features (like screen space reflections), but will perform worse on lower end hardware
  

As I've been saying for a while, I'm working on the final content for Act II, so updates may slow down while that happens. If you'd like to provide feedback, join the community at https://discord.gg/estranged !

Alan

There's a new build available on Steam for Windows and Linux!



There's a new voiced scene available in Chapter 3! This scene provides more context around the involvement of private security firm Sokol-Glockner in Arque's activities on the island.



To watch the new scene, simply start a new game at Chapter 3 from the new game menu, or use the cheat "map TheBase#sp01".

• Language names on the Gameplay menu are now localised
  
• All menu UI controls now allow text wrapping for languages with longer phrases
  
• It's no longer possible to close the door in the warehouse scene
  
• Improves weapon reflections
  

Thank you for playing Estranged: Act II! If you have any feedback, I monitor everything submitted in-game and via email at alan [at] alanedwardes (dot) com.

Join the ever-growing community at https://discord.gg/estranged!

Alan

There's a new update available on Steam for Windows and Linux! This update includes more music throughout the game, work on existing content, changes to how hints work to better support controllers, and a new achievement!





There have been some changes to the underground archeological dig site in chapter 3, along with some small details added to the sewers from chapter 2.



Music has been added to several locations around Act II, with music loops now used in the prelude, the office level, the forest level, and the archeological dig site. This allows music to loop in one area, and to smoothly transition when you move to a different area.





After many players asked for it, there's now an achievement for depositing the fisherman's ducks into his bath in the prelude!



The prelude now has a lot more hints, including some reminders around how to interact with objects and pick them up. The hint display now shows an icon for keys rather than simply the text, and has support for Xbox One/360 controller icons.

The controls menu has been tweaked too to use the new hint icons, so the experience is consistent throughout the game. The control names are now localisiable too!

• "Jump assist" has been removed in favour of increasing the height that the player can jump
  
• Adds controller button for aiming (left trigger) and remaps crouch to face right (B on the Xbox controllers)
  
• Improvements to HUD damage indicators - if you are damaged from multiple directions, all directions will show on the HUD
  
• Bug fixes around save/restore since the previous build
  

As ever, thanks for playing Estranged! If you'd like to chat, you can join the now 400-player strong Discord server at https://discord.gg/estranged

Alan

There's an update live on Steam for Windows! This build includes changes to existing content, and an oxygen meter for the HUD.


The office level has received a visual update, geared towards streamlining the performance and providing more focus on the mystery person roaming the offices.



The forest has also received a visual overhaul, along with the street level later in the game.




There's now an oxygen meter in Estranged, visible when the player ducks underwater! This will help with the swimming sections, where previously you couldn't see how much oxygen was left.

• HUD re-write - the HUD now properly scales with different resolutions, and supports non-latin/greek based languages
  
• Khmer language support - community member HourDM contributed translations to Cambodian. This is the first non-latin/greek based language to be supported in the game!
  
• Work on light bleeding - there have been changes to the lighting across the whole game, with bleeding now less evident across all levels
  
• Water tessellation in the ocean level
  

The first Act of Estranged now supports the Steam Workshop! Head over to the annoucement post to find out more. https://steamcommunity.com/games/estrangedact1/announcements/detail/1723097746710754566
As ever, thanks for playing Estranged! If you'd like to get in touch, the ever-growing Discord community is the best way - https://discord.gg/estranged

Alan

A build is now live for Windows and Linux, including new content, a tweak to how weapon ammo is consumed, voice work and improved collision meshes for some objects.



I have been working on more story and level content, leading up to the final scenes of the game. I'm not releasing the final content just yet, but I have included some of the new content to give you a preview of what is to come.



As I have said in previous posts, content updates might slow down during this time while I focus time on this ending section, but I'll do my best to continue to push builds with other improvements to gameplay and the earlier content in the meantime.



One thing I have been saying for a long time is that if you download the game while in Early Access, you will get to keep it forever, for free. Some of you may have noticed that Act II is now appearing back in your Steam library as a result of this - it is now "sticky", meaning it won't disappear as other free titles do.

See the following thread for discussion: https://steamcommunity.com/app/582890/discussions/0/3454730619115546231/

• Weapon Ammo - Picking up a weapon with the same ammo type as your weapon now consumes the ammo, instead of replacing your weapon
  
• Toilet Collision - The rubber ducks can now be placed into the toilet in the Prelude (this was a highly requested feature)
  
• New Voice Clips - The voice clips in the mine have been replaced by a native Scottish speaker (previously it was me putting on an accent)
  

Thanks for playing Estranged: Act II! As I said above I'm working towards completing Act II in the next few months, so all feedback is welcome to feed into this process. I will still be able to release updates once the game is finished, but making changes to some parts becomes more tricky due to saved games.

https://discord.gg/estranged

Alan