Escape The Pacific News

Hello everyone,

yet another announcement! Last time it was the games' entry to Twitch to announce, as of today after thorough testing all the features I am - again - happy to publically open up the gates to our Discord server!

You can find us through this link here

So far the following channels were created:

• #lobby-isle = For all your general chat needs
  
• #info-fountain = Please see our discord servers' rules
  
• #streaming-lagoon = Chat about streaming and see when a streamer on the watch list starts streaming
  
• #event-canals = Steam update news are posted here
  
• #Jet Set Pacific FM = Voice channel, play being your own radio while chatting about experiences, tricks or discussing bugs and workarounds

More or other channels are to be determined over time, so if you have an idea let us know.

Thanks go out to:
• atheenon helping with testing
• Live Bot team for Twitch announcements
• Steam Watch team for Steam news announcement

Best wishes,
Chris, representing G4GT

Hi everyone,

the summer is over and we are back with our first experimental build which includes: Build module degrade/repair, Stick and Branch pack, Reworked spoil system, Multi-equip system, separated config data and more.

Development of Escape the Pacific is now at a point where more advanced and complex game mechanics and features need more time to work on. For those of you who like to try out the new, not fully tested additions as they are being developed we like to give you the chance to look into them first hand - by introducing the new experimental builds! The stable/default game builds will receive those experimental updates after those were tested and confirmed over time with and thanks to the community.

To switch between stable and experimental game builds make sure game properties in your Steam client are set to either "Experimental" or "None" (which is the stable branch)

The Experimental builds have their own save data separated from the Stable/Default build save data, so it is possible to switch between the branches flawlessly.
Game Options data has been separated from the ingame save data and besides solves some issues and also gives us more freedom regarding changing/adding new options to the game system.

The newly introduced Storm property indicates the Build modules capability to withstand environmental effects. The higher the Storm property is, the more time it takes to completely degrade the Build module.

The build module Degrade mechanic moves gameplay to a more realistic level. The system calculates the Wind direction, wind speed and wether the build module is hit by direct wind or is shielded by some other module with Storm property to degrade module quality accordingly. The Degrade system actually does simple one point simulations and takes into consideration only the Wind, but in future updates the mechanic will use more precise simulations and will calculate also the Rain and Sun impact.

The damaged modules can now be repaired with a Hammer. Doing so the player can ensure getting the protection a module is offering based on its Wind/Rain/Sun properties. The better a hammer is built and of higher quality, the faster the repair process will be. The process of repairing increases the players Repair skill which is affecting the repairing process itself. There is a new Repair achievement too.

Another new feature is the universal Stick/Branch Pack. It is a big help to transport Sticks/Branches that do not fit into the Backpack. They are universal, because after crafting them from a fixed amount of sticks it is possible to expand them to an extent by adding additional sticks or get sticks from them until the pack is gone.


In case it is not possible to craft any Stick Pack you can now take multiple Sticks or Branches into the hands of the player character and make transportation easier.


The Spoil system was reworked and is different from the behaviour we used to see in earlier versions. The more spoiled the consumed liquid or meal is, the more damage it does to the players health. Spoiled liquids or meals won't lose their thirst or hunger values completely so it is not needed to drink 30 liters of half spoiled water to satisfy thirst values.

The ability to Open/Close door/window when Equipped makes the gameplay more comfortable and the additional saved data in case of attaching an object to a raft ensures more stable attaching after loading a save state.

There are a couple of other internal engine changes that are laying a good base for future mechanics and features, for example the aging information for all objects and custom hand animations for equip/drop ... etc.

Changelog:

New features:

01. Added: Storm property for Build modules
02. Added: Build module quality affecting Rain/Sun/Wind properties of Buildings
03. Added: Repair damaged building modules
04. Added: Usage of Repair Skill
05. Added: Repair Achievements
06. Added: Stick/Branch pack
07. Added: Multiple Equip functionality
08. Added: Support for Custom Hit and Hold Animations

General:

01. Changed: Save System divided into Game and Config
02. Added: Save system divided into Experimental and Standard data
03. Added: Possibility to Open/Close the Doors/Windows when something is equipped
04. Added: Saving more attach data when attaching objects to Raft
05. Added: Spoiled liquid/meal causes Health damage
06. Changed: Spoiled liquid/meal still have some amount of thirst/hunger values
07. Added: Support for Material Aging mechanic
08. Added: Hit Damage based on tool Quality
09. Added: Save game Backward compatibility checks improved

Fixes:

01. Fixed: Alpha Screen text always in English
02. Fixed: Not displaying Detach hotkey in ActionBar when Aiming Door/Window with Hammer in hand
03. Fixed: Doors/Windows to be equipped to hands (not intended)
04. Fixed: Rainwater in WaterHolders without thirst effect after they had oil in them or other liquid before water
05. Fixed: Not lowering thirst when drinking rainwater
06. Fixed: Incorrect Spoiled Energy values for all Liquids
07. Fixed: Sometimes incorrect spoil- and dry-up-times for all WaterHolder objects
08. Fixed: Incorrect HitPoint data loaded for sailing objects (rudder, sail, mast, ...)
09. Fixed: Incorrect HitPoint data loaded for for floatable objects (canoe, raft , ...)
10. Fixed: Navtools3_Text (Watch & Sextant Quest) made no sense (english only)

For the next update we plan to work on Global map and the Multi Cluster system. The additional plans include also the Old Telescope, Fog Catcher, Plank Build modules, Spear, Smoker, Dolphins, Simple Quests, Building modules aging ... We will work also on solving the new issues and we will recheck some older issues too. Other new features will be added as implementing the planned features and fixing issues will allow us to.

Thank you for your patience and for your constructive feedbacks helping us to get rid of the issues as fast as is possible.

Do you like our game and want to help even more during development? We look forward to every positive review posted on our Steam page and thank everyone who decides to support us along the way!



G4GTeam.

If you have any further questions do not hesitate to ask us. We will try to answer your questions in detail.



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Hello everyone,

I am absolutely happy to announce that Escape the Pacific is now also available on Twitch with its own game directory/category!

Now you don't need to choose a general category, such as "Survival", anymore when streaming. Instead simply choose the game title from its now available twitch directory.

For reaching out to me and the extraordinary support throughout the course of the last week I like to thank markwars and atheenon. Not mentioning a name I also want to say thanks a lot to the helping hand from someone of the Twitch team, not wasting any time to help resolve the situation :)

The game directory for Escape the Pacific on Twitch is found here: Twitch Link

Best wishes,
Chris, representing G4GT

Hi everyone,

the summer is finally here and in this short announcement we would like to inform you about our summer schedule.

We are leaving to vacation with our families and in between we are also going to work in our full time jobs which means stress in general so we can't guarantee there will be regular updates during summer time.

The last regular pre-summer release was published last week, on June 12th. We plan to release the next game update on September 4th. During the stretched interval between these releases we plan to work on some interesting and unique features that need more work and we hope you will like them. From September we plan to resume our normal schedule and will return to release an update every 4th Friday.

With the help of our community we together have done a big amount of work and laid down a very good foundation to further improve our game to all our liking.

Thank you all for all of the feedback, ideas and suggestions and for the patience during solving issues!

We wish you a very nice summer and good health and we hope to continue together with our work relaxed and well rested.


Best regards,

Gamers4Gamers Team.

Hi everyone,

for this update we were mainly focusing on adding the Sextant and using it in the Local Map. The Old Pocket Watch and Sundial helps the more precise mapping.  Ripened fruits fall to the ground and Water holder objects have gotten dynamic weight. A couple of issues were fixed too.

The Sextant has been finally added and enabled to use in the Local Map. It offers faster position measuring than the Triangulation does - of course after learning its basics which are described in detail in the in-game help pages and hint screens. To make the use of the Sextant in a more simple way, the game offers the best accurate measuring around Noon. Noon time can be more or less accurately determined by crafting and using a Sundial.


The Sundial is the most simple and oldest tool for measuring the time. It can be crafted anywhere on the ground and besides 1 Branch as the time passes it needs Tiny or Small Rocks to be added to the endpoints of the branches shadow. It is possible to pick up the unnecessary Rocks from it again. When the shadow is not shortening anymore and slowly begins to grow it is the the moment of right noon.


The Old Pocket Watch can be set also based on the Sundial and can be used in the game as a time reference. It can get inaccurate after a couple of days, therefore it needs to be reset periodically - best around Noon.


The Old Pocket Watch and the Sextant can be found in a chest on some shipwreck - the location can be found written on a paper piece in a chest on the island to which the Stone arrow on the starting island is aiming to.


The Fruit Ripening & Regrow mechanic have gotten a nice update - a portion of the fully ripened fruit now falls to the ground. Fruit fallen lays untouched for a couple of days and after that disappears. During that interval they are slowly spoiling as the other fruits do. This change gives more realism and slightly more fruit available for the player to survive.

The water holder objects now are weight based on the amount of the liquid contained. The savegame backwards compatibility engine has been fine tuned too so some of the older save games won't force the game to freeze at loading/starting.

Changelog : (* needs new game)

New features:

01. Added: Sundial
02. Added: Old Sextant*
03. Added: Old Pocket Watch*
04. Added: Old Compass
05. Added: Tiny Rock
06. Added: Human Skeleton*
07. Added: Paper Piece*

General:

01. Added: WaterHolders are weight based on the amount of liquid in them
02. Added: Additional Navigation Pockets for Sextant and Telescope in Inventory screen
03. Added: Hint for Sextant
04. Added: Hint for Compass
05. Added: Hint for Pocket Watch
06. Added: Hint for Sundial
07. Added: Help screen for Sundial
08. Added: Custom animation for hitting with Old Iron Axe
09. Added: Functionality to Check and invalidate the SaveFile based on more parameters

Fixes:

01. Fixed: Palm Frond not spawning when cut down from Young Banana Tree
02. Fixed: Game freezing during loading when there were coconuts on the fronds after fronds was cut down
03. Fixed: Rudder incorrectly moved with left/right buttons instead of Rotate left/Rotate right buttons in SailingUI
04. Fixed: Sail incorrectly rotated with Rotate left/Rotate right buttons instead of left/right buttons in SailingUI
05. Fixed: Incorrect hotkey displayed for Rudder rotation (the Sail ones) in SailingUI
06. Fixed: Incorrect hotkey displayed for Sail rotation (the Rudder ones) in SailingUI
07. Fixed: Incorrect functionality for Sail Up/Down in SailingUI
08. Fixed: Sail left/Right hotkeys not hidden in beginner and Up levels in SailingUI
09. Fixed: Incorrect button functionality for Sail Up/Down during Sail mode for controllers
10. Fixed: Incorrect button functionality for Sail Left/Right during Sail mode for controllers
11. Fixed: Incorrect button functionality for Rudder Center during Steering mode for controllers
12. Fixed: Incorrect button functionality for Rudder Left/Right during Steering mode for controllers
13. Fixed: Possibility to turn on Sail or Steering mode while SailingUI enabled
14. Fixed: Still displayed Sailing hotkeys after another game start
15. Fixed: Still displayed Steering hotkeys after another game start

For the next update we plan to work on raft building mechanic issues some more and to continue to work on the map UI with higher priority. The additional plans include also the Old Telescope, Spear, Smoker, Dolphins, Simple Quests, Building modules aging ... We will work also on solving the new issues and we will recheck some older issues too. Other new features will be added as implementing the planned features and fixing issues will allow us to.

Thank you for your patience and for your constructive feedbacks helping us to get rid of the issues as fast as is possible.

Do you like our game and want to help even more during development? We look forward to every positive review posted on our Steam page and thank everyone who decides to support us along the way!



G4GTeam.

If you have any further questions do not hesitate to ask us. We will try to answer your questions in detail.



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