Normal Branch Release
Hello Survivors!
Your patience is truly appreciated. As a small indie studio, Escape the Pacific is our passion project. Over five years, we've been committed to regular updates, driven by your feedback and positivity. Thank you for being an integral part of this incredible journey!
-- Peter --
TLDR
- New UI - Massive design overhaul
- Custom HUD settings and UI scale options
- Bird Trap Mechanics
- Companion and Bird Cage Mechanics
- Refactored 31k lines of code
- Squished more bugs than you can fit in a coconut bowl
- Reworked 200 actions related to the hotkey and control system
UI Design Overhaul
We don't want to spoil it for you, so we will only show a couple of the new UI updates. Please feel free to experience the rest yourself, and let us know how you feel about it.
One major change is the new popup when aiming at an object. We've heard you and we've redesigned it bigger. This will make your life easier, especially when reading Blueprint ingredients.
Another major change is the way we separated the key bindings.
- Local Actions: These are actions that can be performed with the item that is in your hand, will be displayed above the Item in Hand icon, bottom right of the screen
- External Actions: These are actions that can be performed to the external item that you’re looking at
Companion
Many of you asked for a companion and I bet you didn’t expect this to be one of the most vicious things in the game… The killer Gulls!
- If you decide to keep them as pets, please make sure you keep them fed and watered
- You’ll be able to take them out of the cage and release them. They will fly towards the nearest cluster. This might come in handy while you’re out at sea, searching for a new cluster.
You can craft the bird cage from the crafting menu, to safely transport your new companion.
Bird Trap
Pretty much self explanatory, the Bird Trap! Craft it from the menu, position, arm, bait, and await the fluttering seagull. Note: the seagull model might not be updated in the experimental version—enjoy the current one for now. Happy trapping!
Sailing UI/UX
We have simplified the sailing UX, and split the available settings into two categories:
-
Sailing Mode
- Beginner
- You influence the boat movement. Sails and Rudders are set automatically by the system, based on your key input.
- Sail and Rudder control: Auto
- Sail and Raft behavior: Auto
- Raft and Wind indicator: On
- Advanced
- You influence the rotation and position of the Sails and Rudders. The boat movement is based on the position and rotation of the Sails and Rudders.
- Sail and Rudder control: Manual
- Sail and Raft behavior: Manual
- Raft and Wind indicator: On
- Realistic
- You influence the rotation and position of the Sails and Rudders. The boat movement is based on the position and rotation of the Sails and Rudders.
- Sail and Rudder control: Manual
- Sail and Raft behavior: Manual
- Raft and Wind indicator: Off
-
Weather Mode
- Beginner
- The EtP Gods are on your side! Wind will always blow from the side, driving your boat forward.
- The wind will never stop blowing, as long as your sails are up.
- Upwind: Disabled
- Calm Wind: Disabled
- Advanced
- The EtP Gods are testing you! Wind will always blow from the side, driving your boat forward.
- The wind might stop blowing. This is called Calm Wind amongst Sailors.
- Upwind: Disabled
- Calm Wind: Enabled
- Realistic
- The EtP Gods are merciless! The actual weather will determine the wind blowing direction.
- As in the real life of a Sailor, Calm Wind situations may occur.
- Upwind: Enabled
- Calm Wind: Enabled
We have also tidied up the sailing UI, to make the interaction more straight forward.
Keybinding improvements
In a game filled with nearly countless interactions and boundless possibilities, we're tackling the challenge of implementing a more player-friendlier keybinding system. We have added categorized keybindings in the settings menu. The first additions include three main interaction keys and dedicated keys for sailing. This is an ongoing process, and we're dedicated to providing a fully refined system to enhance your gaming experience, making it even more intuitive.
Dedicated Sailing Keys
Dedicated interaction Keys
UI scale options
You now have the possibility to scale certain UI elements. The default size is 100% and you can scale it up to 140%. This applies to screens like inventory, crafting page and similar.
HUD scale 100%
HUD scale 120%
HUD scale 140%
HUD customization
You can now customize how much of the HUD elements you want to see on the screen, to fully immerse yourselves in the game. You can find these settings on the settings page on the Graphic tab.
HUD Level Full
Shows all HUD elements
HUD Level Medium
Hides Food Diversity info.
HUD Level Low
Shows only Health, action keys and the aimed-at item popup.
HUD Level Off
Hides everything.
Deferred Features
Admitting our oversight, implementing three long-awaited features posed unforeseen challenges:
- Ropes in blueprints
- A reworked tutorial
- A clean water pond on Hill Island
Despite initial setbacks, we're near completion and thrilled to unveil them early next year. Your patience is greatly appreciated!
Your input shapes the game, so don't hesitate to let us know how you feel.
We wanted to take a moment to extend our heartfelt thanks to each and every one of you. Your unwavering support, enthusiasm, and dedication to our game have made this journey truly extraordinary. We're grateful to have such an amazing community by our side.
-- Radu --
From the entire G4GT team I wish you a great rest of the day!
One last thing
We've added new 3D models for the Knife, Hammer and Axe.
We've also updated the Bush fiber model.
