End of July Update: Traduccion al Español, New Achievements, AMD Fixes
There's an update live for Windows including Spanish translations, 4 new achievements and fixes for AMD-FX players!
New Achievements
There are now 4 new achievements in Estranged: Act II!
AMD-FX CPU Fixes
Previously there were a series of mysterious problems with Act II and AMD-FX CPUs, with no obvious cause. After spending a long time researching the subject, I found that it was related to the DirectX XAudio API with AMD-FX CPUs, and Estranged: Act II was not the only game suffering from the problem.
The short story is that the problem is now fixed, and the game now uses a different audio engine which doesn't go via XAudio!
Traduccion al Español (Spanish Translations)
¡Saludos desde Inglaterra! ¡El juego ahora está traducido al español, incluidos todos los menús, subtítulos, correos electrónicos y noticias!
¡Si quieres contribuir a mantener la traducción al día o hacer alguna corrección, ponte en contacto conmigo en https://discord.gg/estranged !
As ever, thank you for playing Estranged! I'm always around on Discord, the forums, or via the in-game feedback if you'd like to suggest an idea or report bugs.
Alan
Mid July Update: 中文翻译, Commentary and Music Improvements
A new update is live on Steam for Windows, including Simplified Chinese language support.
Commentary
The commentary option has returned to the Gameplay options menu, bringing with it a selection of strategically placed videos from the Estranged Development Blog series on YouTube.
The music in Estranged now follows you through the loading screens, and fades out instead of ending abruptly. This improves the overall flow of the game, and I'll be looking to make more improvements in this area in future updates.
New Language Menu
Estranged: Act II now supports 22 languages in total, with 10 of those languages 100% complete. The previous option for switching languages was in the Gameplay menu, but it used a side-scrolling control to switch between languages which made it difficult to do so. To improve this, there's now a dedicated options menu for picking a language.
That's all for this update. If you have any feedback, I'm always watching the forums, or I'm around at https://discord.gg/estranged.
Thank you for playing Estranged!
Alan
Late June Update: New Ending Scene, Русские Переводы
There's a new update on Steam for Windows! This update includes a new ending, and a complete Russian translation!
New Ending Scene
There's a new scene and more content at the end of the current build! This provides a glimpse at more of the story in Estranged: Act II.
This is a temporary ending that I teased in my last news update, and there is a bit more content planned after this point. To jump there directly, use the cheat "map TheBase#sp10".
Русские Переводы (Russian Translation)
Привет из Англии! Игра, включая меню, субтитры, электронные уведомления и газеты, теперь переведена на русский язык!
Перевод осуществлен переводчиками компании Gengo – если вы в дальнейшем хотите принять участие в переводе обновлений или предложить исправление ошибок, свяжитесь со мной: discord.gg/estranged
Japanese and Czech Translations
The game has also almost completely been translated into Japanese and Czech by members of the community, with more languages on the way. My next focus will be Simplified Chinese, which represents the second most popular language on Steam (Russian being the third).
Thank you to everyone that has helped out with the project, and those that are following the progress. If you have any feedback, want to report a bug or just want to say, head over to discord.gg/estranged
Thanks for playing Estranged!
Alan
Early June Update: New Achievements, Vending Machines
There's a new update on Steam for Windows including two new achievements! A Linux build will follow in the next few hours.
Continued Content Work
This update is mainly to add some goodies to the game while I continue the current final level. Here's a sneak peak of what I'm working on - not yet available in the Steam version!
There have also been a couple of visual tweaks to the current final beach level. As I've said in previous posts, updates will be smaller in terms of content going forwards, as I work towards bringing Act II to a close.
Vending Machines
To add to the interactivity in the levels, vending machines now dispense bottles and cans!
Arque Water Achievement
The new vending machines include Arque branded water vending machines. This update adds an achievement for dispensing all of the Arque water bottles!
Headshot Achievement
There's also an achievement for getting at least 5 headshots with a firearm, in any gamemode. I'm looking to add a bunch more achievements in future updates, so watch this space!
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Feedback is always appreciated - join the ever-growing community at https://discord.gg/estranged
Thanks for playing Estranged!
Alan
Late May Update: Graphics, Gameplay and Flushable Toilets
There's a new build on Steam for Windows and Linux! This build includes graphical changes, gameplay changes and some general work on stability.
Forest and Beach Level Updates
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.
Reflections
The game now uses screen space reflections throughout, meaning that reflections look much crisper and update in real-time.
Pick-Up Physics Improvements
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.
Flushable Toilets
Some (unfortunately not all!) toilets in Estranged are now flushable. This was a requested feature. I'm not kidding!
Other Changes
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
Early May Update: Capture Scene
There's a new build available on Steam for Windows and Linux!
Capture Scene
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".
Other Changes
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.
Late April Update: New Content, Music and Achievement!
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!
Content
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
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.
New Achievement
After many players asked for it, there's now an achievement for depositing the fisherman's ducks into his bath in the prelude!
Hint Overhaul
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!
Other Changes
"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
Mid April Update: Content Work & HUD Changes
There's an update live on Steam for Windows! This build includes changes to existing content, and an oxygen meter for the HUD.
Content Changes
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.
Oxygen Meter
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.
Other Changes
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
Estranged: Act I Workshop Support
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
Mid March Update
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.
Beach Content
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.
Act II Now Stays in your Steam Library
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/
Other Changes in this Build
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
Early March Update: New Infected, New Content & More!
A build is now live for Windows and Linux including new infected, content and various improvements and tweaks to gameplay.
New Infected & Continued Underground Content
There's a new infected type in town! To explore the newer content which introduces the new enemy and provides the story background around how they got there, head over to Chapter 3 (or use the cheat map TheBase#sp07 to jump directly there).
There's also little more content to accompany the current ending, welcoming back a familiar story element. Keep watching for more content in the next few updates!
Cheats Auto-Complete
The cheat entry box on the Extras menu now auto-completes, allowing you to see a list of cheats up-front. Start typing "map" or "spawn" to show a full list of cheats.
Other Changes
Jumping up on surfaces is now animated - previously it looked as if the player was teleported
It's no longer possible to bypass picking up the pickaxe in the mind
The pickaxe now breaks in the sewer level to make the chase scene feel more dangerous, and the pickaxe can now deal damage to infected characters later in the game
Water footstep sounds - walking in water now has more ambient noise
In the warehouse horde, the infected corpses are now cleaned up
The rubber ducks in the prelude level now float upright!
The always growing Discord community is around at https://discord.gg/estranged if you'd like to chat with other Estranged players or feed back directly to me!
