Patch 0.5.1

This first Early Access patch addresses multiple items we’ve received via community feedback. Overall theme of this patch is to make areas of the Escape experience easier and more clear to the player as well as multiple UI/UX improvements.

Escape

• Lunar Module ladder now has animated hands to clarify how to climb the ladder.

• Initial checklist clarifications and verbiage changes

  First step now clarifies that the player only needs to grab one battery First step now requests the player place the battery inside of the Lunar Module instead of just “In a safe location” First step now clarifies that the player can climb the ladder with only one hand since they will be holding a battery in their other hand.

• Jumper Cable hookup step

  Simplified the jumper cable hookup step, now when the player picks up a jumper cable they will grab an entire jumper cable in one hand. While holding the jumper cable there will be a glowing ghosted version of the properly placed jumper cable connected to the battery and the player just needs to overlap the jumper cable with the new ghosted cable to place it. This replaces the older system of having to grab each end of the jumper cable and place each end independently.

• LM Door operation clarification

  Added a more detailed description of how to operate the LM door, this is a stopgap measure until the next patch where we will be shifting LM Door operation to a single click action.

• Removed animated widget instructing player how to spawn the Floating Menu

  This widget is no longer necessary now that the menu spawn has been moved to a controller button.

• Updated waypoint system

  The waypoint system now exists in the world in a fixed location above the waypoints rather than on the player's HUD. In the old system the waypoints would fly towards the objective when the objective was in the player's view. This created excess information on the HUD and generally made the waypoint system very busy and distracting. This new change streamlines the entire system.

• Increased available Oxygen supply from 45 minutes to 1.5 hours.

  This ensures that the player should have plenty of oxygen to complete the experience.

Free Roam

• Added a new menu selection screen

  When launching into free roam the player is now prompted where they would like to spawn; LM Interior, Moon Surface, Space Golf.

• Replaced golf platform stair collision with ramp collision to smooth out walking up the ramp.

  Previously walking up to the golf platform would cause a jittery up and down motion which could lead to motion sickness in some players. This has been replaced with a ramp collision to smooth out walking up the stairs.

• Golf cleanup widget now only cleans up the golf mini game.

  Previously the cleanup widget on the golf platform would cause everything in the game to reset to it's default state. It now only effects items involved in the golf mini game.

• Golf club has been moved to make it more obvious

  Some players were walking past the golf club at the top of the stairs due to it's material being similar to the platform. It is now on the green in open view.

Menus

• Streamlined Escape Launch experience.

  Removed settings menu instruction screen.

• Removed menu spawn gesture command

• Updated controller layout screens to reflect the new Menu spawn button

  This new binding replaces the old gesture based menu spawn. This should drastically reduce accidental menu spawns during gameplay.

• Made inactive buttons darker

  Inactive menu buttons should now be more apparent that they’re not active or useable. Clarifying and simplifying user experience.

• Arm Calibration

  Arm calibration menus have been overhauled and re-designed to make it more clear to the user how to execute calibrating arm length. This should reduce confusion in use of the system as well as make the system overall more user friendly and consistent. Added a “Skip Calibration” button when launching Escape that the player can use to skip that step if player arm length is already appropriate.

• Added an option to calibrate again in case of improper calibration.

• Floating menu fix applied that should prevent it from spawning behind walls.

Miscellaneous

• New higher resolution launch Icon

  A new icon has been added in both Unreal Engine and Steam at a higher resolution.

• Added a new in-game light near the Lunar Module Main hatch to make it easier to see.

  In the first patch, the door on the LM was completely in shadow due to the surrounding LM exterior casting one, making it difficult to see the LM hatch, we have added a soft light here to illuminate the door further.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug that prevented the crouch command from functioning as intended.

  In the back of the LM when the player was on top of the engine cover or the ramp collision leading up to it, crouch functionality stopped working. This should be fixed now.

• Fixed an issue that prevented players from being able to interact with the menus.

  Under certain conditions the flag in Unreal Engine 5 would "forget" the player should be flagged as being able to interact. This should be fixed.

• Fixed a bug that prevented closing the inspect widget if nothing was currently highlighted.

  Players should be able to close the inspect widget regardless if they have something highlighted or not.

• Lighting state inside LM now correctly saves with game save state.

  Previously if the player had turned on the lighting inside of the LM and than quit the game; upon resume the lights would be off. This should no longer occur

Closing Notes:

We have had to temporarily disable the "Continue" button on the main menu and the "Restart" button for Escape in the in-game menu. We apologize for the inconvenience and expect these features to return in next weeks patch.