Reality Break News

Reality Break Patch 1 has gone live as version 1.00.1.

Courtney's notes: This is the first Patch for Reality Break. The distinction between this patch and the hotfixes I released previously isn't black and white, but mainly: I will use hotfixes if something needs an urgent fix, and stick to a somewhat regular patching schedule for other improvements to the game.

I'm excited to announce that Reality Break got the official Steam Deck Verified badge from Valve! My work on performance and UI legibility isn't done, but at the very least the game now has a solid foundation for handheld play. Thank you to everyone who sent feedback! Please keep it coming.



I've also overhauled the Mission Challenge Level rewrite UX to address multiple areas of confusion and to improve clarity via layout and tooltips. Hopefully this will improve the experience for players, especially those who didn't realize there was a dropdown there in the first place or that challenge levels could be increased past CL11.

Performance is now better in heavy combat scenarios due to configurable per-object caps on visual effects for various abilities. This patch also includes four unique new items, including a Shields item to help complete an item set as well as three Epic drone items. And, I've done another pass on reducing the large size of certain UI elements after the recent legibility pass, and revamped the Aptitudes dialog UI to improve legibility on handheld devices.

I'm still diagnosing an issue experienced by a few players that can cause save file corruption on system power loss. Until I find out what's happening, I've implemented two different kinds of profile backups. They are described in the Stability section below.

I've also included some catch-up patch notes for improvements and fixes that weren't listed in the notes for prior hotfixes. These are listed in a separate section at the bottom.

I love working on this game, so thank you all so much for making my dream a reality! A reality break, if you will!

[h3]Performance[/h3]
Note: the UserConfig.xml file referenced below can be found in the game's installed files under your Steam root game directory at Reality Break\Reality Break_Data\StreamingAssets\Config\UserConfig.xml, where you can also find additional instructions for each setting.

• spawning of auto-pooled visual effects is now capped per effect, configurable in UserConfig.xml via AutoPoolingPerObjectMaximum (dev note: for example, projectile launch and impact effects)
• filling the object pools can either be done over time or all at once, configurable in UserConfig.xml via FillObjectPoolsOverTime (dev note: this is mainly for players on HDDs who want to let the game load more up front rather than have it stutter while filling the pools over time after startup)
• added an experimental setting that turns on auto-pooling for almost all ability effect objects, which you can enable in UserConfig.xml via EXPERIMENTAL_AutoPoolAllAbilityEffects
• added an experimental setting that decreases the chance an auto-pooled object will spawn if the current proportion of spawned objects relative to the hard limit exceeds the EXPERIMENTAL_ReducePooledSpawnChanceThreshold setting in UserConfig.xml (dev note: (this means objects with capped pools will gradually decrease their spawn rate by default as they approach their hard cap rather than just shutting off when the limit is reached)

[h3]Stability[/h3]

• the game now creates a backup of the current pilot save file before it proceeds with a profile save
  
• in addition, the game creates session backups the first time the Reality Stream or any pilot are loaded successfully after a fresh launch of the game (dev note: if something happens to your profile, you can check %localappdata%low\Element Games\Reality Break for save file backups)
• fixed game getting into a bad state if it tried to import a demo profile but a demo folder did not exist
  
• fixed instability if an Analysis timer was reduced below the minimum possible value for DateTime via Inspection Point rewards for already-completed analysis
  

[h3]Quality of Life[/h3]

• the Mission Challenge Level rewrite UI has been revamped to make it more obvious that different levels can be selected by the player as well as to teach various additional concepts via layout and tooltips, including showing the enemy difficulty increase as well as the improved rewards from higher CLs
  

[h3]Content[/h3]

• added "Premium Cycler" unique Shields item, Screen specialization
  
• added "Sudden Followthrough" unique Drone item, Targeter specialization
  
• added "Evasion Protocol" unique Drone item, Orbiter specialization
  
• added "Voltaic Fortifier" unique Drone item, Transformer specialization
  
• improved legibility of Aptitudes dialog on handheld devices
  

[h3]Balance[/h3]

• the Sublimation affix has been adjusted: its baseline potency, minimum increment, and scaling with item level, rarity, and ship class have been reduced (dev note: this affix was an extreme power level outlier, contributing in large part to some players being able to trivialize CL99 enemies and even the Overlord; I will be doing an Aptitude balance pass in the future that will aim to bring everything closer together, at which point this and other unique affixes will be adjusted further)
• the Ambush affix has been adjusted: its scaling with rarity has been increased
  
• the Devastator affix has been adjusted: its minimum increment and scaling with rarity and ship class have been reduced
  
• Affix Fragments are no longer blocked from installation by matching affixes on the target item, except for a crafted fragment with a matching affix that is already installed in that item
  
• reduced damage output of Federation Destroyer by 60%
  

[h3]Bug fixes[/h3]

• fixed various affix and stat calculation inconsistencies by removing order dependencies (dev note: among other things, this fixes interactions between affix multipliers and other bonuses based on the order in which items were equipped)
• fixed the Aptitude dialog showing portions of UI for undiscovered Aptitudes
  
• fixed certain labels not using localized strings on Aptitude dialog
  
• fixed Superlaser weapons not being flagged as Beam weapons
  
• fixed rewriting Unique Modifier Type not updating the item's internal UniqueModifier for later use
  
• fixed certain Affix values being applied both to the additive and multiplicative components of the bonus calculation
  
• fixed being unable to scroll certain lists by grabbing and dragging their scrollbar handles
  
• fixed being able to equip drones into phantom slots after using alt compare on a drone tooltip and then switching to a pilot without as many slots unlocked
  
• fixed being able to extract an Affix Fragment from the Fate Core
  
• fixed mission rewards showing CL 106 as required for next Aptitude rank
  
• fixed regression with camera shake and screen edge effects option toggles no longer functioning
  
• fixed overly small labels on pilot profile UI
  
• fixed visual effects being offset and scaled after antialiasing was turned off, until a game restart
  

[h2]Previously[/h2]

• clarified the Unique Bonus description for Epic Gatling weapon The Shredder to make it obvious that its projectile damage boost degrades in flight
  
• toned down flashbang of Nexus capital ship destroyed debris
  
• toned down flashbang brightness on one of the Epic Gatling weapon's unique bonus visual effects
  
• Reinforced Coffers are now guaranteed to drop at least an Epic item
  
• treasure crates with additional Bonus Equipment now get extra loot quality and drop at least Rares, but cost 3x
  
• fixed Rewrite dialog background sorting against bright Navigation map mission node UIs
  
• fixed Rewrite dialog not making its rewrite entries operable if fate pulses were picked up while it was open
  
• fixed Codex dialog being partly cut off at certain screen aspect ratios
  
• fixed Nucleic Injector projectiles not spawning their impact fx on collision
  
• fixed Haste region mod entries not displaying as percentage
  
• fixed inventory sort not segregating different item types correctly, such as Equipment vs Resources
  
• Armor value on ship dialog UI now uses large number formatting if necessary
  
• reduced the delay before you can skip the first line of dialogue in a story conversation from 900ms to 300ms (dev note: it's there so players don't accidentally miss the first line if clicking rapidly; for advanced users, it is configurable in Reality Break\Reality Break_Data\StreamingAssets\Proto\Settings\GameSettings.xml via InputCooldownForFirstStoryIndex)
• reduced the delay before you can dismiss a tutorial popup from 900ms to 500ms (dev note: confgurable in GameSettings.xml via DefaultTutorialDismissDelay)
• renamed Shield Capacitor to Factory Capacitor so that it matches the Expert Goal's naming
  
• fixed miscellaneous bug with Rare set item names not matching the item that was acquired for that set item slot
  

Reality Break v1.00.0 hotfix 6 has gone live.

Courtney's notes: This hotfix includes a substantial overhaul of the game's UI text presentation, the first pass at improving text legibility across the board with a particular focus on comfort when playing the game on handhelds such as Steam Deck.

I've been made aware of two fixes related to graphics drivers that allowed players to resolve big performance problems:

1. if you're on Nvidia driver v572.16 and experiencing extremely poor performance, please try reverting to an older version or upgrading to a newer one. v572.16 has been reported by various players as causing a host of massive problems in various games.
   
2. if you're using an AMD graphics card, one of my players who was experiencing a repeatable crash to desktop when jumping into a mission has reported that updating to the February 20th Optional AMD Drivers fixed the problem.
   

In addition, I'm tracking the following performance problems for a fix:

1. stuttering on high refresh rate monitors: I've ordered a 180Hz monitor so I can diagnose the problems in my dev environment.
   
2. players on HDDs as opposed to SSDs: I've implemented a few improvements for the game hitting the hard drive unnecessarily, and have also ordered an HDD so I can test this myself.
   
3. high enemy density: more improvements will be coming here over time.
   

This update also includes a smattering of other fixes and improvements as requested by the player community - thank you for letting me know what you'd like to see in the game!

[h3]Performance[/h3]

• reduced the impact of object pool initialization when starting the game by amortizing it over time more effectively
  
• added more effects to object pool
  

[h3]Quality of Life[/h3]

• tripled the auto-pickup radius for currencies dropped in space as well as for health, energy, and supercharge drops
  
• Resource drops are now automatically collected at the same distance as currencies. If ejected from your ship's inventory, they will not be auto-collected again until you leave and re-enter their auto-pickup radius.
  
• if you have two or more equipped weapons that are either all Primary or all Secondary, pressing either the Primary or Secondary fire input will fire all of them
  

[h3]Balance[/h3]

• increased proc chance of Laser debuff from 10% to 50%, and increased its potency from +100% to +200% Secondary Weapon damage taken
  
• increased refund chance for the Vibrant Acuity talent from 50% to 75%
  
• increased the Armor multiplier from the Fortify Skill from 20% to 50% per level, and made it scale with all enemies within 200 meters instead of 100
  
• reduced the damage scaling for Pilot Skills that use Total Damage Output to bring them closer to weapons (dev note: This affects Superheated, Negate Existence, and Asteroid Barrage. For example, Negate Existence was being used as a pure dps Skill that outpaced any possible weapon combo even without factoring in the Execute bonus. However, I'm continuing to monitor this heavily and will adjust as needed, in particular making sure that all Aptitude Ranks are achievable.)
• increased Resource drop rates from Asteroids by 100%
  
• increased Resource drop rates from enemies by 900%
  
• dramatically increased spawn chance of recurring antagonist at higher story campaign completion levels during a given cycle (dev note: leveling your pilot past lv10, equipping Epics/Artifacts, and progressing the story will all increase the chance that this antagonist warps into your mission - as long as you're surrounded by several enemies)

[h3]Bug fixes[/h3]

• fixed being unable to click on 'X' button to close the Navigation dialog
  
• fixed display strings for rewards from side missions that would rank up an Aptitude if completed at a higher Challenge Level
  
• fixed weapon damage scaling from the following affixes: power source (e.g., Energy-based vs Ammo-based), specialization (e.g., Phaser vs Launcher), and subspecialization (e.g., Primary vs Secondary) (dev note: this fix represents a buff to weapon damage, in some cases a substantial improvement if you were running many such affixes)
• fixed loss of ship and UI control inputs if Navigation dialog was open during a jump sequence
  
• fixed various consistency issues when displaying numerical bonuses from certain Affixes in various contexts, such as weapon type damage bonuses in item tooltips and the Stat Details panel
  
• fixed extra visual fx spawning and not being cleaned up for the ship buff applied by one of the unique Launcher weapons
  
• fixed not being able to Abandon Mission in the Chaos Vortex
  

Reality Break v1.00.0 hotfix 5 has gone live.

Courtney's notes: More performance fixes along with progression and gameplay blockers are included in this hotfix.

A note about balance: I am continuing to evaluate this with the community. Once the overall landscape reaches a more stable state, I will evaluate whether more sweeping changes are warranted. Thank you for continuing to post balance feedback.

Also, this hotfix reworks the penultimate mission so that players who defeat the recurring antagonist during the first cycle that's possible don't miss critical story exposition that explains much of the game's plot, and so that they don't the final rank for one of the main Story Talents. In addition, this enables the final two mission skips that those players were missing, including by far the largest skip in the launch version of the game.

The launch for Reality Break exceeded my expectations, and I will continue improving the game over the coming weeks and months. Thank you all again for joining me on this journey!

[h3]Performance[/h3]

• substantially improved the performance of the game's asteroids, including updating, damaging, and destroying them
  
• improved the performance of spawning impact/hit fx caused by standard attack abilities as well as beam type abilities
  

[h3]Progression[/h3]

• story campaign mission The Reality of the Situation now includes additional exposition dialogue from a separate timeline branch if the player arrives at that mission after having defeated the recurring antagonist during the first cycle that's possible to do; this also makes sure to upgrade the relevant Story Talent to its maximum rank, and unlocks two more mission skips
  

[h3]Quality of Life[/h3]

• show oversized item Ship Class rewrites differently depending on whether the player can afford them, and show "Fighter" as the ship's label in the ship dialog UI header (dev note: this is to increase tutorialization for the Ship Class rewrite feature since it continues to be missed by many players)

[h3]Balance[/h3]

• Region Mod Type and Region Mod Value mission rewrites now generate more reasonable values that scale with mission Challenge Level
  

[h3]Bug fixes[/h3]

• fixed Backup Plan item regression alternating its shots instead of firing both simultaneously
  
• fixed Negatron Collider item cooldown reduction bonus not working
  
• fixed homing weapon projectiles not tracking Hazards or Structures, such as Launcher missiles not acquiring lock on Volatile Anomalies and Colossus Pulsers
  
• fixed remaining Analysis time getting stuck at 0 seconds if the analysis was completed via the bonus from the Multiplex Analysis talent
  
• fixed various visual and calculation problems with the Region Mod Type and Region Mod Value mission rewrite
  
• fixed campaign story missions locking their level at 1 for newly-created pilots when other pilots have already completed other timelines for the Reality Stream
  
• fixed Talent Tier 2 bonus to Loot Quality not applying
  

Reality Break v1.00.0 hotfix 4 has gone live.

Courtney's notes: This hotfix lands with a variety pack of upgrades, including increased projectile combat performance, fixes for a couple of progression blockers, resolution for a few areas of broken balance or outright exploits, improved UX clarity, and other fixes!

Thank you again for posting all the bug reports and feedback - I'm continuing to work through them to address the highest-priority issues, and I will eventually get through them all.

Also, one thing I'd like to address is the player feedback about larger-sized items, such as Warship class items. Those items are not for larger ship types. Take a closer look at a large item's tooltip after you have unlocked Rewriting and you'll discover something powerful you can do with it!

[h3]Performance[/h3]

• implemented the first pass at an Auto-Pooling system, currently just for projectiles as well as their launch fx and impact fx, which aims to reduce the performance impact of projectile combat dramatically throughout the game
  
• disabled generic fx spawned unnecessarily by projectile impacts that were critical hits since there's a separate and far more performant system for spawning those
  
• non-Epic Swarmer firing rate has been reduced by 33% because it was way above other Swarmers (its dps has been counterbalanced)
  
• disabled impact fx triggering impact sounds that would follow the object, which was an unnecessary expense
  
• reduced max particle counts on Rakeris boss encounter by 90%
  
• optimized the terrain on the Rakeris encounter map, reducing its memory and render requirements
  
• added support for disabling terrain decals during the Rakeris encounter (dev note: this is currently bound to the HD Clouds setting in the Options dialog until the next batch of localization goes through)

[h3]Progression[/h3]

• if the player's ship is destroyed during the story mission "Gathering: The Magic", the protective barrier granted by the mission is now correctly reapplied
  
• restored the Into the Vortex button functionality on a lategame end-of-cycle popup
  
• don't spawn recurring antagonist as early in any given cycle
  
• the crafting NPC no longer becomes inoperable if certain missions are skipped and then the campaign is completed
  

[h3]Quality of Life[/h3]

• the Loot Filter now has three additional toggles that allow items meeting certain criteria to bypass the filter's standard logic (Rarity rewrite, Affix Type rewrite, and Codex set completion) (dev note: this exposes functionality that already existed under the hood and defaulted to on, but that behavior was confusing to many players, so these Loot Filter bypasses now default to off.)

[h3]Balance[/h3]

• rebalanced RP multiplier scaling from Expert Goals by bringing it in line with other RP multipliers instead of being wildly out of balance when incorporating the Strive for Excellence and/or Finesse talents
  
• substantially improved the recurring antagonist's loot table
  

[h3]Bug fixes[/h3]

• fixed item loss resulting from dragging an equipped item onto another item in the ship's inventory that was not currently equippable in the source slot
  
• fixed certain rarity rewrites of common weapons resulting in a Selbar weapon
  
• fixed exploit in the Chaos Vortex that allowed for risk-free survival time in the miasma with the Walking With Ancients talent
  
• fixed exploit with repeatedly boosting an Affix Fragment while the Vibrant Formulation subtalent is active
  
• fixed equipped Drones firing too many shots in certain circumstances
  
• fixed gaining phantom Drones above the currently unlocked # of slots when rewriting an equipped Drone's rarity to Epic or higher
  
• fixed certain Expert Goals tracking instances of damage taken by player ship outside of the correct story mission map
  

Reality Break v1.00.0 hotfix 3 has gone live.

Courtney's notes: This hotfix focuses on some progression blockers, fixes a couple of egregious Talent bugs, and has the first of many performance improvements. In addition, I have included fixes for a couple of issues that are technically in the Balance category but that are substantially affecting players' ability to progress through the campaign and complete it: the recurring antagonist and the final boss fight.

I'm continuing to investigate why certain powerful machines with modern CPUs and latest GPUs are sometimes struggling heavily on certain scenes, when my dev machine (i7 6700K / 16GB / GTX970) and my gaming machine (i7 14700F / 32GB / 4070 TS) both run the game more than playably, except with ridiculous combinations of projectile effects and impacts due to combining things like Hyper Mode, Twin Bolt, Alter Spacetime, and Haste buffs. I don't have any other PCs available to test with at the moment, so I appreciate everyone who emails me additional info to help me track this down for all of you. In addition, Valve sent me Steam Deck dev hardware, which will speed up my optimization work.

Thank you all once again for your patience.

[h2]Performance[/h2]

• item tooltip performance: no longer recalculate layout or positioning if nothing has changed, no longer process "show" logic if the element being hovered hasn't changed, don't clean up tweens unnecessarily (such as when no tweens have been started)
  
• items marked for Scrap no longer calculate their comparison delta indicators (dev note: this system will continue to be optimized over time)
• added caching for logic that validates keys used for display string translation lookup
  
• set up object pooling for additional visual effects
  

[h2]Progression[/h2]

• fixed many instances of mission objectives being skipped or mission objectives disappearing after exiting to the main menu, quitting the game, or warping to a different region than intended. This fixes issues such as the third mission losing its "jump to Station 6" objective if a side mission was begun instead.
  
• fixed the first story mission skipping some of its objectives after breaking a profile and restarting the game
  
• the rescue target for the story campaign mission "Rewrite the Scientific Method" now has 99.9% damage reduction, 10x the shields, and 2x the shield recharge rate so that they are more durable and don't interrupt the flow of the story campaign
  
• opponents in the game's final fight have been significantly retuned: dodge chance reduced by 50%, shields reduced by 50%, shield recharge rate reduced by 80%, damage reduced by 75%
  
• the recurring antagonist has been significantly retuned: shields reduced by 50%, shield recharge rate reduced by 80%, damage reduced by 90%
  

[h2]Bug fixes[/h2]

• fixed instances where an item's item level could be downgraded in a particular rewrite scenario (dev note: Pulling the Strands freebie item combined with a certain rewrite in mission 3)
• fixed various bugs with the Barrage affix: limited its affix value rolls in the same way as Twinbolt, ensured it's quantized, don't allow it to drop as a Unique Modifier Type rewrite option
  
• fixed being able to get above Tier level 100 by refunding subtalents; the game will fix up all profiles on load to have the correct tier levels for the currently purchased talents
  
• fixed tooltip for maxed out subtalents not including the "(no refund)" warning next to the Reset input instruction
  
• fixed loot filter allowing inappropriate items to drop once the bonus has been unlocked for the Fate Core's Rare rewrite tier
  
• fixed scaling bonus for Fate Core Rare rewrite tier not updating correctly if an item's rarity was rewritten to one that qualifies
  
• fixed tutorial not popping up that explains Fate Core Epic tier bonus
  
• fixed certain affixes displaying as 0% if their value was fractional
  
• fixed the logic for the talent A Beautiful Cortex so that it produces reasonable rewrite values
  
• fixed bug that prevented new pilots from seeing Shields and Drone item drops, even if the player had already stabilized the Fate Core