The Riftbreaker News

Hello Riftbreakers!

Another week, another experimental patch! Thanks to your feedback, we have managed to investigate and fix a bunch of problems with the previous build. We have also moved on to our new, custom-made memory allocator, which hopefully will bring some performance gains, especially in large bases with a large number of entities. Please keep reporting the outstanding issues on our Discord: www.discord.gg/exorstudios.

This build of the game is highly experimental - even more than usual. We have already spent over a week testing the package, but literally anything might break. Please proceed with caution. Seriously. We strongly recommend you to back up your save files before moving onto the experimental branch.

How to join the experimental branch:

1. create a backup copy of your save folder (Documents/The Riftbreaker)
   
2. disable Steam Cloud save backup
   
3. go to your Steam Library
   
4. right-click on The Riftbreaker
   
5. select 'Properties,’ then 'Betas,’ and use the following password: IknowWhatImDoing
   

After that, you will be able to choose 'experimental' from the drop-down menu. Download the update, play the game and let us know if you encounter any issues. We also have a channel on our Discord: https://www.discord.gg/exorstudios #rb-experimental-feedback - we highly encourage you to join in and share your feedback.

[h2]The Riftbreaker Experimental Update, November 4th, 2022. Package #279, Binaries #532. Changelog:[/h2]

[h3]CHANGES[/h3]

• FramePrepareMeshRenderable contention decreased. It's quite a big optimization step, as on a 12-core CPU, the cost per frame decreases from 15% to 5% of the overall rendering time. Your mileage may vary depending on the number of CPU cores available to you, but it's a step in the right direction.
  
• We made the switch to a new memory allocator. It might come across as a strange move since we only switched to mimalloc last week. However, mimalloc was not our target allocator, just a stepping stone to our own custom solution. Our proprietary memory allocator is more efficient and reduces the overall memory usage compared to both mimalloc and our old allocator.
  
• In order to reduce the length of some localization strings, we replaced the words 'mech' and 'tower' with dedicated icons in ammunition-related information boxes. Thanks to that, the descriptions are much shorter, especially in languages known for long, compound words.
  
• Portals and liquid pumps should now display their operating radiuses after selecting them in build mode.
  
• Changed the radius decal for Magnetic Stabilizer.
  
• Changed some old loading screen tips that were no longer relevant due to gameplay changes. We also added a couple of new ones - for now, they are displayed in English only.
  
• The 'P' key can now be bound to any action in the Controls Customization screen. The only hardbound key that is left in our control scheme is 'Esc'.
  

[h3]FIXES[/h3]

• Buildings rebuilt from ruins (optional feature for the time being) no longer double your resource storage.
  
• Benchmark timings and behavior have been fixed to match the previous settings.
  
• Pipes should no longer connect to buildings that do not use liquids.
  
• Sentry turrets should now properly sink in quicksand.
  
• Fixed the effects of the Offensive Drone for the mech to match the damage type.
  
• Fixed issues with key binding options disappearing in certain conditions.
  
• Sentry turrets and other consumable objects can no longer be selected using the picker tool.
  
• Fixed errors resulting from pakbuilding mistakes.
  
• Shield Generators now display their operating radiuses.
  
• Fixed Morirot nest behavior.
  
• Fixed potential Metal Terror DLC initialization problems.
  
• Fixed multiple crash bugs.
  

www.twitch.tv/exorstudios

Hello Riftbreakers!

It is time for us to open the floodgates and release a big chunk of changes that we have been working on for the past couple of months. We present to you the most experimental build of all the experimental builds that we have ever published. Comprised of over 1100 individual changes, this build is the groundwork for the two large items from our roadmap - Extended Modding Support and Co-Op Multiplayer.

This build of the game is highly experimental - even more than usual. We have already spent over a week testing the package, but literally anything might break. Please proceed with caution. Seriously. We strongly recommend you to back up your save files before moving onto the experimental branch.

How to join the experimental branch:

1. create a backup copy of your save folder (Documents/The Riftbreaker)
   
2. disable Steam Cloud save backup
   
3. go to your Steam Library
   
4. right-click on The Riftbreaker
   
5. select 'Properties,’ then 'Betas,’ and use the following password: IknowWhatImDoing
   

After that, you will be able to choose 'experimental' from the drop-down menu. Download the update, play the game and let us know if you encounter any issues. We also have a channel on our Discord: https://www.discord.gg/exorstudios #rb-experimental-feedback - we highly encourage you to join in and share your feedback.

[h2]The Riftbreaker Experimental Update, October 28th, 2022. Binaries #522, Package #270, Changelog:[/h2]

[h3]ENGINE CHANGES[/h3]

• This update comes with a lot of game engine changes, both big and small, that we have been working on for the past couple of months. These changes have been introduced in order to lay the foundations for the introduction of the multiplayer mode in the future. None of these changes should be noticeable to you, but they are really important from a technical standpoint. Given the fundamental nature of these changes, you can encounter many unexpected bugs, crashes, and glitches. Please pay attention to them and report every bug that you find.
  

[h3]NEW FEATURES[/h3]

• Added AMD FidelityFX Stochastic Screen Space Reflections, or SSSR for short. This feature adds dynamic screen space reflections that add an additional layer of graphical fidelity to the game. You will now be able to observe reflections of buildings and map props on reflective surfaces, such as various metals and liquids. This feature is available for all DirectX 12 compatible systems.
  
• 4 additional map tiles for the Acidic Plains biome and 2 additional tiles for the Volcanic Area biome have been added to improve the randomized map generation variety.
  
• Attack waves triggered by interacting with bioanomalies have been reworked. They are now much more demanding and scale, along with the bioanomaly rarity level and game difficulty level. Opening one of these should ba a conscious and well thought-out decision!
  
• Picker tool added. You can use it to quickly build copies of exisitng buildings. Press the hotkey ('B' by default) or select the Picker tool from the Build Menu, select the building you want to build more of and you're set!
  
• New memory allocator that results in more efficient memory use and improved CPU performance - especially in late game scenarios with large bases.
  
• Added radius displays to all defensive towers, magnetic stabilizers, repair towers and shield generators. Selecting one of them in the Build Mode will display the radius of that one specific building. In case of Shockwave and Flamer Towers, the radiuses of all towers of that type will be displayed to allow you to effectively cover the desired area.
  
• (Modding) Teleport: created teleport machine for working with all entities. Required parameters in database are: target (as int or vector3), optional parameters: (float) disappear_time, wait_time, appear_time and (int) portal_entity (for getting notification on appearence)
  

[h3]CHANGES[/h3]

• Energy Walls and regular Walls now share the same menu tile. We made this change to allow you to use the same keyboard shortcut for both variants.
  
• Mods in Campaign Mode will start dropping only after building the Communications Hub. Previously building the Armory was the trigger for these drops, which caused players to end up with several mods and no real use for them for a long time.
  
• Changed the effect for Rift Station startup sequence interruption - now with more camera shake and louder sounds!
  
• Added sound emitters to liquid resource deposits.
  
• Reduced the chance for mod drops from 'smaller' boss creatures - Nerilians, Stregaroses and Magmoths.
  
• Orbital Laser and Orbital Bombardment now require advanced resources to craft.
  
• You can now reconstruct after being destroyed on a mission that has already been completed.
  
• You can now lose weapons if your mech is destroyed after finishing a planetary mission if you choose to return to HQ and abandon that mission location.
  
• Skills of higher quality now replace their lower-quality counterparts after being crafted.
  
• Orbital Bombardment and Orbital Laser now display a large glowing decal in the targeted area.
  
• Research Completed' popup will now be displayed for 10 seconds instead of 5.
  
• Morphium Towers now need to be built in a 4-grid radius from one another - they were too powerful if stacked tightly close to each other.
  
• Significantly decreased research costs for magma powerplants in the campaign mode.
  
• Reduced the fire rate of the Sentry Gun.
  
• Reduced the damage and piercing values for the Lightning Tower.
  
• Increased the ammo consumption for Laser and Heavy Plasma.
  
• Production times of (almost) all consumables have been changed. Higher-quality consumables take longer to recharge.
  
• Sentries and Mini Miners can now be deployed quickly, one after another, but the player's inventory capacity for them has been reduced.
  
• Reduced Bioscanner Turret crafting time.
  
• Storage space for Gravity Grenades reduced to 5.
  
• Lowered the fire rate of more advanced versions of the Mini Nuke Launcher.
  
• Explosive ammunition for the mech has been tweaked - the storage space has been reduced and the recharge time has been increased. This prevents the players from 'going infinite' with basic explosive weapons and 6 ammo storages.
  
• Changed the effects for Heavy Plasma - the sounds, explosions, and projectile trails are much beefier, making the weapon more satisfying to use.
  
• Heavy plasma charges much faster(shield), but the charged shot has reduced damage.
  
• Reduced the Railgun charged shot charging time.
  
• Reduced the High Caliber Rifle charging time.
  
• All varieties of liquid-based weapons consume more ammo now.
  
• Higher levels of the Armory building are now more expensive.
  
• Obsolete or non-functional modding options removed from several weapon types.
  
• Player drones damage type changed from physical to acid.
  
• Tweaked Brabit scannable chance and added Alpha and Ultra species to the discoverables
  
• Increased the Bioscanner scanning chance from 0.1 to 0.15 for some crystal species.
  
• Doubled the chance of large props being able to provide a sample for the Bioscanner.
  
• Added destructible metal sounds to metallic biome destructible objects
  
• Wall Gates can no longer be overridden with other buildings, such as wall segments or floors.
  
• Changed building upgrade sound to have more variety and to be more robust
  
• Heightened floor can now override basic floors but won't affect your walls and gates.
  
• Added level 2 and 3 Heightened Wall Floors.
  
• Mech radar can now be upgraded, and it will, in fact, affect the fog of war reveal range!
  
• Radar Pulse received Advanced, Superior, and Extreme versions with upgraded range.
  
• Added the missing level 2 and level 3 of Biocomposter to the research tree.
  
• Pressing 'Escape' in any level of the options menu will now immediately take you back to the previous one.
  
• The game will now automatically save after typing in the save name and pressing 'enter'.
  
• Radioactive Desert Scouting mission tweaked - only Standard bioanomalies can appear during this mission.
  
• Changed the muzzle flash effect for Floating Mines.
  
• Shockwave Tower's shockwave effect is now more visible.
  
• Added more loot possibilities to the Flurian Boss.
  
• Idle sounds for spawners are louder and audible from a greater distance.
  
• Increased Magmoth Boss' HP.
  
• Different types of player drones can now be distinguished more easily.
  
• Increased the Stregaros Boss HP.
  
• Removed an unnecessary dialogue line about crafting the Bioscanner in the armory
  
• Sentry Guns and Landmines are now destroyed if placed on quicksand.
  
• Changed the timing of the announcement in the Ash Cloud event.
  
• Increased the creature difficulty boost after finishing any campaign outpost.
  
• Creature Eggs now have a new, fully 3D model.
  

[h3]FIXES[/h3]

• Fixed an error that caused building cubes to stay behind after completing construction or repair.
  
• Fixed the Rift Station not shutting down properly in case of disruption of the resource delivery chain.
  
• Removed the collisions of corpses with buildings. It might cause some bodies to land in your base, but saves us a lot of technical issues, including levitating corpses!
  
• Fixed an issue that resulted in some tooltips displaying doubled resource values while selling and upgrading buildings.
  
• Fixed an issue that caused drones to get stuck in certain situations.
  
• Fixed the positioning and scaling of objects in the Cultivator Sapling menu and the Tower Mod selection menu.
  
• Added the missing localization string for 'Minimap Zoom In' keybinding option.
  
• Fixed the appearance of quicksand.
  
• Fixed cache counts and instance limits for many types of particle effects in order to increase the game's performance.
  
• Fixed a crash that sometimes occurred when disassembling an item with mods installed.
  
• The HUD will no longer deform when resizing the window in window mode.
  
• The initial build menu selector position when playing on the gamepad has been moved from the corner to the middle of the screen.
  
• All types of resources are now displayed properly after entering the building menu.
  
• Keyboard and gamepad shortcuts are now displayed properly on the crafting screen.
  
• Removing items from the research queue or changing their priorities will no longer automatically scroll the queue list to the top.
  
• Fixed a possible campaign mission flow block that could happen if a player attained stregaros familiarity lvl1 before unlocking the find stregaros objective.
  
• Fixed the displayed range for the Railgun. It now properly states that the base range of the weapon is 33 meters instead of 50.
  
• Fixed the positioning of certain weather events to cover the entire screen without wasting performance on rendering particles out of bounds.
  
• Multiple miscellaneous fixes and improvements that were lost within murky or missing source control commit comments. Press "F" to pay respect...
  

You're welcome to join us on our Discord at www.discord.gg/exorstudios to discuss any of these changes and report your findings. You will also likely find the answers to most questions you have over there. We are there almost every day and we're waiting for you! Also remember to visit our suggestion board over at https://riftbreaker.featureupvote.com. You can vote on user-submitted proposals and suggest your own ideas on how to make The Riftbreaker a better game. Your feedback matters to us!

Happy hunting!
EXOR Studios

Third attempt at testing the developer build of The Riftbreaker before our new experimental release planned for the end of this week/beginning of the next one. Come on and join us! www.twitch.tv/exorstudios

Hello Riftbreakers!

The Riftbreaker has always been viewed by us as a project that we are going to keep developing and improving for a long time. All the insights you have been sharing with us are a large part of the improvement process. A large number of our players have been letting us know that they would love to have a more significant degree of control over the economy of their bases and outposts. We’re happy to let you know that we’ve heard your feedback, and we are working on an entirely new economy management screen that will, hopefully, help you optimize your builds even further. This article will also tell you about the current economy management system and what issues we want to fix with our brand-new screen.

Simple enough... If you have only one base to take care of.

Let’s start by talking about the current display of incoming and outgoing resources. Things are quite easy when you are playing the Survival Mode or if you’re just starting in the Campaign Mode and only have your Headquarters set up. The resource balance display in the top right corner of the screen shows you the current values for resource production and usage for all structures in your base. Color-coded numbers let you know if you are running at a profit or at a loss and warn you about the possibility of running into resource shortages.

Our system allows you to utilize your resources in any place on the planet.

Keeping track of resources gets more complex when we add more bases into the mix. Over the course of The Riftbreaker Campaign, you will likely end up with several outposts in distant biomes. Each of those outposts will probably have its own production chain running, supplying you with advanced and rare resources necessary to complete your mission objectives. In order to simplify the logistics of running multiple bases at once, we made the decision to pool the resources from all outposts into global storage. This solution allows you to mine uranium in the Desert and then use that uranium to power a Nuclear Power Plant in the Volcanic region, for example.

After completing all local objectives, the Orbital Scanner screen gives you the basic stats for the outpost. However, that leaves a lot to be desired.

After setting up a couple of such outposts, it might become unclear where the majority of resources actually come from, especially if you’re getting most of your resources from cultivating various plants and crystals. Currently, you can check the status of each of your outposts on the Orbital Scanner menu screen. If you have no outstanding local objectives, the game will display the number of buildings for the selected outpost and the resource consumption/production balance. In most cases, this is enough to get by. However, if you want to run a very optimized supply and production chain, you might run into problems.

To give you more information about the ongoing production within your bases, we will introduce a new economy management screen. It will feature a couple of key functionalities that will give you a higher degree of control and simplify the management aspect, especially for large and complex production systems. Please bear in mind that the functionalities described here are not finalized yet. It is possible that we will find ways to improve the user experience and make relevant changes before this feature makes it into the live version of The Riftbreaker. This is all work in progress!

Behold the glory of indie game preproduction! Before we start implementing any sort of functionality, we create a simple mockup to see if it makes sense. This is obviously just an example that we're going to build upon, not the finished product!

The economy management screen will display a list of all the individual types of buildings present in your base. You will get information on how many buildings of a given type you have and what resources those buildings consume and produce. This will enable you to figure out quickly which facilities are eating up your resources and if that is a cause for concern in the long run. You will be able to identify potential problems and address them much more efficiently.

Thanks to the new screen, you will be able to turn off any type of facility with just a simple click.

The second major feature of the economy management screen is the ability to control large parts of your economy with just a single click, thanks to the quick switch on/off button. For example - you are running low on power and there is an attack wave incoming. From the management screen you can choose to turn off all the non-essential buildings, freeing up the resources necessary to run your defensive towers and armories. It’s the sci-fi cliche “I’m rerouting all power to weapons systems” personified! Well, not exactly personified - it’s still just a button.

Upgrading multiple buildings of the same kind will also get a lot easier.

Another selling point for this new screen is the ability to make changes and improvements to your base without the micromanagement aspect. The new menu screen will let you upgrade, sell and repair buildings with a single click. This will give you the ability to improve all your solar panels from level 1 to level 2 with just a click, provided you have the necessary technology and resources, of course. The screen will also inform you about the changes to your economy such a change would bring and allow you to make an informed decision about whether you want to do it or not. You won’t have to find and upgrade all the individual buildings yourself anymore.



The Economy Management screen will feature individual tabs for all outposts that make up your production chain around Galatea 37. Together with an additional planned feature that will allow you to assign custom names to your outposts, you will never lose track of your resource production again. We will also have a summary screen to consolidate all that information for you.

This is just one of the quality-of-life improvements that we are planning to add to the game leading up to the release of the second World Expansion - which you should totally wishlist:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2108630/The_Riftbreaker__World_Expansion_II/

Huge thanks to everyone who voted for this suggestion on the Feature Upvote suggestion board - https://riftbreaker.featureupvote.com. Your feedback helps us decide the course of action for future updates and patches. We hope that you will enjoy this new feature as well as many others that are coming your way - we can’t wait to tell you what else we’ve got in store for you!

Have a nice weekend!
EXOR Studios