The Riftbreaker News

Thank you for sending in all your ideas for the Skill Design contest. Just like in the case of the Weapons Contest we have read through all of them and created a shortlist of the best suggestions. Now it is time for you to decide which one we are going to implement in the game!

Here are the candidates that we have preselected. The descriptions are just to give you a general idea of what this skill/consumable could work like in the game. They do not represent the final design, as that is likely to change during development. Take these descriptions as an ‘artistic vision’, rather than actual descriptions. As always, please take them with a grain of salt - we might not be able to implement them in this (or any) form, but we will do our best!



[h3]Up first - Decoy - suggested by: Arun, Ravick, Space Jesus, Sage - Blindpsyco, frognik, Stephan Burczymucha[/h3]

This skill would allow Mr. Riggs to leave behind a device (a holographic projection, a cardboard cutout, you name it) that would take the enemy creatures’ attention away from The Riftbreaker and their base structures for a limited time. There is a lot of potential for upgrades here - we could make the decoy explode at the end of its lifecycle, or add a small tesla generator that would deal energy damage to creatures that get too close. The Decoy has the potential to unlock a lot of variety in combat, giving you the ability to divert groups of enemies.

[h3]Next idea - Directional Shockwaves - suggested by: Arun, Diminutive Jerrymson, Bonegrinder, Sage - Blindpsyco, Kaldo[/h3]

Let’s say that you’re equipped with a Flamethrower and a Plasma gun. You’re peacefully exploring and researching a new area of Galatea 37. All of a sudden, the ground starts shaking and an enormous hostile alien emerges from underneath the ground. You start blasting, but alas - it turns out that the creature is resistant to fire and energy damage. The situation seems dire, but luckily, you have another trick up your sleeve! This new activated skill allows you to launch a directional attack imbued with the element of your choice, acid, for example. You press the button. KA-POW! It was super effective! The day is saved. Adding an easily controllable elemental attack that you could equip would help you prepare for creatures of varying resistances, making it an interesting choice.

[h3]The third one - Core Overcharge - suggested by: SenorRagequit, Beta_Krogoth, adder007usa, Denizan11, frognik[/h3]

POWER… OVERWHELMING… This skill would allow Mr. Riggs to boost his Fusion generator, sending his sophisticated circuitry to absolute overdrive, temporarily increasing some of the weapon stats, such as rate of fire and damage. This skill would have a lengthy cooldown but might give you an edge while facing a horde that turns out to be stronger than expected. Cool visuals included.

[h3]Up next - Temporary Barriers - suggested by: Mirado, hebeach89, Darklight[/h3]

This one goes out to everyone whose first reaction to the incoming flood of alien creature horde was to stack sandbags and seek shelter. These consumables would allow you to set up sizeable barriers that no one could pass through, increasing the complexity of the battlefield and giving you more options to outsmart the attackers. For example, if you see a horde trying to get through a narrow passage, you could block them off with a couple of well-placed, temporarry barriers. Simple, but effective!

[h3]The last one - Bioscanner Turret/Drone (TBD) - suggested by: Ravick, YamiryuuZero, Oddux, SenorRagequit[/h3]

Exploring and gathering information is an important aspect of the mission for a lot of Riftbreakers. The necessity to drop all activities in order to go scanning the fauna and flora discourages a lot of more action-oriented pilots. These consumables are the solution to that problem. Just drop one of these devices in the field and it will automatically try to scan all the species within the radius of operation. This way, you can still gain research samples and the bonuses that come with them, while not giving up on other activities on Galatea 37. Win-win!

[h2]Which skill/consumable would you like to see implemented in the World Expansion 1? Vote here: https://forms.gle/PTf6ungtoAgeEwWg9

Voting ends on Monday at 11 AM CET.



We hope that everyone will find something interesting in this selection. We believe that all of these would benefit the game greatly, so everybody wins regardless of which skill gets chosen. Plus, we are planning a lot more skills and consumables of our own, so stay tuned for more information on that!

Cheers,
EXOR Studios

Thanks to your awesome feedback we have managed to track down and fix some bugs that have been troubling you in the latest build of the game. We also managed to improve some visual effects, which should result in better visuals and performance. We hope that this patch will improve your experience with The Riftbreaker. Keep your feedback coming! We're doing our best to correct as many mistakes as we can, and your help is invaluable to us.

[h2]The Riftbreaker Maintenance Patch, January 31st, 2022. Binaries #501, Package #501. Changelog:[/h2]

• Seasonal popup now has an icon that represents the actual event.
  
• The G2 floor went missing last update. We found it and put it back in place.
  
• Fixed collisions in some small crystal models to allow easier scanning.
  
• The ribbon trail of the hand grenade is now different from the ones launched from the Grenade Launcher weapon.
  
• Acid decals now have a shorter lifespan to match the damage time.
  
• New sound for launching a hand grenade.
  
• New sound for the Research Station.
  
• New effects for the Research Station.
  
• Animations turned on in the Research Station.
  
• New sound for gates opening and closing - hydraulics changed to pneumatics.
  
• Carbonium and Cobalt deposits minimap colors changed, so that you can differentiate better between the two.
  
• Optimized (performance and visibility) effects for special dash types - smaller lights, smaller particles, less particles.
  
• Thunderstorm event - new sound, tweaked effects, stronger wind.
  
• Dust storm - better colors, reduced density.
  
• Reduced density and height of effects attached to big cryo decals
  
• Fixed some desert tiles to avoid resources spawning on quicksand
  
• Several fixes for minor errors and crash bugs.
  

Thank you,
EXOR Studios

We're super happy to present you with the first large update of The Riftbreaker in 2022! The Lunar New Year update brings, among many others, a new seasonal event, an all-new Statistics Screen, as well as many tweaks and optimizations to enhance your experience.

Let the festivities begin!

As soon as you launch the game after this update, you will be greeted with a message that will inform you about the Lunar New Year event. Similar to the Christmas celebration that we held just a month ago, this is a purely cosmetic event to spice up the Galatean atmosphere a little bit. Some of the basic structures in your base will be replaced with special, seasonal versions. Enjoy the premium wooden floors, designed by the best carpenters in the galaxy. Frighten your enemies with your new Sentinel Towers, which now have golden tiger heads instead of their regular turrets. Let the light of the paper lanterns warn up the night.



If this seasonal event is not your jam, you can turn it off in the options menu at any moment. You won't miss any content because of this.

Additionally, we have added two entirely new skins for Mr. Riggs! You can get them by redeeming the codes TIGER and SPRING in the options menu.

The code SPRING will unlock this skin for you. Gold and red really work well together for some reason.

The code TIGER will unlock this skin for you. Just look how happy Mr. Riggs appears with that... massive predator painted on his windscreen!

Another addition to this update is the Statistics Screen. You can access this screen at any point during gameplay and also after a finished Survival run. The stats will give you all the useful data we could think of about Mr. Riggs, your buildings, and the enemy creatures. This will allow you to analyze your tactics on a much more factual basis, showing you exactly what works and what doesn't. As always, if you have any requests or see any areas we could improve when it comes to this screen, please let us know.



The update also comes with numerous tweaks and fixes for many of the problems that you let us know about, including the ability to switch back from Temporal Anti-Aliasing (TAA) to Fast Approximate Anti-Aliasing (FXAA). Some players disliked the overly smoothed-out look of TAA and the ghosting that it could cause. If you experienced these problems, please try using FXAA and see if it works better for you.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
Check out this great video to learn more about Anti-Aliasing techniques!

Changes in this build are not limited to technicalities only. After receiving tons of feedback regarding the energy system in The Riftbreaker, especially in case of a power shortage, we have done a lot of work on it. The energy priorities are much more logical and predictable now. For example, the energy network will prioritize AI hubs instead of defensive towers, as towers can't work at all if AI hubs are inactive. This should result in a much more natural experience and save you some trouble in those tight situations.

These are, of course, just a couple of changes that we made to the game over the past few weeks. You can check out the full changelog at the end of this news article. We are waiting for your feedback and reports.

Now, back to work on the World Expansion and online co-op...
EXOR Studios

[h2]The Riftbreaker, Lunar New Year Update, Package #106, Binaries #498 Changelog:[/h2]

[h3]FEATURES[/h3]

• The Spring Festival is here! A new seasonal event has arrived in Galatea 37. Celebrate with two new Mr. Riggs skins (unlock them with codes TIGER and SPRING), new lamp models, new floor patterns, new Sentinel Towers, and even a custom weather event! Just like the previous winter seasonal event, this is purely cosmetic and entirely optional.
  
• The mouse cursors implementation has been completely reworked. It is now much more responsive and faster, reducing lagging and any other potentially unwanted behavior.
  
• The Statistics Screen has been reworked and added to the in-game menu and the end game screen.
  
• The full version of the game and the Prologue now feature different main menu backgrounds to differentiate more easily between the two.
  

[h3]CHANGES[/h3]

• We re-enabled the option to change the anti-aliasing method from TAA to FXAA. Use it if you dislike the minor TAA ghosting artifacts. Enabling FXAA will prevent you from using FidelityFX Super Resolution as it requires TAA.
  
• The energy priority system has been dramatically improved. Previously, in the case of an energy shortage, the buildings would come on- and offline semi-randomly in case of an energy shortage. Now, it’s more granular and predictable, with AI hubs taking priority over defensive towers.
  
• Changed the radius of the objective marker in the Tanzanite Concentration mission from 100 to 10 meters.
  
• Adjusted the minimum number of spawned Cryogenic plants in the Magma Find Samples mission.
  
• Deployable Sentry Guns are more visible now, thanks to tweaked visual effects.
  
• Temporary (green) Rift Portals are now light emitters.
  
• Adjusted fade-in and fade-out timings for dynamic decals - blood splats, explosions, and similar.
  
• Reduced the amount of hitpoints for large Magnetic Rocks, making them easier to deal with.
  
• Menu screens have been adjusted to fill the screen space better on non- 16:9 aspect ratio displays.
  
• Ammo research requirements added to the Corrosive Gun, the Cryogenic Atomizer, the Nuclear Launcher, and Swarm Missiles. This is to prevent a rare scenario where you could develop a weapon but have no means of producing the ammunition required.
  
• Loot from Acidic Yeast should be more visible now.
  
• Planetary Screen is now hidden in Survival Mode and the Prologue.
  
• Bigger chance for "something useful" in Bioanomalies (skills, skins, etc.), instead of random resource caches.
  
• Additional Bioanomalies spawn in on bigger maps.
  
• Requirements are now visible for a couple more items in the Alien Technology research tree.
  
• The Acidic Yeast can now destroy any non-acid-resistant floor.
  
• When the player tried to upgrade the Headquarters building without the necessary resources to do so, they would get the warning pop-up, just as if they could afford the upgrade. This is no longer the case.
  

[h3]FIXES[/h3]

• Fixed an error that caused some meteors to spawn double decals.
  
• Fixed collision of multiple small vegetation pieces to improve scanning with the Bioscanner.
  
• Fixed AI core cost errors that happened while using cost-reducing gear, like Maintenance Tools.
  
• The Cryo Station no longer takes damage shortly after being built on the Magma floor.
  
• Fixed an error that happened when deleting saves through the main menu.
  
• Nurglax Drones are no longer selectable.
  
• Fixed the Uranium Ore icon in research.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused problems with the Build Menu focus after using a hotkey while building.
  
• Floors no longer cast shadows, which should result in performance improvements.
  
• Fixed multiple issues related to minimap zooming.
  
• The buttons on the Journal screen now correctly display their corresponding tooltips.
  
• 'Remove from the research queue' button has been fixed.
  
• Fixed a large number of minor errors and crash bugs.
  

[h3]SOUNDS[/h3]

• New sound added for gates opening and closing.
  
• The sound framework has been reworked entirely, eliminating many issues and crashes that happened before. Please let us know if you notice any strange behavior regarding sound.
  

Hey everyone,

We have just updated the experimental branch of The Riftbreaker with the latest build, which is also the release candidate for tomorrow's public patch. Here is the (very work-in-progress) list of changes.

Please restart Steam if you are on the Experimental branch and don't see the update.

- BuildModeScreen: fixed pointed button state on shortcut usage - a bug in build menu that occurred after using a hotkey
- Floors: fix flags to not cast shadows - save performance
- Make creeper remove basic floors
- Remove HealthComponent from basic floors
- fixed award popup in a special story side mission
- added sound of opening a portal in the orbital scanner screen
- Buildings: prevent lua removal on building in process of selling
- JournalScreen: Added tooltips and localizations
- Buildings: Refresh floors MeshFlags on load
- added Exor::String BuildingService:GetBuildingType( Exor::Entity ent );
- Headquarters: do not show upgrade popup if the player can't afford to upgrade
- GlobalAwardUnlockedEvent: added bool IsHidden as the second parameter
- CraftingScreen: hide uranium_ore and bars for resources without storage limit
- Minimap: Fix zooming
- Buildings: prevent lua removal on building in process of selling
- PlanetaryScanner: added sound effect to portal jump
- Prevent crash in InventorySystem
- JournalScreen: added tooltips to categories button
- BuildMode: Added g_building_upgrade_modifier_as_toggle with default false
- BuildMode: Bring back alt as hold not toggle (change in config)
- InitMainResourcesState: add support for `mods_disabled.txt`
- Popups: make popups block all unhandled inputs
- Added a few helper methods to StringUtils
- use static inline declaration for String::Empty ( simpler code, potential static order initialization fiasco fix )
- ResearchScreen: fix remove from research button

Let us know if you find any issues.

EXOR Studios

We would like to thank you all for the huge popularity of the weapons design contest that we held over the course of the previous two weeks. With over 200 awesome weapon ideas submitted on our Discord server and more than 2500 votes cast in the final vote, it has surpassed all our expectations. It seems like you enjoyed it too, so let’s try this again!

What kind of skills/consumables for Mr. Riggs would you like to see us implement in the next expansion for The Riftbreaker?

This time the contest is much more open-ended, as you can choose between three distinct item categories, all with different characteristics. Let’s take a look at them right now.



[h3]First of all - active skills.[/h3]

Active skills are expansion modules that you have to craft only once. After assigning them to a hotkey you can use them an unlimited number of times - they do not require any ammunition or charges and the only limiting factor for them is the cooldown, which will vary from skill to skill. An example of this is the Emergency Explosion skill. After crafting and equipping it, you can use it as much as you like, but not more often than once every 20 seconds.

[h3]Next up - movement skills.[/h3]

These are very similar to active skills, with the caveat being that you can equip only one of them at a time. They are also related at least a little bit to Mr. Riggs’ movement. Examples include the Dash (available from the beginning of the game), the Power Jump, and the Teleport and Alien Camouflage (which allows you to MOVE unseen. That’s movement-related and we won’t be convinced that it’s not). They also operate on a cooldown.

[h3]The last category - consumables.[/h3]

These are single-use items that Mr. Riggs can carry a certain amount of. They are produced in the Armory. Consumables typically have a short cooldown and can be used one after another as long as you have some left in your inventory. If you run out, you have to wait for the Armory to produce more. Prime examples of consumables are landmines and grenades.



Bearing these in mind, tell us your ideas for skills and consumables. Here’s the answer format:

Name:
Type: consumable (short cooldown, limited amount)/active skill (long cooldown, unlimited uses)/movement skill (movement-related, only one equipped at a time)
Effect:

Example:
Name: Mini-miner
Type: Consumable
Effect: Mr. Riggs deploys a mini-mining drill exactly at the spot where he’s standing. If there is a minable resource underneath, the miner will produce that resource for a limited time.

Another thing that’s different from the last competition is where you can post your answers. We heard that some of you do not want to create a Discord account just to take part in our little contest. That’s alright, as we don’t want to force you to do things you dislike. We will still take answers on Discord (www.discord.gg/exorstudios) in the #rb-skill-contest channel, but this time we will also collect the answers from the Steam News comments, Facebook comments and Twitter replies.

We’re waiting for you to submit your ideas until Monday, 11 AM CET.

Cheers,
EXOR Studios