The Riftbreaker News

After quite a lengthy break caused by technical issues, we are back with another update for The Riftbreaker Closed Co-Op Beta test. The list of changes in this build is quite extensive. We tried to improve on many issues reported by our community. You can find the full changelog below.

[h2]The Riftbreaker Closed Co-Op Beta, November 6th, EXE: 9710 DATA:74 Changelog:[/h2]
[h2]Changes[/h2]
[h3]Minimap[/h3]

• Added a symbols legend to the map screen.
  
• Added a player list to the full map screen. You can click on a name to teleport to the chosen player.
  
• Added new Minimap icons for significant buildings (Armory, Comms Hub), resource deposits and creatures.
  
• Removed most of the decorations (buildings) from the minimap to reduce clutter and improve performance.
  
• Changed the minimap icon for Mech wreckage.
  

[h3]Visibility[/h3]

• Elemental Trail effects for Omega creatures density has been reduced to improve visual clarity during battles.
  
• Effects for Mech shield destruction and teleporting now have a weaker light effect to improve visual clarity.
  
• Reduced the light size in Fire Trail items.
  
• Removed shadow-casting lights in Volcanic Rock Rain event projectiles.
  
• Removed big fire trail effects from all meteors and comets.
  
• The visual effects for Immolator have been reduced in size.
  
• Changed the tornado effects from particle-based to a new mesh with a shader.
  
• Decreased the number of drones spawned by Omega creatures and increased their damage output to compensate. This was done to reduce the onscreen chaos, but maintain similar DPS.
  
• Removed lights from projectiles fired by high rate-of-fire weapons, such as the SMG or minigun. Their particles have also been reworked. As a result the effects these weapons generate are more visible, don't contribute to overexposure, and consume less system resources.
  
• Reduced the amount, size, and intensity of lights in many effects. This includes the Mech's skills, consumables, weapons, as well as enemy projectiles. Some particles also fade away more quickly. This has been done to increase visual clarity.
  

[h3]Survival rules[/h3]

• Added minimum spawn radiuses to enemy attack waves in the Tropical Zone and Volcanic Area biomes on all difficulty levels. This will limit the possibility of attack waves starting too close to the HQ, allowing you more time to mount a defense.
  
• Added temporary placeholder voiceover lines to Kermon, Phirian and Shegret attacks. We also added more voice lines to some other side objectives, like Investigate the Unusually Large Creature and Acidic Yeast Invasion.
  
• Added an on-screen objective for Phirian attack side objective.
  
• Omega creature comet event now spawns a REAL Omega creature. With skills and increased HP.
  
• Added new abilities to Omega creatures - Lightning and Bomb Cascades.
  
• Removed old boss creatures from the final waves on all survival difficulties and replaced them with Omega creatures. Added one more Omega on hard difficulty and two more on brutal.
  
• Modified survival jungle final wave to always wait until all Omega creatures are killed before it can be finished.
  
• Added a new difficulty mode - Co-Op - Easy. We intend this setting to be viable for all players, so please let us know if you encounter any significant obstacles.
  
• Creature Nests have been given additional offensive skills and an HP boost, similar to Omega creatures. The rewards for defeating the Nests have been increased.
  
• Omega creatures should adhere to spawn distance rules, which should prevent them from spawning from a completely different direction than the rest of the wave.
  

[h3]Balance[/h3]

• Reduced the range for Power Rod Tower and HCM Launcher. It now falls between the ranges of Heavy Artillery and regular Artillery Towers.
  
• Projectiles in the Volcanic Rock Rain event now have a smaller damage radius.
  
• Magmoth Omega will no longer receive the Canceroth Swarm skill.
  
• The Hammer hit will no longer bounce off Stregaros shield.
  
• Our trio of Superweapon Towers - HCM, Power Rod and Floating Piercer Tower - now have increased building costs.
  
• Small inaccuracy factor has been added to all artillery towers and sentries, which will prevent many projectiles from always hitting the exact same spot.
  

[h3]General[/h3]

• Short Range Radar has been moved to the first page of the defensive buildings build menu.
  
• Flammable Gas Vents now have a smaller fire spread radius.
  
• Helping a downed co-op partner reconstruct their mech now has a more prominent effect.
  
• Loading screens have been updated to use the new artwork.
  
• Visual effects for Bio-Containers (small bioanomalies) are now more visible.
  
• Added new mesh-based effects - ice shard and fireball. They are used by Omega creatures.
  
• Camera Culler component has been moved from the mech to a separate blueprint. It should now work in multiplayer.
  
• The server will now wait for all players to finish loading the game before starting the mission. You will see a message on the loading screen during that time.
  
• Added a scroll bar to research descriptions on the Research screen.
  
• Magnetic Rocks now generate a gravity grenade effect upon destruction. This is still work in progress - they will implode in the final version.
  

[h2]Fixes[/h2]
[h3]Transfer[/h3]

• Reduced the amount of data needed to be replicated by objectives.
  
• Reduced the amount of data needed to be replicated by the loot system.
  
• Reduced the amount of data needed to be replicated by BuildingStatusComponent.
  
• Reduced the amount of data needed to be replicated by the TimeOfDaySystem.
  
• Reduced the amount of data needed to be replicated by the energy system.
  

[h3]Performance[/h3]

• General improvements to the entity delta generation sent to players.
  
• General performance improvements for component changes detection.
  
• General performance improvements for the pipes system.
  
• General game performance improvements when doing spatial queries.
  

[h3]Other[/h3]

• Fixed quadrupled light and sound effects in Dash and Power Jump skills.
  
• Fixed an issue that prevented players from reconfiguring their left and right analog sticks when using a gamepad.
  
• Fixed some issues with closing the pause menu with the ESC key.
  
• Only one server can now be selected at the same time on the server browser list.
  
• Fix some issues with the network replication of resource economy.
  
• Fixed the light flickering chaos caused by multiple comets with TimeOfDayEmitterComponent.
  
• Fixed missing game screenshots when the game host saves the game.
  
• Clients should now hear sounds from sources that are not yet visible for them.
  
• Prevent the player from teleporting when the player is in the 'downed' state.
  
• The game will now fetch Steam avatars from all players connected to the game.
  
• Fixed the minimap jittering when playing as a client.
  
• Disconnected players will now respawn in their last known position after reconnecting to the server.
  
• Fixed issues with interact actions fighting for the player's input. We have set a new priority list for all interact options to accommodate the new entries.
  
• Fixed double-player pawn spawn where the player could control more than one mech at the same time.
  
• Fixed an issue that caused players not to receive items that have been researched already when joining a session mid-game.
  
• Fixed problems with the shield after the mech is reactivated by other players.
  
• A whole lot of stability fixes - too many to list.
  

After the release of World Expansion III for The Riftbreaker and the Heart of the Swamp DLC, we got to work on the Endgame update. It is going to be extensive - so extensive, in fact, that we have started referring to it as The Riftbreaker 2.0. This update allows us to implement what we learned over the years to improve the game. A lot of these changes are going to be functional, but there are still other areas where we can improve. One such area is the design of boss creatures, which did not stand out from the crowd. We have already talked about the functional changes and the new features we intend to give our boss creatures. Today, however, we will focus on the visual aspect. Our artists have been working on making these creatures extra special. Let’s see how they’re doing.

We have been using regular creature models as a base for our boss system prototypes. They work fine for our use case, but they can always be better. This is why we decided to give our bosses a rework.

Up to this point, the boss creatures in The Riftbreaker appeared sporadically during randomized side objectives. They could also be met as Bioanomaly “guardians,” spawning around the battlefield in certain biomes after activating a Bioanomaly. Additionally, Survival players could meet them on the highest difficulty levels during the final attack waves. Initially, we planned to have way more variety among our bosses, but due to time constraints, we couldn’t see all our plans to completion. This also means that in most cases, our “boss” variants are simply scaled-up ultra strains of Galatean creatures with a special texture, which is also one of the reasons why we didn’t show them off more often.

Adding special abilities like the Necrodon's resurrection and creature spawning worked well gameplay-wise, but we wanted more.

On top of all that, we didn’t have a real name for them. Sometimes, we referred to them as elites; other times, they were bosses or guardians. This changes today. Our most powerful creatures are the Omega strain. As we described in one of our previous articles, the Omega strain will receive a functional overhaul, receiving a set of abilities that will make them stand out against the crowd. The frequency of their attacks will also increase, both in Campaign and Survival modes, giving you an opportunity to test your skills, equipment, and the defensive setup of your base. Get ready for a new level of challenge!

The Arachnoid Boss was larger and looked more menacing than its regular counterpart. We wanted to emulate that for other creatures as well.

Previously, only the Arachnoid Boss got a different model for its boss variant. If you compare the Ultra strain to the boss creature, you can see distinctive differences in the body shape. The boss’ head is adorned with large horns, making you feel that it is the leader of the swarm. The creature’s body is also protected by layers of thick carapace, which breaks off piece by piece as you fight the boss. We decided to give similar treatment to the new Omegas we are working on, following a couple of rules. Each Omega will have unique features that set them apart from regular creatures, making them instantly recognizable.

• The creature's anatomy must remain relatively the same—no extra limbs or chainsaws sticking out of the forehead. This allows us to use the same skeleton for animation purposes and saves us days of additional work.
  
• No simple re-coloring. The Omega must be recognizable next to a regular creature, even if it were the same size. Adding features like spikes, horns, or protruding flesh is the way to go.
  
• Since we wanted to create an Omega variant for every major damage type in the game, the designers were also requested to prepare elemental versions for each creature. There are a couple of individual exceptions.
  
• Optional—if possible, don’t work on models you originally created. Switching models between artists provides a fresh look and innovative ideas.

This set of preliminary constraints ensured that the end result would align with the game designers’ vision for the intended use of these creatures.

The first step in our workflow is sculpting a draft version of the model. We call it a blockout. It is not made literally from blocks but uses simple shapes to convey the general direction the artist wants to follow. Artists don’t spend any time adding details since blockouts are meant to be discarded or used as a base for the final model at best. This time, however, our artists didn’t have to start from scratch and used the existing models as their canvas. This allowed them to save a lot of time and start with the improvements right away.

This is the proposed idea for the Krocoon Omega strain. Its armor features much more aggressive styling. Additionally, you can see strange, flesh-like corruption taking hold of its body.

Krocoon Omega on the right, compared to the regular version on the left. We were happy with the differences between them, so we moved on to texturing.

The first textured version of the Omega. Our artist suggested giving the entire body a red tint, but we felt that it sugggested that the creature's body is made of flesh. It is not. The flesh growing on the Krocoon is an intruder, and we wanted that to be clearly visible. We made the decision to stick with the original color.

The final version of the Krocoon Omega. Clearly distinct from the original, but at the same time it is unmistakably still a Krocoon. This is precisely what we were aiming for.

Our graphics designers decided to try to focus on one aspect of the creature’s physique they would change. This way, they could make the new models instantly recognizable and resist the urge to let the creativity flow and remodel the creature entirely. Pictured below are a couple of blockouts from this process. We use these pictures for the initial round of feedback within our team. When everyone is happy with the general idea, the artist can move on and breathe life into the creature by creating a detailed, high-poly model.

Now let's compare the regular Phirian and its Omega counterpart. In this comparison the scale of the models is the same, which is not accurate, but enough for preview purposes. The changes in the body and armor are highlighted with a different color material.

The first version of the texture. Taking inspiration from the color palette of the Fungal Swamp biome, the Phirian Omega is rocking a neon-pink mohawk. Since the creature also appears in other biomes, we decided it was not the best choice and asked for a less flashy version.

This is the version we landed on for the baseline Phirian Omega. The yellow tint still screams 'danger,' but the creature can now blend with the environment of other biomes much easier.

The full family of Phirian Omegas. Please take note that these are just the creature models with their textures. The elemental versions will have some additional particle effects attached.

After the initial blockouts had been approved and turned into detailed sculpts, it was time to create the new textures. As mentioned previously, we wanted each Omega to appear in several flavors. The first would be the baseline variant. These creatures do not get any additional damage resistances that need to be highlighted, which leaves room to showcase their individual quirks and features. Stregaros became a brain-crab-demon that would fit without any issues on the Doom Slayer’s victim list. Krocoon started showing some fleshy parasitic growth on top of its metallic body. Phirian leveled up and got an epic hand blade and armor.

A personal favorite of mine - a very smart Stregaros Omega. Because more brain = more smart, obviously!

The last step was creating additional texture variants for the elemental version of these creatures. Some of our Omegas gain protection from one of the damage types present in The Riftbreaker. We wanted you to be able to tell which resistance type the creature got in an instant. For that reason, the elemental variants feature significant amounts of emissive textures, which are really easy to spot. Apart from that, we made sure to add details that align with the creature’s “home” element. The ones with protection from fire damage are singed and covered with ash. Cryo-resistant creatures look as if their body parts were made out of ice. Acid Omegas seem to be dripping poison everywhere they go. This attention to detail is what makes the difference between a reskin and a rework.

Nerilian Omegas of various flavors at the bottom, with the regular, Alpha and Ultra variants at the top for comparison. We're very happy with how this creature turned out!

Improved Omega-class creatures will make their way into the base game, along with our endgame expansion, where they will play a significant role in the combat challenge. Get ready - they won’t be easy to defeat!

Some new Omega variants are already in the game. Others will join them very soon.

Join our Discord at www.discord.gg/exorstudios and our streams at www.twitch.tv/exorstudios for exclusive sneak peeks at new features.

See you there!
EXOR Studios

As much as we would love to continue discussing the exciting process of the Co-Op mode development, it is not the only thing on our plates now. We are introducing many changes to the game, most of which will benefit both the single-player and multiplayer game modes. These changes include improvements in the mission design, various objectives, balancing changes, and quality-of-life tweaks. Today, we want to show off some elements we are reworking and expanding alongside the co-op mode development. Many of these features have been planned for quite a while - and it is finally time to make them a reality.

Not a day goes by without at least one playtesting session. We're making sure that we test all scenarios - 2, 3 or 4 players. It's tempting to always go max on the player count, but in reality, we know that this is going to be the rarest case.

Our multiplayer testing has revealed areas where the game could use a bit more functionality. Take the minimap, for instance. Currently, it's only useful for spotting enemies and unexcavated resources. But we believe it can do so much more. During our co-op runs, we often find ourselves asking, ‘Have you built X already?’ This is something we can easily convey through the minimap. We're planning to assign icons to critical buildings and resources, so you can keep track of your base's status with just a glance at the minimap. If you prefer a simpler map, we'll also provide filtering options to filter the displayed items. And this is just one of the many upgrades we have in store for you.

CLICK TO ENLARGE! This is the work-in-progress mockup of the minimap we came up with. It features toggleable filtering options on the left, more icons for the most important game elements on the map itself, as well as a symbols legend on the right. This is going to evolve and change over time, but we want you to have a rough idea of what wer'e working with.

Our game already features a lot of content. If you’re not speedrunning, completing the Campaign Mode with all the expansions will take a few days to finish. To fill such a lengthy campaign with content, we added many ‘dynamic events’ that can occur between the regular mission objectives. These range from sudden weather condition changes to native creatures’ incursions. For instance, a sudden sandstorm might reduce visibility, or a swarm of creatures might attack your base. We’ve been systematically adding these events with the release of each World Expansion. Each biome in our game comes with a range of side objectives that give you chances for additional rewards or temporary bonuses.

Some random events are more... volatile than others. But there is always a bright side - more wind power during the tornado, for example.

Unfortunately, as we were focused on fleshing out the central points of the campaign storyline, we did not have as much time to focus on the side missions as much as we would have liked to, and there were simply not enough of them implemented fully in the game. This led to side missions repeating often, especially in the Survival Mode. How often can you study the unusually large creature in the lab after it turns out to be unexplainably aggressive? Initially, we wanted to have way more variety in these objectives. Luckily, we now have time to improve on that.

Bosses that spawn as a result of a random encounter will also be picked from the new boss creature pool. They will get the new skills and HP bonuses. It also means more loot. The bigger they are, the harder they fall.

We are working on an overhaul of the side objectives and randomized events. The existing ones will receive new dialogue lines and other improvements. For example, our favorite “unusually large creature” will no longer be destined always to be the same species. Instead, we will use our new Boss Creature system, a feature that introduces powerful and unique creatures as challenges, to keep you on your toes and give you a real challenge according to the difficulty level. We are also adding entirely new objectives - for example, you will have to face attacks from swarms of Kermons and Phirians. Formations of resource-rich minerals will pop up in the Crystal Caverns biome. Acidic Yeast will be more aggressive and actually pose a threat. We have lots of improvements to make. We will share more information on these as we progress with their development.

A creature that is able to resurrect other enemies on the battlefied is always the number one priority.

While adding more events and side objectives is fun, we haven't forgotten about the existing missions. We've learned a lot about what’s possible within The Riftbreaker’s gameplay rules, and we've gained access to many new tools and technologies as our engine evolves. We're actively working through the entire campaign flow, introducing improvements wherever possible. These include failsafe mechanisms, more precise progress indicators, new markers, and logic fixes. After we're done with this round of improvements, the game’s missions should feel much more robust and stable. We're dedicated to making The Riftbreaker the best it can be, and we're excited to share these improvements with you.

Baxmoth drones have always been deadly. Baxmoth drones on a boss creature - even more so.

Updates will also improve the balance of the game. The past couple of months have been filled with playtesting, both for us internally and for our closed beta playtesters. Playing the game for hours on end with the years of experience we now have under our belts was an exciting experience. It allowed us to reach some conclusions that eluded us beforehand. We realized that some of us have been engaging in play patterns that are not very fun but painfully effective - self-sacrifice bombing formidable enemies in multiplayer, for example, or using Cryo Stations instead of walls in the Volcanic Area biome because of their higher HP/cost ratio. We want to give you an incentive to avoid these techniques but leave them intact in case you really want to stick to them.

Our resurrection mechanics have proven quite effective and encourage players to keep each other alive instead of simply blowing up in the face of enemies. Sometimes others even want to help a bit too much and get destroyed in the process. You live and you learn.

Apart from conclusions related to gameplay mechanics, we also had some thoughts about the stats on some of our buildings, weapons, and resource costs - both when it comes to construction and upkeep. We want to make sure that if we decide to make any changes here, they are thoroughly tested. Our closed beta is the perfect playground for us. Thanks to the expertise of the beta testers, we will be able to test the changes we want to make and see their implications in practice. These things are often very hard to predict, so real-life testing is the best way forward.

Wherever we end up going with these changes, we want to make sure the game stays fun. This is why testing is a priority for us.

We hope you’re excited about all the new content and improvements we’re preparing for you. We would like to remind you to sign up for our Co-Op closed beta test, a crucial step in ensuring the quality and balance of the game before its full release, right here:



Also, remember to join our Discord at www.discord.gg/exorstudios and visit our streams on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 3 PM CEST at https://www.twitch.tv/exorstudios.

All the best!
EXOR Studios

We have just released a sizeable update for The Riftbreaker. It features all the improvements and optimizations we introduced during the preparations for the Heart of the Swamp expansion console launch. A very large portion of the adaptations we had to make to launch the game on other platforms is compatible with the PC build and will result in performance improvements - especially on machines with less than 16 GB of RAM. We have also introduced plenty of gameplay fixes and improvements.

We hope this update improves your experience with The Riftbreaker. The full changelog can be found here:

[h2]The Riftbreaker Maintenance Update, October 16th, 2024. EXE: 1018 DATA: 617 Changelog:[/h2]
[h3]Changes:[/h3]

• Reduced the number of building cubes spawned when building long wall sections, which should improve performance.
  
• After completing some objectives in the Fungal Forest Outpost the water surrounding your base should turn clean.
  
• Optimized OGG sound file playback mechanism. If you experienced sound stuttering or dialogues cutting off it should now be fixed.
  
• Added attack waves containing the enemies from the Fungal Forest biome to the Headquarters attack wave pool after the Heart of the Swamp storyline is completed.
  
• Optimized 'emissive' textures for many models by removing blank black areas, reducing memory and disk space usage.
  
• Reworked the 'Phirian attack' in-game event. Phirians now arrive as a group, coming from the edge of the map. Their strain and wave size depend on the difficulty level. The event is accompanied by new sound lines.
  
• Stregaros shield is now resistant to all types of damage, doesn't break immediately after the first shot.
  
• Player's repair drone has been buffed - it has longer range, travels faster and repairs buildings much quicker.
  
• Chainsaw movement speed penalty has been reduced.
  
• Replaced small bioanomaly models in all biomes with their new, regional variants.
  
• Buffed Cryo Sentry, Holo Decoy and Bioscanner Turret consumables - higher levels now have much better stats.
  
• Holo Decoy now has a bigger and stronger explosion on higher levels.
  
• Acid Cluster Grenade now has increased radius and added damage over time.
  
• Gas Grenade now has increased duration and damage on higher levels.
  
• Grenade now has a bigger splash damage radius on higher levels.
  
• Gravity Grenade now deals physical damage, increased area of effect and duration on higher levels.
  
• Sonic Grenade now has a bigger splash radius on higher levels.
  
• Mini Miners now get more HP on higher levels.
  
• Proximity, Cryo and Nuclear Mines now have a bigger splash damage radius on higher levels.
  
• The Antimatter Ball will no longer disappear outside the camera view.
  
• Acid, Cryo, Fire and Energy Trails now have increased damage trail lifetime on higher item levels at a cost of a bigger cooldown.
  
• Acid, Cryo, Fire and Energy Dash now have increased damage trail lifetime on higher item levels.
  
• Flamewave now has more range on higher levels.
  
• Repeater Rifle ammo consumption increased.
  
• Bouncing Blades ammo consumption increased.
  
• Reduced the strength of some camera shake effects.
  
• Added shooting sound for Minigun Towers.
  
• Changed shooting sounds for Laser Towers, as it used the same sound as the Flamer Tower.
  
• Reduced the size of the Rift Station minimap icon.
  
• Changed the layout of the Great Tree tile slightly to prevent unit navigation issues.
  
• Changed unit behavior to prevent them from walking over the Flammable Gas Vents.
  
• Added a 'cheat_remove_wave_units' command that will kill only the creatures that were spawned in the attack wave, allowing you to clear any blocked units without wiping the entire map.
  
• Tornados will now always cause enemies to turn to gibs to prevent the 'flying dead bodies' phenomenon.
  
• Traveling to other outposts is now blocked during the final Rift Station charging procedure.
  
• Added new objective markers - circles and arrows.
  
• Added Steel Floor to the Bioanomaly unlock pool. The item was present in the game, but was left out from the prize pool by mistake.
  

[h3]Fixes:[/h3]

• Introduced many performance optimizations.
  
• Significantly reduced runtime memory usage.
  
• Fixed the game flow getting stuck if the canceroth lair was destroyed before the canceroth attack was defeated.
  
• The canceroth lair objective will start if the player reaches the canceroth lair before defeating the canceroth attack.
  
• The canceroth lair objective will be skipped if the canceroth lair is destroyed before the player reaches the canceroth lair.
  
• The canceroth attack may start sooner if the player progresses with other objectives faster to prevent out of order objective execution.
  
• Heart of the Swamp main campaign objective will now be removed after the campaign ending.
  
• Fixed the slow-spawning wingmite attack wave in the final wave of the Metallic Valley Survival Mode mission on Easy and Normal difficulty levels.
  
• Fixed some issues with the Metal Terror's "Manufacturing Plateau" familiarity mission objective flow.
  
• Fixed the Metal Terror storyline starting trigger. The DLC story will now start if you complete two scouting missions on other biomes OR if you set up a Cobalt Mining Outpost.
  
• Introduced some optimizations to the saving process. By reducing the amount of data copied during saving, the hiccup on save should be less noticeable and the saving process should be much quicker.
  
• You should no longer get announcements about the base being under attack when Sentry Turrets are being attacked and destroyed.
  
• Fixed an issue that prevented players from restoring options to default values in the options menu.
  
• Fixed an issue in Phirian sword attack that caused it to miss the player sometimes.
  
• Fixed the damage over time values in all variants of the Crystal Gun.
  
• Fixed the Firestorm event voice lines not matching the appropriate character avatars.
  
• Fixed issues with updating resource limits after an Outpost with resource storages is removed.
  
• Fixed an issue that caused the build mode selector to always appear in the top-left corner when using the gamepad.
  
• Fixed multiple issues with Liquid Compressors and Decompressors usage across multiple maps.
  
• Fixed issues with the menu navigation on the Custom Difficulty Screen.
  
• Fixed an issue that caused some units to get stuck while navigating through liquid pools.
  
• Fixed an issue that caused Mudroners to sometimes get stuck in one spot.
  
• Fixed an issue that caused some main menu localizations to overlap.
  
• Fixed a crash in lift.lua when the object you're trying to carry gets destroyed.
  
• Fixed hitboxes on the Weapon Modding screen.
  
• Fixed an issue that caused the mission flow to get stuck in the 'Destroy the Fungor Spawning Mound' mission.
  
• Fixed the achievement trigger for 'Indecisive.'
  
• Fixed collision boxes for the Alien Towers in the Metallic Valley biome.
  
• Fixed the achievement trigger for the 'Treasure Hunter" achievement.
  
• Fixed an issue that caused many sounds to play at once when loading into the game.
  
• Fixed several issues with minimap item visibility.
  
• Fixed an issue that prevented players from flipping pages when using a gamepad.
  
• Fixed multiple issues with the 'interact' button not working properly.
  
• Added missing resources to the global precache system - you should no longer experience stutters when encountering something in the game for the first time
  
• Fixed several issues with Power Well powerup HUD symbol visibility.
  
• All relevant stats for Mech Upgrades, Skills and Weapons should now be visible in the inventory screen tooltip.
  
• Fixed an issue that caused Power Rod Towers and HCM Launchers to reload ammo after loading a save file.
  
• Fixed the damage over time display in the inventory screen - it now displays that it is measured in seonds.
  
• Fixed GUI usability issues on the Orbital Scanner screen.
  
• Fixed multiple crash bugs.
  
• Fixed multiple GUI usability issues.
  

In last week’s article, we answered one of the most prevalent questions about the Co-Op mode in The Riftbreaker: “Will the campaign be playable in co-op?” Today, we will focus on the second most popular topic in the community: “Why is the game in closed beta? Make it open beta!” We will try to explain to the best of our ability why we chose the closed beta route, how it benefits the development process, and why we can’t transition to open beta just yet. We will also give you a rough estimation of when said transition could happen and when you can expect to receive your beta key.

Our playtests have led us to several conclusions. One of them is: we have too many effects on our screen and we need to fix that,

First of all, let’s clarify why we chose the closed beta model. We had no idea what to expect when we started our testing. We have never played The Riftbreaker with anyone outside of our office. There was a slight chance that everything would go well, but honestly, we were expecting failure. In our experience, nothing ever goes right the first time. Only a handful of people were given access since we were ready to spend the next few weeks diagnosing connectivity issues, game-breaking bugs, and crash reports. In such unknown conditions, it is often the case that more than half of all common problems are caused by one or two bugs. We were prepared for things to bomb and didn’t really need hundreds of reports about the same couple of issues.

When you have friends along doing work, it is easy to fortify your base to the fullest.

To our surprise, none of that happened. Of course, the game had its fair share of issues, and it still does, but nowhere near what we had expected. We instructed our small group of players to focus on functionality first and report all the bugs and broken features. They co-operated and created cohesive lists of issues with as few duplicate error reports as possible. This allowed us to identify the critical problems and assign people to solve them quickly. Having a detailed list of issues and assignments without a vast, nebulous backlog looming over on Discord allowed us to push out patches rapidly. As we mentioned in our previous article - a small team like ours works best when we can focus on a smaller fragment of the game and work toward the ‘big picture.’ In other words, we try not to bite more than we can chew. Working with a small community allows us to set goals and work efficiently.

Big hammerroceros came prepared with personal bodyguards in the form of small hammerroceroses. It didn't help at all.

The closed beta period also allows us to test very specific game elements in a controlled environment. Each update that we release adds a couple of new features or gameplay changes. Our beta testers are informed about the upcoming changes in advance. By staying up to date with what’s happening within the dev team, they know what to expect from each update, which areas they should focus on, and what kind of bug fixes they can expect in the future. Not everyone has the time, and perhaps more importantly, not everyone is willing to put as much time into this project, which is completely fine. Keeping the beta and the testing group under key and lock for a little longer will allow us to continue this iterative development cycle. It has produced good results for us so far.

Playing with friends allows you to get a strong economy and build massive bases in a couple dozen minutes.

Now, let’s discuss what we still need to do to take The Riftbreaker to Open Beta. As you know, we utilize the peer-to-peer connection architecture. This means that people playing together are virtually linked, and all file transfers happen between their PCs, with no servers in the middle. Of course, that is a giant simplification, but the point is that we don’t have any matchmaking services or world servers to maintain. However, that doesn’t mean that the network side is completely maintenance-free. We have a server running 24/7 that acts as a central hub for the server search screen in the game. If the server went down, you could only connect to friends using the Steam friends list or by directly specifying the IP address that you want to connect to. At present, our server is more than capable of running the server search, but we have no idea what the maximum capacity is. If we opened the beta to everyone, we would likely find out the hard way. Before we do so, we need to implement more scalable and robust tools.

To compensate for the stronger economy, attacks get more dangerous as well.

Another disadvantage of open beta is that people will most likely get bored with it too quickly or get the wrong impression. We don’t want people to rush in and try The Riftbreaker in its unfinished state and form the first impression that it is broken and plagued by technical difficulties. We also don’t want you to get burned out by playing the same survival map for a couple of weeks before we add another biome to the list. The beta is not the full version experience. We want to make this distinction very clear.

Some things, however, are still dangerous, even in co-op. Meet the canceroth boss. It's nasty.

Some of you have been asking questions about the rate at which we’re releasing keys to the public. Generally, we try to release between 50 and 100 keys a week. At present, we give priority to those, who signed up earlier and who are present on Discord. Discord is our preferred method of instant communication with the community. It allows us to quickly address concerns and offer workarounds to issues before we can patch them. If you do not have Discord, you’re still eligible for a key. In fact, we will get keys to everyone who signed up for the test. As the game gets better, we will increase the pace at which we send out keys. It is going to take some time, and we are sorry about that. Please believe us when we say that we are not gatekeeping out of spite - we are gatekeeping to maintain an efficient process.

Perhaps we can't see things well yet, but it's still very fun!

As for when the transition from closed to open beta might happen - we don’t really know, but it won’t be this year. It is quite likely that the open beta will last for only a couple of weeks as a final rehearsal before the release. We are looking into several additional options to let you try out the game early to some capacity, though. We will share details about them in advance so that you can schedule around those events. In the meantime, we will do our best to keep you in the loop about everything on the development front.

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Have a great weekend!
EXOR Studios