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.




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.


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.


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

We have just updated the Experimental Branch of The Riftbreaker. The update features a couple of new elements, such as the Statistics Screen and a new Seasonal Event for the Spring Festival. Other than that, the update also brings some fixes and optimizations, including a rework of our audio system.

We plan to make this patch public by the end of the week. If you would like to help us test it beforehand, you can download it now from the Experimental Branch.

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: #rb-experimental-feedback - we highly encourage you to join in and share your feedback.

EXTREMELY IMPORTANT: Saves that you create on the Experimental Branch WILL NOT be compatible with older versions of the game like the current, default branch of the game. They will be compatible with future versions of the game. Please manually backup your save files if you plan on reverting to the default branch of the game.

The experimental branch might contain severe errors and bugs. If you are not sure if you want to accept that risk, we recommend waiting until the patch is confirmed to be stable and until it arrives on the main branch.

• 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.

• 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.
  
• 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.
  
• 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.
  
• 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.
  
• Build Max Level' button - left alt key by default - is now a toggle.
  
• 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.

• 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 large number of minor errors and crash bugs.

• 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.

EXOR Studios

Hello Riftbreakers!

It’s time to check in on our wonderful modding community once more. Ever since we released our Riftbreaker Editing Tools we have seen a healthy increase in your interest in creating custom content for the game, which is awesome and we absolutely love it. Whether you’re a veteran of the modding scene, or you’re just taking your first steps in developing mods, you are welcome on our Discord - www.discord.gg/exorstudios.



Today we would like to showcase one of the most impressive mods we have seen so far. It is called Expanded Arsenal Mod and it’s being developed by our long-time community member WirawanMYT. The mod adds ELEVEN new tower types to the game with some amazing results. You can download the mod here: https://www.nexusmods.com/theriftbreaker/mods/122?tab=description. And what is even crazier - he didn’t even need our editors to do that. ALL HAIL THE MIGHTY NOTEPAD!

WirawanMYT felt that Ashley and Mr. Riggs deserve an upgrade when it comes to their defensive tower range. By mixing and matching existing weapon and ammo types he created a truly impressive arsenal of towers. What is more, he did not stop at simply making them functional - WirawanMYT actually edited the textures and effects as well, in order to give them a distinct feel. Let’s check them all out now! (for bandwidth saving purposes I've only included a couple of GIFs, but WirawanMYT has made a video with all of the towers).


Think of the destruction. Think of the carnage. Think of the good men left behind! Bonus points if you get that reference.

EMP Artillery - This tower uses EMP grenades that deal energy damage to the enemies and have the potential to stun them, delaying the creatures’ arrival to your perimeter.



Plasma Mortar - An Artillery Tower variant that shoots a barrage of Plasma at enemies - which eliminates the need for any ammunition!

Burst Minigun - It is a twist on the Minigun Tower that is currently present in the game. Instead of firing all the time, it shoots short bursts of much more powerful bullets.

Shotgun Tower - One of the most pleasing towers to use in this mod. It does exactly what it says on the tin - it’s a shotgun mounted on top of a defensive tower. It obliterates groups of small enemies, spraying lead everywhere. On top of that, it actually uses the High-Caliber Tower ammo, something that was missing from the game to this point.

Sniper Tower - another tower utilizing High-Caliber Tower Ammo. Fires single, high-velocity bullets that pierce through targets.

Gravity Accelerator - This one has the potential to wreak havoc on the battlefield (and make your FPS tank). Shoots shells that work just like gravity grenades, dealing area damage, damage over time AND making everything fly!



Heavy Gravity Accelerator - If the Gravity Accelerator Tower spent too much time at the gym, this would be the result. Bigger, stronger, more destructive.

Acid Artillery - this variant of the Artillery Tower spits out acidic shells that do not deal high damage at first, but cover a large area and deal damage over time.



Ice Laser - this is a modified Laser Tower. It is characterized by lower damage output, but the cryo damage it deals slows enemies down. Plus, the visual is super-sweet!

MHD Laser - Look, I don’t know what MHD stands for, but I have a couple of guesses. Mega-Hyper-Damage? Metal-Heavy-Doom? My-Heart-Dropped? Dunno. Still - it needs Ironium to operate cause it melts metal and spits it at enemies, which is both cruel and beautiful.



Lightning Spike - Our absolute favorite of them all. This is a modified Shockwave Tower blessed by Thor, Zeus, and a plethora of other Thunder Gods. This tower has the ability to call in directed lightning strikes at the enemies. I don’t think we can beat this one, honestly.

WirawanMYT has also told us that he is working on updates for this mod, including better visuals and other tweaks, so let’s show him some love and give him motivation to keep going! Download the mod here https://www.nexusmods.com/theriftbreaker/mods/122?tab=description and leave a like and a comment!

We greatly appreciate your effort in making The Riftbreaker content. We are extremely happy that the game inspires you to bring your own ideas to life. We plan to showcase the best mods from our community on a regular basis. If you are an author of a cool mod or if you found something crazy on the web, let me know on Discord - my nickname there is voidreaver and my DMs are open!

If this post inspired you to get started then visit our #rb-modding channel, where you can get tips from other modders and our team. We also plan to make more videos on how to use our editors, so stay tuned for that.

Enjoy your weekend!
EXOR Studios

Thank you for the huge number of replies to our weapon design contest! You showed a lot of creativity trying to fill in the blanks in Mr. Riggs’ arsenal. It was extremely difficult for us to pick and choose the best designs. However, some ideas seemed to garner a lot more interest and cropped up more than once, so we decided to shortlist these ones as our candidates.




- suggested by: Dragonkat, Genjator

The first among the fan-favorites is a take on the classic ‘BFG’. It is a slow-firing, energy-based weapon of mass destruction. This weapon shoots out an energy ball that travels slowly along the ground, dealing damage as it passes through enemies. After some time, the projectile explodes with great force. It would allow you to thin out the lighter enemy units in the front of the horde and to reach the heavier ones in the back more easily.

- suggested by: BlackRangerXIII, ScDK,Sakkimunati, Sisupisici, VolleKanne, BURPINGfaeriesSCREAMINGbutterfly, taiiat, Lohkrim, Rajx Nertez, Some Gumballer, Dramion

Another popular design and, coincidentally, another energy-based weapon is a must in the arsenal of any self-proclaimed mad scientist - the tesla gun. This weapon shoots out a beam of electric energy that forks between enemies. The affected units take damage and have a chance to be stunned, which makes the weapon useful in dealing with multiple enemies at once.

- suggested by: Darklight, Harkonnen, BahamutZero. WarStalkeR,

The next design on our list gives you the ability to order a targeted artillery barrage on-demand… sort of. The Cluster Missile Launcher fires off a single projectile that flies upwards instead of directly at the target. Once it reaches the peak of the flight trajectory, the rocket separates into several bombs mid-air, bombarding a large area all at once. Naturally, such a weapon comes with a high demand for ammunition and a significant cooldown, but the effect makes it worth it. Just imagine all the explosions, smoke, craters, and fire left behind…

- suggested by: Agamendron, Mjolniar

Now, this is a fun one, as long as you are not on the receiving end. The Saw Blade Launcher fires saw blades that spin at a very high velocity, bouncing erratically between multiple targets, animate or inanimate, until the energy in the blade is depleted. This weapon allows you to hit a number of enemies but requires you to aim and hit only one of them - the blade will find its own way to the next target.

- suggested by: hyperflare, WarStalkeR, BlindConductor, Jonny Sparta, Piggyrocket, Bradster2214, HallowedJam

The last design on our shortlist escapes the ‘portable, handheld weapon’ standards a bit. However, so many of you have posted some variation of this weapon that we could not just ignore it. The Orbital Strike Cannon will require the player to build a special structure that will allow them to launch a satellite into Galatea’s orbit. After doing so, Mr. Riggs will be able to mark locations on the planet’s surface for the satellite to fire on. Whether it’s going to be a laser, or a giant explosive rod remains to be determined, but with the amount of setup and effort required this weapon is guaranteed to be the ultimate haymaker.



Now comes the voting part! Follow this link and choose the one you like the most: https://linkto.run/p/7O9LAFEP

We can’t guarantee that the weapon will make it into the game in exactly the way that we described them here, or exactly the way you intended them to be. Our weapons usually go through several iterations before we finalize their designs. That being said, we will do our best to make them fun and effective!

Voting ends on Friday at 5PM CET.

EXOR Studios

Hello Riftbreakers!

In The Riftbreaker, your job is to explore and gain knowledge about Galatea 37, an entirely unknown planet in the far reaches of the Milky Way galaxy. While doing your research, you will discover a lot of new substances and chemical processes that were previously unheard of. This, in turn, will allow you to push the boundaries of engineering and construct new tools, upgrades, and, of course, weapons. Today we will take a look at two such toys that might prove useful during your mission to Galatea 37.



The first such weapon is the Corrosive Gun. A wide variety of Galatean creatures utilize various kinds of acids as their main survival mechanism. This naturally, inspired Ashley to look into adopting this unique form of defense into the form of a weapon, and then turn it up to 11. It turns out that if you shoot sticky blobs of a superacid that reacts violently with both organic and inorganic matter, you get some nasty, but highly useful results. Using the Corrosive Gun you can get rid of almost anything that stands in your way.



The next new toy in The Riftbreaker arsenal is the Cryogenic Atomizer. This device uses a combination of substances found only on Galatea 37 to create a powerful endothermic reaction, cooling down the surroundings in an instant. Its clever design allows the Riftbreaker to concentrate the area of effect of the Atomizer to a narrow cone that’s easy to control. Creatures affected by the weapon are not only slowed down but also take damage due to the sudden temperature drop.



As powerful as they might first seem, these brand-new weapons are not the ultimate tools of destruction that will wipe out absolutely anything. Galatean creatures have been evolving for millions of years before Ashley’s arrival, some of them acquiring interesting survival mechanisms in the process. However, if you have access to the Corrosive Gun and the Cryogenic Atomizer, as well as some conventional weaponry, you should be able to handle whatever comes your way.

That’s all we have for you today. Make sure to join us on Discord to learn more things about the world of The Riftbreaker and never ever miss another piece of news. - www.discord.gg/exorstudios

EXOR Studios

With the holiday season finished we are officially back to work in (almost) full force. As we continue our work towards the next item on our roadmap - world expansion number one - we are going to present you with regular updates and ask for your feedback along the way!

We can’t overstate how big of a role you - our community - have played over the course of The Riftbreaker’s development. Thousands of hours put into the Prologue and Closed Beta, pages upon pages of Discord messages, and all the reports that you have sent our way through all the other channels have shaped the way the game is like today. We would love to continue that and is there a better time to do so than right now?!

Obviously not! The first Riftbreaker world expansion is going to bring a lot of new and exciting content for you, including new locations, enemies, weather events, and, naturally, weapons! We know you have lots of great ideas for new tools of destruction so let’s have a little competition. Here’s the contest question:




To take part in the competition visit our Discord server (www.discord.gg/exorstudios) and give us your answer in the #weapon-contest channel, following this example:

Name: The Megasizzler 5000
Damage Type: Energy
Attack: Shoots a continuous energy beam that spreads to other enemies and sets them on fire.
Fire Type: If your dream gun has two attack modes, describe both of them! Does it fire single shots? Can you charge it? Or does it fire a continuous beam as long as you have the ammo? Let us know!



You have the time to post your ideas until Friday. We are going to check them all out and shortlist 5 candidates. Then, we will hold a public vote on Discord, during which you are going to decide which gun makes it into the game. Naturally, we can’t promise that the winning idea will appear in The Riftbreaker in an unchanged form, but we will do our best.

Needless to say, that won’t be the only new toy added to Mr. Riggs’ arsenal. We have some crazy ideas brewing that might open even more design space later on, so who knows - we might even run another competition like this in the future.

Looking forward to reading all your ideas!
EXOR Studios

The Riftbreaker has passed 350 000 copies sold across all platforms and well beyond half a million Riftbreakers have visited Galatea 37 when adding Game Pass users. Thank you to everyone who supported us along the way! We're thrilled about what's coming in 2022 :)

We've delivered more than 15 updates in 2021 and we're not planning to slow down in 2022. We are already back at work and preparing the next set of updates. In the short term, we're working on balancing improvements for cultivators, improved mouse input latency (especially under low FPS), various quality of life improvements, performance optimizations, and fixes for the bugs that are being reported. We are also planning to work further on improving the modding tools that we've released recently. We are aiming to release the next update with these and other changes near the end of this month.

The next milestone update dubbed "World Expansion I" is going to arrive around the end of March or sometime later in April. We're still designing the new content and mechanics for this update, so there's no fixed release date for it yet. It's going to include a completely new biome, a lot of new content including new creature species, weapons, skills, upgrades, and more. The new biome, all of the new game mechanics, and items are going to be available for free to enjoy in Survival mode and for use in modding. The story-driven campaign expansion is going to be a paid DLC. We're going to share more information about it as we move forward with development.

The last but one of the most important new additions that we're working on is of course - online multiplayer. This is an ongoing task that is being worked on in parallel to all of the other updates. Behind the scenes, we are slowly reworking large parts of code to make surviving on Galatea 37 together with your friends possible. Some of these changes include large optimizations to how we handle data and game logic. This requires big parts of the game's code to be redesigned and rewritten. We don't have a precise estimate for when this task will be completed, but we're aiming for the end of 2022, with early beta tests coming sometime sooner.

Once again thank you for all your support and for sticking with us on this journey!

We've just published the last maintenance update for The Riftbreaker in 2021.

The Riftbreaker Maintenance Update, Package #96, Binaries #493, December 21st, 2021.
-Enabled HQ upgrades through the Upgrade Tool - this will now trigger a manual confirmation prompt. This change brings back the functionality, but should still prevent upgrading the HQ by mistake.
-Fixed crash in the AmmoSystem: projectile cluster
-Fixed ResourceSystem: breaking energy graph on destroying building while upgrading
-Fixed DamageSystem: familiarity lvl bonus should now be properly applied
-Fixed DisassemblyScreen: background
-Fixed CraftingScreen: sorting
-Fixed possible crash in the TimeOfDaySystem
-Fixed possible crash in the TerrainAffectorSystem

See you in 2022 :)

HO HO HO, Riftbreakers!

In the previous patch, we have added support for in-game seasonal events. These are purely cosmetic events that alter some of the models and biome settings in The Riftbreaker to put you in the holiday spirit. It is time for the first of them - the Winter Holidays event!

It turns out that the Tropical Zone on Galatea 37 isn’t exactly tropical. Temperatures have dropped quite significantly and everything is now covered in snow. This has made Ashley long for home and the holiday atmosphere, so she has made some adjustments to the Riftbreaker technology blueprints to make the place a bit cozier.



The basic floor tiles have been decorated with some festive symbols.



The basic lamps are much less basic now, with their shapes now similar to the traditional gas lights of the 19th-century gas lights for those Christmas Carol vibes. All colors are affected, so go crazy!



The Christmas atmosphere has made Ashley want to give away some gifts. Every landmine is now gift-wrapped and just waiting to be opened!



Instead of regular Sentinel Towers, you can now place an army of snowmen to keep you company. Naturally, they shoot energy bolts straight from the carrots. You’re welcome.



Mr. Riggs has requested a fresh coat of paint as his gift this year, so Ashley came up with two completely new designs for him - Mr. Santa and Ugly Christmas Sweater!


The code for this one is: HOHOHO


And for this one: MERRYCHRISTMAS - don't judge us, we're tired, we want a holiday break, too...

If you are not into these kinds of events or if you don’t celebrate Christmas do not worry - this is all entirely optional. The first time you launch the game after the Christmas Update you will be greeted with a pop-up window, asking if you would like to enable these cosmetics. You can also change your settings later in-game, once you decide you’ve had enough of snow.

This is the first seasonal event we’re holding, so all feedback is appreciated. We would like to also hear your ideas for future events - let us know what you would like to see in the comments!

Lastly, we would like to thank you all for making 2021 extra special for us. We hope that 2022 will be even better for all of us and that you and your loved ones will be able to spend some amazing time together in the coming weeks, safe and sound.

Wishing you a wonderful end of the year,
EXOR Studios