May 24, 2023

The Riftbreaker - voidreaver

Hello Riftbreakers!

With the release of The Riftbreaker: Into the Dark expansion just around the corner, on May 29th, we thought it would be a good idea to publish one of the earliest works of The Riftbreaker lore once more.

Before Ashley arrived on Galatea 37 she had been a part of several smaller recon missions to various places around the Milky Way galaxy. One of those missions saw her visit Orion 214LV, a planet that drew attention through intense neutrino particle bursts of unknown origin. However, once there, Ashley discovered that Orion was a very dangerous place. Violent storms and anomalies were shaking the foundations of that world. Without thinking twice, she decided to get to the root of the problem and investigate the source of the world-threatening anomalies.

The Phantom Pain is a short story written by Konrad Wyremski, EXOR’s lead graphics designer, and illustrated by our friend, Artur Ciechorski. It gives you a glimpse into Ashley’s backstory, which the plot of Into the Dark references multiple times. In order to enjoy the Story Expansion best, take a moment to read this piece.

Originally published on August 16th, 2019.

The Phantom Pain

Orion 214LV seemed like a perfect planet. However, what seems beautiful at first might be hiding terrible cracks underneath. The core of the planet is destabilized beyond any hope now. Colonization is impossible at his point. The sands of time are running low for this world. 'I still have the time to research this anomaly' I thought. I never stopped to think of the many dangers of space. That mistake would cost me dearly.

I could feel the vibrations in the ground beneath my feet. New ruptures were opening one by one all around me, with clouds of smoke rising from the cracks. Sudden gusts of wind kept hitting me with enormous strength, enough to knock a regular person off their feet. A regular person, but not me. Not a Riftbreaker in a recon suit. I moved steadily as the stabilizers’ engines did their dirty work while humming calmingly. Despite all the heat outside, the interior of the suit was pleasantly cool. The analysis of the data I gathered indicated that I was closing in on the anomaly, the source of all this mess. If I had had the time, I would have surely stopped and basked in the glory of this breathtaking spectacle. Dust particles shimmered all around me as they were lit by waves of flame erupting from the planet’s core. Electrical discharges jolted within the dark clouds. Anoryx crystals pulsed erratically. I was too focused on reaching my goal, though, leaving only my subconscious to enjoy the show. Whatever could cause such a degree of change to the structure of the planet must have been seaming with energy, and I was determined to find out what that was.

The next couple of meters were not pleasant. The ruptures were growing wider as I leaped above them. I almost did not notice all the boiling lava within them. One more hill. Just one more. The wind roared, blowing away larger and larger pieces of rock from the surface. A football-sized piece of debris hit the forcefield around my suit, then disappeared into the darkness. I knew it didn't even leave a scratch, but I started feeling uneasy at that point. I reached a cliff. I jumped towards the ledge and engaged the brakes. Years of training augmented by the AI of the suit were definitely paying off.

A bolt of lightning split the darkness, revealing the source of the anomaly. An enormous, blood-red crystal covered with thousands of luminous veins. The light reflecting off its surface created vivid mirages, and it seemed as if there were living creatures all around. The whole surrounding area was soaked in the crimson light emanating from the crystal... 'Crystal... Crystalized... Infected.' – I thought.

“I have to take a sample”. Another lightning struck the crystal. It seemed as if a small wave ran along its surface. Something strange was happening with my suit. Each step came with more effort than the last. I saw a crystalized flower to my left. One more step. Raging inferno outside. Sweat from my brow got into my eyes. I could taste metal. Another step. Why is that flower getting further away?... A red mist drifted slowly all around, not affected by the raging storm. What a terrifyingly beautiful sight... Debris gracefully danced in the small twisters... The gravity was going nuts... I didn't have much time left. I needed the sample. I took the leap. All the servos in my suit wailed as they were trying to aid me. I fell on my knees next to that flower. It was all muscle memory and training at that point. I took the sample. The searing pain in my head had me paralyzed. I could hear the distant sound, signifying the completion of the sampling process. The red mist covered my eyes...

Nobody knows how I managed to jump back. I have no idea myself. It must have been all the years of training.

The recon suit acted just in time. The crystal started infecting its defense mechanisms and my arm. It was spreading fast, too fast to deploy any countermeasures. The only chance to get me back to base was to get rid of the infected part of the suit. Amputation. Clean, quick. I would love to say painless, too... But it hurt like hell.

It haunts me to this day. I still wake up some nights sweating buckets and screaming. I see the red mist again. That's when the phantom pain comes. I feel it radiating all the way from my shoulder down to my fingertips. I move my hand around, and the pain is gone. It was never there in the first place. I never remember the dream. I only remember the horrific beauty of that crystal. It's still somewhere out there, in the abyss of space, waiting for our next encounter...

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

Discover the rest of the story in The Riftbreaker: Into the Dark, available May 29th, 2023!

EXOR Studios

May 19, 2023

The Riftbreaker Experimental Update, May 19th, 2023

The Riftbreaker - voidreaver

Hello Riftbreakers!

We have just updated the experimental branch of The Riftbreaker for beta testing purposes. This update brings some significant changes. Apart from the additions we have managed to finish working on over the past couple of days, it also includes gameplay changes, stability fixes and performance optimizations, all thanks to your feedback. Thank you for that!

However, the biggest and the most visible part of this update is our brand-new volumetric lighting system. For the past couple of months we have been quietly working on this feature, hoping we would get it before the launch of the World Expansion II - and we did! Volumetric lighting allows us to simulate fog, dust and aerosols in the air and their interactions with the lights. The results are pretty spectacular. The character of the distance fog has changed significantly - it is softer an more natural. You can also see beams of light as they travel through the dusty air. It looks especially great in the Caverns biome!

You can observe the effects of the new lighting system on all biomes in the game. It is the most prominent in the caverns, but we think that other areas also benefitted from this change. This feature is available both on DirectX 11 and DirectX 12 systems and is enabled by default. We're looking forward to hearing what you think about this.

This update is (most likely) incompatible with any current mods. Please remove all mods before playing. MAKE SURE TO MAKE A BACKUP COPY OF YOUR SAVE FILES! Make a copy of 'The Riftbreaker' folder from your documents and keep it safe.

With all these warnings out of the way, here’s how to access the experimental branch:

create a backup copy of your save folder (Documents/The Riftbreaker)
disable Steam Cloud save backup for The Riftbreaker
go to your Steam Library
right-click on The Riftbreaker
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.

The Riftbreaker World Expansion II Beta Update, May 19th, 2023. Changelog:

The listed changes are the differences between the versions from May 16th and today.

Graphics

Added volumetric lighting. This rendering technique adds advanced lighting effects to the scene to better simulate fog, air density and other aerosols. It allows the viewer to see beams of light shining across the environment. All biomes in the game have been updated with the new lighting and fog settings. This option is enabled by default for all users, as it is compatible with both DX11 and DX12 systems and its performance impact is negligible compared to the visual benefit. This option can be disabled in the setting menu.

Features

Added a cheat command: cheat_buildings_ignore_limits. It will allow you to build any number of cap-limited buildings, such as traps, armories or communication hubs.
Added a cheat command: cheat_unlimited_activations. It will allow traps to stay functional indefinitely, with no activation limit.
Added support for destructible rock patterns and light mask materials spanning over multiple tiles. You can now create custom masks that are larger than one tile when creating modded maps in Crystal Caverns biome.

Changes

Changed the location of the light sources attached to player's mech to work better with the new volumetric lighting model.
Building limits for traps are now local instead of global. Traps set in one outpost do not count towards your limit on other ones.
Traps that have depleted all their charges now leave ruins that can be easily repaired.
The bodies of dead enemies disappear much faster if they're lying near traps.
Traps can now be overriden with other traps. If you want to replace a fire trap with an acid trap you no longer need to deconstruct the first - just place the new one on the old one.
The visual effect of the fire trap is now less bright.
Traps can't be accidentally destroyed by explosions or 'stomps' of large creatures.
Changed textures of most traps to easily distinguish between the different types.
Taking your suggestions into account, Crystal Walls now automatically rebuild themselves after being destroyed. If a piece of Crystal Wall is brought to ruin, it will regrow back to its former self after 60 seconds. The wall won't be at full HP, however, it will regenerate over time as long as it doesn't take damage. Thanks to our community member, Piisfun, who suggested this feature!
Sounds for Lava Gun, Crystal Gun, Spitters, Bouncing Blades, Pickaxe, Sonic Fist, Flamewave, Sonic Blast and Crystal Walls have been added.
Added a new model for Sonic Fists of all rarity levels.
"Fire" type enemies will no longer set other units on fire by simply touching them.
Added icons for the majority of research items.

Fixes

Fixed a crash in ResourceSystem.
Fixed a crash in ResistanceComponent.
Fixed a crash when trying to load save files from a very old version of the game.
Fixed a crash in DiscoverableSystem.
Fixed a crash in HudEquipment system.
Fixed a crash in FireArtilleryAmmo method.
Fixed a crash in building_creator.lua script.
Fixed an issue that caused Drillgors to follow the player instead of attacking the base.
Fixed an issue that caused Solar Panels to provide fractional energy values when placed on sun spots in Crystal Caverns.
FindService: fix find service methods returns duplicates (thanks @ponomaryow.dmitry).
Fixed the appearance of some of the crystal props after shader changes.
Fixed triggering visual effects on traps.
Removed an unnecessary pointer arrow from the Energy Pylon building.
Fixed a problem that caused Gulgors not to trigger traps.

Remember that the official update is coming your way on May 29th! We hope you enjoy discovering this new part of the game as much as we enjoyed developing it.

EXOR Studios

May 16, 2023

Open Beta Now Live

The Riftbreaker - voidreaver

Hello Riftbreakers!

We would like to invite you all to participate in the closed beta test of Survival Mode in the new Crystal Caverns biome from the upcoming World Expansion! If you have missed the last week’s announcement of the release date, follow this link. It contains all the information about what’s coming to you on May 29th. Now, let’s talk about the contents of this experimental update.

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

The Experimental Beta update allows you to play survival in the Crystal Caverns biome on all difficulty levels. This means full, unrestricted access to all the new monsters, technologies, weapons, and game mechanics, including wall excavation. We would love to hear all your thoughts about the new biome and what you think we should improve ahead of release. This update also allows you to try out the new technologies in other biomes of Galatea 37 - the research trees have all been updated to accommodate the 70+ new tech items. All of this content will come to you as a free update on May 29th.

This Beta does not contain any new Story Campaign content. That will be a part of the paid Into the Dark DLC, and we want to keep it secret until release. There’s some pretty sweet stuff waiting for you in this expansion!

Please note that this is a beta test. Many things are still unfinished, unbalanced, or use placeholder assets. Errors are expected. The game might crash or break - please report all such instances to us either on the Steam Forum or our Discord at www.discord.gg/exorstudios. We have already fixed a lot of issues during the closed beta period, so you should be fine, but it’s always good to keep that in mind.

This update is (most likely) incompatible with any current mods. Please remove all mods before playing. MAKE SURE TO MAKE A BACKUP COPY OF YOUR SAVE FILES! Make a copy of 'The Riftbreaker' folder from your documents and keep it safe.

With all these warnings out of the way, here’s how to access the experimental branch:

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

Since we have already conducted some closed beta tests with our Discord members, we have two changelog versions for you. The first is a full changelog with the full contents of the update. This is meant for everyone who has not played Crystal Caverns yet. The second changelog contains fixes and changes we have introduced since the last beta. This one is meant for those of you who have already played the update. We hope that dividing the changelog into these two versions will make it easier for you to find the information that you want.

The Riftbreaker World Expansion II Experimental Beta, May 16th, 2023. Click 'Show Details' for Changelog:

[expand type=details]
New Features and Content

New Survival Mode Biome: Crystal Caverns - a new survival mode map taking place in an entirely new underground biome. It introduces a completely new rock excavation mechanic - you will have to make room for your base and you will be able to shape the terrain to your advantage. Resources are plentiful, but traditional ways of generating electricity work only to a limited degree. You will have to develop an entirely new set of skills to survive in the cavern system beneath the surface of Galatea 37. The new biome comes with a complete set of new species of flora, fauna, as well as new technologies - all described below
New Creature: Crawlog. A fast, relentless melee attacker that may rise up from the dead if you leave its body intact.
New Creature: Gulgor. A slower, more bulky creature that prefers to attack from a safe distance. Shoots volleys of cryo-damage projectiles.
New Creature: Necrodon. A mysterious, menacing support creature that lurks the caves of Galatea 37, summoning crystallized versions of Galatean creatures, as well as resurrecting fallen ones. You might have seen it in some places around Galatea 37 before - it has received a significant reward.
New Creature: Drillgor. It's a very large creature that rushes for the player's headquarters at the beginning of each attack wave, drilling a tunnel for the other creatures to follow. It will generally ignore the player and tries to dig in a straight line.
New Creature Variant: Cave Gnerot. It's a Gnerot strain that adapted to living in the new biome and taken on a new form of camouflage.
New Creature Variant: Crystaros. It's a species that is quite similar to Stregaros, but dropped its chitinous carapace in favor of utilizing crystalline growth as its armor.
New Creature Variant: Canomortus. Its origins are unknown, but the creature resembles a reanimated corpse of a canoptrix and shares most of its behavior and properties.
New Creature Variant: Arachnomortus. Similarily to Canomortus, this creature seems to be a reanimated husk of a regular Arachnoid. However, instead of secreting acid from its tail gland, the creature can form crystal shards to shoot at enemies instead.
New ambient creatures of the Crystal Caverns biome - Crysders and Crystugs - have been added to the Crystal Caverns biome. Crystugs are distant relatives of the Moltug species. They carry beautiful, crystalline 'shells' on their backs.
Added a new type of resource deposit - Wind Tunnel. It's a spot of increased wind speed that allows the player to take advantage of wind power in the Crystal Caverns biome.
The ruins system is now complete and enabled by default. Destroyed buildings will leave ruins behind that can be reconstructed into the original building for their full resource cost and build time using the repair tool. Ruins stay behind indefinitely, so you don't have to worry about them disappearing on you. Ruins can be removed using the deconstruction tool.
Expanded research tree with 75 new research items. [WORK IN PROGRESS - items are missing their icons and some research is not functional yet]
Added a new building category - Traps. Traps are completely flat structures that trigger when an enemy steps on them. Traps have a veriety of different effects that will help you defend your structures from incoming attacks. They do not require ammunition or energy to operate. There are 6 distinct trap types available, some of them can be researched while some are available as bioanomaly reward unlocks. [WORK IN PROGRESS - placeholder icons, not balanced]
Added a new tower - Loot Collector Drone Tower that spawns drones that collect loot for the player within the operating radius of the tower.
Added a new tower - Acid Spitter Tower. This liquid-based tower shoots acid projectiles that do not deal any direct damage. Instead, they leave trails of acid on the ground that deal acid damage to enemies walking through them.
Added a new building - Automated Resource Excavator that spawns drones which collect resources of all types withing the building's area of operation. This is a universal resource collector building, that can operate on multiple resource deposits, but with lower efficiency than specialized buildings.
Added a new building - Energy Pylon. This building is used to connect separated energy grids to the main energy grid in a given location. It has a long construction time and is relatively expensive, but it enables easy maintanance of remote bases without the need of creating very long power lines. [WORK IN PROGRESS - temporary mesh]
Added a new projectile weapon: Bouncing Blades - The weapon shoots a spinning blade disc that pierces through enemies and bounces after colliding with walls. [WORK IN PROGRESS - not balanced]
Added a new projectile weapon: Crystal Gun. This weapons shoots crystal projectiles that deal physical damage and shatter into another projectile upon hitting the target. The 'splinter' projectiles deal 100% of the damage of the original. [WORK IN PROGRESS - not balanced]
Added a new projectile weapon: Lava Gun. Shoots a fireball that explodes on impact, dealing area damage, as well as setting enemies on fire. [WORK IN PROGRESS - not balanced]
Added a new weapon: Fire Spitter. This weapon shoots projectiles that deal no impact damage, but set the impact area on fire. That location burns for a while,delaing fire damage to enemies and setting them on fire as well. [WORK IN PROGRESS - not balanced]
Added a new weapon: Acid Spitter. This weapon works very similarily to the Fire Spitter, bud deals acid damage instead. [WORK IN PROGRESS - not balanced]
Added a new weapon: Cryo Spitter. Same case as the two weapons above, but with cryo damage and a slow down effect this time. [WORK IN PROGRESS - not balanced]
Added a new melee weapon: Sonic Fist. They are slower compared to the regular power fists and deal physical damage instead of energy damage. However, they have a longer effective range, as each hit propels a small shockwave in the direction of the attack, dealing damage to enemies further back from Mr. Riggs. [WORK IN PROGRESS - not balanced]
Added a new melee weapon: Seismic Pickaxe. It's a weapon that is similar to the Hammer, but deals area damage in a different manner. Instead of dealing damage in a large radius, the impact force is focused forward, creating a narrow, but long shockwave. [WORK IN PROGRESS - not balanced]
Added a new Mech Upgrade: Gathering Tools - Installing this upgrade module gives Mr. Riggs a loot collecting drone, increases the mech radar range, and movement speed. Higher quality modules also upgrade other, randomized stats.
Added a new Mech Upgrade: Discovery Tools - Installing this upgrade module gives Mr. Riggs a loot collecting drone, increases the resource drop rate, and mod drop rate. Higher quality modules also upgrade other, randomized stats.
Added a new consumbale - Sonic Grenades. They are much weaker than regular, explosive grenades, but have a higher area of effect. [WORK IN PROGRESS - not balanced]
Added a new consumable: Holo Decoy. Once set, enemies will target the decoy instead of Mr. Riggs. The decoy has a large amount of HP, giving you a chance to escape from a tough fight or to target a specific enemy.
Added a new consumable: Cryo Sentry. It's a cryo damage counterpart of the regular sentry tower consumable.
Added a new consumable: Flare. It's a throwable item that shines a bright light on the surrounding objects. It can be useful during exploration of dark places, where you can't set up permanent lighting.
New Skill: Flame Wave. It will send a travelling wall of flames in the direction that Mr. Riggs is facing, dealing massive fire damage to enemies.
New Skill: Antimatter Ball. It sends a ball of antimatter (duh) that explodes on contact with an obstacle and deals energy damage to all enemies in its vicinity as it is travelling through air.
New Skill: Generator Overcharge. It sends an energy shockwave to stun and damage enemies and boosts the Force Shield recharge speed.
Completing Campaign Outposts for the Volcanic Area, Radioactive Desert and Acidic Plains will grant the player a reward in a form of unlocking a unique blueprint. The unlock will persist across game saves.
Crafting costs have been added for new weapons, items and consumables.
Added three new skins for Mr. Riggs as rewards for; completing the Into the Dark Story Campaign, completing Survival Mode in the Crystal Caverns biome, as well as one that is unlockable via bioanomaly drop.
Added new cosmetics: Crystal Floor. Obtainable from opening bioanomalies.
Added new cosmetics: Crystal Lamps. Obtainable from opening bioanomalies.
Added a new bioanomaly variant for the Crystal Caverns biome.
Added a new random encounter event - Crystal Growth. For a limited period of time crystals grow rapidly in one location on the map, allowing you to quickly gather a large amount of rare resources.
Added a new random encounter event: Falling Stalactites. Similar to meteor shower - stalactites start falling from the cave ceiling and deal damage to all objects in the affected area.
All new species have been added to the bestiary. There are no descriptions yet, but all the functional info and images are there.
Added multiple new map tiles for the Jungle, Acid, Magma and Desert biomes to improve map variety.

Changes

Resources, bioanomalies and other points of interest that are detected using radar will show up as 'unknown' on the minimap. They will change to their regular minimap icons once they are observed directly. This change affects all biomes, so we would love to hear your feedback on this.
Introduced higher difficulty attack waves for Hard and Brutal difficulties for the Acidic Plains, Radioactive Desert and Volcanic Area biomes in campaign mode. The campaign mode should provide a better challenge now.
Added Metallic Valley biome attack waves to the HQ attack pool after completing the Metal Terror Campaign.
Added difficulty level scaling for the Shegret attack event. It happens more oftern in the Crystal Caverns biome and is more significant than it used to.
Flammable objects will now catch fire from incidental sources, such as burning debris spawned from explosions. Even more wildfires!
Stone and Metal-based lifeforms are no longer flammable.
Changed the Carbonium Power Plant energy output from 50/100/150 to 60/120/180.
Increased the Arachnoid Sentinel 'agressive' state trigger distance to match other species.
Introduced a large number of improvements and fixes to our GUI . With these changes, implementing navigation and interaction functionalities should be a lot easier for us, and less buggy.
Volcanic Rock Rain in Magma Survival has been shortened (30-90 seconds changed to 30-60).
Large Cryoplant collisions are now slightly smaller, making it easier to navigate the biome.
Wild Phirians will no longer attack other units on the map.
Bouncing Blades can now cut vegetation.

Graphics

Added a per-object, camera-based object culling system that allows the player to see through tall objects. Rocks will no longer obstruct your view when passing underneath rock arches. All game tiles have been adapted to take advantage of this technique. You can read more about it here.
Rendering upgrade: Tiled Deferred Shading. This rendering technique handles scenes with large numbers of dynamic lights more efficiently. It provides a 10-15% GPU performance boost on average. You can read all about it in our article from a couple of weeks ago.
Improved non-raytraced soft shadows. The shadows now look much more natural and feature a variable penumbra. In human terms - shadows will be sharper and more defined at noon and more subtle in the morning, when the sun is softer.
Added two new loading screen artworks for the Crystal Caverns biome.
Added a custom Rift Station icon for the minimap to make locating it easier, especially in large bases.
Added an 'unknown' marker icon for the minimap. This icon appears when the player has discovered something important with their radar, but has not yet revealed what it is from within the fog of war.
Added a custom minimap icon for bioanomalies.
Changed the icon of railgun towers in the Alien Research tab of the Research screen.

Sound

Added a new music playlist - anticipation. A new set of "anticipation" music, played in a loop to prepare the player for an incoming significant attack wave. At present, it triggers when you upgrade the Headquarters, before each significant attack in the Story Campaign and during the final sequence of the Survival Run.

Fixes

Introduced a huge number of fixes and optimizations to nearly all game systems. Most of the changes we made have been aimed at the multiplayer portion of the game, but they should still positively affect the game's stability and performance.
Made changes to the random volume selection algorithm to prevent objectives from spawning in one area all the time.
Fixed numerous crashes and errors - way too many to list.

[/expand]

If you've played the beta before, this are the changes introduced since the last build.

[expand type=details]
Changes

Manual drilling (using Mr. Riggs' drilling arm) is now much faster thanks to a series of tweaks. It also has an animation!
Destructible wall 'trail' effect fades out faster to increase visibility during digging.
Crystal Gun has been updated with a new model and new projectiles.
Crystal Gun has been moved to the Low Caliber Ammo category.
Crafting costs have been added for new weapons, items and consumables.
Pickaxe now deals area damage instead of physical to enable digging through rocks.
Damage Trail skills of all variants now deal damage more often.
Added an icon for 'Charges Left' stat for traps.
Acid Spitter Towers level 2 and 3 deal more damage.
Loot added to the crystal creeper prototype.
Added plenty of new descriptions and localizations - English and Polish for now.
Spitter projectiles have been updated with physical, deforming meshes.
Spitter weapons now have a new target marker.
All Traps are now fully functional - they have preper damage types, effects, costs. Models are still missing from some of them.

Fixes

Added many materials to precache, which should reduce stuttering during gameplay.
Fixed bugs with mismatching destructible cavern walls.
Fixed a problem that could cause the game log to grow uncontrollably because of a certain character.
Fixed problems that caused the GPU benchmark not to launch properly in previous beta versions.
Fixed the offset of the 'Restart' button on the mission end screen.
Fixed a problem in GUI that caused the last line of the research description to be cut off.
Fixed Flare consumable collisions.
Fixed errors in descriptions and names of certain items.
Fixed the screenshot aspect ratio and alignemnt on the Load Game screen.
Fixed the 'missing' icon size and alignemnt on the Mod Management screen.
Spitter weapons should now display their weapon stats correctly.
Slight change in research tree width to prevent scrollbar appearing after adding new research items.
Fixed animation time statistics for melee weapons.
Fixed effects attachments placement in Acid Spitter Towers.
Hundreds of other small fixes, big fixes and optimizations.

[/expand]

We're looking forward to hearing what you think about the new biome!

EXOR Studios

May 11, 2023

Into the Dark available on May 29th!

The Riftbreaker - voidreaver

Hello Riftbreakers!

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

Get ready to go spelunking! The Riftbreaker: Into the Dark DLC arrives May 29th, 2023, along with the second free World Expansion! They are jam-packed with awesome new features and content to explore. Let us walk you through all the additions to the game that we have been working on for the past couple of months.

The biggest addition that comes with this update is the new biome - Crystal Caverns. Ashley and Mr. Riggs discovered an expansive network of caves, corridors, and caverns that span for miles below the surface of Galatea 37. They are rich in natural resources of all kinds, making them a prime target for our intrepid crew of explorers. However, we already know that Galatea 37 does not like sharing its riches with anyone. Our heroes will have to face a host of creatures they have never seen before and learn the inner workings of the complex ecosystem of Crystal Caverns.

All our players will be able to explore Crystal Caverns in the Survival Mode as a part of the free World Expansion update. It will allow you to make use of all the new game mechanics, including manual cave excavation.

The World Expansion II free content update:

Crystal Caverns biome - an underground network of caves and caverns for you to explore.
A new Survival Mode scenario taking place in the new biome.
An entirely new cavern-digging mechanic. Use Mr. Riggs’ drilling arm or explosives to clear out the space you need for expansion.
Multiple new species of creatures, unlike anything you’ve seen before. Fight hordes of fearsome monsters lurking around every corner.
More than 70 new research items and technologies to further enhance your base and Mr. Riggs’ abilities. Use drones to collect resources and valuable loot. Expand your energy grid using the Energy Relay Stations.
New weapons and defensive towers. Build powerful weapons that will obliterate anyone threatening your base. Slice through your enemies with Bouncing Blades. Send a devastating barrage of energy projectiles with the Laser Gatling Tower.
Numerous quality-of-life improvements, including the long-awaited Building Ruins feature.
…and many more! The full update details will be revealed in the Patch Notes, arriving on May 29th!

The second major part of the upcoming update is the paid story-based DLC with a new portion of the Story Campaign. A series of anomalous neutrino bursts and unusual seismic activity will lead Ashley and Mr. Riggs to face a world-ending threat within the expansive Crystal Caverns biome.. Our heroes will have to progressively dig deeper underneath the planet’s surface to uncover the source of terrifying creature mutations.

The Riftbreaker: Into the Dark paid DLC:

Experience an exciting new branch of the Story Campaign taking place in the underground Crystal Caverns biome.
Establish a unique subterranean Outpost by excavating soft limestone rock and shaping the environment to suit your needs,
Expand your Campaign Mode technology tree by researching unique technologies that can only be acquired in this biome.
Collect information on new creatures, vegetation, and other curiosities found only in this underground environment.
Repel attacks from massive tunnel-digging beasts using new weapons and technology.
Adapt your base-building methods to make the most of the terrain-shaping abilities and novel power-generation mechanics.
Discover previously unknown details from Ashley’s past.
The Story portion of this Expansion is integrated with the Main Campaign from the base edition of The Riftbreaker. The new branch and the contents of the expansion will unlock as you progress through the game. If you have previously completed The Riftbreaker Story Campaign, you can continue your adventure where you left off. The additional part of the Story will unlock immediately, giving you the option to explore the new part of the world.

The Riftbreaker: Into the Dark DLC will be available on the 29th of May, 2023, at $9.99. The free World Expansion II update accompanying the release of the DLC will be released the same time.

EXOR Studios

Apr 21, 2023

Acidic Plains Biome Gets a Revamp

The Riftbreaker - voidreaver

Hello Riftbreakers!

As you know, along with the release of Into the Dark, the second Story Expansion for The Riftbreaker, we are also releasing our second World Expansion. The World Expansion is free for everyone and brings a lot of changes and improvements for the game. Apart from giving you access to the Crystal Caverns biome in Survival mode with all of its features, new tech and equipment, you will also be able to enjoy a lot of changes and improvements for the base game. One such feature is the “Building Ruins” feature we talked about last week. Today we will tell you about another addition we are implementing to improve your gameplay experience - new map tiles we prepared for the Acidic Plains biome.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2108630/The_Riftbreaker_Into_The_Dark/
(✿◠‿◠) WISHLIST NOW TO MAKE DEVELOPERS HAPPY (◠‿◠✿)

First, let’s do a little recap of what map tiles are and what role they play in The Riftbreaker. Maps in The Riftbreaker are randomized to give you a slightly different experience every time you launch the game. Our procedural generation algorithm stitches a full map together from a set of pre-designed tiles handcrafted by level designers. This ensures a natural look and feel of the world and also guarantees that maps will contain all the elements necessary to play the game - resources, spawn points, and many more. A typical survival map is a square composed of 36 such tiles. You can read more about this process in this article.

Mr. Riggs likes making an explosive entrance.

In the current version of the game, the Acidic Plains biome maps are generated from a set of just nine different base tiles. The number might seem small, but thanks to rotation, randomization of props within the tiles themselves, and specific mission generation rules, you can still get decent results and guarantee that each map feels different. However, the more you play, the more patterns you start to notice. We were not really satisfied with that, so we decided to expand the tile pool.

We expand the tile pool to give you more nice places to line with the bodies of your enemies.

The World Expansion update will give you access to ten new tiles, bringing the total up to nineteen (more than double the original number - yay!). If we do a little bit of math (a little simplified math, to be exact - we have parameters to control the generation process to get the results we want), that gives us almost three thousand possible 6x6 base map layout variants. The new tiles also feature elements that we previously had to avoid. One such example is tall rock structures that obstruct the camera view. Now, with the introduction of the camera object culler, tall structures are no longer an issue, so we can use them more freely.
We could spend a long time describing each tile, but we will let the images speak for themselves:

Holes and canyons are a big part of our new tile design approach. You can say the caves influenced us.

Objects beneath the main surface of the tile are often covered by the distance fog, making the caverns feel more mysterious.

It's spring, so here's a nice flower.

Naturally, our first thought was to throw a grenade in there to see what happens.

Some tiles are more classic. This example still offers interesting natural protection options.

Not all map tiles have to be square. By making a tile like this we can, for example, create large rock structures several hundred meters in length.

New tiles are not any less dangerous than the old ones, so be careful while exploring.

Who made these circles? Probably aliens.

Tall objects will be a much more common occurrence with the camera culler system.

Here's how the culler works during building.

The Acidic Plains biome is not the only biome that’s getting special treatment with the World Expansion 2 update. We are also preparing more tiles for the other biomes - we’re just not quite ready to show them off just yet. We can tell you, though, that some of them have a special purpose… If you would like to find out what it is, be on the lookout for future news and join our discord at www.discord.gg/exorstudios, where you always get access to the news first!

Have a great weekend!
EXOR Studios

Apr 14, 2023

Procedurally Generated Building Ruins - a new Quality of Life feature

The Riftbreaker - voidreaver

Hello Riftbreakers!

Today we will look at a much-requested quality-of-life improvement that will come to you as a part of the second free World Expansion update - the free part of our upcoming Into The Dark expansion. The feature in question is building ruins. Many of you let us know that rebuilding the base after a large attack is difficult and time-consuming. It is not easy to remember the exact placement of all structures, and setting everything up manually when under time pressure makes matters even less pleasant. We hope that this feature will remedy that.

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

You could previously see the prototype of the ruins feature during our developer streams (every Tuesday and Thursday, 3 PM CEST, www.twitch.tv/exorstudios). The premise is really simple - once a building is completely destroyed, it leaves behind a pile of wreckage. The wreckage can be identified either by selecting it in build mode, where it will display the name of the original building, or by the visuals. Each building has a custom-made wreckage model to make identification a little easier - more on that later.

Testing destruction features is always the most fun.

Once a building is destroyed and wreckage spawns in its place, you have two options. You can use the deconstruction tool to remove the rubble completely and recover the space, or you can use the repair tool to rebuild the original structure for its full price. You can also use the mass repair/deconstruction tools to take care of multiple pieces of wreckage all at once. If you want to reconstruct multiple buildings, a tooltip will appear, informing you of the total cost of repairs. If you can’t afford the total cost of repairs, the game will try to repair as many buildings as possible instead, so you can bring your base back into shape piece by piece. Ruins have an unlimited lifetime, so you can simply come back to them whenever it is convenient for you.

Less time spent on repairs = more time spent on upgrades!

Naturally, modeling ruins for all buildings in the game would have taken a long time, and using a generic model for all structures would make identification very difficult. To speed the process up, we used Houdini. It’s a tool suite that uses procedural generation to let artists quickly iterate on their models, create visual effects, and much more. In our case, one of the artists created a specialized setup that can remove large parts of building models from The Riftbreaker in a matter of minutes. Here’s how it works.

We swear, this is work, it's not just fun.

First, we import the Blender building model into the specialized Houdini setup. The base part of the setup is a very large cube (large enough to cover all individual building models we have in the game). The bottom surface of the cube is irregular instead of flat. That is because the bottom surface is where the actual ‘cutting’ process will take place. When the bottom of the cube reaches the top of the building model, polygons are automatically removed.

Before and after the procedurally-generated destruction.

The artist can control at what height they want to cut the building. Houdini automatically generated the new geometry that covers the wreckage surface. That surface is then covered with a ‘burnt metal’ texture. When the artist is happy with the result, they export the new wreckage model to Blender for a final touch-up. Thanks to all this, a monotonous process that would take weeks for all buildings in the game can be completed within a couple of days.

As we slide the cube further down, more parts of the building disappear.

This feature will arrive to you as a part of the next large free game update. It will work even on saved games made earlier, so you can continue your campaigns with this new option available to you. We hope you will enjoy playing with it and that you will suggest even more improvements to us. In fact, this idea came from our suggestion board: https://riftbreaker.featureupvote.com/suggestions/332558/ghost-buildings-to-show-where-destroyed-buildings-were. Don’t hesitate to post your own ideas - we carefully consider all of them! If you want to contact us directly, reach out on Discord: www.discord.gg/exorstudios.

Have a great weekend!
EXOR Studios

Apr 7, 2023

Rendering Upgrade: Free FPS for everyone!

The Riftbreaker - voidreaver

Hello Riftbreakers!

When we started developing our games, EXOR Studios had few choices regarding picking the right game engine. In early 2008, the commercial solutions were out of our reach because of their prohibitive costs, while free engines offered only some of the features we needed. Thus, we decided to develop our technology based on multiple open-source solutions, including the OGRE 3D render system. This allowed us to build games precisely how we wanted to. As years progressed and we moved from one project to another, the Schmetterling Engine slowly began to take shape and eventually evolved into the complete framework we use today.

A making-of video of our first game, Zombie Driver. You can see how it all started for us those 15 years ago!

Developing your engine comes with many difficulties. You can’t refer to any documentation or expect bugs to be fixed by someone else - you’re on your own. On the other hand, you are free to implement solutions that your game will benefit from. We have already told you about some of the new additions to the Schmetterling Engine we implemented for The Riftbreaker. Raytraced Shadows and Ambient Occlusion, AMD FSR, and Intel XeSS are just a few of them. Today we would like to discuss a significant improvement coming to the engine - Tiled Deferred Shading. This cryptic-sounding technique opens the door for improvements and new features in The Riftbreaker. We’d like to talk about how this new technique works, but first, we need to discuss some basics about shading in general.

Deferred Shading

There are several ways you can approach computer graphics rendering. The available ideas and techniques vary considerably, resulting in unique requirements, advantages, and disadvantages for each one. Our earliest project - Zombie Driver, used forward rendering. In this technique, the scene is rendered by drawing each object in the scene one by one. Each object is rendered with its own set of material properties, such as color, transparency, and reflectivity. Lighting is applied to each object in the scene as it is rendered, calculating the contribution of each light source to the final color of each pixel on the surface of the object being rendered.

In Zombie Driver we used forward rendering. We were limited to using only one light per scene. None of the particle effects you can see in this picture emit any light. We faked the highlights with additive alpha particles - smoke and mirrors ;)

It sounds simple enough, but it has a major disadvantage - to ensure correct results, contributions from all lights need to be taken into account per each pixel on the screen. If the scene is lit by only one light source, it can be quite quick. However, when you add more lights, things can get complicated. Even if a pixel is fully occluded and is not lit by any of the light sources on the screen, the forward rendering method will calculate the lighting for that pixel anyway. We will learn that it is occluded only after computing the lighting for that pixel, and all that computational time will be wasted. This is why we have been using a more efficient technique called Deferred Shading in our later projects, X-Morph: Defense and The Riftbreaker. It excels in handling multiple light sources, which allows us to create scenes with many dynamic lights without sacrificing performance.

The primary advantage of deferred shading is treating the scene geometry and its lighting separately. In the first stage of the shading process, only the 3D geometry of the scene is rendered. The resulting information about each pixel's position, surface normal, and material properties is stored in the geometry buffer - or G-buffer, for short. In the shading stage, the lighting and shading calculations are performed using the information stored in the G-buffer. Lighting is calculated using the previously collected data stored in the G-buffer. With all the geometry data available at this point, lights are computed only for those pixels which they actually affect. We can also calculate complex post-processing effects such as ambient occlusion, temporal anti-aliasing, and upscaling thanks to all the information stored in the G-buffer.

The use of deferred lighting in X-Morph: Defense allowed us to use multiple light sources. In night scenarios, scenes are only lit by additional lights - there is no directional lighting present on this scene.

The current G-buffer layout in The Riftbreaker looks like this:

float3 GBuffer0 // Albedo (xyz),
float3 GBuffer1 // World Space Normal (xyz)
float3 GBuffer2 // Occlusion (x), Roughness (y), Metalness (z)
float3 GBuffer3 // Emissive (xyz)
float3 GBuffer4 // SubsurfaceScattering (xyz)
float2 GBuffer5 // Velocity (xy)
float GBuffer6 // Depth

However, deferred shading also has some limitations. Reading and writing to the G-buffer takes some time, which can be a major downside when it comes to lower-spec hardware. It also does not scale well with high numbers of lights on the scene. Still, the most glaring issue for us regarding The Riftbreaker is transparency. Deferred shading can’t handle transparent objects. The fact that the technique relies on the g-buffer information means that all things that are not opaque can’t be used for lighting calculations since the buffer doesn’t store any information about non opaque geometry. This is one of the reasons why we decided to upgrade our renderer to use Tiled Deferred Shading.

Tiled Deferred Shading

Tiled Deferred Shading is an evolution of the Deferred Shading algorithm. The screen is divided into a grid of tiles, in our case, 16x16 pixels each. Each screen tile holds information about light indexes that affect that tile. This data is later used for light computation for opaque and non-opaque objects.

A debug view of a scene from The Riftbreaker with Tiled Deferred Shading enabled. The tile grid is visible. In this view, the color of the tile tells us how many lights affect the tile. The closer it is to red, the more lights affect a tile. It's essentially a heatmap.

We didn't joke about the heatmap thing.

The benchmark scene we used to test this technique. You can see how lights change in real time.

The algorithm for this process is:

G-buffer pass - Draw all opaque geometry.
Compute tile frustums - prepare frustums individually per tile depending on the buffer minimum/maximum depth.
Culling lights pass - use frustums to check if the light overlaps the tile and insert its index to the light index list.
Compute light shading for opaque objects - Use G-Buffer and prepared lights list for a single pass screen space light computation.
Compute light shading for non-opaque objects - Draw each non-opaque object and compute light shading per pixel only for lights that belong to the tile.

In higher resolutions the tile grid becomes more dense, allowing more precise calculations and much greater granulation.

The main advantage of this approach over the Deferred Shading we used up to this point is much higher efficiency. Traditional Deferred Shading has to access the G-buffer individually for each light source during the lighting pass The Tiled Deferred algorithm allows us to read the G-buffer only once for all light sources.

For contrast, in lower resolutions, the grid loses its precision.

The additional processing required for culling lights can add some overhead to the rendering pipeline on scenes with just a few light sources. In The Riftbreaker’s example, this is typically overcome in situations with more lights, such as bases with large numbers of defensive towers. The increased speed of completing the lighting pass becomes clearly apparent in those instances.

Results

In recent tests we conducted on The Riftbreaker, we observed that implementing tiled deferred shading resulted in a significant increase in performance. Specifically, tests we ran on various hardware revealed considerable performance improvements when it comes to scenes with many additional dynamic lights. On average, The Riftbreaker ran 20% faster in scenarios with many towers, explosions, enemy units, and building lights on the screen compared to the traditional deferred shading approach.

Test case 1: static scene, adding lights manually one by one.

Test platform: Ryzen 5600X, 32GB DDR4, Nvidia RTX 3080, Win11, 4K

This is what the synthetic multi-light test scenario looked like.

Synthetic multi-light benchmark scene results. In scenarios with more than 100 lightsources Tiled Deferred Rendering provides an almost 100% FPS boost!

You can see the tiles changing color as we turn sets of lights off.

Test case 2: In-game CPU benchmark mode.

Results presented are the average of 2 runs.

The test scene without the debug overlay.

"Benchmark CPU" testing results on three sample configurations. This benchmark is not perfect for testing this rendering method because it focuses primarily on CPU overhead. However, even in this case, we can report visibly better performance results.

Conclusions and future works

Tiled Deferred Rendering has allowed us to save a lot of CPU processing power in The Riftbreaker. This technique will make it easier to maintain high, stable frame rates, or if you’re already running the game above your monitor’s refresh rate, it will reduce the strain on your GPU and will lower your electricity bill - everybody wins! You will be able to start enjoying its benefits as soon as the World Expansion 2 free update reaches your hard drives.

Thanks to the changes we have introduced to the Schmetterling Engine, exciting new possibilities have become available for use in The Riftbreaker and our future projects. With tiled deferred shading, we can now add support for transparency and particle light shading or even go for something much bigger like volumetric fog support. We believe that these improvements will positively affect the player's reception of the game and give our artists more creative freedom when it comes to designing levels and effects.

We hope you enjoyed this deeper dive under the hood of the Schmetterling Engine and The Riftbreaker. We are really excited with the possibilities unfolding before us, and we hope to start using the new tech as soon as possible. Join our Discord at www.discord.gg/exorstudios to keep up with all the development news. Remember to post your ideas and suggestions at riftbreaker.featureupvote.com!

See you next time!
EXOR Studios

P.S. During the last developer stream on Twitch we managed to finish a full Survival run in co-op, running a dedicated server in headless mode. We're making progress! Join us on Tuesday at 3PM CEST at www.twitch.tv/exorstudios for the next one!

Apr 5, 2023

New Creature Reveal: Necrodon

The Riftbreaker - voidreaver

Hello Riftbreakers!

Every week brings us closer to the release of Into the Dark, the upcoming second World Expansion for The Riftbreaker. We can’t wait to hear what you think of all the new content we have prepared for you. In fact, you will have a chance to tell us pretty soon, as we’re going to hold a closed beta test of the Survival portion of the update - join us at www.discord.gg/exorstudios for more details. Today, however, we would like to tell you more about one of the most terrifying and unique threats you will face in the Crystal Caverns biome - the Necrodons. Strap yourselves in - this one is really unique, not only when it comes to appearance but also its ability set.

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

The Necrodon is a creature that you might have seen in the game previously. We originally intended to include it in the original release in October 2021. We prepared a 3D model, visual variants for Alpha and Ultra strains, and all the animations. However, we didn’t finish programming and testing its behavior and skillset. Furthermore, it didn’t really fit in any of the Galatean Biomes, and we couldn’t really figure out its gameplay role. As the release date drew near, we decided to put the Necrodon on the shelf and come back to it at a more opportune moment. You can still encounter it sometimes in the Desert Biome, but it’s nowhere near what it is today. When we came up with the concept of the Crystal Caverns biome, the Necrodon finally got its moment to shine. An entire cavern system filled with crystalline formations of an unknown origin and purpose was the perfect home for this monster.

Necrodons are tall, menacing humanoids. Their physical appearance differs from other Galatean creatures. A standout feature of Necrodon’s physique is the presence of crystals that seem to grow out of their bodies in various places. Either these creatures have been infected by the crystalline growth that is present all around the crystal caverns biome, or they have been brought to life by the growth itself. Both prospects are equally terrifying, especially when their abilities are considered.

Necrodons are not confrontational and aggressive on their own. If one is encountered in the wild, it will do its best to run away to safety. Once cornered, the Necrodon will do its best to scare the attacker away. Most often, they will try to deliver a powerful hit using their long arms. However, that’s not the only move in their arsenal. Necrodons seem to possess the ability to manipulate matter around them, similarly to Lesigians, but to a different extent. This allows them to concentrate energy into a powerful beam that they can direct at the creatures that decide to attack them. Still, Necrodons prefer to avoid direct confrontation and use their powers in more creative and terrifying ways.

These creatures become truly terrifying when accompanied by other species. Once in a while, you will encounter an attack wave that seems to never end. No matter how many enemies you defeat, it will seem like more join the ranks in their place. That’s the Necrodon’s true weapon - they are able to raise the defeated creatures back from the dead to fight by their side. If you’re not careful, they will hang back just out of your line of sight, bringing back more and more creatures. Even if they run out of corpses to bring back, they can even create entirely new undead creatures, seemingly out of thin air. Naturally, it is not the case - Necrodons manipulate organic matter to form a semblance of a living creature, very similar to a canoptrix. Nonetheless, it is a terrifying ability, and you must deal with them as quickly as possible.

There is a limit to Necrodon’s abilities. They won’t keep summoning creatures to their side without end. There is only a limited number of “minions” Necrodons can control at one time, meaning that you can overpower them quite easily if they are on their own. It gets a bit more difficult if you encounter several specimens during one attack wave. In multiples, they can eventually overwhelm you and your defenses, so plan accordingly. Additionally, remember that Necrodons can only raise creatures whose bodies remained intact after death. If you blow creatures to shreds, they will eventually run out of bodies to resurrect and have to resort to creating their necro-canoptrix, which are quite weak on their own.

That’s it for today. If you’d like to see more of the Necrodon in action, tune in to our streams on Tuesdays and Thursdays on www.twitch.tv/exorstudios. We also preview our tests of the co-op version there, so you should definitely join in and see how it’s coming along! Don’t forget to post your suggestions and feedback on riftbreaker.featureupvote.com, as well as our Discord server at www.discord.gg/exorstudios.

See you next time!
EXOR Studios