Jun 23, 2023

The Riftbreaker - voidreaver

Hello Riftbreakers!

With the excitement of the Into the Dark and World Expansion II releases out of the way, it is time to take a look at our future plans. This article will outline our expectations for the coming months and tell you about our progress when it comes to features that are already in development. It will also include a short, updated version of our FAQ at the end that you can refer to while looking for information about EXOR, The Riftbreaker, and the nature of the Universe. Without further ado, here’s the latest version of our roadmap!

Let’s kick things off with something about the co-op mode. As we were working on the second World Expansion, a number of players became concerned that we decided to backpedal on Multiplayer development and tried to weasel out of it. That is not the case. There are a total of fifteen people working full-time in our studio: four artists, six programmers, and five people for game design, testing and everything else. Let’s assume that the programmers are 100% busy with only co-op development. That leaves the remaining nine of us without much to do as we wait for them to complete multiplayer development. Not a very smart way to run a company, is it? Instead of waiting for miracles to happen, the remaining members of EXOR work on adding new content to the game. Naturally, we occasionally need some help from programmers, but World Expansions do not stop work on Multiplayer - it is a constantly ongoing process.

The last couple of weeks before the release of Into the Dark and the second World Expansion were quite hectic, which required us to cut down on streaming and other community activities. Unfortunately, that also cut you off from the main stream of information about the progress of online coop development. Another side effect of not playtesting the multiplayer build every day is that our programmers had free rein over what’s happening on the multiplayer branch. As we know, programmers are a different species, and our tiny primal brains can’t fully comprehend the beauty of a programmer’s mind. What’s considered ‘optimal’ for them is not quite ‘playable’ for us. Therefore, while there have been a number of major changes and improvements made to the Multiplayer mode, we’re going to need some time to make the game presentable once more. We are already working on another in-depth “state of coop development” article. If you haven’t read our previous articles about the state of online coop development you can catch up on that here:
Multiplayer Development Progress - Part One
Multiplayer Development Progress - Part Two

With that being said, we are still fully committed to delivering on our promise of a free Multiplayer update. As soon as we can, we will come back to streaming co-op playthroughs regularly. We have a couple of major milestones to clear before we are able to let you try it out. We have been making some good progress lately, so we are optimistic about this. All in all, rest assured will keep working on this. In fact, developing more content alongside our work on multiplayer means that you will have more things to do with friends once the co-op update finally drops. It is taking longer than we would like it to, and we apologize for that. We’d love to make faster progress, but it’s for the better.

The next item on the roadmap is the Extended Story Campaign. This is a range of updates and changes to the existing game mechanics that will add more replayability and endgame content to The Riftbreaker. We talked about this plan a couple of times. After you complete the main Campaign storyline, you will be able to generate new missions through the Planetary Scanner screen. Missions will range from exploration and sample gathering to full base construction challenges. Completing those tasks will grant you more resources and allow you to expand your presence on Galatea beyond what is possible now. Naturally, this increase in complexity will require several Quality of Life upgrades, such as the Economy Management Screen. This huge undertaking is very unlikely to come as one update package. Instead, we’re planning to make this a series of smaller updates, slowly introducing gameplay elements that will eventually lead to our final vision for The Riftbreaker’s endgame. We have already developed some parts of these mechanics while working on World Expansion II.

As you can see, we have already checked off a number of features from our list, but we are far from over. Our art and design teams have already started pre-production work for the third World Expansion for The Riftbreaker. As always, it will come in two parts - a large, free update with a new Survival Mode map, technologies, and enemies, as well as new game mechanics for everyone. The second part will be a paid, story-based DLC. We can’t share any more information about the content yet - it’s too early to tell what remains of our initial ideas. Rest assured - once we have something we can show off on stream, we will do so.

Naturally, everything that we outlined in this article are just broad plans. We will release updates for The Riftbreaker in the coming months, both big and small. Each and every one of those will be a milestone that brings us closer to one of the three things we talked about today: Online Multiplayer, Expanded Story Campaign, and the third World Expansion Update. You can help us decide what comes next by submitting new feature ideas and voting on submissions at https://riftbreaker.featureupvote.com/. Many features already made their way into the game thanks to you. Like this one. Or this. Or this one. This one did as well!

Let’s finish this update with something nice and simple - the updated FAQ about all things Riftbreaker. If you have any questions you think we should add to the list, please let us know!

FAQ UPDATE - June 20th 2023

Q: Will you add multiplayer support for The Riftbreaker? When?
A: Yes. We have no estimates on the release date, but we will keep you informed.

Q: Will there be cross-play?
A: Unfortunately, no. Cross-play is a Pandora’s Box that we do not want to open. We haven’t managed to close the previous one yet.

Q: Will the multiplayer portion of the game be available in co-op or PvP?
A: We are focusing on optimizing the game for co-op play. However, the road from co-op to PvP is not that long, so we’ll see what the future (or modders) brings.

Q: You’ve been saying that you have been working on co-op for a long time. How do we know you are actually making progress?
A: We released two major articles documenting our progress and describing the issues we managed to solve. We have also run a series of streams, where we played co-op survival runs live and uncut, with all the bugs for you to see. Once we have a version that is stable enough to let you play we will hold a public beta test.

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/780310/view/3381659291157676103?l=english
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/780310/view/3701435238673426124?l=english

Q: Why do you keep releasing DLCs and not Co-Op?
A: There are 15 of us. Only 6 of us (the programmers) can do any meaningful work on Multiplayer at the moment. The rest of the team is working on additional content in the meantime. The expansions we release do not halt the progress on multiplayer.

Q: I'm struggling, where can I find help/strategies?
A: You can either come to our Discord at www.discord.gg/exorstudios and ask the community for advice. You can also watch us play live during our Twitch streams at exorstudios

Q: I’m getting an ‘Access Denied’ error when trying to save!
A: That is because Windows is preventing us from accessing your documents folder. We don’t know why that happens, but here’s a workaround:

https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/16226/complete-guide-to-symbolic-links-symlinks-on-windows-or-linux/

Google windows mklink, pick instructions
Create a new "The Riftbreaker" folder in another directory like "D:\The Riftbreaker"
Find/Search for "CMD" in your windows search.
Right-click on "Command Prompt", right-click and select "Run as Administrator"
Go to the Documents folder and delete the old "Documents\The Riftbreaker" directory.
Run the command inside the Documents folder, "mklink /J C:\Users<your username here>\Documents\The Riftbreaker" "D:\The Riftbreaker"

Q: My game opens on the wrong display!
A: Try using the configuration tool - open your Steam Library, select The Riftbreaker, press play, then choose the config tool. You can change your preferred display there.

Q: I saw some new Patch Notes on Steam. Are all versions of the game up to date?
A: For PC releases - yes. We try to release our updates for Steam, GOG, and Epic simultaneously. Console and Windows Store (Game Pass) patches usually take 1 or 2 extra days.

Q: When will you get The Riftbreaker Steam Deck verified?
A: This is a hard one. We have already done a lot of work on the Steam Deck version of the game. Unfortunately, since the Deck runs on a custom-built Linux-based system, each update introduces major changes to the system kernel. In order to ensure that our custom-built engine stays compatible with the custom-built Steam Deck OS, we would need to delegate one of our programmers to work on that full-time. While working on that, he would be unable to do any work on co-op or add new features for the content expansions. That is a sacrifice we are not willing to make at the moment. We want to get it done one day, just like we did for our other games, but it is not our focus at the moment.

Q: If Steam Deck is confirmed, does it mean the game will run on Linux?
A: Officially - no. We have done a lot of work to ensure compatibility with the latest Proton library, but we won’t be providing official support for the game on Linux.

Q: My game is running sloooooooooow. Is there anything I can do to increase my FPS?
A: Unless you are playing on an integrated GPU, your FPS is probably fine. The game slows down when the CPU can’t complete all the necessary game logic calculations in time. Rather than skip frames, which would result in visible chugging, we slow the game’s pace down, so that the logic can catch up to the rendered image. We know that it isn’t pleasant, but it’s the lesser evil. If you have a huge base, you can try to reduce the number of buildings - floors, energy connectors and pipes should be your focus. Meanwhile, we are introducing new optimizations - the game will run better with each update.

Q: Are you planning to add more achievements?
A: Yes - we want to add more achievements with each World Expansion Update.

Q: My antivirus software has quarantined your game because of suspicious activity. What’s the deal?
A: We have an integrated crash reporter tool that opens when the game crashes. From that tool you may send us a log file to help us figure out what might have caused the game to crash. Some antivirus programs don’t like that the game wants to phone home and block it. You’re 100% safe, promise.

Q: Are you going to add the Sandbox Control Panel to consoles?
A: At the moment, it is looking unlikely, as we need to ensure the stability of the software we publish. It is quite easy to make the game crash with the Control Panel, so we would need to limit its functionality in a major way. Therefore, we do not expect to see that functionality added, at least not anytime soon.

EXOR Studios

Jun 23, 2023

World Expansion II Update, June 22nd

The Riftbreaker - voidreaver

Hello Riftbreakers!

We have just updated The Riftbreaker with a patch aiming to address the most prevalent issues after the launch of World Expansion II.

The Riftbreaker World Expansion II Experimental Maintenance Update, June 22nd, 2023. EXE: 802 DATA: 418 Changelog:

MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD, DO NOT REVEAL THE HIDDEN PARTS IF YOU HAVEN'T PLAYED INTO THE DARK YET.

Fixes

Added a new pain skin for Cavernot - previously it used the material from Gnerot Alpha.
Added an option to mute game audio in the background (when the game window is out of focus).
Dead units now have a resurrection cooldown that will prevent Necrodons from raising the same creature over and over again.
Energy Pylons toggle off option is now disabled - they can't be turned off and this is is now properly indicated.
Introduced minor changes to some map tiles to prevent camera culling bugs.
Playing a dialogue back from the journal screen should now lower the volume of music and sfx.
Reduced number of polygons in one family of trees found in the jungle biome.
Tweaks and fixes to the boss intro and outro sequences.
Fixed a lot of potential memory leaks and introduced optimizations to reduce the memory footprint of the game.
Fixed a problem that caused some ruins not to get removed after repairs.
Fixed a problem with boss fight arenas that allowed players to build towers and other structures during boss fights using hotkeys.
Fixed a problem with lua allocations while building floors that could cause memory leaks.
Fixed a problem with pipes that could cause crashes.
Fixed an error in teleport.lua script that could cause crashes.
Fixed an issue that allowed players to use building hotkeys when the building mode is disabled, e.g. near a magnetic rock.
Fixed an issue that caused ambient creature groups not to become aggressive towards the player.
Fixed an issue that caused sounds and music to become quieter during dialogues even when the dialogue volume was set to zero.
Fixed an issue that prevented melee units from damaging the player or their structures.
Fixed an issue with teleport_blocker that could cause players to break the logic flow of the game when using the teleport skill.
Fixed problems with Bioanomalies spawning in invalid positions.
Fixed problems with some of the building ruin models.
Fixed the looping animation of 'exposed heart' in the Into the Dark boss fight.
Fixed a lot of crash bugs.

EXOR Studios

Jun 22, 2023

World Expansion II Experimental Maintenance Update, June 22nd, 2023

The Riftbreaker - voidreaver

Hello Riftbreakers!

We have just updated the experimental branch of The Riftbreaker with a patch aiming to address the most prevalent issues with The Riftbreaker after the launch of the World Expansion II.

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 Experimental Maintenance Update, June 22nd, 2023. EXE: 797 DATA: 414 Changelog:

MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD, DO NOT REVEAL THE HIDDEN PARTS IF YOU HAVEN'T PLAYED INTO THE DARK YET.

Fixes

Added a new pain skin for Cavernot - previously it used the material from Gnerot Alpha.
Added an option to mute game audio in the background (when the game window is out of focus).
Dead units now have a resurrection cooldown that will prevent Necrodons from raising the same creature over and over again.
Energy Pylons toggle off option is now disabled - they can't be turned off and this is is now properly indicated.
Introduced minor changes to some map tiles to prevent camera culling bugs.
Playing a dialogue back from the journal screen should now lower the volume of music and sfx.
Reduced number of polygons in one family of trees found in the jungle biome.
Tweaks and fixes to the boss intro and outro sequences.
Fixed a lot of potential memory leaks and introduced optimizations to reduce the memory footprint of the game.
Fixed a problem that caused some ruins not to get removed after repairs.
Fixed a problem with boss fight arenas that allowed players to build towers and other structures during boss fights using hotkeys.
Fixed a problem with lua allocations while building floors that could cause memory leaks.
Fixed a problem with pipes that could cause crashes.
Fixed an error in teleport.lua script that could cause crashes.
Fixed an issue that allowed players to use building hotkeys when the building mode is disabled, e.g. near a magnetic rock.
Fixed an issue that caused ambient creature groups not to become aggressive towards the player.
Fixed an issue that caused sounds and music to become quieter during dialogues even when the dialogue volume was set to zero.
Fixed an issue that prevented melee units from damaging the player or their structures.
Fixed an issue with teleport_blocker that could cause players to break the logic flow of the game when using the teleport skill.
Fixed problems with Bioanomalies spawning in invalid positions.
Fixed problems with some of the building ruin models.
Fixed the looping animation of 'exposed heart' in the Into the Dark boss fight.
Fixed a lot of crash bugs.

EXOR Studios

Jun 15, 2023

Modding Competition: Final Vote

The Riftbreaker - voidreaver

Hello Riftbreakers!

Three months ago, we announced our modding competition. Our goal was to popularize modding in our game and showcase it as a great platform for user-generated content creation. Both experienced modders and newcomers to the modding scene took part and sent in their best work to compete for high-end PC hardware, as well as eternal fame and glory.

Today, we celebrate the best of the best. We have hand-picked the mods that impressed us the most in both categories of the competition. We have written short descriptions of these mods, including the reasons why we decided to nominate these entries. You can check them out by following the provided links or installing them from The Riftbreaker’s integrated Mod menu. Your choices will determine the final results of this competition.

VOTE HERE

Let's remind ourselves what our contestants are fighting for:

The 1st prize winner in each category will receive a custom-made gaming PC with The Riftbreaker artwork printed on the case.

The 2nd prize winner in each category takes home an AMD Radeon 6800XT GPU.

The runner-up each category receives a Mr. Riggs plushie and a bag of EXOR Studios gadgets.

First, let’s discuss the nominees in the Custom Map category. The entries are presented in the order in which we received these entries.

MegaPack by Frognik

MegaPack is a collection of custom-made missions that push the boundaries of what we thought was possible in The Riftbreaker. In some of them you are going to navigate complex mazes and fight against the ever-growing presence of enemy nests and colonies of acidic yeast. In others, you will enter arenas where you can test your mettle against never-ending waves of enemy creatures. However, two of the custom missions available in this pack deserve special recognition. The first one is Command Override - where you have to take back control of a Riftbreaker base gone rogue, turning the entire premise of the game upside-down. The other is GridLocked, which takes the previously turned upside-down premise of the game and throws it out of the window, turning The Riftbreaker into a Zelda-esque roguelike. We were amazed by the creativity and ingenuity of these missions, often asking ourselves ‘How on Earth is that even possible?’

Get the MegaPack here:
https://mod.io/g/riftbreaker/m/megapack1

akee's Corrosive by akee3

Corrosive is a bundle of sixteen custom-made tiles for the Acidic Plains biome. It doesn’t seem like much at first glance, but you couldn’t be more wrong about that. akee3 has meticulously handcrafted these tiles to make the best use of the Acidic Plains biome assets to breathe new life into it. Apart from gameplay-centric, plains-type biomes where you can set up your base there are also a number of special landmarks. Akee3 even created an artificial waterfall, something that was never seen before anywhere in the Riftbreaker. The sixteen new tiles mix very well with the original set, bringing much more variety and replayability to the new Survival runs in this biome.

Get Corrosive here:
https://mod.io/g/riftbreaker/m/corrosive-acid-biome-tiles

Arctic Map by molch1

Arctic Map takes advantage of The Riftbreaker’s map generation system to provide you with a new level layout every time you launch a Survival run. This means that no two games played on this map will ever be the same. Molch created a bunch of custom tiles, each featuring something special that separates this map from the ‘natural’ formations found in other Galatean biomes. The Arctic Map is a masterclass in utilizing already existing props in new and unconventional ways. Molch combined assets from the vanilla version of The Riftbreaker into awesome, atmosphere-building contraptions. Not to spoil too much, you will find evidence of yet another alien civilization taking interest in Galatea and its inhabitants. The equipment they left behind is still operational - take a walk around the map yourself and try to see what secrets you may uncover.

Get Arctic Map here:
https://mod.io/g/riftbreaker/m/arctic-map

And now for the Game Modification category. Again, the entries are presented in the order in which we received these submissions.

Galatea Challenger by Likewise_HH

Have you ever felt that The Riftbreaker is way too easy? Would you like to be punished for losing buildings to wildlife attacks? Do you feel the compulsive need to clear the entire map of any alien presence? This mod is for you. Likewise_HH has created the ultimate challenge mode that turns regular survival mode into a never-ending battle against angry Galatean creatures. Attacks come every minute or two and building anything in close proximity of enemies triggers an attack from the nearby creatures. On top of that, creatures spawn whenever a building is destroyed, which snowballs out of control really quickly. To compensate for that, Likewise_HH gives the player a bunch of boosts when it comes to research speed, material storage, and resource collection. If that sounds like a challenge you want to take up, look no further.

Get Galatea Challenger here:
https://mod.io/g/riftbreaker/m/galatea-challenger

Distributed Force: Energy Walls by Piisfun

This mod changes the way our Energy Walls work. Eighty percent of the wall HP has been replaced with a regenerating shield. This means that unless your walls get badly damaged during an attack, you won’t have to repair them, as they should automatically replenish the shields they lost. However, you need to keep your walls supplied with power at all times, and that cost grows very quickly when you consider how many walls you actually have to build in order to properly secure your base. It also leads to interesting problems, as disconnecting a portion of the wall from power will lead to paper-thin defenses. This is a very subtle mod, but it introduces very interesting dynamic to your base defense and we highly recommend chacking it out.

Get Distributed Force here:
https://mod.io/g/riftbreaker/m/distributed-force-energy-walls

Expanded Arsenal by WirawanMYT

WirawanMYT felt that Ashley and Mr. Riggs deserved an upgrade when it came to their defensive tower range. By mixing and matching existing weapons 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. However, he did not stop there. The mod also adds a ton of new resources, buildings that extract and utilize them, as well as modifications to the existing game systems to support this much more complex economy. On top of that, there are new creature strains, much more powerful than anything you’ve seen before that will test your mastery of this massive mod.

Get Expanded Arsenal here:
https://mod.io/g/riftbreaker/m/expanded-arsenal

We highly encourage you to check out these mods for yourself to form your opinion. Then, follow this link and decide which mod seems the best to you in each category.

VOTE HERE

The winners will be announced on June 30th!

EXOR Studios

Jun 13, 2023

World Expansion II Experimental Maintenance Update, June 13th

The Riftbreaker - voidreaver

Hello Riftbreakers!

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

Fixes

Fixed a crash that could occur when activating the Mining Drill.
Added a method that removes missing resources after disabling mods without crashing the game.
Fixed a crash that could happen when the terrain grid changed types during gameplay.
Fixed an issue that caused cultivator plants and crystals to leak memory.
Fixed an issue that caused the ParicleSystem to use 200MB of RAM unnecessarily.
Fixed an error that caused some textures not to unload, causing memory leaks.
Fixed an issue that caused the right-hand slot weapon to randomly stop working after interacting with buildings.
Added missing resources to the precache pool to prevent the game from stuttering on startup.
Fixed an error in one of the DLC2 outro videos.
Consumable buildings should no longer leave ruins behind.
Fixed errors connected with the Mining Elevator after activating it.
Fixed an issue that could cause trees to regrow several times in the same spot.
Fixed an error that caused player's weapons to sometimes appear in the [0, 0] point on the map.
Fixed cheat_finish_all_research. Now it finished 'all' research, not 'some' research.

EXOR Studios

Jun 6, 2023

World Expansion II Experimental Maintenance Update June 6th

The Riftbreaker - voidreaver

Hello Riftbreakers!

We have just updated the experimental branch of The Riftbreaker with a patch aiming to address the most prevalent issues after the launch of World Expansion II. If all tests come back positive, this build will be published to the public branch soon.

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 Maintenance Update, June 6th, 2023. EXE: 768 DATA: 387 Changelog:

Fixes:

Fixed a crash when activating buildings using the 'Interact' option.
Fixed an error that could cause entities to be removed by some of the player's items upon loading, which eventually would lead to a crash.
Fixed a problem that could cause particles not to free up memory when returning to the main menu, leaking memory.
Fixed a crash in ResourceVolumeSystem that happened when trying to load a modded gameplay state.
Fixed a crash in resurrect.lua script that caused Necrodons to break the game.
Fixed a crash in HandleMeleeIntersection system.
Fixed unloading tiles by the MapGeneration algorithm.
Fixed a missing FloraCultivatorLayerComponent in the BuildingSystem that could cause memory leaks, performance issues and crashes. All cultivator plants will be removed upon loading the game to fix multiple instances of the same plant spawned on the same spot. Your saplings will stay in Cultivators, so there is no need to set them up again.
Fixed a crash in ActionMenuScreen when calling lua function on a non-initialized object.
Fixed a crash in EntityCommandBuffer that happened when loading a modded gameplay state.
Fixed crashes in TerrainGridSystem that happened if a terrain grid cell got erroneously removed.
Fixed a crash in health_giver.lua script.
Fixed a crash when unloading materials.
Fixes and additions to the Chinese and Japanese localizations
The loading screen for Crystal Caverns biome will now change when an outpost is built.