If you see one Canceroth in the wild, there is a good chance that there are more nearby.

Our work on World Expansion III for The Riftbreaker is progressing nicely. We are at the Alpha stage of production—the logic structure for the entire campaign is in place, allowing playtesters to complete the expansion without any tricks or debug options. We have already started conducting early playtests within the company. Tests like these help us identify problems and challenges, as well as the highlights of the campaign. It turns out that we all consider today’s topic to be one of the highlights. Some of you might have seen this creature on our stream already - let’s take a closer look at the Canceroth.


Canceroth testing in a synthetic environment. Take a good look - it's rare to see one in such a calm setting.

The Canceroth is one of the most unique lifeforms you will encounter during your exploration of the Swamp biome. At first, it looks like a colony of some sort. In the center of the colony, there is a large cell that is surrounded by several smaller ones, identical to the one in the middle. The colony moves as one, with the central cell controlling the behavior of the entire group, rolling over the surface of the planet with no regard for anything on its way. Canceroths leave a wake of destruction behind them, annihilating all organisms and structures they encapsulate. If they get inside your base, it is already too late to stop them. You can’t even count on natural protection - Canceroths traverse mountains and canyons with ease.


Canceroth Nests are well protected by other species of creatures and plants. What's their connection? You will have to discover it yourself.

A Canceroth’s body is incredibly resilient, thanks to its unique construction. Each individual cell looks as if it holds some kind of dark energy trapped within it. However, the physical part of the body resembles a ball made of elastic tubes, capable of changing shape according to the organism’s needs. This protects a Canceroth from physical damage, as the body absorbs the energy or changes shape to avoid injury. Acid, energy, and fire also seem to have limited potential against these creatures. What works is cryo damage coupled with area damage. First, you slow the creature down, then bombard it with whatever you have at your disposal for maximum effect.


Canceroths do not only spawn during attack waves. They will also attack you if you touch a Bioanomaly.

Speaking of ways to eliminate the Canceroth, you must do it strategically. The smaller cells can be destroyed to limit the creature’s size and damage output, but this is not very effective in the long run, as the cells can simply regrow. The only way to deal with the colony once and for all is to destroy the central node. Sounds simple at first, but all the surrounding cells are great at soaking up damage and protecting the ‘head.’ Use traps, landmines, and precision-targeting weapons to snipe the central piece.


If you thought battles in The Riftbreaker can get chaotic sometimes, just wait for the Canceroth to appear.

What makes matters even more tricky is that Canceroths usually do not come alone. Sometimes, they will invade your base as a part of an attack wave. However, Canceroths also create their own nests, and when they do, they will simply keep coming after you as long as they stay active. Moreover, Canceroths also come in Alpha and Ultra variants, each even bigger and more powerful than the last. Not a lot can stand in their way, so be on the lookout for those and destroy them before they can reach your base.


Terrain obstacles are nothing for a Canceroth. They can move across the talles peaks and deepest canyons of Galatea 37.

Canceroths are not similar to any creatures in the Swamp biome. However, they do not display aggression towards other species. Still, their destructive nature and ability to destroy and consume everything in their path are not without consequences. Their destructive behavior brings imbalance to the ecosystem and threatens the existence of other creatures. Ashley and Mr. Riggs will have to solve the mystery of the Canceroth’s origin and find out whether its influence threatens the planet. Should they interfere at all? Is Galatea 37 better off without their intervention? What other secrets does the biome hold? You will find everything in the story-driven campaign that’s coming alongside the World Expansion III update for The Riftbreaker.


If you somehow miss a Canceroth rolling through your base, you will definitely notice the telltale trail of destruction.

All our players will be able to face off against the Canceroth and many other new creatures we’ve prepared for you in the free portion of the World Expansion III update. This time it’s going to feature not one, but two additional maps for the Survival Mode, which will give you plenty of opportunities to try out the new weapons and technologies. If you’d like to get your hands on the early, follow us on www.discord.gg/exorstudios not to miss the experimental update, which is going to happen well before the official release. Join our streams on Tuesdays and Thursdays at www.twitch.tv/exorstudios for even more exclusive information and live Q&As!

See you there!
EXOR Studios

This creature/structure/growth/whatever-it-is looks certainly different from all the other nests we've seen so far.

Today, we continue our cycle of articles previewing the new content in The Riftbreaker World Expansion III. We’ve already discussed some of the new technologies that will help you master both the dry land and the waters of the Swamp biome. We have also shown you some creatures that will oppose your expansion into their home turf and destroy their nesting grounds. In fact, you might want to think twice before disturbing any nests - and we’re going to tell you why in today’s article.


You will rarely get this much space to fight the nest. Cherish these moments.

Like the creatures found in other areas of the planet, the inhabitants of the Swamp biome often live in packs. This allows them to hunt together and protect each other from danger. These groups often form large nests, which serve as their makeshift homes and nurseries for the young. However, these nests are different from what we see in other regions of Galatea. In areas such as the Tropical Zone, you will find only one species living in nests - the Canoptrix. The same is true for the Mushbits in the Desert, Morirots in the Volcanic Zone, and Granans in the Acidic Plains. Things are different in the Swamps.


Battling through to the nest itself is a difficult and dangerous process.

Multiple species of nesting creatures inhabit this newly discovered biome, which is not really strange by itself. What makes them unique is the fact that all species in the Swamp biome seem to gather around the same type of nest. It makes it pretty clear that the creatures do not build this structure themselves but find it in the wild and claim it as their home. What makes the Swamp nest even stranger is a giant acid-spitting maw located at the very top of this structure. It will actively seek out threats, aim at them, and bombard them with a barrage of acidic projectiles from a long distance. All these properties make it very likely that the nest is a living organism, forming a symbiotic relationship with the creatures of the Swamp biome.


Luckily most of the natural inhabitants of the Swamp biome absolutely hate fire.

Multiple species of creatures lay eggs both within and around the nests. You will want to clear them out as quickly as you can - otherwise, your base will never get any rest from an endless stream of creatures pouring your way. Fungors, Plutrodons, and Stickrids are not the only creatures that you will face while trying to clear these nests out. The aggressive, carnivorous plants, which we showed you a couple of weeks before, very often grow in the immediate vicinity of the nest. It’s an additional layer of protection for the entire structure and the creatures inside. Combine that with the “turret” on top, and you’ve got a serious siege on your hands.


Energy-based weapons like the Lightning Gun can help you clear out multiple targets at once - which is especially useful when the entire jungle decides to attack you!

Clearing out a Swamp nest is not an easy task. It will require a slow, methodical approach, getting rid of the threats layer by layer. You can, for example, try to lure the creatures out first, then burn the carnivorous plants with fire, and finally blow up your main target with an orbital barrage. However, that’s not the only option, and we’re sure you will find many ways to sweet victory. If you succeed, you will be rewarded with a shower of rare resources and high-quality mods (and perhaps something more!). Most importantly, though, you will enjoy a moment of peace and quiet.


Sometimes you might not even realize how many enemies are around you! Employ hit-and-run tactics to get away from hairy situations like these.

We hope you enjoyed this glimpse into the weird world of the Swamp biome, which is coming to The Riftbreaker in World Expansion III. Remember to add the expansion to your Steam Wishlist and join us on www.discord.gg/exorstudios never to miss any news! We have also started streaming co-op playthroughs of the survival Mode once more, so follow www.twitch.tv/exorstudios and get notified when we go live on Tuesdays and Thursdays!

See you there!
EXOR Studios

While discovering the secrets of the Galatean Swamp, you will have to face several challenges. Apart from the wildlife trying to push you away from their natural habitat, you will have to contend with limited building space. Bases in The Riftbreaker can get pretty huge. All the factories, power plants, and storage buildings take up a lot of space. However, dry land is a luxury in the Swamp, requiring you to change your building habits and make the most of every square meter available to you. You will need to find savings everywhere - and we want to help you with that. Let’s take a look at the floating defensive towers.


All three levels of the Floating Immolator Tower. By the way - they don't get smaller with each level. It's just the perspective and my lack of Photoshop skills.


Perfect protection for your pipelines.


Stumbling upon a row of towers like this one should make your enemies think twice. It should, but it doesn't, which is good, because it means that the twoers will get the chance to get busy.

Resources in the Swamp biome are scattered on small islands with very limited building space. It is quite likely that your new outposts will span across several such islands. Floating towers will help you defend such structures. The first tower you will get access to is the Floating Immolator Tower. It’s a rapid-firing tower that shoots flaming projectiles which explode on impact. Any creature hit by the tower will be set on fire, receiving additional damage over time. The Floating Immolator Tower has three advancement levels, each one more powerful than the last. However, the sheer firepower is not the key feature here.


These towers do not need any additional power sources. Thanks to this, you can set up traps in the middle of nowhere!

What makes the Floating Immolators a prime choice for the Swamp biome is their portability and ease of use. As the name suggests, these towers have to be placed on a liquid pool of any type (yes, even magma will do - though fighting fire with fire is not the best idea). They also need AI cores and a steady supply of liquid ammo, but that is all! No need to provide them with power, no need to build complicated piping networks, or anything else, really. As long as you place them in a liquid pool they are ready to go. This gives you the ability to surround all your islands with a perimeter of powerful defensive towers that are sure to give the creatures of the Swamp a headache.


Always support your Immolators with artillery. Let the fireworks begin!

As great as these towers are, they do not come without drawbacks. The first and the most obvious one is their vulnerability. Their placement on liquid pools, away from walls or any other defenses, makes them a juicy target for enemy artillery and more tanky units, who can take several salvos and actually get up close. Remember to always support your Floating towers with batteries of Artillery back on dry land. It is also advisable to build the Floating Immolators in very large numbers. The sheer number of these towers can make up for their fragility and will keep the damage output steady, even if you lose several towers in an attack. That’s where the second drawback comes in - these towers are quite expensive. Keep your Carbonium and Ironium production up - protecting your base is not going to be cheap.


No one will destroy this pipeline under our watch! By the way, it's a sneaky preview of a new resource - resin. Any guesses what it can do?

The Floating Immolator Tower is not the only one that you will be able to place directly on water. As many of you suggested on our Feature Upvote board, The Riftbreaker needs more heavy-hitting giant towers. We already added a couple on the previous World Expansions. WE III will continue that trend and then some! This expansion will add three truly powerful 3x3 towers. One of them will be a water-based tower, shooting massive, piercing projectiles that deal cryo damage on impact. We don’t have any visuals or a name for that tower yet, but when it arrives, we will definitely preview it on www.twitch.tv/exorstudios during our developer stream. Follow us there so as not to miss it!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2506610/The_Riftbreaker_World_Expansion_III/

That’s it for today. Remember to add The Riftbreaker: World Expansion III to your wishlist and join our Discord at www.discord.gg/exorstudios to get all the latest news and details from development.

See you there!
EXOR Studios

As you’ve already seen in our numerous previews and live playthroughs on stream (Tuesdays and Thursdays, 3 PM CET at www.twitch.tv/exorstudios ), the Swamp biome is full of interesting creatures. Many of them are uniquely adapted to life in semi-aquatic conditions of their environment. Stickrids’ long legs, Fungors’ tentacles and Plutrodons’ tree climbing all provide mobility and survivability in the Swamp. However, none of these creatures are more at home here than the hero of today’s article - the Mudroner.


Mudroner in all of its swampy glory.

The Mudroner is a native species of the Galatean Swamp. These creatures can often be seen in small packs, roaming around the shallow waters. They bear quite a resemblance to Hedroners, which can be found in similar places around the surface of Galatea 37. However, these species are quite different from one another. Various types of Hedroners camouflage their bodies by taking on the appearance of liquids they live in. For example, in the Tropical zone, they look like mud, and in the Metallic Valley they disguise themselves as made of Morphium. However, Mudroners appear to be able to survive only in the Swamp biome and only in one form - ‘wearing’ greenish-brown mud outer layer.


No, Mr. Riggs, that's not how you document wildlife!

At first glance, Mudroners look like a much more dangerous evolution of a Hedroner. Their bodies are taller and more slender. Dozens of sharp teeth stick out of their giant, elongated maws. However, their most striking feature is a pair of eyes right above their mouths. The eyes emit an unnatural purple glow, attracting prey and sending a warning signal to anything that might pose a threat to the creature. That includes you.


Luckily, Mudroners hate fire, so you will find ways to deal with them relatively quickly.

Although they spend most of their time by liquid pools, Mudroners will happily leave the comfort of their homes to attack you and your base. Usually, they will try to keep their distance and throw heavy objects at Mr. Riggs, as their melee attacks are quite slow and easy to avoid. Since Mudroners move slowly, they usually won’t be able to escape once you’ve closed in on them. However, if a Mudroner feels it’s losing the fight, it can sink into the ground and materialize elsewhere. They use this technique to distance themselves from danger and continue fighting from afar.


They can catch you by surprise almost anywhere.

Fancy descriptions aside, Mudroners are a refreshed version of the Hedroners that you already know from the original game and its various biomes. However, while giving the creature a face-lift, we also came up with the idea of a neat visual feature. If you take a closer look at Mudroners, their texture has a slight animation to it, simulating the flow of a liquid. This is done via a custom shader. The shader takes information from a flow map - a texture that stores information about movement. By adjusting the flow map, we can simulate the flow of different types of liquids. We liked the result, so we applied this change to the original Hedroners as well.


A subtle change, but Hedroners look much better now that their 'mud' is not static.

This is not the only visual upgrade we’ve made in preparation for the launch of World Expansion III. Thanks to the introduction of Tiled Deferred Shading which we talked about before, we could finally use transparent objects in The Riftbreaker. That, in turn, allowed us to cook up liquid simulation, including waves and ripples on the surface. We will publish a longer article on that soon, so stay tuned!


Ultra versions look even more at home now in the Volcanic Zone.

Join us on Discord! We publish our internal developer changelogs daily, discuss upcoming changes and preview lots of cool things there. www.discord.gg/exorstudios Also remember to join us on streams, every Tuesday and Thursday, 3 PM CET at www.twitch.tv/exorstudios , where you can see the new content in a live, unedited environment. See you there!

EXOR Studios

Every time we visit a new biome on Galatea 37, we face new challenges regarding power production. The weather variations make our renewable energy sources less (or more) effective. We also might get access to some power generation resources that are not available anywhere else - like magma in the Volcanic Zone or Morphium in the Metallic Valley. The conditions differ from biome to biome, but one thing stays the same. As we access new biomes, our tech tree grows, and new energy technologies become available. The Swamp biome is no different. Today, we will look at the options available to us in World Expansion III.


The stars of today's show: Bio-Condenser and Gas Extractor.

The waters and the soil of the Galatean Swamp are full of organic remains. This gives life perfect conditions to grow and expand. New specimens can feed on the remains, grow, spread, and evolve. The rich fauna and flora of the biome are the best evidence for this - you won’t find a more varied ecosystem anywhere else on this planet. However, the fact that organic remains make up a large portion of the biomass has another advantage for Ashely and Mr. Riggs. As organic matter decomposes, it produces large amounts of flammable gases - an efficient power source.


Bio-Condensers are very easy to set up in the Swamp, despite having to be placed at a distance from one another.

Naturally, Riftbreakers are prepared to take advantage of such scenarios. Through research, Ashley will gain access to several buildings to make the most of the resources available in the Swamp. The first one is the Bio-Condenser. This facility must be placed directly on the surface of a mud pool. The Bio-Condenser filters the scattered organic remains from the mud and places them in a fermentation chamber. During the fermentation process, the biomass from the swamp turns into sludge, which can be further refined into flammable gas. Then, the gas can be transported through a pipeline and used for power generation. After all this, the mud is mixed and released into the ecosystem. It’s an inexpensive and reliable way to supply your base with gas power.


Since mud is virtually unlimited, you can even turn your Swamp outposts into gas-producing mega-factories, sending copious amounts of resources back to your HQ through compressors and decompressors.


A new type of resource deposit: Flammable Gas Vent. Hard to miss, really.

Some of the organic matter has been gathering beneath the surface of the Swamp biome for ages. Over time, natural pockets of Flammable Gas have appeared, with some of them bursting through the surface in a fiery fashion. Thanks to another new building, the Gas Extractor, Ashley and Mr. Riggs can safely use the gas beneath the ground. The Gas Extractor is built directly on top of a Gas Vent. Its airtight construction extinguishes the flames, allowing for controlled gas extraction by pipelines. While extracting the gas, the Extractor building also filters all the impurities, ensuring the fuel is suitable for immediate use. This means you can run a pipeline directly from an Extractor to a Power Plant with no steps in between. Gas Vents are relatively rare, but you should take advantage of them whenever possible.


You can even use the vent offensively!

Generating the electric energy necessary to run all the Riftbreaker facilities is an essential use of Flammable Gas. However, during your stay in the Swamp biome, you will also find out that the gas can be used offensively - as a fuel source for some truly devastating weaponry. (Especially given the fact that most creatures of this biome are very weak to fire damage). We won’t say much now, as the new tower types will get their own article, but you can expect some heavy-caliber machines of destruction, bigger than anything we’ve given you before.

If you would like to see these buildings in use, join our streams every Tuesday and Thursday at 3 PM CET. And if you would want to be the first to try them out once ready, join our Discord at www.discord.gg/exorstudios - we will notify you when the first experimental versions of the World Expansion III update go live. You can also chat with us and influence what the biome looks like in the end!

See you there!
EXOR Studios

It is time for another co-op mode development progress update for The Riftbreaker. A lot of good things happened since the last time we shared the news with you, including some major developments and improvements. A lot of those upgrades happened thanks to the data you provided us with during the closed beta. We appreciate your help so far! .We even managed to complete a 3-person playthrough live on stream several times. Here’s a new VOD from one of those streams:



As you can see, the game runs quite well, and even though the performance still leaves a lot to be desired, especially in the later stages of the game, we feel we are on the right track. Plus, we have a new, fancy 3-face cam setup and managed to convince some EXOR members to break their ‘stage’ fright! But you’re here because you want to learn more about our development process, not just to watch a video. Let’s take a look at what our brave programmers have been doing for these past couple of weeks.


At the very beginning of the year, on January 2nd, one of our programmers, Starbugs, sent us a screenshot from his Survival run. It was a single mech, a Headquarters, and a ton of defensive towers - obviously running an infinite resources cheat. The screenshot was taken at the end of the run, and Startbugs told us that he managed to almost complete a run. It was an improvement since the game used to crash within 15 minutes in similar conditions. It was a positive message to start the year, but we were careful to share this enthusiasm.


Yes, we use Skype. Yes, we know about other software. No, we won't switch. Yes, we are stubborn.

This is a screencap from our group chat on the 2nd of January 2024. It goes like this:

Starbugs: Some good news for the start of the year. 5 more minutes till I finish a survival run in multiplayer!
Angin3: But you’re cheating! Doesn’t count!
Starbugs: shut up
Prosatanos: That’s not a real base, still cool tho
Starbugs: Smartasses. I was trying to be positive here. It used to crash after 15 minutes. You ruined everything! I won’t tell you anything anymore!

Most of us were skeptical at this point, as the “base” Starbugs presented wasn’t representative of what you usually see in the game. There were no factories, no power generation setup, or basically anything else. That’s important because every structure you build increases the computational cost for the game. A setup consisting of an HQ and a couple dozen towers using an “unlimited money” cheat is far less resource-intensive. Our snarky comments about Starbugs’ (cheater) tactics did not manage to extinguish his inner flame. Both he and lukaasm braved on, playing through multiplayer run after multiplayer run, fixing numerous bugs on their way.


The benchmark results point out a continuous improvement in data transfer optimization. The reduction of bytes transferred is one of the most important things we can do to increase performance and ensure a comfortable play experience. At present, the transfer rate is acceptable for a fast internet connection. However, we still have much to improve.

Thanks to your active participation in the closed beta of the multiplayer mode and the data you provided, our team could deduce which components they should pay attention to. Some bugs the programmers encountered during gameplay were a direct result of some game systems being unoptimized for online play. Reworking these allowed our team to improve the game's performance significantly and eliminate many bugs in the process. As you can see in the screenshot above, the results are clearly reflected in our benchmark scores - the lower these lines go, the better the performance.



When you play with others, you might actually have the time to build some more walls! Who would have thought?

After a couple of weeks of intense development and rapid improvements, The Run™ happened. We managed to complete a Survival Mode run, playing as a three-person team. We have done this before, but it was the first time the game felt truly stable, and the performance was acceptable (for this stage of development). We were ecstatic. Then, we repeated our feat a couple more times during our development streams at www.twitch.tv/exorstudios, gradually improving our streaming setup. At one point, one of us even connected from outside the office - and the experience was okay as well. Sure, the distance between the office and Paweł, who worked from home at that time, was more or less ten kilometers. Still - it was an outside network, the data was transferred through Steam’s datagram relay network, and we completed a full playthrough of the Survival mode. It was a success - no doubt.



We all have to sacrifice something for the greater good in co-op. Even your own mech upgrades (I choose to completely ignore the fact that maintenance tools would have made buildings cheaper, which would benefit everyone).

The programmers were quite sure that they could pull off even more. They decided to try running an entire campaign in co-op mode. Given that no one has tried that before, it was a huge undertaking. They started by making sure that the save system was functional. It turned out that it needed a little bit of encouragement, but after some bugfixing, we are now able to save the state of the game on the server. It is currently stored on the server itself and can be loaded from the menu as usual. Once the game is running, the clients can join in, and if they participated in the game, they also receive all their equipment back. This is a very basic implementation - we are still unsure what it will look like in the final game. We have a couple of options to consider - keeping saves on the server, giving each player a copy of the save file, etc. However, we will make our final decisions closer to release - now, we are focused on getting the game running in the first place.


If it's ugly, but works, is it really that ugly?

With a functional save system in place, it was time to start the playthrough. Since the guys playing were programmers, they were able to debug the game on the go and fix all the game-blocking issues they encountered. Naturally, there were a lot of crash bugs, things not working as expected, and other minor inconveniences. However, the bugs that are not obvious at first glance are always the hardest to spot and fix - and there were quite a lot of them.



You can take a guess whether the power plant survived or not.

One of the first such bugs was connected to the radar. As you know, the mech in The Riftbreaker has a short-range radar connected to it, revealing points of interest within a certain radius around the mech. That radar also reveals the fog of war, marking the map cells as ‘discovered.’ Those cells are quite small in our game, and a lot of them can fit into the 15-meter radius of the short-range radar. It turns out that the clients synchronized ALL those revealed cells with the server, each and every frame the game was running. The more players there were, the worse it got. Hundreds of kilobytes of precious data, up to 30 times a second. This bug has been fixed, and clients only send new information to the server.


Remeber to always communicate clearly.

Another bug our team discovered was connected to the objective system and the way we handle its updates. Whenever a player was given a new objective, finished their current one, or when an objective failed (it can happen!), we synchronized the state of the objective system between the client and the server. Sounds logical, right? We thought so, too, until we realized that the mission timer ticking down was an objective update, too. That meant the need to synchronize the system every second. Still doesn’t sound too bad. What made matters truly awful was the fact that we forgot about the mission log - the menu page where you can see the entire history of your campaign. All changes in your mission goals are stored there, including timers. Suddenly, we were facing an update with a massive amount of data every second. We made the decision to exclude timers from the synchronization process, which fixed that bug.


Our tests are usually carefully planned and conducted according to our internal rulesets. Usually. Sometimes we just jump in the deep end and see what happens.

In a similar fashion, the research also caused problems with an unnecessarily high number of updates, but for a different reason. When you add any technology item to the research queue, a timer is displayed, showing you how much longer it takes until it’s done. In reality, however, research is not time-based at all. Every tech item in The Riftbreaker costs a certain amount of download points. Communication Hubs produce those download points at the rate of 1 point per Hub per level. The amount of that resource is updated every frame, meaning it has to be synchronized every frame. Considering that download progress couldn’t have been updated without sending over information about the entire research tree, you get way too much data way too often. Decoupling the research progress and download values from the rest of the research system solved the issue.


Show me what you got.

By this point, you should see a pattern emerging - our systems often send more information than necessary. It was no different in the case of the energy graph system. Each building, power plant, and energy connector is a part of the energy grid in the game. They can get truly massive, as there is no limit to how many structures you can place. What if we told you that the first versions of the co-op build wanted a full synchronization every single frame? Sub-optimal is the mildest way to put it. Luckily, compartmentalization, packing, and reduction of the update frequency also fixed those issues.


Words to live by.

In multiplayer mode, The Riftbreaker relies upon constant communication between the server and its clients to keep the game world state in check. Problems occur when the syncing happens too often or too rarely, as you will learn from our next example. If one player started an HQ upgrade process while the other player was somewhere else on the map, it was possible to get an infinite loop. When the player who was away came back to the base during the construction time, their game would notice that fact… and start another HQ upgrade process underneath. Rinse and repeat, infinite level 2 upgrades, infinite level 2 waves. We decided that some events need to be broadcast globally and reach all players, regardless of their position on the map. That fixed the issue.


You can set up some pretty powerful tactics while working with others.

Apart from fixing bugs, Starbugs and lukaasm ran a round of optimizations on every game component that looked suspiciously big or caused spikes in transfer. If you watched any of our co-op attempt streams, you might have noticed that whenever a player wanted to join the game, there was a huge stutter as they connected to the server. Turns out that the culprit was the MechComponent - a set of properties that every mech in our game has, giving the players the ability to move around and take game actions. The component was absolutely huge for multiplayer standards, generating up to 500 kilobytes of traffic per second per mech. After optimizing that data structure, the boys managed to reduce that rate to about 30 kilobytes a second. It's still too much, but it's a lot closer to the target.



This is one of the symptoms of replication bugs. Thay make the game really hard to play sometimes and might have game-breaking consequences.

The biggest problem we are facing right now is replication. Replication is the process of recreating gameplay state changes from client to server and vice versa. In order to save performance, we divided some processes into those that happen on the client side and those that happen on the server side. When combined, we should have the full picture of what events are happening in the game world - ‘should’ being the keyword here. At the moment, it is possible for the server to ‘think’ that it sent all the necessary data to the clients, but some of that information never reaches their PCs. As a result, we see some strange bugs. For example, if you build walls, some of them are not visible to other players. The buildings player A builds can’t be sold or upgraded by player B. Creatures that died during combat on one player’s screen show up as standing corpses for the other.


After a while you get used to it, but you shouldn't have to get used to something like that. It's our focus at the moment.

There are many possible reasons for this behavior, and we are currently working through them to prevent this phenomenon from being a problem. The server is convinced that the data packets have been uploaded and sent to the client. However, they either never reach their destination or never get sent at all. It is also possible that the packets arrive out of order, and the data in them can no longer be applied to the game state. Either way - we have easy ways to reproduce these issues since they happen all the time. Data packet loss is something that can’t be prevented entirely. All that is left is to experiment, find all the problems that it’s causing, and work around them. It is definitely a complicated task, but we’re sure that we will have it fixed. As soon as we are able to finish a full campaign playthrough, we will begin the next round of the iteration process.



We hope to let you gang up like this with your friends as soon as possible.

For the time being, unfortunately, not as much as you would expect. Despite the huge progress we’ve made, we’re still not ready to release the co-op mode to the beta testers. We have our hands full trying to fix the issues we have discovered ourselves. The list of known problems would probably grow by an order of magnitude once other people joined in. Their feedback would be lost or become irrelevant over time. Once again, we need to ask you for your patience. We will update the beta once we have a stable build and decide that we are ready for public scrutiny.


I mean, how long can you play with yourself before you get bored?

Still, there is good news. The previous round of beta testing, which was focused solely on PVP and networking aspects of the game, was a major success for us. The data you gave us has led to major breakthroughs, and we are sure that it is going to repeat once we add co-op into the mix. No effort from a team of 15 people (not all of whom work on the multiplayer mode) can beat the collective power of the internet. For this reason, you can be sure that we will give you the chance to try out the co-op in closed beta conditions as soon as we are physically (and mentally) ready to take on the challenge.



A perfect summary of our progress. We are going in the right direction, but sometimes things go sideways!

The past few weeks of work have been very fruitful, leading the co-op mode for The Riftbreaker to reach the most promising state yet. It finally feels like a real game and a fun one to boot. While we’re not ready to release a coop beta build yet, we encourage you to sign up for the waiting list, as public testing is very important to us. We plan to start it as soon as we have all the elements in the right places. For the time being, join our Discord at www.discord.gg/exorstudios, where we publish our daily changelogs and share even more information about what’s going on in the studios. Join our streams on Tuesdays and Thursdays at https://www.twitch.tv/exorstudios to have a chance to see our live playthroughs and chat with us. Things are good. Just let us cook a “bit” more.

We reserve the right to contact only select participants.


EXOR Studios

These plants have nothing to do with the rest of the article, but they are cute and funny and shy and awesome.

The Swamp biome that is coming to The Riftbreaker in World Expansion III is a beautiful place filled with all kinds of life. Plants, creatures, and fungi living here have perfect conditions to grow, multiply, and thrive - all thanks to the abundance of water and fertile soil, rich with minerals and nutrients. Given enough time, any form of life can reach a truly gigantic size in the Swamp. However, Galatea 37 likes to surprise us. Apart from towering, ancient trees that have been growing for the past few thousand years, you will encounter other unexpectedly large life forms. Life forms that grow quickly and claim all the land they can find. Let’s talk about Vine Walls today.


This place doesn't look inviting and the creatures don't want us there. Let's go inside before we see reason!

A large portion of the Swamp biome is covered with a sprawling growth of what we call Vine Walls. At first, they seem to be a very large formation of intertwining bushes that are impossible to cross for something larger than a Quelver. However, they are not just a field of shrubs. In fact, it is one giant organism, probably one of the largest ones on Galatea 37. Vine Walls spread like wildfire, taking over every piece of land they can. As the Vines spread, some of their branches get rooted into the ground, soaking up all the nutrients and water a plant needs to survive. Vines are very densely packed, blocking all the sunlight and leaving nothing for competing organisms. In the world of plants, they are as close to the top of the food chain as they can get.


You can carve a path into the vines to regenerate ammo, charge a shot, or simply run away from a creature. It's a nice little tactic.

Encountering a growth like this on your path to exploring the secrets of the Swamp biome is going to pose a challenge. While Vines are not a direct threat to Mr. Riggs, they will limit your movement options. They might seem a bit similar to Limestone Walls from the Crystal Caverns biome, but you will quickly realize that they are very different. Walls and Vines can both be cleared with Mr. Riggs’s drilling arm, and this is where the similarities end. While Limestone Walls stayed open after you drilled through them, Vine Walls will grow back just a couple of seconds after you initially cleared them. You will have to carve your path as you go, with your escape route closing all the time.


Given enough time, the vines will grow back and trap you within. Luckily, good old brute force helps.

Luckily, Vines are quite brittle, and most of your melee weapons will punch through them with ease. This is going to be especially helpful in combat - and there is going to be quite a lot of combat here! While the Vine Wall does not enjoy sharing space with most plants, it forms a symbiotic relationship with carnivorous plants, like Artigians and Carnicynths. The Vine allows these species to grow within its ‘body’ in isolated pockets. Carnivorous plants are supplied with food and shelter. In return, if something is trying to carve its path through the Vine growth, the plant will try to trap it in such a way that Artigians and Carnicynths can destroy the threat from a safe distance. Be careful not to fall into one of these traps.


Mr. Riggs knows he won't burn it all down, but it won't stop him from trying anyway.

Since Mr. Riggs is the biggest pyromaniac on Galatea 37 (this is an official title (edit. no, it’s not)), he quickly discovers that the branches of the Vine Walls can be easily cleared using the good old flamethrower. It is a plant, after all, and plants burn. However, the Vine’s defensive mechanism stops the flames from spreading by secreting a flame-resistant substance that covers the branches near the source of the fire. You can burn a path forward, but you will never get rid of the entire growth.


Fights taking place within the growth require you to find new strategies and look for the most efficient solutions.

It is unclear at this point if the Vine Wall colonies spread around the Swamp have a positive or a negative effect on the ecosystem. That will be left for you to discover. One thing is certain - you will either have to learn to live alongside them or use something other than brute force to destroy them. You will solve this and many other secrets in World Expansion III, which you can wishlist here:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2506610/The_Riftbreaker_World_Expansion_III/

If you would like to see previews of World Expansion III even before the update goes to the experimental branch, join us on Tuesdays and Thursdays on www.twitch.tv/exorstudios - we stream both World Expansion III Survival runs and our brave first attempts at Co-Op sessions. We’d love to hang out with you and answer all the questions you might have. You can also catch us on our Discord at www.discord.gg/exorstudios.

See you there!
EXOR Studios

P.S.

We have a bundle going with our friends from Far From Home, allowing you to get The Riftbreaker and Forever Skies, an awesome, post-apo survival game that should be right up your alley. Forever Skies is on a 20% discount at the moment, and if you already own The Riftbreaker, you can get an additional 15% off using the bundle. Check it out!

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/37896/FOREVER_SKIES_X_THE_RIFTBREAKER/

Last week, we presented the various plant species of the Swamp biome that will require you to stay sharp while exploring the area. By this point, you know that the new biome is not that welcoming despite its lively and colorful looks. However, it’s not all doom and gloom! You will find plenty of interesting and valuable things during your excursions into the fungal forest. One such addition coming to The Riftbreaker in World Expansion III is Power Wells - incredible artifacts that let you harness game-breakingly powerful skills for a short period. Let’s talk about them now.


GOTTA GO FAST

Power Wells are our take on a classic action RPG game mechanic. They are mysterious objects scattered across the entire map. Once activated, they grant you short-lasting but very powerful bonuses that have the potential to change the way you play the game for the time they are active. In today’s article, we will take a look at what kind of Power Wells you will be able to encounter in the game, starting with World Expansion III. Please remember that this feature is still being actively developed. The visual representation of the Wells and the duration and exact bonus values are all subject to change. That’s how we do things - prototype, iterate, and see what comes out of all this!

The Wells are large, alien-looking structures that radiate energy all around them. Mr. Riggs can walk up to any of those and interact with them to channel the energy into his systems to reap the rewards. Power Wells are for one-time use only and work for a short time. Activating one of these artifacts drains their power completely, so sometimes it is better to save them for later use - especially since the bonuses they grant are really diverse and helpful for various situations. Let’s look at the broad categories of Power Wells you can find.

The arsenal of weapons available in The Riftbreaker makes Mr. Riggs a force to be reckoned with. Sometimes, it is not enough, though, and you need a bit of extra firepower. Finding one of these power wells will help you boost your power level when you really need it.


High Fire Rate Power Well affects all weapons, melee included. It can lead to unexpected results at times!

Higher Fire Rate:
Sometimes, you don’t need to shoot more projectiles - you simply want to shoot more often. Using this buff, you can achieve ridiculous results, such as firing your Mini-Nuke Launchers almost at a machine-gun pace. We’re sure that the Schmetterling Engine can handle such firepower. We’re also sure that your enemies won’t.


fire rate + unlimited ammo = yes

Unlimited Ammo:
It's the most straightforward upgrade you could think of. Thanks to activating this Power Well, your weapons will not consume any ammunition while firing. Pack your most powerful, ammo-consuming mods into your favorite miniguns and go nuts! This round is on the house.

Quad Damage:
People sometimes say that a good offense is the best defense. This Power Well will quadruple your damage output from all weapons. With power like that, you don’t really need any survivability because no creature will ever manage to get close to you. Just be careful once it runs out - you don’t want to be caught in the middle of a horde without this buff.


Mr. Riggs is a very powerful machine when in the hands of a skilled pilot. Still, he is not indestructible. The most powerful foes among the Galatean creatures can easily overpower him, especially if Mr. Riggs is backed into a corner. These Power Wells will help you overcome your Mech’s weaknesses.


The regen speed matches the health increase, making you really difficult to beat.

Mega Health:
Activating this bonus grants your Mech a major HP boost (300% at the moment), making it able to withstand a lot more hits before having to reconstruct at the HQ. You also start regenerating health rapidly, helping you replenish your lost health. Hint: your repair kits work with percentages, not flat HP amounts - use them while the bonus is active to get the most out of them.


With this buff you can basically 'walk it off' when you take damage.

Mega Forcefield:
Similarly to Mega Health, this Power Well boosts your Mech’s forcefield beyond what is possible while using regular upgrade modules. Apart from increasing the number of hitpoints, the forcefield also gains the ability to replenish very quickly, allowing you to make use of your bonus hitpoints multiple times throughout the fight.

Reflect Damage:
It is a perfect power for those Riftbreakers who love to jump head-first into battle. Whenever you take damage from an enemy, a portion of that damage will be returned to the sender. It’s an incredibly powerful ability, especially against the large, heavy-hitting creatures like Krocoons, who attack once every couple of seconds. Don’t get too brave, though - you’re not indestructible!

Resist All:
A much more indirect form of help with survivability. This Power Well gives you a 50% resistance to all forms of incoming damage. While it won’t make you impervious, it will give you the ability to stay in the fight for a longer time. It will also help during accidental dives into pools of acidic sludge or molten lava.

Apart from a Well that grants you resistance to all types of damage, you may also find those that grant you a more powerful buff against only one type of damage. Those variants will be found in appropriate biomes.


Sometimes, you do not need extra firepower or survivability - you just want to do things more efficiently or cheaper. This group of Power Wells will grant you bonuses that can be useful outside of combat, too.

Reduced Cooldowns:
After activating this Power Well, you can use all the items in your consumable slots without much delay. It might seem like a typical offensive ability, letting you bombard your foes from the orbit, shoot flame waves at them, as well as disintegrate them with antigravity balls. However, many items can benefit from shorter cooldowns outside of combat, too, such as various landmines. Activate the boost before the wave, set up a minefield, and watch the world burn from the comfort of your base.

Increased Radar Range:
This buff does exactly what it says on the tin. For a short time, the range of Mr. Riggs’ radar becomes much greater than usual, allowing you to quickly discover everything that the surrounding area has to offer. You will know where to look for resources and where the creature nests lie.


You'd better get some storage ready for all these treasures you're about to collect.

Increased Loot Chance:
This is a perfect find if you lack the resources to craft that sweet, extreme-quality weapon you couldn’t afford earlier. After activating this Power Well, all creatures, plants, and anything else you can destroy will reward you with a fountain of resources and weapon mods (and possibly more; read about our loot system rework here). You can maximize this boost by activating it just before an attack wave arrives at your base. Remember the 5-second rule and collect everything quickly - we don’t want anything to go to waste.


Beautiful automated chaos.

Drone Swarm:
After you activate this Power Well, Mr. Riggs will gain control of a couple of additional drones - a mixture of all available types. They will repair your structures, attack the enemies, and intercept projectiles. Moreover, this buff can be activated even if you already have the maximum number of drones in your build. Become the swarm.


Building Speed Power Well, aka instant base upgrade

Building Speed and Cost Reduction:
Imagine you just completed research for Defensive Buildings - Level 3 but have little to no carbonium left to upgrade your walls. This Power Well will fix that problem for you. It greatly reduces prices for all buildings and slashes building times to a fraction of the original. There are two ways to maximize this power: upgrade many smaller elements around your base or build something massive, like a Fusion Power Plant, at a great discount. This might be the most potent Power Well of the bunch. Note: if you build something at a reduced price, you will also sell and repair it for that cost. No infinite money glitches - at least not because of this.

We are likely to add even more types of Power Wells you will be able to find in the wilderness of Galatea 37 - not only in the Swamp biome. As we said before, the gameplay details are yet to be determined. We don’t know how often you’ll find these, how long they will last, or what precise numbers you can expect from their boosts. However, we will make sure that they are both fun and impactful and that they are always an exciting find. We will likely beta-test this feature with our Discord community - join us at www.discord.gg/exorstudios. Our experimental branch updates are free for everyone to join. We can use all the feedback we get once we’re ready to test!

Also, remember to join our streams on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 3 PM CET on www.twitch.tv/exorstudios. We have recently completed full co-op playthroughs of three different Survival Maps. Last Tuesday, we even ran a session when one of us connected outside our local network, and nothing exploded! It’s wild, but it seems we’re getting closer and closer… Sign up for the multiplayer beta here: {LINK REMOVED}https://bit.ly/rb-multi-beta.

See you next time!
EXOR Studios

Happy 2024 - we made it around the Sun once again! Let’s celebrate the new year with our Lunar New Year Festival in-game seasonal event. We have also prepared a brand-new skin for you to unlock and enjoy - read on for details!


The Lunar New Year features play along really well with the decorations introduced in the 2023 Summer Update.

Much like the Winter Holiday event that we held just a couple of weeks ago, the Lunar New Year Festival is an optional and purely decorative event that takes place between February 7th and February 21st, 2024, to spice up the Galatean atmosphere a little bit. Some of the basic structures in your base will be replaced with special, seasonal versions.


Almost like a red carpet. Almost.

Enjoy the premium wooden floors designed by the best carpenters in the galaxy. Let the light of the paper lanterns warm up the night. Combine these props with the other decorative structures matching the color scheme and transform the looks of your base with the warm red-and-gold color scheme.


The basic floor will automatically switch to the festive variant while the seasonal event is active.

Your base is not the only thing that will change during this event. The Tropical Zone of Galatea 37 will also get more festive with the new weather event. You will be able to see fireworks popping all around the place, and the air will turn slightly red, giving the entire place a cozy, warm look. Combined with the festive decorations, this will give your Headquarters a truly distinct look.


To unlock this skin go to the options menu, select 'Redeem Code' and type in: DRAGON.

We all know that Mr. Riggs loves playing dress-up as well. For this reason, we have decided to give him a new paint job. You can unlock this skin for your favorite Mecha-Suit by entering the code DRAGON in the ‘Redeem Code’ section of the Options menu. The code is free to use for everyone and does not expire. Even if you missed this event - you can still get this skin.


We made separate variants of festive lamps for the basic lamps of each color available in the game. The models are replaced automatically, and you can revert this at any time with one toggle in the options menu.

Naturally, seasonal events are not everybody’s jam. If you decide you prefer the classic look for the game, simply go to the ‘Gameplay’ section of the options menu and disable the ‘Seasonal Events’ option. You can turn it back on at any time while the event remains active.

Enjoy!
EXOR Studios

In our descriptions of the Swamp biome, we mentioned that not only the creatures inhabiting this area pose a threat to our Riftbreaker duo. The wildlife of the Swamp is vastly different from the other areas of Galatea 37 and gives home to species of plants that are not seen anywhere else - not even in the rich Tropical Zone. The plants we are about to show you will spice up the exploration of the new biome. Watch your step - here are the carnivorous plants of Galatea 37!



Carnivorous plants are not uncommon, even on Earth. They can survive on their own, using photosynthesis to get their nutrients. However, they can also trap and digest small animals using their specialized organs. Still, we need to be clear here - they are no apex predators. They are slow and will never catch something that is more capable of identifying threats. On Galatea, this type of plant has evolved one step further. Not only have they developed various offensive strategies, but also act much faster than their cousins from Earth, giving them an element of surprise. There are several species that you will encounter in the Galatean Swamp - let’s take a look at them now.



The most common species you are going to encounter is the Carnicynth. A Carnicynth spends most of its time with the majority of its body hidden underground. Only a couple of leaves stick out above the surface, growing around a ‘tree trunk,’ disguising the Carnicynth’s underground hiding hole. The leaves act as radar - the tiny needles covering them react to the movement of the air and vibrations of the ground. If they detect movement in the vicinity, they send a signal to strike. Then, the Carnicynth’s body unburrows in a split second, ready to strike, unveiling its terrifying maw. This plant's main form of attack is spitting razor-sharp needles laced with acid and toxins at unsuspecting creatures. The bodies of Carnicynth’s prey decompose quickly, enriching the soil with valuable nutrients.



The next creature/plant you’re going to see is the Artigian. These humongous pitcher plants will grab your attention by the large sack that hangs beneath their ‘mouth holes.’ Unlike their counterparts from Earth, Artigians do not try to lure anything into their mouths. Instead of that, they form an explosive ball of acids and enzymes that they aim at their prey. The ball explodes on impact, covering a large area in Artigian’s corrosive substances that start dissolving matter around them. Much like Carnicynths, they later scoop up whatever nutrients seep into the ground using their extensive root networks.



The last species on our list does things a little bit differently. It is called Invigor. Its body is long and slender for the most part, with no leaves or branches around the plant’s stem. At the top of the stem, there is a large and heavy head bulb with just a single antenna sticking out on top. That antenna is the only thing you will usually get to see - and the only thing you want to see, to be honest. If the antenna detects any movement from suitable prey, the rest of the Invigor will burst out from beneath the ground. The plant uses its head bulb as a beater, trying to smash the prey to pieces. Whatever’s left behind gets dragged beneath the ground for the digestion process.


I always feel like somebody's watching me...

Other plants in this biome took example from their carnivorous counterparts. They evolved mechanisms that make them seem more dangerous than they really are. While exploring the Swamp, you are going to see many such plants - identifying which ones pose a threat to you and which ones don’t will be key to survival. Try not to fall into a trap, but don’t panic if you do - all the plants we described today are firmly rooted in the ground. They have no ability to chase you, so if you run far enough, you should be safe - unless you run into an entire field full of Carnicynths, Artigians, and Invigors, of course. Then you might be in trouble.


Sometimes things take a turn from bad to worse when you're running away.

You can watch us do live playthroughs of Survival missions in the Swamp biome every Tuesday and Thursday live on www.twitch.tv/exorstudios. We introduce a plethora of changes every week, so you never know what the next stream will bring. We also do co-op test streams from time to time to check on our progress. They have been going well, and we can’t wait for the moment we get to play together! Until then, catch us on Discord at www.discord.gg/exorstudios.


See you next time!
EXOR Studios