Hello!
We've taken a long break from posting new content about The Riftbreaker on Steam. The reason for that was, as some of you might know already, that I (voidreaver) have caught COVID-19 and had to spend some time in hospital. Fortunately, I am fine now, also thanks to all the positive messages I received from all of you! Thank you for keeping me going.
While I was gone, the rest of the team was working on lots of new features. In order to make it easier to catch up on what's happened over the course of the past month, I compiled a little changelog. Please note that we're not patching the game today - this is a purely informative article, meant to get you up to speed on what you can expect in our upcoming materials and streams (Tue and Thu, 3PM CEST, twitch.tv/exorstudios). Also, not all of these changes will be visible to you, because some of them are implemented with the Campaign Mode in mind. However, a patch for The Riftbreaker Alpha and The Riftbreaker Prologue is coming very soon and will feature even more changes than the ones listed here!
The Riftbreaker Progress Log, October 2020
Changes
- We have completely reworked all the weapon models. Our goal was to make them immediately recognizable, without the need to look at the inventory screen or the HUD. The new models come with varying skins for each rarity level. They're also animated!
- Oh, we also changed models for other equipment pieces - the Detector and mines of all flavors.
- We have added tooltips. Hovering the cursor over an icon will now tell you what that icon represents.
- The game will now inform you that you have discovered a new species of alien life by displaying a pop-up. Information about that species will be added to the Bestiary
- Missions now start with a fade from black. This prevents you from seeing meshes pop into existence.
- We have tweaked effect attachment points for weapons, so that the muzzle flash actually comes from the muzzle.
- The settings menu screen has been slightly reworked to include a description box. Highlighting any option in the menu will display a short message describing what is affected by the highlighted option. This should help you choose the perfect settings for your setup.
- There's much more wildlife in the prologue mission now, including birds!
- Our super-cute drones are now even more cute, because they are animated!
- New options have been added to the settings screen, as well as the Launcher.
- Extended HQ upgrade level 1 attack timeout. Take a breath.
- All weapons now have an icon based on the actual physical model you can see in the game.
- CrashReporter: include configuration + version number in titlebar. Sometimes you send us screenshots of the crash reports. This will help us identify the version of the game you have problems with.
- The Prologue map has been changed a bit, but since the affected area was a secret, we won't tell you what we changed.
- Loot items are now pushed away from the dying creatures with more force.
- DX12 is now the default render system. If your PC does not support DX12, the game will automatically detect it and fall back to the DX11 renderer.
- Teleporting is now blocked during minimap Interference. No escape from the ion storm.
- Added Benchmark Results Screen and localization for it. They're human-readable now.
New Features
- There is a lot of new units that we're working on! New models, animations and behavior logic is being added as we speak.
- One of the new units is Kermon, for example. You haven't seen it yet and you can't see it, because it's invisible most of the time. It's a nasty one.
- Don't fret, people, Mr. Riggs can now equip a special item that will turn him invisible, too! You'll now be able to sneak up on Arachnoids and watch them in their natural habitat! Invisibility breaks on attack, or taking damage, though, so beware.
- Gnerot's weird cousin, Krocoon, is also mostly done. We'll show it to you later. Can't burn all the coolest stuff in one changelog.
- Other creatures in progress are: Stregaros, Bomogan, Granan, Morirot, Lesigian, Necrodon, Nurglax and Shegret. You've seen some of them, most are still a secret, but you will hate them all by the time we're done.
- Apart from the invisibility tech we've also added some new movement skills: a short-range teleport, a dodge roll and barbarian jump! You can equip those instead of the good, old, regular dash.
- The new movement skills can be upgraded to use elemental damage. Firewall dash? Got it. Toxic fume barbarian jump? Got that one, too.
- A dedicated benchmark for the GPU has been added, now with results readable by humans.
- A Bestiary has been added. It's a separate menu screen that will act as an encyclopedia on all the species you discover. The more creatures you 'sample', the more knowledge you'll uncover!
- Decals, such as blood splats or scorch marks disappear gradually instead of just disappearing at an instant.
- The mouse cursor will now react to changes in the mouse sensitivity setting immediately.
Fixes
- Fixed hammeroceros 'run' sound effects.
- Fixed animation graph freeze.
- Fixed resource icons display overlapping.
- Tweaked overrides in towers to fix bugs with multiple towers.
- Fixed cheat_god_mode - now it works every time.
- DestroySystem: fix empty frame between object removal and parts spawn.
- Fixed minigun projectiles (position), also made them cheaper performance-wise.
- SettingsMenuScreen: fixed 'reset to defaults' functionality.
- Fixed planet_surface shader for the Planetary Scanner menu screen.
- Tweaks for the grass (proper materials, more subsurface light). Gives it a more natural look.
- Prevent crash in RiftTeleportStates
- Fixed entering campaign if campaign is disabled. This one's mostly for those of you who like to change things around in the game files or use mods.
- Fix mining not decreasing resources from the vein. Happened from time to time.
- Fix crash when the mech dies while melee attacking.
- Fix crash when floor is being built.
- Fixed Exit Game crashes.
- Insert English localization variable if other language is empty - no more empty strings!
- Energy connectors are still all over the place.
Graphics
The cat is out of the bag. We have partnered with AMD and have been secretly working with them for a long time now to bring you all the best DirectX 12 Ultimate features, including raytracing. You can watch AMD's presentation of their Radeon RX6000 series cards, featuring some exclusive footage from The Riftbreaker with new graphics features enabled. More information will be released on November 12th, with a lengthy feature video about The Riftbreaker's use of the latest AMD technology. Don't miss it!
Audio
- We have started grouping sounds into clusters to achieve a better 'herd stampede' effect and to override the instance limits. Massive hordes of enemy creatures will sound terrifying now.
- Lots of creature noise samples have been changed to give them individual identity and make them instantly recognizable.
- The sound system has also been optimized to have as little impact on the performance as possible.
- Our Granular Synth is finally working properly, which means we will be able to add dynamically changing sounds into the game, such as a Geiger counter.
As you can see, this month has not gone to waste at all! The feature set and stability of The Riftbreaker grow day by day. The work on the Campaign Mode is also well underway, so expect regular updates on that, too. If you would like to receive daily updates on our progress, join our Discord at www.discord.gg/exorstudios. There's a channel dedicated to smaller, more detailed daily changelogs. Also, being active on the Discord can net you access to the limited Alpha test!
Thank you again for your support when I was sick.
See you on the streams!
Piotr 'voidreaver' Bomak
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