Hello Riftbreakers!
We know that you’re waiting for news regarding the Metal Terror World Expansion. It’s coming next month. We are going to reveal the date once we are 100% sure that we are ready with everything to give you the best possible experience. In the meantime, let’s take a look at some of the new tech that you helped us design during two competitions that we held a couple of months ago.
You know we love explosions and destruction on a massive scale. When the Orbital Bombardment won the first design competition, we were very happy, because it meant that we could create another devastating weapon that you can use to smash your enemies to pieces. In fact, we even made two variants for you to choose from - an Orbital Laser, as well as an actual, explosive bombardment. Let’s start with the former.
It's quite rare to find a stationary target in The Riftbreaker, but when you do, this item will slay.
The principle behind the Orbital Laser is very simple. You point at a location of your choice, press the button, and a powerful laser beam will strike that spot with surgical accuracy. However, in the dynamic world of Galatea 37, there are hardly any immobile targets. Usually, it is either Mr. Riggs chasing the enemies or the other way around. That is why we decided to make the Laser move in a very predictable way - once the Laser strikes, it will move away from Mr. Riggs, opposite the direction he was facing while ordering the strike. This way, you can easily take down enemy artillery, or pave your way through the middle of an alien horde.
This is what the old Orbital Bombardment looked like. Luckily, you prompted us to make changes to it.
The Orbital Bombardment is quite different. You still only have to choose a single spot as a target, but instead of focusing on that point, the Bombardment obliterates everything in a large radius. The affected area, the strength of the projectiles, as well as the number of shells fired go up with each level.
The new and improved bombardment will get rid of most of your problems. And if it doesn't the Laser will.
The Orbital Bombardment benefitted a lot from being accessible to testers on our optional Experimental branch. When we initially shipped the update, the two skills did not differ much from each other - they were essentially the same weapon, just with a different damage type. After a lot of discussions with the community, we came to the conclusion that this skill should be something more powerful. Something that you could compare to an ultimate skill in MOBA games. That is why we increased the damage, explosion radius, number of shells, and the affected area. All of that is offset by a long cooldown, but it will destroy anything in its path.
The Bioscanner Turret does its job quickly and efficiently, leaving you to reap the rewards.
The last community-designed item that made its way into the game with the World Expansion update is the Bioscanner Sentry. This consumable takes care of scanning the world for you. Some players do not enjoy manually scanning all the Galatean species in search of samples for the database. With the Sentry, you can just set it up and forget it ever existed, while more knowledge drips into your database. It is well worth it, as gaining familiarity levels gives Mr. Riggs permanent bonuses!
This is not the final form of all these items. They are likely to undergo further changes as more feedback rolls in. If you’d like to check these items out, along with other changes, then join our experimental branch. You can find the instructions in the previous article.
We also would like to know what kind of other things you would like us to introduce. We have already held a vote on a 'random encounter'. What else would you like to have an immediate influence on? More weapons? More items? New creatures? Side missions? Or something else entirely? Let us know! Slowly, but surely we will introduce your ideas into the game.
EXOR Studios