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\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