Custom Campaign Difficulty and Modding Tools Update

Hello Riftbreakers!

It is time for another update for The Riftbreaker and it is by far the most significant one to this day. With this patch in place, you will be able to adjust the Custom Difficulty settings for The Riftbreaker Campaign Mode and play it exactly the way you want. The patch also introduces some Quality of Life fixes, balancing changes, and improvements that have been suggested by you either here on Steam or on our Discord - www.discord.gg/exorstudios.

Along with the update we are also releasing The Riftbreaker Editing Tools. We have used these tools to create The Riftbreaker and have been using them on a daily basis. As we've grown used to them and some of their shortcomings, we are aware that we may no longer see some of the issues that reside within, or we have learned to work around them without having to spend any time to fix them. Our initial goal was to put them into your hands as soon as possible, to start an open discussion about what works and what doesn't, and what the areas that you would like to see improved the most are. We've already received a lot of feedback for the tools during this update's experimental phase and we'll be addressing them gradually as we move forward with development.

Thus, we have completed the first item on our roadmap. Our focus will now shift towards developing the World Expansion Update 1, nonetheless we will continuously deliver additional stability and quality of life improvements before it is ready. Modding tools will be getting their updates on a separate schedule.

Here is the updated roadmap:

The Riftbreaker Campaign and Modding Update, Binaries #489, Package #91

NEW FEATURES

• The Campaign mode can now be played using the Custom Difficulty setting. You can adjust the parameters of your Campaign, such as resource density, creature damage, and the size of waves, similar to what you could do previously in the Survival Mode. You can modify the following parameters:
  • Enemy damage factor - (from 1% to 500%) - Determines how much damage a creature deals in combat (this only affects damage vs Mr. Riggs). For example: if a creature deals 100 damage per attack, and the multiplier is set to 50%, it will deal 50 damage instead.
  • Resource volume factor - (from 1% to 500%) - Determines how much resources the game will distribute in the resource deposits scattered across the map. 100% is the default value. Everything below 100% will mean that you will get less resources on your map. Everything above 100% will increase the size of the available deposits.
  • Research cost - (from 1% to 500%) - Determines the time necessary to carry out research. Values below 100% decrease the time, above 500% on the other hand increase it.
  • Building cost - (from 1% to 500%) - Affects the cost of most buildings in the game. At 1% they are almost free, while at 500% you will have to save up for every solar panel. The exceptions are the Headquarters and Solid Material Storage - their costs always remain the same.
  • Building time multiplier - (from 1% to 500%) - Affects the length of the building process. Values below 100% make it quicker than usual, while above 100% - longer than usual.
  • Items dropped after death - (from 0 to 6) - Determines the maximum number of weapons Mr. Riggs can drop after being destroyed.
  • Attacks per wave multiplier - (from 1 to 5) - Determines how many attack waves will attack you. The default is 1. When set to 2 or higher, the number of attacks will get multiplied. Warning - high numbers of creatures come at a performance cost!
  • Gravity scale - (from 1% to 500%) - This option affects how gravity works on physical objects. When set to lower than 100% all objects will appear lighter and fall down to the ground more slowly. It might make collecting some loot more difficult. Values higher than 100% make everything appear heavier.
  • Time to prepare for an attack - (from 50% to 500%) - This option affects how much time you will get to prepare once you receive the warning about an incoming attack. At the default value - 100% - it will be 2 minutes.
  • Time between attack waves - (from 50% to 300%) - This affects the hidden timer that counts down between unscripted attacks on your base. The default is 100%. If you wish to get attacked more often, select 50%. If you want longer periods of peace and tranquility, increase the value.
  • Enable negative events - (on/off) - This option enables or disables the negative weather events, such as acid rain, tornado or hailstorms.
  • Time of day mode - (continuous/only day/only night) - Allows you to enable or disable the day and night system and lock the game to perpetual night or day.
  • Sandbox control panel - (on/off) - Enables or disables the hidden sandbox control panel that you can access by pressing the F11 key. It contains lots of debug options that you can experiment with.
  • Enemy wave strength - (easy/normal/hard/brutal) - determines the strength of enemy waves that will attack your base.

• All buildings now work while they are being upgraded. You're welcome.
  
• All keys are now rebindable in the Customize Controls menu screen. We added the following actions to the bindings list:
  • [gamepad] select building
  • [gamepad] build mode switch category
  • [gamepad] build mode select]
  • build standard floor
  • build extra stable floor
  • build acid-resistant floor
  • build max level
  • build basic lamp
  • quick save
  • quick load
  • journal

• Players can now repair walls using the click-and-drag building system when the wall is selected from the building menu. This allows you to quickly rebuild the wall pieces that have been lost while also repairing the remaining ones at the same time.

• Added an up/down gamepad D-pad shortcut for the Research Screen that allows you to move research items within the research queue.
  
• All Headquarters building levels now have their own custom models. Level indicators were removed from the Headquarters building.

• Mr. Riggs will no longer take damage during the sunburn event when the mech is hidden in shadows.

• Rare Element Mine now has different models for all building levels.

• A blinking 'Storage Full' icon appears in the top-right corner of the screen when you run out of storage capacity. The icon will blink only ten times and then disappear.

• Implemented seasonal events. During holiday seasons you will get the option to use modified models for some objects in the game. It is a purely cosmetic change. You will be asked whether you want to enable this setting the first time you launch the game during a holiday season. It can be changed at any time in the options menu. We'll share more details and secret codes for two new Mr Riggs skins in the next news update!
  
• Ghost 2x2 buildings will now snap to the middle of the grid instead of the bottom left grid. This should improve your feel for their placement and make it less probable to misplace a building
  
• Added formatting for displaying values equal to or larger than one billion.
  
• Added 'Restore to Default' button to the Custom Difficulty settings screen.
  
• Added key 190 - "." - to use in the Customize Controls screen.
  
• [Modding] Commands.lua: Added cheat_destroy_entities_by_type type, for dealing a lot of damage to entities
  
• [Modding] Added EnvironmentService:RemoveResistance( Exor::Entity id, Exor::String type, Exor::String name );
  

CHANGES

• Changed the building floor mechanic to be more immediate and easier to read.
• Changed the dissolve pattern on floors while selling them.
• Building time in floor increased to match the new building mechanic.
• Optimized resource consumption in powerplants by adding high priority to resource converters. - Power plants utilizing liquids will no longer turn off before power plants that burn off fuel such as carbonium, plant or animal biomass, or uranium.
• All Stregaros strains will now count towards the 'Find the unusual creature' objective.
• Reduced damage values for Spears of all quality levels - their damage output proved to be problematic in conjunction with high range and the slowing effect.
• Changed ammunition display - the game will now show you the number of shots left instead of ammo units. For example: if your weapon consumes 10 ammo per shot and your maximum capacity for that ammo is 100, the game will display 10/10 and go down by one after you shoot.
• Ammo display changed for continuous weapons (ex. the flamer) - the ammo display updates more frequently now.
• Resource-depleted announcements will be less frequent now.
• Save file opening method has been changed to a more stubborn one - the game will now try to open a file several times before declaring surrender.
• Resource display on HUD is smoother now. We refresh the display every second but gather values over 5 seconds to take an average. This will prevent your balance display from blinking between positive and negative values.
• Information about saving the game is now displayed 3 seconds ahead of time to prepare the player for it.
• Changed the default autosave interval to 10 minutes from 5 minutes
• Enabled the Carnicynth species in the discoverable system to prevent warning messages when playing with cheat_full_bestiary enabled.
• Added a small delay for 'working' state effects in power plants. This allows us to prevent the annoying 'blinking' effect when your power capacity is near maximum or if the plant has insufficient fuel.
• The 'Send Feedback' option in the menu now has a bigger text box, supporting longer messages. Please keep that feedback coming - we really do read all your comments!
• 'Storage Full' icon was replaced with the 'Research' icon on the Alien Research Laboratory building. The icon appears when the Laboratory is idle.
• Less building cube effects will now spawn when building long walls to improve performance.
• Added the upgrade popup warning to all HQ upgrade levels instead of only the first one.
• Disabled HQ upgrading using the upgrade tool to prevent upgrading it by mistake.
• The 'sell outpost' popup will no longer incorrectly display information about AI cores to be transferred to the HQ.
• Mr. Riggs' model will no longer blink when it resists damage.
• Building Time Multiplier option in the Custom Difficulty menu does not affect the HQ building time.
• Added a new explosion effect for the Cryogenic Mine.
• Randomized loot removed from buildings - changed to an automatic system that drops 10% of the building's cost upon destruction.
• Range circle added to Short Range Radar ghost while building.
• Less expensive and less intrusive time damage effects on enemies.
• Smaller debris explosion force for magmoth - less clutter on screen.
• Rotated the model and increased the polycount on arachnoid_boss_projectile.
• Added proper magmoth boss projectile textures.
• Updated magmoth projectile materials to use unique textures.
• Changed hedroner alpha projectile to fit the creature model.
• The player now starts survival mode with full SMG ammunition 320/320 (courtesy of SenorRagequit)

FIXES

• Fixed game flow being stuck in the desert_scout mission if the base Stregaros species would not spawn and only alpha or ultra variants were present.
• Fixed Tower Ammo Factories turning on after the player uses a consumable. This bug could potentially result in huge resource drainage if the player had plenty of Tower Ammo Factories built.
• Upgrading the Headquarters no longer blocks you from building other structures.
• Fixed an error that prevented some players from activating the Rift Station in the final sequence. The game logic doesn't check the timer now, but the state of the station, making the flow more robust.
• Building limit for Headquarters is now separate from Outposts. This fixes the issue where a player could not rebuild their Headquarters if they already had 7 Outposts built elsewhere.
• Fixed an error that prevented players from respawning on a side mission after their outpost got destroyed, potentially blocking progress.
• Fixed a bug that caused players to get stuck in permanent invisibility while using Alien Camouflage and building shortcuts.
• The Maintenance Tools upgrade will no longer decrease AI core resource requirements for AI-powered buildings.
• Fixed an error that prevented users from building the maximum level building due to running against the building cap.
• Fixed a crash that happened when a building was trying to display a missing icon.
• Fixed the Arachnoid Boss ranged attack. Visually, it looked as if the creature shot five projectiles, but in reality, it was twice as many. Now, there are five physical projectiles.
• Fixed muzzle attachment position in Laser.
• Slightly reduced the effectiveness of Reflective Armor.
• Fixed textures for one of the tree types that prevented them from swaying in the wind.
• All ground types that deal damage to the player should now do so correctly.
• Fixed an error that caused the timer to display an incorrect value while harvesting the Bioanomalies.
• 'Not enough ammunition for defensive towers' announcement will no longer play when buildings are missing energy or AI cores.
• Fixes for inaccurate hitboxes on the Customize Controls menu screen.
• Fixed constructor in logic_set_global_variable.lua to prevent memory corruption issues.
• Fixed errors in journal paging with filters enabled. Previously it was possible to skip some entries while changing the page due to an error. All information will be displayed correctly now.
• Moved graphics synchronize update after end frame sync point in GameplayExecutor to avoid memory corruption issues.
• Fixed an issue that prevented dialogues related to underground mushrooms from triggering.
• Fixed the disassembly popup when selling buildings from an outpost - it will now correctly stretch according to the number of buildings being sold.
• Fixed elemental dash effects blocking damage from other sources.
• Fixed research information disappearing while upgrading your Communications Hub.
• 'No research selected' announcement will no longer play immediately after completing the construction of the Communications Hub.
• Fixed the 'sell outpost' popup background scaling.
• Fixed the Headquarters upgrade display error that caused the building limit to blink red while upgrading.
• Fixed a problem with the auto aim feature on the Floating Mines that caused the mines to spawn sideways.
• Fix categories sorting in the inventory screen - categories are always in the same order
• Additional fixes for problems that prevented users from activating the portal in the endgame sequence.
• Fixed a problem that prevented the Fusion Power Plant from producing plasma when the energy storage was full.
• Fixed incorrect radius display in Attack Drone Tower.
• Fixed range display in Cultivator and Collector (ghost level 2 and 3).
• Fixed bioscanner collision problems that sometimes prevented users from scanning objects.
• Fixed death_att orientation and position in all enemies.
• Fixed time damage effect scale in enemies - some are bigger, some are smaller.
• Effect inheritance added to the Phirian species.
• Fixed multiple smaller bugs and problems.

GRAPHICS

• Added a special shader for animated quicksand, as well as liquid resources - mud, water, and sludge.
• Added new models for projectiles shot by Hedroner, Arachnoid Boss, Magmoth, and Corrosive Gun. New particle effects have been added to their attacks to properly align with physical projectiles.
• The dash attack effects for Phirian have been improved.
• Improved weather effects for the Super Moon event. The lights, fog, and particles should be more visible now.
• Gravity Grenade icon updated to resemble the in-game model.
• Proximity Mine icon simplified.
• Desert levels loading screens have been altered - the crystals on the artwork now match the color of the crystals found in-game.
• Added a highlight for the crafting button when selected.

MODDING SUPPORT AND TOOLS

The Editing Tools are separated from The Riftbreaker main release version. In order to download them, go to your Steam library, check the 'Tools' checkbox in the list on top, then find and install The Riftbreaker Tools. If you are not a Steam user, the tools are also available on our official GitHub page, right here: https://github.com/exorstudios/riftbreaker-tools/releases/tag/0.0.4884

We have also created a series of videos that will teach you the basic aspects of working with our editors. You can find it right here:

WorkSpace Editor - This is a new tool that we've created specifically for modding. We recommend that you launch it first. It will allow you to create a new workspace for your Mod. All of the other tools will use this workspace and save all of the files that you create within that directory tree. This will additionally allow you to simply zip that single folder and distribute the zip as your mod.

Level Editor - This tool is used to create new entirely custom maps as well as tiles and prefabs for randomly generated levels.

Mission Editor - This tool is used to create and edit custom mission logic. It's a bit complicated, so until we create some instructions, we encourage you to first browse the .logic files that already govern the game.

Riftbreaker Data Editor - This is our swiss army knife for editing various game data - Weapons, Mods, Loot, Crafting, and Research.

You will probably soon be asking - when is Steam Workshop coming? - we are already evaluating the best way to distribute mods and we'll let you know as soon as we have some details to share.

Thank you,
EXOR Studios