Heart of the Swamp DLC is now live!

Hello Riftbreakers!

We are very pleased to announce that the new The Riftbreaker: Heart of the Swamp DLC is now live!

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

Heart of the Swamp is the third World Expansion for The Riftbreaker. In this brand-new Story Campaign branch, our heroes must venture into the Fungal Swamp - an extremely rich and diverse ecosystem centered around The Great Mushroom Tree. Unfortunately, the balance of this beautiful biome is in danger. Parasitic species are wreaking havoc across the land. Ashley takes it upon herself to restore balance to the Fungal Swamp.

World Expansion Contents

The World Expansion Update has two components; a huge free content update and a story-driven paid DLC - The Riftbreaker: Heart of the Swamp. Here is a short summary of what both of them include:

The World Expansion III free content update:

• Fungal Swamp biome - a complex ecosystem localized in a vast river delta. The warm temperatures and high humidity make it a perfect place for mushroom growth.
• Two new Survival Mode scenarios taking place in the new biome. Fungal Forest map is a classic Riftbreaker Survival experience - you explore the map, fight for resources, and build a sprawling base. The second scenario, Fungal Swamp, takes place on a flooded map with limited building space and limited resources, encouraging changes in your approach to gameplay.
• New gameplay mechanics: build new, specialized buildings and defensive towers on water, cross pipelines with two different liquids using pipeline junctions, and feed a special neutral creature - Poogret - for gameplay rewards.
• Multiple new species of creatures, unlike anything you’ve seen before. Fight hordes of fearsome monsters lurking around every corner.
• More than 70 new research items and technologies to further enhance your base and Mr. Riggs’ abilities.
• New weapons and defensive towers. Build powerful weapons that will obliterate anyone threatening your base. That includes brand-new, massive, community-inspired 3x3 defensive towers with insane firepower - straight from the Feature Suggestion board’s 5th spot.
• Numerous quality-of-life improvements, performance optimizations, and balancing changes.

The Riftbreaker: Heart of the Swamp paid DLC:

• Experience an exciting new branch of the Story Campaign taking place in the Fungal Swamp biome.
• Investigate the massive Great Mushroom Tree - a 100-meter-tall fruit body of a massive fungus that looms over the entire biome.
• Expand your Campaign Mode technology tree by researching unique technologies that can only be acquired in this biome.
• Collect information on new creatures, vegetation, and other curiosities found only in this environment.
• Bring the Great Mushroom Tree back to its former glory by helping it get rid of the parasites that seem to be swarming it.
• Adapt your base-building methods to make the most out of the limited building space in the flooded Swamp.
• Face fearsome enemies that will test your skills in all kinds of combat.
• The Story portion of this Expansion is integrated with the Main Campaign from the base edition of The Riftbreaker. The new branch and the contents of the expansion will unlock as you progress through the game. If you have previously completed The Riftbreaker Story Campaign, you can continue your adventure where you left off. The additional part of the Story will unlock immediately, allowing you to explore the new part of the world.

We want to give everyone something new with this update. All players will gain access to the new content in Survival Mode and Sandbox Mode. Everyone will also be able to utilize the new assets in the Riftbreaker Editor Suite to create custom maps and campaigns. Purchasing the Expansion will in turn allow players to play through the new portion of the Story Campaign and make use of the new technologies in the Campaign Mode.

The Riftbreaker: World Expansion III Changelog:

FEATURES:

• Two New Survival Mode missions. Try your skills in the classic, land-based Fungal Forest map, or take on a new challenge in the flooded Fungal Swamp.

  NEW CREATURES:

• Invigor. They will spring up from the ground if prey gets close and bash it with a powerful melee attack.
• Carnicynth. Usually disguised as harmless bushes. However, if a suitable target comes close, the Carnicynth will reveal its maw, which shoots venomous projectiles.
• Artigian. It attacks its targets from a distance by hurling large, explosive projectiles formed within its massive pitcher-like maw.
• Stickrid. If threatened, it will keep its distance and try to attack the target with an acid projectile.
• Plutrodon. They attack their targets from a distance with razor-sharp spikes that come up from the ground.
• Fungor. These behemoths are quite slow, but they make up for that with their sheer physical strength. They hit like a truck and can make quick work of defensive structures.
• Mudroner. They can attack their targets both from a distance and in melee range. When severely wounded, they will try to reposition themselves behind the aggressor.
• Drexolian. Capable of fighting from a distance and in melee range. They are quite slow but can limit your mobility by raising temporary barriers straight from beneath the ground.
• Canceroth. At first, it looks like a colony of some sort. The colony moves as one, with the central cell controlling the entire group's behavior, rolling over the planet's surface with no regard for anything on its way
• Poogret. This large, neutral creature spends its days traveling across the Fungal Forest biome looking for the fruit of the Garlimonium plant. Poogrets are known to leave behind piles of waste filled with unrefined minerals.
• Parabian. It's a nasty parasite that has a natural affinity towards certain fungus species of Galatea 37.
• Darnot. A neutral flying creature. It resembles a very large moth. It flies around the Fungal Forest biome, pollinating the local flora and collecting nectar and small fruit from plants.
• Lurkid - a small, neutral creature that crawls around the Swamp. It feels comfortable both on the ground and in water.
• Spawning Mound It is used by multiple species of nesting creatures within the Fungal Swamp biome as a home structure. What makes it dangerous is a giant acid-spitting maw located at the very top.
• Gnerot Bosses now appear in previously missing versions: Acid, Energy, and Cryo.They all have damage resistances set to their corresponding elements and deal damage of different types.

  NEW BUILDINGS:

• Floating Immolator Tower. It uses liquid ammunition to shoot small fireblasts at the targets within its range. It can only be placed on liquid surfaces. However, the tower does not require any additional power source.
• Floating Piercer Tower. It is one of the most powerful weapons in The Riftbreaker arsenal. Like the Immolator Tower, it must be placed on water, but it doesn’t require anything but ammunition to operate.
• Power Rod Tower.It launches power rods straight into the air. The rods maneuver mid-air to land in the designated zone. When they do, they deal massive impact damage to everything in the vicinity.
• Heavy Cluster Missile Launcher. It is a missile silo that shoots rockets filled with cluster bombs straight into the air, allowing the missile to avoid any terrain obstacles. The missile explodes mid-air, leaving cluster bombs free to carpet bomb a very large area.
• Shotgun Tower. It utilizes Large Caliber Tower Ammo to shoot volleys of projectiles at incoming targets. Its relatively short range is offset by the high firepower and fire rate.
• Gas Extractor. When the Gas Extractor is placed on top of a Flammable Gas Vent a vent, it collects all the gas escaping from beneath the ground and transports it through pipes for further use.
• Bio-Condenser. It will extract the organic matter from mud pools to create a concentrate, which is later mixed with water. The result is organic sludge that can be later processed into flammable gas.
• Pipe Junction. The number two most requested feature. Build this to allow two pipelines with different liquids to cross each other and not mix up.
• Vine Walls. When you come close to this wall, it will automatically lower itself beneath the ground, allowing you to shoot straight through it. These walls also have self-regenerating capabilities, meaning there is no need to repair them manually if not completely destroyed.
• Grass Floor. Unleash your inner gardener and turn your base into a garden with this perfectly-trimmed lawn.
• Roots Floor. Turn your base into a little piece of a forest with this new floor design.

  NEW ITEMS AND WEAPONS:

• Gravity Modulator. It allows you to carry interactive objects from one place to another using your Mech’s arms. The use of this item is contextual - you don’t have to craft it or equip it.
• Mortar Gun. It’s a variation of a Grenade Launcher that shoots explosive projectiles at an even higher arc, allowing you to overcome terrain obstacles more easily. Mortar projectiles deal cryo damage and slow enemies.
• Repeater Rifle. This weapon uses Large Caliber Ammo. It is capable of very quick fire rates, limited only by your ability to pull the trigger. If you prefer a salvo instead of continuous fire, try the charged shot mode, which shoots a volley of bullets.
• Trident. It is a long-range melee weapon that attacks like a spear at first but then is separated into three damage-dealing spikes. It is effective against both individual and groups of creatures, thanks to its high fire rate and significant damage output.
• Root Gun. It shoots a column of spikes that deal damage to all targets along the way. It’s as if the gun had infinite piercing! Perfect for reaching targets in the back of a group, while also dealing with the enemies up front.
• Flame Blade. It is a large, bladed melee weapon with a medium attack speed. Additioanlly, when you attack, a wave of flames bursts out in front of you, setting everything in front of you ablaze.
• Wasp Launcher. New research conducted in the Fungal Forest biome allowed Ashely to construct a weapon that works like a portable hive of angry, explosive bees.
• Gas Grenade. It explodes into a cloud of toxic gas in a large area, dealing acid damage to enemies.
• Drone Swarm. This consumable item allows you to call in a couple of drones to aid you in battle.
• Charged Bomb. The technology known from the Portal Bomb Tower, now (literally) in your hands. Aim at the place you want to raze to the ground, charge your weapon, and release the trigger. An armed explosive will be teleported to the chosen location.
• Mortar Sentry. This consumable sentry turret lobs explosive projectiles at the enemies in range for as long as the battery allows it to operate.
• Power Wells. These mysterious objects will grant Mr. Riggs powerful ability boosts when activated. They last only for a short time, but can completely turn the tide of battle in your favor.

  WEATHER EVENTS AND MORE:

• More Lootables on the Map. When you start a new Campaign Mode run or a Survival run, you will find a lot of small objects similar to Bioanomalies scattered across the map. It might be worth checking them out - you never know where you can find resources.
• Dynamic World Size. The map area can now expand as your missions progress. You may experience this in certain moments of the World Expansion III additional Story Campaign branch. However, modders may use this feature as well when creating their custom maps and missions.
• New Resource: Fungal Resin. It can be obtained by attaching a pipe to one of the resin trees growing around the Fungal Forest biome. Resin can be used as a substitute for plasma.
• Firestorm. This causes the wind to pick up significantly. Spontaneous fires start consuming flammable objects around the map and spread uncontrollably. Unfortunate, if you wanted to harvest plant biomass, but great if you relied on wind turbines.
• Fireflies. Thousands of little, bioluminescent insects spark up in the night, flying around for you to marvel at.
• Blooming Air. The air becomes thick with spores released by various plants and mushrooms around the swamp. It reduces solar and wind power production but makes all plants around the biome regrow much more quickly.
• Monsoon. Massive rainfall, accompanied by very strong wind. Not as flashy as a thunderstorm but equally powerful.
• Fire and Acid Tornadoes. Even more devastating than regular tornadoes you have been experiencing on Galatea 37 up to this point. On the bright side - they look quite cool.
• New Skins for Mr. Riggs. In this Expansion we bring you a couple of our own designs, as well as skins submitted to the Skin Design Contest a couple of months ago. Here’s the original winners announcement!
• New Soundtrack. Enjoy almost 30 minutes of original soundscapes composed by Marcin Pukaluk. The new tunes accompanying the biome feature ethnic instrumentations and wild rhythms you won’t hear anywhere else on Galatea 37.

CHANGES:

• Increased the maximum number of outposts in the Campaign Mode from 10 to 12.
• Non-raytraced shadow mapping has been refactored to enable multiple shadow-casting lights without raytracing. Thanks to this improvement, we were able to add shadow casting capabilities to additional scene elements like Power Wells, player skills, high-powered projectiles and more. The overal quality and performance of traditional non-raytraced shadow mapping has been significantly improved. The maximum number of shadow casting lights is currently determined by the Shadow Quality setting.
• Creature damage resistance behavior has been changed. The maximum damage resistance for a creature of any type is now 90%. This means that creatures like Gnerots will now suffer a minuscule amount of physical damage when attacked with a small machine gun, for example. However, you will still see the ‘RESISTED’ message appear to let you know that what you’re doing is not very effective.
• We changed the appearance and behavior of danger markers, which appear when you’re targeted by enemy artillery or other dangerous, time-delayed attacks. The markers are now much more visible and give you a proper chance to defend yourself.
• The Automated Resource Gathering buildings have had their building speeds and costs changed, since the previous values have been too low. The drones have been buffed to match the new cost.
• Lightning Towers now have a significant energy upkeep cost, replacing the previous placeholder value. This change has been made to make them more in line with other energy-based towers.
• The Swarm Missile Launcher has been exhumed from the grave we put it in the last time. The missiles are much stronger, and the shooting pattern has been changed to increase the overall DPS. Firing accuracy also depends on firing time i.e. the first missile flies almost straight and the more you shoot the aiming spread becomes wider.
• Minigun fire rate has been reduced to make its firepower more in line with the other weapons, especially at the extreme quality level.
• Orbital Laser and Orbital Bombardment now have a slight delay between activating the skill and the beginning of the actual attack. Attack delay markers are also visible on the ground before the attack begins. For Liberty.
• The maximum amount of damage reflection for boss creatures has been reduced from 20% to 10%, so that they don’t die to their own attacks so easily.
• Flashing effect during thunderstorm has been reduced.
• Reworked Shegret attacks. Now you will actually be able to see a Shegret Alpha and a Shegret Ultra in the game! The attacks have three difficulty levels that are chosen dynamically depending on the moment of the game you’re in.
• Similarly, we’ve added three tiers of Kermon and Phirian surprise attacks that might happen in between regular attack waves.
• The weapons display in the inventory has been reworked. Weapon stats now always appear in the same spot on the list. The list itself should be a lot more legible now.
• Added grouping to weapon mods. Mods from the same category will now be grouped on the list of available mods, which will save you from scrolling a hundred miles.
• Changed the weapon mod design: “X Stat Enabled” mods no longer exist. This means that if you want to add piercing to a weapon that didn’t have this stat before, you no longer need to install a “Piercing enabled” mod, and then another piercing mod on top of that. Just one mod will do the job. This way you can create more fun and powerful combinations of mods.
• Main Menu has been reworked to accommodate more options. Let us know how you like the sleek modern design!
• Liquid Rendering overhaul. Thanks to Tiled Deferred Rendering upgrade, we finally have support for transparent materials in The Schmetterling Engine. It allowed us to develop a completely new liquid simulation model with transparency, waves, light shafts, and all sorts of bells and whistles! We’ve written an article about it, and you can check it out here.
• Mudroner material upgrade. Mudroners and Hedroners of all strains have received a visual upgrade - the liquid they are covered with now flows down their backs like in real life.
• GUI refactoring and upgrade. Over the years, we have added layers upon layers of new code into our GUI system, making it almost impossible to work with. We decided to rewrite the entire thing from scratch to despaghettify (this is professional terminology) our GUI and allow us to introduce some changes and updates. This rework will allow us to add new screens more easily and make the current ones more functional. Since we reworked all buttons, sliders, pop-up windows, graphs, and text boxes, we need some feedback. If you find any errors, let us know. Fixing things will be much easier with our new, clean code-base.
• We’ve introduced major performance optimizations. Initially, we did that to improve the multiplayer experience. However, it turned out that the optimizations we found also benefit the performance when running the game solo. You should see an improvement in performance in most scenarios with this update. For more details, read this article.
• Online multiplayer framework changes. We have introduced thousands of code changes, making multiplayer more stable, more playable, and much closer to where we want it to be. We hope to share the results with you soon, but know that the majority of the game’s code base is now adapted to support online play. You can read more about this in our series of coop development articles.
• Updated creature and item placement for all survival mode missions. Adding the new, smaller Bioanomalies and Power Wells required us to change the placement of in-game curios a little bit. We made sure that you will find something interesting on each of the map tiles, but beware - there are some dangerous creatures guarding these secrets!
• New biome tiles. We have added more diverse map tiles to all the biomes from the original release of the game - Jungle, Acid, Desert and Magma. The number of tiles is now on par with those for the World Expansion biomes. This will result in more variability in map generation.
• Changed plasma chain bulding costs in survival mode. Fusion power and Shield Generators were not a feasible strategy with their old cost. The new costs should make them a more viable option. Additionally, Fusion Power is unlocked by default in the Fungal Swamp biome.
• Various creatures have been given the ability to traverse mud and other liquids. Apart from the native creatures of the biome, you will also encounter Baxmoths, Phirians, and Nurglaxes in the Fungal Swamp. This ability will allow them to actually reach your base and be a feasible threat.
• Baxmoth balancing changes. The drone’s projectile speed and splash damage have been reduced. This makes them significantly easier to dodge. However, Alpha and Ultra strains now have improved drones that deal more damage. This way, the creature is still deadly for stationary targets, but not unavoidable by the player.
• More environmental sounds. We have added ambient sounds playing in the background in various spots on our map tiles. These are subtle sounds - for example, water dripping from the cave walls, crickets chirping, or birds singing. The world will feel more alive thanks to this.
• Introduced changes to the research tree - it uses the old, three-tab layout, but it can now be scrolled and zoomed.

FIXES:

• Fixed shockwave explosion splash damage falloff.
• Fixed memory leaks caused by some particle effects.
• Fixed artillery projectile properties.
• Fixed Ionizer text description.
• Gravity Grenades no longer deal damage to friendly targets.
• Fixed problems with fog on DirectX 11.
• Fixed memory leaks in TimeDamageSystem.
• Fixed memory leaks in DecalSystem.
• Fixed issues with Mr. Riggs movement on slopes.
• Fixed the math formula for DPS calculations.
• Fixed problems with Caverns Sonic Grenades mission.
• Fixed problems with the ‘Find Tanzanite’ mission - for real this time.
• Fixed problems with skinning on Crystal Gun and Heavy Plasma Gun.
• Fixed the Wingmite spawn problem in the last Survival Attack wave. The game spawns 50 Wingmites 2 times now, not 2 Wingmites 50 times.
• Fixed problems with recharging traps using the repair tool.
• Fixed wave announcements and difficulty levels for units spawned from Nests.
• Fixed crash on resuming sound source that already finished playback.
• Fixed objective progress problems in Campaign Mode.
• Fixed a crash in the Sound System on game shutdown.
• Fixed Necrodon behavior when running away from danger.
• Fixed the ‘Take away all ammo’ stream event.
• Fixed the Ion Storm bug that allowed players to get rid of map interference by opening and closing the map.
• Fixed wrong level icons in Acid Spitters.
• Fixed upgrade tool calculating cost taking building during an upgrade.
• Fixed vegetation lifecycle getting blocked after a plant is burned down.
• Fixed a crash on load in TerrainAffectorSystem.
• Fixed the cost of Plasma Converter Level 3 (it used to be the same as level 2).
• Fixed emissive textures not working on gun barrels.
• Fixed description order in the building info window - all stats now appear in the same order in all cases.
• Fixed ‘Acid Find New Resource’ mission main objective timer.
• Fixed minimap zone display error in Metallic Valley ‘Investigate the Crater’ mission.
• Fixed decal alpha blending.
• Fixed a crash in the Sandbox Menu Panel when spawning Magmoths.
• Fixed the Caverns entrance objective marker positions across multiple missions.
• Fixed missing progression dialogue in Caverns Exploration mission.
• Fixed multiple building collision sizes to prevent mech clipping.
• Fixed cooldown categories in multiple consumable items.
• Fixed a problem with Arachnoid Sentinels not firing their projectiles.
• Fixed a problem with melee units not attacking buildings effectively.
• Fixed Loot Drones ignoring mods on the ground.
• Fixed an issue with lamps not turning on after loading the game.
• Fixed a crash when trying to launch the game in safe mode.
• Fixed weapons aiming angle after dropping a weapons when the player is killed.
• Numerous fixes and optimizations to the pipes system. Compressors and Decompressors should work properly now.
• Fixed a bug that caused the minimap interference to disappear after opening the large map during the ion storm event.
• Fixed status icons missing from buildings.
• Research Screen: fixed 'Build a Comm Hub' message visibility.
• Build menu: fixed upgrades 'prev page' and 'next page' buttons visibility after use.
• Way more fixes we would love to include in the changelog, but we ran into the Steam announcement character limit.

As always, we will be carefully monitoring our Discord at www.discord.gg/exorstudios, the Steam forums, and all our other channels for your feedback and suggestions. Make sure to let us know if you encounter any problems or if you have suggestions on how to improve things.

We would love to tell you more about our plans for the future and give you our roadmap update, but this article is probably already too long. Please give us a week or two to come off the 'release mode' and back to our normal selves (as much as that's possible). We will then give you a detailed update on what's happening at the studio, where we're headed with The Riftbreaker, and, of course, how co-op mode is doing.

Have a pleasant time exploring the Fungal Swamp!
EXOR Studios