Hello Riftbreakers!
In our Closed Beta Progress Update article last week, we discussed the communication options for The Riftbreaker's multiplayer mode and what improvements we need to make. While we believe that most players will use voice comms during online play, we don’t want to leave anyone without the means to coordinate their efforts with their team. This is why the Co-Op mode of The Riftbreaker will feature both an in-game chat and a “ping wheel.” On the surface, these two might seem like pretty simple tools. However, designing them requires careful consideration and deliberate design. We value your input immensely, and today, we will talk about the design process behind these devices and how your feedback is not just important but integral to what they look like in their final form.
The current, barebones implementation of the chat. It needs a lot of improvements and added features, but it works - for now.
Let’s start with the text chat. Its current implementation is straightforward. Press ‘enter’ to bring up the chat box, type in your message, and press ‘enter’ once more to broadcast your message to all players on the server. The message is accompanied by your nickname so everyone knows who they’re talking to. The message disappears after a couple of seconds. That sounds simple enough. What could go wrong here? As it turns out, quite a lot of things!
The building menu overlapping the chat box is just the tip of the iceberg. If you miss the message, it's gone forever, which isn't good, either.
The first problem is the placement of the chat box. Currently, the messages are displayed right where your building menu would go. If you’re building simultaneously as someone sends a message, it is easy to miss it. Furthermore, we currently have no chat history, so you cannot see what they typed if you miss the message. To solve these problems, we plan to move the chat window to the middle-left portion of the screen, right above the weapons HUD and below the objectives list. This new location ensures that the chat window is always visible, even when you're building, and the chat history feature will allow you to catch up on previous messages by scrolling the window with your mouse wheel if the chat box is open.
Our playtesters suggested moving the chat to the side. This is a mockup of what it could look like. However, the space on the left of the screen is occupied by building information tooltips. The right side of the screen might be a better choice. Luckily, nothing is set in stone at this point, and we will make improvements based on your feedback until the very end.
Now, let’s talk about the ping wheel. It is a well-established feature of online games that allows players to send out short phrases and mark objects of interest with a short series of button presses or gestures. This solution works very well in games ranging from first-person shooters to strategy. We decided to implement it in The Riftbreaker as well since it is a great tool regardless of whether you are on voice comms or not. Allowing players to pinpoint an exact location on the map that requires attention is very valuable in the heat of battle. In our case, when you use the ping wheel, your current location is marked on the minimap, and a message is displayed to all players on the server.
This is a very early mock-up of what the D-pad ping wheel would function like. We scratched that idea thanks to the improvements in our GUI model.
We’re usually reluctant to add new user interface elements. Programming GUI elements has always been difficult in the Schmetterling Engine. Usually, we try to reuse as many parts of the interface as possible, which is not possible here. Additionally, we needed to make the ping wheel functional for both keyboard + mouse players and gamepad users. Our first design utilized the keyboard's up/down/right/left movement buttons or the directional keys on a pad. A player would bring up the ping wheel using a dedicated button. Then, players could send messages with a single or double press of a directional key. This seemed simple enough to implement but felt clunky compared to modern titles with similar features.
Luckily, as we were refactoring most of the game’s engine in preparation for the co-op gameplay tests, we also worked on the GUI. We streamlined the entire user interface framework, making it easier to change existing elements and add new ones without a headache. This allowed us to move away from the clunky button-pressing to the sleek and modern radial menu. For now, it is usable only with the mouse controls, but eventually, we will allow players on gamepads to choose the command they want by just pointing one of the analog sticks in the right direction.
The current implementation of the ping wheel. It is adorned with placeholder 'programmer art' and fancy, wrap-around text that is impossible to read. We will improve on those! Welcome to the 21st century.
As we moved away from the D-pad idea to the analog stick, we needed to introduce changes in the layout. It was necessary since we wanted to fit eight phrases on the wheel instead of four, and we didn’t want players to hit the division line between phrases if they swung the stick in one of the cardinal directions. After shifting the wheel around a couple of degrees, you can send a ping by moving your cursor straight up, for example, without looking. This solution works much better in gameplay but is still far from ideal. Our playtesting has shown that there is only one truly useful phrase - “Assist,” affectionately known as “Gondor calls for aid” at the moment. This decision was made to improve the user experience and make the ping wheel more intuitive and efficient.
Clicking a command sends a message to the server and marks a location on the map. We also implemented some placeholder emotes.
What phrases should we feature on the ping wheel? What sort of quick commands seem the most useful to you? We already have some ideas, and our Beta playtesters have also shared their suggestions. However, in this case, the more information we get, the better the results will be. After all, we’re building these tools for you, so let us know what you need. Your feedback is not just welcome, it's crucial to us. We are open to customizing the wheel with additional phrases, pings, and gestures, but that will come later. First, we want to build a first usable prototype. Then we can improve on that. Leave your suggestions in the comments section of this article and on our Discord at www.discord.gg/exorstudios!
To sign up for The Riftbreaker Multiplayer Beta please fill in the following form:
We reserve the right to contact only select participants.
SIGN UP USING THIS GOOGLE FORM
We let more and more people in every week, and we plan only to keep expanding. All people invited to the beta also receive additional keys for their friends, so you always have someone to play with! As beta participants, you can also join our server during streams and take part in the action every Tuesday and Thursday at 3 PM CEST at www.twitch.tv/exorstudios/
See you there!
EXOR Studios