The Closed Beta test of The Riftbreaker Co-Op mode has been running for about a month. Throughout this time, our playtesters devoted hundreds of hours to trying out the brand-new multiplayer mode. It is fair to say that the test is going much better than expected. We were concerned about the game's performance and potential connection issues when tested in real-world conditions. People have access to PCs of varying configurations, and not all internet connections are created equal. These things can lead to a lot of issues. However, most of the feedback we received was about the gameplay itself, which leads us to believe there are fewer tech problems than we expected. This does not mean that everything is working perfectly - of course, it’s not. There is still a lot of work to do. In today’s article, we will summarize the conclusions from the first month of MP testing and the steps we will take in the immediate future.

We're happy with how the beta test has been going - which means we can let more of you play really soon!

Let’s start by talking about the performance of the game. Our playtesters have two options when hosting a new gameplay session:

• Personal (Listen) Server: In this case, one of the player’s PCs serves as the client and the server at the same time. This means all the game calculations are conducted on that player’s PC and then sent to all session participants. This is the most typical usage scenario.
  
• Dedicated Server: A dedicated server must run on a separate PC. The game is not playable on that PC, but all the calculations are carried out in the background. Players connect to the server as usual. The advantage is that no one has to take the cost of running the server AND the game simultaneously. A dedicated server could also have a preferable geographic location, e.g., a server in France could sit halfway between a player in Germany and a player in Spain, cutting the distance that data has to travel in half. The disadvantage is that an additional PC has to be involved.

Because not everyone has access to two powerful PCs, most multiplayer sessions have been run in the Personal (Listen) Server mode. We were worried that the player hosting the session would have a significant disadvantage because the server calculations generate major overhead, but that is not the case. In typical scenarios, when 3 or 4 players play simultaneously, the performance is well within the acceptable limits. The dedicated server is always a better choice, but the difference is not as big as expected. We have successfully played the game even with five players and did not encounter much bigger issues than when playing with two players. However, when this number increases further, more problems become apparent.

We're glad we don't do friendly fire, because walking across another player's line of fire is a common thing!

During one of our developer streams (Tuesdays and Thursdays, 3 PM on our Twitch channel[www.twitch.tv]), we encouraged people to join the session we hosted in our office. Feeling adventurous, we set the player limit to nine people and made the server public, allowing anyone with Beta access to join. What resulted was complete madness. At one point, we had nine players from around the world connect to our server in the office, playing a game of survival together. Fifteen minutes in, we had our first fusion power plant running. Half an hour later, the entirety of the map was cleared and built over, which absolutely killed the game's performance. That was a great sign. Even though we don’t officially plan to support play sessions with more than four people, we won’t block that option. If your PC is powerful enough to handle more than four players simultaneously - go for it!

The boss creatures receive a huge HP boost, elemental resistances, and additional abilities. However, some turned out to be a bit more OP than others...

Apart from the ‘officially hosted’ sessions, our beta testers have been playing their game on their own a whole lot. They have given us a ton of helpful feedback regarding gameplay. One of the most significant changes we introduced at the start of the Multiplayer Beta was the addition of boss creatures with each wave. The bosses are based on the largest creatures in the game and their strength depends on the number of players present on the server at the time of their spawn. They receive additional abilities that make them more dangerous and challenging. For example, you can encounter a Hammeroceros with Acid Damage resistance and a Fire Aura that damages everything in a large radius.

...but players found a way to defeat those OP creatures anyway. Still, not what we intended, we will do better!

The addition of bosses completely changes the dynamics of the battles in the game. Thanks to the feedback from our playtesters, we quickly learned that some creature/ability combos are a bit too difficult to deal with, especially in the game's early stages. When players have nothing but an SMG, a blaster, a sword, and a couple of grenades, perhaps sending in a creature that is resistant to most types of damage is not the best idea. This led to the introduction of what we call the 'kamikaze meta, a play pattern where players willingly run into the creature’s grasp and deal damage with the mech’s explosion. This is not a play pattern we want to cultivate. Additionally, dealing with bosses often becomes trivial in the game's later stages. We don’t want it to be a chore, so we will take steps to improve on this aspect of the game.

A Baxmoth can be terrifying on its own. An empowered baxmoth with an acid damage aura AND a Necrodon 'raise dead' ability is nightmare fuel.

We also received a lot of feedback when it comes to economy management. In single-player mode, you have all the knowledge about the factories you’ve built, the number of armories, ammo storages, and the power plants that sustain all those buildings. However, with four players running around the map, it is not the case. Without clear communication, knowing what your base actually needs is difficult. There should be a way of getting all that information with just a glance. This is why we have decided to upgrade the minimap. We will move away from representing the important buildings with colors and grant them icons instead. The common stuff, like energy or material storages, will still be marked with colored squares, but Armories, Comm Hubs, and similar buildings will be marked with individual icons. This way, you can get all that critical information by just looking at the minimap. This feature is crucial for effective team coordination and resource management. We also know that some of you will want the ability to personalize what is displayed on that map - we will give you filtering options to help with that.

Sometimes an attack comes at you from the worst possible side, leaving your base in shambles. It's important to have a team that will allow you to bounce back after that!

While watching others play, we also realized that the game needed features to encourage players to group up and work together. It is excellent that some players can take on the building duties while others go exploring, allowing you to play into your individual strengths. Still, it felt like players only joined in together when fighting an attack wave. We want to encourage you to play together, so we are experimenting with bonuses that activate when mechs are close to each other. At present, the bonus is straightforward - if two mechs stay within a 10-meter radius from one another for a few seconds, they get a temporary +100 bonus to shields and a +10% bonus to movement speed. It naturally boosts players during battles without a lot of thinking about it. We will experiment with this idea and perhaps introduce other buffs to encourage teaming up for other activities.

Here's what the 'Team Boost' proximity bonus looks like. Barebones for now, but we want it to be really meaningful, encouraging players to work together.

We could go on and on about the improvements we plan to make. However, they will take time, and in that time, we will invite more and more of you to test the game with us. In the coming days, we will move away from how we conducted the Beta tests up to this point - a separate, hidden Steam app - to the Steam Playtest feature. It will allow us to stay in touch with you better and open up some exciting growth avenues down the line. Until then - we want to reassure you that everyone who signed up for the test will get the chance to play the Beta before the official release of the Co-Op mode.

You will need to team up with the biggest and baddest creatures we're cooking for you!

We reserve the right to contact only select participants.


Looking forward to meeting you on Galatea 37!
EXOR Studios

When we released The Riftbreaker in 2021, we also published the Original Soundtrack album alongside the main release. The album featured select music pieces from The Riftbreaker, remastered and adapted from their in-game form to something more suitable for standalone listening. Not all songs from the game made the cut, but we promised that we would release them in due time. That time is now - we have just published a free update to the Soundtrack DLC, featuring all the missing songs from the original game soundtrack. In this article, we will tell you why it took such a long time, what the differences are, and what you can expect from us in the future.

Creating a good game soundtrack is an uphill battle. On one hand, it has to be unique and captivating. You want people to instantly associate the music they hear with the game they are playing. You want the soundtrack to emphasize what is currently happening on the screen. On the other hand, the last thing you want the music to do is distract players. It has to fit just right. The pace and dynamics of the music have to be relatively steady, with as few high and low points as possible. This also limits the range of instruments you can use. Some sounds might stand out too much and sound out of place in the context of the soundscape you want to create. Due to these constraints, the composer often has to limit their creativity, considering the good of the game as a whole rather than the song itself.

Our music composer, Marcin Pukaluk, encountered precisely these issues. He’s a super creative person and a brilliant artist. Although he was happy with the soundtrack of The Riftbreaker, he also thought he could do better. He suggested remastering the tracks from the game and giving them a more song-like structure. This meant adding intros and outros, changing the arrangement of some parts, and emphasizing different instruments within the mix. Take a listen to these two tracks. The first one is ripped straight out of the game files, and you’ve probably heard it a thousand times now. The other one is the remastered version.

Here's the original version of one of the tracks that accomapny you during the intense battles on Galatea 37.

And here's the remastered one. Which one do you like better?

We chose this piece because the differences are audible right away. The in-game track lacks the ‘marching’ intro from the remastered version. Additionally, the drums and brass instruments are brought much more forward in the mix. The atmosphere of the second version is much more heroic, which wouldn’t necessarily sit well with the chaos of the battle on screen.

Naturally, reworking the entire soundtrack into this new, standalone formula takes some time, which we did not have. The new World Expansions required brand-new music to fit the theme of the biomes we introduced, so Marcin was too busy writing new pieces and couldn’t work on the old ones. After the release of World Expansion III, however, we could finally start the Multiplayer Co-Op Closed Beta test, and we won’t be producing any new expansion content for a while. That gave Marcin a window of opportunity to remaster the remaining tracks.

In today’s update, The Riftbreaker Soundtrack expands by ten additional tracks from the main game. The OST is extended from the original 44 minutes, to 70 minutes. This update is free for everyone who purchased the soundtrack separately or got the Complete Pack edition of the game. All tracks from all playlists are now available for your listening pleasure (except for the ‘Anticipation’ playlist, also known in the community as the ‘no drop music.’ Listening to that stuff for too long could be unpleasant, so we skipped those songs). For those of you who don’t want to get the soundtrack - we got you! Here’s a YouTube video with the entire album.

The full extended soundtrack for your listening pleasure.

In the foreseeable future, Marcin will continue working on remastering the music from the World Expansions. We will also add them to the Soundtrack DLC as a free update, so be on the lookout for that! Meanwhile, we’re returning to work on the Co-Op Closed Beta Test. We have distributed over 100 access keys this week alone. Keep an eye on your Discord inbox so as not to miss your keys! And if you have not signed up for the test yet - do it! Join us, play The Riftbreaker in multiplayer before everyone else, and help us shape the game into something great!

See you next time!
EXOR Studios.