Courtney's notes: This hotfix includes a substantial overhaul of the game's UI text presentation, the first pass at improving text legibility across the board with a particular focus on comfort when playing the game on handhelds such as Steam Deck.
I've been made aware of two fixes related to graphics drivers that allowed players to resolve big performance problems:
if you're on Nvidia driver v572.16 and experiencing extremely poor performance, please try reverting to an older version or upgrading to a newer one. v572.16 has been reported by various players as causing a host of massive problems in various games.
if you're using an AMD graphics card, one of my players who was experiencing a repeatable crash to desktop when jumping into a mission has reported that updating to the February 20th Optional AMD Drivers fixed the problem.
In addition, I'm tracking the following performance problems for a fix:
stuttering on high refresh rate monitors: I've ordered a 180Hz monitor so I can diagnose the problems in my dev environment.
players on HDDs as opposed to SSDs: I've implemented a few improvements for the game hitting the hard drive unnecessarily, and have also ordered an HDD so I can test this myself.
high enemy density: more improvements will be coming here over time.
This update also includes a smattering of other fixes and improvements as requested by the player community - thank you for letting me know what you'd like to see in the game!
[h3]Performance[/h3]
reduced the impact of object pool initialization when starting the game by amortizing it over time more effectively
added more effects to object pool
[h3]Quality of Life[/h3]
tripled the auto-pickup radius for currencies dropped in space as well as for health, energy, and supercharge drops
Resource drops are now automatically collected at the same distance as currencies. If ejected from your ship's inventory, they will not be auto-collected again until you leave and re-enter their auto-pickup radius.
if you have two or more equipped weapons that are either all Primary or all Secondary, pressing either the Primary or Secondary fire input will fire all of them
[h3]Balance[/h3]
increased proc chance of Laser debuff from 10% to 50%, and increased its potency from +100% to +200% Secondary Weapon damage taken
increased refund chance for the Vibrant Acuity talent from 50% to 75%
increased the Armor multiplier from the Fortify Skill from 20% to 50% per level, and made it scale with all enemies within 200 meters instead of 100
reduced the damage scaling for Pilot Skills that use Total Damage Output to bring them closer to weapons (dev note: This affects Superheated, Negate Existence, and Asteroid Barrage. For example, Negate Existence was being used as a pure dps Skill that outpaced any possible weapon combo even without factoring in the Execute bonus. However, I'm continuing to monitor this heavily and will adjust as needed, in particular making sure that all Aptitude Ranks are achievable.)
increased Resource drop rates from Asteroids by 100%
increased Resource drop rates from enemies by 900%
dramatically increased spawn chance of recurring antagonist at higher story campaign completion levels during a given cycle (dev note: leveling your pilot past lv10, equipping Epics/Artifacts, and progressing the story will all increase the chance the this antagonist warps into your mission - as long as you're surrounded by several enemies)
[h3]Bug fixes[/h3]
fixed being unable to click on 'X' button to close the Navigation dialog
fixed display strings for rewards from side missions that would rank up an Aptitude if completed at a higher Challenge Level
fixed weapon damage scaling from the following affixes: power source (e.g., Energy-based vs Ammo-based), specialization (e.g., Phaser vs Launcher), and subspecialization (e.g., Primary vs Secondary) (dev note: this fix represents a buff to weapon damage, in some cases a substantial improvement if you were running many such affixes)
fixed loss of ship and UI control inputs if Navigation dialog was open during a jump sequence
fixed various consistency issues when displaying numerical bonuses from certain Affixes in various contexts, such as weapon type damage bonuses in item tooltips and the Stat Details panel
fixed extra visual fx spawning and not being cleaned up for the ship buff applied by one of the unique Launcher weapons
fixed not being able to Abandon Mission in the Chaos Vortex
v1.00.0 hotfix 5 patch notes
Reality Break v1.00.0 hotfix 5 has gone live.
Courtney's notes: More performance fixes along with progression and gameplay blockers are included in this hotfix.
A note about balance: I am continuing to evaluate this with the community. Once the overall landscape reaches a more stable state, I will evaluate whether more sweeping changes are warranted. Thank you for continuing to post balance feedback.
Also, this hotfix reworks the penultimate mission so that players who defeat the recurring antagonist during the first cycle that's possible don't miss critical story exposition that explains much of the game's plot, and so that they don't the final rank for one of the main Story Talents. In addition, this enables the final two mission skips that those players were missing, including by far the largest skip in the launch version of the game.
The launch for Reality Break exceeded my expectations, and I will continue improving the game over the coming weeks and months. Thank you all again for joining me on this journey!
[h3]Performance[/h3]
substantially improved the performance of the game's asteroids, including updating, damaging, and destroying them
improved the performance of spawning impact/hit fx caused by standard attack abilities as well as beam type abilities
[h3]Progression[/h3]
story campaign mission The Reality of the Situation now includes additional exposition dialogue from a separate timeline branch if the player arrives at that mission after having defeated the recurring antagonist during the first cycle that's possible to do; this also makes sure to upgrade the relevant Story Talent to its maximum rank, and unlocks two more mission skips
[h3]Quality of Life[/h3]
show oversized item Ship Class rewrites differently depending on whether the player can afford them, and show "Fighter" as the ship's label in the ship dialog UI header (dev note: this is to increase tutorialization for the Ship Class rewrite feature since it continues to be missed by many players)
[h3]Balance[/h3]
Region Mod Type and Region Mod Value mission rewrites now generate more reasonable values that scale with mission Challenge Level
[h3]Bug fixes[/h3]
fixed Backup Plan item regression alternating its shots instead of firing both simultaneously
fixed Negatron Collider item cooldown reduction bonus not working
fixed homing weapon projectiles not tracking Hazards or Structures, such as Launcher missiles not acquiring lock on Volatile Anomalies and Colossus Pulsers
fixed remaining Analysis time getting stuck at 0 seconds if the analysis was completed via the bonus from the Multiplex Analysis talent
fixed various visual and calculation problems with the Region Mod Type and Region Mod Value mission rewrite
fixed campaign story missions locking their level at 1 for newly-created pilots when other pilots have already completed other timelines for the Reality Stream
fixed Talent Tier 2 bonus to Loot Quality not applying
v1.00.0 hotfix 4 patch notes
Reality Break v1.00.0 hotfix 4 has gone live.
Courtney's notes: This hotfix lands with a variety pack of upgrades, including increased projectile combat performance, fixes for a couple of progression blockers, resolution for a few areas of broken balance or outright exploits, improved UX clarity, and other fixes!
Thank you again for posting all the bug reports and feedback - I'm continuing to work through them to address the highest-priority issues, and I will eventually get through them all.
Also, one thing I'd like to address is the player feedback about larger-sized items, such as Warship class items. Those items are not for larger ship types. Take a closer look at a large item's tooltip after you have unlocked Rewriting and you'll discover something powerful you can do with it!
[h3]Performance[/h3]
implemented the first pass at an Auto-Pooling system, currently just for projectiles as well as their launch fx and impact fx, which aims to reduce the performance impact of projectile combat dramatically throughout the game
disabled generic fx spawned unnecessarily by projectile impacts that were critical hits since there's a separate and far more performant system for spawning those
non-Epic Swarmer firing rate has been reduced by 33% because it was way above other Swarmers (its dps has been counterbalanced)
disabled impact fx triggering impact sounds that would follow the object, which was an unnecessary expense
reduced max particle counts on Rakeris boss encounter by 90%
optimized the terrain on the Rakeris encounter map, reducing its memory and render requirements
added support for disabling terrain decals during the Rakeris encounter (dev note: this is currently bound to the HD Clouds setting in the Options dialog until the next batch of localization goes through)
[h3]Progression[/h3]
if the player's ship is destroyed during the story mission "Gathering: The Magic", the protective barrier granted by the mission is now correctly reapplied
restored the Into the Vortex button functionality on a lategame end-of-cycle popup
don't spawn recurring antagonist as early in any given cycle
the crafting NPC no longer becomes inoperable if certain missions are skipped and then the campaign is completed
[h3]Quality of Life[/h3]
the Loot Filter now has three additional toggles that allow items meeting certain criteria to bypass the filter's standard logic (Rarity rewrite, Affix Type rewrite, and Codex set completion) (dev note: this exposes functionality that already existed under the hood and defaulted to on, but that behavior was confusing to many players, so these Loot Filter bypasses now default to off.)
[h3]Balance[/h3]
rebalanced RP multiplier scaling from Expert Goals by bringing it in line with other RP multipliers instead of being wildly out of balance when incorporating the Strive for Excellence and/or Finesse talents
substantially improved the recurring antagonist's loot table
[h3]Bug fixes[/h3]
fixed item loss resulting from dragging an equipped item onto another item in the ship's inventory that was not currently equippable in the source slot
fixed certain rarity rewrites of common weapons resulting in a Selbar weapon
fixed exploit in the Chaos Vortex that allowed for risk-free survival time in the miasma with the Walking With Ancients talent
fixed exploit with repeatedly boosting an Affix Fragment while the Vibrant Formulation subtalent is active
fixed equipped Drones firing too many shots in certain circumstances
fixed gaining phantom Drones above the currently unlocked # of slots when rewriting an equipped Drone's rarity to Epic or higher
fixed certain Expert Goals tracking instances of damage taken by player ship outside of the correct story mission map
v1.00.0 hotfix 3 patch notes
Reality Break v1.00.0 hotfix 3 has gone live.
Courtney's notes: This hotfix focuses on some progression blockers, fixes a couple of egregious Talent bugs, and has the first of many performance improvements. In addition, I have included fixes for a couple of issues that are technically in the Balance category but that are substantially affecting players' ability to progress through the campaign and complete it: the recurring antagonist and the final boss fight.
I'm continuing to investigate why certain powerful machines with modern CPUs and latest GPUs are sometimes struggling heavily on certain scenes, when my dev machine (i7 6700K / 16GB / GTX970) and my gaming machine (i7 14700F / 32GB / 4070 TS) both run the game more than playably, except with ridiculous combinations of projectile effects and impacts due to combining things like Hyper Mode, Twin Bolt, Alter Spacetime, and Haste buffs. I don't have any other PCs available to test with at the moment, so I appreciate everyone who emails me additional info to help me track this down for all of you. In addition, Valve sent me Steam Deck dev hardware, which will speed up my optimization work.
Thank you all once again for your patience.
[h2]Performance[/h2]
item tooltip performance: no longer recalculate layout or positioning if nothing has changed, no longer process "show" logic if the element being hovered hasn't changed, don't clean up tweens unnecessarily (such as when no tweens have been started)
items marked for Scrap no longer calculate their comparison delta indicators (dev note: this system will continue to be optimized over time)
added caching for logic that validates keys used for display string translation lookup
set up object pooling for additional visual effects
[h2]Progression[/h2]
fixed many instances of mission objectives being skipped or mission objectives disappearing after exiting to the main menu, quitting the game, or warping to a different region than intended. This fixes issues such as the third mission losing its "jump to Station 6" objective if a side mission was begun instead.
fixed the first story mission skipping some of its objectives after breaking a profile and restarting the game
the rescue target for the story campaign mission "Rewrite the Scientific Method" now has 99.9% damage reduction, 10x the shields, and 2x the shield recharge rate so that they are more durable and don't interrupt the flow of the story campaign
opponents in the game's final fight have been significantly retuned: dodge chance reduced by 50%, shields reduced by 50%, shield recharge rate reduced by 80%, damage reduced by 75%
the recurring antagonist has been significantly retuned: shields reduced by 50%, shield recharge rate reduced by 80%, damage reduced by 90%
[h2]Bug fixes[/h2]
fixed instances where an item's item level could be downgraded in a particular rewrite scenario (dev note: Pulling the Strands freebie item combined with a certain rewrite in mission 3)
fixed various bugs with the Barrage affix: limited its affix value rolls in the same way as Twinbolt, ensured it's quantized, don't allow it to drop as a Unique Modifier Type rewrite option
fixed being able to get above Tier level 100 by refunding subtalents; the game will fix up all profiles on load to have the correct tier levels for the currently purchased talents
fixed tooltip for maxed out subtalents not including the "(no refund)" warning next to the Reset input instruction
fixed loot filter allowing inappropriate items to drop once the bonus has been unlocked for the Fate Core's Rare rewrite tier
fixed scaling bonus for Fate Core Rare rewrite tier not updating correctly if an item's rarity was rewritten to one that qualifies
fixed tutorial not popping up that explains Fate Core Epic tier bonus
fixed certain affixes displaying as 0% if their value was fractional
fixed the logic for the talent A Beautiful Cortex so that it produces reasonable rewrite values
fixed bug that prevented new pilots from seeing Shields and Drone item drops, even if the player had already stabilized the Fate Core
v1.00.0 hotfix 2 patch notes
Reality Break v1.00.0 hotfix 2 has gone live.
Courtney's note: Thank you everyone for your copious and detailed feedback! I'm working through all it as fast as I can while, balancing that against time spent working on the game itself. I appreciate your continued patience, and please continue to bear with me - I was not expecting this kind of launch, and it's just me working on this game, so it will take a little bit of time for me to get through everything. I'm prioritizing stability issues and progression blockers for these initial hotfixes, though some regular changes will make their way in if they're very fast, targeted, and low risk. Eventually, these hotfixes will make way for regular updates with exciting upgrades to the game. Thank you very much for playing Reality Break!
[h2]Stability[/h2]
fixed instability arising from applying the Timespace Cache talent bonus on the Fate Core item, or on any Mission item
[h2]Progression[/h2]
fixed a story campaign progression soft lock with a certain story mission encounter in the Chaos Vortex not keeping the player's ship immortal for long enough, causing it to blow up before continuing to the endless spawning portion
added on-load fixup for profile saves that have gotten into a bad state with the story campaign on mission objectives waiting for the Fate Core to be analyzed, and the Analyze button not being interactable. This fixes the Fate Core not being analyzable during the "Wait for analysis to complete" objective of the "Resonance of Fate" mission, as well as bulletproofs against a similar possibility during the "Analyze the Fate Core again" objective of the "Dormant Colossus" mission
fixed a few ways the game's story campaign could get into a bad state if a mission objective was waiting for the player to dock with a certain station, but the player warped to another station and docked there instead
made the rescue target in Rewrite The Scientific Method invulnerable while stationary so that it doesn't cause mission failures out of players' control
fixed being unable to progress to the final fight except during the first cycle encountering it
[h2]Balance[/h2]
increased the average number of Resource drops you'll see from Common asteroids throughout the game by 100%
reduced the Resource costs of Tech Specialist ship upgrades by 30%-40%
increased Credits gained when selling items to traders by 900%
[h2]Bug fixes[/h2]
fixed photonic storms in luzul cluster damaging your ship after it had initiated slipdrive
fixed the recurring antagonist's ship not processing movement or abilities while too far off-screen
fixed Extraction duplication exploit triggered by picking up the item in the extraction slot before clicking on the Extract button, then putting the item back into the Extraction slot for further extractions