Hello everyone! Welcome to the 102nd issue of the RoVerse Development Newsletter, where we keep you updated on the progress we've made over the past week. This week, we have some effects updates on turrets from Idyllic, some excellent system-crossing networking code from lordrex, and a very important bug fix on weapon systems for capital ships. We'll start with the best news first! Some of you noticed and pointed out that the turrets in the previous gifs posted in newsletters rarely fired directly where the cursor was apparently pointing, and you'd be correct. Idyllic has been trying for a month to figure out the bug in the code that caused the turrets to elevate twice as high as the cursor was aimed. He tried everything, from halving the elevation distance per step, to comparing the code to the (working) version where he originally coded turrets without the ship attached, to removing all but one turret from a ship to make sure it wasn't iterating over twice - but nothing worked. It drove him mad. But good news, he was not driven mad in vain. The bug has been found and fixed, resulting in an excellent and 100-fold improvement in the accuracy of turret firing. Where the other turret types were inaccurate enough for it to not be noticeable, with the beam turret's impressive accuracy, the problem became readily apparent. With a few keystrokes and some changed variables, the problem was remedied, and turrets are in excellent shape. With that bug quashed, it was back to the list of other important updates to weapons systems that have been on hold for a while, the most noticeable being locking turrets that are unable to point at the target to not fire randomly off in another direction. With that highly-requested feature complete, Idyllic spent some more time improving the weapon effects, and creating important functions for delayed and charged weaponry, notably the beam and plasma turrets. Both weapon types have a 'charge up' delay after the player clicks fire, to charge up the weapons before energy is explosively discharged. We're still waiting on a turret model for Capital plasma weapons, but they will function similarly to those available in the Dogfight Alpha. An energy burst projectile fired after a charging cycle, that wreaks havoc on any shields or undefended ships it manages to hit, which we hope to have ready for next week. Plasma weapons and flak turrets are the two remaining weapon types to be coded, both with unique and important functionality. This week, lordrex has continued working on systems used to teleport players to a specific system, even though we're sending them to the same game file - one of the key features we've been looking forward to implementing. Here we have the private server console showing an incoming connection from a new player, requesting system data for the system they just loaded into. A player can join the lobby, create a character save, give themselves a nickname, and jump into a randomly selected spawn system. We'll be working on loading in specific system maps in the coming weeks. Important and exciting work! Each week we compile a Q&A section here whenever there are any new questions posted on the RoVerse Community group wall or in the Community Discord Server. Be sure to join if you have any questions about RoVerse: ROBLOX Group: https://www.roblox.com/My/Groups.aspx?gid=2948290 Discord server: https://discord.gg/npxBGwJ Q1: Will planets orbit around the star systems? A1: We had hoped that we would be able to move planets around stars in a realistic orbit, and we have performed tests on the subject, but unfortunately the Roblox Engine does not like large numbers of moving parts or triangles. We'd either have to choose between pretty planets that give you an idea of the surface from orbit, or simple colored spheres that we could move around. That being said, I think there should still be plenty of gameplay involving proper positioning of stations behind and around planets and moons, as well as the asteroid fields full of rocks, that we couldn't move even if we wanted to. Q2: Will there be a neutral system for faction leaders to meet and discuss politics, trade deals, or alliances? Would it be safe? A2: Any significant communications between leaders will probably happen in Discord rather than in-game, where it's prone to troublemakers and assassins. Of course, we plan for a few neutral systems throughout the galaxy for new players to start at in a safe area, and we could add spaces to support leaders meeting in-person to discuss matters or just relax. Q3: Will there be quests? A3: Yes! For those that don't like mining or carrying cargo, players will be able to take on a variety of quests assigned by NPCs, as well as faction requests for items, for which they will be rewarded. Everything from hunting down a bounty to processing material to finding rare items is up for grabs packaged in little adventures. You can support us by joining our Community Group or Discord server! So far, the community has been absolutely amazing, supportive, and very friendly. We are very appreciative of all the support you guys show us! If you want to catch any of our developers streaming, you can always follow our official Twitch channel here! Remember, we are always looking for new, talented builders, scripters and artists! If you’d like to help us you can always get in touch with us through RoVerse_Official on the ROBLOX website, or by contacting an Administrator in the community Discord! Don’t worry, we don’t bite! Hello everyone! Welcome to the 101st RoVerse Development Newsletter, where we keep you updated on the progress we've made over the past week. This week we've delved into system generation development, in connection with lordrex's work on back-end systems, and Idyllic has moved forward with more back-end code for the Capital Update. Up first is our work on star systems. Before now, we've been working with a table of pregenerated data that simulates the star systems at a small scale for the starmap available in the lobby, where everything is saved as a location and a style. This week we pushed beyond that, identifying the proper scale for the star at the center of the systems, while maintaining proper play area around it. The extension to 100k far-clip distance has greatly improved how systems appear to the player, allowing us to create a fairly large star that players will definitely want to avoid. With the high boundary set by the star, and the low boundary set by the physical assets like ships and outposts we've already created, we could find the proper middle-ground for sizing planetary meshes. Large enough that they are impressive to even the largest of pilotable ships, while still appearing small in comparison to system stars. Hidden in the original code for the game Lobby was this lovely script that takes the angles between star systems, and figures out where the wormholes should be placed in relation to the primary star. While this demo is not exactly to scale, it demonstrates the function quite well. Those of you in the community may have heard of the new guideline for Capital ships that was mentioned - ideally all classes of Capital, excluding the XXXL superweapons should be able to fit through the standard-sized jump gate. Ships that are within 190 studs wide and tall (at 15% real-scale) will have a higher chance of being accepted as a general purpose fleet ship. For reference, here is Sphaera, the iconic wreck from the Dogfight Alpha, travelling through a gate. While faction-designed gates won't have to look like the default one, they will have to adhere to the standard wormhole size, or else you could clog up the wormhole with ships that don't fit out the other end. We took the chance to compare all the available system assets with the newly developed system scale, to ensure that outposts and spacecraft looked and felt their appropriate size, both at a distance, and while in operation by the player. Tests of all kinds were conducted, including variations on planet scale to make sure that both large and small planet sizes could be supported (planets of all the same sizes would be fairly boring), test flights of Capital ships around and between planets in a system, as well as comparisons between Capitals and other earlier-constructed assets, like Outpost modules. Here we have the test grid of outpost modules, every class of Capital and Fighter, a Star, two Planets, and a localized asteroid field. There were two extreme possibilities with the design of star systems - we could exaggerate the scale of everything, moving planets closer together and shrinking them down, allowing ships to easily fly on over to adjacent heavenly bodies, or we could attempt realism, with large spacing, fully scaled objects, and alternate transportation between the two. For our completed design, we attempted to find an appropriate middle ground between the two. Our star is .00008% the size of the actual sun, which is a fairly small star all things considered, planet spacing is scaled up from the starmap values by 50,000, and enough space between heavenly bodies that it feels like proper space, but you can still see other objects off in the distance. At this point I would like to highlight a feature mentioned quite a while ago in the FAQ section - intra-system jumping. While separate star systems are isolated from each other by numerous wormholes and jump gates that function as a loading screen, moving around between points of interest within a star system will be much more direct. Ships will be able to engage jump drives to bypass the incredible distances between objects, the void space as we like to call it, and arrive where they intend to go. While those adventurous souls may venture out into the void to meet whatever strange occurrences that may be waiting out there, anywhere you need to go in a system will be within reach with a click of a button and a firing of an engine. To better help you appreciate the scale, here is a medium Capital on a flyby of a Pirate Factory module. Outpost shipyards will be highly restrictive in comparison to their full-scale Station brethren - outpost shipyards can only construct up to Medium-class Capitals, and only a few at a time, as well as not being faction-styled. So if gigantic ships are your thing, creating a faction, or employment with one, is highly recommended. This week we've had quite a few questions from faction leaders asking about Capitals, and just how big they are. Some have drastically overestimated the allowable size, while others have slightly underestimated, so this week we'll take some time to answer a few questions. While we aren't to the point of releasing locked-in limits, like part count or weapon mount limits, we can provide some general guidelines to help you build your early Capital ship designs. The size difference between fighters and XXXL Capitals is enormous, though it will be an extremely rare occurrence in the full game. Ship sizes should tend towards the smaller end, with most pilots operating fighters and strike craft, while being supported by one or two capital ships. The largest ships available will be for pretty specific occasions, and will be a pain when it comes to upkeep, but they may happen. To better help you understand scale, Idyllic has put together this handy description. Here we have the Excalibur light fighter you all know and love, astride the Bolitho, a Small-class Capital. The Excalibur is around 1 stud long at 15% real scale, while the Bolitho is around 44. Next up we have the Avenger, measuring in at 50 studs long, placing it on the smaller end of the Medium-class. Here we have the Protector, a Large-class Capital measuring 80 studs long. Next we have a yet-unnamed Cargo vessel falling into the XL category, and measuring 210 studs in length. We're getting to the point that it's hard to see the fighter, with the Daedalus XXL Capital, measuring 240 studs long. And lastly, we have the XXXL-class, measuring in at around 1000 studs long. We hope that helps you when you're sizing up your own fleet of ships. Each week we compile a Q&A section here whenever there are any new questions posted on the RoVerse Community group wall or in the Community Discord Server. Be sure to join if you have any questions about RoVerse: ROBLOX Group: https://www.roblox.com/My/Groups.aspx?gid=2948290 Discord server: https://discord.gg/npxBGwJ Q1: Any planned logistical/support roles for Capital ships? A1: Beyond the directly combat-related roles, we have no current plans for support ships. Carriers and repair ships, as well as ships designed for taking out shields or armor, as well as static-object ships, should provide enough variety early on. Further down the road, though, we may investigate supplying support roles if we find combat lacking. Q2: Any planned dedicated anti-capital weapons for fighters? A2: The larger classes of fighters should be able to be outfitted with anti-capital mines or bombs, that can be used extremely effectively against undefended capital ships, and you can always concentrate other weaponry on a target, while evading defensive squads or turrets. Q3: Will there be a speed difference for ships between space and in-atmosphere? A3: Yes, definitely. For capitals, controls will be much more sluggish, as well as a lower speed to compensate for pushing all that air out of the way. For fighters, we plan for much less control, especially when stationary or slow-moving, to compensate for the effectiveness of spacecraft on ground targets. Q4: Have the weaponry stats been locked in yet? Do we know which weapons will be most effective against which targets? A4: Final stats have yet to be determined, and we plan to tweak them throughout the Alpha stage. Energy weapons will primarily damage energy shields, yet still do significant damage once they break through. Kinetic weapons and their benefits and costs were described last week, but they should focus primarily on hard targets, armor plating and ground targets. Q5: Will there be AI civilians in cities? Vehicles? A5: Any AI is heavy on the server, and cuts down on how many players we can support at one time. We'd prefer to see players driving tanks and jeeps through city streets, rather than stuck in traffic on the I-5. You can support us by joining our Community Group or Discord server! So far, the community has been absolutely amazing, supportive, and very friendly. We are very appreciative of all the support you guys show us! If you want to catch any of our developers streaming, you can always follow our official Twitch channel here! Remember, we are always looking for new, talented builders, scripters and artists! If you’d like to help us you can always get in touch with us through RoVerse_Official on the ROBLOX website, or by contacting an Administrator in the community Discord! Don’t worry, we don’t bite! Hello everyone! Welcome to the one-hundredth issue of the RoVerse Development Newsletter, where we keep you updated on the progress we've made over the past week. Those of you in the Community Discord server celebrated the 100th issue milestone this past evening with a dogfight team battle to the death, with Team Idyllic taking the first match over Team Lordrex. The second round, a 2 vs. all match, left CptJaller and Arorias victorious, making them undeniably the best fighter duo around. On to progress we've made this week. A significant milestone was reached this week on back-end systems with a successful test of system loading, further design work on a crafting system and various system and faction model storage solutions. Adding to our arsenal, we now have both a conventional and railgun turret and firing mechanism, and a first-look at ship destruction and debris. Let's check it out! Up first is a demo of the object loading from a table of values pulled from our external server. Using trees rather than asteroids to better gauge how well rotation aspects are loading, the system will be used to load all user-placed, temporary, and permanent objects dependent on which system has been selected to load. Stuff like faction stations and outposts are classified as temporary, with the ability to be destroyed and removed from the table of saved locations, while objects like wormholes and stars and planets all will remain unchanged for the time being. Asteroid and debris fields will be loaded in with a randomized system, to cut down on the number of asteroid positions we have to save and load each time a server is started. Other work on backend systems this week includes the first successful transfer between the lobby, and a character's saved location in the galaxy. In the next few weeks, we should have a demo video showing the process, but for now the code is there, and it works! For those new around here, each of our 220 star systems are saved into data files like the one shown above, and when a player attempts to enter any star system, it loads up the System save file, and depending on which system the player is travelling to or loading into, loads the objects and locations that should be there. That way, we don't have to save each system and planet as an active place, or use a hack based on the createplace API. Lorenzo has created the 6th turret model of our 8-weapon feature list for the first Capital Update, the Railgun Turret. With its sleek lines, cooling fins, and matter accelerator housing, the railgun accelerates a physical projectile to incredible speeds using a directed magnetic burst, with the kinetic energy released on collision doing extreme amounts of physical damage. Designed as a higher-tier weapon that bypasses the shielding of enemy ships with a physical projectile, these turrets will be one of the more expensive and hard to obtain weapons of the game, so a ship won't likely have a full loadout like the one above. Instead, look for one or two turrets in strategic locations to do that last bit of damage after enemy shields have cycled. And finally we return to the Bolitho with its conventional turret loadout that we demoed with the early-stage Capital scripting. This time the flak mounts have been replaced with full cannons, which won't be allowed in a playable kit, but does serve to highlight the flexibility of the turret attachment system, that works with all sorts of angles and positions. The conventional Turrets boast dual barrels which alternate each shot, but unlike the missile turret, do not have individual cooldown times. Faction designs could theoretically have more barrels, but their turrets will not fire any faster, which would be a severe balancing problem, leading to an arms race to put the most barrels on every turret as possible. To prevent the two physical weapon types that ignore energy shields from becoming the default weapon type everyone uses, they will have some downsides. With a physical projectile, how the projectile hits is just as important as where it hits - a shallow angle of attack and the projectile will bounce right off. This concept is used in tank design, with angled deflecting surfaces protecting its crew better than heavier armor designed to take the full force could. To that end, railgun and conventional turret shots that have a high angle of attack will wreak significant havoc on your target - miss your mark, though, and your shot will bounce off, sailing off into the void, perhaps hitting another ship in the process. With 6/8 weapon types coded, it seemed only appropriate that we do a test of every weapon type assigned to a single ship, rather than the uniform loadouts of the past few weeks. In a concept primarily for the full RoVerse, debris fields will litter star systems as a reminder of the conflicts that have raged through the stars. These masses of scrap and fire will be prime spots for scavengers to work their magic, gathering the scattered cargo thrown from the ship when it exploded. Though not everything will survive, a faction would be wise to protect and recover their resources from downed ships in friendly sectors, though one's in hostile or neutral space might as well be considered completely lost. We plan for wrecks to remain a permanent aspect of a system, to preserve the history of the clan world beyond bases that automatically reset when the time runs out or the raiders win, to further our goal of a permanent battlefield upon which clans of every kind can fight and win with real rewards. A quick update on the status of the Capital Update - with weapon systems nearly completed, it shouldn't be too much longer before we get a playable demo out there for community members to help us test out before we go for a full public release. Highest on the list of things to do are integrate fighters and capitals, replication, and UI coding. Each week we get closer to release, and each step closer we get more excited to see the public experiencing something we've poured our hearts into over the past nearly 2 years. I'd like to especially thank everyone in our community for supporting our work through the development process. We were honest from the start that we were undertaking an ambitious project that would take a long time to complete up to our own, and everyone else's standards. We've all had a great time interacting with everyone, from losing horribly in a dogfight competition to watching you develop cool ships and faction ideas and unique ideas and pushing us to do better than we ever thought possible. As long as you're still around, we'll stick to it and get this awesome project done. I'd also like to thank all the developers who have worked with us over the past 2 years, many of whom have moved on to other projects, but have definitely left their mark where they added their expertise to a little portion of the project. Even if you're not around the project anymore, we'll keep doing our best to put your work to use, and make this game the landmark project it's always been destined to be. Each week we compile a Q&A section here whenever there are any new questions posted on the RoVerse Community group wall or in the Community Discord Server. Be sure to join if you have any questions about RoVerse: ROBLOX Group: https://www.roblox.com/My/Groups.aspx?gid=2948290 Discord server: https://discord.gg/npxBGwJ Q1: Will different species be able to survive in different environments? A1: Generally, characters should be able to survive in quite a wide variety of environments, with only a few being damaging or dangerous, probably exclusively no-atmosphere or radioactive areas. From the high deserts to the swampy lowlands, characters should be able to survive just fine, but if a faction lore wants to name a specific zone as a preference they can, though it won't have significant gameplay influences. Q2: Will we be able to make hostile environments survivable? A2: I wouldn't look to any permanent solution to hostile environments, though you may be able to construct bio-domes or enclosed bases to keep the bad stuff out (or the good stuff in). If we make a location hard to get to, it'll be for a good reason, and it'll probably stay that way. Imagine a rough border outpost perched on a lava-fall, harvesting rare elements for sale across the galaxy. Half the fun is the danger, and pure terraforming could theoretically influence the production of luxury resources, so that wouldn't be a good idea. Q3: Will ships be able to have small animations, like engines turning on takeoff, or doors closing? A3: There isn't anything outright limiting such animations, though adding different ones for every faction would be a lot of work. We might be able to add such fine details somewhere down the line, and it might cost a bit more. Q4: Will you be able to shoot down incoming missiles? A4: Missiles would be incredibly overpowered if they were an unstoppable force pursuing your ship, so yes, there will be ways to shoot them down, though they aren't a 100% guaranteed defense. A version of the autoturret powered by a light AI will probably be the form it takes, and can benefit from increased or decreased accuracy, with a few variable changes. And perhaps an outgoing conventional projectile or laser bolt triggers the mechanism, in a rare occurrence. You can support us by joining our Community Group or Discord server! So far, the community has been absolutely amazing, supportive, and very friendly. We are very appreciative of all the support you guys show us! If you want to catch any of our developers streaming, you can always follow our official Twitch channel here! Remember, we are always looking for new, talented builders, scripters and artists! If you’d like to help us you can always get in touch with us through RoVerse_Official on the ROBLOX website, or by contacting an Administrator in the community Discord! Don’t worry, we don’t bite! Hello everyone! Welcome to the ninety-ninth issue of the RoVerse Development Newsletter, where we keep you updated on the progress we've made over the past week. This week, we have continued work from Idyllic on refining the turret systems, including a repaired aiming function, added details to missile turret firing, and begun work on menu UI coding. Lordrex has hit a milestone for the back-end and lobby integration, and on the building side Bradford has constructed a turret model for the beam weapons. The past few months the aiming mechanism for the capital ships has been a bit finicky, with several cases where they would not point exactly where the cursor was aimed. In the turret-scripting save file, this bug did not appear, so Idyllic spent some time this week tracking down the bug. Along the way, he also discovered that he had left the accuracy at 5° intervals, so as the player moved their mouse around, the turret would try to track to within 5° of the cursor. On top of the aiming glitches, this further reduced the accuracy with which a player could aim their turrets. With the previous types of turrets, like autocannons and lasers, accuracy was never intended to be high in the first place, but with the introduction of the beam turret, where one of its key features is accuracy at long distance, improvements to this code became necessary. Standard turret accuracy has been increased to 1° for now, and might be raised higher in the future, as well as the ability to vary the tracking accuracy on a per-type basis. Here you can see the increased performance of tracking. Previously, there was a 10° dead zone around the turrets current location, so fine adjustments to aiming at your target were nearly impossible. We'll continue tweaking this value until we find the perfect balance between accuracy and performance. In a fine addition to our arsenal of default ship turrets, the beam turret makes its mark on the battlefield - high transit and elevation speeds, coupled with near-perfect accuracy and exceptional range make it a dangerous weapon in the hands of a skilled tactical officer. The turret model, built this week by Bradford, makes clear its use with a slender barrel engulfed with the energies it pours forth, and the requisite neon so you know it's futuristic. In an update to the VLS missile mounts, the bay doors now open with each volley that launches. This detail had been planned since the mounts were first rigged, but its importance compared to other work was minor. But fortunately, the organizational scheme worked, and the doors blow open in time for the missiles to be launched, then close after firing stops. Delaying the closing of the bay doors until after firing had stopped completely was a deceptively complicated. If you were to just open them every time a missile fired, they'd open and close 8 times in rapid succession in the current setup. By attaching a separate function that tracks the time since the last missile was fired, the doors can be closed without any weird artifacts like missiles firing through shut bays. Beauty is in the details. NPC's have gotten an upgrade in the form of character skins. The demo last week had empty robots wandering around the void waving at each other and dancing - this week, the NPC's have stolen the looks of several famous, and several not-so-famous robloxians to use as their own. We'll be making a nice, large list of NPC character skins so your stations will be filled with life, but for now, Stratiz's demo uses a list of a few playerId's to show how well characters and their attachments load. A significant milestone today for lordrex, as he compiled all his tweaks and updates in the lobby and the back-end server's connected scripts, and performed a test that ran with a grand total of 0 errors. Those that code often know how hard such a feat is, especially cross-platform, but it marks a great step forward for the continued work on the full game. Last up is an update on the load-out-editing menu debuted last week, describing the back-end code that will make it work. Here we have the comparison bars showing 5 important turret stats that you'll want to compare when switching out the various turret types. With a single bar, doing a percentage of max stat values would be simple, but with 5-segmented bars, the math becomes a bit trickier, though not impossible. Using modulus and the percentage size and position properties of gui objects, scaling the dark 'current' bars in simple, the trick lies in scaling and moving the orange 'difference' bar dynamically. Each week we compile a Q&A section here whenever there are any new questions posted on the RoVerse Community group wall or in the Community Discord Server. Be sure to join if you have any questions about RoVerse: ROBLOX Group: https://www.roblox.com/My/Groups.aspx?gid=2948290 Discord server: https://discord.gg/npxBGwJ Q1: How will minerals be refined into spaceships? A1: Right now we're leaning towards a simpler crafting tree than what we originally designed, focusing mostly on resources in, vehicles and weapons out with variation coming from which machines a layer uses. A refinery on a factory module at an outpost would be required for turning ore into base metals, that could then be taken to a workshop to be turned into a ship or other vehicle. Q2: Will players have access to system sensors that give you a readout of the players in your vicinity? A2: The server player list provided by roblox is always accessible, but as for telling you exactly who's there and what ship they're piloting, wouldn't that take some of the fun out of patrolling for ships and enemies? Q3: Will we be able to disguise military vessels as civilian? A3: If you're at war with someone, I'm not sure being a civilian cargo vessel would be any safer than looking like a military ship, in that a civilian ship would be an easy target for pillaging. You might be able to design a set of ships that look similar to each other as a faction theme, or use civilian cargo ships in a limited war-time capacity, but I don't think we'll be supporting any camo like that anytime soon. Q4: Can ships dock with other ships to improve them? A4: No, you will not be able to combine your ships into a giant robot, but smaller ships will be able to dock in a large enough ship's hangar area for refueling, repairs, or filling up with cargo or fighters. Q5: Will RoVerse be providing factions with battle songs to play in-game? A5: Unlikely. Due to copyright problems, and the cost of uploading stuff like that, we won't be doing it for you. You could always play your battle anthem in a group voice chat or another staging place, but it won't be in RoVerse directly. You can support us by joining our Community Group or Discord server! So far, the community has been absolutely amazing, supportive, and very friendly. We are very appreciative of all the support you guys show us! If you want to catch any of our developers streaming, you can always follow our official Twitch channel here! Remember, we are always looking for new, talented builders, scripters and artists! If you’d like to help us you can always get in touch with us through RoVerse_Official on the ROBLOX website, or by contacting an Administrator in the community Discord! Don’t worry, we don’t bite! Hello everyone! Welcome to the ninety-eighth issue of the RoVerse Development Newsletter, where we keep you updated on the progress we've made over the past week. This week we got down and dirty on the programming side, with significant updates and additions to the Capital Update code, including turret assignment and gui integration - as well as some design work - and an expanded weapons list, adding beam turrets to the list of functioning weapon systems. On the backend, lordrex has continued his work merging the lobby and our server code. Early work this week on the Beam weapon type was pretty rough - we had several versions that didn't perform up to our standards. Seen below is one such version - the beams fire from the turret to the mouse, and update every heartbeat, but stutter significantly when there are several firing at the same time, or the ship is moving. Both cases are likely to appear in the Capital Update. So Idyllic went back to the drawing board. Rather than creating and destroying a 'bullet' for the beam each frame, he modified it to create one and the update it each frame. This, too, stuttered significantly. Where the other turret types fire off their projectiles and are free to leave them behind, the beam turret requires stability, the failure of that becomes immediately obvious. So how do you code them to keep up with the ship? Well, first of all you make them shoot straight from the barrel like every other weapon coded so far. But after that, you work on parenting the object anchoring the beam effect directly to the ship - that way you don't have to update their position every frame, and the move along smoothly. Now the only stuttering is the pulsing of energy traveling along the beam towards your enemies! Though quite simple in the end, this experience was quite entertaining to figure out how to code, if only because it was a departure from the modules used for the other weapons. It goes to show that a one-size-fits-all approach to weaponry isn't always the best solution, and that even if it is a little bit more work, taking the time to individualize and customize different weaponry types creates better, and probably more fun, results. You may remember the initial Capital combat demo video - the different weapon types were just edited rate of fire stats, with different colored neon projectiles launched out, so the steps we've been taking since then to expand on the weapon variants have been quite important to us. Some notes on the beam weapon type - it emits a constant stream of energy traveling incredibly fast in the direction you aim the turrets, with a high degree of accuracy, even at long distances. Unfortunately, it trades accuracy and range for damage - low individual hit damage, but if you manage to keep your target in your scope, the damage will add up. Also helps keep shields from cycling and recharging, so it offers some tactical benefits so it's not completely useless for all but the most accurate snipers. In the coming weeks, we'll be refining the weapon type further, including a short charge up delay, and overheating systems, all taken care of in the data tree. With several of the weapon types up and running, it was about time for Idyllic to dive into the turret switching menus and integrations for Capital ships. We released a demo of the fighter rekitting process quite a while ago, but since then we have further developed our aesthetic, and will probably be updating that soon. For the capital ships, though, we had a blank slate to work with. On fighters, only a few turrets were available to swap out, so a few hovering buttons were manageable to use. With the possibilities of hundreds of turrets kitted to an XXXL capital, we needed a more flexible solution. Enter the newest ship-editing interface! Improving on the original design, this newest ship editing screen has lots of important info to help you make your purchasing decisions - will you change your forward gun batteries to missiles, to chase down fleeing foes, or protect your flank with a spare flak gun to take care of those pesky fighters and missiles? It's up to you! Featuring stat comparisons between currently-kitted mounts, mount locator for easy identification of which mount you're switching out when zoomed in, overall ship stats and class names, all to improve the user experience. It's still in its early stages, so if you have any feedback, let Idyllic know. Each week we compile a Q&A section here whenever there are any new questions posted on the RoVerse Community group wall or in the Community Discord Server. Be sure to join if you have any questions about RoVerse: ROBLOX Group: https://www.roblox.com/My/Groups.aspx?gid=2948290 Discord server: https://discord.gg/npxBGwJ Q1: Will there be limits to the number of ships a faction can produce at once? A1: There will be no hard limits instituted by us, but if a faction gathers the resources required to build an excessive number of large capital ships, good for them. Obviously if things get ridiculous, we'll start tweaking costs to keep things balanced, but other than that, we won't limit a fleet to, say, 20 Large capitals at once. If we tried doing that, they'd probably just start making alts to hold ships for them. Q2: What sort of interactions will there be with planets from space? A2: From the star system server, you'll be provided with, or have to scan for, basic information on the status of the planet. Planet name, environment, resources, who owns it, etc. To get a good look at a planet, you will have to send a landing party, as they have done many a time on Star Trek. Q3: Will there be giant railguns to shoot capital ships with? A3: By comparison, the small turrets we've been demoing the past few weeks are dwarfed by the ships they are attached to. Further down the line, we will be adding the different tiers of turrets, and tiers of mounts they can be attached to. For example, a ship may have 10 light turret mounts, 4 mediums, and one heavy mount for a large weapon, sorta like what you described. Q4: Will there be QA to ensure faction-submitted ships aren't weird or low quality? A4: There will be an approval process as part of the rigging process. We want as many factions as possible to submit their designs, but a faction not putting much effort into their ships breaks the whole thing down, ruining immersion, and reflecting the game poorly. The devs will try to help out in these circumstances, if only slight modifications are required. Q5: Is there a formula to generate ship stats, or is it faction- or developer-picked? A5: We have been working on a formula that considers a wide variety of factors to calculate different stats like turning speed and radius, and there will also be limited faction input on how they want their ships to perform. If a faction builds a heavy cruiser that the formula spits out as low-armored, no one would be happy. So a limited number of points will be able to be spent to determine base ship stats, by the ship creator when submitting. The nature of this platform requires things to be both fair, and functional. You can support us by joining our Community Group or Discord server! So far, the community has been absolutely amazing, supportive, and very friendly. We are very appreciative of all the support you guys show us! If you want to catch any of our developers streaming, you can always follow our official Twitch channel here! Remember, we are always looking for new, talented builders, scripters and artists! If you’d like to help us you can always get in touch with us through RoVerse_Official on the ROBLOX website, or by contacting an Administrator in the community Discord! Don’t worry, we don’t bite! |
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AuthorsVaktus: Leader of the Vaktovian Empire and head of the RoVerse Project |