NEWS
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Hello everyone! Welcome to the thirty-sixth issue of the RoVerse Development Newsletter, where we keep you updated on the progress we’ve made over the past week! This week we've managed to see quite a bit of progress coming from Idyllic regarding planetary generation, and LordRex was able to show off the chat system in it's early stages! As mentioned in last week's article, Idyllic finished plate collisions for planets, and we discussed how the plates determined the way the planet's terrain was generated. This week, Idyllic expanded upon the plate system by adding elevation to planets to create a more natural shape for each planet, rather than a smooth sphere. As usual, Idyllic started with complete chaos and worked his way to the working product. This is what he started with:  After a lot of revision he got the biome generation to work happily, however a few small areas didn't like to play nice, as shown by the red areas:  Then, after a lot of more revising and cleaning code, Idyllic manage to get elevation completely down in a nice and tidy final product so that the oceans, continents and mountains are forming in a dynamic and organic system. Coasts now lead upward to land, and mountains form where the plates collide quickly! Idyllic predicts, at the pace he is currently working at, he will have planetary generation with smooth terrain in three weeks! First, he has to create the system of moisture movement, and determine the selection of biomes on planets. In other news, LordRex has completed a functional version of our chat system, which many of us have taken a look at behind closed doors. The chat system is, overall, very beautiful and looks very smooth and clean. It doesn't obstruct gameplay at all, and seems to add a certain appeal to the game that I very much enjoy, and we hope you enjoy too! Unfortunately, we were unable to get pictures of it in action though, as the chat GUI fades out too quickly for us to take pictures of, however we will try to get some images out as soon as possible with a better and more final version of the chat system! 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 mining work, both on a planet and in space? A1: In space, you will have access to a variety of mining ships - ships designed to mine out and collect ore, which can then be transported to a station to be sold, or to cargo transport ships to be taken further away. Mining on planets hasn't been completely nailed down yet, but will mostly involve players collecting ore in-person, which will then be transported to faction controlled cities, or taken off-planet to stations. Q2: Will the group leaders control which planets to conquer and who to attack, or will the members have free reign? A2: Faction leaders will determine which star systems will be the focus of each week's attacks, with battles taking place in those sectors, while the battles for planets will function more like stations and outposts - one faction can control the solar system, while another controls the surface, where they must battle it out. Keeping control of a planet in enemy space will be a great advantage when retaking a system, serving as a starting point for a counterattack. Q3: Will there be any sort of built-in political system to ensure that diplomacy is possible? A3: Yes, faction commanders (the leaders of clans in RoVerse) will indeed have access to a diplomacy screen where they will be able to offer alliances with neighbouring factions or declare war, as well as transfer ownership of territories if the faction desires to. More in-depth diplomatic activities will be up to the leaders themselves to organise in the game world. Having leaders meet at embassies for negotiations would offer very fun events for security and assassins alike! Q4: Will the speed be faster than in the dog fight? A4: Star fighters are fast and nimble, while ore mining and cargo ships will be somewhat slower when fully loaded. The greatest difference in speed will be larger ships, which benefit from larger engines. That being said, I wouldn't expect too much difference in the top speeds of vessels, both to keep things balanced, and to keep the server running smoothly. Q5: Can factions decide what major landmarks and things can be on their planets and in their cities? Such as palaces and statues? A5: We still haven't completely decided on what we will support in regards to planet details - we want to allow creative and unique planets that clans can make their own, but it is unclear how best to support that at this time. Once planets have been completed, we'll look into clan structures and the like. Q6: Will there be an official rebellion system for clans that want to overthrow the faction in power? A6: As described before, factions that are entirely conquered are trapped on their Capital planet for a period of time, before staging a 'rebellion' and resurfacing, but other than that, there is very little reason to support rebellions officially - but that's not to stop people from their own political intrigue inside clans, though you will need the forces to support your claim to power. 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! 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! Don’t worry, we don’t bite! ~Written by Aleuvian ~Edited by IdyllicDestroyer ~Special Guest Appearance by Vaktus Hello everyone! Welcome to the thirty-fifth issue of the RoVerse Development Newsletter, where we keep you updated on the progress we’ve made over the past week! This week, Idyllic has been furthering his work on planetary generation while most of us have been bogged down with testing and sickness. At the moment, Idyllic has completed the planetary generation for wind, heat and moisture, and managed to get them all interacting on a massive level. Now, what else does our mighty creator (and destroyer) of worlds need to create a fully functioning planet? Plate collisions! In the real world, the surface of planets is determined by shifting plates, so mountains will generate where plates collide and press against one another and massive trenches will occur where they spread apart. Idyllic has been managing to simulate this to create a more accurate, and less random form of planetary generation so that the topography of planets can be simulated more accurately.  Red particles are representative of the collisions between each plate, and areas between these plates would have large mountains or deep trenches into the ocean. Some planets will have very few plates, and will be relatively flat, however others may have a massive amount of plates and be covered in massive mountains that make it very hard to travel on land. It will be very exciting to see how the plate-system Idyllic has developed interacts with the wind, moisture and heat already present in planetary generation, and it will be even more interesting to see what other ideas he can come up with for planetary generation! In other news, Andross has returned from his two months of obligatory military service, and will hopefully be able to rejoin us in development once he is situated again! We look forward to seeing his work, and we hope you guys do too! As for the rest of us, we are primarily busy with our upcoming exams, such as Advanced Placement tests and the ACT/SAT for those of us in the United States. This is probably the busiest part of the year for most students, especially those in advanced courses, and we are pretty sure you guys are feeling the strain too, especially if you are trying to run groups during this time period! 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 a public transportation system? A1: Since everyone will be able to own and fly their own ship, there would be very little need for a public transportation system operated by the game, though there is the possibility of a sub-faction offering ferrying services between faction stations or planets, but it would have to be entirely user-driven. Q2: When taking over a planet, will there be an AI occupation force that we have to defeat? A2: At this point, that seems unlikely. AI are expensive to run on servers, and having a large enough force to combat players effectively, is limited by the platform. While we have talked about AI fauna in the past, they will likely be few and far between, to keep the servers running smoothly, though if we find an effective way to implement them, they would be great to have. Q3: How far will economy management go for clans? Will we have to manage everything down to weapon production? A3: While some people enjoy EVE Online for its many, many spreadsheets, and fine-tuned economic systems, RoVerse caters more to the adventurers and communities of people who want to have fun together, than the number crunchers. While we do intend to have some management by clan leaders, at this point it is still unclear. Q4: Are there any plans for sabotage so we can cripple an enemies economy? A4: A rogue team of spies infiltrating an enemy station to destroy an ore processing machine is a cool idea, and one that we hope to be able to pull off - of course, it would need to be extensively balanced, since no one is around 24-7 to guard everything, and could be overpowered. Q5: Will there be a limit to how big or powerful a ship can be? A5: As of now, there are no set ship size/power limits, but if you are expecting your clan to submit only death star sized battle stations, that probably won't work - ships will be balanced to keep things fair. You should just worry about making your ships look cool, and match your clan's style, we'll take care of the rest. Q6: Do clans need to build entire cities for RoVerse or just submit their architecture? A6: Details will be provided in the future about what exactly clans will need to submit in regards to assets, but you probably won't have to build entire cities, just a few building modules at high and low resolution. 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!
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! Don’t worry, we don’t bite! ~Written by Aleuvian ~Edited by IdyllicDestroyer Hello everyone! Welcome to the thirty-fourth issue of the RoVerse Development Newsletter, where we keep you updated on the progress we’ve made over the past week! This week, we've had quite a bit of work done in the background with a lot going into coding and planetary generation. Idyllic managed to nail down the planetary wind patterns, bringing us even closer to legitimate biome generation and hopefully complete planetary generation! He started this week with a planetary wind demo that looked something like this:  He eventually calmed the wind down a bit, and got it to start working in an organized manner to avoid the complete chaos above. The wind started forming patterns like those shown below:  Now the wind is completely reactive, and will react to changes made in the entire system dynamically. It is a very cool feature to know that each planet will have its own wind, and the way biomes are generated will be based upon the movement of air across the surface of the planet. We've even discussed the possibility of experiments on an aerodynamic system being based upon this clever system Idyllic made, but that would be something done post-release.
Unfortunately, we are starting to slow a little in development due to the increased load being put on each of us with most of our exams catching up to us, but we will still be sure to put out newsletters each week to stay up to date and make sure you guys know we are still alive! Most of our other modeling developers are already taking short breaks for exam study, and even I am starting to feel the pressure of exams coming closer and closer, but as the academic season comes to a close, we should start catching up and development should start moving a lot faster! 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 single beam weapons be a thing? A1: Raycasting lasers will be one of the simplest types of weapons available. The sci-fi staple of the laser will definitely be making an appearance in RoVerse. If you'd like more information about RoVerse weapon types, check out FAQ #22 Q2: Will there be hybrid ship-classes? (Ex. Cruiser with a carrier chassis and vice versa) A2: As far as I (IdyllicDestroyer) am aware, ships will be classed by size and armaments, which may allow for unique layouts of capital ships for clans. We haven't quite nailed down the specifics of capital ships yet, but the flexibility of classes is a must to keep warfare interesting. Q3: How will capital ships be bought? A3: Capital ships will be purchased at shipyard stations, or constructed at player outposts with shipyards modules. We are still working out the details, to ensure that rogue members of a faction can't steal a ship, but there will most likely be a way to assign a captain or commanding officers, who each have permission to take the ship out of the space dock. Factions will need to cover both the monetary and resource cost of constructing new ships, either through buying raw minerals from traders, or by sending their own teams out to scour the asteroid belts. Q4: How many people are needed to pilot a capital ship? A4: While piloting a capital ship like the Enterprise, calling down to engineering for a speed increase, would be rather cool, the limits of the Roblox system and networking capabilities would make that a challenge. Instead, Capital ships will most likely be piloted by one person, designated as captain, while others can dock their fighters in a hangar, for a ride out of the system. There is also the possibility that they could man the cannons, helping to engage attackers with the ships turrets, but only with the captain's approval. Q5: Will we be able to submit custom animations for players? A5: This would definitely be a cool feature to add, increasing the depth of interaction of players and the RoVerse universe, but would require a lot more work on our end, like moderation, and making sure they work at a small scale. Probably not going to happen for the initial release, but I would definitely like to see it as an eventual feature. Q6: Will we be able to fly seamlessly from orbit to a planet's surface? A6: As we've discussed before, planets and their orbits will be in a separate server, so functionally, you will be able to land a ship on a planet, or use your starship to explore the planets' surface. Leaving orbit, on the other hand, will involve passing the player back over to the star system server. Q7: How will scaling work in space and on planets? A7: To get such an advanced system to work efficiently, and to look good while doing it, we have scaled our fighters down to an extremely small size, allowing longer viewing distances and better performance, which have plagued other Roblox space games. Planets will be slightly larger, to accommodate players on the ground, and allows us to use smooth terrain, and keeps the default camera systems running smoothly, without near-clipping. Q8: How will mass planetary invasions be optimized? A8: Who joins what server will be strictly controlled, just like the star battles. We will do our best to set up a system that fairly distributes attackers and defenders, and matches firepower, so everyone has a fair and fun fight. There will be no ganging up on servers with two new players defending against an armada. Q9: Will there be an automated system to warn player's that their stations or bases are under attack? A9: In-game, there will be some sort of notification that a base is under attack, while discord webhooks might be a possible later feature. With major engagements, you will know each week which systems will come under attack, and can mount a defense, but minor skirmishes with pirates will be a surprise. Q10: Will clans be able to tax their citizens? A10: Factions will be able to tax their citizens, but it will be at their own discretion how much or how little that is. Funding a war effort by taxing goods will be important, but tax too much, and people may take their business somewhere else. Q11: Will RoVerse have microtransactions? A11: The foundation of RoVerse is a fair and free environment for clans to thrive in, free from the limitations of privately-held bases. From the beginning, we have been strong in our motivation to keep things fair by not offering a way for people to advance other than by their own hard work - working together as a team will be the only way to succeed in the vast galaxy, rather than pay-to-win that has been a problem with other games. The only possibility of purchases may be aesthetic, ships skins, or character models, but we will not compromise the game by locking 90% of the content behind a paywall. Q12: How do you plan on implementing so many things into RoVerse, considering that it is only ROBLOX? A12: We're bringing together a team of people uniquely qualified to test the limits of the Roblox Engine, and are determined to find creative solutions to problems that pop up, while also using our influence to push Roblox to add features that support not only our game-making, but benefit every other developer as well. Hello everyone! Welcome to the thirty-third issue of the RoVerse Development Newsletter, where we keep you updated on the progress we’ve made over the past week! This week, we've had some experimentation with complete biome generation, some news on flora development, and we'd like to take the time to explain the process we are using the develop the interiors of our stations to help you guys design your own stations in the future! Be warned, this will be a text-heavy newsletter! First, we have exciting news from the world of IdyllicDestroyer, creator of worlds! Experimentation on some world generation has been taking place, and a lot of coding is being done behind the scenes to ensure each planet generates with the appropriate biomes, and each biome seamlessly leads into another. The generation is very early in it's development, and there have been some interesting issues we have discovered, but we are really looking forward to the polished product that we know Idyllic will bring us! We've been taking a look at a lot of interesting flora concepts from various games to give worlds try and give each planet an organic, alien look, and some of them may feel pretty homely! We're starting with local flora, as in those we can find in the real world, and we will be expanding to various concepts and creating some interesting new plants to decorate each world! From your average spruce tree, to a flailing tentacle plant - we plan on showing it all off in the future! And finally, we want to describe the way we build the interior of each space station, to help out those clan leaders who are having stations created in advance. We don't want anyone building an amazing station, only to find it can't be used for some silly reason! First, we begin with the full exterior of the station, ensuring it is completely hollow. We then go about fitting loose walls, and the skeleton structure of each floor using some basic bricks. This helps us keep track of how many floors we have, how many different rooms there are, and the rough scale of each room as compared to the whole station itself. It also lets us see the amount of space we have left that we need to fill.    Then we go about placing notes for ourselves about how we want to detail the station out later in time. For example, in the pictures of the military command module (above), we laid out the rough location of walls and major assets, and we went around placing small bricks with notes to remind ourselves of the little details we want to include in each room. Afterwards, we go throughout the station and flesh out the walls, floors, ceilings, and build each individual detail as we listed them, and we eventually come out with a station that has both a complete exterior and complete interior, ready to be shipped off into space! As a bit more news, WhoToTrus has recently come back from his SAT testing, and has informed us that he will be able to dedicate a lot more time to RoVerse now that he is out of testing! We are very happy to have him back as an active developer, and we look forward to his upcoming 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 different factions be able to submit custom sound effects? A1: This is definitely on the table, though we can't confirm if it'll be in the finished game until further testing. Q2: Will we be able to fly unmanned drones? A2: Yes, we hope to have remotely controlled probe drones in RoVerse which would be used for long-range reconnaissance. Q3: What could clans do to increase their chances of making it into RoVerse at launch? A3: Try to be as original as possible with your clan's roleplay, lore and culture - we want RoVerse to bring out all the most creative and passionate parts of the clan world. The more depth your clan has, the better odds you have at it becoming a faction in the RoVerse galaxy. Q4: Can clans have planetary governments and have certain members in charge of cities? A4: Absolutely! Though it may not be specifically listed in game, clans will find benefits in assigning high ranks to be governors of specific planets. This way those high ranks will be able to ensure order and security on their planets and the space around them, as well as ensuring civilians don't think of starting any revolts! Q5: How much control will clans have over the residents of their controlled planets and space? A5: Clans will be able to devise whatever laws they see fit for their territories, and will enforce those laws through the use of their military and navy. Local economies will see an especially large impact from who owns those local territories, particularly if a clan outlaws certain commodities it deems to be hazardous or even sacrilegious. Q6: Will there be artifacts that contribute greatly to a clan's research? A6: Yes most likely there will, of course we'd want to ensure the way artifacts spawn is not exploitable and is 100% balanced. Clans generally research new technologies through the use of research lab stations, so this would be where a player could sell an artifact for a huge credit reward. Q7: Will we be able to salvage and re-purpose our enemies ships after combat? A7: Once a capital ship is destroyed, its wreck will be too heavily damaged to be usable, you may be able to get lucky while salvaging it for scrap and pickup a piece of intact tech, but this would mostly just be worth selling for credits. However, if you were to board it, defeat its crew and take control of the bridge, you would then gain ownership of the vessel! Unfortunately, since you didn't officially purchase the ship, you would not have access to rebuy options in the event of its destruction - so use the chance wisely! It should also be noted that the original owner will be able to have their ship replaced in the same way as if it was destroyed, since the replacement insurance is in their name.
We really hope you enjoyed reading about our weekly progress, and we are really excited to share these newsletters each week! 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! 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! Don’t worry, we don’t bite! ~Written by Aleuvian ~Edited by Vaktus |
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AuthorsVaktus: Leader of the Vaktovian Empire and head of the RoVerse Project |
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