Hello everyone! Welcome to the forty-first 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 a few updates from Idyllic on the biome system, and final exams are finally concluding for most of us! Idyllic has been busy at work with combining all of the different features that we've described in the past for complete planetary generation, which include the moisture, wind, heat and tectonic systems. While having a few problems with saving and pole temperatures, Idyllic has been working incredibly hard to get these systems working fully, while managing to keep the poles cold without having the entire planet become a barren arctic wasteland. This system isn't nearly done yet, and there are a few issues with some systems, but it is coming along nicely and we really look forward to showing off a more refined version in the future! We've also seen a lot of requests about LordRex's chat GUI for this week, however he's been so bogged down in testing that he has been unable to work this week. He has said that he will be free to get some work capable of being shown off next week! And with final exams ending for most of us, we are starting to get a lot more free time to dedicate to RoVerse, and we believe that, by the end of May, all development should be back in full swing! [Author's Note: I will be publishing Newsletter #41.5 when Onigo is online to detail his plans for the future, since this is what we looked forward to addressing this week. Sorry that we weren't able to include it tonight!] 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 planet-to-planet missiles? A1: Since there will be so many ways of attacking a planet and bombarding it from orbit with massive battleships, it is not likely that planet-to-planet missiles are necessary, since they are on a much lower technological level than that which would be expressed in most space-faring empires. However, if the community shows interest in such weapons, there is a larger possibility that we will add them later on. Q2: Will we be able to fight clans that we are members of on different characters? A2: Technically, yes. This would be somewhat like owning more than one account and being in multiple groups to fight each other. There is nothing to stop you from creating another character that is a part of the opposing clan, however it is not easy to start a new character from scratch, and even if you have a character in a clan's faction, you would still need to join the military if your goal is warfare. Q3: Will we be able to build A.I.-Controlled droid armies? A3: We still don't know how big of a role NPCs will play in RoVerse so it's difficult to say. We don't want to have NPCs taking up potential roles for the players unless we have shortages of players. There are certain areas we do plan on implementing NPCs, though, such as essential shopkeepers and bartenders. Q4: Will there be galaxy-wide events? A4: Quite possibly, though we don't want to spoil anything specific. At the same time, though, we don't want to upset the natural balance that will exist with a player-controlled galaxy. We essentially want to the players to cause galaxy-wide events, such as an aggressive band of Pirates crippling the economies of several empires, or a super-massive all-consuming Empire going out of its way to exterminate all life in the galaxy. There is definitely a possibility, though, especially if the community is in favor of galaxy-wide events. Remember, disaster is always around the corner! Q5: Will we be able to treat cities differently, depending on how much they resist? Such as enslavement, or total annexation? A5: Since cities are not permanent, it would be difficult to associate specific people to a specific city. It's a very interesting concept that would be fun to look into, although in practice it may become too hectic with all of the different cities on all the different planets existing at once. Q6: How will factions control members? Will players be free to take on other clans at will? A6: Players are entirely free and independent to do as they please, so long as they are not serving a government career such as the military or law enforcement. Players in these careers represent the state, and so they can do what the faction permits them to. For example, a civilian could attack a military vessel if they wanted to, but would likely get destroyed, however a military player could attack someone without provocation and they would likely be stripped of their rank and receive a court-martial, or worse! Essentially, it is up to the clan to determine what is illegal and what their members may do in their space. 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! Don’t worry, we don’t bite! Hello everyone! Welcome to the fortieth 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 seen an absolutely astonishing amount of prop work put in by Rex, ranging from a meager backpack all the way to a fully equipped fort with mortars and anti-air emplacements! Rex is also very pleased to announce that he is beginning official work on the main command center, which will be a massive, self-sufficient building capable of withstanding a siege and operating even if the rest of a city falls! The building will be a massive multi-building compound designed for defense, and we can look forward to seeing massive fights over the control of these structures, as they will undoubtedly serve as the final stand for any defense force. Galbotrix has also been continuing his streams this week and has continued his work on the Industrial Space Station's interior layout, particularly the docking area. The layout, as it stands is almost complete, and he has been experimenting with some interesting holographic designs as well. Galbotrix streams regularly on our official Twitch channel, and you can tune in any time he is broadcasting here! 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 it be possible to destroy planets? A1: Yes and no, we don't want to spoil too much about this, but let's just say destroying a planet would be an extremely powerful ability, one that only a civilization with the resources and knowledge of an entire galaxy could ever hope to possess. Q2: Will ecological disasters and climate change be possible on planets? A2: We're hoping to implement systems that simulate pollution based on how many industrial facilities are constructed on a planet without building environment-friendly structures. We also hope to have disasters that break out on planets which would take the form of PvE style events, such as an outbreak of rebellious robots or a giant Godzilla-like creature attacking one of your cities. Q3: Are there any plans for terraforming to be implemented? A3: To some extent, yes, but we can't confirm how much we'll be able to do with this until we know more about the final state of planetary generation and how modifiable it will be whilst remaining stable. Q4: Will we be able to build massive artificial ring worlds, planets or dyson spheres? A4: There's definitely a possibility for superstructures such as these to be added as late-game goals for highly developed civilizations. However we still have a long way to go and we need to focus on the most vital parts of the game for release, so these features should be expected as long-term goals rather than release build content. Q5: Will we be able to capture enemy ships? A5: Absolutely! Once ship interiors are implemented (probably after release though) you will be able to board vessels and battle with its crew to either sabotage their systems or commandeer their ship. If you successfully capture a ship, you'll be able to take it back to port and store it as one of your own. *However* since you don't technically own it, you won't have access to ship replacement services in the event of its destruction, so be sure to use the opportunity wisely! 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! Don’t worry, we don’t bite! Hello everyone! Welcome to the thirty-ninth issue of the RoVerse Development Newsletter, where we keep you updated on the progress we've made over the past week! This week, Galbotrix has been streaming his work on the industrial station interior as a strong return to active development! He has put a lot of time and effort into his work this week, and it really shows. We look forward to joining him on more of his streams! Galbotrix's passion for engaging with the community is very invigorating and we can definitely look forward to more excellent work from him! Here are some pictures, for those of you who weren't able to catch the stream: Galbotrix even went so far as to start the layouts for every industrial module for the future, so he may go back through to add detail to the already finished designs. While incomplete, they are very impressive and we look forward to showing them off in the future! This week Idyllic has been working on fixing planetary generation systems to allow for the full-scale generation of planets in ROBLOX. Apparently, there was a memory leak preventing the upload of the planets, however Idyllic has reported that he has found a possible solution, and we look forward to being able to take the first step on his planets! It will be a giant leap for ROBLOXian kind! 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 joystick support? A1: We've talked before about supporting controllers, and the answer is it is still up in the air - while we'd definitely like to support the use of joysticks for flying ships, it may make other things, like inventory management either much harder for the user, or significantly more work for us, creating menus that work with limited inputs. Q2: Are there plans to get around the ROBLOX chat filter limitations without violating ROBLOX's terms? A2: We intend to do the best we can when it comes to working with Roblox's requirements, which includes using their chat filter on user communications. Hopefully by release, the censor has been refined enough to not restrict communications between users. Information submitted to the developers as a part of the group application, will be added to the game in a different way, and may be more flexible. Q3: Can I be a race of octapedal spider? A3: We fully intend to support whatever character lore and designs the community comes up with, but it will probably be limited to humanoid shaped, just for balancing and fairness issues - a giant spider might have a hard time handling weapons, and would be a much bigger target. If you were, say, a race of humanoid-spider hybrids, with the spare legs folded into your back or something, that might work out. Q4: Will ships be able to run at lightspeed? A4: Warp gates have already been discussed, used to jump large distances quickly, but lightspeed for arbitrary movement is another thing altogether. Star systems will be quite large, and being able to quickly move around would be great, but you have to keep in mind, moving a large object in space would take a lot of expensive, expensive fuel, so much that it would probably only be available on large ships. Q5: Will I be able to fill a capital ship full of explosives and ram it into a city? A5: I wouldn't say that you could fill a ship with explosives, but a large ship crashing accidentally would probably make a pretty big explosion all its own. 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! Don’t worry, we don’t bite! Hello everyone! Welcome to the thirty-eighth issue of the RoVerse Development Newsletter, where we keep you updated on the progress we've made over the past week! We have some interesting news about one of our devs, whom we haven't heard from in a while - Onigo's apartment got broken into and his PC was stolen, but thanks to rent insurance, he'll be back in business in no time. And with a new computer to boot! Rex has been very busy this week creating a variety of new elements for ground outposts, including several versions of gun nests and guard towers, as well as completed a hangar, and begun work on a command post. Keep in mind, these modules serve as generic outpost pieces, where clans will supply custom designs to set their outposts apart. Wouldn't want the galaxy to be too symmetrical! This week, IdyllicDestroyer has continued work on the planets, successfully generating them smooth terrain as a proof-of-concept at 1% scale. When planets are completed, they will be gigantic, and require significant time to generate all the details at the resolution that we want, so for now, these small-scale demos prove that the concept is entirely attainable. He even managed to create a 25% scale version, that is very low quality, but gives us a better impression of what the planets will look like when completed. We can't wait to see what he comes up with in the next few weeks! Its certainly unlike anything I've seen on Roblox before! 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: Roughly how large will a planet be compared to a Robloxian? A1: With planets, the target we are aiming for is for the player to be able to see the horizon at all times, and give the surface the feel of a real world, not just a baseplate inside a sphere mesh. Because of the limits of the Roblox platform, and the far camera clipping at around 4,000 studs away from the camera, we have chosen the rough size of planets to be a radius of about 10,000 studs, with some randomization thrown in. This will allow a significant view distance (approx. 8,000 studs), with the rest of the planet falling away around the curve of the planet, not visible anyway. Q2: Will we be able to create underwater cities? A2: Underwater cities are a staple of futurism and sci-fi, and I'm sure more than one clan out there would like to write them into their lore. I would say yes, building cities underwater would be a cool way to distinguish a clan, and will almost certainly be a part of RoVerse planets. Of course, the cities would have to be designed to look in-place underwater, with a dome or some other underwater theme - we can't just build any old city underwater, now can we? But beware, there may be creatures in the deep just looking for a tasty meal! Q3: How will water on planets be generated? A3: In the early testing phase for generating planets, when we were trying to decide whether to make planets out of triangles or smooth terrain, this question came up - smooth terrain water offers unmatched physics properties, but had one flaw. When generating a sphere of water, around the 45 degree mark, water begins to stair-step over voxels. This problem proved unsolvable in a satisfactory manner, so smooth terrain water was out of the question. So the current plans are for a sphere mesh around the planet scaled to water level, and custom physics for anything that will interact with the surface, or underwater, like vehicles and players. Q4: What is the purpose of my life? A4: This is a hard question to answer, mostly because I don't know a thing about the person who asked it. But I will say this - life is the greatest opportunity that you have ever been granted, and there is a vast, uncaring universe out there that only deals in chance - the chances that any of us would ever come to exist are infinitesimal, but the fact that we did is a miracle - so just do what you want to do, and enjoy every minute of your short, exciting existence. 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 and IdyllicDestroyer Hello everyone! Welcome to the thirty-seventh issue of the RoVerse Development Newsletter, where we keep you updated on the progress we’ve made over the past week! We hope you all enjoyed our joke today, and we have a bit of content to get out to you guys this week, as well as a bit of internal discussion regarding a topic we had not actually thought much on until today. (If you happened to miss our April Fools newsletter, you can take a look here: https://forum.roblox.com/Forum/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=213267615) This week, Rex has been brought back to the world of the living and immediately began work on the barracks and some of the turrets. He managed to completely finish the interior, exterior, and the first of many land-based turrets necessary for planetary conquest! The barracks, as shown below, is a basic spawn location in a city or military outpost, and is integral in the defense of a planet. While the barracks is small, sturdy and reinforced, it has some homeliness with some windows to let in natural lights and a few tables and comfortable beds for the soldiers to rest each night and think of their homes and families they are protecting! (Or not.)
In other news, Vaktus was able to join us this week to define our plans to make cities integral to gameplay, and gave us the fully system through which cities are able to be conquered and offer very valuable insight on the conquest of planets! Cities will have a measurable population that automatically grows over time (and is not based on the size of a group) and will serve as a way for clans to mark territory of a planet as their own! When a city is constructed, it starts as a small colony of a few buildings and gradually grows into a massive city over time, with buildings being constructed by complex scripts that correlate with the population. A cities growth is not only a visual aspect to add depth to the game, though! Each city will produce constant points towards a clan's treasury, and a higher population means more points going into the treasury, meaning using all possible space on a planet is ideal, and controlling multiple planets is even more ideal! Cities will also have a specific territory associated with them which can be viewed in planetary 'map'. This map will show the player the entire planet, where they can drag the planet and orbit it from outside the atmosphere, much like a satellite. Players will be able to zoom in and out of specific locations, and more importantly will be able to toggle territory mode, which will show the expansion of controlled territory from each city on the planet. Now, once a system is completely conquered by an attacking clan, and they wish to start claiming the planet, this territory system will come into play. In order to start placing their own cities, the attackers must find land that is not covered by enemy territory, meaning that they must start attacking and destroying cities! This will not be easy, however, especially if the clan defending is passionate about their planet, as they will still be able to spawn in their controlled cities even if you control the space above, meaning that the battle for a system can rage on for days, weeks and in some cases even months after the space has been claimed above. To completely claim the planet, you must attack each city and town, slowly destroying buildings and decreasing the population of each city to a certain amount, where you will be able to build a command post to claim the city, or you can continue to completely decimate the city entirely and build a new one in your name! While building the command post, it still has to be defended for the several hours by the invaders and even then can be destroyed and the city can be reclaimed by the defenders. This makes conquering homeworlds incredibly difficult, while snagging the outer rims of each galactic empire much easier. 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: Can you use immense stations to mine large asteroids and asteroid belts, instead of ships? A1: This has definitely been something we've thought about, but we don't want the economy to become too automated and leave players twirling their thumbs all day waiting for resources to pile up automatically. It's still very possible you'll be seeing buildable structures which enhance resource harvesting in the local area. Q2: Roughly how big will asteroids be, and what variation will there be in size? A2: The variation in asteroid sizes will be very wide indeed. Thanks to the procedural generation of the RoVerse galaxy, asteroid fields will consist mostly of small to medium sized asteroids, however you will sometimes encounter truly huge asteroids that can act as landmarks and strategically advantageous positions for outposts and fleets. Q3: Can you create large solar-energy collecting stations? A3: Yes you can! When you own an outpost you get to decide what modules to construct as part of it. So, say you wish to focus your station around energy/fuel generation - you'd create a massive array of energy farm modules to harvest the solar-energy and plenty of cargo modules to store all those energy cells. Soon enough you'll find yourself in a very profitable position, but whether you decide to sell to the public as a popular fuel stop along the hyper-lanes, or sell to specific factions you wish to back the expansion of, or simply keep it all for yourself as a private stockpile in case the space apocalypse comes! Q4: Will there ever be a public-development Trello so we can track progress? A4: Quite possible, though this would only be after the majority of development has been completed for RoVerse. We don't want people to get too excited so early on in development, neither do we want to confuse people on what each feature means. It'll be much clearer for us to take the project step by step, and reveal more of our plans for future features after we have a solid foundation laid. 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 |