NEWS
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Hello everyone! Welcome to the forty-fifth 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 quite a bit to show off from our team, and we especially look forward to showing off Vedrakkerous' work! We have received a lot of information on the planet status from Idyllic this week. He has said that the main setback for planetary generation is the time it takes to generate roughly 600 planets in low and high detail separately. We are switching from Vector3Values for the parameter storage of continents, wind, elevation, etc. in favor of a table format, which will allow all information to be accessed in a less intensive manner, therefore speeding up the generation process. Idyllic has also been constantly going back and forth to time planetary generation to find the slowest processes, and has generated the following timetable!
All of these numbers narrow down to a total time of 2.2 hours, which is still far too long for the galactic scale we are looking for, however this is definitely down from the 4 days it took to generate high detail planets in the past! RexPatriot has also been hard at work getting the Research Center finished after studying several concepts we've sent him, and he has come out with yet another stunning product that captures the feel of a high-tech laboratory! With the massive satellite on top, you can imagine a network of these structures working together to improve and synchronize tests with the top-of-the-line orbital relay technology, all working in tangent to produce an end product across the planet!      This week, Vedrakkerous has been hard at work setting up the grayscale nebula images so that he can generate plenty of nebulae using various colors, and with the recent Color3 support update he is now able to generate thousands of nebulae using a large set of various textures and an absolutely stunning array of colors to blend and make each nebula completely unique! Space clouds have never been more exciting! Grayscale individual textures:  Multi-layer Color3 Demonstration  Layering Demonstration  Color3 on a single layer  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 we be able to fly our ships into Gas Giants? A1: Spaceships are designed for a specific location, usually space. Shields would theoretically have a hard time operating in-atmosphere, where a ship would constantly be colliding with particles, and, at this point, we think we will use this as the basis for restricting both ship flights close to the surface of rocky planets, and as a limiting factor for gas giants. Now that's not to say that you won't be able to fly into them at all, it just might take a lot a power to your shields to stay there for long. Q2: How many bases will a clan be able to establish on a planet? A2: So recently, a member of our discord community did the math on the surface area of the average planet that we have planned - with a radius of 4,000 studs, each planet would have around 200,000,000 square studs of surface area. That's a lot of room - so you should be able to establish as many bases as you would like, so you can have a quick response to any attacks. Just don't put them too close to each other, or they might make an easy target for orbital bombardment! Q3: Will we be able to buy in-game 'stock' within businesses starting out in Ro Verse? A3: We haven't quite nailed down how businesses will work, but running a stock market on top of that would be extremely complicated. I wouldn't look for it in the initial release, but depending on how businesses work out, it might be implemented at a later point. I can imagine giving employees a cut of the profits might encourage them to defend your fleets, or investing in mineral acquisition could make you a millionaire. Q4: With all this talk about planets, is RoVerse no longer a space game? A4: RoVerse is very much still about exploring star systems, giant space battles between fleets of star ships, and the conflict and politics of a larger galaxy, planets just happen to be a cool part of the picture, both as a backdrop for conflicts as well as part of the economy, and the lore of clans. Big empty voids are only so much fun, but without landmarks, players lose interest fast. Also, we talk a lot about planets because we currently have a lot of progress being made on them every week, while the systems for star systems and space are less pretty at the moment. Look for more work from Vedrakkerous, as he completes more nebula effects and other space-based stuff. 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! ~Written by Aleuvian ~Edited by IdyllicDestroyer Hello everyone! Welcome to the forty-fourth 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 resolving some major roadblocks with planetary generation time, continued structures and concept work from RexPatriot, and a new member of the team to introduce! Idyllic has been running into major issues with the generation time for each planet and how impractical it tends to become. As we plan on over two-hundred systems with at least one planet per system, and with the odds of us choosing the minimum number for each being very small, the time simply ends up taking far too long, even with several computers working simultaneously. The first step to reducing the time it takes to generate planets is to reduce duplicate points of generation, which in turn smooths out the overall terrain. Before:  After:  RexPatriot has been busy at work this week developing a new planetary factory, which will likely be converted to a civilian factory designed to produce commercial goods from the planet's resources. He has also been brainstorming concept designs for the research center and research posts, and now has a general idea to work to make the provided concepts a reality for next week, and we look forward to seeing what he comes up with! The factory exterior:  The factory interior:  And finally, we would like to introduce our newest member to the team; Vedrakkerous. He is an incredibly talented builder and an absolute wizard with particle effects, and he is an active and very dedicated member of the community who we are happy to work with! Currently, Vedrakkerous is working on nebula generation with particle effects, atmospheric effects, and generally all other fine details to enhance the game further! His work-in-progress images are absolutely stunning, and we look forward to showing off his work next week! 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 we be able to fly larger ships in first and third person by choice? A1: We absolutely intend to fully support cockpit and/or bridge view alongside the external ship view, although this does depend on the limitation to the ROBLOX engine. Q2: Will large ships have segments that can be destroyed to weaken it? A2: Yes, capital ships will have modular damage systems, meaning you will be able to target specific parts in order to damage it in particular ways. For example, destroying the engines completely will make the ship unable to move until they are repaired. Q3: Will all space stations have at least some defenses, or will the military stations be the only ones with weapons on them? A3: All stations will have auto turrets for some light defense, however military stations will be much more durable and have much more powerful defenses. The owner may also deploy defense platforms for extra defense. Q4: How valuable will spice actually be relative to other resources in the galaxy? A4: Good question - just like all other commodities in the economy, prices will go up and down over time depending on the market, but generally it will be like gold dust! (There's even the possibility it may be used to craft unique health-refilling consumables) Q5: What planned strategic resources will be in the galaxy? Will each sector of the galaxy have it's own inherent resource to add strategy to claiming different regions and force trade? A5: Each star system has a primary planet type which offers specific resources based on which type of planet it is. For example, ocean worlds will have exotic fish that would never be found in star systems with a desert primary planet. Q6: Will trade be required for an empire to survive? A6: Technically no, however it would be difficult for an empire to acquire as many resources as other factions if they are not open to trading for those resources. It would also mean a very profitable source of income for the nation being taken out of the picture, so if that empire would want to gain as many resources as other factions, it would need to do a lot of conquering! Q7: Will there be a kill feed for each server? A7: If there will be a kill feed, it will only show kills in your nearby area. After all, we don't want to break your immersion by having your screen filled with text about battles you don't even know are ongoing. Q8: Will we be able to make weapons that can only be used by certain races? A8: Ships, weapons and equipment that belong to a faction's military can only be used by members of that faction's military. As for player corporations producing weapons, we hope to include a filter for the owner to select who has access to their outpost's equipment dealer. Though, we still need to advance further along in the coding process before we can give definite answers on that. 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! ~Written by Aleuvian ~Questions by Vaktus ~Edited by IdyllicDestroyer Hello everyone! Welcome to the forty-third issue of the RoVerse Development Newsletter, where we keep you updated on the progress we've made over the past week! We've got a lot of cool pictures coming this week - our space station and outpost builders have been hard at work, now that the summer is upon us! Andross has gotten back to work on the space station interior - you may remember seeing some photos quite a while ago. Now he's gotten some themed restaurant areas and space-juice bars done. There's the droid-themed bar:  A lovely seating area, for the odd conversation:  An "Old West" themed bar that might give WoodReviewer nightmares:  And last but not least, a tiki bar:  We look forward to seeing more and more of the station come to life! Also getting some more work done this week was RexPatriot, with his completed Command Post that we showed you the start of last week. The Exterior:  Mortar Deck:  Second Floor:  First Floor:  On the planetary front, we've run into a major roadblock, but we think there is a solution to the problem. The problem, of course, is time. To create the extremely detailed planet surfaces that we dreamed of, using the Roblox engine to generate everything has begun to take an excessive amount of time. For example, the highest-detail planet that we've shown in the newsletter is a 5-step subdivision icosphere, and to generate that level of detail, it takes 4 days. For the level of detail we are looking for in the final game, that just won't do! There will be way too many planets to generate in time for release (whenever that will be), and so we are looking at other options. Luckily, the current code uses very few Roblox-specific functions making it nearly operable in Lua - if we move the generation code over to a strictly Lua implementation, we can generate the data that covers all the details of planets, and then import that data directly into Roblox. But the good news is, with a faster generation of planets, we will be able to do a lot more than we can now, planets will look a whole lot better, and we'll have them all ready by the time of release! Also, keep an eye on our Twitch channel, galbotrix likes to pull surprise streams throughout the week, you never know when he might be working on station interiors. 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: I don't have enough time to become a full-time dev, but I'd like to help out with making some models, is that possible? A1: Yes! RoVerse is primarily a clan-world project, so any help is welcomed. If you have anything you want to contribute, message us in the Community Discord, or message RoVerse_Official. In fact, when I (IdyllicDestroyer) first found this project, I only had a small amount of free time, and sent in a script I wanted to contribute, and look at me now, writing newsletters and making planets. Q2: Can I be a tester for this game? A2: We aren't currently looking for bug testers at this point, though closer to release we may ask those loyal members of the community discord to help us test things out. Our experience releasing the Dogfight Alpha was definitely an experience, and we will want the next release to be a bit smoother. Q3: Can we have sentient tanks as a race? A3: Now the lore of a clan is entirely up to them - if their background were to be a species of robots and automated machinery that came to life and formed a civilization, that could be cool. If you want to be a race of sentient tank, just so that everyone gets a free tank, I would think not. 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! ~Written by IdyllicDestroyer Hello everyone! Welcome to the forty-second issue of the RoVerse Development Newsletter, where we keep you updated on the progress we've made over the past week! This week we finally have some long overdue images of the chat system, news from Sae'Tzar and an update on the command center's progress! Let's start with most requested of these; the chat system! Lordrex has been busy at work improving, tweaking and gradually making the chat system much more efficient and aesthetically pleasing, and has managed to come out with a very nice design that we hope you all enjoy as much as we do!   The coding behind the GUIs are still a work in progress, of course, but the chat system is very aesthetically pleasing, fits with other UI elements and is as unobtrusive as possible to give players plenty of screen-space to blast their enemies! RexPatriot has begun full work on the planetary command center this week, and has taken a modular approach to the development, and plans to complete a segment each week so he can show off the progression of the structure from week to week! As a reminder, the commander center is the central military stronghold of an outpost, and will be perhaps the most important military structure in an outpost. This week, he has begun the outer wall designs and the first entrance hall, as seen below:  Sae'Tzar is working diligently to get more ships out when he is able to salvage his laptop's hard drive for use in a new computer. We look forward to his impending return to active development, and we especially look forward to his beautiful ship designs! 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 Planet Terrain be destructible by explosions, will it be editable by hand? A1: We want planets to be as immersive as possible - if a capital ship is bombarding the surface, but there is no left over crater, it would ruin the immersion. The plan right now, is for things to be locally destructible to a point, with bombs leaving craters that are only persistent to your server. Digging trenches and caves will take a bit more work, but we'l see if we can pull it off. Q2: Seeing the realistic planet generation system, will there be any alien-like planets with stuff like floating islands? A2: The realistic planet generator is only the first step of many in creating a unique and interesting galaxy to explore. Things like floating islands and xeno biomes are on the list of features for sure. If you have any concept art you really like, feel free to post it in the suggestions channel on the discord. Q3: Is RoVerse still looking for developers? A3: Yes! We are always looking for talented members of the community that want to help out in the creation of this expansive game. A wide variety of talents will be accepted, from builders to advanced scripters. Send an application over to RoVerse_Official on Roblox, and we'll get in contact. Q4: What sort of land vehicles should we look forward to? A4: I think we may have covered this a bit before, but you can look forward to quite a variety of vehicles - from offensive vehicles, like tanks and mobile artillery, to defensive mobile missile platforms and troop carriers, to civilian craft. 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! ~Written by Aleuvian ~Edited by IdyllicDestroyer |
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AuthorsVaktus: Leader of the Vaktovian Empire and head of the RoVerse Project |
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