Hello everyone! Welcome to the 202nd issue of the RoVerse Development Newsletter, where we keep you updated on the progress we've made over the past week. This week, Idyllic worked on the menu revamp, particularly the turret modification menu, rigged up a selection of Default Capital ships for the upcoming update, and made a few tweaks to existing features. You all know by now that the Avenger will be representing Medium Capitals in the Capital Update by now, but here is the rest of the starting lineup. Starting with the Small Capital, the Bolitho may not have the most nor the most powerful guns, but what it does have is a well-dispersed field of fire thanks to the widely-spaced turrets mounted around the hull, and it makes the most of its small size by moving faster than the bulky ships of the larger classes. It's a classic, and has been the test-bed of most of the Capital features coming soon. It is the Avenger. It boasts a powerful 18-turret loadout covering all angles, and its hangar space makes it an excellent ship to carry your fleet of star fighters to the battlefront. Not the most agile ship, but its armor makes up for it, keeping it in the fight. As a ship that has been quietly waiting to make its combat debut, the Protector is a Large Capital with a very distinct ring shape, a plethora of guns of all sizes, and a surprising amount of speed for its size. The current plan is to start with these three ships, and over time add in additional Faction Capitals, and other default Capitals once the initial balancing has been worked out. Making sure that just picking the biggest ship isn't the most viable battle strategy for all situations is important. We want small Capitals to be able to do some damage while out-maneuvering the bigger and slower ships, but not so much that the Large Capitals can't do serious damage. We'll keep you posted on our progress. The community dogfight continued again this week, with members of the community coming together to blast each other out of the sky. Here are a selection of screenshots from the event - send in your own if you have them. Join us next week at 8pm EST and earn double credits for the duration. On to the dogfight - this week, there were 463 kills, 193 with beam, 152 with laser, 57 with plasma, 47 with auto, 14 with railgun, and 0 with torpedo. The most dangerous ship was the Excalibur, with 171 kills, followed by the Washi-0 1 with 123. The most dangerous map was Citadel with 130 deaths, followed by Citadel with 106. And now, the moment you've been waiting for... The three players that topped the leaderboard were FangABXY, with 123 kills and 67 deaths and a 1.83 KDR; Phaytox with 41 kills, 45 deaths, and a .91 KDR; and IdyllicDestroyer with 39 kills, 52 deaths, and a .75 KDR. Nice work pilots, you've earned the cycle-exclusive ship Stratus Squall! If you'd like to check out the rest of our data, you can find the spreadsheet here: Phase 1 Data (Week 46) 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 dock fighters to other small ships? A1: Unlikely. Fighters will only be able to dock in the hangars of Capital ships or at stations or outposts, or land on planets. Q2: Will ricochet be in the next update? A2: Certainly. The deflection of certain projectile types is an important aspect of capital weaponry. 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 201st 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 hard at work coding the UI refresh, working out the new menu system. Let's take a look at some of the progress pics. First up is the main menu, where players will spend most of their time. Options include a quick loadout-switching menu, and buttons for editing the ship and switching the ship like you're used to, just a bit more obvious. Switching ships will now allow you to switch between your currently selected Fighter, and independently select which Capital you would like to use in the next Capital-enabled gamemode. Editing your ship will now directly give you the available options, allowing you to switch skins from the main menu, instead of being hidden three levels down. Last up is the shop layout, with a state-of-the-art scrolling frame holding a plethora of Watermelon ship skins. There are a few things left to complete in the menus, most importantly a custom icon to replace the hideous unicode checkmark, along with code for a few more menus, loadouts, and the shop. The turret-editing menu is going to be renovated as well, in a style that will match the mod-editing menu. Stay tuned for more updates. The RoVerse Community Dogfight event was back with a vengeance this week, with quite a few players dropping by for a special triple credit event. Players got to check out the newly-added skyboxes for a few of the dogfight maps, while creating their very own field of ship debris. On to the dogfight - this week, there were 200 kills, 66 with laser, 61 with beam, 40 with auto, 25 with plasma, 5 with railgun, and 3 with torpedo. The most dangerous ship was the Excalibur, with 95 kills, followed by the Gladiator with 29. The most dangerous map was Ecumenopolis with 54 deaths, followed by Frostland with 36. And now, the moment you've been waiting for... The three players that topped the leaderboard were devOmegax, with 29 kills and 29 deaths and a 1 KDR; FangABXY with 28 kills, 15 deaths and a 1.86 KDR; and TheCandyManVan with 27 kills, 12 deaths, and a 2.25 KDR. Nice work pilots, you've earned the cycle-exclusive ship Stratus Squall! If you'd like to check out the rest of our data, you can find the spreadsheet here: Phase 1 Data (Week 45) 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: Mobile buildings? A1: See Vehicles. Q2: Can we destroy missiles if we manage to hit them with our regular weapons? A2: That's sorta the whole point of flak turrets, and removing the thing that makes them special has the potential to make them useless. Q3: Will factions be able to submit custom Capital ships? A3: Of course. We'll have a guide out soon for all the information you'll need to submit your faction Capitals and get them added to the game. Since they're rigged the same way a fighter is, build format should be the same - the major difference being the stat categories, which still need to be pinned down. Q4: Will there be cup-holders in spaceships? A4: I assume only the finest ships available from the most exclusive shipbuilding companies will have such a luxury item available for their passengers. 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 200th issue of the RoVerse Development Newsletter, where we keep you updated on the progress we've made over the past week. This week, Idyllic began turning ideas into reality with regards to the UI renovation we have undertaken as we approach the Capital Update, and Skinny has been designing brand-new state-of-the-art skyboxes for the different sectors of space. First up, are a selection of Skinny's new skyboxes - starting with the Wastes. Before: After: The various dogfight maps we have created so far have been spaced out across the galaxy - that way, we never are making assets that aren't needed for the full game. At this point, we have a dogfight map in every sector except the badlands and the abyss. Next up, the Ether... Before: After: and lastly, The Great Hollow... There isn't a before, since Pillarum was the red-themed map, but that takes place in a special Ninazu pocket of space, not the generic Great Hollow systems, so some imagination is required. Solving the skybox puzzle turned out to be half the fun. The program that exported these skyboxes would pick a random front face, meaning every time skinny made a change and re-uploaded, the sides of the box switched around. But after carefully piecing them back together, he got them working just right. Idyllic has been working on building out the UI we showed concepts of last week. We now have rough layouts for the main menu... the edit options menu... and the edit ship options menu. Once the menus are finalized, he'll be jumping into coding the new menus. A new Roblox feature was recently released - atmospheres. As a vast improvement on the flexibility of fog in games, Atmospheres allow better control over a variety of settings as well as working in situations the original Roblox fog did not. We'll be messing around with this new feature to see how we can best use it for RoVerse. Below is an early test involving Hyperion Station and a bit of spooky lighting. It goes to show how something as simple as a bit of darkness in the corners of a space can drastically change the atmosphere of a build. Ideally, we'll be able to use this new fog to improve biomes on planets. We've also had a chance to crunch the numbers on the 2020 RoVerse Community Egg Hunt. Overall, there were 102 unique participants in the hunt that at least visited Hyperion Station. 65 eggs were collected at the station - 28 egg of NPC, 15 egg of the cube, and 13 egg of the rock and egg of maximus. With about 100 participants, the success rate of each egg is pretty much the number of people who collected it as a percent - 28% being the highest. The faction eggs were a bit harder to come by, with 8 collections of the artifegg, and 6 egg of Noxheim. In total, 10 players collected all 4 station eggs, while only 4 players have collected Jubilation in the Dogfight. As for the Calexian eggs, 6 players collected the technoloegg, 6 collected the corrupted egg, 5 the securegg, and 5 the mystifying egg, earning the Sails of Cheer. There was also a secret ship, the Golden Lepus, available in the Calexian addition, which 5 people collected. Time to take those brand-new ships out for a spin in the RoVerse Dogfight! On to the dogfight - this week, there were 246 kills, 88 with auto, 55 with laser, 46 with beam, 32 with plasma, 21 with railgun, and 4 with torpedo. The most dangerous ship was the Excalibur, with 134 kills, followed by the Squall with 62. The most dangerous map was The Great Hollow with 50 deaths, followed by Pillarum with 42. And now, the moment you've been waiting for... The three players that topped the leaderboard were JakorKilludge, with 72 kills and 57 deaths and a 1.26 KDR; FangABXY with 36 kills, 8 deaths and a 4.5 KDR; and rileytw with 25 kills, 14 deaths, and a 1.78 KDR. Nice work pilots, you've earned the cycle-exclusive ship Stratus Squall! If you'd like to check out the rest of our data, you can find the spreadsheet here: Phase 1 Data (Week 44) 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 take people prisoner on ships? A1: Unlikely. There is the potential for arresting players in stations or on planets, but there aren't many situations where someone in a spaceship would rather surrender than fight to the death. Q2: Will RoVerse be able to support 200 player servers? A2: That is entirely up to Roblox. We will do our best to optimize gameplay to work with as many ships as possible, but the bottleneck for large servers quickly becomes network capacity. Too many people sending updates on positions and firing weapons, and chatting, bogs the Roblox server down. We'll do the best we can on our end, the rest is up to the talented engineers at Roblox. Q3: Will explorers get prospecting tools to find ore deposits on planets? A3: Much like in space, explorers will have access to a range of equipment to locate and identify the ores available in a system, from long-range belt-scanning modules to short range locator beams, finding ore won't always rely on visual identification alone. 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 199th issue of the RoVerse Development Newsletter, where we keep you updated on the progress we've made over the past week. This week in May is always a busy one, with school wrapping up and summer vacation just around the corner. This week was especially busy for our very own IdyllicDestroyer, who had the honor of graduating this week. So instead of looking back at what we've done this week in this newsletter, we're going to look ahead at what is coming up. Phase 2 of the Capital Update is right around the corner, and we'd like to go over what that is going to entail. The most obvious part of the Capital Update is the Capital ships. We have been working on the Capital ship mechanics for quite a while at this point, as they are going to be some of the most important vessels for Faction combat. Anyone in RoVerse can build and deploy a fighter, but it will take extreme organizational skills and a large amount of teamwork to build and deploy fleets of these awe-inspiring vehicles. Those of you who tune in to these newsletters each week have probably seen the various demo gifs of Capitals in action as we slowly add features to them, like warp effects and capital turret mounts. After a few false starts, and some big changes to how we approached them, they are finally in a place we like them. Built off the very same code the fighters are, they are simple to switch out in any situation. Down the road, this will make them easier to maintain, as we won't need separate code for fighters and capitals to do things like deploy from stations, or replicate in-game. But how will we add them to the Dogfight Alpha? This was something we've thought long and hard over - simply allowing anyone to select a Capital ship the have purchased at any time would lead to some very lopsided gamemodes. Imagine King of the Hill with a Capital parked squarely in the middle... horrible. Instead, there will be specific gamemodes where they are available. The first gamemode to be added will be simple and straightforward - every player gets a Capital, last one standing wins. Instead of deploying into your fighter, you will be spawned in your pre-selected Capital ship of choice. Subsequent gamemodes will shake things up, like a juggernaut round where it's one against all. Over time we'll keep adding important features, like spawning fighters at friendly capital hangars. With big updates like Phase 2, there is also the opportunity to make those changes you've been putting off for another time. Issues that have come up, and just haven't been important enough, or are too big, to tackle piecemeal. Specifically, we've had a UI issue for quite some time. The Hangar menus are sufficient to play the game with, but they aren't easy to use for first time players. Finding a new ship or mounting weapons just isn't as intuitive as we'd like. Rather than just slap a tutorial on it and telling them step by step what to do, we decided a renovation was in order. So Idyllic spent some time drawing up an 'ideal' version of the UI, complete with each successive menu, and access to all the features we have, as well as those features we plan on adding in the near future. Rather than a hidden button in the corner that says 'edit ship' or a completely invisible button to switch ships, these two features are going to be brought front and center. Clicking edit wont take you directly to the edit turret menu, but instead a middle menu where you are given the choice to edit weapons, ship mods (when added), skins, and also a way to access the shop for these items. Currently, each of these items requires you to go one level deeper, making the furthest option extremely inconvenient to access. Also, a recent change to turrets switched them over to a one-time purchase, making most of the edit turret menu redundant. This would have required a re-write anyway, so why not improve the experience while we're at it. This is also the chance to add a few things off our wish list that have been on our radar for some time, like a way to save weapon loadouts. An easy enough feature to code, but something that would require some UI edits, which usually ends up very time consuming. While we're retrofitting the UI, we will be making a few other changes to various things like the leaderboard and chat, to make them a bit clearer. Knowing how to do things without having to ask, and knowing what's going on in-game at a glance are important features of any game. Further features will be added over time as we complete them, including an Outpost gamemode, turret weight classes, and a much wider variety of turret types. Ship skins are well on their way, just waiting for a shop to purchase them to be completed. And who doesn't want to fly a watermelon across the stars? With these features running and ready to go, we'll be pivoting to work on the much-anticipated Freeroam. We'll have more information about what that entails in a future newsletter. And now that school is wrapped up for the year, our devs will have a bit more time to invest in RoVerse, each week bringing us closer to the completed game. This week, there were 101 kills, 73 with laser, 20 with beam, 5 with railgun, 2 with torpedo, and 1 with auto. The most dangerous ship was the Excalibur, with 84 kills, followed by the Hex with 17. The most dangerous map was Ecumenopolis with 38 deaths, followed by Frostland with 36. And now, the moment you've been waiting for... The three players that topped the leaderboard were JakorKilludge, with 67 kills and 3 deaths and a 22.33 KDR; Alpharon with 13 kills, 4 deaths and a 3.25 KDR; and ownxcmd with 6 kills, 6 deaths, and a 1 KDR. Nice work pilots! If you'd like to check out the rest of our data, you can find the spreadsheet here: Phase 1 Data (Week 43) 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 RoVerse be monetized? A1: We hold the firm stance that nothing that affects gameplay should ever be monetized. If we want to create a fair playing field for factions to do battle on, allowing someone to purchase an advantage is absolutely out of the questions. However, we will be selling aesthetic things, like skins, to get a little funding. The recently-released Premium Payouts feature should definitely help the dev team in that department. Q2: Do the devs recommend building with unions or meshes? A2: In most cases, it really doesn't matter which one you choose. We mesh all of the ships that are submitted during the rigging process, so build ships with whatever suits you and we'll worry about the rest. Q3: Will we need multiple crew members for a tank? A3: Unlikely. Like fighters, vehicles should be able to be piloted by one player, while carrying others in the back. Q4: Will we be able to add secondary machine guns to vehicles? A4: A full workup on ground vehicles will be hashed out when planets are a bit more complete. At the moment, I don't see any reason not to - armored patrol is an excellent game to make mechanics similar to. 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 198th issue of the RoVerse Development Newsletter, where we keep you updated on the progress we've made over the past week. This week has been a busy one for our devs, with final exams and presentations, but we managed to work out a few things. Skinny has been working steadily on meshing our extensive list of ships, Idyllic has rigged up a new faction ship, and we have made some changes to the Alpha Dogfight in preparation for the Capital Update. First up we have the Kiengir Zi'il class light fighter, brought to you by Onigo. A change that has already been made to the Alpha Dogfight is that all turret mounting costs have been reduced to 0. After thorough review and communication with our community, we have determined that charging players to change their loadouts - while accurate to the eventual game mechanics - are less than enjoyable in the arcade format of the dogfight. With that in mind we have reduced the cost for the base version of each turret, while future variants and additions will cost a few credits to unlock, but will be available from then on, rather than the pay-each-time system we had previously. So head to the dogfight and try out that loadout you've always wanted to try! And let us know what you think. Skinny has been hard at work meshing each and every ship that has been added to the dogfight in a very intensive process of exporting, editing, and re-importing. Unfortunately he didn't have any current pictures of this process, but we wanted to give you all a status update regardless. This coming week is your last chance to complete the RoVerse Community Egg Hunt before all the eggs float back to the dimension from whence they came. Solve puzzles, escape mazes, find clues, and unlock several exclusive ships before they're gone forever. The weekly Community Dogfight Event continued this week. Members of the Community and abroad got together to blast each other to bits in the chase towards the top of the leaderboard and the chance to win this cycle's exclusive reward ship. This week, we had several dedicated pilots arrive for the fun - here are some action-shots for those who couldn't make it. If you have cool screenshots on your end, we'd love to add them to the collection. With this week marking the beginning of the 7th cycle, it is time to reveal the newest cycle-exclusive ship available only to the top three players each week. Introducing the Stratus Squall. Cut through the clouds in style with the latest high-tech weapons platform. Built as a multi-purpose frame to support a variety of tasks from precision strikes to escort missions, this fighter will serve its pilot to the end of the line. This week, there were 162 kills, 97 with beam, 38 with laser, 15 with plasma, 8 with railgun, and 4 with torpedo. The most dangerous ship was the Washi-1_0, with 56 kills, followed by the Excalibur with 55. The most dangerous map was Citadel with 60 deaths, followed by Frostland with 53. And now, the moment you've been waiting for... The three players that topped the leaderboard were FangABXY, with 74 kills and 30 deaths and a 2.46 KDR; Arieox with 33 kills, 25 deaths and a 1.32 KDR; and IdyllicDestroyer with 20 kills, 44 deaths, and a 0.45 KDR. Nice work pilots! If you'd like to check out the rest of our data, you can find the spreadsheet here: Phase 1 Data (Week 42) 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 planetary landing pads restrict undesirables from entering? A1: Landing pads themselves wont defend themselves from undesirables, but you may be able to construct defensive turrets nearby. There is also the possibility for secure storage of ships in hangars, if they're going to remain unused for some time. Q2: How are the devs doing? Are they happy with their lives right now, and are they earning a decent pay for themselves? Have they been eating well and watch over their health? A2: Legomada - I'm working on my final year project. Apparently there's this quarantine thing going on but I wouldn't know anything about that, I don't have time to be going outside. Stratiz - I JUST MADE PLANE BOTS I stayed up all night Making bots for my aerial combat game Idyllic - I'm doing well, wrapping up a school year at long last. Juszl - I got covid but i didnt die :floss: 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 |