Hello everyone! Welcome to the 180th 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 continued working on the Outpost Strike gamemode we talked about last newsletter, with significant progress on its functionality, and Dev Galbotrix has rejoined the dev team and has gotten right to work on remastering the default handheld weapon models he originally made for the game. First up we have the weapon remodels, visible here as a comparison between the old ones in the top row, and the new models in the bottom row. Since these guns were built, studio has changed significantly - the originals were built just after CSG arrived and was the hottest trend. It allowed some cool new designs, but was very inefficient with polygons. The new models have been built from triangles directly, for better control of aesthetics, and also reflect 2 years more practice on the part of the builder, Galbotrix. Here you can see the bizarre normal smoothing typical of CSG... ...and a much more respectable triangle design. When we last left the Outpost Strike gamemode, Idyllic had managed to get the outpost generator system working in a gamemode, generating a random outpost configuration every time a round began. This week was focused on getting the turrets firing, which involved both a bit of copy-paste from the Capital version, and a few tweaks to get them to work in this new scenario. In the Capital demo version, the anchor points for all the turrets were already placed, and the outpost was already generated. In this version, an outpost and its turrets are generated randomly, which required a bit of code and a bit of formatting on the modules. Formatting and additional code complete, the first test firing was promising. The turrets, all technically Conventional, could rotate and fire, but could not see any targets. So Idyllic set about modifying the code to work with the dogfight format of ships. That code, and a patch for a turret duplication bug, and the outpost was ready for another test. Success! The turrets can now track a target and fire at it! Next up is changing the turrets from Conventional, which is an anti-capital turret type, to Flak, an anti-fighter turret type. Flak bolts explode after a short period of time, spraying an area with shrapnel that shreds small spacecraft, making it exceptional for defending structures against squads of attack fighters. With the technical details figured out, we could turn off the flak damage indicators and see how they looked with just their effects. With a reddish skybox like the Pillarum map, flak effects are a little hard to see, but that should only add to the excitement and danger of attacking a fully armed and operational battle station. Next up is making the flak explosions damage fighters, and allow fighters to damage and destroy the outpost turrets. This week there were 65 kills, 31 with auto, 17 with beam, 16 with railgun, 15 with laser, 12 with plasma, and 4 with torpedoes. The top ship this week was a close race, with Excalibur narrowly edging out Shattered Wing, 26 to 25 kills. The Sentinel was also in the running at 23. Frostland was the most popular map this week, with 43 kills. The pilot topping the leaderboard this week is... Imaboss2122 with 35 kills, 3 deaths, and a 11.66 KDR. Keep it up! If you'd like to check out the rest of our data, you can find the spreadsheet here: Phase 1 Data (Week 24) 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: What countermeasures will ships have for countering homing missiles? A1: The primary counter to missiles in general are flak turrets. Much like they tear through fighters, flak explosions shred missiles in flight, destroying them before they reach their target. For fighters, their best bet for countering missiles will be fancy flying, with consumable flares coming in second. Q2: Will there be a doctor profession? A2: I'm sure combat medic will be a vital part of any military force in the planetary update. As for a doctor, healing the wounds and natural illnesses of time? Probably not. Q3: If two factions want to colonize a system, who gets control? A3: There's no one event that determines that one faction owns an entire system. It is a concerted effort of establishing infrastructure while destroying opposing forces that determines ownership, not pressing a button that says 'claim.' Battle it out or strike a deal, it's up to the two factions. For colonies specifically, two cities from different factions can exist on the same planet at once. Q4: Can Factions be added after the galaxy is initially colonized? A4: Of course! After the freeroam phase and the initial factions are added, there is nothing stopping new ones from popping up, but they will have to fight a bit harder for territory. 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 179th 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 a teaser of an upcoming gamemode Idyllic has been working on for the dogfight, that will make solo-play much more entertaining and worthwhile, as well as a few tweaks to existing faction ships that had rigging errors. The new gamemode, Outpost Strike, pits the player against a fully operational military outpost bristling with turrets ready to shoot them out of the sky. The player is tasked with targeting and destroying all the outpost's defenses in the time limit, which earns them kill and round rewards just like the multiplayer gamemodes. There are a few things to polish up before the mode is released, and a bit of testing required before this mode is released to the public, but as always, we'll keep you updated on our progress. Here's a throwback image of the system being tested on Capital ships in Newsletter #116... This week there were 623 kills, 360 with lasers, 88 with plasma, 72 with railgun, 56 with auto, 42 with beam, and 5 with torpedoes. The top ship this week was the Gladiator, with 136 kills, followed by the Excalibur with 93, and Retaliator with 65. 20 different ships were used in combat, and 21 players attained a kill this week. The most deadly map was The Wastes, with 151 kills, while Blue Spaceway was the least dangerous at 24 kills. The leader this week was devOmegax with 232 kills, 128 deaths, and a 1.81 KDR. Fantastic work pilots! If you'd like to check out the rest of our data, you can find the spreadsheet here: Phase 1 Data (Week 23) 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: Could we ever play part of the game on mobile to earn credits? A1: We don't currently have any plans for mobile support, the only potential is for a sort of companion app to give you live information. Q2: Will ships be destroyed if they block the entrance to a jumpgate? A2: Probably not, but they will get quite a nasty bump from the experience. No Holdo maneuvers in RoVerse. Q3: What is the largest ship that fits through a jumpgate? Can you make jumpgates too small for most ships? A3: Jumpgates will have to be a specific size, and even across the board for all factions. The largest ships that can use them are the XXLs, like Sphaera, while the largest class uses jump drives. Q4: Can I sell ships for more than they cost to build? A4: Of course. Players setting sale price is the backbone of our economy system. Q5: Will factions be able to lock jumpgates? A5: Unlikely. Locking the only system that allows players to travel from system to system is game-breaking. The better option is to allow factions to fortify those endpoints with stations and defenses, making travel along that route dangerous if you don't have clearance. Q6: Will factions start with money right away? A6: The game won't be giving factions any free startup money - all their resources will come from their hard work. Organizing mining fleets will be just as important as organizing combat units to the success of a faction. Q7: What are my options when it comes to designing ships to sell? A7: There are about 3 different ways of going about this. 1: donate ship designs to the dev team as Default ships available to everyone. 2: design ships to sell in-game for credits, without being a subfaction. 3: be a subfaction, sell designs, sell ships, get involved in politics, participate in the game directly. And as always, Merry Christmas from the RoVerse Development Team! 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 178th issue of the RoVerse Development Newsletter, where we keep you updated on the progress we've made over the past week. This week, our devs wrapped up their final exams and got right back to work. DaftCube streamed development of the testbench, and Idyllic finally got around to completing the ship rigging plugin. There are also a few more faction ships ready for flight. Let's go! The Equinox Interceptor The Constantine The Dal'jvikk series "Drummer" Just in time for the winter, a new map has appeared for the dogfight. Inspired by the frigid tundra and blinding snow, Frostland poses a brand new challenge for pilots, where visibility is limited and danger could lie around every turn. For the next few weeks, players can also enjoy double credits to earn those brand new ships a little faster. Idyllic's ship rigging plugin now properly reflects engine emitters, turret emplacements, and the newly added contrail attachments. Completing the plugin will speed up the rigging process for new faction ships significantly, and would have been a huge asset for the last 100 ships we had to rig. Better late than never, I suppose... This week there were 220 kills, 103 with lasers, 82 with autos, 16 with plasma, 15 with beam, and 2 with both railgun and torpedos. The top ship this week was the Alessa, with 72 kills, followed by the Excalibur with 48, and Curse of Knowledge with 41. The leader this week was ObscureVisage with 81 kills, 14 deaths, and a 5.78 KDR. Keep up the pace! If you'd like to check out the rest of our data, you can find the spreadsheet here: Phase 1 Data (Week 22) 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 anything be done for torpedoes poor performance? A1: We see nothing wrong at the moment with the performance of torpedoes. They are a specialty munition designed to counter large, slow, or stationary objects, not fast and nimble fighters. The fact anyone has managed to get kills with them is rather impressive. Q2: How would exploration be a viable occupation? A2: Besides being fun, we have plans for specific mechanics related to exploration to make it worthwhile in a monetary sense. Things like mapping resources or strange phenomena in systems, then selling that information to factions looking for good station locations. Q3: Will carriers be able to produce fighters to refill their inventory? A3: Unlikely. Shipyard stations are the major production hub for faction ships, and returning to them or another forward operating base will be required to restore fighter capacity. Q4: What is the most demonetization-worthy thing we can do in RoVerse? A4: Please dont, we don't want to get [content deleted] 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 177th issue of the RoVerse Development Newsletter, where we keep you updated on the progress we've made over the past week. This week our devs are wrapping up their semesters at school with final project, so it was a quiet week. We continue to have high hopes about next week, though, so stay tuned. Covered this week is the ̶o̶n̶e̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶o̶n̶l̶y̶ ̶s̶u̶b̶m̶i̶t̶t̶e̶d̶ ̶f̶a̶c̶t̶i̶o̶n̶ ̶s̶h̶i̶p̶, faction submitted ships, and the wrap up of the third championship series. First up, a new Very Heavy Fighter has entered the arena - the Calexian Attarus. In a last-minute submission, the Calexian Explorer This week there were 176 kills, 122 with laser, 24 with beam, 18 with plasma, 7 with railguns, 3 with autos, and 2 with torpedoes. The top ship was the Cardinal, with 24 kills, followed by the Iridium with 21. 21 different ships achieved at least 1 kill. We have a tie this week between CptJaller and ManikuCalex, both with 33 kills. CptJaller had 19 deaths, giving him a 1.73 KDR, while ManikuCalex had 10 deaths, giving him a 3.3 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 21) This week also marks the end of the third Championship cycle! This cycle, there were 2443 kills, 1420 of which came from lasers, 431 from plasma, 213 from autos, 186 from railguns, 184 from beam, and 9 from torpedoes. The top ship was the Excalibur, with 315 kills, followed by Curse of Knowledge at 263 and Gladiator at 258. 36 ships were used to get a kill. Overall, there were 248 players who played the dogfight. The approval rating has increased yet again to 81% positive. There have been 96 likes, and still only 22 dislikes, with 196 favorites. Of the 248 players, 59 managed to snag at least a single kill, and 87 died at least once. We have some cool graphs this week documenting the weekly use of the various weapon types. Check them out! As you can see, no weapon type really has a huge advantage over the others. Laser, Plasma, and Autos make up a majority of kills. The Grand Champion of this series, and the one taking home another exclusive ship skin is... ManikuCalex! With 554 kills and 205 deaths, Maniku put up a KDR of 2.7. Congratulations on the win! Second place goes to devOmega with 463 kills, 453 deaths, and a 1.02 KDR. Keep up the hard work! The highest KDR belongs to Ashleypoprocks123, with a 5-0 record, and Bowshark with 18-3 and a 6 KDR. The lowest KDR is by animelegend98, with .02, dying 43 times to one kill, narrowly edging out BriefMxki who died 42 times to one kill. A shakeup in the highest dev KDR category, with IdyllicDestroyer beating out Juszl with 11-25 or a .44 KDR. If you'd like to check out the rest of our data, you can find the spreadsheet here: Phase 1 Data (Championship Series 3) 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 big can ships get? A1: Relatively quite large. An early newsletter described the volume max for the largest class of capital ships, which are the theoretical limit of how big ships can get. Q2: Can I make a fighter that is larger than the hangar? A2: Fighter sizes are pretty well defined, so they shouldn't be a problem. As for how big you model hangar doors or the like, that remains up to factions and their style. There are plenty of solutions for explaining away ships bigger than the doors they came out of - short range teleports for example. Q3: Will vehicles run people over? A3: Probably. We'll be aiming for that to be a feature instead of the roblox default flinging-the-car-into-space, which is RoVerse is a bigger concern than usual. Q4: Factory ships? A4: Production will be tied directly to the construction of structures in faction controlled space as a strategic element of the game. Adding a ship that removes this strategy is unlikely. 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 |