Hello everyone! Welcome to the 116th issue of the RoVerse Development Newsletter, where we keep you update on the progress we've made over the past week. This week, we have continued work on the system environment generation from Legomadamada, and further development on turrets and automatic systems from Idyllic. Let's get started! Continuing off of his work last week on automated turrets, Idyllic decided it would be worth it to explore these systems in relation to automated station and outpost defense. So he dusted off the old outpost generation scripts, made a few tweaks, added some anchor points, and mounted up some defense turrets. Whereupon he found a problem, and the next project he would work on - Turret classes. The code on the backend has been able to support any turret size for quite some time now, but we haven't yet built and rigged any of the heavier turret sizes. This hasn't been a problem, as we've been using pretty small Capital ships, but when it comes to stations and outposts, light turrets just don't cut it. And so, he rigged up a larger model turret for testing porpoises, mounted them on the military outpost modules, and hit play. These turrets will fall into the 'Heavy' category, and pack quite a punch. For now, they're an upscaled version of the plasma turret firing conventional shots, but in the future we'll have custom turret models for every class and type. Currently, there is one code block running all of the turrets mounted on the station, meaning that all the turrets target a single location, which for early tests works perfectly fine. Our future plans involve allowing different turrets to target different opponents simultaneously, without running an entire script for each turret's movement. Here we have a dramatization of a battle with a station. Right now, the turrets are fairly inaccurate because they don't anticipate movement of their targets, nor adjust for range, but that will be fixed eventually. Don't expect a station or outpost you're attacking to just let you sit there and fire at it - it will take a coordinated effort between bomber fighters, long-range weapons, and armored ships distracting the defenses to make any sort of headway. We'd also recommend you avoid getting on the stationmaster's bad side, else you end up on the list of unwelcome travelers. We also tested the outpost shipyards module with the Avenger instead of a placeholder ship, and we are quite pleased with how it worked out. Ships up to size medium will be able to be built in these modules, while larger classes of ships will require a full station to be constructed. On the environment generation front, lego has continued work on asteroid clusters, with variations on scale and density, as well as an important feature that ties into something discussed earlier - outpost generation. The Pirate themed outpost modules are built into the same asteroid assets that will be spawning in fields, so blending the outpost into a field is a possible strategy - a strategy we of course had to test. Here we have a moderately dense field of asteroids crowding around an outpost, where at a distance it is nearly impossible to see the extent of it. In the case that someone does see it, the brave may move in for a closer look, while the smart would keep their distance - this space is full of pirates. The modules of the pirate outpost type are the largest of the outposts because they're built into giant rocks, but they still can be quite flexible in their chaotic layout, which was an intentional design choice. The other systems are designed to be organized and rational, while the pirate outposts use all three dimensions to their fullest. 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 select specific turret groups to fire at different times? A1: Weapon groups are a planned feature for Capital ships as they get more and more turrets, and we hope to let you select groups yourself, as your play style sees fit. Whether you prefer location based groups, or turret type, flexibility is key. Q2: Will there be faction-made quests? Will they be able to award money or weapons, or have multiple objectives? A2: We plan on having a system that allows you to reward players for selling your faction minerals, delivering products, and fulfilling bounties, but the system of developer-made quests given out by NPCs will be entirely separate. Perhaps if a faction has something important in mind, like a quest required to achieve a rank we could work with you, but an in-depth faction quest system is not currently planned. Q3: How will subfactions be able to compete if they can't build ships larger than Medium class in outpost shipyards? A3: Most of the Capital combat we foresee in RoVerse will take place between ships of the lower size classes, as they will be more flexible and affordable for groups to build. The larger ships will require substantial infrastructure beyond what a subfaction could provide, and it will take significant effort for a full faction to be able to build a fleet of their own. Subfactions should be just fine with Medium and Small Capitals, and if they find they're pushing the boundaries of their infrastructure, they should consider making the jump to faction status. Q4: Will automated mining bots be a thing? A4: Any sort of automated system is really contrary to the core goals of RoVerse. We're here to create a system where it is the efforts of real players that determines a factions success, not how efficiently they game the system to produce ore for free. An automated mining system would just be begging for abuse, even if we required you to be in-game to make use of it - you could just program your character's ship to fly in circles overnight, letting the bots do the work. Besides the abuse problem, automating some sort of AI to search for and collect ores would be expensive to run on the server, in the same way combat drones would. Q5: How complex do hangar details on Capital ships need to be? A5: On the Avenger, we added in distinct hangar doors where we had always planned on having them. For those that have designed a ship that doesn't have a space for such a large detail, but still want to have some hangar space, there are a few pseudo-science options for figuring out where the fighters 'come from' like BSG launch tubes, or localized teleport systems. Q6: How will players get into fighters held on Carrier ships? A6: We plan for the ability of other players to join you on your ship as both crewmen, to man the turrets while you pilot your ship, and as passengers - players who can see what's going on, but can only watch, who then can jump into fighters held in the hangar bays. 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! Comments are closed.
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AuthorsVaktus: Leader of the Vaktovian Empire and head of the RoVerse Project |