RoVerse Development Newsletter #136

Hello everyone! Welcome to the 136th issue of the RoVerse Development Newsletter, where we keep you updated on the progress we've made over the past week.

Lordrex and Idyllic have continued working on fighter features for the Capital Update, with Lordrex rigging the default fighters to support the last few features we want, while Idyllic added a camera feature that was incredibly vital to functional gameplay with more than one class of fighter. Skinny worked on an advertisement for planetary features, with the help of some community members, legomadamada had some interesting bugs to work out of the environmental generator, and Juszl got some work in on a new map.

First things first - this week in our Discord Community, Skinny tasked the builders of RoVerse factions with designing and constructing their best skyscrapers, with the goal being their inclusion in the latest teaser for planetary gameplay. 

Featuring ships flying through the sky, a mountain, and a magnificent city on the horizon, the only thing it's missing is a line of tanks invading, crushing the calm grasses beneath their iron treads.

​Legomadamada has continued to work on the asteroid field generator, in an attempt to create a more varied and interesting arrangement of rocks of all sizes. This week, we have a picture of a not-quite-working version, where the density and size that is supposed to increase and decrease three times, is instead increasing, abruptly stopping, and starting over.

Not quite where we want it just yet, but still making progress.

Lordrex worked this week on ironing out a few bugs with last week's lighting upgrades, as well as a few modifications to the default fighters. When rigging these fighters to work with the fighter scripts, certain specifications needed to be met - a part named Core here, a part named Thrust there, so that the control scripts knew where to look for specific things. Engine effects for the Excalibur were contained within a single engine part, which easily allowed the system to turn the smoke and fire on and off - but that won't always be true for every ship. It isn't for the default fighters, and it won't be for any Faction fighters we might get, so adding flexibility was important. To that end, the code is now well on its way to supporting multi-part engine effects.

The other feature we were looking to support that lordrex began work on this week was another highly-requested one from the dogfight alpha - fighter headlights. Capital ships have had them for a while, but now fighters will too. No more getting lost in a dark corner, bouncing off of walls and having a seizure. Due to the limitations of the voxel lighting system, updates may be a little slow to render, but we expect that to improve in the future.

Idyllic was a bit busy this week, but managed to add the base code for a vital feature we hadn't even considered before. The Excalibur is a very small ship, measuring in at about 1x1x1 studs. The camera is hardcoded to follow this stud around in all the fancy maneuvers a daring pilot might take - but that offset doesn't work for all fighters nor all fighter classes. Here is a view from the pilot seat of a Cardinal Heavy Fighter.

Not the greatest view...

The Cardinal, being significantly larger than the Excalibur, fills your entire screen, clips through the camera with every maneuver, and it is impossible to aim your weapons at anything. So Idyllic dove into the camera code, laid the foundation of a system that will allow a custom offset per fighter, and got the camera to a much more reasonable and useful distance.

Now you're ready to take on your enemies with the highest firepower money can buy!

Juszl is in the early stages of our most dense map yet, full of nooks and crannies where ambush fighters will have the edge in combat.

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: Is ice just cold water?

A1: Or is water warm ice?

Q2: Will there be a way to make any resistance movement illegal?

A2: That sounds more like an internal faction affair than something RoVerse would deal with. If you want to disallow people resisting orders, make it illegal and assign a punishment. If internal struggle is an integral part of your faction's culture, battle on.

Q3: Will debris be locked in place, or will it drift?

A3: There is a trade-off between quantity of debris and motion of debris. We might simulate motion at a distance with particle effects to keep things lively, but having asteroids actually move is beyond the constraints of the platform.

Q4: How will freeroam work for factions?

A4: Freeroam is the first stage of development where factions will begin to make their mark on the galaxy. Consider it a dry-run for the full game, where bugs are worked out, features are continually added, and everything is working towards the official release. While it is unlikely any work done in this stage will carry over to the final game, considerations may be made for factions that establish themselves in freeroam to bypass the initial stages in the full release.

Q5: Will you be able to damage ally ships in combat?

A5: This particular question has the opportunity for hot debate - on one hand friendly fire not doing damage is a nice feature to have, especially in a 3d combat environment, on the other being able to punish allied ships that break protocol or wrong you in some way would be useful. Simple enough on the coding end that we might as well make it an option toggle-able by faction leadership.

Q6: For structural damage to ground structures, do you require materials? How about vehicles and ships?

A6: Yes. Physical repair of a vehicle or structure will require some percentage of the materials used in its original construction. Even having your ship replaced by the insurance feature may require a few bits of steel to reconstitute it. Object permanence is one of the core tenets of the RoVerse universe, having things magically appear for free, or throwing money at a building ravaged by war, doesn't align with that goal.

Q7: What would warrant staff intervention in-game?

A7: We'd like to interfere as little as possible in the struggles over the galaxy, but that doesn't mean we won't step in when necessary. Things like exploits will be reversed as best as possible, but faction actions within the realm of the game will be unhindered. Don't look to the staff to respawn the XXXL you worked months on that the pilot crashed into a star. Actions have consequences.

Q8: Will you be able to differentiate between fighter launch and landing points?

A8: The system we are currently using involves the 'hangar doors' shown a while back, that fighters can fly up to to land - the form of this door is inconsequential, just the proximity of a fighter is all that is required. Spawning on a carrier will use set spawn points placed around the ship, as a random system might clip you inside and end in your destruction. If you want these points placed around 'launch tubes' then that can be done.

Q9: Will RoVerse use the allies/enemies function of the website groups?

A9: The stability of such a system is currently in question, as Roblox looks to overhaul the groups feature. What is most likely to happen, is factions will be tied to a group, but all faction relations will be handled in-game on our end, to ensure stability.

Q10: Will there be flares?

A10: A definite possibility for fighter consumables, used to ward off missile tracking.

Q11: Will gear and ships get rarity classifications, like destiny?

A11: Faction weapons are unlikely to receive such a classification, as there are no random drops and new designs are unlocked through research, but the mention of exotic-tier ships like the golden Excalibur caught my attention. Perhaps there could be a way to unlock slightly better ships through some in-game action, not just skins changing ship aesthetics.

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​​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!