RoVerse Development Newsletter #146

Hello everyone! Welcome to the 146th issue of the RoVerse Development Newsletter, where we keep you updated on the progress we've made over the past week.

This week, Idyllic wrapped up his egg hunting from the first RoVerse Community Egg Hunt, collecting the grand prize, Sails of Joy, and got back to work on the Capital Update working out the kinks of torpedo firing and hit detection, and adding the progressive raycast function to the other weapon types still running on hitscan.

​An important step in the process of converting between the two is determining the velocity of the visual projectiles. Since everyone has been playing the Alpha Dogfight for years at this point, the speed of the plasma projectiles are locked in. To change that now would require great effort and cause many complaints. To that end, Idyllic buckled down, did some hard math, and determined the rate at which the various projectiles travel.

The laser projectiles traveled at a*.75 each frame, which, when embedded in a for loop, caused it to accelerate over time. This was undesirable, so was averaged out to provide constant travel speed. Each frame, if moved 1.5 studs, and at about 60 fps, means it travels about 100 studs every second. This can be plugged into the progressive raycast function, visualized below, to check that the raycast keeps up with the projectile as it travels.

Here, significantly slowed down, you can see the projectile reaching the end of the raycast as the next scan is fired. We are able to change whether the ray is fired after the projectile passes through, or before it gets there, but at dogfight speeds the difference should be smaller than regular network latency.

This was repeated for the other weapon types, like railguns, plasma, auto, and conventional turrets. The last barrier to surmount was torpedoes. Unlike the other constant-velocity projectiles, they accelerate over time. Finding specific values for speed and acceleration was a difficult task, but in the end an approximate answer was found.

And now for the most important part: the torpedo explosions working better than last newsletter.

There was a bit of a problem connecting the projectile that was fired in the fake shot to the raycast that detects any hits, but in the end the code prevailed, even if the solutions are a bit hacky.

​Keep on hunting those community eggs, don't miss your chance at an exclusive ship in RoVerse. For those who collect all 30 eggs first, an exclusive skin is also included! You have until the official Roblox egg hunt ends to collect them all.

For those of you keeping an eye on the roadmap, it has been updated to the latest. Capital Mechanics are on hold for the time being, but every other major feature is just getting the bugs worked out as we head towards initial Capital Update release.

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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: Most enjoyable thing to make in RoVerse thus far?

A1: For Idyllic, he had the most fun working on planet generation, from the tesselation and continent collisions, to figuring out gravity for vehicles. Pushing the limits of the platform is always fun. For Juszl, building things, from the size of stations to tiny dervishes, was astounding. Making maps allowed him to really imagine a scene and what could happen there, so everything had to be touched upon. For Lordrex, working with the VPS and databases was a worthy challenge. Working on the creation of the framework that supports the inner workings of the game can be challenging, but very rewarding when you see it come together seamlessly. Skinny likes turtles.

Q2: Can my ship be made of wood?

A2: Only if the wood grain is correct. I'd hate to have WoodReviewer rise from his grave to chastise us.

Q3: Can nations program AI to automatically develop a city or something based off of commands?

A3: Unlikely. You may be able to hit a setting on colony cities to determine how it grows, but any commands would have to be given to faction members working in your absence.

Q4: Can my ship use sails, powered by solar wind?

A4: If that is the in-lore description you want to go with, and the building style you like, go for it. We'll avoid specifying a specific propulsion system so factions can come up with whatever they like.

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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!