RoVerse Development Newsletter #153

Hello everyone! Welcome to the 153rd issue of the RoVerse Development newsletter, where we keep you updated on the progress we've made over the past week.

Another round of testing on the books, with several new bugs identified and patched out, like illegal purchases, some additional rewards, and some changes to different stats based on performance.

Lighting has been adjusted on the maps slightly, since they were designed for FiB/Legacy lighting, which has been officially removed. This is an ongoing activity, as they aren't quite perfect just yet, but they're getting closer. Sun ray intensity has been reduced, to reduce the number of permanent blinding cases our legal team has to take on.

If you stare into the sun, be prepared to be blinded...

The ability to toggle the round music has been added, though it isn't quite perfected yet and defaults to off for some reason - consider it a feature-in-progress. But it is functional at least, so you can turn off the intense battle music and only hear enemy ships attacking.

The performance of ships across the board in these rounds of testing has been identified as being much too slow for the size of the maps we have created. Since the maps are only a portion of the size actual systems will be, simply scaling the map down isn't viable long-term, so ships have been sped up to compensate. The standard baseline of the excalibur - known for its 25 speed and 35 boost - has been increased by 10, since everyone held boost all the time in the original dogfight anyway. We'll monitor how it continues to perform.

In that same vein, combat has devolved into floating in place and turreting enemy ships. To combat this, weapons have been buffed and should do a lot more damage to ships. Instead of ships being stalwart hunks of steel, they should now feel appropriately fragile compared to the nature of the weapons hurled at them. Engagements should be met head-on, with only a few loops, and the heavier ships shouldn't be untouchable. We did a little math and weren't happy with the results - an excalibur, with 10k shield and 10k hull, with 1000 dps weapons shooting at it, would, in theory, take 20 seconds to kill with perfect aim and no shield regeneration. This was excessive for one of the lightest fighters out there, so the change was made.

Rewarding the winning team and players when a round ends was an important feature that got overlooked, but has now been added. Not only do you earn credits for kills, now the winning team or top players earn a bonus for winning the round, to encourage a bit of competition.

There was a slight bug where you could purchase ships without the credits to do so, which has been remedied. The culprit was a system looking for existing turret data for the selected ship returning true whether the ship was purchasable or not. This was initially reported as spam clicking the button allowing you to purchase the ship, but was just clicking the button twice.


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: If I start a shipbuilding corporation, what percentage of the profits do I get to keep?

A1: Whatever you decide to sell your ships for, that is how much money you get, minus whatever regional taxes are at play. We aren't going to arbitrarily going to take a cut of your money as a dev team. You might plan to sell the physical ship, which would cost you some resources but would be right there for the customer to fly off with, or you might sell single-use blueprints and let them build your design themselves, as a cheaper option.

Q2: Will we be able to control the automatic expansion of colony cities to preserve areas around them?

A2: Great suggestion. We'll be sure to add a way to halt or set limits on the growth of cities outward. Perhaps we will support a wider variety of ways to expand cities upward, you choosing to halt expansion doesn't hurt your faction too much.

Q3: What happens if you run out of money and don't have access to any fighters?

A3: You'll find yourself on a station with a stationmaster willing to lend you his default mining ship, for a cut of the ore you collect. From there you can go out, mine ore, sell it to the station, and earn enough to get your wings back. Hopefully you'll learn your lesson about saving for a rainy day.

Q4: Why isn't RoVerse ship physics based on realistic gravity and momentum?

A4: We've seen games go for that hyper-realistic movement, and it has its place, I guess, but it isn't always fun or cool. We much prefer a distinct and active movement system, only partially because our devs took the time to develop the system we have a long time ago. If you need some sort of answer about why ships move the way they do, look no further than the RoVerse-trademarked gravimetric disturbance amplifier engines, that accelerate ships based on an invisible, asymmetrical, all-permeating field of gravity waves. Science fiction.

Q5: Will factions have taxes?

A5: We've talked about this a few times, and the simple answer is yes. Factions can tax transactions within their own territory to fund their war efforts, so they don't have to rely on requesting "donations" from members constantly. The trick will be finding the right balance between funds incoming, and funds remaining with your faction members.

Q6: Will ships be permanently destroyed?

A6: It is unlikely that the smaller ships - fighters, miners, etc - that the individual player has access to will ever be permanently destroyed, but they won't be free to replace if something does happen to them. Faction ships, on the other hand, are intended to be a measure of that faction's military and industrial might, so are more likely to fall into the 'can be destroyed' category, particularly capitals. While you can always salvage the wrecks, factions must be careful with what they use their hard-earned battlecraft for, and that their pilots are the best trained. ​

---

​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!