RoVerse Development Newsletter #158

Hello everyone. Welcome to the 158th issue of the RoVerse Development Newsletter, where we keep you updated on the progress we've made over the past week.

This week we pushed a new round of patches for a few smaller bugs that slipped through the cracks, fixed a few bugs relating to features released last week, and began work on our next projects.

Here we have a sneak-preview of the next project Idyllic and Lordrex are working on for the Dogfight Update. It has something to do with giving players something to do when alone in a server. Idyllic has made some upgrades to the Outpost generator script, now taking into account module hitboxes to prevent overlap.

Onto the bugs - there was a small problem where you could purchase ships that were faction-locked by spazzing out the menu system. We have modified the system to do two separate checks of whether you have permission to purchase a given ship - one when displaying them, so faction ships remain ghosted, and the other when you actually attempt to purchase that ship from the server. Glancing over the code we thought the server verified the purchase, but it turns out it just checked your bank balance and whether you already owned that ship. Should be all fixed now.

Now that we have datastore data to review, but that we can't outright delete whenever something weird happens, we have found the need to be able to read and write to the datastore asynchronously - when the servers aren't running or players aren't in-game, to verify that things are working correctly. Lordrex has written a command-line script that outputs the datastore for a given key as a stop-gap measure, but we intend to pursue a more robust system in the future.

Last week we rigged and added the f̶i̶r̶s̶t̶  second wave of faction-submitted ships, which introduced a few bugs that were quickly remedied with only minimal incident. Some old code would go down the list of ships and automatically register them all as owned if their cost was 0. This was useful originally, but its oversight when adding data for new faction ships led to everyone that joined being given ships they weren't supposed to. The menu system still functioned to stop you from selecting those ships you obtained illegally, so it wasn't a major problem, but this has been remedied. We won't be adding any new faction ships before their stats and price are determined, to prevent free ships being thrown to the wind. We also added a feature to remove any ships you obtained that you shouldn't have, to prevent problems down the line. I hope you enjoyed your fun.

On the topic of Faction Ship submissions, early this week we opened a form up for the official submission of Dogfight ships, to collect all the necessary data and files into one place, rather than 100 DMs in discord with only partially complete data or outdated files. This link will remain private to Faction Leaders in the discord, but we want to describe the process to any potential shipbuilders.

The most important question - Is the ship going to be changed in the near future? If we are going to go through the effort of rigging and meshing your ship, we don't want to have to do it over when you want to change how a ship looks. Finish building, then submit - don't rush things.

Ship Name - A ship needs a name. There are lots of names out there - ask people and they'll usually help you come up with some if you get stuck.

Faction Name - Who do we list as the faction that built a ship.

Group ID - If the ship is faction-exclusive, which Roblox group should it be restricted to?

Manufacturing Company - Does your faction contract with a corporation to build their ships, maybe the name of a shipyards where the ships are built?

Description - In as close to 300 characters as possible, describe your ship. Its armament, its speed, its agility, its armor, in general terms. 300 characters is all that fit in the box, so make them count.

Class - Is it a Light, built for speed over power, or is it a Heavy, with lots of firepower but sluggish?

Preferred Stats - In the 5 stat categories, on a scale of 1 to 10, what are the desired stats of your ship - Speed, Shield, Armor, Agility, Armament. You get 20 points to spend, so use them well. Spend them all in Speed, and you won't have many left for agility or weapons, balance them across the categories, and you might end up with a ship that excels at nothing. There is no direct correlation between how many points you spend and the final stats, since they all vary by ship class - spending 10 points in Speed won't make a VHeavy fighter zip by at the fastest speed possible, so just spend them in relation to the other stats.

And now the moment you've all been waiting for - who topped the leaderboard this week and earned a place among the RoVerse greats? ...and who didn't?

Topping the leaderboard again this week is Imaboss2122, with an outstanding 196 kills to 29 deaths - that's a 6.75 KDR.

This week, the most-used weapon took a sharp turn, from the Auto turret last week to a close race between the Laser and Railgun turrets this week. Nearly 70% of kills were from these two types of weapons. Oddly enough, the railgun turret was debuffed last week, yet it still performed well. This implies skill over balancing is to blame.

The most-used ship for kills this week was the Sentinel, because of one particular player putting up a high number of kills, followed at a distance by the Excalibur and the Sails of Joy - 166, 73, and 69, respectively.

The lowest KDR this week is JangofettAlex, with 2 kills and 29 deaths putting him at a solid .06 KDR. A new record!

If you'd like to check out the rest of our data, you can find the spreadsheet here: Phase 1 Data (Week 2)

​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 determines a fighter's shield regeneration rate?

A1: Right now, it's a flat value across all ships. In the future there is potential for it to get involved and change based on the ship, potentially as an aspect of attachable ship modules, but we'll see.

Q2: Will planet gravity affect ship performance?

A2: We have plans for atmospheres interfering with flight controls to level the playing field for ground-based units on a planet's surface, but gravity itself should have minimal impact on a fighter. We want there to be a noticeable difference between space and planetary combat, but not excessively complex.

Q3: If you get close to a faction's homeworld, will they have defenses that KOS?

A3: We're evaluating the effectiveness of automated defensive turrets, but you'll always want a real person there to ensure security. If they're within striking range of your Capital, it's time to rally your fleets to come to its defense.

Q4: Where is earth?

A4: Ah earth, the cause of much trouble in every universe. Suffice it to say that there will be no accessible earth planet in RoVerse. It could still be out there in the galaxy somewhere, since our 220 star systems are only those connected by wormholes, not every system in a tiny galaxy. The lore is up to factions - it could be lost, out of contact, destroyed, or disguised, but no confirmed answers to the mystery.

Q5: Anti-planet weapon?

A5: No. Idyllic will never allow you to harm his beautiful planets.

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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!