ROVerse Development newsletter #161

Hello everyone! Welcome to the 161st issue of the RoVerse Development Newsletter, where we keep you updated on the progress we've made over the past week.

This week, we have 5 new faction fighters rigged and ready to deploy, a sneak preview of a community-built map coming soon to a dogfight near you, and this week's round of Dogfight stats - who will top the leaderboard this week?

​The past few weeks a member of the community has been hard at work creating a brand-new map for the Dogfight, inspired by a city that encompasses an entire planet with towering buildings and shadowed depths.

Introducing Ecumenopolis.
Built by Space Explorer, who was assisted by Idyllic, this new community map will be making its way to the Dogfight in the near future, after some intense testing and a little bit of setup. We can't wait to see what sort of new combat tactics arise when there is a common down direction, lots of obstacles to dodge around, and large landmarks to guide the way.

​This week the leaderboard looks a bit different than the last few weeks - the undisputed champion doesn't hold the top spot. Unfortunately, this is because a faction leader was farming an alt so they could buy the faction ship we added to the game, so they've been disqualified from this week's leaderboard - which leaves Imaboss2122 with another week of glory at the top of the charts. This week he had 219 kills, only 25 deaths, leaving him with a 8.76 KDR and beating out his week 3 record of 8.43. Nice work!

There were 633 kills this week, mostly using autocannons, followed by laser and plasma at 171 and 150, respectively. The Sails of Joy was the most-used ship, followed by the Sentinel, with the Excalibur and Hummingbird trailing behind. 9 people were killed by a Gold Excalibur.

​If you'd like to check out the rest of our data, you can find the spreadsheet here: Phase 1 Data (Week 45​

A certain event happened this week that bodes well for our future efforts, and a little time was spent exploring the possibilities of this new thing. We aren't going to go into detail just yet, there's still a long way to go before it would be production-ready, but we can release a sample.

I think it's clear what feature this relates to, and Idyllic is particularly excited about it.


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 does rolling mean for Phase 2 release?

A1: Rolling updates means we work down the list of features as we go, instead of one single release point - for example, we've added faction ships the past few weeks, while we work on capitals, gamemodes, and skins. 

Q2: Is there a list of ships that are going to be added?

A2: We have a private dev list of all the ships that have been submitted in order, so we can rig them in the order they were sent, but we won't be releasing it to the public. 

Q3: Where are the pirate fighters from the 2016 trailer?

A3: They got away with their piracy, retired from the profession to a dark rock on the edge of the galaxy, where they were gunned down over a game of space poker within a year. Looks like karma catches up with you eventually.

Q4: Has Idyllic ever considered a job working for Roblox?

A4: It might have crossed his mind a time or two, but living in California is expensive, and coding is more of a hobby than an occupation. He much prefers working on two distinct things he enjoys at different times, one as a job and the other as a hobby that lets him do whatever he wants with no rules and no one to stop him. Muahahahahahaha!

Q5: How will gimballed weapons be balanced against fixed weapons on fighters?

A5: To make up for their non-tracking nature, fixed weapons will do slightly more damage, but you'll have to turn your ship to your target. For some ships, turning is slow so fixed turrets might be a bad choice, while for others that turn quickly, doing more damage is an obvious plus.

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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!