RoVerse Development Newsletter #162

Hello everyone! Welcome to the 162nd 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 been working on a much-anticipated feature for the Dogfight Alpha, weapon classes, as well as a long-running favorite, ship skins. There is also a new ship rigged and ready for combat.

​The current dogfight has a problem. A feature that is a necessity for balanced combat has been missing from the beginning, and didn't look like it was coming anytime soon. But ladies and gents, I bring good news. With a bit of elbow grease and some good old-fashioned gumption, Idyllic has retrofitted the weapon system to work with 3 whole classes of turrets, with more on the way.

In the first row you have the default light turrets that you all know and love - the laser, beam, railgun, missile, and plasma turrets, as well as a new auto turret, now with its own fancy model. Behind that, you have the new medium turret class, and in the rear the heavy turret class. Don't let the names confuse you - light, medium, and heavy turrets aren't exclusive to the fighter classes of the same name, but all depend on a ship's armament stats. You can have a light fighter with low speed and agility, that uses all its power to run the highest-class turrets it can, and it might be able to power a single medium turret - or you can have a heavy fighter with the heaviest turrets around, it can all vary. We look forward to developing the meta in regards to the superiority of different combinations, and to see how faction ships spend their points now that armament does something.

Along with supporting different classes of turrets, the code now supports different numbers of barrels. Which comes in handy when your heavy turrets have more than one barrel. 

Idyllic also did a bit of work on the Skins and Shaders system, creating a slew of new skins to purchase for a variety of default ships. But beyond skins being sold for in-game credits, we've also added the ability to sell skins for Robux. We are committed to an excellent player experience first, so for every paid skin we release we will also release 3 igc skins for everyone to enjoy. We asked our community what the typical expected price for an aesthetic purchase was, since we don't spend all that many Robux ourselves, and the response was around 100, so that will be the price we'll aim for. A few special skins might be worth a bit more, but most should be around that.

Without further ado, here are the skins that will be made available as soon as skins are fully tested and approved:

Thunderbolt - blaze through the star-ways like a bolt of lightning, reducing your enemies to ash.

Balance - Need a garish paint scheme to announce your presence? We've got just the combo for you.

Watermelon - Due to a strange accident at the JPL, the first fruit to live in space turned out to be a melon.

Patriot - When you're so patriotic you can't think of a good way to show it, painting a spaceship in the good old red, white, and blue will do the job just fine.

Sawyer - Sure is fun to paint things white. Wouldn't trade it for anything.

And how is one to earn these beautiful shaders? By leaving a trail of rubble in their wake. This week was another exciting week of combat - who topped the leaderboard? Imaboss2122.

With a stunning 276 kills and only 16 deaths, this week set a new KDR record at a whopping 17.25.

There were 961 kills this week, with Plasma narrowly edging out Laser as the weapon of choice, with 421 kills to 394, respectively. Auto did decently, with 131, and no Torpedo kills this week, self-inflicted or otherwise. The most dangerous ship was the Excalibur, with 267 kills. The Sentinel came in second at 201, with Sails of Joy, Estival Excursion, and Goshawk putting up respectable numbers of 108, 77, and 86.

If you'd like to check out the rest of our data, you can find the spreadsheet here: Phase 1 Data (Week 6​)

​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: Will credits be wiped when the Capital Update comes out?

A1: Most likely not. We won't be expecting players to rack up thousands of kills to be able to afford a Capital ship, and it wouldn't make all that much sense to just drop a Capital ship in a KOTH round, so we have something better planned. Certain gamemodes, like a juggernaut round, will have one player selected as the Capital ship, while everyone else tries to take them down. Everyone will have a free Capital for when they are selected, but you will be able to purchase more Capital ships relatively easily from there. And juggernaut won't be the only special round, there are lots of interesting scenarios we can try out.

Q2: How big will the Capital maps be?

A2: You may have noticed that a few of the current maps spawn fighters thousands of studs away. That's because these maps were designed with Capital ships in mind. We even had a demo of Capital mechanics on one of the current maps. We can't go too big, or fighters'll have a hard time, and since they're the primary combat vehicle, we have to put them first.

Q3: How close are you to adding fighter weapon classes?

A3: Funny you should ask that...

Q4: Will missiles be able to pathfind around debris and non-target ships?

A4: More than likely not. That sounds awfully close to drones and AI, at least in a technical sense, so it's unlikely to happen. Your best bet is to aim true, plan ahead, and hope they don't use a ship as a shield to block your target.

Q5: Will turrets have different types of ammunition?

A5: This was considered, but became complicated quickly. Current plans are for a variety of turret types directly, rather than having to track on-board ammo quantities and types.

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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!