RoVerse Development Newsletter #185

Hello everyone! Welcome to the 185th issue of the RoVerse Development Newsletter, where we keep you updated on the progress we've made over the past week.

This week, Idyllic has continued to add more features to the planetary demo, while Maximus has worked on the military outpost interiors.

Last week we showed our progress from an unlimited grid of buildings to a series of interconnected roadways with holes for parks or larger buildings. This week, we added back in the generation of buildings in these newly-created blocks, filling out the city grid with the structures that make a city a city.

Our set of test buildings is unfortunately made entirely of skyscrapers of the same height, so cities don't look quite as good as they could...

So a bit of quick math to adjust building heights as they approach the periphery was in order.

Another update to the planet was a brand-new ring of debris kicked into orbit by Sphaera bombarding the surface. The community wanted a planet with a ring around it, so we obliged them by dropping our asteroid belt generator into the game.

Two other features are in their early stages, including transcontinental roadways that connect different cities, which are interesting to code because of the math of a straight line arc on a spherical surface, and vehicle turret tracking.

With this fun demonstration build of some important future mechanics coming along nicely, Idyllic plans to refocus entirely back on the Capital Update. Working for too long on one portion of a project without hitting many big checkpoints can grind coders down, but with a short break, they can hopefully get back on task and get the important features done.

Maximus has continued to work on the interiors of the Military Outpost Main module, with extensive work in the cargo bay and landing area. Keep up the good work!

Unfortunately, we had a problem this week with our stat tracking system until Saturday, so no earlier stats were recorded, except for a single lopsided bout between Idyllic and one of his friends.

If you played the dogfight this week and would like your stats recorded for the 5th cycle, let Idyllic know and he can track things down individually in the datastore.

There were some interesting numbers that did come out of the data this week, including an interesting percentage split between beam and laser. Idyllic's super secret loadout of two beams, one plasma, had a perfectly even split on kills between them, 35 - 70. There's nothing in the code to make this happen, as beams are hitscan and plasma is a projectile. Weird.

The most dangerous map was Ecumenopolis, both because of the number of times it was chosen, and the round type that happened on it - KOTH can turn into a bloodbath if you don't try to capture the hill.

If you'd like to check out the rest of our data, you can find the spreadsheet here: Phase 1 Data (Week 29)

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: Can you destroy a warp gate between systems?

A1: Yep! Gates built by factions on wormholes are a vital part of claiming control of a system, contributing significantly to a faction's development score. This won't destroy the wormhole entirely, but it won't work as well for travelling across the galaxy.

Q2: Can I camp a gate to deny an enemy?

A2: Definitely. Defending the entrances and exits to a system will be a pretty important task to manage when trying to control systems. Don't want saboteurs slipping past to destroy important infrastructure.

Q3: Can I physically block a jump gate to prevent ships going through?

A3: Ships entering the system by coming out of a wormhole or gate will not be able to be stopped physically by any ships, but a fleet of ships guarding the way will prevent an exit by the nature of their weaponry.

Q4: Can you repair gates?

A4: Like any other faction structure, gates can indeed be repaired by delivering raw materials to the structure.

Q5: Will there be ringed planets?

A5: Technically there is already a ringed planet, but there could possibly be more. There's something special about looking up into the evening sky and seeing a bunch of debris that could come raining down into the atmosphere at any moment and obliterate all you hold dear.

Q6: What will there be to explore, if I wanted to make that my profession?

A6: 220 star systems, over 835 planets, many secrets and hidden areas. Scouting resources could be valuable information to sell to factions, espionage or observation of different faction areas could be useful info. We plan on supporting as many occupations as we can, to give the game a nice variety rather than force everyone into faction soldier roles.

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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!