Hello everyone! Welcome to the 199th issue of the RoVerse Development Newsletter, where we keep you updated on the progress we've made over the past week. This week in May is always a busy one, with school wrapping up and summer vacation just around the corner. This week was especially busy for our very own IdyllicDestroyer, who had the honor of graduating this week. So instead of looking back at what we've done this week in this newsletter, we're going to look ahead at what is coming up. Phase 2 of the Capital Update is right around the corner, and we'd like to go over what that is going to entail. The most obvious part of the Capital Update is the Capital ships. We have been working on the Capital ship mechanics for quite a while at this point, as they are going to be some of the most important vessels for Faction combat. Anyone in RoVerse can build and deploy a fighter, but it will take extreme organizational skills and a large amount of teamwork to build and deploy fleets of these awe-inspiring vehicles. Those of you who tune in to these newsletters each week have probably seen the various demo gifs of Capitals in action as we slowly add features to them, like warp effects and capital turret mounts. After a few false starts, and some big changes to how we approached them, they are finally in a place we like them. Built off the very same code the fighters are, they are simple to switch out in any situation. Down the road, this will make them easier to maintain, as we won't need separate code for fighters and capitals to do things like deploy from stations, or replicate in-game. But how will we add them to the Dogfight Alpha? This was something we've thought long and hard over - simply allowing anyone to select a Capital ship the have purchased at any time would lead to some very lopsided gamemodes. Imagine King of the Hill with a Capital parked squarely in the middle... horrible. Instead, there will be specific gamemodes where they are available. The first gamemode to be added will be simple and straightforward - every player gets a Capital, last one standing wins. Instead of deploying into your fighter, you will be spawned in your pre-selected Capital ship of choice. Subsequent gamemodes will shake things up, like a juggernaut round where it's one against all. Over time we'll keep adding important features, like spawning fighters at friendly capital hangars. With big updates like Phase 2, there is also the opportunity to make those changes you've been putting off for another time. Issues that have come up, and just haven't been important enough, or are too big, to tackle piecemeal. Specifically, we've had a UI issue for quite some time. The Hangar menus are sufficient to play the game with, but they aren't easy to use for first time players. Finding a new ship or mounting weapons just isn't as intuitive as we'd like. Rather than just slap a tutorial on it and telling them step by step what to do, we decided a renovation was in order. So Idyllic spent some time drawing up an 'ideal' version of the UI, complete with each successive menu, and access to all the features we have, as well as those features we plan on adding in the near future. Rather than a hidden button in the corner that says 'edit ship' or a completely invisible button to switch ships, these two features are going to be brought front and center. Clicking edit wont take you directly to the edit turret menu, but instead a middle menu where you are given the choice to edit weapons, ship mods (when added), skins, and also a way to access the shop for these items. Currently, each of these items requires you to go one level deeper, making the furthest option extremely inconvenient to access. Also, a recent change to turrets switched them over to a one-time purchase, making most of the edit turret menu redundant. This would have required a re-write anyway, so why not improve the experience while we're at it. This is also the chance to add a few things off our wish list that have been on our radar for some time, like a way to save weapon loadouts. An easy enough feature to code, but something that would require some UI edits, which usually ends up very time consuming. While we're retrofitting the UI, we will be making a few other changes to various things like the leaderboard and chat, to make them a bit clearer. Knowing how to do things without having to ask, and knowing what's going on in-game at a glance are important features of any game. Further features will be added over time as we complete them, including an Outpost gamemode, turret weight classes, and a much wider variety of turret types. Ship skins are well on their way, just waiting for a shop to purchase them to be completed. And who doesn't want to fly a watermelon across the stars? With these features running and ready to go, we'll be pivoting to work on the much-anticipated Freeroam. We'll have more information about what that entails in a future newsletter. And now that school is wrapped up for the year, our devs will have a bit more time to invest in RoVerse, each week bringing us closer to the completed game. This week, there were 101 kills, 73 with laser, 20 with beam, 5 with railgun, 2 with torpedo, and 1 with auto. The most dangerous ship was the Excalibur, with 84 kills, followed by the Hex with 17. The most dangerous map was Ecumenopolis with 38 deaths, followed by Frostland with 36. And now, the moment you've been waiting for... The three players that topped the leaderboard were JakorKilludge, with 67 kills and 3 deaths and a 22.33 KDR; Alpharon with 13 kills, 4 deaths and a 3.25 KDR; and ownxcmd with 6 kills, 6 deaths, and a 1 KDR. Nice work pilots! If you'd like to check out the rest of our data, you can find the spreadsheet here: Phase 1 Data (Week 43) 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 RoVerse be monetized? A1: We hold the firm stance that nothing that affects gameplay should ever be monetized. If we want to create a fair playing field for factions to do battle on, allowing someone to purchase an advantage is absolutely out of the questions. However, we will be selling aesthetic things, like skins, to get a little funding. The recently-released Premium Payouts feature should definitely help the dev team in that department. Q2: Do the devs recommend building with unions or meshes? A2: In most cases, it really doesn't matter which one you choose. We mesh all of the ships that are submitted during the rigging process, so build ships with whatever suits you and we'll worry about the rest. Q3: Will we need multiple crew members for a tank? A3: Unlikely. Like fighters, vehicles should be able to be piloted by one player, while carrying others in the back. Q4: Will we be able to add secondary machine guns to vehicles? A4: A full workup on ground vehicles will be hashed out when planets are a bit more complete. At the moment, I don't see any reason not to - armored patrol is an excellent game to make mechanics similar to. 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! Comments are closed.
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AuthorsVaktus: Leader of the Vaktovian Empire and head of the RoVerse Project |