RoVerse Development Newsletter #224

Hello everyone! Welcome to the 224th issue of the RoVerse Development Newsletter, where we keep you updated on the progress we've made over the past week.

This week, the RoVerse Hallow's Eve 2020 event has been released to the public. It has a spooky atmosphere, enemies to fight, and a mysterious force attacking Hyperion Station. And we can't forget - two ships to earn during the event. We highly encourage you to go check out the event before continuing with the newsletter, as we're about spoil some of the quest.

Alright, now that you have gone on an epic quest to solve the mystery of the unknown ship, and fought the phantasmic forces all the way back to their source, the newsletter can resume.

We'd like to thank ObscureVisage and Alcertaz for their excellent work on this year's event. Without their ambition and drive, this year would've only been a new ship and the old void maps. Instead, we have a lovely quest, two ships, and a fun little adventure for members of the community to undertake. 

The reward ship, the Evoker, will only be available for the two week duration of this event, so be sure to grab the badge at the end of the mission.

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The enemies of the event are a modified version of Stratiz's NPC system that has graced Hyperion for the last year or so. It was modified with more hostile actions, which was a simple and straightforward process thanks to his planning when writing the code. Adding the ability to hunt down the player was only a matter of giving them a target and setting up pathfinding. While it wasn't too advanced in the quest, it does give us a few ideas for what to do with station NPCs in the future.

Also, Im pretty sure that Idyllic has had a nightmare of glowing, floating, faceless developers coming to eat him before.

Special thanks to Quasiduck for the lighting effect module that made the AI core extremely cool. We might tweak it to use as some sort of electric turret in the future, we'll see!

Unfortunately, there were a few problems with our auto turrets that were part of the quest. Tracking and recoil worked perfectly, but the terrible code prevented them from reliably damaging the players they were shooting at. Luckily, they weren't coded to be a final version, just to be an interesting enemy for the quest - they used real projectile parts with a 'Touched' damage script in them, rather than the raycast and simulated code of our dogfight turrets, which any future weapons will definitely use.

However, they were a fun experiment that turned out looking pretty cool, and we'll be revising them for future use.

The community dogfight continued again this week, with members of the community coming together to blast each other out of the sky. Here are a selection of screenshots from the event - send in your own if you have them. Join us next week at 8pm EST and earn double credits for the duration.

Unfortunately, Idyllic was on terrible internet and couldnt make either Community Dogfight, so in lieu of dogfight photos here is a hilarious Hallows Eve bug.

Chilling

This week in the dogfight there were 242 kills, 10 with auto, 15 with beam, 27 with laser, 68 with plasma, 8 with railgun, and 114 with torpedo. The most dangerous ship was the Gladius with 78 kills, followed by the Excalibur with 54. The most dangerous map was Pillarum with 231 deaths, followed by The_Great_Hollow with 28.

And now, the moment you've been waiting for...
The three players that topped the leaderboard were FangABXY, with 82 kills and 1 deaths and a 82 KDR; CptJaller with 48 kills, 3 deaths and a 16 KDR; and devOmegax with 28 kills, 9 deaths, and a 3.11 KDR. They have unlocked the exclusive ship Elysion Kokytos in the Alpha Dogfight. Nice work pilots!
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If you'd like to check out the rest of our data, you can find the spreadsheet here: Phase 1 Data (Week 68)

​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: Where do players purchase default fighters in the full game? Will we be able to block access to them?

A1: Default fighters will be sold at Neutral stations in the 22 or so neutral systems across the galaxy. A faction may be able to blockade the routes to access neutral systems, but preventing people from purchasing default ships would be incredibly difficult to pull off.

Q2: Would a rebel faction be able to purchase 100 Iridiums at a neutral station and wreak havoc on my nearby systems?

A2: Individuals could purchase an Iridium, but for bulk purchases and construction, and outpost shipyards module or two would be required.

Q3: How will subfactions/organizations afford to build their first outpost if they can't make money yet?

A3: Getting an outpost hub ready to build shouldn't be all that expensive, it will instead require a substantial amount of raw materials to build. To start an organization, you'll need a group of people working together to establish yourself.

Q4: How can we make money in RoVerse?

A4: There are many occupations, some easier or safer than others - mining ore, shipping, transport, bounty hunting, contract security work, even theft!

Q5: How will I be able to advertise my organizations services?

A5: The discord should be a fine place to hawk your wares or services to a variety of clients.

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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!

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