Greetings from the RoVerse Dev Team! This week we have the twenty-sixth issue of the RoVerse Development Newsletter, where we keep you updated on the progress we've made over the past week! Now that the holidays are past, our devoted development team is heading back into the game, working towards updates for the Dogfight Alpha released a few weeks ago, and further gameplay features for the actual game. Bug fixes will be applied as soon as possible, but keep sending in the reports if you find something that is broken. We really do take a careful look at these things and appreciate your feedback. This week, Vaktus has been out of commission, so the members of the dev team will be writing some articles for the newsletter. Things are a bit slow as the Holidays wind down and a large portion of the dev team starts returning to school. Currently, a lot of the effort is being placed into bug-testing. IdyllicDestroyer - For the past month, I have been working on creating the planets that will be the focus of ground gameplay. For the past few weeks I have been working from the top down, creating the basic icosahedron sphere, subdividing it into smaller tiles, dividing the tiles into tectonic plates with randomized drift, and have begun work on the weather systems that determine an areas biome. To complete this huge feature, it is also necessary to work from the ground up - I have begun working out how biomes and terrain are generated at the scale of the player, which is a huge task all on its own. Below is a demonstration of the creation of a dune-like landscape using math.noise. lordrex12345 - For the past couple of weeks I've been doing a variety of small tasks to get the Dogfight Alpha up and going. More recently though I've been really excited to work on RoVerse's chat system framework. Since I originally started, I've gone through six or more iterations with each one getting better and better. I hope to finish the project with a versatile system that will be crucial in player communication. More details -and maybe a surprise or two- to come. Each week we compile a Q&A section here whenever there are any new questions posted on the RoVerse Community group wall, so be sure to join if there's something you'd like to ask about RoVerse: https://www.roblox.com/Groups/Group.aspx?gid=2948290 Please Note: These answers are given to the best of the Dev team's knowledge, and may be subject to change. Questions 1-4 answered by IdyllicDestroyer. Q1: So if someone owns a company, will they be able to hand out jobs to players or 'AI'? Also, is the game only going to be players or will there be AIs? A1a: With a game the size of RoVerse, it would be impossible for any one player to be effective at every occupation available - everything from mining to piloting a fighter in battle. It wouldn't be fair to the people patrolling faction borders all the time if only the miners got paid, so payments from the faction to the player, and most likely player to player, will be possible. If you can pay someone to do something, I'm sure they'd be happy to do any mission you want. A1b: Having AI in the game would be extremely advantageous, but also extremely resource intensive. While there may be some minor AI functions, having a pseudo-player to do missions for you is most likely a no. Q2: Will there be different genders in-game? A2: Your ROBLOX character will be your ROBLOX character, with no additional gender characteristics involved. Clothing will be purchasable by anyone, as well as being able to wear items from the ROBLOX webpage. Q3: Will players receive a handicap for not being in a main faction, regardless of whether the player is aligned with said faction? A3: While the main goal of RoVerse is to encourage joining the Roblox clan world, an artificial handicap placed on a player that are not in a main faction is probably not the way to do it. While a solo player can theoretically do anything in game, the scale and cost of doing so would make it incredibly hard. Addendum: To play RoVerse, you must be in a participating clan in the first place. Think of them as “starting races” where you can, if you want, dedicate your time to helping them – or you can go off and do your own thing. You’re a citizen of your clan, but you don’t owe them 100%. Q4: Will it be possible to build 'big and bad' mining ships, and focusing primarily on mining lots of ore, rather than space combat? A4: Since we've been working hard on getting the Dogfight Alpha to release, we've been focusing mainly on the fighter ships, and not talking much about the other ships of RoVerse. RoVerse will have a wide variety of ships, each specialized to different occupations. A large mining ship, covered in drills and mining lasers, is entirely possible! (Questions 5-12 answered by HeroMaster. Answers may be tentative.) Q5. Will there be Vaktus Easter eggs? A5. No. Probably not, anyways. I don’t even know why I answered this question. The only Vaktus Easter egg is that Vaktus will likely be in it and he sort of leads that thing. Maybe you'll find an ancient statue of Vaktus on a desolate planet. Q6. Will there be escape pods for capital ships? A6. It has been discussed before and yes, the idea of escape pods has come up. I don’t think it’s confirmed, but it’s something we will definitely consider as we create the framework for Capital Ship systems. Q7. What sort of performance are you expecting in RoVerse? A7. One of the primary goals of RoVerse is accessibility. We know the average Robloxian might not have a high-tech computer with 50 Titans in it. Or maybe they even use a laptop. The point is, RoVerse is being made with performance in mind. Our end goal is to offer a lag-free experience even to those playing on lower-end devices and we’re constantly testing performance to make sure it’s up to that standard. Q8. What server size will you hope for? A8. We know server-size is an issue for us since we can’t possibly have huge clan battles in space with only 35 ships flying around, but with our main goal being performance, we’re going to be testing constantly to make sure we can get the largest server size possible without harming performance. I would personally be content with 50, but as ROBLOX changes so will we. Q9. Will you use the Universes/Teleportation between places/ A9. Yup. Kind of a given, but with the scale RoVerse is at it’s going to be hard to make a fully seamless environment and 1) have a lot of players in that area and 2) not lag. We’re going to find the best possible way to use Universes and make sure it’s put to good use. Q10. How does RoVerse plan on increasing the populace of the clan world? A10. That’s a bit complicated, but we (at least as I, HeroMaster, see it) want to do this by creating a demand to play RoVerse. One thing we’ve said before is that clans are factions, but they also act as a species or home world, sort of. You have to pick one at the start of the game to play and, well, if you’re not in a clan, how can you play? Clans that perform well in RoVerse will draw people in to join them just as if a clan were performing well normally. And when we release more gamified versions (an extensive, free-to-play version of the Dogfight module has been heavily discussed) players will play those and get a taste of the bigger game, drawn towards it and clans. I don’t speak for Vaktus but this is how I see it working. Things might change in the way we do them. The goal is to offer an experience unmatched elsewhere, where members of ROBLOX can get a taste of the clan world, and are encouraged to join a clan and get the full experience. Q11. What customizable features does RoVerse offer in-game? A11. RoVerse, for the sake of performance, obviously won’t have infinite customizability. The “civilian” ships won’t be heavily customizable in appearance, but you might be able to outfit them with different weapons or gear. The biggest customization comes from clans that join: they’ll have their own ships, stations, uniforms, guns – you name it. Q12. How about moon bases and planetary shields? A12. I certainly hope so. That sounds legitimately pretty cool. I don’t think we’ve really discussed planet shields (and it’d be an interesting thing to put in once super weapons are added to the game far down the line) but moon bases? I’ll put in a good word for this one. There were a lot of great questions that weren’t included in this Q&A session because they’re not really questions for me to address. I’ll forward them to Vaktus and make sure a proper, fully realized answer is given. |
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AuthorsVaktus: Leader of the Vaktovian Empire and head of the RoVerse Project |