RoVerse Development Newsletter #313

Hello everyone! Welcome to the 313th issue of the RoVerse Development Newsletter, where we keep you updated on the progress we've made over the past week.

These past two weeks, most of the team has been on family vacations and out of contact, but we do have some updates and things to talk about. We've got another criminal recon quest in several parts, this time involving tracking a specific NPC, a completed hover-vehicle for delivering cargo, and a call for submissions of Faction food items for the Café that is soon to be added to Hyperion.

​First up, we have out new vehicle. As a warning to all aspiring criminals, hijacking a post-office vehicle is a federal offense punishable by death. Also, they are extremely slow, so they make terrible escape vehicles.

Mori's hovering cargo delivery drone is fully rigged up and ready for action as a slow, but entertaining, mode of transport.

​Last we left you, we'd finished up the Recon: Location Quest code. Now, we've added on three variations of that particular quest. First up, the Korol will have you watching an NPC that hangs out in one specific location. While quite similar to the location variation, the highlight lights up a person instead. Simple code, simple variation.

The next variation involved upgrading our Station NPC system to spawn a specific NPC whenever the quest starts, that follows a preset path in a loop around the station. Find them, catch up, and watch what they're up to, for criminal reasons. Get too close, and they get suspicious. Stray too far, and you'll miss what they're doing.

The NPC system has been upgraded to spawn an NPC whenever requested, with a special action assigned - in this case, follow a randomly selected path, pathfinding around obstacles. This NPC won't be stopping to dance or taking up all the bench space - he's on a mission. Currently the NPC's avatar is randomly selected from the big list of everyone who's played RoVerse, but eventually it will spawn, for example, a security guard on patrol, or a smuggler with a briefcase.

The final variation of the quest is worth a bit more reputation - instead of walking in a loop, the NPC will walk along a path with a beginning and an end, and you'll have limited time to find them, see what they're up to, and complete your mission before they go somewhere you aren't allowed. Failing means facing the Korol, so do be careful.

The explorations into the NPC system originally built by Stratiz will be a major aspect of Hyperion, where the NPCs aren't just random characters wandering around (and sometimes dancing), but simulated people that get up in the morning, head down to Hyperion's Ring, and go about doing their business, whether that is enjoying the Entertainment Sector, boarding a ship for a distant station, or carrying around cargo. And the NPC system sure is flexible enough, these additions show that we can approach the idea, if we want to.

Last up, we've been hard at work working on the central restaurant in Hyperion's Entertainment District, but we have a specific need that we'd like the community to help out with. If you have a Faction, or if you are particularly creative, we'd like you to build some food items from your lore, that we can add to the menu at the Donald Café. Bonus points if they're unique and memorable, like the selections from the Onyx Hold and Akatana below.

We have a selection of Faction Food items from the Faction Food Newsletter we did a while back, so if you'd like to join them in providing food items, get in contact with Idyllic.

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: How will ship interiors work? Will you see them only when docked to a station?

​A1: The current plan is to provide a 'drop anchor' button that despawns your ship from the system you're currently flying in, and teleports you to a special server that is just the inside of your ship, at full scale. This is only for ships that have built interiors, which isn't mandatory. Inside, the plan is to allow you to customize things similarly to the Station Hotel - color scheme, furniture, little bobbleheads on the dashboard. Functional things like changing weapon loadouts or looking at system information should be available, and in the case your ship doesn't have a built interior, will be accessible by gui, just without the walking, so nobody will miss out.

Q2: What's Idyllic's Favorite Food?

A2: Spicy Noodles are high on my list right now, but burgers are great too, when they're cooked right.

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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!