Roverse Development Newsletter #66

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

This week, we have quite a few treats for you, with lots of progress made this week in a variety of departments. We have some more progress on making planets a reality from Idyllic, we have some new ships from Skinny, we have some atmospheric work from Vedrakkerous, and a sneak peek at the third realm of combat, that we should have more information about in the coming weeks.

Idyllic has continued to work hard on planet generation, making quite a few improvements to the import and detail generation system over the past few weeks. We ran into a few memory problems generating the 8 step planet last week, with only 2 of 3 tables exporting successfully. He's spent this week setting up a system to patch the holes in the data, and he is optimistic that any future problems can be resolved when they pop up.

SkinnyThePimp has returned from his time away, and has been creating quite a few ships at a rather impressive rate. Some of you may have seen some of his in-progress shots in the community discord channel, but we have here below some cool final versions.

First up is the Pilum, named after the Roman foot soldiers' handheld spear - with its sharp appearance and undoubted effectiveness in combat, it is a light fighter meant to be used for immediate area defense in any situation. From the run of the mill mercenary paid to escort a cargo ship, to the first line of offense in a faction battle for control.

This stylish fighter doesn't just look good on the outside, but has been designed to show off its interior fusion drive and power converters as well, covered by a thick sheet of ballistic and energy repellent material to protect its vitals.

Next up is the Gladius, named after the Roman soldiers' sword - meant to resemble a sharp sword cutting and weaving its way through the perils of combat. A Very Heavy Fighter meant to be used for major offensive campaigns or defensive positions, with the heavy weapons complement to support any need.

Imagine the fear of your rivals when you launch squads of these from a carrier. If the demon-like wings aren't enough to scare your enemies, the weapons loadout will.

We welcome Vedrakkerous back from his sabbatical, and he spent no time waiting to get back to work creating cool atmospheric effects for planets. ​​This week, he's taken to developing the general cloud cover that can be seen from the planet's surface. In no time at all, he went from a barely functioning prototype particle emitter system to an astounding system.

Not only the normal planets you can encounter, but the more alien and hostile environments you might run into out in space.

Now you all know by now about the primary area of combat - space is the most common field of battle in the RoVerse Universe. The secondary field, planet surfaces, pit infantry against ground vehicles and space fighters. The newest field, which we hope to develop further in the future, would be the oceans. There will be a lot of water on a lot of planets, so it makes sense that factions seeking full control of a planet, would need to control the waters too. We look forward to including naval and underwater combat, as well as the opportunity for underwater cities and bases.

​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 there be any planets with odd weather?

A1: Creative weather is a distinct possibility for the game. There might be one planet out there with something truly unusual that makes it unique, but you might just have to go exploring to find out just what exactly is out there. With the work Vedrakkerous has been doing, I wouldn't be surprised if there were some truly awesome things going on somewhere in the galaxy.

Q2: Will planets have different gravity?

A2: Planets vary in size from small moons to the largest of solid planets to even larger gas giants. Each of these planetary bodies in real life have their own different gravity, so why shouldn't we try to do that as well? We'll try our best to make small moons have very bouncy low gravity, and giant rocky worlds have a very high gravity that makes moving strenuous, just to keep the galaxy interesting. We don't want people to get tired of fighting over the same terrain on the same planet as they move from system to system.

Q3: Will early players get special features?

A3: While we don't want to award anything game-breaking that gives anyone too much of an advantage, there may be certain rewards for sticking with us through the development phase. Whether its a special nametag or a limited edition ship skin, we'll just have to see.

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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!