RoVerse Development Newsletter #71

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

This week, we've been putting in a lot of time working on the Capital Update, some more particle and weapon effects, playing around with the beams feature, and have hired some new scripters.

We'd like to welcome RoboGojo back to the team after an extended break. He has taken particles and effects back up, collaborating with Ved to create some truly astonishing work. The two of them have been messing around with beams, testing the possibilities and limits of using them for effects in-game. So far, they've managed to create some great shield and weapon effects that blow the previous particle versions out of the water.

Capital ship shield seen cycling after being hit by weapons fire during an intense battle.

We have found a few limits on the beam effects, though, so we can't use them absolutely everywhere. There is a limit of around 30 beams rendered at one time, as seen in the demo below. This is a little low for the intense battles we imagine will occur in RoVerse, so we will have to work around this limit moving forward.

They've also been pushing forward with the effects for both fighters and capitals. The plasma guns available currently in the Dogfight Alpha are great as a starting point, but were never intended to be the exclusive weapon type. Seen below is a demo for how beam turrets would look on a fighter.

Beams are a constant-fire weapon that does little damage per hit, but if you can keep on target, the cumulative damage can be enough to destroy any ship.

They've also created a demo for an auto-turret muzzle flash, as well as the bullet travel, which unfortunately, runs too fast for gifs to capture.

Work has continued on the Capital Update, and the guis in particular. The radar we demoed last week has been added on to, with custom icons for different classes of ships, from light fighters to very heavy, you should be able to see them coming in time to decide to make a stand, or regroup for another attack. Thanks to Mikey for polishing up the ship icons for the radar.

Idyllic also managed to get team-colored icons to work, which in the final game, will become faction primary colors, but works quite well for the dogfight. Seen below, is an enemy light fighter piloted by Ved, and a friendly light fighter piloted by Skinny.

Whoto also put in some work on GFX, providing the custom radar underlay showing angles and direction, to provide the pilot with a better understanding of exactly where enemy fighters are in relation to their ship.

​Ved and Idyllic have teamed up to start conquering gui design and scripting, starting with the first screen anyone in the game is likely to see - the loading screen!

We've also hired on two new scripters, Morgan, who will be taking on star system generation and backend integration, and davness, who will be working on improving fighter scripts. Welcome to the team!

We hope everyone in the US had a great Thanksgiving, I know I sure did. Once you sleep off all that turkey, be sure to sign up for the Dogfight Tournament, now's your chance. You can find the form here: 
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/17KKApFQwTK-EW0uWbNQlWvq0i7OXem1Hf4YVh4SVOn4/viewform?edit_requested=true

We should be announcing the date or dates of the battle soon, so don't wait too long!


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 sort of interdiction bubbles?

A1: While EVE takes the warp bubble to the extreme, making it the major focus of battles, I think RoVerse is better suited to a slightly different, more combat-oriented direction, where the ships battle it out in the vast reaches of space, and no extreme technology interfering with that. There shouldn't be any problems involving players running from battles that wouldn't be expected.

Q2: Will there be friendly-fire allowing people on the same team to kill each other?

A2: In the heat of a chaotic and intense battle, worrying about shooting a teammate instead of an enemy would be very hard to keep track of and avoid, so friendly fire will probably be disabled in system and faction battles. But in other places, where security forces might have to deal with less-than-cooperative citizens, we want them to be able to retain the ability to ensure order, if permitted. I would guess that some sort of permission is granted to military or security personnel in faction space, with the option for civilians to retaliate if fired upon, giving everyone a fair shot.

Q3: Will there be melee weapons?

A3: We fully intend to integrate several types of melee weapons for ground combat, for those groups that have melee weapons as part of their lore, and as a useful means of combat up close and when low on ammo. Soldiers wielding swords, charging across fields, to attack tanks and enemy bases would be pretty epic to see, even if not the most effective method. And I'm sure there would be other uses for them as well.

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So long and thanks for all the fish.

​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!

Any fans of the science fiction genre on Roblox can join the Science Fiction Genre Discord and find other fans and developers like you.

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!