Hello everyone! Welcome to the seventy-sixth issue of the RoVerse Development Newsletter, where we keep you updated on the progress we've made over the past week. We hope everyone had a lovely Christmas this past week, and were able to relax for at least a little bit. We've had a busy week around here as well, but we made the most of the free time we have, and some of the boring time while family is around, to work on some pretty cool, and very important features for the game. This week, the development team working on the Capital Update has continued to work hard on finishing everything we will need. When we were trying to rush to release by Christmas, we ended up shelving a few features that we wanted but would take to much time, but now that we missed that original deadline, we can reconsider. And some of those features were pretty vital to extended gameplay, so putting them back in should make the game that much more fun to play. Idyllic finally took on the monumental task of digitizing and organizing the star systems that were designed nearly a year and a half ago, putting them into a handy google sheets database that we can use to manage and keep track of the status of systems, as well as one very important feature - loading the layout of systems from a saved and packed data file. Because the system we have planned uses a trick to create the different star systems, planets, and station servers, we need a way to load that information in, so when a new server is created, it has the most up-to-date and accurate information with which to build the system layout. Rather than have 800 individual place files all in one gigantic universe, our servers will come in about four different flavors, and upon creation, load in the instructed location from an outside source, create the star and its asteroids, the minerals in the debris, any station locations and planets. After the success of organizing the star system data, Idyllic took on the grueling process of not only organizing, but completely creating a list of every planet in the galaxy. With some fancy formulas and a few mistakes, he created an ordered list of all 539 planets to be generated, each with a connection to its host system. Each of these lists includes the necessary information to generate the right biome and size and any other information needed, making it a huge step in getting the game to production. With this work on the database, he also took on the task of giving the galaxy map a facelift, as well as making it load from an external source, rather than a list of systems as originally designed. With the new database of information, he was able to create a much more informative map than was previously possible, with star types and sizes, planets and their orbital radius, and asteroid field biomes. You may remember the old galaxy map. While it served its purpose of organizing the systems of the Galaxy into capturable sectors, it really wasn't prettiest design, and it wasn't the most useful. And for something greeting every player in the lobby server, the galaxy map needs to be both those things. And so Idyllic teamed up with Vedrakkerous, to bring new life to the map. We know that many computers don't handle particles exceptionally well, so keep in mind that these features will be toggleable by the user to better fit their computer's capabilities, including turning down particles, not rendering system biome asteroids, and even as far as turning off planets, to cut down on the part count, which admittedly got a bit high. The map features LightInfluence particles that we can use to show the different sectors of the galaxy, like the Badlands or the Misty Reaches, as well as a toggle to show faction control of systems. Flying through the galaxy really is an amazing experience. With this exceptional progress this week, and future plans to digitize the rest of the pre-planned data that has been sitting around, Idyllic should be pushing progress on the game forward in huge steps in the coming week. This week, Skinny was too busy with real life to make any substantial progress on the ships he's been working on, but he did manage to successfully create a proof-of-concept for planetary atmospheres, simulating that blueish outline visible at a distance, that also falls into shadow behind it, as it should. Add in a lovely generated planet mesh, and fleets will be cruising to invade in no time! This week we have also hired on a new shipbuilder, Lorenzo, and he has already done some amazing work with a particularly unique example for this week. Shaped unlike any other capitals in our fleet, and with more room for armor than weapon emplacements, this Medium Capital should work wonders securing systems and holding the line, while reinforcements can be called in. Welcome to the team! 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 a religious faction be allowed in? A1: While we have had many factions discuss their plans in the community about including a religion in their lore, which is entirely acceptable, creating a faction based on a real-life religion would not be allowed. While you may be able to get away with a 'Space Templars' faction, don't expect to use RoVerse to go proselytizing. Q2: What type of machines can we expect for mining into the planet, will we have an ‘unlimited’ inventory to hold the ores or will you put it in a container? A2: Mining on planets is still in the design phase, but it won't be all that different from mining asteroids with a dedicated mining ship. We plan to include mining lasers as possible attachments to vehicles, for fast and rough mining, as well as mining on foot that might get you a bit more efficiency, into harder-to-reach places, but be a bit slower to operate. As for digging in to planets, you should expect only minimal changes to terrain, not significant mining tunnels or the like, at least at release. This isn't quite minecraft after all. 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! Comments are closed.
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AuthorsVaktus: Leader of the Vaktovian Empire and head of the RoVerse Project |