RoVerse Development Newsletter #86

Hello everyone! Welcome to the eighty-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 some outstanding progress on the planetary front, some more design work for economic systems, and a new planetary structure that will be vital to establishing colonies. Let's get started!

Idyllic has been hard at work this week wrapping up the final updates to his old system of planetary generation, marking the end of the old and slow system, and the beginning of his explorations into new processes of making planets as varied and realistic as possible, both to keep them interesting, and to immerse players.

This time last week, he had been solving continent growth and collisions, this week he has completed updates to that portion, as well as the wind generation, heat generation, and default moisture generation systems that will all go into generating realistic biome conditions on the final planets.

In the process of debugging the collision code, Idyllic generated a few planets and was surprised with how cool they were, even without refining the different variables. Here we have a shallow continent meeting an ocean, which would form a beach, while in the background rises a high continent, meeting the ocean with steep cliffs.

Also during his work, he accidentally generated a 5-step planet, which would have taken 3 hours to generate using the old system, but it managed it in about 15 minutes instead.

It does have some unique formations, like land-locked plates surrounded by high mountains that will be toned down for the final system, as well as an exceptionally tall mountain visible at the south pole in the image above that could be cool, but isn't quite realistic.

As with any new creation, sometimes you find cool things about it that you didn't plan for, and are neat in their existence. Like the insides of the planet, giving you an inverted view of the mountains and continents on the surface that you otherwise couldn't see.

Look at the depth of that oceanic trench!

And this neat mountain with a lake!

Now that he is all caught up with the updates to the old system, and has cut generation time by 80%, Idyllic plans to move forward with planet biome generation, where heat boils ocean water, that is then carried by wind and deposited on land masses, resulting in various climate zones in various places around the planet.

We can't wait to see what he comes up with.

Idyllic, Skinny, and Lordrex have also spent some time this week developing exactly how contracts and purchasing of goods from other players will work. Every detail from the expiration of requests, how factions will make a profit off of transactions they host, to where transactions can be made, fulfilled, and who gets to know about them. Exciting stuff!

This week, Brad has constructed a new planetary structure to assist in the transfer of planetary goods to the far-flung stations of any faction - the Capital Spaceport. 

Modular arms built like any structure and rising high into the sky will connect with telescoping gantries to any Capital ship small enough to enter orbit, allowing cargo to be loaded and unloaded, machinery and equipment, vehicles to be transported from their construction location to where they're needed, whether that be fighters for the front, or miners for the asteroid belts.

Expensive to build, but worth the cost to offload cargo from planets on a large scale, or bring in materials for city building.


​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 subfactions be able to sell 'salvage' or 'ugly' ships scrapped together from pieces of other ships?

A1: If the Ravager appearance is the sort of style you or your band of mercs want to go for, you will definitely be able to submit ships that are unusual in style, you might even be able to get permission from another faction to use their ship parts, or create your own custom pieces. As for in-game mechanics allowing you to piece together broken ships, I wouldn't expect that anytime soon.

Q2: Will we be able to move outposts from system to system every once in a while?

A2: While we don't have any current plans for moving outposts around, the suggestion has come up quite a few times and would be worth considering. I can see the use in a pirate outpost moving around the asteroid belt to stay hidden, or an outpost for storing and shipping large volumes of cargo wanting to stay in the most efficient place. If outposts prove to be useless if locked in place, we'll look into a semi-movable sort of system after release.

Q3: Will there be any sort of 'training mode' for factions to practice with their recruits?

A3: While we would prefer you drop them in real combat, that wouldn't be the best process for every sort of training. We'll look into either providing a separate place for practice, or release some scripts for factions to use in their own training simulations, or perhaps we just have a toggle for a Mirror Dimension where nothing is permanent.

Q4: Will you have to worry about maintaining orbit around planets like KSP?

A4: Not really. While realistically simulating gravity is a cool stunt, I'd think by the time they've developed gargantuan capital ships, they'd at least have figured out a computer capable of keeping the ship hovering in place over a planet, rather than needing constant pilot input.

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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!