Hello everyone! Welcome to the eighty-seventh 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 an update on the status of the Capital Update, some more planet work from Idyllic, and some more backend development and documentation from lordrex. Idyllic wrapped up this week solving a few more planetary generation problems, with continued work on moisture distribution. While some generation systems just randomly place biomes wherever they want (looking at you, minecraft), we weren't happy with that process. Instead, we opted for a relatively simple process that generates moisture for every 'tile' on a planet based on whether its land or water, then in a few cycles, moves that moisture around. Using the wind vectors we set up, water moves over land, dropping out as it goes, with more dropping when obstacles like mountain ranges are encountered. This creates realistic rain-shadows behind mountains where deserts are more likely to form. Desert biomes will be dry because they don't have consistent access to water, not because a random point generator picked a spot. It also takes into consideration the heat factor we've generated - the poles will be cold and snow-covered with little precipitation, while mountain valleys with the right shape and direction will collect excess water, forming rainforest or swamp biomes. And with continued work, each of these biomes should end up with unique foliage forms suited to their stats, to better immerse the player in the planet surface gameplay. While some may say that working on such complex planets isn't worth the effort, we don't agree. The exciting gameplay experiences possible with planetary invasions, or exploration of the four corners of the galaxy, pushes this game beyond the arcade shooters that have come before. Lordrex has continued his work on backend systems as well as the design of the finer details of faction interaction. This week, we've ironed out the details of how a faction leader will go about running their faction, from how they use an expanded galaxy map, to what information will be available on that map, to how they can orchestrate raids and battles from a central command point with their HRs. Along with this came further discussion about how faction conflicts will be run, and we believe we've settled on a compromise solution that solves the problems we have identified with faction warfare, as well as allowing players to attack anytime, anywhere. In other words - no set battle times restricting participation. Further details will be released at a future time. Many of you may be wondering about the status of the Capital Update. We are working hard on catching up on the 3 months of work that we lost when craft left the team, but progress is slow because of the school year. Our dedicated team is doing the best they can, and we'll be continuing to provide updates as we go. Of note this week, Capital ship movement has been refined from NoCollider's Demo, with some added features like collision detection. Idyllic has also begun to help out with Capital Development, to speed up the process. We should be seeing promising results in no time. The two gifs here are comprised of a total of 1 day of work on the refurbished system - Capitals aren't all that complicated on their own, but the most challenging features are replication, and collision detection with minuscule fighters. Also of note is a simplification of the process of setting up Capital ships for easy implementation. As long as the model has a core part and a bounding box, it should be able to fly. Prior systems, including the original Dogfight Alpha were very poorly set up to accept different ship models and turret models, which we had to re-write for the Capital Update, which was well worth the time we put into refurbishing that part of the system. 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 borders work? A1: While we could implement a system that bars people from flying into your systems automatically, that really wouldn't be in the spirit of giving Factions a realistic playing field on which they can do as they please. If a faction want's to secure its borders, it'll have to hire security forces, or recruit members to patrol these territories, and should consider the extra area to cover before invading every system they can - if they can't defend their territory, they won't hold it for long. Q2: Will there be HIGHSEC or similar? A2: Continuing from the above question, the security of systems will be up to the owning factions. There won't be an automated law system anywhere, because factions can have their own set of rules, which they are free to enforce. While we will rank systems based on their hostility towards new players for initial spawning purposes, there will be no interference by us in how players act. Q3: Will we be able to keep systems independent from faction control? A3: With the newly decided details of Faction and Subfaction abilities, it is likely that this will be possible - if enough people residing in a system want to keep faction influences out, they should be able to attack any faction installations that try to be assembled, whether that means that individuals or organizations keep the entire system free, or just a planet surface, is entirely up to them. Drawing inspiration from the Browncoats of Firefly, or the Hutts of Star Wars, there is a wide range of possibilities for uncontrolled systems. Each planet acting entirely independent from one another, or whole systems run by a powerful mob boss, the possibilities are pretty cool to think about. 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.
|
Archives
January 2023
Categories
All
AuthorsVaktus: Leader of the Vaktovian Empire and head of the RoVerse Project |