RoVerse Development Newsletter #96

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

This week, Idyllic has continued on implementing the VLS missile weapons systems for Capital Ships, with improvements on targeting and launch systems from the demo's we've seen in the past few weeks.

Let's get started!

The missile demo brought to you last week was mounted to the ground, upright, and unmoving. This week, Idyllic has been working on all 3 of those problems. First, he set up the capital spawning system to allow the attachment of the Fixed mount type, where previous iterations of the autoturret and laser cannons all were of the Turret variety. With no rotating or aiming parts, the VLS missile tubes were quite a bit easier to code on their own, so a little extra detail will be added, with opening missile bay doors when launching missiles at hostile forces. This last detail isn't quite coded yet, but the schematic used to implement identical code on a variety of VLS mounts that factions may create in the future, the rigging that lets such flexibility exist.

Here we have every turret on the Avenger replaced with a light VLS mount.

I wouldn't recommend a ship with exclusively missile mounts for its weapons complement for any ordinary circumstances, but who knows? - it might have its uses.

After getting the mounts locked on and the class defined, it was on to the finer touches of missile launching. A key detail of VLS is that missiles launch straight out of the ship, then turn towards the target. We've hit a few bugs in that regards so far, but early results seem to show that we should be able to hit our mark with the homing variety in the near-future.

Launching a full volley at once also leads to collisions near-ship, so watch out.

In the future, we plan to delay the activation of the explosive component a little longer, to prevent self-injury when you absolutely need to shoot off all your missiles.

We also got some impressive shots of high-volume missile launches, which won't be possible with so few mounts on such a small ship, but with a large enough ship could be possible. It's important to test all the possibility when you allow such flexibility in ship design.

Such lovely arcs of destruction.

In the coming weeks we'll be refining the aiming and physics a bit, since they aren't quite where we'd like them yet, but I think the effects already look stunning.


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: What types of weapons are planned for ground combat?

A1: The basic types we have outlined are similar to the ship weapons, but in handheld or vehicle mounted versions. Things like miniguns mounted to vehicles, to plasma rifles carried by soldiers should all be included. And we want to remain flexible with clan tech as well, if a faction has a particular weapon type in mind, we'll do our best to add it to the list.

Q2: Will there be any fog of war hiding planet surfaces, or will it all be visible anytime?

A2: We are planning on the exploration of planet surfaces being an important and valuable adventure, so I would plan on some sort of obfuscation, at least of the finer details. It is assumed that for a faction to build capitals and be aptly space-faring, they will have mapped the local cluster first, so the galactic map will always be visible, and planets could be scanned from orbit in rough detail, but finding the best spot for a base, a colony city, or an ambush, will be up to dedicated scouts and adventurers to explore and map the finer details of the galaxy.

Q3: What size or class of ships can hold other ships?

A3: Our Capital classification system is based on size, so any number of different ships could be the same size. but have widely different uses. Each Capital ship will come with a default kit, a set of stats determining cargo space, hangar space, armor and engine capacity, and the like as a function of ship volume. Rekitting a ship at construction, or later at higher expense, with say a carrier kit, would increase hangar space for holding fighters, at the expense of the other stats. So a default ship would be the balance of all uses, but do none of them exceptionally.

Q4: What sort of weapons will be mountable to ground vehicles.

A4: In the past few months Idyllics side project has been attaching Capital turrets to a demo ground vehicle as a proof of concept and an aide in the coding process. We've shown anti-air autoturrets, as well an a non-functioning conventional turret, but those are just two of many types we have planned. Pretty much every weapon you can mount on a Capital, you should be able to mount to a vehicle, if it has the right mount on it, as well as some other weapons more suited for planetary warfare - those that use gravity for example. Everything from self-propelled artillery to point defense to infantry carriers, planetary vehicles should be flexible enough to fit any invasion or defensive needs.

Q5: Will players be able to sit in seats or hang onto the side of vehicles and shoot at enemies?

A5: The demos so far show the driver entering the mounted weapons on the vehicle, or otherwise remaining in 3rd person view, and that is unlikely to change. Unfortunately, character movements are physically unpredictable, often causing significant instances of launching of objects in the best of circumstances, let alone on a spherical planet with custom gravity. We'll do our best to let people shoot their weapons out loopholes in the vehicle, but attaching the character directly, even to support a first-person perspective, seems like more trouble than it's worth.

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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!