RoVerse Development Newsletter #97

Hello everyone! Welcome to the ninety-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 progress on several fronts, with a demo of station NPCs, a progress update from Lordrex and his work on backend systems and the lobby updates, and Idyllic's work on the Capital Weapons systems and the Capital Update, and an in-progress ship from Sae'Tzar.

Stratiz has made some excellent work on NPCs to give station interiors life. Able to perform a variety of interactions with each other and their environment. Actions from waving at each other to starting a dance party, as well as the usual wandering and pathfinding, and eventually a wide variety of appearances, crowds of these characters should be filling up the stations of RoVerse very soon.

While we're currently developing these characters to fill Developer-created stations like the Tutorial and Neutral Stations, eventually we would like for faction stations to be filled with them as well, using custom faction species and uniforms, and having the number of characters be based upon the success of the faction in the area - a star system under attack would have its civilians and members evacuate to a safer location, realistically, so why not make our environments reflect that. Think of it as a subtle indicator of how well your systems are thriving under your rule.

Lordrex has continued modifying and updating systems originally coded with a certain feature set in mind, removing ones that we've decided against in the interest of simplicity, like multiple characters, and fixing the holes removing those features created in the code. Along with these tweaks comes correlated work on the backend servers, pushing us closer and closer to completion with each step. 

​Sae'Tzar has been working on a fleet of ships that he's keeping private for now, but here is an in-progress shot of a new public-line battleship classed as an XL.

Coming soon will be several new ships in this line, as well as larger additions to the Garfish line of ships. We can't wait!

Idyllic has continued to tweak the missile mechanics, reducing their launch speed to a more reasonable number, improving their aim, and working on pursuit curves to hit moving targets. The target is set independently of the missile type, allowing a non-homing standard missile to have its target set to the mouse location on firing, while a homing missile can update the location and adjust its trajectory.

Along with the weapons work, he has continued work on integrating the fighter updates done by TheFurryFish and Boysun with the Capital ship coding. In the coming weeks, we should get our first glimpse of a large capital ship and fighters together in the same battlefield.

The work that remains on the Capital update includes implementing the Capital ship controls and spawning, Capital ship weapons kitting, collisions between Capitals and Fighters, and implementing Capitals in the gamemodes. We're getting closer!

​

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 exactly would I go about building a city base for my faction in the generated cities on planets?

A1: If you so choose, a faction can build their own higher-resolution versions of the cities they build on different planets, and connect them to RoVerse through teleports tied to landmark structures. On our end, the cities will all generate the same way, with differences between building skins to fit your faction. On your end, you could build whatever you want as long as it's similar to whats on the other end (no connecting RoVerse to your tycoon). We'd prefer if you built the city to be of a similar size, for example, a newly founded colony city would be fairly small, we'd prefer the connected place to be a small colony city or a portion of it, likewise for your capital or other metropolises. Closer to release we will be able to say if we will be able to release the current city growth stage as an API, that it could automatically update to your end. We'll just have to see how popular that would be.

Q2: Will there be clothing that effects player stats?

A2: There will be two types of additions to your character - clothing will be purely aesthetic, from your faction uniform to a suave brown trenchcoat, allowing your appearance to be however you choose. Character upgrades are still in the early planning phase, and would effect stats like movement speed, jump height, and other fun stuff like that.

Q3: Will capitals be able to 'shelter' turrets within the hull for better protection while underway?

A3: We have no plans for this feature at this time, though it could happen at some point in the future, if gameplay proves to be unbalanced. Good points were made both for and against this addition, that we will definitely consider before any final decision is made.

Q4: How large will cities be able to grow?

A4: Theoretically, an extremely profitable and well-kept city or cities could grow into an ecumenopolis and encompass the entire surface of a planet. If this starts to look possible, we may add features for city layers at some point in the future, to support Coruscant-like cityscapes that could be quite interesting to explore or battle your way through.

Q5: What sorts of things will you be able to export?

A5: For the cargo business to be profitable, there would have to be more than just raw, unprocessed minerals to ship around, so cargo that can be transported and resold should be quite extensive - from the aforementioned raw resources, to refined metals, to light equipment, to even vehicles and ships crated up for delivery. If a faction is stealthy enough, they might be able to ship an entire invasion fleet to the surface using the local couriers, so your security forces best be on the lookout for contraband.

---

​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!