Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Arb's Hat Reviews: Skull Stetson!

Greetings ladies, gentlemen and anything inbetween! Today I bring you a review of the new hat named 'Skull Stetson' which was added to the catalog today.




The Mesh 8/10

The mesh on this particular Stetson is shaped accurately, with a small fold in the top of hat that you would expect to see on it's real counterpart. It fits nicely on a ROBLOXian's head as you would expect from this type of hat. However, there is one slight flaw in the brim which I believe should be thinner like the classic Tan Stetson.

The Texture 8/10

A dark crimson colour makes up the main body of the Stetsons texture with a nice black and white band to give it more of an attractive appearance. As the hats description states, there is also a skull and crossbones situated on the back of the hat, which is a nice addition to the simple texture. To finish off; a faint shadow beneath the band, giving the hat that extra bit of detail.

The Creativity 7/10

A Stetson hat hasn't been uploaded to the catalog since 2007 and just 3 of these hats exist on ROBLOX  (4 if you count the US Calvary Hat). Due to this, the Skull Stetson can be considered fairly original as its mesh is shaped quite differently to the previous two.

The Value for Money 10/10

At its price of just R$250, the Skull Stetson is a great value item for your everyday cowboy needs. It is also significantly cheaper than it's older counterpart, which is on sale for R$354.

Overall 8/10


Overall, this hat is a must buy for any western or cowboy fans, with it's luxurious crimson colour and very reasonable price. For R$154 less than the Tan Stetson, you are receiving a more updated looking hat, with a sharper, and more realistic mesh. It's one downside - the thick brim, can be overlooked or may be seen by some as a good addition to the hat.

Thanks!

-Arbirator





Black Iron Ring of Olympia goes limited!



July 28th, 2012, was a big day. The much anticipated Rainbow Fedora finally came out, and the Black Iron Ring of Olympia went limited. Before I review this ring, here's some information about it.

- The Black Iron Ring of Olympia was a contest prize for the 2008 ROBLOX Olympics Building Contest.
- Around 250-400 exist according to my statistics. The true amount that exist is unknown.
- You could have gotten this one of three ways. Either by making a top ten ROBLOX Olympics video, by favoriting only five 2008 olympics places (this way of getting it was not actually revealed until the ring was given out, it was a secret), or by buying it.
- This is not the rarest out of all the 2008 Olympics rings.

The thing though is that this ring was given out in 2008 and many of the people who got it either don't have BC anymore or have quit ROBLOX, so that just makes this ring even rarer. Now here's the review.

Texture: 10/10

It's very hard to make ring textures, as the ring texture is actually more complex than you'd think. However, I consider this ring as one of the best 2008 rings because of it's amazing texture. The texture is incredible as the black texture looks shiny and it has such amazing cracks all over the ring. This ring is one of my favorite rings.

Mesh: 10/10

What I love about 2007 and 2008 hats is that they have very simple and unique meshes. This ring is one of them. The mesh is a simple ring, it's not like any other hat in the catalog. This mesh has been used in many games and is one of the best known meshes on ROBLOX. It gives you that nostalgic 2007 feel and it's very classic and original.

Style: 3/10

This ring (along with the others) does not really work good as a hat. When you wear it, all it does is float on top of your head, and it looks a bit awkward. My suggestions on how to make it look good on you is to either wear it alone or make it part of a hat combo. (which this ring is not good with most hat combos) It'd be a bit cooler if it went around your head instead of above it. It's still a great hat, but it just is hard to create outfits with this ring.

Profit: 1/10

This ring is absolutely terrible for profit. This ring is ultra rare and is terribly bad to buy and sell for profit. Many were expecting this ring to be around 20000 robux, but it's currently selling around the outrageous prices of 80000 robux to 120000 robux! I'm pretty sure many of you readers don't have quite that much, but for those who do have that much DON'T BUY THIS RING. PERIOD. First off, it's not worth at all 80000 robux. Second, if you buy this you're wasting your money terribly and probably won't ever be able to sell the ring and get your money back. It's impossible to make any money with this ring. The only reason you should buy this ring is if you are a hat collector, or if this is your dream hat. However, if you own this ring and  have Builder's Club, I suggest to talk with some people who want it and sell it below 80000 since no one will buy it for that, but not too low.

Overall: 8/10

This ring is extremely awesome and very nice looking, but it isn't great for creating outfits, it's way too expensive, and it is zero profit (unless you own it).

Keep your eyes on the catalog though, because many suspect the other 2008 Olympics ring will go limited sometime soon. Also, many suspect this ring might be the start of the backlog. The backlog is, if you don't know, tons of offsale hats that are planned to go limited soon because of the release of the Trading System. It's supposedly going to start extremely soon. In fact I hope it starts as soon as possible because me and many others in the LMaD forum have been waiting eagerly quite a while for the backlog.

UPDATE: Just recently the Perfectly Legitimate Business Hat went limited, meaning this IS the start of the backlog. Keep your eyes on the catalog the next few days, because many items, including some in your inventory, may be going limited real soon!

swim
The supposedly shared 2012 olympics admin account, swim.

One other thing I'd like to note. The London 2012 Olympics have just recently begun and it's likely that ROBLOX will do some sort of building contest or more likely a game event to celebrate the olympics. I won't give too much away, but a couple weeks ago people noticed that the account "swim" was recently creating some sort of secret olympics game and was uploading potential prize hats as models. There are many reasons to suspect that swim is a shared admin account for a new event, though some users suspect swim is just some user trying to fool people. I've talked with swim in-game, and he says that the possible event game was supposed to be out by now, but he says an "error" has delayed the game.  I have a feeling swim is an admin as when I talked to him he knew just about what every admin was doing. Be aware though, swim has not been online now for about a month, and that's another reason why people suspect he's a fake. The admins have not mentioned at all whether swim is an admin account or not, so we'll just have to wait and see what happens.

- NonstopEpic, Catalog Manager

Monday, July 30, 2012

Chapter 3

Chapter 3 of "The Quest Beyond Time" is now up. It is not as good as you would expect because the original one I wrote, I forgot to save and it is now lost. I just wrote this one quickly in the past few minutes (on my new laptop :D) because, it has been a long time since chapter 2. Hopefully you will like Chapter 3. I apologize for my lousiness, I have been busy with life and work. I promise to do a better job on Chapter 4.

Read Chapter 3 here

~ Have questions?
OR Ask me on Twitter
Follow Flingi2 on Twitter

"Chocolate Gentleman's Hat" Hat Review

Hio, it's been a while! Well, I'm here, and I'm delivering a post to YOU! Also, I'm reviewing the "Chocolate Gentleman's Hat". Mmm... Chocolate.


It's made of chocolate - which is cool until it melts on your head. Then it's delicious...


Mesh: The mesh is that of a top hat/bowler hat, and it is shaped and fits like a top hat/bowler hat, so good so far. It has a bow around it, which makes it even more realistic! The more realistic the better, except with packages. *shoots glance at 3.0 bodies*. Anyways, it's realistic, and very nice. It reminds me of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory already. And this is just the mesh. 10/10.


Texture: The texture is brown (I'm assuming/hoping it's chocolate. Yes that was a poop joke. Actually, forget I said anything), and the bow is a nice blue/turquoise colour. The blue/turquoise coloured band fits in with the chocolate covered brown hat to me, it looks very nice. It's nice and... Chocolaty! 9/10.


Value for Money: The price is at 200 R$, which isn't that bad for a bowler hat/top hat. Top hats on ROBLOX are usually very expensive, such as the JJ5x5 Top Hat. The bowler hats aren't so expensive though. Not bad. 8/10.


Public Enjoyment: Now I took to the streets of a Social Network known as "Twitter":


@Newbcaek: "it tastes delicious, looks like chocolate."


@RBX_Zakary99: "a nice hat, i would of preferred it to be limited."


@IJPY_RBX: "ugly, and hardly chocolate. More just a weird brown."


There were more, but these were the first 3 ACCEPTABLE ones. Thanks to all who gave input!


Overall: Overall, this hat is a nice, appropriate chocolate bowler hat/top hat and is at an acceptable price. Would've been an okay limited though. 8/10. Link: http://www.roblox.com/Chocolate-Gentlemans-Hat-item?id=87262303


FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER: @BillCheesey5

Account Switch

Hello everyone, it's me, Refreshingwater here telling all of you that I've switched accounts! Why have I done this? The account I'm moving to is my old main account named "DxandJohnCena," it has a bunch of hats and good stats and it's my original account. I'm not leaving ROBLOX, I'm just switching accounts. Refreshingwater will now forever be my alt.

I'm going to remain the Community/Place Manager. So, just be aware that I'm no longer going to answer questions on Refreshingwater, only on DxandJohnCena. The previous gifts will open on refreshingwater. Everything is the same, the only change is my account.

Thanks for reading, and support me with my change.

Sunday, July 29, 2012

Giant Survival Place Review

A giant, according to Wikipedia is a monster of human appearance but prodigious size and strength. This basically means that they are big and strong. This is very much the case in this place as all the giants are big... and strong... Yeah. Anyway, on to the review
Gameplay 8/10
The game starts by loading a popular model as a shelter such as the the ROBLOX HQ, Haunted Hill, a castle, and many others. After giving you a minute to find a suitable corner to live out the last few minutes of your life a large giant appears. The giants are also all different and you never get the same one twice in a row. To name a few of the giants there are the Ice Giant, the Fire Giant, the God Giant, the Knight Giant, and the Invisible Giant. All of these giants are incredibly fun to fight against and are all different. For example, the Ice Giant sends rolling snowballs of death out of it's mouth in an attempt to crush you. The Fire Giant is able to burn all the buildings. The God Giant is extremely fast and has 5000 health.  All of the giants are unique. Anyway, after the giant spawns your goal is to shoot it as much as possible until it dies or the round is over. For each time you hit it with your gun you get one point. You can buy new guns with your points and each hit will give you more points. Or you can purchase gear such as the gravity coil to aid your in your attempt to destroy the monstrosity.
Effort 7/10
The scripting for the place is lovely (even if it does glitch sometimes) and all the giants are uniquely scripted in their own way. However, the only problem I have with this place is that none of the maps were made by him. They're all classic ROBLOX places.
Creativity 7/10
If you look back in time you can see that there were a lot of places like this in the past. Either way, this place has changed it up a bit by allowing you to fight back.
Overall 7.5/10
Suggestions
  • Make some maps yourself, classic places are nice but they shouldn't all be classic places
  • More giants
  • Add a giant cake that shoots cupcakes at people.
Tips
  • The reload time of all the guns is agonizingly slow, after you've gotten a few guns it's a good idea to switch guns right after you fire them allowing you to fire rapidly and get more points.
  • Don't be a hero, stay away from the giant. Try getting him near the spawn so he'll always have someone new to go for that isn't you.
 If you want your place reviewed simply contact Banjobug on twitter or send me a private message on ROBLOX. The next post could be about your place! I'll be glad to give you ideas on your place and help make it better. Also, if you find a place that is absolutely awful and on the front page send me a PM and I might make a RANT about it!

Also, you should follow me on twitter even if you don't have a RANT or review request! Sometimes I invite my followers to go to places with me to help review them.

Place Reviewed: Giant Survival

Reviewed by: Banjobug

New 30% Marketplace Fee





       Well, as many of you have probably noticed, the Marketplace Fee for limited items has gone up from 25-30% quite recently. For those who don't know of this fee, it's a sort of tax, if you will, that ROBLOXians pay when selling limited and limited unique items to other users. Basically, a portion of the money one earns from selling a limited item will be given back to ROBLOX. For example, if I were to sell a copy of the Icedagger for the price of 1,000 ROBUX (which I would hopefully have  enough sense not to do) then, by the previous Marketplace Fee of 25%, I would earn 750 ROBUX. However, now, with the new 30% Marketplace Fee, I would only be able to earn 700 ROBUX if I were to sell the item for the same price. Most users are quite disgruntled with this update, feeling that the original tax of 25% was more than enough to start off with. Those of you familiar with LMaD (users from the Let's Make a Deal section of the Forums) who are avid investors in limited items, probably know that they protest this 5% increase as well.   

MasterChiefAlpha's thread about the Marketplace Fee



       I talked to my long-time friend and investor, shadowchampion, about this topic, and asked him what his thoughts on the subject were. He responded that he saw it as an advantage for the limited item itself, as the price of it would need to be raised to give sellers the same profit previous to the new Marketplace Fee, but a disadvantage for the buyers, who would have to pay more. 
       @Regilord on twitter expressed his views on the matter as well. "It makes sense," he tweeted, "Roblox's new Fee is becoming more similar to other online marketing fees. It's just incredibly high to what we're used to." 


Thanks for reading! Ulquiorra98 signing off!

Follow me on twitter: @Ulquiorra98RBLX 

      

Saturday, July 28, 2012

Roblox News Summer Interns: Second Roll-call

The time is upon us to reveal the newest batch of users joining the Roblox News Summer Intern Programme! This is the second and final roll-call, the application deadline was Wednesday this week.


A Recap.

An Intern is a temporary staff member who will shadow a current member of the RN team. These interns will publish articles relating to the staff member's role on the blog. For example, if an intern were to shadow Refreshingwater, they would publish Place Reviews.

The aim of the Internship programme is enhance the applicants skills in a particular area whilst at the same time developing their social skills through interacting with fans and staff members alike. If the Interns perform well and bond with their fellow RN team members, they will likely be asked to remain on the team as full time staff after the programme is over.


Our second interns are:


regilord

regilord

Regilord impressed me with his well written, detailed application. It clearly shone out with talent and showcased to me the amount of time he is willing to spend on his work, a sign of dedication. Regilord had a Place Review of Catalog Heaven published to RN as a Community Article. He will be shadowing the infamous Place Reviewer and previous Intern: banjobug! 




Phantomazing


Phantomazing
Phantomazing has been a long term RN reader and fan who delivered a great application for the Intern Programme. Phantomazing is an aspiring Graphics Designer and has produced multiple graphics for RN including previous site logos and the RN SF Tournament emblem. He will be shadowing TREVOR818730 who works on the sliding banner at the top of the page. He will also be coordinating with Flingi2 - the Site Manager. 




chubbs21

chubbs21

Chubbs21 has also been an avid reader of Roblox News and has applied for roles on the blog beforehand. His application was well constructed and the sample article about Catalog rumours was interesting to read. Chubbs21 is an investor and will be a great addition to the RN team! Chubbs21 will be shadowing BillCheesey5 - a Catalog Analyst.


Once again, a massive thank you to everyone who applied for the Summer Internship Programme! All your applications were impressive making it extremely hard to choose the selected few to join the ranks of RN! This was the final roll-call this Summer for Interns.

-Arbirator
Editor of Roblox News

A New ROBLOX Sponsorship?

Could this be the new sponsored place?
Recently Shedletsky was found at a place called Lego Hero Factory: Breakout by LegoHeroFactory.


 In the past ROBLOX has created simple places for different companies such as KREO, Disney XD, the Three Stooges and many others. Shedletsky is definitely preparing for something judging from this ironnoob post where he asked users for futuristic buildings. If you look at the thumbnail of the place you can recognize some futuristic buildings that Shedletsky posted on that thread.


 I don't know about you, but I'm looking forward to see what they've done this time. Judging by the thumbnail it's going to be good.

~Published by Banjobug

Hat Review: Rainbow Fedora

What’s up guys! It’s dark back with another great hat review! Well, last gear Friday when everyone was waiting for gears to be released then the retexture every had been waiting for was released. Everyone panicked and kept clicking rainbow fedora just to get errors… Then when the errors lifted it wasn't even for sale! This hat just went on sale yesterday so now I am going to do a nice review about it! So, let’s get on with the review:


Mesh: 10/10

The original version of rainbow fedora didn’t actually fit the avatar correctly, but never fear IBarrageI is here! He resized the hat to it's proper size which fits the avatar perfectly! I love the classic fedora mesh, the way it fits the avatar perfectly, I can’t wait to see what amazing hat combos you guys will make with it.

Appearance: 8.5/10

The appearance of this fedora is absolutely amazing! It looks so beautiful with all the colors connect just like the rainbow.  It comes to just above the eyes of the avatar and fit’s nice around the back. It seems to be a very nice hat.

Price: 1 week and a day after the hat was uploaded to roblox it went on sale all of a sudden for 1,500 Robux with 500 in stock, it sold out very quick and made a 8-10k profit. Nobody was really expecting this hat to come out but out of the blue it came out.

Overall: 9/10

I love this hat, it looks amazing, it looks epic on my head :D

This will be my last review for about 3 week due to vacation!

Thanks for reading! See you soon :) 

Friday, July 27, 2012

A Small Scripting Tutorial: UDim2.new

So, a lot of people have been asking me to make a scripting tutorial. I never actually agreed. But people were saying RN were low on some scripting tutorials, so I may continue doing this in the future if people find them helpful.

What is UDim2?
UDim2 is like the CFrame of a gui, with UDim2 you can move guis and manipulate them to your willing. Like Quadratum Havoc, when you press 'Q' a gui flies into the screen. This is one of the great things you can create with the object UDim2.

How do we use UDim2?
UDim2 is actually not that hard to use in the slightest, as long as you have a text button, and a script with a function. You can move it anywhere.

A script involving UDim2:
function ZakaryIsEpic(mouse)
script.Parent.Parent.TextButton.Position = UDim2.new(0.5, 0, 0.5, 0)
wait()

script.Parent.Parent.TextButton.Position = UDim2.new(0.6, 0, 0.6, 0)
wait()

script.Parent.Parent.TextButton.Position = UDim2.new(0.7, 0, 0.7, 0)
wait()
end


script.Parent.MouseButton1Click:connect(ZakaryIsEpic)
The Function Line: The function line is just the function. (HAS TO HAVE MOUSE)


UDim2, the UDim2.new line would make the TextButton have the position {0.5, 0, 0.5, 0}.


The wait line makes it wait the lowest it can, (wait(0.03)).
The end line ends the function


And the connect line connects the function.


But what if we don't want to write this much?
Well, problem solved, we have the for function...


function ZakaryIsEpic(mouse)
       for i=0.01, 0.5, 0.01 do
              script.Parent.Parent.TextButton.Position = UDim2.new(0+i, 0, 0+i, 0)
              wait()
       end
end


script.Parent.MouseButton1Click:connect(ZakaryIsEpic)


Instead of writing every line of code to do it, you can just use for. This code would make the textbutton move 0.01 every 0.03 second, and it would move many, many times a second. It would have to move to 0.5, so it would move around 500 times. For can also be used for other things like transparency, but I won't get into detail with that on my first scripting tutorial on ROBLOX News.


I'm Zakary99 and thank for for reading this tutorial.
Want news on my latest projects/posts?
Follow me @RBX_Zakary99

Golden Aviators (3.0 Shades) Review

3.0 Bodies, hairs, and faces are now here, but will ROBLOX make a whole new hat section for them too? This post will be reviewing the Golden Aviators and this hat had a bunch of flaws.

Mesh: 7/10
Now from the looks of it, these shades look very stunning and awesome, but when worn on your ROBLOXian, it's fits on just below your eyes. But if you try wearing these on your 3.0 body, they fit perfectly well. Is this because 3.0 is the next ROBLOXian? Is this because ROBLOX might terminate the original bodies? But they still are shades and if you have the 3.0 bodies, they still do look very stunning, so I can't give these a very low score.

Texture: 8/10
The name of these shades is "Golden Aviators" which tells you that they will be golden, and in fact they are. It's a little plain, with no features on it. I also don't like the fact that there is a black strip cutting the top and bottom half of the shades. They could've blended it in a little more. 

Outfits: 9/10
These are shades, and shades can almost go with anything, and gold is a nice color to blend with. But even if this were to be your only hat, then it would still look nice. But like I said before, the only problem is that unless you don't have 3.0, these shades will drop underneath your eyes.

Value: 8/10
These are at a good price, considering the way they look. Shades shouldn't be priced too cheap. But since these were made for 3.0, ROBLOX should've lowered the price because only BC members can buy 3.0, and not many BC members like 3.0. The picture is also somewhat misleading because if you bought this to wear on your blocky ROBLOXian, then you are out of luck.

User Feedback: I have asked some users across the forums of ROBLOX and on twitter what they thought about this hat and this is what they said.

Base1567They don't look bad imo, but it's for 3.0 so =X

townbuilder825Not limited = no profit = Dislike

hyperhedgehogsxx: It goes on your face weird

@RBX_Zakary99they're okay, i would have liked to see them as limiteds.

@TREVORRBLXugly. Roblox needs to stop making 3.0 items.

Suggestions (NEW): This is a section of this post where I add some more of my suggestions in and if I would buy it with these new suggestions.

1. I like the idea of making new hats just for 3.0, but that might be where ROBLOX is going wrong. 3.0 is BC only and not many users are BC only. Not many users like 3.0 either. If ROBLOX made a copy for 3.0 and a copy for the bloxy ROBLOXian (i.e. Golden Aviators (3.0) and Golden Aviators) then that would make these a much better pair of shades.
2. I like the texture a little, but it's a little too plain. I would like it a whole lot more if ROBLOX added some details (i.e. some stars on the edge, sparkles on the edge).
3. Lastly, and this is probably my biggest concern, is that I think ROBLOX should've added in the description that these shades were meant for 3.0 because a lot of people bought these thinking they would look cool on their ROBLOXian but then when the tried to put it on, it drooped below their eyes.

But even if these met these conditions, I don't think I would buy this, although I would consider it.

This has been a hat review by alexkylerock
Hoping to see more posts by me? Follow me on twitter @alexkylerock

Thursday, July 26, 2012

Must-know Terrain Tutorials Post 1

This is my terrain series that I will be doing for a few days. The series will take 5 posts. This is the first tutorial post. I will provide you with a HD video, but I will also provide you with written-down instructions.

Mountains:
Yes, a lot of people have wanted to know how to make mountains with the new terrain. Well, here's a step-by-step guide on how to do it:

  1. So first of all, you want to load up ROBLOX Studio, this can easily be done by pressing start, and writing "Roblox Studio", or if you are already familiar with ROBLOX studio, you can easily navigate to the program.
  2. Go to the place you would like to make mountains on, or click new at the top left.
  3. Click the plugin called 'Elevation Adjuster' and adjust the tool to the settings that suit you. (I make mine different every mountain I make)
  4. Once you have done that, generate terrain on all settings that make the terrain flat, but make the base height over 5, this will allow the terrain to make mountains! You can use non-flat land, but it would be different. (If you already have a place with terrain height over 5 then leave it).
  5. Then, when the flat land has generated, click and hold the left click button. And drag the mouse up. (You can also make land have dents in it with this tool because it is 'Elevation Adjuster')
  6. This will create mountains, now if you would like to make the mountains taller, make another mountain beside the other, then another between the two. This makes very tall mountains!
  7. Once that has been done, your land is free to decorate.
Material Brush:
The material brush is very easy to navigate, and is already installed on ROBLOX Plugins just like the elevation adjuster.

  1. Click the material brush in the plugins bar.
  2. Choose the brush size and material wish for.
  3. Drag the brush over the terrain you want to change the material of.
  4. You're done!
Here is a video if you did not find the instructions clear


You should find this video helpful. For better quality, click the settings and change the quality to 1080p.













Want to know more about what I'm writing?
Follow @RBX_Zakary99

Shadowing RefreshingWater...

This Week's Gear Theme: Overseer!

This week's gear theme was the Overseer. ROBLOX did a very impressive job with the gears. The Overseers are an army of creatures who use these weapons/gears to create peace across ROBLOXia. Unfortunately, ROBLOX didn't release any limiteds this week, but some of these are a very good buy!


You have been warned, because any holder of this has the power to freeze the living daylights out of you. Although it only does 14 damage, if they get ahold of you in their ice block, you might meet your end quickly. I like how you can swing this axe in many directions (across your chest, down on the opponents head, and a circular motion behind your arm). The only problem with this weapon is that while you are spraying ice, you are very vulnerable to any long ranged or short ranged attack.



Don't be fooled by this gear's appearance, this gear can do massive amount of damage. This creature is part lion, part goat, and part snake. It will chase after your enemies and spray a mix of fire, poison, or just biting. This creature can do up to 60 damage. The only downside is that it is easily pushed over and easily pushed away. This is a great gear if you like long ranged attackers.



Stated by Sorcus in the Notifications "One of the the legendary swords that is carried by Chaos Master Shedletsky" you can tell this sword will obviously be a good one. If it's a sword used by an Shedletsky, it's a good one. This sword does 24 damage per slash and when you press q and hold down your left button on your mouse you may notice a bar that charges. I am still unaware what this does but according to Sorcus, this sword "destroys all flying opponents in its vicinity by cutting of their wings and tangling them in vines". Overall this is a great sword. I have noticed a small glitch though, when you charge up your bar fully and make a final blow, you cannot move, but I bet Sorcus will be happy to fix this problem!



This gear, in my opinion, is probably the best buy out of them all. It is the cheapest and probably the most effective in game. Now when you are holding this in game, this may look like a threatening gear. But when people chase you with your battle axes or swords and shields, this gear may feel useless. And when you click, nothing happens. You wait, while you are being chased by a man in full suit of armor with his battle axe, and all of a sudden, a meteor the size of a semi-truck comes tumbling down on top of them and all that's left of them is their battle axe. You go to pick up their battle axe but you stop and think, which is better, his axe, or my staff. Definitely the staff.


I'm shadowing the one and only NonstopEpic!!!
This has been a gear review by alexkylerock!
Twitter --- @alexkylerock

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Hat Review: DarkAge Ninja Swordpack

       Hey guys, Ulquiorrra98 here with something a bit different. Now, normally, I take to reviewing gear items, but I've decided to try my hand at reviewing a certain hat, the DarkAge Ninja Swordpack , the third piece of work in ROBLOX's Dark Age set. (It's predecessors being the Dual Katanas of the DarkAge Clan and the DarkAge Assassin Crossbow) I suppose I shouldn't keep you guys waiting much longer, so let's get on to the review:

Mesh: It fits comfortably on your avatar, and is a great accessory if you want that ninja kind of look. Of course, a TRUE ninja can't be seen, so it wouldn't really matter what you're wearing. It gets a 7/10 from me.


Appearance: Well, as you can probably tell, this hat is very similar to the Deluxe Ninja Swordpack but has a little twist; the sai (that small, thin dagger that you'd expect to find a ninja with) featured in the Deluxe Ninja Swordpack has been replaced with a shorter katana. In addition to that, the handles of the blades have been recolored a deep shade of purple and some sort of lettering has been inscribed on the blades themselves. Though lacking in originality, it does have a very sleek, deadly look to it, and for that I give it an 8/10 .

Price: Well, this hat comes out at 200 ROBUX, 50 ROBUX less than the Deluxe Ninja Swordpack , which it was modeled after. To me, it seems a reasonable price, and I could see myself buying a copy in the future. So in this category, it'll be receiving a 9/10.

Overall: Good look, good price, good quality. A must-buy for anyone that's gotten into the new DarkAge series, or for anyone looking for an updated version of the classic Sword pack. I think it deserves an 8/10.

Thanks for reading!
Follow me on twitter: @Ulquiorra98RBLX 


Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Epic Mining Two BETA Moan-Up Place Review


Epic Mining 2 BETA

I'm scrolling through the front page, as you do. And I think, "why don't I review this game. It looks fun, it sounds fun! Maybe it will surprise me". But get ready because we're about to bust this mystery right open!

So, I've entered the game, and I am greeted by an outstanding GUI that roams around the base. It shows small shops and then asks you whether you want to load a saved game, or start a new one. The base is surrounded by slate that is very uneven. This makes the game look somewhat realistic. The game has a beautiful land that's very alluring. But then... I see the GUIs! This was VERY, VERY troublesome and frustrating. I came to the game to play it, not to have my screen filled up with a mass amount of GUIs that are not necessary. This is an issue that the creator could easily fix. But the creator obviously wants us to suffer the death of GUI sickness!


There are three buildings, The Refinery, The Oil Refinery and The Shop. These three buildings are very well built and CFramed. The three buildings all have MORE Guis appear when you step up on the counter. The refinery gives you the option to sell your goods, the Oil Refinery lets you sell Oil, and the shop lets you obtain upgrades and special gears to help you, but for a price. When you are in the game, you will find these very useful.


There is a pathway which leads you to the mining zone. The mining zone is an 8x8 square grid of dirt. The materials aren't very realistic, they're just blocks that you mine. It would be great if it was CFramed bricks that you mine. That would make my face be full of happiness! But it's not, so stop dreaming. The game isn't much of a challenge, the only challenge in the game is finding Diamond. But everything else is easily found. I dug two blocks down and I found gold. So I didn't find the game much of a challenge... 

The game doesn't really have an aim. It's just mining, and selling. That's practically all you do. The only other things you do is glitch, or buy. You really don't achieve anything when you play this game. I asked a ROBLOXian named 'Kyleslaney' what he liked about this game, his response was "I like this game, and I don't find any problems with it".

Now to the scripting, the scripting is very good. A lot of people would love to be able to script like this. The game has a mining tool that can be upgraded. The game also creates a new brick every time you dig a brick down. After a certain amount of time, the game regenerates, it removes all the bricks that other users have mined, and restarts the game. The only thing you are left with is the things you buy, and the leaderboard.

Scripting: 9.5/10

The game is almost a 10/10 scripted game, it would have made it with better scripts that could handle CFrames and less bugs.

Tools: 9/10
The tools are great with amazingly programmed upgrades, but my only flaw with tools is that sometimes you get two pickaxes instead of one.

Development: 9/10
Yes, the development is great. But I would have preferred CFramed blocks that you mine instead of big cubes.

Problems: 9.5/10
Again the GUI is my only problem. I have seen nobody exploit or break the roblox rules on this game!

Difficulty: Very Easy
This game is a very easy game. You don't have to work hard. All you have to do is click. The mining never gets harder- everything mines at the same speed. So it's not harder to get more expensive materials. As I said before I dug out gold two blocks down...


Front Cover Photo: 10/10
Very, very persuasive. I loved the front cover photo, it really made me want to play.


Building: 7/10
The building was nice, with all those beautiful CFrames on the buildings, but I could have seen better. 


FUN FILLING: 6/10
This does change depending on the person you are. But to be honest, the game is mining, that's it. You haven't made an achievement if you get 1000 points, you mine to an undiscovered depth or you get a pickaxe upgrade. It's just mining.


Thought (NEW!): 4/10
I don't think this game had much thought put into it, because there is no special elements. It just copies other mining games.


OVERALL: 6/10
Overall the game has quite some effort, but lacked some thought! If the creator thought more about it, it could have been better.


There is lots more I could rant about! But if I wrote that down, you'd be here all day!


Improvements:
  • A GUI Open/Close button.
  • Mining carts
  • Complete the game!
This game was made by Piedude777.
At the time of the review Epic Mining Two Beta had been favorited 131,794 times and was visited 2,167,134 times.
Epic Mining Two BETA was created 1/16/2010.

If you want to know more about what I'm writing follow @RBX_Zakary99
Shadowing RefreshingWater...

Final Gift Information

Yes, this following week is the last gift week. Before I announce all of the "new" gifts, let me talk about the old ones.

Eerie Remains of the Infamous Hacker - Was obtained by taking it when free. Inside you found.. a Macbook Air!

Nearly Invisible Gift of Light - You failed to notice this was free. Inside you found... A completely faded Dominus!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Red Gift of Sunset - You took it at Sunset on Friday, inside you found, a block!

There are other two gifts that will not open until next week. Here's the new gifts of the week.

Fiery Gift of Rainbows - Will be free all week.

The Super Rare Gift - Opens next Sunday.

Ultra Rare Gift - Will be available on Tuesday for 5 minutes only

Mega Rare Gift - Will be available on Tuesday for 4 minutes only

Super Duper Rare Gift - Will be available on Tuesday for 3 minutes only

Rare Rare Gift - Will be available on Tuesday for 2 minutes only.

Rarer Gift - Will be available on Tuesday for 1 minute only.

Rarest Gift of Them All - Will be available on Tuesday for 30 seconds ONLY.

The Last Gift - Can be obtained all week, you must have 85% of my gifts to earn it.

Yes, these are the final gifts of the year until December. Yes, all gifts this week are rare. Especially, the rarest of them all. They all have the same texture, I got lazy :P. The more rare the gift is, the better the item inside is. Good luck, I will announce when the gifts are free on my Twitter which can be found on the staff page.

Thanks for reading!

Monday, July 23, 2012

The Secret To Great Roblox Building!

Hi, there. Yes it's me, Zakary99 the new intern. On my article today, I will be showing you and explaining to you why games are so persuasive to play and how they are built so well...

Now, first we must get to know why people like to play certain games. Well, I'll tell you. Most games have lots of good programming, building and that makes people want to view and visit them. You may not know, but you visit a place because you like the look of it and you find the look really good. Or you visit it because you would like to complete it. But the amount of visitors, always depends on the quality. A few games that have visitors because of the quality...

  1. Sword Fighting Tournament; great scripts, impressive gameplay
  2. Freeflight; nice gameplay, fun, and beautifully, smooth code.
  3. Destruction Derby; very funny, great destroying fun and obviously amazing.
Now all these games are fun, but what makes them fun is a different concept. Games can be made great by scripts, building and graphic design. Also, the game being more realistic helps- In Roblox they made the game very hard to make look realistic; this is where CFraming comes in. CFraming makes games and objects look like what they would look like in real life. Like in my last review- Lumber Tycoon. It has realistic plank and log CFrames. CFraming is very hard, but you can find plugins that simplify CFraming into simple Guis.

The first step to making a good game on ROBLOX is planning. All ROBLOX games should be planned. This way you can know your aim, and maybe perfect it after the rough outline of the game is developed. With planning you can easily know what you need to do to the game. Earlier this week I was making a game, but it was just to see what I could do. And I hadn't finished it. But I made a rough outline of a house- and it did look very realistic.

Once you've made the rough outline of the game- perfect it. Make everything look amazing and the best of the best. An example of a player that makes the game look the best of the best is Crazyman32. Yes, crazyman32 has been on ROBLOX for a long time. Slowly progressing his skills. And now look at stranded. A great game!(Although it isn't finished!!)

When all of that has been done, you can start scripting. Scripting is a very easy thing to do in ROBLOX once you get the hang of it. I would recommend looking at some of our tutorials or the wiki. The wiki can be found in-game by pressing either 'F8', or 'F9'. (I really cannot remember!)

Once all of that has been completed, you want to start thinking about showing people- showing friends,  maybe sharing the game. Advertising. Showing what the game is really like. Now don't expect instant OVAR 9000 visitors. You have to work towards getting those. Advertisements-VIPs, all those things that make players want to visit the game. VIPs make players come back. VIPs make the player come back because they do not want to waste their money!!

Just to get you started:














Thanks for reading!
Shadowing RefreshingWater...

August Sword Fighting Tournament Matches



Yes, the tournament is right around the corner, here are the official matches.



Round of 16, Match 1: BarbaricBrandon vs DSGod August 2, 2012 12:00pm PST
Round of 16, Match 2: crazycool78 vs arbirator August 2, 2012 12:15pm PST
Round of 16, Match 3: refreshingwater vs superepicchicken August 3, 2012 11:30am PST
Round of 16, Match 4: NonstopEpic vs bencrocker August 3, 2012 11:45am PST
Round of 16, Match 5: Juliancardz vs zakary99 August 4, 2012 11:30am PST
Round of 16, Match 6: ronald03 vs bob12666 August 4, 2012 11:45am PST
Round of 16, Match 7: Ulquiorra98 vs Epicfishguy August 5, 2012 11:30am PST
Round of 16, Match 8: Cooldude1847 vs rogeke15 August 5, 2012 11:45am PST

Remember, be sure you can make it to your match. We will not reschedule. Arbirator is the host for the Round of 16. I'm the host of the rest. This month will be a great one, it will be better than ever before. There will be a new lobby and new maps. There will be many obvious updates to the place. If you miss the tournament, don't worry, you'll get to see a video of it.

Thanks for reading, and good luck in the tournament!

Sunday, July 22, 2012

Brown Hair (3.0 Hair) Review

Well, some have waited some have dreaded the moment, the 3.0 bodies, hair and faces are now here at ROBLOX. Today I am going to do a review about the hair, here’s what I had to say.



Brown Hair

 
Mesh: 9/10

This hair’s mesh is a one of a kind of, it’s never been seen before on ROBLOX. The mesh was recently created by the ROBLOX staff. I personally think the mesh is very well done! In the future we could see this very nice mesh again re-created with a new color! This will become a lot more popular once people start realising it only comes with the 3.0 male package.

Texture: 8/10

The texture of this hat is very realistic, it looks just like real hair, it makes me fail as if it was real.  I love the shade of brown throughout the hair I also love how the hair looks, the way it curls back as if the wind was blowing against it.

Style: 7/10

This hair doesn’t exactly blend with every other hat on ROBLOX, actually it hardly blends with any hair on ROBLOX, the style is very nice if you ware it alone without any other hat.

Overall: 8.5/10

Some people wanted the 3.0 bodies, hair and faces and others didn’t. Overall I think this is a very nice hair style for ROBLOXians everywhere.
I hope you enjoyed my review:)

-Dark, summer intern

Realistic GUI Fireworks!! Place Review

This is the first review done with the *NEW* Place Review Queue. It was suggested by Aeroniel. We ask that you please go and submit a form of a place you'd like us to review so that we may bring you place review content more often. Onto the review!


Realistic GUI Fireworks!! is a place created by asimo3089, known best for his place The Original Longest Obby. The game is a simplistic game set in a green valley where the player watches firework shows from the ground or up in a floating camera. There are some straightforward gameplay mechanics, but the main point of the game is to enjoy the show that is being put on.


Okay Effects

For a game all about a fireworks show, you would expect the effects quality to be top-notch, especially with the word "Realistic" in the title. There are currently 4 types of fireworks that are in the game. All that happens when a firework explodes is an expanding picture of a decal and a short burst of light. Even though the effects are better than the traditional fireworks, they were still quite lackluster.  A tad disappointing


No Control, Simple Gameplay

Players can attach themselves to fireworks and get blown up in space to earn points. They then can proceed to spend the points on various items, one of which can be used to kill your friends. Although I admit that it is fun to get blown up on a firework, it becomes rather dull rather quickly. I'd like to see a way to create or control a fireworks show, I think this would dramatically improve the game as far as gameplay goes.


Ratings:

Gameplay 4/10
Scripting: 7/10
Building: 6/10

Overall: 6/10


Conclusion:

This place is certainly not bad in any respect, it just lacks features that would have a user coming back again and again. The effects seem underwhelming and the building is not too impressive either. However, the fireworks show is a fun place to mess around with friends for 10 minutes and you all should definitely try it out for yourselves.


Version at the time of review: v1.2



ROBLOX Custom Terrain

Hello worthy Roblox News Viewers! I made this special post for all you Terrain design haters. I didn't really like the design of the terrain either, so I decided to make my own. You don't have to use it. when extracted open the RobloxTrrainNotes file and follow the steps.


Download link: http://www.mediafire.com/?fds3y9q6e8b3sn5 Sincerely, Trevor

Saturday, July 21, 2012

Hi, I'm Darkfish900


Hi I'm Darkfish900, you can call me dark.  I am one of RN's summer interns! Let me just tell you a bit about me. 
                      Description: darkfish900   

I first started playing ROBLOX as a guest in mid 2009, I realised there was much more to the site than playing games so I created my own account on March 4th, 2010.

I never really understood the catalog until late 2010, before that I just played random games that where on the front page.

Now I love to forum and hang out with my friends. I only use the LMaD forum, this community is amazingly nice and I have lots of friends there. I have over 4,000 friends- guess I am kind of considered a pretty good LMaDer.

I love to invest on ROBLOX, I also love to build with friends in personal build servers.
My main goal here on RN is to let the readers know what could be coming out next, either hats or gear and to let people know if new items in the catalog are worth the money. I will also be doing some hat and gear reviews.

I will be shadowing one of my best friends: Nonstopepic :)

-Dark
--@Darkfish900

Lumber Tycoon Place Review


Lumber Tycoon
Lumber Tycoon Place Review
A tycoon that takes hard work and lots of chopping! Not just a tycoon where you earn money every 5 minutes. A tycoon that has a point to it. Yes, this is lumber tycoon. Some of you may have played it, some of you may have not.

The first thing I noticed when I entered the game, is that I was a far distance away from a tycoon, that may be counted as an issue. But I find it fine, but maybe a bit to much distance.
But it's not a bad spawn, you spawn right next to the place where you could buy and sell logs/planks. So it's not all too bad.

When I found a tycoon that was empty I made a sawmill and I chopped wood from small trees, the trees are bigger and smaller, the big ones give you a multiple number of logs. The small trees only give you +1 to your leaderboard. I chopped 3 pieces of wood and... the tree fell apart and I got 1 log!

After that I deposited my log in what they call the sawmill, the log moves on a little conveyor belt, which then goes through a black hole that turns it into a plank! Planks can be sold for money, and the sawmill has an "Increase Efficiency" so you can increase the amount of planks you get every time you deposit a log. You can also sell logs, however you increase profit if you convert the log into a plank and then sell it.

The game also has a shop, the shop has various things. Like saws that you can buy to increase the chopping power so that wood chops quicker. And you can also sell your logs or planks there. The CFrames on the logs there are impressive, indeed. The logs and planks look like they've just been piled with no organization, this makes them look very neat because on ROBLOX it's not easy to perform this kind of CFraming.

The scripting on this game has been very well made, the sawmill that turns logs into planks, with the efficiency increase. The upgrades... all of it. The creator, Defaultio, must have spent a lot of time thinking this through. But look what he came up with... I'm guessing the trees took a long time to code, because he had to make the axe work, then he had to make the trees give a certain amount of logs every time they're chopped. So yeah, it must have took a while.

Scripting: 10/10
Yes, I have given the scripting a ten out of ten. I know the scripting has given off a massive impression to me. I could really never even imagine programming it!!!

Tools: 9/10
Maybe some faster saws, or maybe even stronger ones. But other than that, I think they are amazing.

Development: 8/10
Yes, the development is very good. I could have asked him to create more realistic parts on the trees to make them stand out and show more originality.

Problems: 9/10
I haven't experienced any problems in this game other than an exploiter which didn't really bother me because I just joined another server. Perhaps anti-exploit script though?

Difficulty: Mard, (medium and hard)
I have given it Mard because it is quite hard, but then again it is very medium. So I couldn't decide. I had to do mard.

Front Cover Photo: 9/10
Yes, the front cover does stand out, it appealed to me. But perhaps he could have made it the game in action so it gives more of a view of what the game is like so you know if you would like it or not...

Building: 9/10
Yes the building could have been better, I expected the trees to be CFramed better, and more realistic than blocky. But other than that I couldn't see anything wrong with it!

FUN FILLING: 9/10
Yes it is very FUN! I love the game itself, but I have heard people say "arrgh! When will I get my monehz!" and "GRRR I'm LEAVING" and rage quit, but I don't know why they did. It's a fantastic game, with fantastic building!

Improvements that could be made:
  • PUT THE SPAWNS NEAR THE TYCOONS!!!!!!!
  • MORE CFRAMES (Better TREEZ)
  • PONY CARTS
And that's about it!
Thanks for reading
Lumber Tycoon

Shadowing RefreshingWater!