What if ROBLOX had a savings account?

I've been thinking, I know people in real life create savings accounts so they can retire and they will get the money that they have been paying monthly in their savings account for so many years in their bank. What if ROBLOX had this feature, so like every day us users would pay a small partition, whether it be TIX or ROBUX, and we set a deadline for this savings account to be given to us back. There would be interest of 1% per month so that users can earn a bit out of this.

This would be sort of like savings, to create a savings account users would pay 100R$. And when they create it they are given the choice of how much of their daily income they would pay into their savings account; if a user doesn't renew their builders club membership they will be able to open and get the money out of their savings account or choose to continue putting TIX into it.

This feature would take the money out of your daily ROBUX before you get it, so you cannot spend your daily ROBUX. For example, I get 60R$ a day, I would let my savings account take away 20R$, this would change my daily ROBUX to 40R$ a day. Say I chose two years of paying into my savings account, I would get around, 14,000 ROBUX when I get it opened.

With this feature, users with a savings account will have the 30% of their marketplace fee put into their savings account rather than that money being taken for nothing. This would make people stay on ROBLOX for longer and find it more productive and entrepreneurial. Personally I would do 25 ROBUX a day and 10 tix a day because I find tix useless.

With this feature users would also let their game pass money go into their savings account instead of their balance. And the same with everything else you sell.

Thanks for reading and tell me what you think on twitter or in the comments.

Twitter: @RBX_Zakary99

~Zak Wilson

Roblox News Interns: First Roll-Call!

Here at Roblox News we have been receiving summer internship applications all throughout last week. In this post I'm pleased to announce our first three interns! As with every year, the applications were of the highest quality and many were added straight to the 'definite intern' list after being read. There is no set number of summer interns - and it changes from year to year; positions offered are totally dependent on the number of quality applications.

What is the intern programme? 

A number of applicants are chosen to become summer interns here at Roblox News. These individuals will shadow staff members who are currently in occupation on the blog for the period of the (British) summer holidays - the programme ends on the 8th September. Interns will draft posts relevant to the shadowed staff member's area of expertise and will receive guidance from their mentor. The intern will receive feedback after each post they make via the ROBLOX private messaging system; they will given 3 positive points outlining what they did well, and given a target to improve upon in their next publication.

The idea of the programme is to equip aspiring writers and journalists with greater literacy and communications skills. Interns continuously learn from their experience by building relationships with both Roblox News staff and fans. Once the internship programme is over, interns may be asked to stay on as full time staff members right here at Roblox News!


Here are the first batch of summer interns!

Fghrty77 wrote an excellent application outlining his enthusiasm with ROBLOX groups and clans.  I briefly met him at BLOXcon London at the Roblox News stall and seemed interested in joining Roblox News as an intern. Fghrty77 will be shadowing myself (arbirator) as I'd like to feature more clan related articles on Roblox News. He will be interviewing clan members and leaders, principally finding out what life is like within group communities. 





DDude9091 submitted an intricately detailed application, and included some useful background information about himself. Furthermore, he sent in a wonderful sample place review about the game 'Unknown Demise' which I thoroughly enjoyed reading. With a clear writing style and solid structure to his piece, DDude9091 caught my eye. He will be shadowing one of our lead place reviewers: Zakary99, producing quality game articles that readers will enjoy. 

I look forward to working with these two outstanding individuals, and rest assured we will be reading their quality publications this week! The second batch of Roblox News summer interns will be announced tomorrow in our final roll-call! Don't miss it!

Thanks for reading!

-Arbirator
Editor of Roblox News

Strategizing: Roblox Battle Part 2: The Timebomb

Welcome to part 2 of my Roblox Battle strategy guide! This time we will be covering a not so very often used weapon, the time bomb. Compared to the original "classic" bomb, the timebomb is quite different, where as the "classic" one is just dropped down then beeps for a few times then explodes, the time bomb can be chucked and then will explode depending on how long you let the fuse go. But we're here to talk about the ROBLOX Battle timebomb, not the classic one, maybe another time though.

Just like we did the slingshot, let's look at this weapon down to the basics. The time bomb can be simply thrown and it will explode after beeping exactly 12 or so times, or you can hold the bomb to make the fuse shorter, then let it go hopefully with it not blowing up in your face. But since you're able to "cook" the time bomb like a grenade, then it becomes one of the more skillful weapons in the game. If the time bomb is "one of the more skillful weapons in the game", why isn't it used more? Well.. it has versatility and power, although it's just not as fast to use as the other weapons. The main problem with the time bomb is it's pretty much outclassed by weapons that are able to dish out damage and dispatch foes faster, like the superball and rocket launcher.

Don't get me wrong though, it may lack the ability to keep throwing out damage like crazy, but the time bomb is easily one of the best crowd control weapons. Group of 2-3 people chasing after you or brawling in a close range? Chuck a bomb with a shorter fuse at them and hope it blows them all to smithereens. The way damage works is sort of odd, but if you can nail someone head on then you'll be able to kill opponent in one hit, though if you can catch someone in the fray with ~20ish health, just the very edge of the blast radius will do 30+ damage.

So overall, the bomb isn't the best weapon in the game DPS wise and easily countered compared to the superball or rocket launcher, but the somewhat situational crowd control ability can be very handy especially on maps like The Depths or Crossroads, where there's usually groups of people roaming around. The damage can also be very rewarding if you're able to time the fuse correctly since as I mentioned before, the blast radius is big and  able to instakill point blank, unlike any other weapon in the game. I personally recommend the bomb as a group management weapon, and as a last resort. (aka run next to someone with the bomb, blowing yourself up and killing them)

Just like last time, the matchups.

V.S. Slingshot

If you're going to engage someone with a slingshot it would be best to catch them off guard, or in really close range as you dodge their projectiles long enough to prime the bomb and let it go. Dodging is the big thing in this.


V.S. Sword

The sword is a very fast attacking weapon that boosts the user's walkspeed slightly, so your slow priming bomb isn't exactly the best solution but if you insist, stay away from them and hope the bomb makes contact.


V.S. Deflector

By far the biggest hazard against bomb users, a nicely timed deflector shockwave will send your bomb hurtling right back at you. Even worse if it's at close range and you're just about to throw it which results in you being hurtled all across the map, so it's recommended to use something that isn't reflectable (sword).


V.S Superball
                           
Superball users will generally try to hit you from afar but you can try to chuck a bomb across to them, though they'll most likely get caught at the edge of the blast, or out of the way entirely so it's best to just get the deflector out.


   V.S. Rocket Launcher

It really depends on the skill level of the rocket launcher user, if they're the average "run in a straight line and spam rockets" then you should be good with just throwing a well timed bomb at them, although if you're dealing with someone that dodges and jumps and shoots, then the bomb isn't exactly an option anymore.


V.S. Another Timebomb

This usually boils down to who's at what range and who can prime a bomb without exploding into a bunch of plastic bits, so simply just keep your eye on your enemy and be ready to dodge and throw when needed.



That's another part down, though I forgot this at the last minute, if you're having trouble timing the bomb it beeps exactly 12 times before exploding. So count, then throw whenever you feel is best. Next part will be covering the Sword or Rocket Launcher. As always, have a nice week and thanks for reading.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

Contact - An EPIC FPS

What is this?

Contact is a new First Person Shooter being developed by a small dedicated team of Robloxians. The game is being based around an open map (think Battlefield or Arma but on Roblox).I had the chance to speak to one of the main developers (FlightTheory) and discuss the production of this awesome WIP game.

Who are the developers?

The game is being developed by a team of 4; The coding and building is done by 3 main people (FlightTheory, pinkyblt and zhoutai189) then the guis, decals, thumbnails and minor code is completed by petro180. During my time of speaking with FlightTheory he was participating a group meeting and stream along with a pre-alpha game test in which I tried the game out with some temporary features. 

How do they work as a team?

The way they develop is very effective, they group call at the pre-set time and then decided what needs to be completed and by who or which people will work on it. Yesterday the were developing the regeneration system for the vehicles (the code was developed by zhoutai189 and FlightTheory).

When can I play it?

The game has been developed for around 6 months now but they take a laid back approach to the games development. I want to clarify I don't mean they are lazy more that they don't set dates where something MUST be completed by the just make it so features are perfect or up to standard before group supporters testing or release. they also do major script protection to protect their work so far. 

When I asked FlightTheory when the game would be in Alpha stage he replied with "2 - 3 weeks" but the then went on to say they don't like setting definitive dates for release as they don't want to rush and release a broken game. 

What can I expect?

You can certainly expect an addictive FPS which keeps you on the edge of your seat whilst not feeling too intense constantly. You will need to always watch out for vehicles flying above your head or appearing over the hilly terrain. If you wish to keep up to date join their Roblox group and watch their stream. They release new features for testing when they open it on the stream to  generate user feedback. They team is American coders and builders so expect the times to be unsociable if you are from the UK or elsewhere (it was opened just after midnight when I tested it).

In-game ScreenShot

LOLFUNNY12345 

Roblox News Project Builder

Retro Weekend Overview

ROBLOX has done a lot of different things to really spice up the summer, some highlights were the Midsummer-Night's Sale, LOL Day, and Video Game Day. Now summer is nearing the end and the admins aren't done yet! Now the admins have come up with something new - Retro Weekend. Retro Weekend is pretty much a weekend full of "Retro" hats, meaning, classic throwbacks. Tons of classic items are being remade, such as the banded top hat series, chronoterminus, and ninja mask series.

Friday:

Linked Sword

To start off the weekend, of course, is gear Friday. A bit before Linked Sword was released, Brighteyes tweeted "Are you guys ready for the sale of a beloved SFOTH relic?." This led most users to know, for a fact, that the last SFOTH sword was going to be released - Linked Sword. Linked Sword is the first sword ROBLOX admins made, making it a great way to start off Retro Weekend. It was a limited item, with 100 in stock. It had a unique price - 47,324 Robux. For those wondering the seemingly random price, it is actually the ID to "Sword Fights on the Heights IV." 

Scroll of Sevenless

Next up was the Scroll of Sevenless, originally created by user SonofSevenless. On click, 20 explosions go off in a line of the direction you click. There is almost no reload time, making it one of the most overpowered gears out there. It is 2,000 Robux, and timed to go off sale at the end of the weekend.

Battle Slingshot

Next up was another classic gear, the slingshot at Games' game, ROBLOX Battle. It is a rapid fire slingshot that does little damage per hit, but is payed off by it's rapid fire system. It is priced at 75 Robux, and has no timer, making it the first non "limited" item this sale.

Saturday:

Retro Weekend Lampshade

The first hat released really gave away the fact that Retro Weekend has really started. Retro Weekend Lampshade is a remake of the very classic lampshade series. It is priced at 35 Tix making it one of the few tix items out currently that is actually great. I'd snag one up before it possibly goes off sale on Monday.

Ninja Mask of Fire

Next up came a remake of the ninja mask series, started about 3 years ago. It's a red version of the Ninja Mask of Shadows/Light/Awesomeness. It is the cheap price of 12 Robux, and is definitely worth the money.

Yellow Banded Top Hat

A remake of one of my favorite hat series, the Banded Top Hats. This one has a yellow band, with some texture on it, unlike the others. It is priced at 4,000 Robux, to fit between the prices of the Green and Purple Banded Top Hats. 

Sunday:

History of Roblox: Volume I

The first item to come out on the last day of the sale was another book hat, History of Roblox: Volume 1. It is by far the best hat of the day (which I will get to later). It is the cheap price of 30 Robux. As the name appears, there may be a few more volumes in the future..

Masked Hood of the Slitherspeaker 

This hood is probably the worst limited I've seen in a while. It came out with a price of 5,555 Robux (there's already a problem here), and a stock of 555! At the time of writing this, it is still currently selling out, very, very slowly. When it sells out, it will no doubt fail. It should be noted that the texture is pretty awesome, however.

Chronoinitium: The Harbinger Helm

Next up was another limited item that disappointed a lot of people, including me. This hat was rumored to be the big limited of the weekend, which it was, but it was 50,000 Robux, a lot more than most people expected. It has a stock of 50 and is doing okay profit wise.

Happy Time Magic Flower Bowler

Up next is an okay looking remake of the classic Happy Time Magic Flower Hat which reuses parts of the original texture, and opts for a new, but retro style mesh. It is the cheap price of 101 Robux, and is probably one of the better hats this weekend.

Blackvalk

After most users thought the sale was over (which it probably should have been), the admins made probably one of the worst hats I have EVER seen. This ugly, unpolished valkyrie helm is by far the ugliest hat this weekend. And to make things even better, ROBLOX priced it at the cheap price of.. 1 Million Tickets!!  (an equivalent to around 90,000 Robux).. This is by far the worst hat this weekend, possibly even this year (or all-time).

Overall, Retro Weekend wasn't too bad, besides the limiteds and Valkyrie. Tons of great, cheap hats were made, and I suggest you snag them all up now, as they may not be on sale for long (especially that lampshade).

~pbjms~

Place Review: School Dance

School dance is the worst game I've ever visited, it's worse than epic mining 2! The code is sloppy, the users that play it are all online daters & the game is a complete copy of the iron cafe. Get ready because I'm about to dive into a deep review about an awful game.

So the first thing I noticed when I entered the game, was the morphs that were placed in random areas. There were also small buildings floating in the air; that tells me that they were just dragged in from the toolbox's free models. This did not impress me in one way at all. Then I saw the background. My mind just said to me 'Iron cafe, iron cafe, iron cafe'. I refused to believe that until I saw the truth. I wanted to give the creator a chance. But in-fact, it was the Iron Cafe. The exact same thing, he just stuck the name 'School Dance' on it so ODers and such would visit. And then placed the words 'No online dating! Only roleplay' on it. That's just stupid. Perhaps, if he had a brain he could get some code that filters out certain words people use, but no, the words are just words. There's no law.

Even though it's the Iron Cafe, the scripting put into this game was awful & nothing special. Even the DJ set he put in it didn't work. None of the songs played. That's just stupid, why put in a DJ area when it's not going to work? That would have been the only fun thing in this game, dancing around to a song. But no. Can't even have that can we?

Then the building, the so called 'textures' in this game are stretched, you can tell in the picture above that the bricks are really big & stretched. The tables are awful and they're like sphere meshes flattened. The game is just awfully built, with cracks everywhere; that's just annoying for any user who enters a game, unless the user has just come into the game to get a quick 'bf' or 'gf'. Users that OD are stupid, the person they are ODing could be like 40 and they could be like 10.

This game is just plain awful, no nice building at all nor are the textures any good.

Scripting: 1/10
Try to make the game your own scripts.

Building: 0/10
Try to build the game yourself...

Overall: 0.5/10
Nothing is yours. Nothing.


Thanks for reading,
Zakary Wilson

Preview: Roblox Adventure: Bot Conquest

Since I haven't exactly been able to find games to do a proper review or spotlight on, here's something a little bit different to keep you contained while I attempt to find some content for next week that isn't a generic front page game rant.

So most of you may remember the "climax" to the Roblox Adventure series, Roblox Adventure 3: The Rise of Nobeesi. This released back in February 21st or so of last year, after Tyler went on a hiatus for pretty much the rest of the year, he came back in April to start work in Roblox Adventure: Bot Conquest, which is not a sequel to Roblox Adventure 3, but more of a spin-off.

I won't say too much about the plot, but needless to say it's sort of a ROBLOX "apocalypse" scenario which requires you to join up with a resistance and with the use of the technology of "Hyperlinks", that are basically backups of "placedata" from the worlds you will be going into to get Roblox Tokens. There will be 6 worlds, if you count the very expansive wastelands that will contain "more easter eggs than your aunt can shake at you." 

The worlds are as follows;

"Crossroads Valley - Based on the original BrickBattle map of a similar name, Crossroads Valley is undergoing a war between two overly competitive brickbattle teams. They're constantly fighting over bragging rights as Letski, the groundskeeper, watches to keep himself entertained. Also found in this level are throwbacks to other classic levels (such as reimagined cannons from Glass Houses) and a popular fighting tournament in Sword Fight Heights.

Architect's Asylum - A floating construction zone in the sky rests upon a bed of secrets and complicated creations. In this world, you'll meet Trussel, a lonely builder who just wants to prove he's as elite as anyone else when it comes to building. But while helping him, you might dig up some secrets about the Asylum that were better left uncovered...

Galleon Grove - This world is one of the more quiet ones. It's an enourmous ocean cavern, drained and left to time, where plant life began to overgrow everything. There's even a forest in one of the caves. An entire forest. That's how huge and overgrown it is. Don't forget to check out the spooky ship graveyard, too!

ERR#R - You find the USB Drive for this level in a puddle, if that tells you anything. At first glance, it seems as if you've entered a simple village. But in this once-humble town are the Salem Glitch Trials - people are slowly being pulled out into the surrounding corrupted areas, and blame is being thrown around nonstop. You're the only sane person around (hopefully), so it's up to you to solve this world's dilemma. Just beware when you step out of the villager. Horrible, mutated townsfolk and physics glitches await you in the buggy outskirts of this realm.

The Core - ?"
The gameplay won't be vastly different from the past games, but there will be some new elements and features brought to the table, such as;

"Furniture- Found in treasure chests (amongst other loot), you can find furniture to decorate your own apartment in the Rebel HQ with! Show off your achievements, or just build a sweet-lookin' pad.

Roblox Panels- Collect all 6 letters of R O B L O X and you'll earn yourself a Token. There's a different set in each Hyperlink world. 

Tickets- Main currency of the game. They'll be used for a lot of things, unlike how Coins were handled in RA3. They're never lying around on the ground. You'll have to pop balloons, bust open crates, or hunt down treasure chests for tickets; you might even find some elusive stashes of Robux."

So it appears we'll be getting a sims?-esque house customization system, blue coins will be replaced with Roblox Panels, and Coins from the last game will be replaced with Tickets, as all listed above.

The game is undergoing slow, but progressive development but it's sure to speed up since Tyler is working on getting the enemy AI working and Crossroads Valley at the moment, so why don't you go check out what he HAS made thus far? You can also keep up with development on this thread from Ironnoob (which I got most of this info from) here.

I really apologize for the "copy'n'paste" content for this post, but I'll be sure to get something out this weekend to make up for it, and not to mention with school starting, etc. I may not be able to post as much but we'll see.

Place Review: Kohls Admin House (BC / NBC Version)

Hey everyone! PeerPants here, after my break from ROBLOX to focus on my GCSE's (exams), and I've had a few other things keeping me busy, like a holiday in France. But anyway, I'm back! So here is the first of my many posts I am planning to write to make up to arbirator for being away. Anyway, can this place live up to it's hype?

Place Reviewed: Kohls Admin House by agspureiam
Last Updated: 1 Hour Ago Week Ago (as of 28th July)
Visits: 4,513,000+ on NBC Version, 381,000+ on BC Version.
Game Passes: 1 - Perm Admin -  1500 Tix / 150 R$ 

Most of the Admin Houses I've been to are a total waste of time, which has put me off going to admin houses. However, when I saw one on the front page of all games for a long amount of time, it made me think that someone might actually have made a good admin house.

So, I decided to play the game. As soon as I entered, I noticed that the admin house wasn't any different to all of the other thousands of 'admin house' games on ROBLOX.

Firstly, I entered the game and I was immediately killed by someone who had blocked off the entrance, and was killing anyone who went anywhere near the house. This made it impossible to get anywhere near the admin, so what was the point in playing? That was when I went back to the game's page and noticed the game pass on sale for 150 R$, Perm Admin. So, that is agspureiam's way of earning money, make a game which is not enjoyable at all without the 1500 Tix / 150 R$ game pass.

I decided to purchase the game pass, so I purchased it then entered the game again. I could now teleport my way out of trouble, but the game still wasn't fun, it seemed the only way to have fun was to abuse the admin.

Gameplay: 2 / 10

As I said earlier, the game is only fun if you abuse the admin, so Gameplay gets a 2.

Effort: 1 / 10

agspureiam (the creator) made nothing himself, so effort gets a 1.

Creativity: 1 / 10

There are thousands of Admin Houses on ROBLOX, and this definitely isn't the first. Creativity rating gets a 1.

Overall: 1.3 / 10

Exclusive BLOXcon London Interview: Matt Dusek!

As most of you already know, BLOXcon London took place last Saturday at the RAF Museum Hendon. It was an absolute blast, being both thoroughly enjoyable but also a valuable experience for myself, but also the three Roblox News staff that attended. It was fantastic meeting the staff that were behind the game we all grew to love, and was fascinating talking to them about their passions. I will fully describe my BLOXcon London experience right here on Roblox News in a post later on this week, but today I bring you something very special indeed.


During my time at BLOXcon, I managed to speak to many avid ROBLOX users and staff. One of those individuals was Matt Dusek, who some of you might know as the Technical Director at ROBLOX. I seized the opportunity to interview Matt about his job and current projects on the website. You can view the interview below; with subtitles for both quiet audio and important nuggets of information. Sadly the last minute of the interview was cut off due to memory issues with my recording device, but I'm sure you'll enjoy the rest of the exclusive footage!

Thanks for reading and watching! Look out for more BLOXcon London posts in the next few days!

-Arbirator
Editor of Roblox News

Are Tickets Slowly Becoming Useless?

          

          Hello! Chubbs21 here with another Catalog post! Recently, many hats have gone off-sale, including some ticket hats. Also to add, the production of Tix hats has stopped, besides the 1-Tix-promotional hats. 

          ROBLOX used to have a thing back in the day called "Ticket Tuesday" (You may have read about it if you look back in the ROBLOX Blog). Every Tuesday the hats that were released were tickets only. This was shortly stopped, for no clear reason. There are, as of the creation of this post, 63 pages in the catalog of robux-only hats, compared to a tiny 3 pages of ticket hats.

          The ticket hats that recently went off-sale, according to trusty sources, include:
- Snakes on a ROBLOXian
- Olukia Seer
- Spaceface
- Zombie Tie
- Webbed Witch
- Living Lantern
As for robux hats offsale, the list is pretty long. 

          But why are tickets rarely used compared to robux? That can only be answered with logic, ROBLOX needs money to run all their equipment! (Stop calling them greedy, equipment is expensive!) But is it necessary to completely destroy the purpose of tickets?
If you think of all the features where tickets are used and robux aren't, the only place I can think of is the Ad system. Otherwise, robux is a second option.

          Is this a smart move? Should ROBLOX even give us daily tix? Should tix even be a thing anymore? Post your opinions below!

~chubbs21