Responding to User Feedback, V9

By -

Responding to User FeedbackEvery so often, we ask our users to let us know what they’d like to see in ROBLOX, then respond to some of the most insightful comments and pertinent questions. This time, John Shedletsky, ROBLOX’s Creative Director, responds to the final round of great feedback from our “top-three” survey earlier this year. He elaborates on a variety of topics, including unlocking right-click for FPS games, weather in ROBLOX, allowing custom part shapes and a higher part limit, and more. Kevin He also chimes in with responses to your physics-related feedback. You can read previous entries in this ongoing series here.

The power of right-clicking

Unlock right-clicking (Vengroe). Right-clicking is how I and many other FPS players are used to zooming the camera. Plus, I’m sure there could be other uses for it.

If you’re in first person, this makes total sense. However, if you are in 3rd person, right-clicking pans the camera in every game I’ve ever played. In the past several months, we have made the events for mouse button 2 fire correctly, so there’s nothing stopping an enterprising FPS fan from building their own gun with this behavior.

WeatherHow about that weather?

Weather (Flashock). Weather (like sun, rain, fog, cold, warm and hot) would make games more realistic; characters would sweat in the heat, shiver if it’s cold. Users should be able to adjust the temperature of places and characters would physically be affected.

Somebody could build a weather system for ROBLOX today using Lua. You could write a script that you pop into your level, and you could use it to change the weather in-game while you are playing. This sounds like a rather useful script, so maybe it is something that the ROBLOX team should write for you and ship with the game. Of course, there are features we could add to the ROBLOX engine that would make in-game weather more realistic. More particle systems, lighting controls, area fog, ambient sounds, etcetera would all allow for a more immersive in-game weather experience. 

Flexibility in building

Increased amount of bricks per server (Lucas83). I myself don’t see it being possible without making Roblox into a 64-bit application (RAM issues). I want this feature the most as my friend and I are building on a private server and are incapable of proceeding with construction due to the brick “limit.”

ROBLOX engineers are currently working on scaling up the number of parts that you can have in-game. We think around 500,000 parts is a reasonable target. We’re attacking this problem from multiple directions: first, we have a 64-bit build that is capable of addressing more than 2 GB of RAM. Second, we’re reducing the memory footprint of each and every part, so that more parts fit in the same amount of RAM.

Lost Thoughts Fortress

Customizable part shapes (Lucas83). This would allow users to change the position of vertices on bricks and to add in new ones, say making a hexagon or some complex shape, like in most 3D graphic software. This also ties in with the first proposal as this would allow for users to create complex and detailed objects while keeping RAM usage lower.

We’ve talked about allowing users to create new parts that are effectively the union of multiple primitives. This would be similar to welding the parts together permanently. Going further past that level of complexity and we’re basically talking about building a 3D mesh-modeler in ROBLOX, which is potentially outside the scope of our area of interest: building the world’s best online physics-based toy.

StarQuality

5-Star Rating System (Jason5000). To start off, you know what a five-star rating system is. But the way this would work is one person, per game, would be able to vote how the game was, but only AFTER they play it. That way the person can’t just spam the games clicking 5 or 1 stars. Yes, this would fix the problem for the “Relevance” and “Popular” pages. Yes, you can only vote once per user, per game.

I’ve read a lot of research behind 5-star rating systems. Most people only vote 1 or 5. No one takes the time to vote 3 for a place that is only mildly interesting. For that reason, if we did add a rating system to ROBLOX, it would probably be more like the thumbs up/down system that YouTube has. The first place you would probably see this system is on models or on comments.

It’s worth pointing out that ROBLOX has a “favorite” system in-place already, which is essentially a thumbs-up vote. I don’t know that the “top favorites” sort is any better or worse than “relevance” or “popular”. I would bet it isn’t.

Physics

Realistic ropes (SCS). Realistic ropes would be a phenomenal asset to adventure games. You could be an adventurer swinging across crocodile-filled swamps in a dense jungle. Or, they could be used to make more highly realistic ships. Or even breathtaking, innovative art.

One of our physics developers, Tim Loduha, prototyped some ropes in January. These work well as a loose distance-based constraint between two parts. The one limitation is that we do not simulate rope vs. rope collisions or rope vs. geometry collisions, but they still allow you to build some cool stuff, like rope bridges that swing when you run across them. The code for these ropes is currently sitting in our source version system, awaiting a time when we can return to this project. Turns out that the most difficult part about shipping ropes is figuring out what kind of Studio tools users need to be able to edit them and making them work well with regard to our other joint types – a project which is ongoing.

Additional commentary from Kevin He, physics and networking lead: We are developing a rope joint as part of our new joint project and we have made good progress. Not only will you have ropes, but also rods and springs. All of these can be used to form a point-to-point connection between two parts, allowing you to build bridges, punching bags, swings, etc.

Train Cars

Fix physics glitches (dr01d3k4). Fix issues with collisions and parts going through each other and hinges coming apart — these 2 issues make train building very hard as they easily derail.

Kevin He, one of our physics developers, is hard at work improving our motors and hinges. His new joints are about 10x more robust than our existing ones. They will ship relatively soon.

Additional commentary, again from Kevin He: The most visible “parts-going-through-each-other” (aka “penetration”) case I’m aware of involves the cylinder shape. We currently approximate cylinders with balls so the collision between cylinders and any other objects has visible penetration. It is a feature on our to-do list for realistic vehicle wheel collision.

“Hinges coming apart” will be partially addressed by the robust hinge feature we’re developing for the new hinge and motor joints. The new hinge joint will be more robust and stronger. It’s a very challenging engineering pursuit to develop an over-rigid hinge that never comes apart under tremendous external forces. We have ideas for reaching that goal and you should expect to see improvement incrementally.

Materials

Ability to set density, mass, and “strength” in part properties (Lucas83). This would allow users to customize how parts behave in relation to other parts in game and add a new level of physics to the game. I wish for this to become reality as this would allow for a much more realistic building process and for complex machines to be created far more easily and with less scripting. On the “strength” of a part, it would determine how much mass the part could support before it breaks (splits in half, thus causing for whatever it supports to fall as well). With features like these, entire in-game economies could be created where players gather resources, process them into stronger building materials, and build structures (with scripting to change brick properties, of course). Also, these features should be optional in case a user doesn’t want such complexity in their game.

Materials

We want everything built in ROBLOX to be physically intuitive. Thus, if you build a level with a bunch of water, and you build boats out of wood and iron, and the boat gets blown up, we want the wood parts to float and the iron parts to sink. This is what players expect. Therefore, the way that we are going to tackle your request is by making properties like density and strength depend upon the building material you are using. Want to build a sturdy tank? Better use steel. Want a large block that is easy for a character to push around? Better use something light, like plastic. Want it to be susceptible to fire? Build it out of wood.

177 thoughts on “Responding to User Feedback, V9”

  1. Make it so that the username is not the player’s name on Roblox. It will prevent hacking. People use pw generators to guess they’re pw. But they can’t guess a username. Add it and hacks will stop.

  2. It would be neat if ROBLOX physics included aerodynamic functions like drag. That would make vehicles more interesting.

  3. I was thinking some packages on ROBLOX that gave users SOME expierences of Builders Club, but was permanent, some users buy builders club strictly to have 10 places, or to sell t-shirts. What if you created package, like for say, $20 a user would pay to add one place slot to their account permanentally. That way teh user doesn’t have to worry about having to deactivate places after the month is over.

  4. We should be able to build with bricks like in models in game while in build mode, i dont like roblox studio. it slows down my computer alot

  5. What we really need is realistic Platforms, I mean, Isn’t anyone else bothered by the fact that when you step on a train you have to have a seat on the ground or else you fly out the back?

  8. Is there an ability to export models into programs such as 3DS max, so then we could import them into SFM?

    I think it could really expand creativity of roblox videos.

  9. The blog given to us has some exciting features. It really increases my knowledge about the topic.

  10. Gas powered vehicle seats. This would be amazing for the racers of ROBLOX and even the everyday driver games. It inputs the cost of gas into games, makes gas stations usable, and makes it so tow trucks are also needed for those who run out of gas. Please consider adding this. Thanks ROBLOX.

    • You could script this easily, I might make one myself, PM me if you’re interested.

  12. They should add a morph system built into gamed so you could choose what morph player have on also they could make it so you can choose how one team looks from another

  13. I think roblox should add in Coins.The coins should be like R$ But they can be used for limited/LimitedU’s Like r$ and all robloxians should get 20 a day

  14. If you can add something like no BC people can get rubox and make t-shirts for VIP. Thats what i meant

  15. I find that the Right-Click unlock question was answered poorly. He meant not only for zoom but perhaps activate other mechanisms like make a second mode to a tool, or maybe make sword swings interchange in between left and right.

  17. How about more joints for the characters? I think it would add a whole new experience to the way roblox feels.

  18. Adding optional weather such as rain (Drizzle-Heavy thunderstorm) or snow, high winds, cloudy, that would be cool. It would makes things a lot more affected by role-play or just the scenery of ANY game.

  19. I would like a stronger physics engine with Vehicles and Characters with the possibility of running into a Unlocked Material and making it fall over.

  20. My thoughts on the weather system. It should be optional, like the scoreboard for games. That would be nice. :P

  21. In my opinion, the way you’re trying to go with building is not the good way to go. The stamper tool, again, in my opinion, was the worst addition to roblox. Too much premade stuff. Users need to be creative, imaginative, not just use a bunch of x and y from the stamper tool and call it their ultimate creation. You need to support manual building more.

  22. Please do not make weather part of the game like terrain. I love the idea but it should be in the form of a Lua script that players themselves can create. If roblox were to build and example and make it a free model on ROBLOX the account that would be fine but do not make it part of every game like terrain.

  23. Adjustable weight properties? This could open up lots of new opportunities, such as players being able to push around large blocks to solve a puzzle. Or imagine creating some sort of seesaw! A script could toggle between two weights in a part on one end, while the player stands on the other side, thus causing the seesaw to go up and down!

  24. Make it so that clear back-rounded decals dont show up black in the back :/ errrg put it back to normal.

  25. Also when physics are updated, try to fix glitches but not how the physics work. Physic based levels could become broken, like when the user interface was changed a year ago and it messed up EVERYONE’S GUIs.

  26. I don’t think the weather thing would suit Roblox. Realism isn’t Roblox. There is a difference in adding content that expands the game (dynamic lighting, water physics), but there are others that should be user made (weather, particle effects, terrain).
    I do really like that mesh idea and material weight though.

  27. I think roblox should put in a different type of currency like coins that you trade in for tickets or robux – like 10 coins is worth 100 tickets or 5 coins is worth 50 tickets. Sort of like robux but not as hard to earn.

  28. All these ideas would be EPIC if applied to ROBLOX. Do you realize the implications of such additions as these? Better all-around physics, ACTUAL Shock-Absorbers, Ropes (Obviously…) Cog Parts, Tank Treads (The last two being the most wanted as far as I can perceive), the possibilities are now endless. And didn’t they already add material-specific density? Yes, they did. Strength is a new prospect though, and would be useful.

    I already knew Cylinders were meshed spheres, and a new TRUE Cylinder would be epic, with an ACTUALLY CYLINDRICAL “Hit-Box” as it is often called.

    On a random side note where can I find an actual re-sizable cylinder? I would very much like to add them into my game and I’ve messed with the properties of bricks to no end, but I still can’t get them right. They end up Symmetric and they’re always (2, 2, 2) or (4, 4, 4) or something stupid. What if I want a (1, 1, 15) cylinder?

    • Use ClynderMesh, located in Insert>Object>CylenderMesh. If inserted into a block, it won’t roll, but its resizable.

      • Idk how to mesh, so I really want to learn, also thats a good idea about the true cylinder :)

  29. On the topic of collision/physics, inertia would be nice. Often times if you’re in a plane and jump out of the seat, you’ll fly to the back of the plane because your velocity is reset to 0 while the plane continues on going.

    • YES, YES YES YES. We NEED inertia. If Inertia were better implemented the entire physics domain of ROBLOX would be so much more predictable and realistic… most normal Parts have Inertia. Why not Players?

    • That would add even more lag to games. Overall great idea! It would be great if roblox fixed some other problems first.

  31. Need to be able to move while inside a vehicle (i.e. if you’re in a plane, you should be able to move within the plane without falling through the side of it).

  33. I, myself, think it should be easier to place Custom parts in certain places instead of having to move it around until I find a good spot to try and re-size it into.

    • Awesome idea. It would add to many games (Roleplays, Survivals, Adventure… Ect) and so Roblox definitely should add this feature. But please make it optional, since some games would be ruined with it (Tycoons, Obbys, Sci-Fi…). Just a thought. And please don’t have this be a BC only thing like all the cool stuff tends to be. .-. Just saying.

  35. PLEASE i beg of you add a weather system like humid hot cold, seasons like winter spring summer and fall, and some new bricks to the hammer tool like snow, lava, glass, acid stuff like that! please please PLEASE!!!!!! :D

  36. Can you please set it so that the groups with no members and that are request only become deleted or unable to be locked.

    Set the groups that are shutdown, (shutdown- without members that are set to the join requests pending option) to become open for anyone to join, or to be deleted. This will stop group spam, and free up space for you guys.

  37. You know, I like all of these. But the meshable bricks stuck out to me. I was thinging something like this: you can f-frame the bricks individually, and then the bricks could have edges clipped and vertices combined. Basically, this would make lighting on models appear more smooth and take up less server space. I addition, when two planes of equal heights and angles collide, it produces a jittery effect in which the planes randomly become visible or invisible. This could combine them, thus getting rid of that. Great ideas!

  38. For some reason, I can’t place stamper blocks onto the baseplate. And also, people should start to drip after coming out of water.

  39. All this could be great! like if you want a train loading limit you could make it so if it is to heavy the floor would crack, and if you stand on the hinges to long they will fall out! great ideas!

    • it’s as easy as it gets, try going to Roblox Wiki. it helped me when i was learning.

  43. I think they should make Ice blocks in the Stamper tool and it should have like in the water tab u have resistence something like that for ice so u could make it slipery or make it so if u jumped on it a number of times it would crack and smash and stuff ;D and set certain blocks so they could regen 3 minutes after they break

  44. You need some sort of like, flowing water physics, snow + mud – makes the player slower when walked in
    Quick sand – Slowly sinks the player in, but it easily to get out using the ropes (if added soon)
    Steam coming out of water from falling a height, like a waterfall.

    • Script it, an ontouch script could set the walkspeed of a humanoid for mud, and quicksand would do the same but also lower the players BodyVelocity to a slow number like 2

  45. Wow this is cool! i will beta test it for roblox if thats ok with you. also when i get older im going to work for roblox :D

  46. We need custom part builder (mesh creator) This would making building more complex and entertaining to most users also we could make meshes and create hats :P Both highly demanded features

  48. What I would like to have is a system that tells the user that their item got deleted, and why via message. The moderator would look at the item,(Decal, shirt, pants, etc.) and if it was inappropriate, they would chose a reason, and it would send a message to the user telling them that their item got deleted for a purpose. I just can’t figure out why you delted my spider picture. :c

  50. You should add like a “long wedge” in stamper tool that a car can drive on. Perfect for roads

  52. If the ROBLOX team has time, add a thing where we can create our own hats and wear them, or we can combine other hats together to make a completely new hat that we could still wear in-game. This would make ROBLOX and even better experience, in my opinion.

  53. ROBLOX is so creative, innovate, and will never stop improving. It is the best game that a person would ever need to play. It teaches you a variety of real life quality skills from something as simple as buying clothing accessories to learning an advanced computer language, Lua. Keep up the good work, ROBLOX! I wish you a lot of success from now on to the future! :)

  54. You should make a snow High Scalability block. People could be making snow maps. That would be awesome!