Tutorial Requests & Bounties

Forum Help
#1

Purpose:

The tutorial section here doesn’t get utilized as much as it could be. I’m not sure if it’s because nobody knows what to make a tutorial for, because there’s no incentive to make a tutorial, or maybe a mix of the two. Either way, this thread’s goal is to address both of those and see more tutorials posted in the Tutorial subsection of Development Discussion. Hopefully we’ll be able to get some of these moved to Public Announcements so non-dev people can see them as well.

About this thread:

tl;dr:
I will maintain a list of requested tutorials. PM me / reply here to have one added. Bounties can be put up and awarded for good tutorials. Bounties are awarded if a tutorial is easy to follow, can be completed by an idiot that starts out from nothing, and fulfills the request entirely. Include assets used in tutorials. Bounty submitters are freed of their obligation to pay the bounty if a tutorial poster doesn’t claim the bounty within a week of posting their tutorial (though still may if they wish to).

Click to expand for elaborate version (might answer any questions)

List of needed tutorials:

I’ll initially start off this thread with a couple ideas for tutorials, but my hope is that every time someone needs a tutorial they’ll either post on this thread or PM me asking for it to be added here. The ultimate goal is to build up a big list of possible tutorials to solve the issue of nobody knowing what they could make a tutorial for. Requests for tutorials must be obviously useful for lots of people – specific questions should be asked in Development Discussion.

Bounties:

Like the list of tutorials, I’ll initially start up some bounties on some of the tutorial requests. Anyone can reply here / PM me to add a bounty, and I’ll edit it into the OP. Bounty amounts will be pre-tax unless stated otherwise. Bounties will be hyperlinked to the submitter’s dev profile so they can easily be contacted. Bounties must be claimed <= a week after the tutorial is posted to prevent people from coming to bounty submitters months later asking “Hey remember that one time you put a bounty up?” Whenever a tutorial is posted for one of the items on the list that has bounties, the tutorial poster may then claim the bounties on that tutorial request. To prevent people who are only interested in the bounties effortly creating tutorials that don’t really teach readers anything, the following requirements for tutorials will need to be met in order for bounties to be claimed:

  • The tutorial should be easy to follow
  • The tutorial should assume the reader has no prior knowledge in the subject and is unable to progress without step-by-step instructions – a 10-year-old should be able to start from nothing and, reading the tutorial only, be able to arrive at the end goal of the tutorial.
  • The tutorial writer should be clearly knowledgeable on the subject and not give bad advice

Videos are fine unless you’re using notepad to communicate / are barely audible, as those would violate the easy-to-follow req

The second requirement may be a little confusing, so let me elaborate. One example would be something that requires image assets (e.g. particle emitters). You must include a link to an asset or download links for the image your particles are using in your tutorial in order for readers to be able to follow along only using the tutorial. Also, please include the source for any code used in a tutorial. For another example, assume the tutorial is a group promotion bot: the writer should assume the reader doesn’t have a web server and the tutorial should either link to another RBXDev tutorial covering the setup of a web server (free and paid solutions) or include step-by-step instructions on how to set up a web server for the promotion bot to use before even beginning the instructions for the promotion bot setup.

An additional requirement for vague/opinionated threads only: For it to be marked as completed on this thread, it needs to receive 15 or more likes. There isn’t really a fair way to gauge whether or not an opinionated tutorial is “good” based only on its content, so we’ll use likes to gauge if the tutorial is useful.

Requested Tutorials:

Creating light-ray-like particle effects seen in the links under “More Info”

More Info

http://devforum.roblox.com/t/what-are-you-working-on-currently/19325/481
http://devforum.roblox.com/t/what-are-you-working-on-currently/19325/482
http://devforum.roblox.com/t/what-are-you-working-on-currently/19325/489

Replicating the angle someone is looking / other constantly-changing values in a FE game without exhausting the network/remote* objects

More Info
None
--- Creating a seamless GUI between leaving/joining a new place in the universe via teleport
More Info
i.e. GUI that says "Loading" and has a spinning circle pop up when you're about to leave the place and it starts from where it left off last when the new places is loaded, making the player unable to tell when they switched places
--- How to ensure data always saves regardless of request limits in a DataStore & How it should be saved (format) Bounties: [url=http://devforum.roblox.com/users/Velibor]< Velibor: >[/url]
More Info
Lots of people have had problems with DataStores due to them being lower-level than most other things on ROBLOX -- DataStores aren't able to do what you want 100% of the time (request limits & size limits per key). Your tutorial should cover how to save data 100% of the time even if there are no requests remaining (probably a queue requests are sent to if they fail which are later retried, potentially prioritizing more important requests like player purchases), how to make sure when you load data and the request errors you don't use the default data and override the user's current data (I see this mistake a lot), how to efficiently save requests (e.g. don't use a datastore request every time someone uses a custom report abuse, but instead group them and save them all in one batch request every x minutes), and in what formats data should be saved in (some formats may require less requests like saving playerdata all under one key instead of multiple & also how to cope with key size overflow (you need to save essays and automatically split them into multiple keys))
--- Setting up a Google Apps Script script and using it + HTTPService to modify ranks / exile in groups Bounties: [url=http://devforum.roblox.com/users/Cindering]< Cindering: >[/url]
More Info

These may help you in the making of your tutorial

Setting up a web server and using it + HTTPService to accept group join requests of a given UserId/UserName

More Info

These may help you in the making of your tutorial

Setting up a Google Apps Script and using it + HTTPService to accept group join requests of a given UserId/UserName

More Info

These may help you in the making of your tutorial

Setting up a Google Apps Script script and using it + HTTPService to Shout in the group / post on the wall

More Info

These may help you in the making of your tutorial

Creating useful charts out of ROBLOX CSVs in Google Spreadsheets or Excel

More Info

Namely:

  • Total revenue per product
  • Total #sales per product
  • Total #sales of all products per platform
  • Total #sales of all products per day/week

Completed Tutorials:

How to use keys unsupported by Studio for keybinds

Setting up a web server and using it + HTTPService to modify ranks / exile in groups
Bounties: < EchoReaper: >, < Cindering: >, < Wizzy011: >

Setting up a web server and using it + HTTPService to Shout in the group / post on the wall

10 Likes
Efficiently building good looking trees (with CSG)
#2

I plan on doing #4 tomorrow and possibly #3 and #2 at a later date if no one has done either of those by then. Just a heads up.

#3

If I had enough time, I would certainly make a tutorial on this (and the other http service requests)

#4

Love the idea!

If someone puts up a bounty on the #1 particle one I’m sure I could find time in my busy schedule to complete a tutorial for the original.

Gif of original Spotlight Particles https://i.gyazo.com/bc6f48bc59f875674253662239752c6a.gif
#5

I’ll throw in a R$2500 bounty for “Setting up a web server and using it + HTTPService to modify ranks / exile in groups”
and a R$5000 bounty for “Setting up a Google Apps Script script and using it + HTTPService to modify ranks / exile in groups.”

2 Likes
#6

Just a question about the ranking up bot, can I use some home made class?

#7

I didn’t realise there was a tutorial section. :sweat_smile:

I’ll definitely get back to this next week. I’ve seen quite a few people who are having trouble or had trouble making good looking trees, so I think I’ll make a tutorial for that.

1 Like
#8

How to handle DataStore request responsible in your game.

How should you handle DataStorage for your players, what should be saved for your game and what should be done to make it 100% safe for you and your playerbase.

Bounty : 10,000 ROBUX before Tax

2 Likes
#9

Fantastic idea to get some public tutorials out there! :slight_smile:

I would like to bring up to @ReeseMcBlox, @CodeWriter @UristMcSparks, and @JParty the idea to create a Public Tutorials section under Public Updates & Announcements and have RBXDev staff move approved tutorials there. (I know you guys are cautious about users posting in public sections)

2 Likes
#10

As long as you include the source and explain how to use them in the context of the tutorial (and preferably in general), yes. Homemade classes fit the bill for all three requirements.

@Cindering: Added your bounties

@Zomebody: Thanks!

@Velibor: I added your tutorial request & bounty, but changed the wording on it and made it more definitive so we could classify it as non-opinionated. Let me know if I missed anything / misinterpreted your request.

@Lilly_S: Sounds like a great idea :P

I’m glad this thread took off. Thank you everyone! Hopefully we’ll see lots of tutorials by the end of the month :)

2 Likes
#11
#12

Thanks ! That is exactly how it should be :slight_smile:

I did quite some research on the topic for Deathrun, so I’m really curious what others will suggest !

#13

I’ll throw R$1500 into the bounty for this

2 Likes
#14

I am writing the HTTPService thingy tutorial for ranks, shouts etc. It is just taking me some time to make it as basic as possible :slight_smile:

1 Like
#15

Was just writing one as well :P, but I ran into a roadblock I haven’t got before and decided to abandon it (wasn’t worth my time)

#16

http://devforum.roblox.com/t/how-to-use-a-bot-with-httpservice-to-update-ranks-exile-and-more/23883

Finished the tutorial on setting up a web server and using it with HttpService to control group-related stuff. The API can set ranks, exile users, handle join requests, post wall messages, and update the group shout.
If there are any issues, please let me know!

1 Like
#17

Personally I disagree with your Lua code, any web request should be protected with an pcall. But other then that, great tutorial !

#18

I would never use a HttpService request without using pcall. xD
I only did so for the purposes of the tutorial.

#19

Then you should edit your code to actually use pcall, it doesn’t make sense if you won’t do it yourself. This is asking for trouble…

#20

Okay. I modified the Pastebin to include a pcall.

Also @EchoReaper, @Cindering, @Wizzy011, please try out the tutorial whenever you have time. If it works, let me know, and I’d be happy to receive the bounties. :stuck_out_tongue: