Customizing Limiteds

Feature Requests Website Features
#1

As a Roblox Developer who owns 300 Racing Helmets there is no way for me to make mine worth much more than any other.

As I was shoveling my way out of the terrible snow storm that struck the east coast, a beautiful idea popped into my head. Many creators have taken issue in the in-ability to create custom hats for your character to use across any game. Similar to the Steam Marketplace, Roblox’s Limited system has a way with trades & buying/selling. A particularly interesting thing in the CS:Go Steam Marketplace, is that not every asset is the same. Some assets come pre-applied with “Stickers” which are logos & other artwork that the user put onto the asset to make it more unique while they use it. Now, these stickers are all CS:Go assets, but for Roblox this could go as far as anything. So, if you haven’t pieced it all together, allow me to do so for you.

Step 1: User Purchases a Limited

First, the user must own a copy of the limited they wish to re-skin. Particularly for this, I believe that any LimitedU item should not have this feature enabled, as generally they are very rare and shouldn’t be tampered with.

Step 2: Re-Skin

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Pressing the “ReSkin” button will take the player to a page, similar to the Develop page for Audio. It should explain ReSkinning rules & that ReSkinning costs (1000 R$?) and that if you upload a skin that is declined, you will not be refunded the (price).

Step 3: Wait For Moderation

Wait for Moderation to approve or decline the asset. If the asset is approved, a new re-skinned version of the asset should land in their inventory.

Now what?

Well, the user can wear the re-skinned version, happily, or for the entrepreneurial folks, sell it!

When a user goes to sell their hat, they can choose their re-skinned version, and it will be identified as re-skinned in the listings.

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(Using my buddy @FearDaFro apart of the example) As you can see, my helmet is ReSkinned but his is not. Clicking the Star will take you to a separate page to view the ReSkinned version, so you know what you’re buying.

In the event that a user purchases the ReSkinned version, a warning message should display asking them if they’re okay with the ReSkin that is on it. When the user accepts the warning, it will display the normal purchase message. After purchasing the asset, the user is then free to ReSkin it themself for (price), or keep the skin it has on it.

Also, users should be allowed to DeSkin the asset for free, but once DeSkinned they will have to pay (price) to ReSkin it back again.

I know this feature would require a lot of work, however, I thoroughly believe that this feature would Power Imagination among many Robloxian Outfits in the future, as well as benefit Robloxian Companies that could focus on selling skinned versions of hats.

Edit Note: Certain hats would be disallowed from ReSkin, like for example all the Dominus items, considering some aren’t LimitedU. This would be preventive of having someone reskin an item to look like a higher value item.

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#2

There are so many variables that go into this system that it seems like a moderation nightmare as well as a loop hole gold mine. Not to mention part of Roblox’s main image is the catalog since it’s all done by staff (you know what I mean by that, I’m talking about the non user created section) if something got through moderation it would be a completely different story than if something like an inappropriate decal or model got through that was made by a user.

7 Likes
#3

Which is why there would be a price to ReSkin to deter people uploading bad stuff. Furthermore, other penalties could be lobbied, like removal of the asset from their account. :man_shrugging:

1 Like
#4

I don’t think this would do very well when Roblox already has UGC in mind. This system would lead to a few problems.

  • There’s only so much of each item, with some as low as the double digits. Even if filtering out limited U’s, we’ve got a good amount of limiteds with so much stock. Being able to reskin them like this would encourage hoarding to a decent degree.

  • How do you handle copies of items? We already have issue with copies of clothing, and while this can’t be done nearly as quickly, these are items being tossed back and forth. That, and users are going to grab the textures for personal use regardless, because why pay extra for a skinned copy when you could pay that same fee either for a copy of your own (with one pixel off to dance around any potential automated moderation) or a personalized version of your work.

  • What determines when items are disallowed for reskins? You’ve already got a decent amount which share meshes with high value items. Then you’ve got items in which they don’t match the same mesh, but the meshes are decently close enough to where a somewhat skilled retexturer could create a decent copycat texture of the high value item, which would then be copied as stated in the second point.
    Going further, limiteds are limiteds, and prices fluctuate over time. What may be relatively common today and worth very little one year could have risen drastically the next.
    Further still, new items could release which are intended to be of much higher value, yet share the same mesh as an item which could have previously allowed reskins. Do they suddenly get reskin abilities revoked, or does this become an item where copying the high value item is allowed?

Now on top of all this, we have to consider what UGC could offer instead of this skin system. Using CS:GO as an example, since it was brought up in the original post, it has the Steam Workshop, a place where users can submit reskins and stickers to be added to the game. Let’s use that as an example of how Roblox’s UGC here.

  • A user could create their item, be it animation, gear, accessory, or bundle, considering all of those are items which any developer could create with the right skills. We’re not limited to just reskinning pre-existing assets, but instead are allowed to create unique, brand new items.

  • The item gathers votes towards being an official item in the catalog, telling Roblox there’s interest for it when they’re deciding to add new items to the catalog.

  • If that goes well, the item is added for anyone to buy. Revenue can be split between Roblox and the creator, and there’s no limit to how many can be sold. Essentially, it’s like any other regular catalog item.

  • If the item is a cheap copy, be it of Roblox’s work or someone else’s, there’s time for the item to be reported without reaching the catalog. If they don’t manage to catch the stolen content in time, say half a year has passed, the copied version is still under the same original “creator”.

And that’s if going through a system similar to the Workshop, Roblox could be looking more for a system which allows users to immediately sell their work. Granted, that may be somewhat trickier considering the status of clothing in the Roblox catalog, but we still have the Steam Workshop system as one example where that issue isn’t really possible.

3 Likes
#5

This keeps getting thrown around a lot. Do you have anything officially pointing to this? This gets passed around in a fashion that it feels more like a rumor than anything else.

Hopefully, Roblox would safeguard the textures in someway that it’s not easily accessible via some form of -1ing your way to the texture, or maybe even just providing a way that even if you get to the page that it’s on, don’t show a preview of the texture for someone to just right click and save.

I agree, this is kinda where the ReSkin idea gets into the gray. I did mention in my original post that LimitedU should 1000% be out of the question when it comes to ReSkin. Any item that shares a mesh with another, should also be ineligible for ReSkin. “Power Items” like Fedoras / Top Hats / Dominuses / Crowns should not be able to ReSkin. And, I don’t feel I’m overstepping my boundaries saying this, but if an item goes up for ReSkin Eligibility, another item should not be made by Roblox that utilizes the same mesh.

So, the community votes, and then Roblox has to step in and look at it, and give the final go ahead. This is why this idea will fail. This is now an extra step that a form of moderation is to be done. Most of the requests that lead to “please accept this task to moderate more” tend to be failed requests. :man_shrugging:

#6

It’s been mentioned at multiple RDCs. I cannot, however, provide any date seeing as Roblox gave it the Soon™.

Uhh, that wouldn’t really work. Users wouldn’t really be able to -1, but there’d be plenty of situations where the texture could easily be grabbed, the easiest of which would probably be inserting the owner’s character while they’re wearing the hat. From there, you could just export the place in Studio and get the full resolution texture. It’s not like this would need to be common knowledge though, it just takes one person to spread the texture outside of Roblox for everyone to be able to take it and use it. I’d imagine if anything this would be more beneficial for malicious users, who could gather a bunch of these textures through Studio and sell them in sets for a quick buck.

Just because moderation would be involved with adding UGC doesn’t mean it’s fruitless. Again, that’s just a theoretical way of implementation, they may prefer a more automated one. Even if it did require moderation, every approved item, be it animations, accessories, gear, faces, and whatever else Roblox wishes to include, would be making them money. Instead of paying a freelancer or an employee a decent sum for every model, they’d just have to approve an already made item onto the catalog to start gathering revenue from it, and handling payment for the creator. They’d also know that the item already has an audience, seeing as the item would have a high amount of votes with a decent thumbs up:thumbs down ratio.

I don’t see why Roblox would implement such an odd, limited system in which they’d have to manage which hats do and don’t get skins, for the occasional 1K payment to do so, when it’s much more beneficial to do what they already have in mind, UGC. Why have a system in which users buy specific eligible limiteds, spend 1K to only be able to change their texture, and then need to either sell their one copy or buy more of that limited to be able to make a profit off their creation? A profit standing on the hopes that nobody steals the texture and uploads it on their own?

Instead, we could go with UGC, in which users could create unique items with nearly the same freedom Roblox has, and allow those users to make a decent amount of robux for their work, to the point where they could make that the main focus of their Roblox development. Even if an item isn’t popular vote wise, Roblox could use it in cases where they need new items for events, like Team Fortress 2 does for their holidays.