Group Games - Ability to modify rank/role through Lua API

Was going to make my own post suggesting this, but came across this one. Now seems like the best time to bring light to this topic, but I also wanted to add a thought of my own on why this feature should be worked on.

A problem a lot of groups face is bots. No matter what we do, they will always find a way through. The groups which experience these most are larger ones, where the group wall would usually be relatively useless anyway. If we had the ability to rank members based on how they do in our games, we could stop bots from getting through how they do now (since the requirements to get group wall posting privileges in our games should be pretty high). Not only does this benefit group owners by keeping bot posts out, but large groups can also gate off the group wall to a small number of their players in the higher ranks, bringing the group wall back as a place for discussion.

If this is done, Roblox would of course need to let us reset this key on the off chance it gets leaked. However, my idea for how it would work is that we could add and remove game IDs (or maybe place IDs) in the group admin page which are given permission to modify the ranks and use other potential group API. Iā€™m not sure if this method is more or less secure, or how much more useful it is. However, it would prevent even leaked scripts from giving othersā€™ access to modifying your group through the API.

5 Likes

Adding something like this to the Roblox engine would be greatly beneficial to me as I have been trying to figure out a way to automatically rank people within my group but have found no success as it is a somewhat complicated task to do and I currently do not know much about this.

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I have spent a good month attempting to find a way to rank people via a script, but seeing as I have little experience in web design, I have had no suck luck.

About 3 months ago, I had successfully created a group bot using this tutorial which could do many things like change a userā€™s rank, and create a group shout. However, since Roblox added the NewCaptcha, it has not worked. That is why I have been attempting to find a new way.

The author of the tutorial mentioned above has updated the post to inform users of how to get around the NewCaptcha update, but I have found it complicated and because of that have not been able to achieve it.

That is why I think it would be a wonderful idea to have a Roblox API that allows developers to change ranks by script.

6 Likes

Currently, we have to go through the tedious process of using HTTP service along with an account bot just to be able to modify a userā€™s group role from in-game. Having thousands of members without a way to automate rank modification leads to situations where you need to hire mass amounts of people just to do the job manually. Some other difficulties:

  • Many developers donā€™t have any knowledge on how to use the HTTP service
  • Creating and linking a bot account typically requires knowledge in the javascript language especially if you are linking the account to a discord bot
  • Creating such a system takes massive amounts of time and effort when it could be more straightforward and quick
  • Many developers end up having to turn to bot programmers to hire to complete the task for them

If this feature is implemented, it would open up several possibilities for developers, including:

  • Making group application centers much easier to develop
  • Promoting users for completing certain objectives/achievements in a game
  • Demoting a user who broke a groupā€™s policy
  • Demoting or exiling users for bad behavior in-game
  • The role-playing genre on ROBLOX is a popular one, and allowing roles to be modified in-game could allow groups in that area to expand in many ways
  • This could also leave room for large games with groups to automate and streamline their rank progression
6 Likes

I find that this would be a really LOVELY way to unite game communities and adds a new channel to rewards players through. I find myself lacking this ability right now and would love to see it implemented.

5 Likes

Years after years after years yet no response-
ā€¦ tsk, quite annoying. This feature would make a world of difference if it were to be implemented, and considering how the group page was recently reworked I imagined that an overhaul to the web API was also bound to come along with it.
Full support from my side; we already have ways to check a plethora of information related to groups thanks to GroupService (GetAlliesAsync, GetEnemiesAsync, GetGroupInfoAsync, GetGroupsAsync, GetRankInGroup, GetRoleInGroup), itā€™d only make sense for us to be able to also set a userā€™s role/rank using API calls as well without having to fall back to a third party bot.

5 Likes

This feature should 100% be added. Not entirely sure why it has not been addressed.

The way I would see it, you should be able to go to your group, and create a ā€œbotā€ or something of some type that provides you with an ID and Key.

Using said ID and Key, you should be able to go to the proposed Lua API and input that ID and Key. Doing this, roblox could also implement rate limits to said API to prevent abuse, similarly to how they also limit HTTPService, Datastores and MessageService.

Unfortunately, roblox has forced us to rely on external sources such as:

While this is an alright system, we are forced to then find a proper web server to host it on, and this is arguably a detriment to newer groups.

By adding this feature, it would also give rise to more role play styled games and groups, as they could make their groups actually useful to join.

Any word on why this proposed feature seems largely ignored would be nice, as right now users are forced to go through overly complex methods and consistently working against robloxā€™s efforts to prevent botting, as they just want to have some form of legitimate means to promote people.

6 Likes