Working up in TRA #1

This is episode number one, in the series where JuzzbyXfalcon, the guy from ROBLOXowns Productions, tries to achieve a good position in TRA

So last week I started being active in TRA once again, with the current RSF war that wasn't really a that big problem, checking the group wall as much as possible, going to trainings, raids and defending Normandy. Within that time I read the promotion guide a few times, and didn't really noticed any problems. Until I became sergeant, the rank where you have to do more then just shoot and kill. Now I have been and I am a high rank in several groups, so obviously it's not that I can't take command, actually I take command over higher ranks some times, because they totally mess up. It looks like when saying that you need to have a skill over other people, that skill doesn't get noticed by other people, for example I could make a base, but non of the high ranks would come check it out, give feedback and optionally promote me for it. I could make new weapons, but non of the high-ranks would actually make time to test them, to use them etc.

Now, I don't know what it is, but as far as I know other groups don't have this problem, even better a lot of TRA do get promoted to captain... Actually we have 289 captains at the moment, so I guess it's just me not spamming the high-ranks enough, which I will probably never do. Though I will really have to find a way to get a promotion to captain... Any suggestions?

The dark side of the TRA vs. RSF war

TRA and RSF have been at war for over a week now. The war started for no other reason than to have war for war's sake. TRA is a war clan, we don't need excuses to go to war. Some bonuses with war include more activity and members getting more skilled.

The start of the war was pretty nice. Everyone fought fair, no hacks and little flaming. Sadly, like most ROBLOX wars, bad stuff started happening. Bases got exploited all the time, and flaming became more and more common. As much as this is a bad thing, we must tolerate it and move on. Hacking and flaming can't be avoided.

Even though bases get hacked all day, TRA has managed to produce evidense of 21 legit victories, while RSF has produced 1. Still RSF claims they are winning, and accuse normandy of being unfair as the reason for why they are losing. Honestly, normandy is pretty fair compared to other clan forts. The reason RSF is losing the war is their inactive members, and devided leadership. Many RSF generals are about to betray RSF, or are inactive. One of them even asked us to end the war because their leadership was too bad to handle our power.

In stead of admitting they are losing, RSF is now planning to counter this by putting their spawns inside the base, and give them selves 1 hit KO snipers. They allready have an easier time than us at the fort, yet they are planning to make it even more unfair. Just imagine trying to swordjump over the wall, while 1 shot kill snipers pick you off and spawnkill you from the hills. Then if you actually manage to get over the wall, you just get shot in the back while trying to cross the bridge. They are creating a huge spawntrap to even have a chance of winning. Still they claim they are "One of the most prestigious clans on Roblox!"

TRA is winning this war, what we are seeing now, is RSF's final attempt to win. The question remains if they will actually carry out these changes. Even if they do, I belive TRA will be victorious once again.

Summary of my 1st week leading TRA again.

This has been a rather interesting week. I got TRA the day before my mid-term test, but I think I did well with both. It has been fun being back behind the wheel of this great army. I took a loooong break, but you know, I started to miss it. Working with the highranks, which are all doing a great job by the way, has been fun. I also did some reforms. The promotion system, elites, rules and the majors academy have all been reformed. Another thing I am proud of is fort normandy. Formerly a TSB (The Strike Battalion) fort, it scaled well up to TRA. 18 players seems to work fine, and I am glad TRA like it. When designing it, I had fairness and fast paced gameplay in mind. Did you know one of the administrators, reesemcblox favorited it?

Overall it has been a great week, the war with RSF is going great, and the fort is more active than ever. There has been some bad buzz about the United Powers Clan Allaince (UP for short) recently. They kicked us out because we went to war with RSF without them accepting it, but really we decide who we want to fight, not them. The UP never helped us anyway. The thing that everyone seems to be waiting for now is the major reform. Honestly, I haven't found a fair way to solve that problem yet. Still thinking, maybe having major logs or something. Other than that, I wish more people would enter the build a base contest, a 2nd base would be nice.

I am uploading some nice voice commentaries right now, you should check them out on my youtube channel. I am thinking about making a series of tutorial videoes to help recruits become better soldiers. Might happen, depending on the feedback I get on my first video. I noticed we are getting tons of new members too. Probably because normandy is so popular nowdays. Anyways, what do you want to see in TRA over the next weeks?

-Tonitoni

The work behind "The Robloxian Army in 30 seconds."

Most of you have probably seen my newest video by now. If not, you can check it out here. In this blog post, I will explain the work behind it.

Every proper video I make starts with music. Be it a funny sketch, or a recruitment video. For this one, I wanted to use the battlefield 3 theme. I was not sure if it was copyrighted or not, so I spent days contacting different people at EA asking for permission to use the song. In the end I ended up uploading a random video with the song, to test the copyright my self. It was not copyrighted, so I started work on the film part.

I had allready written the manuscript while waiting for EA to reply to my messages about the song. So the only thing left to do was record everything, and edit it together. I worked on a tight scheme, because I wanted to finish the video in the weekend. I built sets, recorded and edited for three days, and the 3rd day it was done. I had compressed two hours of recordings into 30 seconds.

Both the recording and editing part were pretty easy, I got a couple of my friends to act, and then recorded some nice scenes. I had most of it planned allready, but sometimes I come up with super ideas while filming. The tank and plane scenes were both figured out on set. I use ScreenFlow to record.

The editing part was probably the most fun to do. I use final cut express, and I am quite good with it. The four scenes in one part with the jet was pretty awesome to do. Originally I did not plan for it to be there, but I had so many jet clips and so little time. I just smashed them all together and it looked goid. The part I am the least happy about was the end. I kinda rushed it because I was going to visit someone. Rushed projects rarely turn out great.

I hope the video was as fun to wach as it was a learning experience to me. -Tonitoni

Making a video advertisment for TRA.

Yesterday, roblox officially released a new feature. Place galleries. This new feature includes the ability to upload pictures and videoes to your places. I decided to make one for darox II. I know I haven't done much in TRA lately, but I love making videoes, and this seems really fun. Especially since the video will be seen by thousands of people at roblox. My goal is to create the best place advertisment ever! (Not very hard since so few have been made.) Hopefully it will continue to impress people even after video advertisments become common.

My first challenge was to find fitting music for my video. I allways get inspired by the music I use. After browsing youtube for a while, I settled on the official battlefield 3 theme. I looked around youtube to see what other people hade done with it, but I was suprised to find very few videoes with the song. This lead me to thinking that the song might be copyrighted, but I continued with the project anyway. The evening went on planning the scenes, and writing the script, but the chance of my video being instantly removed from youtube was hounting me.

I have had my video removed before, an epic TRA advert that never saw the light of day. I used days on it, just to have it removed from youtube instantly. I should have known that the song I used, the transformers soundtrack, was copyrighted. Anyways, back to the TRA recruitment video, when I was done with the manuscript, I decided to check if the music was indeed copyrighted. I tweeted the official battlefield support center, but right as I did it, they stopped responding to tweets. I did not give up, I wanted that song. 30 minutes later, I had tweeted every single lead developer at DICE, sadly it seemed they had all gone to bed, so my efforts stopped there.

The next morning, I still did not have a reply, so I went to school thinking if I would ever be able to use the song. I was relieved when I found that someone had tweeted me. It was one of the developers at DICE, he said I probably would have to pay for the lincence, although there was a chance no one would care if I used the song. Unsecure as I was, I was still not satisfied with the answer, I wanted to know if I could use the song or not. The search went back to youtube, and to my relief I found a video with the song creator's name in it. A quick google search, and five minutes later the email was sent. Now I just have to wait for the reply. Let's hope that I can use the song.

WIJ log entry #2

After getting accepted as a STA trainer, I finally thought there was a way for me to become an officer. I was wrong. I keep getting this feeling of hitting the wall. I have a goal, and when I REALLY want something, I will do EVERYTHING in my power to make that happen. The problem is, my obstacle is something I can't controll. Timezones.

I am trapped in a place where I cannot move on. Most of the officers live in america, while the majority of the high command is british. I am managing to stay in touch with the high command, but the officers just don't know me. The only people that actually are online when I am online are iRykorz and Rykarz. Problem is, they rarely hold trainings. So I figured: Hey, I should become an STA trainer, so I can host trainings my self! Well guess what, that aint helping me get anywhere. I can't get cP for hosting my own trainings, and I can't go to other peoples trainings.

So what do I do? Well, I try to find alternative ways to earn cP. How is that working out? Not very well. First of all,my suggestions often involve changing rules, or doing things in a new way. Of course the high command does not like these changes, and the officers can't do anything about them. The high command says: "Go to trainings." I would, if someone actually hosted one.

I asked the officers, how do I get cP for officer? They said: "Go guard bases and you might get cP." Hey guess what. THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT I HAVE BEEN DOING THE PAST 4 MONTHS! AND GUESS WHAT! I NEVER EVER GOT CP! BECAUSE THERE ARE NO FUCKING OFFICERS AT THE BASES THAT CAN GIVE ME CP!

I am not getting anywhere, but the frustration I have been feeling lately just keeps raising. An entire holliday wasted patrolling bases. For nothing.

WIJ log entry #1

Yay! I have finally become a WIJ STA trainer! After trying to become one for weeks, I finally made it. I think it all comes down to having the right connections. Many other WIJ are trying too, they be jelly. But yeah, having a network is vital when wanting to move forward in a group, not just in WIJ. Back when I was active in VAK, I was friends with all the highranks. I became a HR in just a month. Not bad, considering it is VAK we are talking about.

The more highranks you know, the better. After I got xfire, communicationhas been really smooth too. I'll start training the people in STA as soon as I get admin at the training places. I think it will be awesome. My next goal is officer. Wish me luck :D