Dear Adam, that is great, thank you for that. I cut it straight to the point, we urgently need a bigger map solution, before anything else.
We, the players, don’t want to move on to another game, once we found something, worth sinking our precious leisure time in. First of all, we believe in Ylands. We cherish all the effort put into this gem of a game, we are thankful for your work, Devs, taking us onto wonderful adventures under the blue sky the open seas, the smell of salt water in the nose, screeching seagulls above our heads, or running away from mutated wolves in dimly lit, mossy underground caves for the sake of saving our own hides with that bit of loot we managed to dig up before we were sniffed out. It’s awesome!
Why did I stop playing for a few months now? I tried hard to carry the flag for Ylands, but I’ll need to share, why, at its current stage, I think Exploration is just not…worth it. Sorry, it’s maybe rough to say, it is hard to admit it actually. It all boils down to one thing. Map size.
When I picked up the first flint on the sandy shores of my starter Island, that felt nice. The relaxing pace of the game hooked me from this first moment on. I like to remember chopping wood for my first hut, having trouble storing things, engaging a rabbit chase if I felt to and picking up literally all the colored shells on the island. That was when an awkward feeling arose, began clenching my throat a bit. I could circle my island in a matter of…a minute? That was weirdly unexpected. Anyways, the usual progression kicked in, I guess. Raft, Ship, Base, bigger base, visiting neighbor islands…oh was it wonderful. I sank a dozen of hours into the miniscule details of a massive ship with tons of storage space for awesome loot. Finally I was happy with it and set all sails to great adventures in vastness of the oceans.
What a bummer, I must say.
Only then I did my research on the internet, where I was lured into the promise of maybe 15 islands per map. I was disappointed, to be frank. But I was shocked, when I found out, my map hat 5 islands only. The frustration kicked on, because I build a mighty man-o-war…for the bathtub?
After a small grieving period, when my tears all dried up, I went from playing Ylands to reading about its progress. I loved the idea of introducing an Asian biome, excellent! Seeing new NPC’s ideas getting implemented, jaj!! Having new creatures, most marvelous!!! Rock monsters and Elves?! Blows my mind!!!!
It then again is only astounding cosmetics instead of putting all effort in the core problem of exploration. Tiny, painfully tiny maps.
Here comes my only pledge. My last metaphor for today, it is nice of you to tend to the scratches on the paintwork of the car, care for more comfy seats, adjust the headlights…but first off all and with combined effort, please focus on the engine and, for the pirates sake, put the wheels back on.
Faithfully still, Sealing
