Nikki Severin

Hey there, fellow Ylanders! We have some good news for those daring among you - you can now test the update 1.10 Experimental branch on Steam. The new update bears the name Ymproved Ylands, which is mostly because we focused on balancing the game and improving the features we already have. Oh, and the name of the update also helps a bit with the correct pronunciation of the name of the game As always this means that you can get your hands on the cool new stuff early, but you may encounter some bugs. If you do, we would be very grateful if you could report those bugs on our forums (please always state that you are playing the experimental!), along with any negative or positive feedback you care to share. So what is it that you can expect, should you accept this mission to make Ylands better? FPS camera (beta) After a long wait, the FPS camera is back. It's not perfect, still has some quirks and things that we will iron out in the upcoming updates, but it's about 90% done. So hit "C" and let us know what you think Exploration balancing Resources are now spread all over the game world making you travel to other biomes as well - you can see what each biome contains on the world map. As you discover more about other places of the world you will find new interesting Random Encounters. In this update, we've mostly focused on bringing more content into arctic areas. It's the first step we're making while populating the world of Ylands with its backstory, creating its own long overdue lore that will be uncovered with each following update. Among other things that are related to balancing (there are quite a few of them there), we can name the fact that various resources now require specific tool quality. So while some early resources can be mined with a basic pickaxe, for something rarer you will have to craft a better type of pickaxe. Improved fishing Fishing is now more interesting - not only is the actual action more fun but there's a lot you can catch (as well as new recipes related to that). What depth you fish at, time of the day or even if it's raining affects what you get. Improved Radial menu The radial menu now controls more intuitively. And since we found that a lot of new players have no idea there even is one, we've added a hard-to-miss radial menu hotkey hint (which you can disable in Game settings). Mythical animals You can now run into some very specific Random Encounters that let you acquire one of the very unique animal companions. Those are sort of a puzzle, but if you manage to solve them, the result is surely worth all the work. Notice Board Now you will never miss anything important because of the cool new Notice board! Look for the owl button in the Main Menu. Editor improvements Creators will find some pretty handy improvements in Editor - like Visual Scripting multi selection and better object placing tools. All this and much, much more. What's missing: 1.10 will bring a big update to Blueprints but that is not yet present in this Experimental branch. It will, however, be present in the full release later. For information on how to access the Experimental branch please visit our forum here. Please note, that you will have to play as a new character and any progress you make in the Experimental branch will be eventually wiped. Playing the Experimental branch has no effect on your regular game character or progress. We look forward to hearing what you like and don't like, please let us know! Stay classy, Ylanders!

Fair, that's fair But yeah, we still get lots of people pronouncing it as WHYlands 😭

Hey there Ylanders! Before we drop the full update release, as always, we have the experimental build for you to take a sneak peek into Update 1.10: Ymproved Ylands! Available to every Steam user, the Experimental branch offers you guys a chance to: test upcoming features & changes test your games & scripts report any bugs & provide early feedback But first, a couple of things to be aware of: How to try the Experimental Build BACK UP YOUR GAME DATA (see below) go your Steam library right-click Ylands select Properties, click the "Betas" tab and enter "ExperimentalIWillBackUpMySaves" as the password (excluding the double quotes) this will unlock the "i_will_back_up_my_saves" branch after selecting the branch and confirming it, Steam will begin downloading the new experimental branch Important information Now is a good time to very strongly urge everyone trying the experimental branch to back up all your game data (saves, scenarios, etc.). You can do that by: browsing to "<steam installation folder>/userdata/<your steam id>" copying the whole "298610" folder. Keep in mind that the experimental environment uses a completely new user database, meaning that the game will require either playing as a guest or creating a new BI account (available through a link in the game) and then creating a new Ylands character. If you leave your saves folder intact, you will be able to load your older saves and scenarios with these caveats: loading older saves will create a new character for you editing scenarios will result in the scenario having more contributors - the user from the live version and the user from the experimental version For these reasons, we very heavily WARN AGAINST using any data created/modified in the experimental branch in the live version. Also keep in mind that since experimental and live environments are completely separate, you won't be able to see your friends playing the live version in the Social tab. With that out of the way...onto the good stuff! Please note: not all features that will be released in the full release are available in the Experimental build. New Blueprints are missing from Experimental but will be included in the full release! HIGHLIGHTS (once again, this is not the full list of new and improved features that will be released in 1.10!) FPS camera (beta) After a long wait, the FPS camera is back. It's not perfect, still has some quirks and things that we will iron out in the upcoming updates, but it's about 90% done. So hit "C" and let us know what you think Exploration balancing Resources are now spread all over the game world making you travel to other biomes as well - you can see what each biome contains on the world map. As you discover more about other places of the world you will find new interesting Random Encounters. In this update, we've mostly focused on bringing more content into arctic areas. It's the first step we're making while populating the world of Ylands with its backstory, creating its own long overdue lore that will be uncovered with each following update. Among other things that are related to balancing (there are quite a few of them there), we can name the fact that various resources now require specific tool quality. So while some early resources can be mined with a basic pickaxe, for something rarer you will have to craft a better type of pickaxe. Improved fishing Fishing is now more interesting - not only is the actual action more fun but there's a lot you can catch (as well as new recipes related to that). What depth you fish at, time of the day or even if it's raining affects what you get. Improved Radial menu The radial menu now controls more intuitively. And since we found that a lot of new players have no idea there even is one, we've added a hard-to-miss radial menu hotkey hint (which you can disable in Game settings). Mythical animals You can now run into some very specific Random Encounters that let you acquire one of the very unique animal companions. Those are sort of a puzzle, but if you manage to solve them, the result is surely worth all the work. Notice Board Now you will never miss anything important because of the cool new Notice board! Look for the owl button in the Main Menu. Editor improvements Creators will find some pretty handy improvements in Editor - like Visual Scripting multi selection and better object placing tools. ...all this and much, much more.

Hi there! We recognize this to be an issue. This is not the kind of UX we want our players to have, which is why we manged to squeeze in a notification telling you that someone joined your game. This is only the first step in solving this issue and we will continue improving this of course. We are very sorry this happened to you. I will send you a PM.

Hey there, fellow Ylanders! Today we will mention one change that you will notice immediately after you start the new update 1.10. So what is this change? When you first start the new update, you will see the familiar Main menu, with some somewhat unfamiliar labels. Instead of "Sandbox" there is "Creative mode", "Playlands" is now called "Minigames hub", "Custom games" have become "Community games" and, finally, "Exploration" has become "Adventure". We haven't gone crazy. We're not even trying to confuse players (even though yes, some slight initial confusion is something we expect). As weird as it may sound, this is one of the steps we've taken to get more players into Ylands. Let me explain. Unless you disabled the anonymous data gathering in Ylands settings, we get information like "Some player started Ylands for the first time and first they clicked on Playlands. The second thing they clicked was Sandbox. Then they left and never returned". And because we consider Exploration to be "the game", something we want the players to try first to hook them up (and ideally never let them go :)), this obviously is a problem. When you get info like this you need to dig deeper and then you figure out something like: way too many players consider "Exploration" to be something like "showcase of features" or some sort of "god mode" that lets you explore what the game has to offer - or some other things, but not something that holds the actual game. And pretty much every other choice they find more interesting. So they check one of those or two, if we're lucky, and they then leave and don't look back. Sure, it's not every player that decides to give Ylands a try, but the number is surprisingly large. So, we have changed the labels to make Exploration stand out more (sure, it will be some time before we actually stop calling it this way and if you feel like calling it Exploration it's fine if you stick with it). The second reason is that it's not just about exploration but what ever you do, it's an adventure. We will still have "Exploration pack" because it does what it says - it lets you explore, go farther, see more. And speaking of the Exploration pack - we have some interesting plans with that that we'll talk about some other time, but in a nutshell - we want to give more freedom to those without the pack so that they can enjoy the game more, while at the same time owning the pack sounds even more interesting. That's yet another step we would like to take to bring in more players. And that's it for today. Have a great week and until we talk again... Stay Classy!

Hello! Thanks for the suggestion, it's something we might be able to add. We will keep you posted

Hey there, fellow Ylanders! So, let's see... You have explored dozens of ylands, uncovered hundreds of recipes and laid down thousands of blocks. And you think you know it all. That you've seen it all. You have it all. Right? Wrong! Update 1.10 brings something special for those of you who travel the uncharted horizons. Those who welcome challenges. If this sounds like you, get ready to start the grand search for the fabled mythical animals. In the upcoming update you will be able to come across notes left by the famous zoologist Nicholas Arbeo. Each note can lead you to one mythical animal no one has ever seen in Ylands. And you can be the first one to tame it. There are a lot of those to discover. And if you - as unlikely as it may sound - manage to discover and tame all of them, you're up for a pretty cool surprise in 1.11. That's it for today, my fellow explorers. Until we meet again - stay classy!

That is the plan

Hey there, Ylanders! We are going at full speed towards Update 1.10 so it is about time we updated you with some news on what you can look forward to: news! No, for real, this dev diary will be all about news and information! Today we're going to have a look at something brand new that was designed to keep you informed about everything important going in the game: a notice board. Sometimes, it can be a bit tricky to keep up with the latest news, important announcements, scheduled maintenances and other pieces of information. This is why we added a notice board to Ylands. This way, all the important information will be at your fingertips within the game. We recruited a very skilled and also a very cute owl messenger to set up shop in the Main Menu of the game so that you can easily access all the news he carries. While this may seem like a small thing to add, we hope that it will help big time. Some time ago, we spoke about streamlining the player experience and this is another small step towards that goal. The whole update will be filled with improvements like this one and we are looking forward to sharing it with you! With what you know about the update at this point in time, what do you think it's going to be called? Let us know! That's it for this week and we will be back to share more news with you next week! Stay classy, Ylanders!

Highlights The Exploration option in the main menu was overlapping Tutorial's bugs fixed The translations string could be seen in the chat Ship engines won't turn on in several cases Additions [YLD-36592] Added: A new touch button for switching between sails and engines when the ship has both. The mobile button will work with a simple tap, the PC binding will still use a right-mouse hold. [YLD-36629] Added: Drop item hotkey binding for inventory. [YLD-36986] Added: When clicking an ingredient in the workstation screen's recipe, the player is now actually provided with some info. [YLD-36986] Added: Non-craftable items' warning about the item being found in the world will now also show the description for the item, providing the player with a bit more info on where to find it. [YLD-37005] Added: Unequip button to inventory's right panel, the logic for swapping equip and unequip buttons. [YLD-37009] Added: Drop function for animal milking/shearing with full inventory. Added: Separate actions for switching to engines and sails to allow for separate predicates and icon binding - for touch only, the desktop will still have the previous toggling through the hold. Added: Text note about not working on protected scenarios into "Others can download and edit" editor setting on-hover hint. Tweaked [YLD-36435] Tweaked: Mobile: Updating removes friend/clan options in the chat system. [YLD-36682] Tweaked: Sails are now transparent when the player is behind them. [YLD-37054] Tweaked: Editor: you get now error when you try to playtest the game with an empty Entity template or Game logic template. Tweaked: Increase oxygen coral occurrence in UW biotopes. Tweaked: Compositions for vendors now contain indestructible entities to prevent deconstruction. Fixes [YLD-34704] Fixed: Random encounters: cave encounters spawn without any entity. [YLD-35621] Fixed: Missing names and colons in GAME chat and CLAN chat [YLD-36276] Fixed: The client could sometimes not reconnect when he tried to respawn while having his pet summoned. [YLD-36409] Fixed: No more problems with connecting exploration games with sandbox games. [YLD-36424] Fixed: Harvested oxygen coral plant instantly change to fresh one when placed. [YLD-36443] Fixed: Some animals cannot be placed on the first try. [YLD-36562] Fixed: Pipe Block's 3rd channel is now colourable. [YLD-36573] Fixed: The custom instruction parameter doesn't inherit the custom colour of its parent tile. [YLD-36647] Fixed: Floating hints should have all elements correctly vertically aligned (e.g. the holding text etc.). [YLD-36682] Fixed: In some scenarios, sails are not transparent. [YLD-36739] Fixed: If you redeem explore DLC, you will get a costume and pet after restarting the game (now it happens immediately). [YLD-36767] Fixed: There is no error when referencing objects from Group referenced with Group template which is marked to destroy the group on export. [YLD-36768] Fixed: Animators do not work in Random Encounters. [YLD-36779] Fixed: Item description in mobile inventory can no longer be scrolled out of the screen. [YLD-36790] Fixed: Fish Net Grip. [YLD-36911] Fixed: Leopard shark is slower than the rest of the sharks. [YLD-36941] Fixed: Pulsing/Glowing Mushroom Trees and Pulsing/Glowing Polyporus Trees don't react to wind at all. [YLD-36960] Fixed: Redundant 3rd colour layer of the harvestable Brown Kelp plant. [YLD-36968] Fixed: When the air tank is equipped from the vicinity, the air is not refilled. [YLD-36978] Fixed: Some strings in Skill Editor in the Editor are missing translation. [YLD-36993] Fixed: Combat music should stop now properly when teleporting. [YLD-36995] Fixed: Locked Oxygen Harvester can be normally used. [YLD-37001] Fixed: Marble block 1x1x2 wrong loads. [YLD-37015] Fixed: Insufficient glow of harvestable Red Kelp plant. [YLD-37077] Fixed: Underwater cave REs spawn in the middle of the room instead of the floor. [YLD-37148] Fixed: Account link: create new account button does nothing if you are not in the home window. [YLD-37279] Fixed: Loot containers not spawning in deep water (voxel -2 or less). [YLD-37285] Fixed: Sometimes ships are teleported away after they are spawned into the world. [YLD-37287] Fixed: /r command to reply was not working. [YLD-37288] Fixed: Whisper command remembers the wrong user. [YLD-37302] Fixed: Exploration 2: Mutated alphas are defeated when they are despawned during the day. [YLD-37482] Fixed: Correct NPC names in chat [YLD-37484] Fixed: Hint for dropping an item will not be present on the Cube screen. [YLD-37504] Fixed: Random Encounters: Crates of REs in underwater caves may be inaccessible due to clipping into terrain [YLD-37938] Fixed: Untranslated texts found in the Exploration mode news popup. Fixed: Several bugs in the tutorial. [YLD-36824] Fixed: Editor: Global variables created in the referenced entity in Template GL. [YLD-37026] Fixed: Editor: Exception after deleting entity with a faulty script and using the Game Log search bar. [YLD-37124] Fixed: Editor: Exception after placing some entity into NPC's inventory. [YLD-37268] Fixed: Editor: animated GLs/Entities as part of Group template prevents playtest. [YLD-36571] Fixed: VS: Custom instruction variables do not have always the correct custom colour. [YLD-37034] Fixed: VS: dynamic trigger zones can slow down clients. [YLD-37128] Fixed: VS: array variables with specified type have wrong embedded tile in the menu. [YLD-37130] Fixed: VS: there is an error when deleting the last switch branch. [YLD-37228] Fixed: VS: Infinite exception when spawning from Group Template a group with delayed function in its child. [YLD-37238] Fixed: VS: it is not possible to hide in properties previously shown global variables.

Can you send me a screenshot/video, please? We'll check it out Thank youuuu!

Hi there! What seems to be the problem? Did you get any error messages? Do you friends own the DLC?

Most likely no patch till the 1.10 update, which should be getting released in mid summer

Hey there, fellow Ylanders! This time we come to you a bit earlier than usual as our team will spend rest of the week surviving in the woods. But we have good news and good news can't come early enough, right? During our journey to make Explore great again (and even greater) we've already fixed and added a lot things that we promised and that you asked for. We're still not done by any means, but we are very happy that we can announce that in the upcoming update 1.10 you will finally find a fully working first person camera view. Originally we planned to release this in update 1.11 but we managed to fix some blocking issues sooner than we expected. This, in combination with the fact that you've waited long enough, led us to the decision to include the FPS camera in 1.10 instead of 1.11. We delayed what we internally call "Custom Exploration" into 1.11 as the FPS camera is, based on your feedback more important, and we managed to make it work. Why did it take so long? Well, having both camera modes in a multiplayer game that has melee combat more sophisticated than just simple bashing in front of the avatar (like Minecraft) and is low-poly is quite tricky. It has to do with camera position, different control schemes, animation problems, balancing both modes in MP where each player can use a different one... the list goes on. When we introduced the new combat support, having both camera views was no longer possible with the amount of time and manpower that we had and so we decided to disable the FPS mode until we're able to make it work. So how did we managed to solve all the problems? The honest answer is - we solved most of them and, at least for the time being, got around some of them. The new mode is not perfect, we will continue working on it of course, but for now, it's fully working. Basically there are three things you'll notice when you use it: You'll see just your hands, not your forearms and rest of the body. It's not because we would plan to release a VR version but simply because otherwise we would need to make a ton of new animations. The main character has roughly 1500 animations and, unfortunately, we can't use many of those, as it wouldn't work well with FPS camera. Riding a horse or driving a car in the FPS mode can feel a bit nauseating for those who are prone to such things. That's why by default the camera will switch to third person as you start controlling those (you can override it, though) There are few cases where the existing features need to be a bit tweaked to make the experience better. So FPS camera has finally made it back and this time it stays. Yet another promise kept, still some to go :). That's it for today and we'll talk to you next week. Until then stay healthy and classy!

Hey there, fellow Ylanders! Firstly we would like to thank you for the huge amount of feedback we got based on the last Dev Diary. It's just awesome to see how much thought many of you have put into it! ❤️ We're still looking into it and discussing it, and will comment on some of the points soon. Today we would like to share a bit more information about the Blueprints update we're planning for the next update. So far you your options to build something awesome and (re)use it in Exploration as a Blueprint were extremely limited. That shouldn't be the case anymore. If all goes well, in 1.10 we'll introduce some rather big changes to Blueprints. Blueprints and Compositions will turn into two types of Blueprints (naming can change) - Explorer and Creator Blueprints. Let us share a bit more about their specifics: Creator Blueprints are pretty much what Compositions were (and your existing Compositions, will, in fact, be considered Creator Blueprints). Within those you will be able to store pretty much everything you create in the Editor. However, those will be usable only in the Editor. Explorer Blueprints will be usable in both Exploration and the Editor. The biggest change when compared to pre-1.10 Blueprints is, that you can create those in the Editor and then use in your Exploration world. Also, they can contain much more than just building blocks. You can have a Blueprint of a house, filled with items, surrounded by a garden with flowers and trees. In 1.10 you will be able to use these only locally and we'll check if it all works as intended and improve it based on your feedback. In 1.11 we will add advanced options of sharing and monetizing for creators of both kinds of Blueprints. Even though it will become much easier to create amazing Blueprints and use them in the Exploration, don't forget that they're still just that - something that requires your effort to get all the resources (be it materials or specific items) to build it. The more sophisticated the blueprint, the more effort you'll need to build it. That's it for this week, as always, let us know what you think and on top of that... Stay classy, Ylanders!

Hey there, fellow Ylanders! In our quest to create a great Exploration experience, we are getting back to various features that have a great potential but in their current form and shape are simply not good enough. One of them is definitely fishing... so what can you expect to change in the upcoming update 1.10? Firstly the whole "feeling" of catching fish gets better. Not only is fishing getting better visuals, but also better controls that now require a bit of skill to actually catch something. In 1.10 you will be watching the float and waiting for it go down. And since fishing will require a bit more skill it should also be more rewarding, right? Well, that's why there's a lot of things to catch! And not just fish... The type of catch you get will depend on not only where you are (such as what depth is the water around you), but also on the weather conditions. You're more likely to catch certain fish during the clear morning weather, while some are active during the night or when it rains (and some even during thunderstorms!). On top of fish variety, we've added several different types of fishing rods. We hope that the new fishing will be yet another feature you'll like in 1.10. That's it for today. We'll talk again in a week so until then... stay classy and healthy!

Hello! Vast majority of mobile devices are not able to handle terraforming, which is why it is not currently supported on mobiles.

Hey! Not exactly what you're asking for but did you know that you can re-color instructions and that way maybe organize the script differently?

Hey! There was a bug when the alphas were counted as defeated when they despawned during the day (meaning they "disappear" during the day so that players don't see them). This meant not many alphas around, but it is now fixed

Hey there, fellow Ylanders! We're working hard on update 1.10 and since update 1.5 it's always been about Exploration first. This is not going to change, but we understand that the ones who like to create cool contraptions or worlds in the Editor might feel neglected, which is why the past few updates brought a lot of Editor and scripting improvements as well. So today we would like to let the Creators know, what the near future holds for them. We are currently working on something we internally call "Custom Exploration". We've already mentioned it in our Dev Diaries, but let us remind you what it's all about. We want to let Creators build ylands in the Editor (or in the Sandbox mode) that players will be able to visit with their ships from the Exploration world. This will result in much more than the ability to create a cool "home" for you with the help of cool things that only the Editor offers. We are going to add incentives for Creators to come up with cool experiences for players who want something more than what Exploration currently offers. At the same time, it will be something that is based on the core Exploration gameplay. You can think of it as Mystery Ylands... created by players for players, friends or strangers alike. We will reward Explorers for sailing to these worlds and leaving notes and ratings for others if what they found is worth experiencing. This feature was originally planned for 1.10, but we now see that the first version would be too rough around the edges and missing some of the cool things that make it interesting. So we decided to take more time working on it and will release it in 1.11 in a better shape and with more tools and documentation ready for the Creators. We will also be giving the Creators enough information in advance so that their creations can be available to players as soon as 1.11 is released. The Editor and content creation will get much more love not just thanks to "Custom Exploration", but also thanks to Ylands EDU version, which is doing surprisingly well and which, in the end, seems to be something that the Ylands game will profit from even more than we expected. But that's a story for a different time :). We're looking forward to talking to you the next week. Until then - stay classy!

It shouldn't technically impact Exploration at all, if you so choose. Meaning the Custom Exploration will be a "separate world". We'll share more details as we progress in the development for sure

Hey! Very cool! Forwarding this to our designers Thank you!!!!

Hey there, fellow Ylanders! Let's talk about yet another thing that you will get to find in the next update because you asked for it :). Several of you told us about how annoying it is you are not able to eat while exploring while riding a horse or, more importantly, hold a compass (so you can tell where you're going). This is something that wasn't initially even planned for 1.10 but since this suggestion keeps appearing, we decided to squeeze it in. Oh, and did we mention that because you will now be able to hold items while riding you can travel through the darkness while holding a torch or a lantern? Anyway, the moral of the story is as always - the more you talk to us, the better the game gets. Thanks for all your feedback! That's it for today and we'll talk to you again next week. Until then stay healthy and classy, Ylanders!

Hey! Can you try setting your trigger zones that are a part of the animated groups as animated? This should work

Hello! Can you please send us the problematic Scenario? You should be able to find it in this folder: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\userdata\<yoursteamid>\298610\remote\Scenarios You can send it to me in a PM Thank you!