Aleš Ulm

Hi, no new update will (unless we discuss it with you first in advance) require you to start a new game. However, if you'd want to experience all the new features (and potentially find randomly generated places with NPCs) for that you would have to start a new one. I want to talk about this a bit more in one of the upcoming Dev Diaries (probably the one coming out the next week). The update with NPCs (0.7), however, is going to be released in the first half of February. What you're referring to is probably 0.6.3 which will contain mostly fixes and will be released sometime next week - starting a new game for that wouldn't result in any new/extra content.

Hi, moving things from one Exploration game to another is indeed possible through Editor (you can turn whatever you want to move into Composition in the original world loaded into the Editor, load the new world in the Editor and then place it there ). It is not ideal solution but it is, indeed, possible

As for this issue: Inventory items disappearing or getting stuck between inventory slots/ outside the inventory panel etc. - we have just fixed it. With the fix in place we are no longer able to reproduce it so fingers crossed that this was the only cause :). It will be released as a part of 0.6.3 sometime next week

Long story short: unfortunately that would be extremely difficult to do (if even possible - programmers would first have to see if it even can be done) :). It would definitely be very time-consuming (both the implementation and testing) - while it's very likely that in some cases it would result in something far from ideal anyway. To be perfectly honest it isn't really worth the effort and time - those we will put into fixing and making cool new stuff instead. But just as I said earlier we understand that this is a problem and are trying to find some solution.

@blfonsworth I should be able to give you more information about this in the second half of this week. In the meantime, since you say it happens to you a lot, do you think you would be able to tell us what exactly you're doing when it happens? Are you trying to drag and drop some item and then something happens? Do you press any keys in that moment, where do you drop it exactly etc. (or even if you manage to capture it on video ) - any information is welcome, very helpful and directly increases the chance you'll get your hands on the fix sooner - we need to be sure we find all the possible causes of this. thanks!

@LupowopYes, in the end we gave the generator even to characters in existing games. Unfortunately, something like this is not always an option. Before every update, a lot of effort goes into making sure that it works with your existing saves so unless something unforeseen happens you should be able to keep your games functional throughout EA. I don't think that even when we leave Early Access your save games will become invalid (but it's still months ahead and anything can happen - and if something like that would have to be done, we would discuss it with you in advance in here). The problem, however, lies elsewhere. In Exploration many things are created when the world is generated (when you start the game for the first time). While most of the features we add work even in the existing games, the problem is with changes that actually add something in the world. To give you an example - all those cool random places you encounter on various ylands are generated when the new game starts for the first time. With 0.7 we'll be adding some new places like that that will have NPCs in them. There will be no way for you to run into any of these unless you start a new game. We understand that this isn't ideal but it has to be done this way. Making sure that players can experience absolutely everything new added to the game without having to start a new game would mean a tremendous amount of additional programming which currently is needed elsewhere (please note that we are talking about EA only - once we leave it, things will have to be handled differently). That being said we're discussing how to make a transition into the new game less painful for those who spent dozens of hours playing in their current worlds. @Eva Pilot 01 We talked about this issue only yesterday and someone is actually looking into it right now. It won't be fixed in the upcoming 0.6.3, but very likely in 0.7. As for DS: yes, you can host DS and join is just like other players do (but with admin rights - the upcoming 0.6.3 will make managing things easier for you somewhat). That way even if you have to restart your game it won't affect others playing on that DS. If you're not sure how to do that, try asking in the DS section, I'm pretty sure you'll get an answer there. If not, PM me and we'll discuss that.

If you're referring to DS logs getting really huge over time then yes, that is something that is addressed in 0.6.3

No problem!

We are indeed consulting with the other teams... but this might actually be a good time to talk about something that seems to stay hidden from many players. Even though Ylands may look like a "simple" game due to its low poly graphics - in some aspects, it can be more demanding than games like DayZ or Arma, even though those support more concurrent players etc. Firstly as opposed to those games everything in Ylands can be interacted with or destroyed (even the terrain itself) - we don't have the "luxury" of working with mostly static (as in "unchangeable") objects placed inside premade maps (and that itself prevents us from using many available optimization techniques). In our MP we need to synchronize things like sudden massive terrain changes or simulated water. There are features that from the outside may seem simple but which are true nightmares and actually are not that common even in larger projects than Ylands - like letting players move freely over ships that are controlled by other players (I'm not talking about being firmly seated in a vehicle someone else drives or flies, which is much easier to implement). And last but certainly not least - we're using a completely different engine. We are confident that we will fix and improve everything, but it does take time. After all, let's not forget that this is an Early Access and just as we state on Ylands product page we went to EA exactly to fix and improve performance and MP while getting important feedback from the community. Also, things will speed up as the team grows - FYI the latest addition to our team is a programmer that joined us shortly before Christmas and who will be focusing purely on MP. You can trust us that we want the MP to be great just as much as you players do.

Thanks for letting us know! We'll definitely look into it (very likely we'll contact you sometime next week via PM with some questions).

No, that will be a part of 0.7 - along with players not being able to modify the terrain in any way inside other players' barriers and creating/removing energy streams. In the upcoming 0.6.3 offline players (owners) will be completely invincible inside the barrier - right now they can still get hurt by fire etc.

@KittenRaee Hm, I'm not really aware of many players who are experiencing such long periods of time when the game becomes unresponsive or frozen. That being said, there are some awfully big performance drops when moving over ylands when chunks of a terrain and objects are being loaded, moments when fps plummets momentarily (these happen even to people with powerful PCs for whom the game otherwise runs rather smoothly). We've actually talked about those several times in the past and it's obvious that this needs to be fixed. Unfortunately, there's not really an easy fix for this since it requires rather large adjustments done to several areas of code. We're already working on it but as I said earlier these optimizations will be gradual over the course of several months. However, I haven't really heard from anyone for whom this would manifest in such an extreme manner so I'm not really sure if we're talking about the same issue and yours isn't, in fact, caused by something else (if there are others among you who are experiencing something similar, please let us know - thanks!). May I please ask you to post this in the Bug section of the forum? You may want to add your game logs and dxdiag right away - if you're not sure how to get those, just start the thread and we will help you with the rest. If you already done this, please post the link in here. I'll make sure it gets enough attention (I understand that it must be very frustrating for you). Also, feel free to contact me via PM at any time. Thank you! @Lupowop Well, it is true that she's the one who compiles this "Most pressing issues" list and knows the best which features are the most requested ones so yes, she has a big say in what gets fixed or implemented (plus, one simply does not argue with the queen of memes ).

@Master John That surely sounds awful - have you already created an issue in the Bug forum section? If not, please do so. Someone will then put it into our bug tracking system with an appropriate priority and I'm pretty sure one of our programmers will get to it soon. Thanks!

Thanks for your feedback and ideas! Host unreachable: let me assure you that we didn't give up on players that are having this issue - just as I said we'll keep looking into it to see if there's anything that can be fixed on our side but even if/when we do find and fix something it won't almost certainly help everyone because of the reasons I stated. Map: there are actually more issues with the map than just this one. Its current implementation is quite obsolete and needs to be reworked because of many reasons. I totally agree that it needs to be fixed soon and I would love to see it fixed in 0.7 but I can't promise that.

@Derriere yes, definitely! The game needs to be much better optimized before we leave Early Access - it's more likely though, that it will happen gradually over the course of several months instead of us delivering a very significant performance improvement with a single update.

Sure - that's exactly the reason why the next week's Dev Diary will be dedicated to this very topic

Hey there, fellow ylanders! What a year this was! We added a ton of new features and entered Steam Early Access. Forums are now filled with people asking questions, discussing various aspects of the game and reporting bugs. You are sending us hundreds of messages through our in-game tracker. We'd like to thank you for that. This game is made for you, and it is crucial that we get as much feedback as possible. It's rather obvious that we can't meet everyone's expectations (especially since many times we receive completely opposite feedback regarding some of the features ) or that what you ask for will not, very likely, be present in the next update - but it does pay to let us know. We don't have to go far - the Protective Barrier along with its features was created based on your feedback. Even though we already know how it's going to be improved in 0.7, we keep adding things to our list based on what you say in forums. And this is exactly what you can expect in the future. We want you to understand that we're making this game together. Some of you might have noticed that we're trying to stay in touch with you as much as possible. We talk to you, read what you discuss with other players and watch the videos you make. The team is aware of what your wishes and concerns are. That being said - we still have to work on the game, we still need to fix issues (with MP being the top priority) and add new features, and there's already a lot of you, and new players keep coming. This means that eventually times before you get a reply (and I'm talking about a "real" reply - not some generic ticket or automated entry) can become longer. Trivia: did you know that there are also mutated penguins in Ylands? They are, however, a bit less Christmassy than these guys So we'd also like to thank you for your patience. For understanding, that many things can't be fixed in a day or two and that making things right takes some time. Understanding, that being nice and polite to each other on forums not only raises the chances of getting a relevant reply but that by acting this way you're actively creating what may become a great community - something that in the long run is just as important as the game itself. And finally, for supporting us during the Early Access. We'll make sure that when we come out of it in roughly eight months you won't have a reason to regret taking this ride with us. Let us wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. The team will be getting some rest now but we'll be checking forums from time to time to make sure things run smoothly and nothing critical has come up. Then, in January, we'll set all the engines to "Full ahead"... and things will get interesting . So, that’s it for now. The next Dev Diary, where we will start discussing update 0.7 and some other related topics, will be published on January 5th. Until then - have fun playing the game, ylanders, and stay classy!

Hi Luna, I just wanted you to know that we discussed this and although there's indeed not much we can do to help you with this directly, at least we decided that in the future we will granting people who create good, original content a special forum badge as a token of appreciation and recognition. I know it won't be of much help, but it might at least help other players with an easier identification of who is more likely to be a content creator and who's a copycat in a case when an identical (or strikingly similar) content is posted by more than one player.

Hey there, fellow ylanders! In today’s Sneak Peek I would like to tell you something about the Protective Barrier, the feature that will be released along with the update 0.6.2 sometime during the next week. The first thing that needs to be said is: this is just the first version of this feature. We have many plans on how to improve it in 0.7 and beyond, so not all of the planned functionality is already present, and we may also be doing some changes based on your feedback. However, it already contains more than enough to make your experience in Exploration much more pleasant and safe, so we decided to give it to you now instead of waiting till it’s closer to being “feature complete” in 0.7. So what does it do? It is available in Exploration only. When you start a new game (unfortunately there’s currently no way for characters in already active games to acquire it - you will have to start a new one), you will spawn with a broken protective barrier generator in your inventory. You bought the generator to protect your new land there, where you were sailing. Fortunately, as your ship crashed, you managed to keep it on you, but it got damaged. To use it, you first need to repair it (via crafting - your character knows the proper formula from the beginning). This means that it will take you few hours (we’d say about two on average) to get it to work. The reason behind this is simple - having it fully working right from the beginning would give a powerful tool to griefers who could just enter any game, block something and leave - but we also feel that getting it to work by actually doing something first feels rewarding. Once it’s fixed, you can place it on the ground. A line showing where the barrier would be (what would be inside of it) appears, and you can make sure that you’re happy with its location. If not, pick it up and move it elsewhere. At this point, however, once you turn it on for the very first time (there is a confirmation window), the generator stabilizes itself where it is, and you won’t be able to pick it up or move it elsewhere in any other way anymore, so pick the location wisely. We’re examining if, in a future update, it would be possible to relocate it someplace else, but right now being able to do so could result in rather nasty exploits. Whenever you turn the generator on - it’s bound to you, and no one else can do that - the barrier becomes active (two barriers cannot intersect). At that moment, inside the barrier: * you can use any hammer to “deconstruct” any hardened object. Items that can be picked (hardened building blocks etc.) are moved into your inventory, while others are broken into ingredients which you can use to build those again, instantly. Please note that we are also working on a feature that will let you move larger objects around the world in one of the future updates. * if you log off and your character stays inside the barrier, it can’t be hurt by others players or animals (but when you’re online, you are vulnerable). * only you can deal damage to objects there (doesn't apply to players and animals) * other players can’t place objects, which are, by default, placed into a grid (so no one can place a stone block in front of your door so that it hardens and prevents you from entering) * all these effects are active only when the generator is on. You can turn it on and off as you wish. It can't be destroyed. Protective barrier generator as depicted inside the Codex entry. Remember to check the Codex whenever a new feature is released - [F1] is your friend Let us make sure you understand what this barrier doesn’t do and what you still need to take care of. It is NOT some all-powerful safe zone where you can always escape to from any threat and laugh at other players or predators from within. If you’re online you still get hurt, you can get killed there. It doesn’t prevent anyone from stealing your things. It, however, prevents them from destroying your locked doors, your padlocks, but even your windows etc. If you want to keep something safe, have it locked inside a house or a container. Currently, while generators can be placed on ships or cars, they can't be enabled - we understand, though, that many want this and are already looking into it. In future iterations, we plan to add things like prohibiting others from making changes to the terrain in your zone or painting there. We want to give you the option to set a message that shows to those who enter the zone or to choose those who, inside your barrier, can do things that others can't (help you build etc.). If you die, the generator is present in the new character’s inventory - if not already placed in the world. In any case, though, it becomes bound to your new avatar. We believe that you will find the barrier helpful and ask you to share with us as much feedback as possible. We’re looking forward to talking to you the next Friday. Until then - have fun playing the game, ylanders, and stay classy!

Hey there, fellow ylanders! So, it has finally happened - Ylands is publicly available on Steam! Currently, the reviews are bordering on Mostly positive and Mixed which was to be expected as pretty much all the games with in-game monetization experience this - unfortunately regardless of how fair/unfair their system is. The thing we’re very excited about, though, is that the absolute majority of reviews that review the game itself are very positive, with players excited about Ylands. Also - the sales have been very good so far, and it’s already obvious that we’ll have a strong enough community to provide us with a lot of feedback to us get through Early Access. Thank you, everyone! Before we move to talking about features that we have planned for you, I would just like to address one thing related to those negative reviews. Based on what players say in those reviews or comments on forums, large number of those are actually based on assumptions instead of facts and generally go like this “Well, their monetization scheme seems fair now, but it’s only a question of time before they add loot boxes/hide important items behind a paywall/start spamming aggressive “Buy XY now” ads etc.”. Not only is this rather unfair but it can also be confusing for players who might not have enough information about the game. Let me use this opportunity to say as clearly as possible: The Store is available in Ylands from day one of Steam release so that everyone can see what we consider fair monetization. There will be no loot boxes. You will be getting large free updates (25 released so far and counting ), and if you decide to ignore the Store altogether, you’ll still be able to play, enjoy the game to its fullest and those who have bought something won’t have any advantage over you. We have formulated our plans in advance, discussed them with our pre-Steam community and you can learn about them inside a FAQ pinned on our forum. Speaking of FAQs - players on Steam forums have raised questions about analytic data our game gathers. You can read about those in the newly created “Security Concerns FAQ”. Now let's talk about what’s going to happen during the Early Access phase (from now till late summer 2018) - I’ll start with what needs to be fixed. Everyone likes cool new features, but the most important task is to deliver a bug-free, well-performing game. The most troubling problems now are: * Performance - currently the biggest problem isn’t with how much fps you get (even though we would like to improve the game so that Ylands can be played comfortably even on lower spec PCs) but the fps drops that affect many players regardless of how powerful their PC is. This, unfortunately, doesn’t have a quick, easy fix and requires us to fix and improve several systems so instead of one patch/update that would remove this issue altogether you’ll likely see graduate improvements until this is finally gone entirely. * MP issues - while singleplayer has only some occasional issues and some features need improving, MP still needs a lot of love. We’ve been releasing MP fixes with every update released so far and will continue to do so until all is fixed. Arriving at Steam... after four years of development! Next stop: solid and stable Ylands 1.0 (late summer 2018) As for the upcoming features (the major ones, there will obviously be dozens of small improvements and tweaks): This December we’ll release a small update (0.6.2) containing what we internally call protective energy barrier. We believe that you will find it very handy and it has the potential of fixing several gameplay issues you have been complaining about at once. We’ll talk more about it in the next Friday’s Sneak Peek. The first update coming in 2018 will be 0.7 “Cheerful Characters”, introducing NPCs. We’re talking both friendly and hostile, and we believe those will add a lot of life to your games. You will be able to set them up in the Editor as you see fit. After that, some of the features that the following updates will bring (in no particular order) are: dynamic music changing based on the current situation, new dedicated server tools, radical improvements to scripting in Editor, pets (to avoid potential misunderstanding - the fact that you can see Pets tab in Store doesn’t mean that the only way of getting a pet will be buying one for coyns) and a whole new world to explore. We will talk about each of those (and other) features in the future, but I’d like to say a few things about the very last thing I mentioned. We feel that the Exploration game should have some more clear progress, some goal, and also that after some time spent playing in the current world, it might be nice to let you, once again, venture into the unknown. To explore new places, learn new recipes, fight new monsters, find new encounters. It will be some months before this is released - coming up with a whole new world is not a small task - so it’s too soon to go into details (also, we don’t want to spoil things for you) but what we can say now is that in order to get there you will have to get rather high in the “tech tree”, find and defeat a boss monster... which won’t be quick nor an easy fight. In the new world, you will have to become stronger to be able to survive - that will make your returns to the original world (which will be possible) and encountering those predators that used to be a threat even more fun! This is just the first of the expansions we have planned for the Exploration game - we plan to keep adding those even when we leave Early Access. All of them, as always, as free updates. So, that’s it for now. We’re looking forward to talking to you again the next week. Until then - have fun playing the game, ylanders, and stay classy!

Hi Luna, It is very unfortunate that people like you - those who actively create original content to help other players - find their work stolen. I'm not sure what we can do about it but I will discuss it with the others sometime during the next week and let you know. In the meantime, let me thank you for your effort and wish you a truly great year 2018! Ales

I think that can very well happen one day (actually we already discussed something like "visitor mode" a few weeks ago but it was put on ice for now since there were more pressing issues and features to take care of... but we want to have something like that in future - let's hope you have some nice guest house ready by the time our ship appears on the horizon )

Oh, I'm sorry, this generic answer was meant for a player who hasn't tried that (I was looking into that issue and had several player reports open). I will pass your report to the programmer in charge. Thanks!

In MP, Ylands relies on steam networking to both establish connection and send data between Ylands client and server. The Host Unreachable error indicates that steam networking was unable to establish connection between the game client and remote game server. In general, steam networking will be able to establish connection without issues, but sometimes firewall or specific configuration of network environment of the client or server may affect it. Make sure all ports that steam uses are open https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=8571-GLVN-8711.

Guys, we have already started sending out instructions to those who asked about it via PM. Since we know some of you posted both here and sent a PM, we're doing this based on PM only - to make sure you don't get spammed with multiple invites. Those of you who only asked about it here, please send me a PM and you'll get your invitation right away. Thanks!