Aleš Ulm

Hi there, fellow ylanders! Although we keep adding new cool items and features all the time, (and have no intention of stopping anytime soon ;)) the game development, especially when it comes to Early Access version, isn't only about the new stuff, but also about making sure the existing things work, and that they work well enough. We've already mentioned that we keep looking at features that have been already implemented so that we can improve them, or - if they don't work as intended - rework them altogether. There is, however, also one other topic that needs to be addressed - game performance. While the game is well playable on average gaming PCs we know that there's actually a long way to go even in this area. Simply put - we want the game to run way faster than it does now. We want it to run well enough even on rather slow computers with integrated graphic cards. And we are well on our way there. Since the release of the game we've optimized it a lot already - some scenarios that used to run below 20 fps even on powerful PCs can now be played at nice 50+ fps. But to be honest we do see a lot of situations where Ylands should still perform a lot better. You should know that we are gradually improving the performance - sometimes the improvements are smaller or can be experienced only under specific situations, other times they are general and easy to spot. From now on we will tell you about all of those. So what's been happening in our offices lately that could help the game run more smoothly? Petr, our programming wizard who is (along with another skillful guy, Filip) responsible for numerous optimizations has struck again. This time you can expect around 40% faster generation of terrain, which will result in traveling over the yland a smoother experience and make terraforming less performance-intensive (which will eventually, because of this, also look smoother). Also, if you've been experimenting with water and think that now it acts more like a slowly spreading pudding than a wild nature element, then we share the same opinion, and you can once again sleep peacefully knowing that somewhere out there, in the deep silent night, Petr is having some serious talk with our game engine about this topic. And that's it for this week - looking forward to seeing you the next one and in the meantime, you stay classy, ylanders!

Hi there, fellow ylanders! Let's see what is it that our team is working on right now... with the next update being called Wicked Woodsman we are making sure you will be able to cut the trees properly - just as the attached video shows. We have also started working on some deadly traps that you will be able to lay in the forest (and anywhere else). Horses are lot of fun - when they behave. Right now we are making sure that they do, because there were some things that needed improving (yes, no more chasing your own tamed horse :)) And that's it for this week - looking forward to seeing you the next one and in the meantime, you stay classy, ylanders!

Hi there, fellow ylanders! This is Ales, Ylands lead designer - always at your service! As we are, after having spent many months adding new stuff and trying what works and what doesn’t, finally getting close to the point where we will be ready to announce the game properly and things will start happening, it feels like a good time to start posting what’s going on in our offices and what you can expect. Every now and then one of the developers will tell you how things are getting along and what we are working on at the moment, and we will try to sneak in even pictures to let you see what you can expect (those will many times be very work-in-progress, but feel free to keep your comments coming nevertheless). So what are some things that are happening in our offices right now? Lukas, one of our programmers, is finalizing something very cool that will make the exploration of the ylands much more fun, while another programmer, Filip, is fine-tuning explosives, and was kind enough to give us a peek of what happens when you are not careful with a dynamite (you know how your mom always told you ‘Don’t play with that dynamite, Toby, those things are bad, really bad’? Well, guess what... she was right! Moms always are ) Looking forward to talking to you next week and meanwhile you stay classy, ylanders! Ales

You are more than welcome. If you encounter any other problems don't hesitate to contact us. Have a great weekend!

We found an error causing the game to think that you haven't bought the game - it should be fixed now. If, for some reason, you still wouldn't be able to play, please tell us here and we get right back to you. I apologize for the inconvenience and hope you'll have fun playing the game!

Hi @ExistentialEgg (cool nickname, by the way), I'm really sorry to hear that! We are looking into it right now and will let you know as soon as possible.

Hi Michal, mentioning what happened to Replicator somehow didn't make it into our changelog - I'm sorry about that! The Replicator is, indeed, gone. There were actually several reasons for this, most important being that we are implementing something very cool that you will be able to experience in the upcoming update and since we changed some internal stuff, the way that Replicator handles things got obsolete. We are not fixing it because we are working on a feature that will eventually allow players to edit not only scenarios, but any game that you are currently playing - that way you will be able to utilise the editor's Copy and Paste (which should eventually be even improved). I hope you'll be able to survive without the Replicator till this features is released (which shouldn't take very long) - I promise it will be worth the wait (actually starting with the next week we will keep everyone posted about what's going on with the development, how are various features progressing etc. so you will be able to keep track when this thing arrives more easily). Hope this helps!

Yes, Ane is right. We are working on some cool new stuff but we are mostly in the "fix and polish" mode right now so you can expect the fixes and improvements to be flying out very often. Thanks a lot for your feedback, it's super helpful!!

Hi Michal, we definitely want to make this yland a standard part of the game exactly because of what you mentioned - so that players can experiment with it. Unfortunately, we won't be able to include it in the upcoming update (0.13) which is pretty much ready to be released. It is very likely, though, that it will be present in 0.14.

Hi, thanks for letting us know - we'll do our best to help you. The program has obviously troubles accessing/manipulating with some files/folders. Could you please try running the game as an administrator (if possible) - you need to right-click the icon and select "Run as administrator". Please let us know if it helped. If not, we will try something else.

Hmm.... We will definitely keep improving the horses in the upcoming weeks, but as for the jumping - if you were able to jump over that wall, then something very wrong has happened (It could either be a problem in the Matrix or within our code... we'll check both, just to be sure). Thanks for the reporting this!

Well, the reason is quite simple, really Our ylands are no ordinary islands - they came into existence because of Ylandium - a unique element that powers some of the elaborate machines and will play a big role in the things to come. If ordinary ilands were the ending of "Dexter" , then ylands would be all the awesome minutes of "Firefly" combined. Where ilands are Jar-Jar Binks, ylands are Han Solo. If you asked ilands about the meaning of life they wouldn't have a clue ...while ylands would write you a haiku ending with 42. So the question here, I believe, is more like this: would you really want to play a game about ilands, when you can play one about ylands?

Alright, thanks for the info - we'll take a look at that. Have a great weekend!

Hi there, I think we may have found the cause and fixed it. If it happened again though, please tell us Have an awesome day!

Hi, sorry for reacting this late but we overlooked the edit you made Could you maybe elaborate a bit what you mean by that? Is it that at some point in the editor you were able to build things without any range restriction at all and now it is restricted?

Hi Michal, unfortunately, you do need a 64bit Windows in order to run Ylands (and DX 11 compatible graphic card - for more information you can check the FAQ here). The game is still being optimized so the recommended / minimum PC specifications may change, but 32bit system support is not planned. If you have any more questions we can help you with - don't hesitate to ask Have a great holidays!

Yes, the following update will indeed contain containers (pun intended :)). As for the scenario editor - what you can experience in this update is really just a tip of the iceberg. Right now the editor relies heavily on existing features (in other words - it feels like sort of an enhanced game mode - hence the "Elementary" in "Elementary Editor") as most of the things we did aren't that obvious from player's point of view but form a necessary basis for what is about to come. In about one month you can expect the editor to become more complex, powerful - but at the same time more user friendly. We are also aware of the fact that there is not enough documentation on advanced features like these (documentation, which comes in handy especially when everything is very new and "raw") - in order to remedy this we will soon start releasing videos about various game mechanics.

Hi, caves are definitely something we would like to see in Ylands very soon(tm) and having an empty level where you would be able to start from the scratch is something that we will be implementing in near future as well. As for mixed biomes - having a really large world containing various biomes (basically an Earth-like planet) is where we would love to get one day but, to be honest, it is not an easy task (first we need to optimize Ylands a lot) plus right now our main focus lies elsewhere - in roughly two months it will become more apparent to players where we are heading

Hi guys, thanks again for your patience. I think I have some good news for you - we've fixed several multiplayer-related issues that have caused problems with seeing/connecting to other players' games. Some of those fixes should be available in the upcoming build. The rest (ones resolving mostly issues related to some specific lan-setups) should be available (hopefully) shortly after that - this requires the developer of the third-party networking solution we're using to release an update. We're looking forward to hearing from you if this helped

Oh, I see Thanks for the video - we'll look into that

So this should be fixed by the update we've released earlier today.

Thanks for the report - yes, what you see is, in fact, the evil spirit of the old lighting system still trying to take over the game now and then. We are aware of this particular issue - the Ghostbusters are already on the way, so the fix should be available soon.

Hi, as nohalfmeasures already mentioned (thanks!) the fix is in the works - we are putting a lot of effort into solving this issue and it´s a top priority to us. I will keep this thread updated to keep you all in the loop (I should be able to share more information with you sometime during the next week). I would also like to thank you for your patience - solving this is a bit tricky because it's not caused by something in our code, but within a third-party networking solution we are using.

Thanks for the tip, we'll definitely take a look at it.

You are welcome Thanks for letting us know.