Aleš Ulm

Hi there, fellow ylanders! With the new year just behind the corner it seems like a good time to both look back and talk about what you can expect to see in Ylands in the future. 2016 was a good year for Ylands. We’ve added alchemy (because who wouldn’t want to breath underwater, fly by simply flapping hands or have a ridiculously big head, right?), containers, lots of assets you can use to create a perfect home. We all learned to befriend and ride horses. We have put on lots of different armors and fought our enemies with dozens of weapons - from stone axes to firearms. And speaking of that - we discovered cannons, which are lot of fun as well (depending on which side of it you stand). Explosives have found their way into our world as well - and so did the traps. “Survive” scenario became “Explore” and along with it we bade adieu to the single biome available in the map and moved towards maps containing anything from freezing arctic to hot desert ylands. We added the Editor - the tool that we ourselves use to create scenarios for you and that you can use to create your own adventures. All this, along with dozens of other new, smaller features and over 1500 fixed bugs was the past. If you want to see a great visualisation of what we’ve achieved so far, you’ll love this page https://ylands.com/roadmap What does 2017 hold for us all? Firstly it needs to be said that although we’ve been actively developing the game for over 2.5 years, in our plans we are pretty much at the very beginning. We think the basics are there (although we’re obviously still polishing, improving and fixing stuff as we go) and that now it’s finally time to... have fun. Since the very beginning we've had a long list of features we would, at some point, like to see in Ylands - it's called Awesome & Crazy. We think it’s time we moved from a still a bit generic sandbox game to something unique. There are features in the list that are not that difficult to implement while others seem almost impossible to pull off at this stage - but that’s fine because we plan to stick around and keep releasing the updates for many years to come. But let me guess - you’re probably more interested in what’s coming in the next few months, right? We understand that having working, reliable multiplayer is crucial and we’re doing our best to get there as soon as possible. Right now there are still some issues that stand in our way: The first one is that under some circumstances (due to specific network configurations, router setup, firewalls etc.) players are not able to see each others' games. We’re trying to fix that together with the makes of our 3rd party networking solution. A way of fixing that would also be having dedicated servers. You should be able to host one of those sometime during February. Right now MP doesn't support larger maps (which applies to Explore scenario as well) - this is already being fixed and should be working sometime during late January. And finally there are still various in-game MP problems like actions and objects not properly synchronised (especially at higher latencies). We should be able to get rid of those before the end of February. Multiplayer is, indeed, fun, but we want you to get involved in Ylands community even more so in Q1 we will let you share all your creations online (from simple objects to whole adventures). You will be able to browse and search through what others have made and play it / place it in your scenes with ease. And what new features will you find in the game itself? Hm, what about humanoid enemies (the old provisional AI is being reworked from the scratch right now) and friendly NPCs? What about way more interesting terrain? Visual improvements and effects? Additional Editor improvements? Oh, and did we hear you say that you wanted some sort of storyline or to have some goal in Explore scenario? Yes, we too feel that having some more motivation to explore and go to dangerous places (oh yes, those are coming as well) makes a perfect sense so this will get implemented as well. Also there are several really cool features that others said we should leave as a surprise - but I'm gonna tell you anyway (it's not as if they could do anything about it!) So, you’ll definitely like [redacted] a lot, as well as [redacted], or, wait for it ...[redacted]! (my favorite, a truly great feature). Sounds awesome, right? And yes, we're still talking about the first three or four months of 2017. We have some general plans for the rest of the year (like making the game available on Steam - don't worry about us not letting you play that version as well ), but telling you now would feel too vague, spoil all the fun and, yes, we'd rather first deliver what we just promised before making any more promises . Let me end by saying this - seeing you play and enjoy Ylands and reading your feedback makes working on this game tremendously fun. As long as you stay as classy as you've been so far since the very beginning, together we'll make 2017 the year of Ylands :). So thank you, guys. Thank you a lot. and everyone else in Bohemia Interactive who helped us making this possible

Hi, the problem with Explore scenario is that its map is way larger than others we have in the game and in order for this (and any other future large map) to work correctly with MP we are currently changing some parts of the code. One of the programmers is working on this right now and we are planning to release this along with a certain update sometime in the second half of January (along with some other MP related improvements).

Thanks, Michal. Can you please check if this happens only when you drag and drop the hull or even when you right-click it in the catalog so that it gets put right into dynamic slot? If not, does it happen after you do this and select the slot?

Yes, you are right - we too are aware that there should be even way bigger ylands in the game than the ones you can currently visit. You may be pleased to hear that we are already working on it. Plus, over the course of the next three months we plan to release some new features and improvements that someone who likes to explore will definitely like a lot, with the first one being available sometime in late January. Some of these plans we will unveil before the end of this year in a special post.

map: yes, unfortunately it's this thing mentioned in the changelog - Due to some optimizations incompatible with the old code the content of maps that players have might have been cleared We are sorry about that - we try to keep these "destructive" changes to absolute minimum, but on rare occasions when we see that breaking backward compatibility of a features would allow us to optimize or improve something important in the game, we decide to go for it (as long is it is "just" a map content and not the whole ylands being wiped out etc.). I would like to believe that this was one of the last (if not the very last) cases where we had to do this. We will take a look at the other issues you reported right away - thanks a lot for reporting those! PS: pink shark sounds like a texture problem If you see more pink things, please let us know.

No problem! Happy seafaring.

Thanks. At this moment we are already aware of procedure that actually results in a huge performance drop. If you place ship in hotbar and start switching among ship parts with "select next/previous variant" keys, the game comes to a crawl. Are you possibly doing something like this?

Hm, that's weird - we haven't noticed any performance drop during QA... Is the performance worse all the time or at specific moment/yland/place?

Right now we will provide you with pre-made ship hulls that are not hollow but you can, for example, create a house-like structure at ship's rear where your captain can get some rest (or, if you plan to live on the boat, you can turn it into a houseboat :)). Although we know (because we tried :)) that you will be able to come up a lot of interesting (and funny) creations as it is, please note that we don't, by any means, consider ships a closed chapter. Through this update we actually learned a lot and sometime in near future we will definitely return to ships to further improve them. And yes, among the features we definitely want to look into is having hollow hulls.

Let me join Ane in thanking everyone for all this feedback! If you ever feel like adding anything more, don't hesitate to put it here, create a new suggestion post or simply send a line or two via the ingame feedback form - your feedback is welcome anytime. Sometime around the end of this year we plan to tell you what Q1 2017 has in store for you, but even now I can already tell you that among your suggestions (we also got some from our social channels and ingame feedback form) there's actually a lot of features that we've already planned for that time so you probably won't be disappointed. I can also see some newly proposed features, that are not difficult to implement and that we will be definitely adding to the game soon enough as well. In general I think it is safe to say that you will get to see some really interesting and cool features being implemented over the the next 3-4 months (which is now even easier since Ylands team has grown in size somewhat). So let me thank you, ylanders, one more time for being with us, staying classy... and, of course, for helping us improve the game!

Hi there, fellow ylanders! A cool new update is coming your way so this may be a good place and time to tell you what to expect. You are probably already aware of the fact that you will be able to sail the seas real soon - but this obviously makes sense only as long as there is a place you can sail to. We are changing the scenario called “Survive” to “Explore” but it is not only the name that will change. In the Explore scenario a large map will be created and populated with various types of ylands. Sounds confusing? Well, just imagine Earth. Shrink it. Give it a good shuffle so that continents become smaller ylands and those spread randomly all over the ocean. Aaand there you have it - this is what Explore map looks like. Even now the players who will set sail to other ylands may be rewarded by finding resources not available at the place where they start but in the future we will push and reward those who are not afraid to sail the deep blue seas even more. It is here where we usually show you a screenshot of the feature we mentioned earlier. Well, today it is... complicated . As much as we would like to show you a screenshot of the whole map with many cool ylands, it is currently technically not possible. But we certainly won't let you leave without something cool to look at. At the same time we are doing some tests with platformer scenarios so here's one of those. 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! Things have been little bit hectic in the last couple of days. We have returned from Unite '16 held in Los Angeles where for the first time ever we have presented the game to the general public after it has been announced (under the Bohemia Incubator brand). At first players were not sure what to actually expect from such a sophisticated game but once we found a proper and fun way to demonstrate how it's both a game and a platform for making one's own adventures, they became hooked, tried various scenarios and features (or tested the game to see how many animals you are allowed to spawn into the level - since we do not enforce any limits for this it is quite a lot, as you can see in one of the pictures :)). We had some business meetings there as well - although it is a bit early to talk about what these will mean for you, the players, I think it's safe to say that at least some will definitely result in Ylands become even better place. While we were gone the rest of the team kept working on... yes, you guessed it - big customizable ships and I can tell you that we are definitely on the right track and the time for you to become the next Jack Sparrow is getting closer with each passing week. Do I hear you say "That sounds cool! But that's just the surface of the sea? What about the bottom? Will there be something interesting for us to explore, cool things to find?" No, I don't, no one seems to be asking that at this moment... but I will answer that anyway because that is another feature we are excited about - yes, we are making sure that diving to those blue depths will become more meaningful and interesting. We will release more details soon. And that's it for this week - looking forward to seeing you the next one and in the meantime, you stay classy, ylanders!

Well, if you put a chest or two on your new ship in 0.19 you won't, indeed, have to leave anything behind anymore Our rough ETA for 0.19 is somewhere around the end of the next week - couple days later if some unexpected issues appear during the QA phase.

Hi, you will be able to build ships in the upcoming update (which is coming out pretty soon). There you will just have to construct a hull. That already comes with the helm (steering wheel). Then you just need a mast with a sail or two and you're good to go! The fun part, though, is, that although the hull is one objects (actually there will be more types with even more coming later), everything that is on it is totally up to you. You can build and place stuff there the same way you do on solid ground, so your ship can, in the end, look almost any way you like... Like a "proper" ship, like a floating house, like something straight out of nightmares... We are really looking forward to seeing all the weird constructions you players will come up with

Yes, we are aware of that - that feature is not fully finalized, but we decided to release it anyway for those who would have problems entering the crafting panel like you are. Fortunately, I believe that thanks to your help, we have been able to find and fix the issue so in the upcoming update (which is due very soon) everything will be fully functional. So thanks again!

Hi guys, right now it is impossible to play Explore scenario in MP mode. The reason is that our MP currently doesn't support maps that large (the same goes even for Create scenario when you generate an yland larger than size 1). This, however, is only a temporary restriction and we are already working on a solution. To be honest - MP still has lot of issues (the most critical being that on some network configurations/behind some routers/firewalls players are not able to see their friends' game) but fixing those (as well as introducing dedicated servers) are our top priorities. We will keep you posted about our progress. Thank you for your patience!

Hi there, fellow ylanders! Because larger customizable boats are shaping up nicely, let me give you heads up so that you know what to expect. Today I'll show you a comprehensive list of what needs to be done in order to build the next Black Pearl. Building a ship has never been an easy task (fun fact: building a large ship during the late medieval period could actually take up to several years) so please bear with me while we go through the whole demanding process: * create the hull via Crafting panel * build anything you want to on it (e.g. having some sails so that you can move is generally considered a good idea) and you are good to go. Well, looking back at the list - it doesn't sound that complicated, right? The hull even comes with a pre-positioned helm (steering wheel) but you are free to place it at any other spot you like. Once you take control of the helm you can control ship's direction and speed by raising and lowering of the available sails. Oh...and yes, as the image indicates, it's time I also told you something about some of the cool things you will be able to find underwater. From time to time you will come across debris floating in the sea. If you feel like exploring you may stop your ship and dive. The obvious thing to find down there is a shipwreck (possibly with some nice things around it) but there will be many other interesting objects for you to explore. Some of them, however, may be located in the regions where the sea is really deep and you will need some extra help to get all the way down there (and back!) without drowning. There are actually several objects that can help you with that but we will leave up to you to find what those are. And that's it for this week - looking forward to seeing you the next one and in the meantime, you stay classy, ylanders!

Hi acebelew, First let me thank you for this feedback. Some players have reported this issues but so far we haven't been able to reproduce it - but the part where you mention that you are able to open it when clicking the button at certain area while not when clicking elsewhere actually tells us a lot and it will make it easier for us to locate and fix that. In the meantime you can try accessing the crafting panel with the dedicated key we added in the last patch (default N). Thanks again and sorry for the inconvenience!

Hi KevsNoTrev, a player who buys a game and is unable to play it is something we consider one of the most critical issues and we try to fix those as soon as possible. We will look into it right away, however solving these issues over a weekend is a bit more problematic since we don't have direct access to all the tools needed. The worst case scenario is that we will get your game to work on early Monday morning. In the meantime, please accept my apology. Ales PS: with tools we have at our disposal at this moment we indeed see that you have purchased the game and you are on the list of full-version players so you don't have to worry about that part - the transaction was completed successfully.

I'm pretty sure we will be able to show you something before the end of the next week. As for the water - we're definitely not done with it but since there's probably not a single feature in the game that we wouldn't have some cool plans for so it will have to wait a bit. I think you should be able to see some additional water improvements sometime in the early 2017.

You are more than welcome!

Hi, I think the root of this all is actually one bug that we are already aware of. If you pick a building block, the game should switch automatically to grid building mode - but because of the bug, it doesn't. The workaround is, if you pick a building block, to switch to another item in the hotbar and back - this way you should be able to place the item. What you probably did while you experienced this bug is that you pressed V and entered free placing mode - this way you can place even building blocks outside the grid but it is important to note that block placed in this mode never "harden" and can be picked up any time later. If this isn't your issue, feel free to elaborate a bit more on what you are doing, thanks! :).

Yes, I second that - your video is really nice Thanks!

Now that was fast Thanks!

We will be posting a document about our plans for modding and sharing of player-made content in couple of weeks. Hopefuly that will answer at least some of your questions