Sneak Peek #60

[Sneak Peek #60]

Since you seem to be interested in this topic, let me elaborate a bit about  the 1st camera removal.  The first and foremost issue that I personally see is that it isn't really a good thing when you are "forced" to switch between two camera modes because some actions simply can't be done properly in one of the two modes. Ideally we would like to have a game that  players can play both in 1st or 3rd person mode without being "forced" to switching between because of poor camera mode implementation. Unfortunately, we don't have enough time to make both camera modes  perfect (or at least good enough) and because we know that absolute majority of our players play in 3rd person mode most of the time, we are focusing on that mode. And the current 1st person camera mode implementation is simply too bugged to be left in.

There are simply too many 1st person camera glitches and "weird" moments that we won't be able to fix in time. Most of the time you don't see what you're holding in your hands (even with the "old" combat most of the times you couldn't see your weapon when attacking the enemy). It can happen far too often that some animation is playing that you can't see and you're left clueless as to why you can't all of a sudden switch active items or move (for example you may be suddenly prevented from shooting - you're not seeing that your character is currently reloading etc.). These (and many more) issues are something that we can't release in a stable and polished build 1.0. To get rid of these we will very likely have to create a specific duplicate set of all the existing animations that will be better suited for 1st person view and that's definitely something we don't have time for right now.

As for the new combat (which is yet another reason for 1st person camera removal, albeit not the most important one) -  some of you may not care about the new combat and from their point of view this may feel like a bad decision but the new combat is very important. If you like Explore, you may want to know that we have been waiting months (actually almost a year) with some features that will make Explore much more interesting and rewarding. For that we need a better combat and a better AI (pathfinding) - the first we are about to release, the latter is being worked on very intensively. If you're a creator the new combat might interest you because it opens door for many cool types of games. 

@StoutCrusher Just to be clear and avoid possible confusion - the game can now have much smaller memory consumption (how much RAM it takes). This doesn't say anything about the file size  (that being said - we would like to reduce this as well  )

[Sneak Peek #60]

1 hour ago, Indomitus said:

The First Person camera is also very useful when digging tunnels and underground bases, and in tight spaces that cause problems for the regular camera, so hopefully it won't be gone for too long.

Actually we've improved digging as well - while digging in 3rd person view still isn't as comfortable as in the first person view, it should be more precise and we'll be improving it even further.

[Sneak Peek #60]

Hey there, fellow ylanders.

The updates we've been releasing during Early Access keep getting bigger and bigger so it should come as no surprise that Update 0.11 named “Peak Performance” is going to be, once again, a huge pile of goodies.  We've already talked about most of the features this update brings in the past Sneak Peeks, but there are still some things we haven't covered.
 

With the cool new visual scripting in place we’ve been working on a fun new multiplayer Ylands game we call Gold Rush. We’ll deploy that on our servers so that once you get 0.11 you just click a button (if you visit MP Lobby screen you surely won’t miss it), we find the best server for you with an empty player slot and take you there - this “auto-join” is also a new feature in 0.11. We’ve spent a lot of time testing it and we're having a blast playing...and hopefully you will too!
 

There are times in the game when we need to notify you about something and so far it was possible only through ingame warnings or a console - neither of which are ideal solutions. Starting with 0.11 we’re introducing a new system of notifications so whenever something important that needs your immediate attention happens (for example, if due to connectivity issues your Sharegame wouldn’t save properly) a cool looking notification pops up. For now we support only “critical” game events but in 0.12 we’ll add other kinds of notifications as well as a notification center where you’ll be able to conveniently go through all of them.

 

It's good to have a grill ready when friends come to visit! (Grill & Pergola courtesy of @Chromedome2)

 

We’ve actually did mention this some time ago but since it’s an important change it makes sense to remind you so that this doesn’t catch you by surprise. Just like we decided to temporarily disable water simulation, in 0.11 we will be also disabling first person camera mode which was never fully supported by many game features and modes.
We know that many of you have been using the first person mode when performing specific tasks like building and precise object picking. You don’t have to worry, though, because in 0.11 we made sure all these areas are improved (by implementing a new building system, vicinity objects slots, and others) and we’re pretty sure you’re going to love those improvements. As for the first person view - we would definitely like it to return to the game at a later date.
 

We said several times that “Peak Performance” brings better performance and the game runs generally more smoothly, but I realized that so far we’ve never mentioned memory consumption. Up till 0.11 if you had a lot of building blocks in your scene the memory consumption could be extremely high. Truly massive scenes that used to consume over 10 gigabytes of RAM now take up only about on third of that. In other words - the memory this huge scene consumes is now quite close to what a newly started game with no buildings at all takes up. I'm pretty sure that some dark Programmer magic had to be involved but since this means we all can now create huge exciting worlds... I think I'll let it slide this time.

 

That’s it for today. Have a great week, ylanders, and as always - stay classy!

[Time Trigger min delay]

@Oliver Hope that's actually a very good question  We'd prefer if you wouldn't talk about what we discuss in here outside - not because we consider it secret in any way but because the communication we have here can be very fast and dynamic because we don't have to think that much about what we say... We might throw in ideas and discuss them with you and sometimes those may be things they in the end may not be implemented at all (because we find a better solution or because we may do some tests and see it isn't feasible etc.) - and we would really like to prevent the players outside this section to get their hopes high about something and then disappoint them. Also, it might even lead to some "bad blood" if some of the players started talking about "inside" information that others don't posses. 

I'll put this in the sticky note for others to see. Thanks for your understanding!  

 

[Sneak Peek #59]

True, there will be less splashing in 0.11. As for how much we show/tell in the sneak peeks - sometimes they have more details, sometimes fewer. Especially now, when we do a ton of fixing and optimizing there isn't that much to talk about in detailed way. For example the biggest thing that 0.11 brings (along with a lot of other stuff) are quite massive optimizations. It is a huge effort in which actually most of the team participates in one way or another but most of what's going on is too technical to be discussed here and we are not going to show any numbers unless we have a final version. I can assure you that when we start working on cool new features again, we will make the sneak peeks great again!

[Competition Winnings not in yet!]

Did Tencent communicate/explain in any way the removal of those prizes? 

[Competition Winnings not in yet!]

Hi,

we are really sorry about this situation. Tencent and Bohemia Interactive have been cooperating on bringing Ylands to China, but we not have any direct control over Tencent's non-development activities, such as this competition.

That being said we want Ylands to be something that reminds players of time spent exploring, creating and having fun in general and not being frustrated for whatever reason... We have already contacted Tencent in this  matter - I believe it was about two weeks ago.

We were told that unfortunately in the company this big all the payments to creators take usually a very long time to process - from what I heard it can be up to three months. I believe that whoever promised you 45 days tops might have been a bit too optimistic. 

This doesn't mean that you don't have a very valid reason to be frustrated - it has, no doubt, taken very long. But at the same time I believe that there's no ill intention behind this, nothing "shady". I can only speculate, but it doesn't really make sense for a company that is trying really hard to help us make Ylands a success to intentionally harm its forming community.

For our part I can promise that we'll try to do anything in our power to have this resolved this as soon as possible. We will use our contacts to once again ask for this to be resolved asap or at least to be given some more information. We will do it either this weekend or on Monday and I hope that we'll have some answer.

Thank you for the patience you've had so far.

 

 

[Sneak Peek #59]

Hey there, fellow ylanders.

 

It’s a lot that Update 0.11 is going to bring to the table, so let’s once again uncover some of those features for you.

 

We’ve already mentioned that with 0.11 you will be able to find other ylands around you more easily. Eventually the ylands will pop up in the distance but until that happens we came up with a temporary solution that works like a charm. The ylands around you are indicated inside the compass that is visible when you're in control of a ship. Don't worry, though, that we would make it too easy for you. We all know how much fun the actual process of exploration is, so you can forget about seeing all the ylands appear on your compass right away  You will still have to pack some food supplies as you set out into the great unknown...

And another new thing: we liked how our avatars looked, but who says they can't look any better? Well, certainly not us, because we've just improved them (and even their bodies to a certain extent). We even threw in some brand new ones. We're very happy with the result and the feedback we've been getting so far about these has been nothing but very positive.
 

It's that (scary) time of the year again! (Halloween courtesy of @spyler.1989)
 

We must make sure that when Ylands 1.0 is released all present features are working as they are supposed to. That leads us to the water simulation. If you don’t play the game in multiplayer, chances are you didn’t come across any of the truly serious issues, but in multiplayer this feature can become a real nightmare - resulting in some very unpredictable behavior and even severe exploits. There's no easy fix for this, the water system needs to be rewritten. Once that is done, it will look better, run faster without any issues, and we'll be able to simulate very cool things you asked for - like lava or rivers. Unfortunately we won't have much time to work on this before 1.0 is supposed to hit, so after spending a rather long time discussing this, we decided to disable water simulation in 0.11 and keep it that way until the system is reworked. That will happen some time after 1.0 is released in 2019.

What does this mean? Well, actually not that much  Visually the water will still look the same. You will be able to swim both on the surface and below. There will be waves, ships will sail over it as they do right now. Only when you create a hole, the water won’t start flowing into it. You won’t be able to add water with the Terraformer.

 

We know that this is quite a change, but it's definitely not permanent (we would like to add at least some way of adding the water to selected areas in the Editor before the new system is available), and we feel it’s better to do something more radical like cutting a feature out, rather than releasing something bugged in an otherwise polished game version. Of course we'll gladly discuss this with you below this post!

 

That’s it for today. Have a great week, ylanders, and as always - stay classy!

[Dev Diary #51]

Actually we've received a lot of feedback mentioning this thing - players having problems navigating the Main menu, starting game etc. There will definitely be some changes.

[Dev Diary #51]

Hey there, fellow ylanders.
 

We hope that you like that little something we released in 0.10.1 to keep you occupied while you wait for the update 0.11 - especially the new “off-road” chassis can be a lot of fun!
 

Let me start with some more information about how all the Decorations will turn into common free items - specifically about the way how those of you who bought some will be refunded. Whoever has bought any Decorations in the past will receive all the coyns they spent on those few days after 0.11 is released. The delay is necessary because players will be able to buy Decorations pretty much until 0.11 is released and we need some time to process the data. Worry not, though, you will get your coyns back.

Those already great looking scenes can look even better with all Decorations available for free in 0.11!  (Dishonored house interior courtesy of @Deadeye_Rob)

 

Also those of you who have visited our QA Lead Eris at this year’s gamescom will get their pet around the same time. We thought we would be able to make this happen sooner but due to technical reasons this will be possible only after 0.11 is released. Speaking of pets - we are working on several new ones and I’m pretty sure you will (* hype alert *) love them. And because the last time I mentioned pets some have asked about this I'll just mention that all Early Access players will get a very unique pet when we’re leaving the EA.

On another note - from time to time we see posts discussing Ylands future popping up so I would like you to know that before the end of this year we would like to post information about where we see Ylands going in 2019 and beyond. One thing is clear, though, Ylands is coming out of EA in 2019. You will all witness how we’re going to get there - the bugs getting crushed, the game becoming more polished and, in general, user-friendlier. We've started with 0.10, and the upcoming 0.11 will be no different. Sooner or later (hopefully sooner) we'll leave EA and with Ylands in good shape we'll be finally able to "make the splash".

Speaking of making the splash - the Ylands team is still growing with the latest addition being Marton, our new experienced “marketing guy” who will help us achieve that. He wanted to tell you this:

"Greetings fellow Ylanders, a pleasure to make your acquaintance!
It's truly an honour to be joining such an amazing team and I can't wait to make sure that the splash is as huge as it can be - hopefully with your aid as well!
I'm looking forward to staying classy with you all!"
 

And that’s it for today. Next week will talk about some of the cool things you can expect in 0.11. Until then you have a great week, ylanders, and as always - stay classy!

[Dev Diary #50]

I would love to, but right now it's in a stage where we only have ideas of what we want to achieve with no further details and since this will not be implemented before we leave EA, we're not really focusing on that at this point. I would like to start discussing this with the community sometime in early 2019.

[Sneak Peek #58]

Hey there, fellow ylanders.

With update 0.10.1, we're bringing you a little something to keep you occupied until our next monster-of-an-update arrives. Speaking of which, it’s high time we started talking about that particular monster - about update 0.11.

We’ve already told you about the optimizations that will arrive with 0.11. If you’re one of those who likes to build things, you’ll experience a very significant performance gain. With this update you will be able to build things that were absolutely impossible to build before. But it will bring a lot of joy also to those who just like to roam in Explore mode - even there the game runs faster and, very importantly, more smoothly (please note that this doesn’t yet solve any potential MP-induced lag etc.).

Even though this will always be an ongoing process, we’re happy with what we’ve managed to achieve in this area and as soon as 0.11 comes out we’ll focus mainly on improving the second big problem - multiplayer issues.  

We’ve also done a major overhaul to two of Ylands' core game systems and you’ll get to experience both of them in 0.11. Namely it’s the Combat system and the Building mode. We've been testing the new combat system in multiplayer games every single day and it’s a ton of fun. And the new building mode? Let’s just say that even those who had major problems while trying to build something nice before, are now able to build some pretty neat structures with ease.

 

A good ol' campfire aboard your wooden ship? Well, why not?  (Courtesy of @RedEagle_P1.)

 

Then there’s a high number of those smaller but very important improvements. I want to keep something for later but just to give you a little teaser: what about (finally!) having a nice way of locating other ylands?

And as usual ... the fixes. Lots of them. Loooots of them.
 

That’s it for today. Have a great week, ylanders, and as always - stay classy!

[Is there still hope for Ylands?]

On 17/10/2018 at 3:05 AM, bb cakes_P1 said:

Right now the game is like that friend you love, but he has problems. So you try to paint the best light, but he does have his problems, no denying.

 

That's a really nice way of putting it!  Yeah, your friend has been through some bad times, but he's getting better and I think it might be a good idea to pay him a visit and spend some time with him after 0.11 gets out. Lately he's been trying pretty hard to get better so he'll be happy to see you  

As for some kind of story-line or giving players some goals - agreed, this is needed and we've actually started working on this (it has something to do with the arrival of the second game world) but it was put on hold of now because the priority is now to fix everything that's broken with Ylands (or just doesn't feel right). As soon as we get over this, we'll return to working on the story-line (of sorts).

[Dev Diary #50]

Thanks everyone for your feedback!  Let me make a few quick points:

* All objects that have been Decorations up until now will simply become "good-looking, ordinary objects", we don't plan to remove any objects from the game. We will still keep creating objects that would up until now "qualify" as Decorations, only now they will be added to game along with any other free items.

* There are two reasons why pretty much no new assets are added into the game right now (I'm talking about assets in general, not Decorations) - firstly we are storing some to be released  when the new world comes out but also, most of the artists have been adjusting existing objects in the game because of the new renderer we'll be releasing as a part of 0.11. Even though there won't be any visible changes to these objects when you inspect them (apart from some nice side-effects such their LODs behaving in a better way), these changes will result in some pretty major performance gain. Since a lot of objects need to be adjusted, it has taken some time.

* It's always a bit unfortunate when something that people spent money on becomes free for everyone. We definitely want to make it up to players who paid for those things and understand how they might feel about us doing this change, but it's important that we removed the feature now and that it's a clean cut, not us experimenting some more with it. We want games that players make to look awesome and since we didn't do a good enough job of creating something players would be willing to pay for (we can discuss if it was because of the price, of how the feature was presented, etc. - but this doesn't really matter that much) the only solution is the let everyone have it for free. We don't want to create awesome-looking assets which are then enjoyed only by a handful of players.  

[Dev Diary #50]

Hey there, fellow ylanders.

You know that we like to share with you information about what went right, but that we don’t hesitate to talk even about things that don't work as we planned, about things we could have done better.

We have talked several times about the reason why we put microtransactions even in the Early Access stage (we will be updating the Monetization FAQ very soon to make sure it's up-to-date with changes mentioned here) – we wanted to show players what the game will be like when it’s fully released. The last thing we want would be for anyone to get attached to Ylands and then feel “betrayed” by us putting them in the game after we leave Early Access. In addition to that, it gives us a chance to see what works, discuss it with you, and make changes when needed.

Some time ago we have introduced Pets – you can get some by playing and some via the store - and based on your feedback we can tell you like them a lot. We have also mentioned that before leaving EA we want to add “Costumes” – something that will let you adjust the overall appearance of your character (in games where this is enabled by their creators/admins – we will talk about some more later). We expect that you will like those as well.

Unfortunately, the same thing can't really be said about Decorations. We have analyzed how much are players interested in those,  we've talked to some of you and read the feedback you keep providing us with. Long story short – Decorations are not popular enough. There are some ways how we could try to change it, but most of them would require putting more restrictions in the game or finding ways of “forcing” players to want them, to need them. Exactly the things that we said we wouldn’t do. And we won’t. 

 

Hmm, is it Ylands or Dishonored?   (Dishonored Harbour courtesy of @Deadeye_Rob)

 

So, in the update 0.11 we will be removing the Decorations from the store and making them available to everyone for free. We understand that there are players who have bought some – you don’t have to worry, though, as you will be refunded (we'll provide more information about this as we get closer to 0.11).

If you have any questions about this, we are ready to answer them below this post.

That’s it for today, and we’ll talk to you again next Friday. Until then have a great time, ylanders, and stay classy!

[Dev Diary #49]

Hey there, fellow ylanders.

There are several things I would like to address in this Dev Diary. Let me start with the one that has the highest impact on the project. 

 

We’ve talked before about how the team keeps growing. What started with five people has now close to ten times that number actively working on it. It doesn’t take an expert to understand that 5 vs 50-man large team have completely different dynamics. A lot of processes, activities and workflows have to be put in place for a large team to function correctly. And the transition is usually nor easy neither painless experience.  

 

That’s why we are all very happy to welcome among us a new Ylands Producer, Iceman, who many may know as someone who in the past years played a crucial role in the Arma 3 team, and who brings a lot of experience to the Ylands team. He will help us work more effectively both as we move towards leaving the Early Access stage and well into the years beyond. Let's allow Iceman to introduce himself with a few words:

"Hello, my (nick)name is Iceman and I've been in Bohemia for five years. My previous experience in the company was working on Arma 3. I started there as a QA member, and worked the way through production to a Project Lead. I'm more than happy to be joining the enthusiastic and talented Ylands team. They already are making me feel very welcome, and I hope to repay this trust by applying some of the experience I gained on Arma 3. Even though the setting of Ylands is completely different to Arma 3, there still are similarities that we can benefit from (such as being a platform alongside the game, strong support of community-made content, and more). I can't wait to dive into these new challenges!"

 

Another thing that is certainly worth mentioning is the update 0.10.1, that will soon get to you. It isn’t by any means as big as a “regular” update, but we believe you will find there a thing or two you'll like   

Getting tired of those old thin tires? Are you ready for a new off-road chassis and lots of fun?  

 

Some of you might have noticed that we had mentioned a live Q&A Discord session, where you would be able to ask questions and get answers from various Ylands devs. It will happen on Thursday the 11th at 19:00 Prague time (5 PM GMT / 10 AM PDT). You can follow this link here to join the Ylands Discord server.

 

Speaking of questions, there’s one that keeps reappearing from time to time. We’ve covered it once, but there’s no harm in doing that again. 

 

When Ylands was released, some of you asked if / when an Ylands offline version will become available. We wanted to work on that when there was nothing left with higher priority...  Let's fast-forward pretty much a year, and unfortunately, we’re still at the same position. We understand that some players may be frustrated because of this, but the fact is that Ylands isn’t promoted as being playable offline, so we consider it an important, but still just a nice-to-have feature, while there are currently many crucial parts of the game not working correctly that need our attention more. 

We don’t want to give anyone false hopes, so I will say it again as clearly as possible - now we’re focusing on fixing and improving what already is in the game, and offline mode isn’t definitely planned before we leave Early Access. Once we’re out and everything is stabilized, we will get back to this topic. Unfortunately, contrary to what many think, making a game like Ylands run offline doesn’t mean simply removing or disabling a thing or two here and there... I don’t want to go into details in here, but if you wish, we can discuss this further below this post. 

 

So that’s it for today and we’re looking forward to talking to you again next Friday. Until then you have a great time, ylanders, and stay classy!

[Sneak Peek #56]

Hey there, fellow ylanders.

In the past weeks we've talked mostly about the future of Ylands, our plans, and things we and our players have achieved. It’s been some time since we last discussed what’s going on with the game right now... we plan to change it now!

Since the development team grew quite big, we are now able to work on a lot of issues at the same time. We are improving some of the large game systems like combat (yes, we’ve been working on that for some time now) but also, based on your feedback, the way things are built (placed) outside the Editor. We still have to iron out some issues, but I can already say that the new building system feels a whole lot better.

At the same time, we keep playing the game over and over again and fixing even some smaller issues which we find – some annoying ones or potential exploits. We are fixing/improving digging, issues related to trading, character controls, and more. It seemed to us that you liked how many fixes were present in 0.10, therefore we believe you won’t be disappointed by what comes in 0.11.  

Also, we’ve already mentioned that we’re implementing a new renderer... and the results are very promising

 

Who wouldn't want a room like this one? (Peaceful country courtesy of  @Christalle)

 

The topic that many of you are asking about is multiplayer and all the related issues. We’re looking into this as well, but identifying all the issues is not an easy task. A lot of the times the feedback we get is just “fix the multiplayer, it’s laggy” etc. which, unfortunately, is not enough for us to localize a specific problem you’re experiencing. Ylands is a very complex game with a lot of subsystems, so we would like to ask you to be as specific as possible. For example, it is a well-documented issue that whenever anyone sails on a ship in a MP game, other players can experience massive lag. But that’s just one of potentially many scenarios. Even though our QA are doing their best, you can still help us a lot. If you are aware of other specific situations like the one mentioned, please do let us know.

Because we understand that you probably have a lot of questions, we - based on a community suggestion - would like to do a live moderated Q&A where you would be able to ask us anything. Let us know if you like this idea (if you find it interesting enough and it goes well, we can start doing it on a semi-regular basis).

So that’s all for today and I hope to see you next Friday! Until then have a great time, ylanders... and stay classy!

[Dev Diary #48]

As for how people who criticize  the game are treated - these forums have seen a ton of criticism in the past five years. You can look up posts which are basically several pages of people pointing out games flaws, disagreeing with us  or getting worried about something. If you take your time find and them, you will see that in the absolute majority we discuss things with the players, other players either agree or disagree with what we or others have said - all that in a nice and civil manner.

I have never seen anyone who voiced any concern in a civil, well articulated manner to be attacked by the community. Strongly disagreed with? Sure, but that's how discussions work.
I'm pretty sure that everyone who follows few pretty basic rules (let's call them common decency) is welcome at these forums regardless of whether they praise the game or come to criticize it.

[Dev Diary #48]

Let me just step in with a few words.

Firstly we have never tried to hide from criticism or ignore it. I know we can't expect all the  people to read our Dev Diaries / read them regularly but those who do know that we are talking about these issues quite a lot. 

"I just feel they may have gone off track, with updates such as "meaningful music" or this new scripting editor"

You can't be further from truth. Meaningful music update was mostly created by one programmer who wasn't even part of the core team at that time and an audio designer. It had zero impact on potential delay of any other features while adding a lot to the gameplay. And as for the new scripting editor?

Ylands has always meant to be a game and a platform at the same time.  I don't really see how we can go "off track" by actually polishing and finalizing one of the the main game features - one we've been promising from the day one

Also, just because some parts of the game are still broken we're definitely not going to act as if nothing has happened when we win a prestigious award.

You feel like the new visual scripting editor was our only priority and that we're ignoring other game issues? Then you probably haven't noticed that in that same update we've brought the most fixes ever present in any update . And there will be even more in 0.11.

I think it's obvious we've moved into the polishing / fixing stage already but if the pace feels too slow for you just put the game aside for two or three months and come back later - unfortunately I can't give you a better advice at this point. I'm aware that we promised to leave EA sooner but things are how they are. I understand that the game ratings look worrying but that's the price we're paying for being too slow (or, to be more precise, for making poor estimates  ) - but at the same time you should know that everything mentioned in those negative reviews are things that are being looked into and are getting fixed one by one.

[Dev Diary #47]

Hey there, fellow ylanders! 
 

It seems that many of you managed to give the new Editor / Visual Scripting a try and the feedback we’re getting shows that we’re definitely headed in the right direction!  

However - just as I mentioned the last time - there are still many things that need to be improved and added. The most important thing is having proper documentation. We’ve given you the tools and now we’ll do our best to make sure you can use them effectively. We plan to do that in two steps:

 

Ylands Academy

Some of you might have noticed that we created a new section on our Forums called "Ylands Academy", where right now you can find a place dedicated to the Visual Scripting (more will be added in the future). We would like this to become your source of knowledge when it comes to creating awesome things in Ylands. For starters, we’ve added a brief overview on how the scripting works - it even contains some things that are not that obvious, so we encourage you to check it out.

 

For example, did you know that you can...

* duplicate already existing tiles by holding CTRL while dragging them

* pull a single tile from a sequence by holding SHIFT while dragging it

* use F to cycle through top levels of tile stacks

 

Ylands Academy... We've just started but trust me - some pretty amazing things will happen in there!  

 

We will keep adding content and links there, but we would like you to share whatever cool you create with the help of Visual Scripting - ideally by providing at least some hints or tips, so that others can learn from it. We expect that it will take some time before many of you feel confident enough to share you victories (and failures ) with others but don‘t worry, we‘re not going anywhere anytime soon.

 

Update 0.10.1

Before 0.11 we will release the build 0.10.,1 which won’t be a "proper large update", but it will still contain some interesting things - especially some related to the Visual Scripting and Editor documentation. Not only will we add the much-needed hints where they are needed so that you don’t have to learn about hotkeys from forum posts, but there will be a wiki with documentation. We want you to be able to easily access that from the Editor just as in many other user-friendly apps. The documentation made by us will cover the basics - and then we would like you to be able to step in and help us form the rest of it.

We expect 0.10.1 to be released in the first half of October.

 

 

That's it for now – I'll talk to you again next Friday, when we’ll get to talk about 0.11. Until then have a great time - and stay classy! 

[Dev Diary #46]

Hey there, fellow ylanders! 
 

So we’ve finally released 0.10 "Clever coding". I believe it will take some time for many to realize how powerful the Editor has become, because it is something that isn’t obvious right away. Some great games will probably have to be made for everyone to realize its full potential. We will do our best so that you can make them!
 

We will keep working on the Editor in the upcoming months.  There are still many things that need to work better, and you will see improvements with every single update - both pre- and post- 1.0. But that's just a part of what our plans are. Starting with the next week we will begin to release tips and tricks (especially since there are extremely useful keyboard shortcuts used with the visual scripting you might not be aware of  ), tutorials, and most importantly, a proper documentation – we're even starting an official wiki we want to share with you soon.  We will do our best so that you have the tools and can share your know-how with each other. 

Some of you managed to create amazing things even with the old scripting system... Let's see what happens now    (Spaceport courtesy of @spyler.1989)

 

You might have noticed that in 0.10 we fixed an issue or two (actually close to 200 ). In 0.11 you can expect at least that much plus... optimizations! We won’t be giving any details or numbers about this particular improvement for many reasons - most importantly because it always depends on what kind of level you're playing. However, it is safe to say that if you like to build larger structures from many blocks, you will love what’s to come. 

There will definitely be more improvements than just these – we've gathered enough feedback on the new ingame GUI, and so we will improve it based on that. Hopefully, we will finally get to a combat version good enough to be released. And some more things that I will talk about in the future. 

When 0.11 comes out we want you to feel the difference, to feel that we are really getting close to becoming a polished game. We plan to put a lot of effort into it and make it really good, so instead of saying that it will be released "in about six weeks from now“ and then keep you hanging for several more weeks, I think it‘s fair to say that this update (we will announce its name soon) won‘t be out earlier than in two months. 

It is quite likely, though, that we’ll release a small update (0.10.1) before that. I’ll tell you more in a week or two. 
 

Because we’re coming to an end of this Dev Diary, we would like to thank everyone who found time to visit us at Gamescom! If you talked to Eris about the parrot, you will get yours sometime during the next week. 
 

That's it for now – I'll talk to you again next Friday. Until then have a great time - and stay classy! 

[0.10: Clever Coding (27/08/2018)]

@Indian Chief Sorry for not being able to respond earlier. Some information about the pets: There can be no more than one pet present at any game and even that has certain probability (currently it's about 1 in 4 or 5 ylands - so yes, it's meant to be rare ). Once you open the cage it stays there so that other's can see someone was actually able to find it :).

Instant action vs one with a progress: I will talk about this in DD soon

A special pet for early Ylanders: This will definitely happen - but shortly before we leave EA. Just giving an extra pet to everyone now would make feel like less special and would leave us empty handed when the time comes and we'll want to thank you all  ( plus it's one more reason for you  to stick with us at least till we leave leave EA  )
 

[Dev Diary #45]

Hey there, fellow ylanders!

So the most important news first - 0.10 is finally ready to be released, so you will be able to finally try it out yourself early next week. We did our best to release it this Thursday, but some things got in the way (like flights from Cologne - where Gamescom is being held - getting canceled), and with this update being really big we don't want to release it on a Friday.

Speaking of Gamescom - it's still taking place, so if you get the chance, stop at our booth, talk to us and get some free stuff...

Pay us a visit, get a parrot and some cool merchandise!

 

That's it for now - this Dev Diary is super short because you will get a nice new video Dev Diary at the beginning of the next week, and on Friday we'll talk about what to expect after 0.10. Until then have a great time - and stay classy!

[Dev Diary #44]

Hey there, fellow Ylanders!

The 0.10 update is still being tested (the fact that it will be presented at Gamescom next week obviously plays some role in the delay as well), so let me talk about something different. I meant to address this topic later, but since someone already asked, I posted a rather lengthy explanation in the discussion below last week’s Dev Diary. Because I feel it’s really important, I will (quite shamelessly :)) paste it here so that more people see it and it can be easily linked to if needed.  

Before I do that, I would like to mention two things:
 

* If you get the chance, visit us at Gamescom. @Ane and I will be there the first two days and will gladly meet you - but even if you come later, there will be people from our QA team and you will be able to get something special (watch our social channels to find out more).

* Very important note to those who made some scripted games up until now (to be more precise - if they used the old scripting system). Once 0.10 gets released, you won’t be able to see and edit your old script anymore - your game logic might still work, but you won’t be able to edit/check them anymore. When you open them in 0.10, they will seem empty, and once you close them, they will be saved that way. So if you have something precious, make sure that you at least take screenshots, so that you can easily reconstruct your code. Whatever gets created with the new scripting system will be supported till 1.0 and beyond.

Some dream of having a small shed in the woods, others dream... bigger (Home complex courtesy of @bobolink111)

 

And now that aforementioned text. You asked us to comment on the player count getting lower over time, with almost no new players coming in. This is what we told you.

 

It's true that we're not getting new players (or in amount to speak of) and many people have left. It would be rather arrogant to say we understand all the reasons behind this, but I'd say there's a pretty obvious explanation to most of what's happening. I will be completely honest with you - even though what I'll say may not be what you'd like to hear

The main reason why no new people are coming is pretty simple - we are doing absolutely nothing to bring them in. People are not talking about Ylands, it doesn't get promoted in any way.  Unless your game is already a massively known IP, without active marketing support things just don't happen.  While it would be great for the community to bring in some "fresh blood", the naked truth is that we've moved to the polishing/bug fixing stage, and we want to release Ylands with a big bang when it's ready. Then (actually some time before that) we will put a lot of effort in making sure people know we exist and have to be counted with. You can trust me that you will notice when that stage begins. We believe it will be very big, but we're not there yet.

 

The reasons why people leave are several:
 

* Some expect new content to be delivered more often. This group, however, is not large - most are more interested in seeing what there already is working better

* People leave because it's taking us too long to address some of the annoying issues and performance problems, and we can't really blame them. This is already changing though - you will already find fixes to many issues in 0.10, and much more in 0.11. It's difficult to say if some of the more general optimization adjustments will show in 0.11, but we're doing our best so that they do, and if they do, you'll feel that.

* When you look at some other games, then you'll realize that they did a much better job at getting players together, to form communities, working with friends etc. It's really simple - everything is much more fun when you can easily share it with your friends or family, and people who form communities stick with the game longer. This is something we're working on.

* For many there simply isn't anything in the game that would drive them forward, no storyline to follow, no secrets to uncover etc. That is also something we're doing something about.
 

Long story short - we don't have any new players because we don't look for any at this moment, and we're losing the ones we have because, while the game is good, it's not yet awesome  

 

That was just describing how things are now (which is not a secret and you probably guessed most of it anyway). Now the part that may be a bit difficult to hear. Right now, we focus absolutely on the game release. I know we've mentioned the release date, but the truth is that if the game is not ready, we will wait with the release and keep working until it's just perfect. For the current players it doesn't mean that much - for you the game will get better and more solid with every single update. What probably is, however, is that you can't expect (unless something unexpected happens - like a big youtuber playing Ylands all of a sudden, which is quite unlikely ) many new players coming into the game before we leave EA. It would be just counterproductive to actively try to bring large numbers of people into a game that we know is getting better every single month. There's really no secret there - we will bring them in when we know a lot of them will stay.

The good thing is that you will see what the current state of the game is, we will hold nothing back, and you'll get all the improvements and fixes as soon as possible and we will always talk to you about what's going on.   

 

And that’s it for this week. Thanks again, let us know what you think, and, until we talk again, have a great time and stay classy!

[Sneak Peek #55]

Don't get me wrong - most of the players bought Ylands after they saw Keralis (and some other influential youtubers) play the game, they (especially Keralis, who is just an amazing guy) were absolutely crucial when we entered EA. What I meant was that it's unlikely that any big youtuber would become suddenly interested in Ylands and started doing videos about our game now, when there's nothing interesting going on. We will definitely contact a lot of them before we leave EA and make any marketing campaign.

As for the lag - if only it were just corals we would have been gone already  The problems run deeper, but a year ago there were I think around 25 of us working on Ylands, while now it's close to 50. Trust me, that we will get rid of it.