vforventura

Yeah, the polearms (lances, spears, pitchfork, etc) feel a bit... wonky in third person view. They may or may not have longer reach (haven't tested), but they feel harder to aim so I tend not to use 'em. In first person view, however, all weapons are pretty decent to hit with, so if you spend most of your combat time in first person the longer ones might be worth it. Regarding arcs, I'm not sure if there's any difference either. In third person mode they all seem to auto-target sort of randomly (breaking all sorts of random crap instead of hitting the huge freaking bear eating your face, for example) and I haven't noticed much of a difference between, say, the iron-level swords, axes and war hammers. Those are the only weapons I've wielded for any significant time in regular survival mode, before and after my testing, so I can't really say much about the others.

Nice format, this agrees pretty well with my own findings that I had posted on the Update Survival Tips for New Ylanders topic. I also put some conclusions there for melee weapons. I used a cage too to avoid the problem of animals running all over the place when shot. I couldn't figure out a proper way to accurately measure weapon speed for melee weapons but my gut feeling is that in the current version all melee weapons are equal in actual damage speed. Even tho the third person animation of some weapons (like the saber) seems to be faster, the actual 'hit spark' on enemies (that are the actual indication of when the damage happens) seemed to happen at the same interval for all weapons independently of the third person swing animation. I suppose one way to verify this would be to turn off creative mode, get in the cage with the target, and then see how many times the player gets hit before the enemy dies, but I haven't tested it yet. The damage difference is only noticeable between, say, a third tier (saber) and first tier (war hammer) weapon on enemies with more health. Most low health aggressive animals (like wolves and pumas) take 2 hits to kill with either weapon, but the difference is clear on tankier enemies like mutated bear alphas.

What @Velocifersaid is accurate, if a bit colorful. XOR, shortened from "eXclusive OR" gates are logic circuits that return a true / positive / on-state (1) signal from its output if only one (but not both) of its inputs are receiving a 1 signal, and return a false / negative / off-state (0) signal otherwise. OR, also sometimes called "inclusive OR" gates are logic circuits that return a 1 signal from its output if either, or both, of its inputs receive a 1 signal. AND gates only return a 1 signal from the output if both inputs receive a 1 signal. Splitters have two (or more, but in game currently only two) outputs and one input, with each output returning the same signal as is being received on its input. Randomizers receive an input and route it randomly to one of its outputs. For more in-depth information on logic gates, try this link. In the context of the game, 1 means energy is being emitted / received at a given input or output, and 0 means its not being received / emitted. It may help picturing each input and output as a simple light switch. A '1' means that that particular light switch is on, and so electricity (or energy) is flowing thru that point. a '0' means that the light switch is off, and thus the electricity is being interrupted at that point.

Personally I'd fire vehicle-mounted cannons at it until it was destroyed Shouldn't take too long.

I really hope I can find one of those seemingly infinite supplies of ylandium dust in my own games. I've found some very large caves with only one or two ylandium crystals (and maybe 50-80 dust from killing muties) and other caves with 50+ ylandium crystals and comparatively few muties, as well as plenty of disappointing caves with just 4-5 muties and no crystals, but so far I have yet to find one of those infinite springs of ylandium dust that you guys are describing

I don't think they actually do. If there's any difference in hit speed, its small enough that I personally can't notice it during testing. Not for melee weapons, at any rate. Short of having someone really quick with a stopwatch, or someone reverse-engineering the game files to check this, from my personal experience the war hammer is the weapon of choice if you want to take an enemy out in melee range while taking as few hits as possible yourself. It bears mentioning that polearms (lances, spears, pitchforks) tend to be kinda weird to aim in third person view, that is definitely a factor, and both firing and reloading speed is a major factor in the case of ranged weaponry, making the repeating rifle and pump action shotgun in my opinion better (but with more expensive ammo) than a crossbow. Another important factor in trying to snipe enemies, is that independently of you hitting the mob or not, every shot, even from a silent weapon, will spook the target and send it running in some random direction, which can get really annoying very quickly and make you waste a lot of shots before you actually get enough hits to bring the target down unless its under very specific conditions. There seems to be, however, a damage multiplier applied if you can snipe a sleeping animal (lets call it a 'guaranteed critical hit') which allows you to sometimes one-shot low health non-mutants that might take more than one hit to kill if they were awake. Since player proximity wakes animals up, I haven't found a reliable way to test if this is also the case for melee weapons, as animals wake up before you get close enough to hit 'em. At any rate, there's no need to take my word for it, anyone can fire up a quick creative mode game and make a quick cage to test this stuff out for themselves and find their own preferred weapons, and I would encourage everyone to do their own testing if trying to choose their preferred weapon for exploration mode games Quick edit: The saber (at least to my eyes) APPEARS to be faster in its third person view swing animation, but the actual frequency of 'oomp' hit sounds appears to be the same for all melee weapons. Its easier to notice this if you go into first person mode, as in that case there's no actual swing animation for you to see, and you only notice the little flash and oomp sound of the hit on your target. I emphasize the 'appears' because I haven't done any conclusively scientific testing to confirm or deny my impressions.

There's already a crowbar in the game, by the way. Sadly I don't think its currently being used for that. Apparently, in the next few updates we'll get a barrier system that will act as a sort of land claim, where the owner can break hardened blocks quickly (or pick 'em back up, I suppose) while keeping it harder to break by other people (for multiplayer situations). From what I've read elsewhere on this forum, the devs' intent is to keep the system relatively realistic (its a lot of trouble to demolish a house completely, and the faster you do it, the less useful stuff you can salvage from it) which is a fair enough design decision, and helps differentiate this game from other crafty-buildy-survivalish-sandboxy games in the market. I'm all for that, actually. But I think a compromise is possible. Perhaps its a bit more complex, but a potentially interesting way to get around the difficulty of building things (but not breaking them apart) could be something along the lines of using the editor (or creative mode) to save blueprints of structures, houses, or whatever else you want to make in a survival or multiplayer game, that you could then place as a single unit in the game and then fill with the building materials that it needs, like you would fuel a furnace for example, until the structure is fully built. That way remodeling a house would still take work, but it would eliminate the problem of things hardening WHILE you are building, so it would take a lot less time (and trial-and-error) to get things just right. Depending on how this is handled you could even possibly upload the blueprints of your creations to the steam workshop (or a dropbox or something) and share it with other players if you wanted. If I recall, Space Engineers had something along those lines, and I think its a very cool system that would work well for Ylands. The creation of a blueprint could even take some pencil and paper and such, keeping with the realistic approach.

The wiki is out of date, some of the weapons you find there were either removed or turned into merely cosmetic skins. The ones that were turned into skins can be found in the coyn store, usually for free. To apply a skin you click on the item in your inventory and in the window that pops up (the one with the option to break the item and whatnot), if its an item that can take different skins, you'll find a button for that.

Right, but that's not really my main point. The sabre, and other third tier weapons, do less damage across the board, to any animal (and objects) than second tier weapons, and those do less damage than the two first tier ones (iron lance and war hammer). To clarify: I don't believe that it is because bears are more resistant to sabers or anything of the sort, but rather that things like regular wolves (2 hits to kill from any weapon between third tier and first tier) don't have enough hit points for you to notice the difference. In fact, mutated alpha bears take A LOT of crossbow, bow and gun shots to kill. Of those, iron crossbows do surprisingly well (18 shots with a wooden crossbow vs. 12 with an iron one, pistol or regular makes no difference in damage). Bolt action rifles need only 8 shots, and repeating rifles 15, but you can fire repeating rifles a lot faster, so both of those are better than crossbows but require a lot more technology progression and arguably have more expensive ammo. Flintlock rifles are both slow and low damage, at also 15 shots to kill. Double-barrel shotgun takes 9 shots, pump action only 8 and fires faster. A double-barrel revolver uses 12 shots (24 ammo), while a regular revolver also uses 12 shots but only 12 ammo. An iron bow takes 14 shots. I think the devs still have to do some weapon balancing there, judging from those numbers - the double barrel guns in particular seem way off in the damage chart. Edit: If one is using a saber for thematic or aesthetic concerns, that's fine, but its not very attractive in terms of efficiency. Only two extra iron for the best damage melee weapon in the game leaves very little reason, other than looks, to choose a saber.

Also, Updated Survival Tips for New Ylanders

Yeah, I've reported some of his many, many, many posts. I think its a more productive approach than spamming the forum with new topics complaining about him, as someone else did a few minutes ago

I envy you. Do you think this is possible in the current release? I foresee ylandium dust running out very soon in my current game because I think I've cleared most, if not all, the mutants in caves and they don't seem to be respawning at all, even in the last few caves where I made sure to leave some alive in case that's how they 'repopulate' (I've read somewhere that you can hunt things to extinction on islands if you don't leave some animals of each species alive).

I haven't seen this mentioned anywhere yet, so I think its fair to have it as a reply here: while sabers look cool, they're actually relatively bad at damage. After some extensive testing by spawning mutated bear alphas (I think its the highest HP mob currently in game, please correct me if I'm wrong) in creative and testing each possible weapon, the ones that take less hits to kill 'em are the war hammer and the lance (if you prefer polearms). With seven strikes, they use one less strike to kill a mutated bear compared with the several weapons in the second tier. Second tier notable mentions are the iron mace and iron spear. Finally, on the third tier you have a large number of weapons, this is where the saber and war axe fall in. Those require 10 hits total to kill a mutated bear alpha. The pitchfork might be the actual single entry in the third tier (9 hits) but since it is the only weapon, to my recollection, that took 9 hits to kill a mutated bear alpha, I've lumped it together with the 10 hit ones as being the third tier Since the difference in resources to craft a saber vs. a war hammer is minimal (2 extra iron ingots) and easily achievable early game, I see little reason to use anything else. Just gotta keep in mind that it counts for everything that requires a hammer to craft, so make sure to not make your only weapon into a repair kit by accident.

You can also find it on caves sometimes, if you don't want to deface your beaches, usually as patches on the walls / floor, sometimes under (or around) patches of Sulfur and such. What I usually do, tho, is to locate a beach area, then dig a small spade-size square straight down further inland, where its dirt instead of sand, and then quarry it up from a tunnel going towards the ocean, under the water level, being very careful not to pierce the ocean floor which would probably flood the tunnel. Then when you're done its easy enough to cover up the starting hole manually with dirt. It takes some good eyeballing to avoid defacing the visible surface of the beaches. That's only a concern if you want to have pretty beaches tho

The simplest way would be for him to suicide to something while naked. Every time you die, you have the option of creating a new character, changing appearance and name each time if desired.

That's what I usually do as well, running the power lines thru the roof or basement depending. Just need to stick a maintenance hatch for access somewhere in case you need to change something later and bob's your uncle. I do agree with @BigBoss87 tho that it would be neat to have it hidden by default like what happens on proximity, particularly for pvp-y stuff like traps and such if more things like the Tesla Coil get added later.

For lighting, you can make lanterns fairly early (glass + iron crafted in inventory if I recall) that never go out and are pretty bright. Those can either be carried or free-placed. Alternately there are ylandium crystal torches, cave crystals, and a whole bunch of various electric lamps and things of that nature unlocked thru the kiln -> glass -> lightbulb with components made in the energy workbench. Those require some power source tho (I recommend the hassle free, cheap and clean Wind Turbines, they don't even require ylandium). You might be missing the glassbower pipe from the blacksmith forge to unlock the lightbulb and the entire line of energy-based lights and such.

Oh the locksmith bench has a bunch of nifty stuff. Primarily firearms-related stuff, but also the powered mining drill which is really neat, but it requires a ylandium charging station to recharge its power. I'm sure there are others, think of it more like as a tinkerer work station, its not just about keys and locks but delicate mechanical work in general.

Yes. Both types of engines work for cars, ships and for powering other devices (like the energy stove for example). On ships, you can make 'em with just engines, just masts, or both, and in the case of using both on the same ship only one type of propulsion will be active at any time (sails or engines), tho you can switch freely between the two modes.

Sailing randomly is just a poor idea under any circumstance, just like in real life. Its even worse in game because there are no particularly large landmasses, like continents and such, for you to eventually reach, so without at least some bearings, its very hard to actually find land. You could sail right between islands even if you go in the correct general direction and, as rendering distance in game isn't particularly forgiving, you could miss seeing the islands by just a few inches. The birds are there to solve all of those problems: they're rendered from much, much farther away than the land (if you have good eyes and clear weather, and a clean monitor, you can spot 'em even when they're just a tiny little dot on the horizon) and they always give you the correct bearings for land. Could you find land by sailing randomly? Sure, but there's a lot more water than there is land, since all maps are capped at a maximum of 12 randomly distributed islands (minimum is 8 I believe? how many you get depends on the seed, apparently, tho I've yet to get a map with less than 12 personally). The 'pick a random direction and sail' approach, be it in a straight line or zig-zag pattern, is just foolish unless you want to avoid following birds for a sense of realism or roleplay or whatever it is. The birds are there, in every island, and in every game, precisely for the purpose of guiding you to new islands. If you're having trouble seeing them, just sit there more or less in the middle of your current island, preferably at a high spot so that terrain doesn't get in the way of your bird spotting, and wait for them to show up. They take time to travel between islands, so you may need to wait 5-10 minutes, depending on distance, for them to show up, but they will show up eventually. That's why its a good idea to start looking for them as soon as the sun comes up, they're very hard to see in heavy storms (but not normal rain / snow), fog and at night, but very easy to see in clear weather with daylight. Every island that I've found so far, had bird connections to at least two other islands but I suppose particularly remote ones might get only one connection. Regardless, all islands will be connected to the bird network, and the vast majority of islands will have two or more connections, so with a little patience its pretty easy (even if it takes a few in-game days) to find all the (probably 12) islands in your map. Its only 'hard' the first time you try to do it, once you follow your first bird you'll know what to expect, what you're looking for, and how the birds behave, and then its easy from that point forward. Also, always carry a map. Easiest way to craft one, even at early game, would be to take 1 piece of leather crafted into a leather sheet, then one charcoal and one stick crafted with a knife into a pencil, and then you can craft a map combining both. The only slightly tricky thing might be getting a few bits of clay to make into a kiln to make the charcoal, but still, super easy and very doable even on a fresh, day one spawn. With a map and the bird-spotting technique described above, you can find all the islands and biomes in your game fairly easily with any mode of transportation, from rafts to propeller packs to large ships, with the only difference between those being speed and comfort, and also how much food you'll need per trip, a stack of 20 roasted fruits per island should be plenty with leftovers even with a raft. Also, if at all possible carry a couple pieces of fur clothing (usually jacket and pants are enough to keep you from freezing to death) in case you have to sail / fly thru very cold areas or snowstorms. To craft those you only need one pelt from a furry creature, like wolves and bears and such (two if its rabbit pelts) and a sewing kit.

@Velociferis right, by your list it sounds like you're primarily missing the ones that are made out of glass. From memory, I think you're missing the one for potions, the one for seashells and the one for pigments / dyes. No wood container yet as far as I can tell. There's also a keyring that predictably acts as a container for keys, that I think is made at the forge.

Yeah, birds act as sort of ship beacons for finding other islands. They'll always fly in a straight line back and forth between two islands. Keep in mind that its not the low-flying seagulls / vultures that you need to keep an eye out for, its birds super high in the sky, waaaay out of reach. If you can, try to find some high, central-ish mountain in the islands you have discovered, and look up and around from that point, moving the camera in a circle to cover every direction and keeping the sea horizon like just on the very bottom of your screen, and you should be able to spot a few. It could take a few minutes if they're all currently going to another island (or back from it) and out of loading range, so it pays to have some patience there. Once you spot one, observe it for a bit until you're pretty sure that its traveling in a straight line and not circling over the islands you're currently on, and then take note of the direction its going in, or if you can, go back to your ship and start following it. They always fly in a straight line from the center of one island to the center of another island, so once you know what direction they're going, its not hard to find those islands. It just takes some patience to wait for the birds to show up if they're not currently at your island.

I love finding those giant cave entrances, tho it rarely happens to me on starter islands. If that first room is clear of hostiles, it looks like it would be a wonderful place for your first camp, since you get a free roof to keep your forges / smelters / kilns running even thru storms. Saves the trouble of having to either build a roof or dig out a hidey hole for your temporary camp if you decide that your main base is not going to be on your starting island If you get in trouble with wildlife early in the game, I find that a good way to make 'em stop chasing you is to jump into the ocean and swim out for a bit until they stop chasing, then make an U turn and go back to shore a little ways away, out of aggro range of the bears / kitties / whatever. Just gotta keep an eye out for sharks, but since you dont have to swim out very far for them to stop chasing, that's usually not a problem.

I didn't test this like, A LOT, but since I play on self-imposed permadeath, I probably restart more often than most people. What I noticed, in one of my games that I deleted after a death, was that when I made a new game with the same name, I spawned on a different starter island, but after progressing and sailing around a bit, I ended up finding the exact same island that I had spawned at in my previous game, with the same points of interest / prefabs in the same spots and such. I don't know if this works every time, but it did work for me at least once. The main thing to keep in mind, like I said, is that when you delete and remake that world, your first island might happen to be a different one (different spawn point) but if what happened to me is the 'intended' behavior for map seeds and not some rare oddity, it should still be the same overall world map, even if it takes a while to find your island from a previous game again.

Those are very fair points from a PVP / mutiplayer perspective, but there's also a good argument, I think, to be made for having the current 'no respawn' method in a single player (or multiplayer with no pvp) game. The game, as it stands, is not terribly difficult after a few hours spent learning how the various systems work, and once you do, after tech-ing up a little bit you're pretty much golden. Caves for example are very doable in full iron with some strategy, and once you find a good cave you're set with guardian gear and a propeller pack. In my latest game, that took about three to four in-game days to accomplish, and I play on self-imposed permadeath mode (as I do on every single player survival game, because if repeated deaths are a viable strategy, its not a survival game). The main balancing point for single player difficulty lies precisely in how costly a death is. Technically, you 'respawn' as an entirely new character (as is the case with some rogue-lite games, like Sunless Sea and Rogue Legacy) that inherits some of the previous characters belongings. This is an interesting choice for a survival and exploration type game, and its a pretty original one to boot, which is nice as the market already has quite a few straight up minecraft clones. It fits nicely with my playstyle, tho I still maintain my self-imposed 'delete save on death' policy (and I hope they add permadeath as an actual option to save me the trouble of doing it manually at some point down the line), but I understand that this is not in line with most players expectations, so I'm not opposed to having easier options as well with infinite respawns for people that want a more relaxed experience that falls somewhere between the normal exploration mode and creative. I think that a possible compromise, borrowed from Don't Starve, would be to have a few random prefabs scattered around the islands with an object that you can activate to act as a single use respawn point. This should only work once per person per prefab, of course. It would encourage exploration, provide a bit of a 'get out of jail free' card as a reward, but still keep the risk of death and the inconvenience of having to go find your corpse, but potentially put you closer to where you died and offer the opportunity for a bit of strategy (like stashing some spare armor, weapons, food and materials for a raft next to the prefab). Alternately, to differentiate it from the system already in place, those prefabs might allow you to come back to life with your armor and the contents of your hotbar, and you would only lose the contents of your inventory. Personally I'd find that a more interesting solution than something that you can build, because, first, ylandium is a sufficiently finite resource in the current state of the game (since as far as I can tell, cave-dwelling mobs never respawn) and we don't need yet another ylandium sink, at least not with the current 12-max-islands system, and second, because the 'extra lives' would also be a very finite resource and so, couldn't be spammed even if you did have unlimited resources. I have yet to try multiplayer, but I imagine that with 5+ people on the same map, the entire supply of ylandium might be depleted well before all of them could even get to craft all the desirable ylandium-based items (generators aren't really necessary since you have alternatives that don't need ylandium at all, like wind turbines and steam engines), so I don't know if some sort of ylandium cloning chamber would be a desirable solution even for multiplayer.