WijkagentAdrie

I for 90% agree with what John's posted. I think the reason I can bare with the "discomforts" is because I've played loads of early access games, mainly survival/creative. I'll list a few: Minecraft (from early browser only versions on), Space Engineers, Scrap Mechanic, Kerbal Space Program, DayZ (mod and SA), ARK Survival, Rust, H1Z1, PUBG, The Division, Ylands is currently very similar to DayZ, the early access process doesn't seem to be the most streamlined among the games on the list, but because it has the highest potential it's still worth to play a lot. Just like John has with Ylands now, I've left DayZ untouched for a few months a couple of times, but always came back to enjoy it even more. What I believe is most problematic now is feedback from the devs on the reports, but also seeing bugs reported 2 patches ago which look rather minor/easy to fix still being present in the game on the latest updates. It throws a barrier to report more bugs/problems. The monetization FAQ is already a massive step forward. It's open, transparent, and it basically covers all the questions we've had and more. It took away a lot of concerns, as the feedback is so different compared to when the first ideas were announced on monetization. What Kerbal Space Program does very very very well is their status reports. They let nearly all of their developers write a small bit of what they have been doing that week. It only takes every developer 5-10 minutes and gives the people feedback that the bugs that got reported are being worked on. Maybe you guys have been beta testing a new GUI-less dedicated server for 2 weeks already, but there's no way for us to tell. I know the developers are submerged by the project 8 hours a day and know all ins and outs, but remember that we can't see what's not being shown to us. I think it would be right to literally go over every single Suggestions and Bug thread to see if nothing has been missed. We could use a bug tracker like DayZ has, which makes reporting easy, takes out duplicates. The really severe gameplay breaking bugs could still be reported in the forums to show what bugs need priority. One thing I do notice is that as soon as someone says he can't play due to a bug/update/the game not loading, the response is very good to help the player get back in the game as soon as possible Another problem I've seen is in the Dutch translations: I have the feeling that the translations were 100% made out of the game and the translations haven't been tested, leading to loads of inconsistencies and out of place words which are not necessary I believe. For example the Tesla Coil translation is "Tesla spoel" (which is the 2 words literally translated, Teslatransformator would be more correct), but the "Tesla Coil Parts" are called "Tesla Rol Onderdelen". The word coil has been translated different, making no sense. I honestly think Ane is doing a good job, I just feel that we could do with a second Ane Contrary to what John says I think that pushing new features before old features are fixed is the best way to do it, because the earlier we get our hands on something the earlier we can help and address problems that weren't thought about. Scrap Mechanic actually gives us multiple beta builds, with for example different wheel physics to test and give feedback before the final, best result is pushed to stable. Creative games like this will see people using things in ways other than intended. I think adding new features as soon as possible will shorten the overall development time, although it makes the game less playable now. It's a part of early access I'm happy with. I also accept that being part of early access means we're essentially the testers and bug hunters, I'm more than happy with that. It's been enjoyable so far! Anyway, I don't like giving critique without ideas on how to fix things: I believe the biggest priority at the moment should be the multiplayer experience. Fixing multiplayer is also gonna greatly improve sales, as 90% of the games I buy I only buy to play with my friends, usually after they recommend it to me. The multiplayer fixing can be divided into the actual technical side (the server performance, GUI etc.), and the actual gameplay element. I believe that if you introduce anti griefing measurements one by one, people always find the next way. If I can't build within a 10 block radius around your door I will build a cube at an 11 block radius, or just pack the rest of someones house to cause grief. There's no way for them to take down those blocks/walls without destroying their own house. I think a good solution would be a plotpole as used in arma 2 or a tool cupboard as used in Rust. I believe arma 2 dayz had the balance for raiding/griefing just right: Raiding is a huge hassle and you only do it when you really hate someone and got personal problems with them. Also, the Minecraft plugin systems are nice, in which you can mark areas as pvp/pve, and limit explosive/fire damage in certain areas as well. If harm has been done (say someone builds a wall just outside plotpole/tool cupboard range, a nice backup system where you can fix/rollback only certain parts of the map would be useful, along with very detailed logs of what player hit/interacted with what object at what time with what weapon. Also have block owner/placer ID's. Even if it's a raw .txt dump we can still use 3rd party programs or MS excel to be able to search through this in an effective way, and be able to moderate our servers. What also isn't helpful is that we had a griefer, we knew his name, but we couldn't give a ban to his account as he simply logged off. Other ways to massively improve the multiplayer experience is making islands more sustainable, bigger, and an infinitely generated world with island groups. Groups of players can have their own island(s). Groups of players could share rights using those tool cupboards. If there's anything I (and I believe quite a few others are willing to help as well) can do to help streamline the process, to improve the overall game, than please drop a reply/topic with what is needed or a PM. Adrie

Thanks for the work! It's back up

Hey everyone! I hope the weather is better where you live, but in case it's raining all day for you as well I've got something for you to do! I've made a truck trial parcours, which you can do with your friends. I will try to host it on my server, because I'm sure it's more fun together The download link for the game is here: https://ylands.net/asset/87 You spawn in one of the bedrooms of a small log cabin. As soon as you leave the cabin, there are 3 offroad buggies and 3 Unimog trucks parked in front of the house. The buggies run on 1 Ylandium engine, the Unimogs use 2 Ylandium engines. Despite this the buggy is still much quicker and able to climb better, but the Unimog has better ground clearance. This makes different parts of the track difficult or easy, based on the vehicle you pick! Overall the Unimog is more difficult to get around the track and is easier to get stuck with. To show you guys around, I'm gonna use the Unimog nonetheless! First up is a bridge made out of rafts. Enter it at a straight angle and a steady speed, not too fast or too slow! After a while the rafts move all over the place, you can then either reset the map or drive through the shallow water. On the right side before the start of the track is a small test setup with a half pipe and some sort of bridge structure, which lets you get a feeling for the way the vehicles' weight shifts when trying to climb obstacles. Behind them is a podium with a chest hiding the big prize! Now for the actual track! I'm only gonna show screenshots of certain parts, otherwise there's not much fun in doing it yourselves anymore ofcourse You should be able to complete the track with both cars, in both direction, passing each "gate" made of 2 flags. Some parts are (nearly) impossible or rather difficult for either car, either in both or in one direction, so at those places there's a alternative route. The alternative can be easier or more difficult based on the car you pick! The alternative routes are marked by red flags. Once you've made it all the way to the end, grab a key from the chest and make your way back to the start! The key will open the chest at the test park, giving the winner a prize! I hope you guys enjoy it as much as I do! Adrie

Thanks! I used the editor's terraformer tool, just aimed at the rock at the right angle and then took away material! I'm working on a new bigger racemap, would you or anyone else like to contribute any race cars? I'm thinking 2 engines for a small chassis and 3 engines for a large one, either offroad or road racing models. Adrie

The seating position for the wooden steering wheel is a little bit "off": the character appears to sit below the actual seat.

Sweet! I really hope we can color literally every block I'm gonna have a huuuge job painting all my boats and cars Also looking forward to many small new features and fixes! I think it's also a must have for us that we can have players out of the game when logged out, so we can have safe storage of items and houses Otherwise it's just waiting until you die of hunger or someone kills you, they take your keys and your stuff is gone. Adrie

I did, also got a university title in it And thanks! I'm gonna see whether I can use the windshield on my other ships as well

Hello, Because me being me I sometimes need to try how far I can push the physics engine in a game After accidentally crashing a few of my boats together, I thought, why not make a push boat, like one of those: The biggest advantage is that it's modular, and kind of like a container system. You can have 1 push boat, and multiple different barges types, for example for cars, cargo or passengers. The first step was to get the coupling right, but after a few attempts I managed to get a working, solid coupling. It gives enough play to counter the waves, yet the boats are firmly attached: However, the problem I'm facing now is that the speed is very slow, and turning is nearly impossible The difference between 4 and 64 engines is close to 0, and the turning circle is bigger than an entire island. When I installed 1 engine on the barge, both the speed and turning circle improved a bit, but adding engines to the barge kinda defeats the purpose of the system It would be nice to couple multiple barges to one pusher. Things I checked: both anchors up, all engines on, all engines fueled etc. Also checked whether pulling vs pushing makes any difference, but if there was a difference it was too little to notice. It just seems like there is some ghost force braking and fighting the rotation forces of the ship being pushed/pulled, which would make sense in a collision, but is detrimental when trying to build this system. I'm curious to see if this can be improved, as I believe I read thta vehicle vs vehicle physics are gonna get updated anyway to be able to have horses and cars on ships. Adrie

I think I've outdone myself this time I've built the next ship in 2 evenings, it all just worked out exactly how I wanted. The idea was to make a modern sail yacht, with a few backup engines in case there's no wind. The design had to be very sleek, yet it had to give loads of space so I can take all my friends on board for a trip The way I've tried to do this is by having the bow only 5 high around the edge, with a raised middle part, similar to my first ship, the Komarovo. In this case however it's possible to walk under the outer ring by using sloped blocks. The limitations of this is that you can't have any doors near the edges of the ship, plus the headroom is rather minimal. Things still to do is place large masts as soon as it's possible again (In 0.5 you can't place large masts above the hull line) and I didn't bother with energy yet. Anyway, here is my latest ship, the Chernogorsk! She features 5 bedrooms, of which 2 single rooms, and 3 double rooms. The double rooms have their own bathrooms. Every room features at least one closet for storage of clothes and other belongings. There are multiple different seating area's around the ship so everyone can enjoy themselves. There's a spacious kitchen, a central toilet, a dining area and a hidden engine room. On to the images, all exterior shots at 65 degree FOV, interior at 70 degree FOV, one bathroom image at 80 FOV. Here's the exterior! I wasn't happy with the Balota's windshield, so I tried to create a more natural round shaped windshield using Ice blocks. I hope we get either glass blocks or even better, sloped glass blocks soon! On the front are 2 lounge beds, on the back is a small movable table with some chairs to enjoy some drinks. The top level of the deck houses the helm. Similar to the Balota, the Chernogorks features a part retractable roof. This way you can use the dining area and helm area in a more open and a more enclosed setting The back platform has windows to give the rear hut a nice view over the horizon! Here's the captain's place and his view! The visibility is very good in nearly all directions, including ahead of the boat. When sailing you can still have a chat with the people dining. The dining area is open to the back, and the roof can be opened. Because it's lower than the steering platform it still gives a cozy feeling when sitting around the table. Down the next stairs to the right/starboard we find a large kitchen with a stove and plenty of storage space. To the right is the door to the central toilet. Opposite to the kitchen is a small relaxing area, where you can read your favorite book. Straight ahead from the stairs is a central hallway, with on the left/port side the single bedrooms. They feature a bed and a closet (the second room's closet is on the right side behind the door). The roof windows blinds can be closed. Opposite to the single rooms is the smallest double room. It features a double bed, it's own bathroom, a closet and a desk and chair. The roof window in the toilet is made out of ice blocks, so light will pass through it but you can't see clearly through it. In the front is the bow hut, which is one of the 2 master bedrooms. The master bedrooms feature more space and a more luxurious interior. This one features more storage space, a large double bed and it's own bathroom again. When going back to the central relaxing area, there's a hallway on the left/port side of the ship that leads to the back, where the second large bedroom is. In the hallway are 2 small hatches which hide both the engines. The engines are placed in such a way that you can see the fuel meter. The second large room has a lot of windows in all directions, even from the top! It's really spacious as well, having it's own small sitting area. The bathroom is large to accommodate a hatch which hides the anchor lever. As always, thanks for watching/reading! If you want to see any more details of the ship or if you have any questions, please feel free to ask! Adrie

I believe the cars are all wheel drive already, have you tried adding a second engine? I find cars with 2 engines are veeerrry capable! I do agree that lower gears (more torque / less speed) should be added for single engine cars, especially the large chassis.

Heya! I'd like to join the Dutch team! Adrie

Thanks! I don't know if you've ever roamed Chernarus/understand my ship naming, but I can tell you the next one is gonna be biiiig just like the town it's gonna be named after, and even better than this one I think It's gonna look a lot better on the hull as well. Thanks! And do I hear you say code lock? Or keys on ship helms? Or the ultimate combination, code locks on ship helms? Looking forward to the sneak peek tomorrow! Adrie

Another one, of which I'm not 100% sure whether it's a bug or a feature: Since 0.5 I can't place the large mast any block above the height of the ship hull. I will get the "location out of vehicle boundaries" error. The smaller mast still works though. Is this intentional? I believe that if so, it should still be possible to place it at least 8 to 10 blocks above the hull line to make some nice ships. Adrie

I've copied my V3S to turn the cabin into a S5T cabin. I've finished it, turned it into a composition, but the composition is all bugged. Whenever I drag the composition to the ground, 100's of car chassis' spawn and fly everywhere, see attached screenshots. Also, when trying to connect energy in the editor it really won't work. It accepts some streams, yet others won't work. Splitter won't accept any input from a small switch, and I can only connect 1 output lamp to the splitter because if I try the 2nd lamp it says something about can't repeat stream (roughly translated, playing Dutch version ATM).

Hey all! Building the cars is really a lot of fun, but I just can't stop building ships This time I've challenged myself to make a ship on the small ship hull, and it had to be something more modern. Because of the size I didn't care much for having multiple rooms indoors. One thing that was definitely needed however is a anchor lever behind a door so I can safely lock the ship in multiplayer for now. Anyways, I hereby present you my latest ship, the Balota! I tried my best, combining a very old style hull with a modern top structure. I've tried to draw a line on the side stretching from the side windows all the way to the back to break up the large side to make it look less tall. In the front you can see some interior parts clipping through the hull, but I actually liked the detail so I decided to keep it this way. The desk consists of a steering area, a stairs going down, a nice big lounge area and on the back deck 2 stretchers for some sunbathing. The lounge area features a retractable bimini, so those who enjoy the shade can also be outside It also gives the boat a more cozy feeling outside, since most of the surface area is outside on the deck. The rear stretchers also have their own sunprotection. Under the deck towards the rear of the boat is a compartment hiding 6 small steam engines and the anchor lever. The engines are able to give the boat very quick acceleration and speed and the hatch can be locked so the boat can be left in the harbor, safe from thieves The lower deck stairs access can be locked Downstairs we find a toilet, dining table plus chairs, a double bed with loads of storage space, and a kitchen with a stove. The stairs is made out of marble. The sleeping area is comfy and quite spacious! It features some simple decoration as well as loads of storage space for clothes and all other things you need on your journeys. The top windows feature blinds which can be closed during nights or to keep the sun out during the day. However if you leave them open you can sleep under the stars And that's it for this project. Things I still need to do is add some storage for fuel and I didn't do any interior lighting yet, as I'm waiting to see what's gonna happen with all the energy items. Thanks for reading! Adrie

Can you imagine how awesome servers are gonna be as soon as there are more (infinite?) remote islands/island groups? The further everyone advances, the further you're gonna have to go for raw resources. It could be nice to have small outposts far away and people that ship the resources over from the "colonies" to the mainlands Adrie

This actually sounds like a good idea in one way, but makes it kinda easy to just stay on one island. What about you first have to have at least 1 of the item you want to make? Also, coal can be found on a variety of islands, are you sure you've checked everywhere? Adrie

There's a problem in creative mode with 2 table lamps: The smallest one is not visible in the item list. If you place the lamp that looks like a man holding the lamp, you randomly get the one with the man holding the lamp or the smallest kind of table lamp. Steps to reproduce: 1. Go into creative mode 2. Place a few of those table lamps that look like a person holding a ball. Severity: Minor - Does not prevent game play. Repeatable: Always

Hello, I've been hosting my server now for about a week on multiple maps and been looking at how things are going and what we need. In this topic I will be listing the things that are useful/necessary features to have a fun experience with a larger group of players on a server. Bugs will not be covered. Automatic regrowth of animals and plants: One of the problems I noticed is certain types of plants vanishing from the spawn island, for example cotton. Players pick cotton, build a boat and sail to another island, until there is no cotton left for anyone since nobody replanted any. It would be nice if we would have random planted seeds matching the biome spawning every now and then. When stuff gets more scarce players will notice, harvest it and probably plant some more for themselves Same goes for animals, you currently need leather in quite a few recipes. It would be nice if for example the blacksmith forge could be made with more sustainable items. Larger vains: Vains actually run out pretty quick on the surface at the moment. The problem at the moment is that the veins on the starter islands run out really quick. For new players joining after a while there will be no easy ores left, instead they have to make huge holes or go in dangerous caves. If there are more islands available for people to start on then this wouldn't be much of a problem as players can leave the starting island and get their own island. See the next point for this. "Infdev": Space, islands and resources are finite now. Therefor there is a maximum amount of players that can play the game, the earlier someone joins the more there will be left for them. If the game would automatically generate new islands, or even better, certain groups of islands, people could set sail to a new island for them to start out. Each group of players can have their own place yet they can all visit eachother, trade, or share islands together. Code locks: The option to store your loot away safe, so if you die nobody can take your stuff. Same goes for doors, if you lose the keys you are locked out and someone else can get in. Admin tools: Currently everyone can do whatever he wants wherever he wants. There is no protected buildings/area's, no pvp/pve only area's, no player building rights. It would be nice to have the possibility of being able to mark area's/zones with such flags/categories. Another admin tool could be a whitelist system, ranks with different privileges, to open doors, build on island xyz, etc. Have the possibility to restore the results of griefing locally, or regenerate parts of ylands to their original state based on the seed? This could refresh the spawn island to keep it playable for all players. Player tools: The power to form groups and a permission system to build would be nice. Builds could be either group or per player controlled. Access to certain containers as well. Something like a plotpole of tool cupboard maybe? Server tools: Make it possible to start, restart and load up the server with some batch files/commands for easier hosting. Also Linux would be nice as windows usually costs about 25€ per month. I'll add to this topic if I find anything else we can use Adrie

Thanks! On to the next big steps for Ylands

Heya! You don't need a boat to leave, a raft is just as nice! Just a few logs/bamboo, a few ropes and some snacks for your journey and you're set on your journey to the next island Maybe having multiple "difficulty" settings would be nice? I wasn't so much talking about ores, more about plants like cotton/flax. I don't think vast amounts should spawn, just little amounts so you can have some seeds, to grow your own farm I agree that at the moment games with a bunch of friends are the way to go, but I would love to see huge communities being formed. The things people get done in Minecraft when they're on a server with 100+ people still amazes me every time. Adrie

Here's the massive logfile! Adrie Adrie's_Server_24-7,_Active_Admins,_See_forumtopic_server_process_log.txt

Heya! 0.5 hasn't only added some nice features, it also fixed multiplayer a lot and a few of the mentioned "problems" mentioned in this topic. I have a few more specific suggestions/questions: 1) Animal respawning: how does it roughly work? I've heard that there's a threshold, below which animals will respawn. Do you still need to have 2 goats on an island to get new goats? Or will they respawn when there aren't any left? 2) Does the respawning system also include grass/plants/trees? 3) Also, can we lock cars and boats, preferrably with code locks? 4) I think it took only 30 minutes before the first fights/arguments started on my server. As usual it started with some miscommunication and before you know things got out of hand. Also half an hour later a griefer entered the server and built in someone elses house with loads of dirt, sand and wooden blocks. I believe now is the time to get more admin tools, raw output logs with who does what/when/where to who/what. Also more "self protection" in the form of plotpoles/tool cupboards, where you can set rights maybe per chest/furnace, so you can have public chests and private chests, or maybe chests only for your group? Also the option to enable/disable pvp on certain locations would be nice This used to be someones base, but within 1 day it ended up like this already. Although it is 100 blocks next to the spawn this shouldn't be happening. In the background is an attempt to restore some terraforming griefing. 5) A setting which would increase ore output would be nice, for example same size veins will yield 2x, 5x or 10x more ore. At the moment the first few islands get used up quite fast. Thanks for reading! Adrie

For 0.5: The already mentioned bug where standing on a boat will put you in a tripping state, Quite a few crashes still. I have attached 3 logs and 1 other log for a game but that's 1GB in size. A 1GB size .txt file. Even wordpad can't open it, and for some reason, each crash it keeps growing and growing. Furthermore, although they are not "issues", there are quite some gameplay changes needed to make it a worthwhile experience for now, but I will keep those to a different thread. Adrie output_log SERVER.txt Adrie's Server 24-7, see forumtopic for password!_server_process_log.txt output_log GAME.txt

Killing the boat fixes the problem as well! I will report the rest tonight.