Myrik Greene

Luckily, I think you can not be more wrong The optimization is our No. 1 priority in last few months and I think it is safe to say a big improvement in game performance is coming relatively soon.

Yes, definitely. The in-game store is really not an important feature for us but we think it is only fair to have it in the game from the beginning. Our plan is to provide players with enough free coyns during Early Access not to make any additional income. That said, it is important for us, in the long run, to have something in the game that would allow us to keep the game afloat for many years to come. Trying to rely on new players to fund the operation of the game for the existing user base is simply not a viable model.

Perhaps we should rename it to Dust Container or something

Thank you and welcome to the community! It is really a small community at this point and we appreciate your interest in the game. And I hope not to break any secret but we already have some plans for Early Access backers to get also some extra rewards including some ₡

I just would like to clarify a one really important thing: we want to continue developing the game for many years to come and grow the scope of the game significantly as well without having to introduce any paywall. We think the best way to achieve is to include optional in-game purchases of cosmetic items and other extras that have no impact on the gameplay and do not limit the game world in any way. We believe it is much better than for example releasing paid extra DLCs with more content, or future expansion packs etc. I would like to refer again to so that you all know what to expect. Thank you for reading.

I completely agree but I think for now the team is afraid of alienating more casual users and I think it is not so big deal.

You are right. Our idea is to have only one portable generator for each player, usable only by its original owner (and potential heirs that may follow in the game session, ie spawns of the same player account) in any game so this really should not be a problem.

Very cool. However, please make sure not to use someone else copyrighted material or trademarks and I would say maybe you should choose a different name than Hunger Games for it from this perspective? Maybe The Hungry Games, which is a bit silly but fits Ylands really well for exactly the same reason

Just a side note related to this: we plan to have various cosmetic items to be possible to obtain via playing the game (many of them only through playing) and we also plan to allow trading of some types of cosmetic items (but not avatars for example) between players. So there will be other options how to get them other than paying: play to get a rare item, trade it with others that may have purchased items you are interested at but not willing to spend money for it.

We think more about a way how to move some objects, esp. workstations or furniture. E.g. come close to a fireplace, hold RMB and be able to move it (maybe slow and limited?)

I understand what you mean. We definitely will need to think about this aspect more. Generally speaking, this part of our monetization strategy is also the hardest (selling cosmetic items is relatively straightforward). I think one answer may be to go with the same structure as Arma 3 goes currently for such cases https://www.bistudio.com/monetization unless we can come up with something better for Ylands.

That was considered risky pretty much for reasons chiivas477 mentioned. There could be ways to solve this but it is pretty safe to say that in every case we will need to have a strict mechanism in place for any transfers of coyns between users as there we see the highest potential risk of malicious behaviours.

We really did not plan this to be possible. Just to clarify: if server is hosted privately, it can not charge coyns. The only way would be a server or game that is hosted by us. But yes, you are making really valid points here. The idea is this: someone creates a really great and popular game mode, that requires also dedicated servers. We have a solution in place where you can simply have the infrastructure running by us. There you pay us in coyns (₡) for renting the server but you also can charge players coyns for playing. This way we can easily control any abuse. Primarily, the whole economy would work within the game and in coyns. But it could really allow under some very strict rules to let people make real money out of the game under a regulated mechanism. And to clarify it a bit more: there would be only two ways how someone could get coyns: directly from us or from other players via us (servers or workshop). This way, we would have control. We think trading between players should be possible, but coyns would not be part of this. There is one aspect I quite like about it as well: someone working for the community (e.g. content creator) may find a way to be rewarded by coins and could spend it in the game (buying some cool items - as despite the plan is for cosmetic items, we believe there may be many really really coold things made available).

Just to clarify one key aspect: we are not going to remove or limit anything that is possible already. Quite the opposite. We are planning to add so much to the game that would not be in any way related to the optional monetization. The idea is to address few problems and add extra layers to what we hope may be really unique game. Our team is growing, we have spent so many years on the game and we really value our little community so much. What I suggest is that we structure the discussion as it is really more than one area. I think we should talk about Servers, Cosmetic Items (we call them Collectibles, Decorations, Avatars, Pets), Custom Creations. Our goal is not to remove the ability to freely create, share and host anything, or limit the game itself somehow in order to add or push an extra monetization. But we believe we could add something on top that further enhance the game experience. E.g. hosting your own game servers is totally fine with us but I think it is good if there is a way to rent a server easily from us and there have an integrated way how players could easily contribute to the hosting costs. We dream about larger more persistent online communities playing on servers one day and from our experience, that really needs some form of monetization. it is a long way ahead but we are ready and dedicated to it.

With servers, there is one problem in general: server hosting costs money and it means server hosting is inevitably a commercial venture. We can see this in Arma or Dayz and we know there is not a perfect solution for this problem. However, we think there needs to be a mechanism in place that would provide an easy and fair mechanism for all involved. In general, there is one aspect that is important to understand: for players, to get access to an online system where they could spend hundreds or thousands hours playing, we need to have something in place that would make it economically sustainable in one way or another. Usually, the solution is that games are very closed ecosystems or do not provide much online infrastructure at all or charge extra for it.

Thank you, great feedback. I think we have quite some experience and realize pretty much all that you just have said. With servers: it is actually one of the main reasons and one idea is that you would be able to rent a server for coyns and charge also users coyns in one way or another when playing on it. Also, we really want to discussion and feedback about this subject as much as possible.

Currently, it is not possible to move larger objects. But I agree it is something that is missing and we are trying to find a good way. The problem is mostly to find a nice and intuitive control binding for it.

I hope you had a good time exploring so far. Your progress so far looks impressive, how many hours did you put to get this far? But most importantly, there are plans to expand the Exploration much beyond of what it is now so even if you feel finished this time, it may be very different few updates along the way.

Thank you for your keen words. There is already more than the small island, just keep crafting and exploring

Words can not describe, how big ylander he is...

We have tried to make the crafting quite welcoming but maybe we could go even further. So you would say when you have one flint, it should already show you how to craft things made from a flint, right? As to exchanging games, all our Early Access games are selling from the beginning at a discounted price to reflect the nature and possible issues of Early Access development. Dayz launched to Early Access for 24 Euros, Ylands is now selling for 10 Euros / 10 USD (will be more on Steam). Both games would cost about 50-100 percent more in their final releases. But as always, there is never a guarantee that any piece of software would turn the way you want it to be and on time you would feel is acceptable so I think unless you are prepared to face the uncertainties and frustrations of early access, it is much better not to get a game that even us as the developer feel is no really finished.

No, it was just hypothermia and then falling

Well, I guess we also need to fix the game not pausing in Singleplayer (in Pause menu and when Alt Tabbing). But the result looks quite magical this time...

Oh yes, it is truly amazing. It is just that are not so many of us Ylanders around just yet But I am sure with so many great creative people around, like yourself, this will change fairly quickly (esp. when we one day go to Steam).