Indomitus

There was a discussion going on in another thread, but since that one is supposed to be about an unrelated error, I figured it would be better to start a thread focused for discussing the new feature. What do you think? Good? Bad? Suggestions? A couple highlights from the other thread, to get things going:

The addition of a database logic is a big deal. More impressive to me than the others here, to be honest. The ability to manage metadata for a level, such as elaborate dialog trees for NPCs, is a very big deal. I've been away for a while, but I'll be really interested to see what kinds of capabilities are built into that logic. Is it purely static, or will there be ways to edit or manipulate when the game is running? Is it only "import from spreadsheet" or can it be constructed directly in the editor? If it's able to edit during gameplay, can it export during gameplay? Can it export at all?

If it's fully automatic, there's no distinction (from the game's perspective) except pickable or unpickable. There has to be a manual trigger of some kind.

That could be an issue with pickable decorations, though.

A possible alternative to the auto-pick, could be something similar to a feature in a certain other popular survival game: Holding down a key (shift or ctrl, something like that) and double-clicking an item attempts to auto-pick any of that item type within range. It wouldn't just scoop up everything around the player, but could be used to pick up a single thing in bulk, saving clicks. And I expect it is something that could be implemented in picking from the environment, or using the inventory screen. Just a thought.

I agree on the ships. The last few maps I played, I stayed mostly with the Upper Deck boat. You can place several containers on the nose of the boat, and it's fast enough to get to the nearby islands with ease. It might be an issue, not having an anchor if we decide to dive to a RE, but I can't think of many other benefits to spending resources on a full ship. Maybe to have a few mobile workstations, I guess, or to sail with friends. My last few maps, the larger ships have been very late-game.

How about a slingshot? 1 stick and 1 string to craft, and add pebbles to be the ammunition (break small rocks to get them). It would automatically match with its ammunition, like the bow and arrow. It would do very little damage, but it would be very easy to craft, fire quickly, and very easy to get more ammunition for it, making it useful for early game. Edit: I know that's not the direction the OP wanted to go, but the idea just popped into my head while reading it.

Tea leaves are showing the incorrect name. They say "larch seed"

I've mentioned before that I'm a Little Big Planet enthusiast. In fact, I used to be almost obsessed with tinkering with the logic (and created the only non-glitch PS3 vs PS4 detection chip that I know of). I'm a huge fan of Media Molecule's work, from the first LBP to Tearaway. Well, now there's Dreams, and from what I've seen so far, it's a game creator's... well... Dream. I've ordered my copy and it should deliver in a couple weeks. (I like having a disc rather than a download. I'm an old fart. Get off my lawn.) Honestly, there's a chance it could steal me away from Ylands. I guess we'll see.

Given how the resources spawn (seriously unbalanced, IMO) it's actually easier to find a trader, and trade for some.

Okay, time to be honest: I'm drifting away from Ylands. No doubt I'll stop back in from time to time for major updates, but as of right now I haven't played it in about a week and a half. (Explore is my main thing, and it's honestly gotten kind of stale lately.) It wasn't Dreams that's doing it, though. My PSN account is screwed up and I can't even play that game. Instead, it's a combination between Minecraft and an urge to get back to learning 3D modelling and animation with Blender and Daz. Those two are taking up all my gaming time, and there's nothing left for Ylands. SO... I have several games and game ideas that I need to test, release, or hand off to someone else if they want it. If I don't, they'll just fade away in my Editor folder. 1. Wacky Painters. It just needs one last quick test, and it's ready to release. 2. A boat battle game heavily inspired by RedEagle's "Red Cliffs" idea. Upper deck boats, cannons you can deploy, blocks you can build, swords, infirmaries, jails, and 3 different ways a team can win... The script should be completely intact, but it hasn't been tested in multiplayer yet. The play area design is fairly basic, but should be fine as long as the scripts work. 4. Scavenger Yland. You're given a short list of items to find, spawned randomly in containers around the play area. Each player gets a different list. Find them and return to a "portal" collection point, and you'll get points and a new list. The more you find, the more points you get. It's a very simple concept. The scripts should be intact, but I've done literally no design work on it. It's just a flat field with containers all over the place, just for testing. It needs to be play tested to see if the idea is fun. If it is fun, then it could be applied to a variety of different map designs. 3. Mutiny. Two teams fight for control of a ship, but how can you tell who is on which team? And will they stay on that team? (You can switch sides under certain conditions.) The scripts should be solid enough, but it hasn't been play tested at all, so I'm not even sure if it's a fun game the way it's designed. It's thrown together in a very rudimentary form specifically for play testing. Personally, I think this one is the weakest of the four games, but somebody might be able to do something awesome with it. I have other game ideas in my Editor, but these are the ones I don't want to just abandon. I don't want to monopolize an entire P1 play party for these, so maybe some time outside of that. Or one per week, or something like that.

Ok, now I want to try to make thundersnow in Ylands.

Look into Event Listeners. To detect PvP damage, use interaction of 2 entities, and set both objects to player. There's an On Damage, On Kill, and a few other choices, I think. Those events will give you both entities involved, plus I think the amount of damage, and type of damage (crushing, piercing, fire, etc). Play with it, and see what information it gives you. Try different things in different combinations, and so on. To negate damage if it's a type they're immune to for example (if it's not one-shot fatal) just add the amount back to the player's HP. (You can also just set immunity directly, but sometimes there are other things to calculate in.) My basic advice to anyone using the Editor is this: Just like with the regular game mode, it pays to EXPLORE. Try weird things and weird combinations, sit back and watch the magic.

Are you working on a map for your server? Need a full map of all the islands so you can plan where things will go? Here's your tool. https://workshop.ylands.com/asset/1080 How to use it (or what I consider the best way): - Drop the composition into your scenario, next to the spawn point. - Export the scenario to a local single-player game. (DO NOT use this on a server or with multiplayer!) - Make a note of the island locations, from the "GO TO" menu. Screenshot it, or write them down. Whatever works. - Start a copy of that exported game. (This will save your revealed map in that save file, for any time you need to see it.) - Pick up the map to activate it, and start mapping your islands one by one, using their coordinates as the X and Z values. - Once your islands are mapped, the tool can also help you teleport around and explore, as you decide where you'll place your buildings and landmarks. **Don't forget to delete it back out of your scenario before you publish it. What is it doing? It's basically picking up your Ylander and throwing them across the map at super-high speeds. It's safer than it sounds. Mostly. Important notes: The size of a map square is limited by the code to 2500 meters across. Since the mapping "flight" itself is resource-intensive, blocks larger than that could cause problems. In reality, 1000 to 1500 should be more than large enough to reveal an entire island. A 1500 meter square should take about 3 minutes to reveal, including the occasional pause to let the game rest a bit and catch up (so it doesn't crash). A whole map can be done in less than an hour. No Ylanders were harmed in the making of this tool. The boar did get a few bruises, though.

There is a tile that is simply "IS Entity" (in the English version) that will give True if the item is an entity and it exists, and will give False if it does not exist or is not an entity.

They don't really need to be that high-tech. I would think a trowel would be enough to smooth most kinds of terrain walls. Not stone, but maybe that could be an extended use for the chisel. Improved accuracy for filling in spaces with dirt or sand would help as well, making the terrain's geometry more workable for whatever tool we're using. (Right now building a garden can be kind of a pain, if there are voids left under the surface when placing the dirt.)

I wonder... Could something be rigged by resetting the player's controls? Maybe with one of the particle effects as a visual indicator? I'm only guessing, since I've never tried anything with the reset tile.

This is a big deal for creators. I look forward to trying it out.

Great suggestion. If we could make it a specific entity for them to aggro, or a specific entity for them to ignore and aggro all others, that would be great. And please include the possibility of that entity being any entity, not just players. Players, NPC, other creatures, or even static entities (for example, if we want them to attack a door, or some item the player needs to protect). Set it as a specific entity, labeled entities, player roles, etc.

This is something that players have complained about recently. From what I've seen, in the current version, copper ore can only be found deep in the caves on the level 3 (hardest) islands. It might actually be easier for you to find gold or lots of iron, then find an NPC to trade for copper.

When playing in Playlands, sometimes there can be a long wait for the game queue to activate a game. I know I'm not the only one who would pass the time climbing trees, or seeing what other places we could get to with parkour across the trees. The Easter changes removed a few trees I frequently used to get onto the castle's balcony, but thankfully we can still get up the tall conifers on the hill behind it. The sudden absence of that and the addition of the egg hunt really underscored to me that the Playlands hub could use a couple of basic activities or challenges inside that map. It could be a simple parkour around the castle, or something like that. I don't think it would need to be for points at all. Just one or two things to challenge us and keep us occupied while we wait for the game queue.

1. This kind of checking is what IS ENTITY exists for. Error handling is a common concern across all programming languages. In Ylands, that means checking your data types and values up front. 2. Of course a player is an entity. If they weren't then tiles like GET NAME, GET POSITION, or GET ROTATION wouldn't work, and Entity Labels or Entity Storage wouldn't work on them.

Try something like this: I used a "Magic Easter Egg" as the item it checks for, but it could be anything.

Have you tried checking (IsEntity (Get Active Item)) first, then check if it's the right one?

Tie the default to the type of map selected, and make it an obvious choice in the wizard. It makes sense to keep some kind of control over it so that we don't end up with a bunch of small game modes saving when they don't need to. BUT this should not be buried in menus or somewhere obscure. This should be a top-level option, and worded as plainly as possible. Personally, I would put it as a yes/no question directly under the map type selection in the wizard.