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Indomitus

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Posts posted by Indomitus

  1. Posted

    A couple tips for Creative mode and working in the Editor:

     

    If you take screenshots of your island, you can measure the scale of your map for pieces you're designing (this is based on my 16x9 1080p screen):

    - If it's zoomed all the way out (the map is small on the screen) then each 1 pixel will be 2x2 grid squares.

    - If It's zoomed all the way in (the largest it will go) then 3x3 pixels will be 1 grid square.

     

    If you're working in the Editor, you add an item and want to set it to a specific condition (Used, Worn, Broken):

    1.  Open the item's properties and look at the full HP for the item.  (Quick tip: You can also change the item's name in that screen.)

    2. Calculate the % from that, based on this:

    0% = Broken

    0.1% to 35% = Worn

    35.1% to 80% = Used

    80.1% to 100% = Pristine

    For example, if I place an iron sword, which is 600 HP total (I think).  If I want it to start as Worn, then I would make it 35% of that, or 210 HP.

  4. Posted

    5 hours ago, Onedown said:

    I found in single player explore game that the player seems to move relative to the ship which makes sense except that momentum is not accounted for if you lose contact by jumping for instance.  For example i had stairs leading to a platform on the bow of my ship.  While the ship is moving I can climb the stairs but I cannot jump onto them because momentum is not accounted for.  I'm not complaining i'm just pointing it out.  It's just a little disconcerting until you get used to it.

    Yes, it's frustrating.  I usually use rope ladders on my ships (maximize that floor space for workstations and stuff).  Climbing a ladder is kind of like jumping, apparently.  I had a ship in creative mode that had a bunch of Ylandium engines, so it moved really fast.  I climbed the ladder to the top level and slid right off the back of the ship.

  5. Posted · Edited by Indomitus

    On 3/1/2018 at 9:41 AM, Baz Foobar said:

    Yep, every one of those blocks is adding to the overhead whenever that portion of the map has to be loaded for the player.

    It's not unexpected, but that does explain why my game crashed in Creative Mode while building a stone structure that covered an entire "size 1" island.  (It's supposed to be a labyrinth.)  I think I got it up to over 10,000 stone blocks before the game went down.

     

    edit:  And yes, that track looks really fun.

  7. Posted

    14 hours ago, Onedown said:

    The detail is needed for finding raw materials.  frequently when i was playing I would buzz a whole island with the prop pack and then once all was revealed I could look for the resources I needed as the different ones have different colors.  I'd hate it if that went away.

    At the regular zoom level, yes.  Zoomed all the way out to see all the islands at once?  That detail's not needed at that level.

  10. Posted

    I think it's safe to say the Editor needs a bit of work done to make it really usable.  I've only been playing with that mode for about a week or so now (I prefer Creative mode, hmm, wonder why) but there are a few choices and possibilities for improvements that seem fairly clear to me.  Okay, more than a few.  It's a lot.  I'm sure that some have been mentioned before.

     

    1.   Separate Water from the Terraformer  (in the Editor and in general)
      ...or at least give water its own dedicated set of controls.  As it is, the fluid dynamics are pretty funky, and when we change the ground below the water line (expanding a bay for example) we end up with inevitable air pockets and bubbles that can really glitch out a swimmer.  It (kind of) flows on top, but not so much on the bottom, and there's not a good way to fix it when it goes wrong.
      For the seas, the coastlines, and any spaces that are open to them, the tool should simply set the water level and let the water fill in everything down to the dirt/rock/sand that's below that level.  This would include tunnels, if one of us were to dig one from the ocean floor.  Be careful not to let it extend into the land itself, or you'll end up with deep caves being flooded.  (That's realistic, but not so much fun.)  For anything away from the coast, it should set the water level for that space in a similar way.  Doing this would allow us to easily create rivers or inland lakes.  Might be a cost in performance, but I think it's a worthwhile cost that could be improved upon later.
      While it edit mode, maybe it can just show as a flat blue plane, then render out to look like water in play mode or when play testing.
    2. Editable Topographical Map (with 2 or more modes)
      Elevation/Topography Mode would be a black-and-white map.  Darker shades are lower elevations and brighter shades are higher; I think that's the standard.  Allow painting on the map with "up" or "down" to raise or lower parts of the island without affecting the terrain type.  Different brush shapes and sizes and varying amounts of blur (smoothing) would be awesome.  Bonus points if it shows the main water level somehow (shaded blue if it's below sea level?)  **Tricky part: How do you handle structures?  Move them up or down?  Or let them get buried?  Have option settings on the object groups?
      Terrain Type Mode would show what the ground type is at each location, and you could paint there much the same as you paint directly with the Terraformer.  Only faster.  Much faster.
      Flora/Fauna Distribution would let us paint custom patterns for relative density of certain plants or animals (as a subset to what their total spawn amount would be).  Be able to paint an entire island of happy little trees.  Bob Ross would be proud.  (As an extension: Let us dial up or down the spawn values for specific items, including being able to turn them all the way down to 0.)
    3. Speaking of Maps: There needs to be one.
      Give us a full map we can zoom in or zoom out, and set waypoints or spawn points directly on the map itself.  (Make them auto-settle to ground level.)  Maybe include an optional grid overlay or scale indicator.  If there's a way to export a hi-res copy of it for old farts like me who like to scribble on things when we're planning, that would be even better.
    4. And speaking of the Terraformer:  Give us ways to restrict the movement and the area-of-effect of that tool.
      As it is now, it's very easy to end up with huge blobs of dirt, or rock, or even water, if you're adding using the tool, or to end up with unwanted chasms if you're using the remove function.  We need a way to lock it to a particular height, for example.  It could work like the "G" button does when we're building, only it locks/unlocks the direction the cursor can move.
      The Area of Effect really should not go anywhere outside the cursor itself.  (For that, you'd probably need to add a vertical part to the "Flatten"" and "Smooth" functions.)  It's infuriating to try to manually cut a cave, only to go back out and find that Flatten has wrecked the overhead landscape from beneath.
      Another nice feature would be if we could adjust the angle it's moving and affecting (for example, to "flatten" a cliff face).
    5. The Terraformer's Smooth function needs an "Unsmooth" option to balance it out.
      Hey, maybe I want that part of the mountains to be really jagged.  Don't judge.
    6. We can select an area and mass delete.  Now we need the opposite.
      Give us a way (maybe as part of the map idea up above) to mass repopulate a cleared area based on the island's randomization settings.  Would make it easier to redesign the topography and make it look natural again without having to manually place hundreds of trees, bushes, grass, etc.  As it is, if we lower the ground level, trees might or might not drop to it, but if we raise it, they end up buried.
    7. Extend the Show/Hide functionality to include topographical levels of the ground itself
      Imagine being able to simply hide the top of a mountain so that it's invisible and can't be edited, then start cutting a large cavern into the middle of it.  After you're done, just reset the option and the top of the mountain is back.  Would make underground caverns and lairs easier to design and build.
      Naturally, if this is active, then you would have to restrict any structures from going too far above the visible level, to prevent accidental collisions.
      (And please fix the Show/Hide options, because if they're set to hide something, and another part of the island has to res in when you move, it doesn't always get it right.)
    8. Give us an "Apply Physics" button or menu option
      It saves performance to let things hover in the air while we're editing, but we really need things to fall where they're going to go before the players show up.  It could be a single command that just applies gravity across the map, and fills in water where it needs to be.  Framerate would dip for a few seconds, but it's only an on-demand thing, then it can go back to letting things hover.
      Personally, I would include an option to forcibly remove any mystically floating ground fragments the Terraformer might have missed.
    9. Give the option to show structures on the map
      Pretty simple concept, maybe as part of the map editing above.  Let us select all, or none, or if we want to exclude certain ones (like maybe a hidden cave entrance).  Extend this to location names if we add any.  (Those could be added like a waypoint.)
    10. Let us manually set the time of day while we're editing
      And make it default to the brightest part of the day.  If we want to see what it looks like at sunrise or sunset, we can change it.  The start time for the play scenario should be completely separate from this (and changeable in the settings).
    11. Lava?
      Because scenarios on volcanic islands could be cool.

     

    I'm sure there will be more, but it's late and I have to work in the morning.

     

    • Like 1
    • Upvote 1

  11. Posted

    Yes, this.

    And I like the idea of being able to craft some simple ways to tell time, from a sundial up to actual clocks.  Maybe a pocket watch that can be equipped and looked at like the map is.  I find myself hitting "~" in every single game I play, just to have some idea of when the sun's going to go down, so I can find shelter when I need to.

  12. Posted

    I have the water.  Now I just need to build a pool around it.

     

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    Nah.  Who needs walls anyway?

     

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    (In case you're wondering:  I built a pool, filled it with water, then destroyed the walls and floor with the Annihilator.  It stayed like this until I shot it with water from the Terraformer.)

     

    • Haha 5

  15. Posted

    I've actually been playing Ylands for a few weeks now, but I just came in to visit the board recently.

    I'm a huge fan of open world games and sandbox games, plus I love taking part in alpha and beta phases of a game's life.  (Astroneer is another current favorite of mine, currently in alpha.)  I especially adore games that let me design and share levels or gaming scenarios, and I'm an old fan of Little Big Planet, going way back to before that online community started to fade away.  So I am really looking forward to getting into the Ylands Editor and seeing what entertaining mayhem I can cause.

     

    • Like 1

  16. Posted

    This could be fun to have in the game sometime in the future, after they get the main game working right.  Could be an expansion, or even version 2.0  (I was confused by the title too.  Almost expected a suggestion about Spyro the Dragon.)

    Just last night in creative mode I tried putting a ship steering wheel and a Ylandium engine on some floating platforms.  It didn't work, but it would have been awesome if it did.  It's okay, we can still load up ships with lots of engines and zoom around the oceans like crazy people.

  17. Posted · Edited by Indomitus
    clarification

    It goes without saying, when we offer suggestions for ways the game could work, that they actually fix the core pieces first.  Before the map can do any of those things, yes, first it needs to work on a basic level.  In fact, this is the best time to make big requests, since they might be working on the core mechanics of it, and they can add in those features or the components they need to add it later.

     

    A couple more thoughts about the map  (I'm still learning the Editor, so if I suggest something already there, just let it slide.  I'm sure I'll find it later.):

    - As a tool for Creative mode, add the ability to reveal the entire map all at once one way or another.  Could be an option on the map that's only available if you have the Cube, or a special map that can't be crafted, only accessed through the catalog.

    - In the editor, add an option whether or not to show pre-built structures on the map.  If I've built a story that includes a village on one side of the island, maybe I'd like that village to show on the map, you know?

    - Maybe add a new map type:  Map Fragment.  Can't be crafted, just added through the editor.  It would only be able to show part of the map, and be an instant full reveal.  Would be useful for mystery scenarios with hidden locations.

     

  18. Posted

    On 12/22/2017 at 8:55 PM, BretticusRen said:

    I can't place a large mast on my ship. I built a custom deck on top of the base ship. I can make a small mast and place it, but it says "location is out of vehicle bounds" when I try to place large mast

    Ylands_171222_205410.png

     

    Vehicle Bounds includes the height.  I would guess the large mast is exactly as tall as the max height, and it goes too high if you put something under it.

     

  19. Posted

    I agree, and a few more thoughts about the map.

    1.  It would be nice to be able to zoom back (or click a button) and see all the discovered islands without scrolling.  To keep the mystery of things we haven't found yet, just fit the known islands to the page.  No detail needed for it, just maybe line art outlines of each explored land mass in a vintage map style.

    2.  I would like to be able to name the islands.

    3.  Would be nice to be able to mark locations on the map.  Need be carrying something to write with, of course.  But I'd like to mark where my buildings, caves, and other interesting things are located.

    • Upvote 1
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