Dev Diary #25

[Aleš Ulm 1725]

Hey there, fellow ylanders!

 

The new year 2018 has just started, and we're all again fully focused on fixing issues and bringing you new content. In this Dev Diary, I'd like to summarize what issues are troubling you the most and what is that we plan to do about those.

But first, let me start by telling you what you can expect in the upcoming weeks. 

 

UPCOMING UPDATES

The next major update is 0.7 "Cheerful Characters", will introduce NPCs into the game and will be released in the first half of February. Initially our idea was to have, right from the beginning, even rather advanced hostile NPCs patrolling ylands, "factions" that could fight each other with you taking a part in that fight, but the truth is that the current state of combat is plagued with many problems and needs to be fixed - there is really no point in introducing feature B, which relies heavily on feature A, until we're happy with how the feature A works - and we're definitely not. 

So the first iteration of NPCs will bring you mostly friendly NPCs. You will be able to meet those randomly during your travels. Some will talk to you or even ask you to do things for them for which you might be rewarded. You will be able to trade with them - be it a lonely farmer that offers cheap vegetables or a vendor selling objects that you would have a hard time getting elsewhere. You will be able to trade with other players as well.

With all this (the initial support of very simple dialogue-branching and "quests") accessible in the Editor it's only a matter of time before some of you come up with cool games for others to play. We will, as usual, have something ready for you as well  - something to show you what's possible to do.  

Just to be clear - when we talk about vendors and trading, this doesn't have anything to do with the monetization. Speaking of monetization though, in 0.7 we wanted to introduce Decorations, armor skins, and some other things as well but we decided to delay those. Working on monetization-related features while the game still has a rather high number of critical bugs would be unfair and would make no sense. We hope that those of you who were looking forward to those features will understand.

 

We hope you had a great Christmas holidays...wherever you decided to spend them! (Courtesy of @Frank16Gr)

 

MOST PRESSING ISSUES

I already mentioned bug-fixing. Fixing the critical game issues is of the utmost importance to us. There are issues small and big fixed every day - most of them will be present in update 0.7, but because that is still weeks away, in a week or two we will be releasing bug-fixing update 0.6.3.

Every day we go through both Steam and Ylands.com forums (and through what you send via the in-game feedback tracker) and take notes about what issues are critical and which ones happen to a lot of players. We have an internal list called "Most pressing unresolved issues" which has around ten entries that are both critical (game crashes, players are prevented from doing something with no workaround or the issues result in some very annoying behavior) and widespread. Even though programmers fix other features as well, those are the ones that haunt us, the ones that we're trying to fix asap (which, unfortunately, may not always be possible due to various reasons).

Let me tell you what is currently on our list:

* Character starving to death while being offline
This has just been fixed and will be released as a part of the upcoming 0.6.3

* Game crashes during rainstorms
We are currently looking into this

* Crashes when using crafting panel
So far we have been able to confirm, that it is happening with older AMD (ATI) video cards on drivers/unity engine level. If all goes well 0.7 will be released on the latest Unity engine version, and there is a chance that it might help resolve the issue. In the meantime, we're still looking into it.

* Host Unreachable
This is a rather unfortunate issue. If you're among those experiencing it, first take a look here http://steamcommunity.com/app/298610/discussions/2/1620599015865077154/. The thing is that the absolute majority of possible causes resulting in this issue have nothing to do with Ylands itself (we're using Steam networking). The sad truth is that with pretty much every MP game there are some players who are experiencing this behavior because it may be caused by anything from an antivirus or firewall setting, their network topology or it can be related to their provider and as much as we would love for everyone to be able to play Ylands, these issues are something we can do nothing about. That being said we are still looking into this to make sure that there's absolutely nothing on our side which could be a reason for this as well. 

* Inventory items disappearing or getting stuck between inventory slots/ outside the inventory panel etc.
We are aware of this issue and understand that it is rather annoying, but at least this gets "fixed" by restarting the game. We are planning to do some GUI-related changes, and this will get fixed along with some other issues.

* Items being invisible when placing them [MP]
We are looking into this

* Ladders teleporting players to odd places
This has just been fixed and will be released as a part of the upcoming 0.6.3

* Map not saving in MP for clients
This is a known issue - map doesn't work correctly outside of SP. It needs more than one simple fix. We understand, though, that it is a crucial tool and needs to work in MP as well. As soon as it is fixed, we can start working on one of the most requested features - putting notes or symbols on the map.

* Player with current account in session
This one is probably the most critical one on the list. There's nothing worse than not being able to play the game you bought. We're looking into this right now.

* Rain/snow getting through buildings/caves
Not really a critical one, but very annoying nevertheless since the last thing you want is to create a house to keep you warm and then see rain falling on your bed or carpet through the roof. This doesn't happen always so we are now gathering save files from those who are experiencing it so that we can fix all the possible causes.

* Ship won't turn after placing certain items on it
We are looking into this

* Stuck at loading MP screen
Another very nasty issue. There were several causes for this and we've already fixed some - but obviously at least one remains unfixed.

* When logging back in, new character creation panel is prompted
Again, a very serious issue - players not being able to continue playing with their character. This has, for some reason, started happening lately and we're already looking into it.

(please note, that while two of these issues are marked as fixed in the upcoming 0.6.3, there may be more)

DEDICATED SERVERS

The last thing I will mention today is Dedicated servers. Shortly before the Christmas holidays, we started distributing DS beta among those of you who asked for it. The number of those interested was enormous - way more than we expected. Because so many of you are using it these days, in 0.6.3 we will be releasing a fix for the basic admin tools so that you can add and remove admins, kick or ban players and know who's currently online. 
Speaking of DS - everywhere you look we say that it is buggy, not optimized, with a very little support and shouldn't be used for anything "serious"... and yet we are already seeing some companies renting Ylands DS on a commercial basis. Given what I just said we consider this very irresponsible and not a good idea.

And that's it for this week. The next Dev Diary will be about features that you request the most (two of which are already in the works ). Until then, you have a great time, ylanders, and stay classy!

[Wei QI Tan 0]

Can we can a update preview earlier?

[BigBoss87 68]

Thank you

[Miguel Preguisa 443]

The new NPCs sound better and better! I have a ten day holidays on the start of the February so I will have a plenty of time to experiment with it. 

[arkaeldren 17]

Not trying to be picky here, bugs should always be a number one priority, but so is keeping updates fresh with "REQUESTED" additions and changes.

1) Dinghy being tied to main ship

2) Being able to simply zoom out to see your entire map.

3) Storage solutions such as toolbelt exc.

4) Additional crafting/cooking of any kind.

5) Decorative/Construction/Weapon or any and all types of items.  These are models, with skins, that do not take much time to roll these assets straight into updates.

6) A couple new ship types, again these can be done with very little impact on team resources,  but provide huge gains towards keeping current players interested.  (Were already loosing some higher level Youtubers just from lack of content let alone end game)

Now I know this is a slow process and the ideas the team plans to implement are vast and full of content, but during this time we need visible, tangible content that directly relates to what we have been doing since Dec EA of Ylands. MP might be a huge long term supporter for Ylands, in fact I'm sure at some point,  the ratio to solo players will be extremely significant.  But right now we have a TON of solo players needing updates with the community's requests to be included. NPC's are a decent team resource but will end up being a quick burst of game play with very short longevity in comparison to just "More Sh!t to do, build, craft and explore. Please don't take anything I say as derogatory or condescending, I really want to see this new IP succeed.

Thx guys, sure hope your team has gotten some fresh blood and numbers, and that you have the capability to produce quality/quantity at the rate its going to take to keep this on the Gaming Radar.

Edited January 5, 2018 by arkaeldren

[Aleš Ulm 1725]

Sure - that's exactly the reason why the next week's Dev Diary will be dedicated to this very topic

[arkaeldren 17]

17 minutes ago, Aleš Ulm said:

Sure - that's exactly the reason why the next week's Dev Diary will be dedicated to this very topic

Like I said, I am just reiterating on what has made some new IP launches successful and some fail.  I am absolutely not telling you anything your team doesn't already know.  No matter what a person thinks of himself, or what the people around him tell him he is, being so wise as to not feel the need to listen to lets say,  a 60 year old homeless man,  might mean he believes he's "wise enough".  My bad, philosophy always sounds so trite.  Ales I am looking forward to everything your team plans to release over the next coming months, I am addicted and completely feel the gaming industry has lost sight of the meaning of entertainment.  So much "Realistic Graphics" video quality with ultra smooth frame rates.  Wanna know why Zelda BOTW did so well, or why Fable is still considered one of the best games to come out of that decade.  You don't have to look to far, Ylands has this.

Edited January 5, 2018 by arkaeldren

[WijkagentAdrie 384]

One thing I'd like to see added to the important fix list is the ships/cars corrupting in the editor saves. Blocks un-paint, un-move, and un-delete themselves. This severely limits the editor usability at the moment.

And a request for parts/feedback on the first iteration of the barrier: can we please have large doors, 4x10 and 5x12 size so we can make garage doors that can fit our cars. Please make sure they still look okay when flipped to make double doors of course Currently you can lock cars, but can't prevent them getting destroyed. It would be nice to store them safe inside our garage/house   And while you're there I'd like to see a 4x4 gate (so we can  extend the door height, but it would also make a nice trunk door on cars). Also some normal height 4 wide doors for houses and ships would be nice, or maybe they could be 7 or 8 blocks high.

Adrie

[Ane 1213]

26 minutes ago, WijkagentAdrie said:

One thing I'd like to see added to the important fix list is the ships/cars corrupting in the editor saves. Blocks un-paint, un-move, and un-delete themselves. This severely limits the editor usability at the moment.

Are you referring to this issue?

 

[arkaeldren 17]

10 minutes ago, WijkagentAdrie said:

One thing I'd like to see added to the important fix list is the ships/cars corrupting in the editor saves. Blocks un-paint, un-move, and un-delete themselves. This severely limits the editor usability at the moment.

And a request for parts/feedback on the first iteration of the barrier: can we please have large doors, 4x10 and 5x12 size so we can make garage doors that can fit our cars. Please make sure they still look okay when flipped to make double doors of course Currently you can lock cars, but can't prevent them getting destroyed. It would be nice to store them safe inside our garage/house   And while you're there I'd like to see a 4x4 gate (so we can  extend the door height, but it would also make a nice trunk door on cars). Also some normal height 4 wide doors for houses and ships would be nice, or maybe they could be 7 or 8 blocks high.

Adrie

To me this just helps validate all the great issues with Alpha, especially with a new IP.  Putting out fires as well as creating as much content per patch that is possible.  Stating the obvious sure, but its an extremely critical balance,  to find assets to include in every update,  where the ROI equates to maintaining player interest/satisfaction.  Reminds me of Micro$oft purchasing MC for a calm 2.5bil, then Mojang as well as whomever else was thrown at the project to do basically nothing.  Sitting back watching the modding community create TONS of content,  with practically Zero staff, then watching vids from the lead of Minecraft brag about releasing another "SKIN PACK".  Why it reminds me?  Because they paid an Incredible, VAST amount of money thinking they could just ride out its current state.  Minecraft might still be one of largest cash cows in gaming, but its loosing ground fast, and that is due to a complete halt of innovating and creating new content.  With a new IP its all about trying to figure out the most cost effective/wanted changes, additions with every update.  Thing is that's just as true with a Monster like Minecraft as it is with Ylands.

[Derriere 1]

4 hours ago, Aleš Ulm said:

Initially our idea was to have, right from the beginning, even rather advanced hostile NPCs patrolling ylands, "fractions" that could fight each other with you taking a part in that fight...

The word should probably be "factions", btw.

Looking good so far! Always super nice to read these updates, I'm excited to see where development goes. Also still hoping there are more advanced options for graphics settings for us poor saps on laptops and older computers.

[WijkagentAdrie 384]

23 minutes ago, Ane said:

Are you referring to this issue?

 

Ah yes, my bad! Didn't see your response! Hope it is fixed indeed  

[Aleš Ulm 1725]

@Derriere yes, definitely! The game needs to be much better optimized before we leave Early Access - it's more likely though, that it will happen gradually over the course of several months instead of us delivering a very significant performance improvement with a single update.

[Gary Bruey 1]

5 hours ago, Aleš Ulm said:

* Host Unreachable
This is a rather unfortunate issue. If you're among those experiencing it, first take a look here http://steamcommunity.com/app/298610/discussions/2/1620599015865077154/. The thing is that the absolute majority of possible causes resulting in this issue have nothing to do with Ylands itself (we're using Steam networking). The sad truth is that with pretty much every MP game there are some players who are experiencing this behavior because it may be caused by anything from an antivirus or firewall setting, their network topology or it can be related to their provider and as much as we would love for everyone to be able to play Ylands, these issues are something we can do nothing about. That being said we are still looking into this to make sure that there's absolutely nothing on our side which could be a reason for this as well. 

Ok but why just your game don't work in multi and not all steam games ?

Edited January 5, 2018 by Gary Bruey

[kimbuck 746]

There is an old  saying   from a wise man (not me)  that goes.... "Softlee,  softlee,  catcheee monkeee" ....

Its  great to see things  being  fixed and implement   ..... its best it is done in manageable  steps  than something radical that destroys the entire game.

Keep up the   good  work ...   ooooh! -  and which one of you stole my car? 

[Isaque Barisch 1]

Hey guys, nice thing you guys are so willing to hear your community.

I was wondering if you might add in the future in the settings an option to disable mutated animal. That would be cool for those seeking an easier exploration mode.

 

[WijkagentAdrie 384]

I've got another request:

Can we have either a new tool or the ability to switch modes on the shovel so we can smoothen land like we can with the terraformer or in the editor? I'm trying to make nice gravel roads but currently I can flatten up to a certain amount, after that I have to use the axe/pickaxe to do manual finishing which is a load of work!

[Miguel Preguisa 443]

3 minutes ago, WijkagentAdrie said:

I've got another request:

Can we have either a new tool or the ability to switch modes on the shovel so we can smoothen land like we can with the terraformer or in the editor? I'm trying to make nice gravel roads but currently I can flatten up to a certain amount, after that I have to use the axe/pickaxe to do manual finishing which is a load of work!

It would be nice if the whole terraforming was more "friendly". For example ability to change the color of terrain. Sprinkle some sand or gravel (both in the game as items as well as most of the other terrains) to make nice paths. Or scatter around grass seeds to patch up the inevitable weird brown dirt spots left after terraforming. Maybe even various dirt blocks to make nice terraces and more? 

[Vega3221 32]

The more one do and play the more it start to lagg!!

 

Optimize must be no1 !!

I am huge upset now and decided to reply here. After i was on my way back to main island the game started again to lagg.. it was so huge this time that the game went into a crash. When i reload game i was in the could ice sea with a view of my huge ship sailing away for me with days off stuff i collected from like 4-5 islands :\ Try to swim after the ship with no luck!! I re-spawned on a icy island just to freeze to death

The game like always play almost lag free.. but after visit a few islands it start to stutter and getting huge laggs. It is like there maybe a memory leak or that the game reloads all island and sea traveled data  even if one is not near that area.. Like i say if you start it feels good.. almost lagg free but your trouble start if you build that huge tools and start to travel.

It must be memory or graphic related, while getting that huge lag's i monitor hard disc light and there almost zero action...

My Pc is not a potato setup so it cant be it low geared for the game.

 

That said... days work is GONE.... fully setup ship with tools and all is sailing into hell :\

Ps. by the way, this world was the 3rd world i started.. the rest all started to lag and became almost unplayable.

Thanks for the GREAT game but i think optimization needs 1st priority and not adding new stuff like NPC's.

[kimbuck 746]

Have you  considered a  use for  gravel?  perhaps it could be  crafted in to  concrete shapes etc   using it and  some   sand and  clay? Could it be used to  cast gargoyles, dado's  and other  decorative items   for  building facades,  in addition to the current  stone items.

[Bigglermon 18]

Vintage style propeller-driven airplanes, please. They don't need to be fast and would be great to fly from Yland to Yland in an open canopy 1 or 2 seater aircraft. Biplane, Triplane designs.

[Slane 1]

I am very glad to hear this.. NPC challenge and Combat were the two things I have been most concerned about so this is pleasing to my ears.

 

I'm all for the friendly NPC's too.. May I ask then, what changes just in general can we expect for combat? What about bullet physics for all weapon types? A little bet of a less "restrictive' melee system?

 

Thanks.

[Chris Young Noize G. 8]

you can add a pickable and not pickable option check mark so u wont be doing it on every new single item you put in the editor

[kimbuck 746]

Regarding   NPC's  ... will there  be a " man or  girl  Friday "   ..as in  "Robinson Crusoe" ...after all in explorer mode  we are castaways..   

[Noctally 1]

First of all, thank you Ylands Devs Team for all the hard work and making a very unique game, that allows players to unleash their inner creative beasts. I just can't wait to see some friendly or not NPCs in game and yes combat system fixes are essential, so please make it work properly before adding new things to the game.
Also, thank you Ylands players for creating so many beautiful things. Your ships, houses and inventions are breathtaking and inspiring.

Ok, here's my ugly list of things, which I find the most annoying and game ruining.

1. Lack of physics. In other words, things don't fall. The only things that fall down are: player's character and animals in caves (fall and land on top of player). Other things, such as logs, seeds, pieces of wood just hang in the air, spoiling the view.
Second issue with physics, some items placed on ship don't move with the ship. I realized that, when I decided to plant some trees and bushes in the pots I placed on my ship's deck. They all left behind (waving me goodbye when I was leaving dock).
Water physics is a separate chapter. Water in Ylands doesn't "act" like water should. It should fill all the holes and adjust to the shape of terrain, but it simply disappears, making ugly holes in the ocean and on the land it just vanishes, when you dig or flat the land.
It would be great to be able to create water bodies in game, such as ponds, small lakes, waterfalls and rivers, also to store water in various containers and perhaps use it in some new recipes?

2. Insane animals, means horrible movement animation, creatures stucking in objects, stucking in holes, spawning inside of human built structures, stucking in the water or just floating in the sky, animals freezing while attacking player (like they couldn't decide what to do) or just running like crazy in random directions for no particular reason.
Horse riding feels more like horse driving (when horse is an old rusty Soviet tank).

3. Player stucks in the objects. Restarting game or damaging the structure that player is trapped in sometimes help, but usually it means game over, which is painful after many hours of playing in particular world.

4. Too many similar items. Precisely, there are too many items  that in player's inventory look very similar (or exactly the same), that includes various types of seeds, wooden items, things made of hay and so on. Having more variety of textures and item icons in inventory would be helpful. Here some of you will say "you can always read the item description". Well, I don't know if the game is already translated to all known by humanity languages. And perhaps some people who don't understand English would like to play Ylands too? Maybe kids, who don't read well would like to play Ylands as well? Which means images representing particular objects, items and devices should be clear and readable for everyone.

And here's a short list of my New Year ideas and tiny improvements that I'd like to see in game
(I realize others probably requested some of these things before).

1.Male and female mannequin to display sets of armour and various outfits.
There are so many fantastic wearable items, which we can additionally dye to create even more sets. Sure we can stuff them all inside of containers, but it would be great to make them more accessible (and some people could finally stop making friends of sticks and stones).
Adding mannequins shouldn't be difficult, since male and female body models are already in game. We just need them to be possible to make of different craftable materials, such as wood, stone, marble, maybe even ice. 

2. Craftable floating buoy to mark interesting spots in the areas covered with water.
Such buoy would emit light, which would make it visible from some distance and after placing this type of item on the water it would appear on player's map as some sort of sign, a dot or other symbol.

3. Wallpapers. I noticed there's not much use for paper in the game, while paper itself is easy and super cheap to make, so theoretically we could flood the world with paper stuff, but we can't, cause there are no recipes. We can craft maps and what else? It would be great to be able to craft wallpapers with different patterns, to decorate walls. Perhaps players could create and upload their own patterns or buy some awesome wallpapers from the Yland store in the future? 

And that's all I think. I hope I didn't bore anyone to death.

Have a great 2018 year everyone! Stay healthy and creative. Cheers!