Aleš Ulm 1725 Posted July 21, 2017 Hey there, fellow ylanders! After a few Dev Diaries here’s finally a Sneak Peek where we talk about what’s being currently developed for future updates. “Rainy Roads” are pretty much around the corner so we’ll go over things you can expect there - but since we kept you waiting for this post for quite a long time, let me make up for that at least a bit by mentioning even some of the features that are planned for later updates, features that we’re either already working on or that we have designed and are waiting to implement. So let’s start with the ones that won’t be in the upcoming update but that we are excited about so much that we just need to tell you right away As the team keeps growing we see first results. Our animators and programmers started working on a completely new character movement system. For a long time, we weren’t really happy with its current state. The controls worked in general, but at times they felt kind of sluggish, with the character not being responsive as much as we would like. At this moment we already have a prototype that makes controlling the character feel a whole lot better. Just to give you some idea - with these new controls players would be, for example, able to easily jump between small platforms where they are now struggling immensely. Also in addition to running, we’ll be introducing walking. Speaking of character controls - we’re looking into other things as well so even controlling a horse will be substantially improved. Once we’re done with the movement, we’ll be reworking the camera from scratch. In case you’re wondering what the overall game feel will be like when we’re done with this - probably the closest thing that comes to mind is the latest Zelda. Not only will that help improve character controls as well, but some things like riding a horse or sailing a ship will feel more natural and fun. Now we finally have enough designers so that we can go over every single system in the game, discuss what needs to be changed, removed, what feels half-baked and needs more love in general (and boy, are there many things like that! ). At first, though, we went over some things that you seem to be reporting a lot - so let me tell you something about the inventory. Especially those new to Ylands are often not used to games where you can pick up so many things in such large amounts and end up with an overflowing inventory almost immediately. The truth is that it may also not be always obvious which of the objects are important and which aren’t - but let’s leave this aside for a moment. Tired of feeling like Yago, grass and dirt always filling up your pockets? Never more! We don’t want to introduce an easy but not very realistic solution of letting players carry huge stacks of everything. It’s obvious we already let players carry around so much stuff that it has nothing to do with the reality - but we still want them to think at least a little bit about the space. We introduced containers (and we keep adding those - we’ve already added some that are super easy to create right at the beginning of the game, and we’ll be adding some large ones) - we want players to pack their stuff in containers on their ships as they sail into the unknown (or, newly, to put stuff in their cars' trunks). Nevertheless, we see that the current inventory system needs some improvements so this is what we’re planning on implementing. * ways of sorting the objects in the inventory * specific inventory “containers”. Those won’t be anything like backpacks you equip and can stuff anything into them. Those will be things like herb pouches, key chains, etc. For example, we are aware that a lot of inventory space is very often taken up by various plants. Now our plan is that if you put a herb pouch in your inventory, all your plants will be stored in it, freeing a lot of otherwise occupied inventory slots. It will be operated the same way as with things in the Cube that have variants - you click on the pouch, it opens, you see all it contains with the first slot acting as a “back” button. Things you pick will be automatically placed in the corresponding containers. This will let you carry more things while at the same time keeping your inventory organized. We’re also working on a system that would let you color many building blocks in the Editor to the color of your choosing. Green bricks anyone? Sure, here you go! So much for me creating some hype for the future updates (actually there’s much more we’re working on, but I need to keep something for future Sneak Peeks ) - let’s get down those Rainy Roads! Firstly we’ll be releasing this update with some internal changes and fixes done to dedicated servers. We believe these will fix at least some of the problems you’re experiencing - and for those that possibly remain we are now sending your internal errors directly to us as they’re happening, so even without you reporting a thing or sending a log we will have a way of checking how things are, and with all that detailed information we should be able to fix those and release a hotfix shortly. Some of you have mentioned that you would like to have all existing block shapes for all the materials (that, for example, some block shapes were only available as wooden blocks but not as stone blocks, etc.) - hopefully in this update you’ll be able to find what you were missing (be sure to let us know if you don’t!). There are some minor, but quite important improvements - for example setting up energy streams is now better visualised and easier to do. And don't forget about the new weather system, making our survival experience ever more challenging! Hm, that’s probably everything we wanted... oh, wait, the engines, right? When building a car, you will start with a chassis. Right now there will be two types available, but we’ll be adding more in the future. On the chassis, you may, as with the ships, build anything you want. There will be some new objects made specifically to let you make your car look like... well, like a car, but once again you can use pretty much everything that’s in the game to build your dream vehicle. If you want it to move, I suggest you add the seat with a steering wheel and at least one engine (yes, there can be more, giving you more power and speed). With this update, we will be releasing two types of engines: ylandium and steam engines. Ylandium engines need to be filled with ylandium cells (you should be able to tell how much “juice” each motor has just by looking at it). Steam engines run on wood and coal. To make things simpler, instead of making you place dynamo on moving parts of the car we made it already part of the engines, so they already come equipped with energy nodes. Why? Well, you will probably want to equip your car with lights (be it the front mask object with lights already installed or any of the existing light sources), so this will give you a way of powering them. If you step in your car and press forward, the engines will be started for your convenience automatically, and we turn it off once the driver leaves the car. However, if there’s no driver controlling the car, it’s possible to start the engine even from the outside of the car so that you can for example power the lights on a car that’s standing still. Cars can be obviously fitted with trunks. Also, to make sure you have some place to test the cars, there will be a nice racing track available for download at our Workshop. Another nice thing about the engines is that they can be placed on ships as well (not on the small boat at this moment - that will change though). Again those can be used both for propelling the ship and powering energy devices at the same time. When you’re in control of the steering wheel, you have the option to switch between sails and engines, so if the wind is good enough, there will be no need for you to waste the precious fuel... while on the other hand, you will be able to turn on your engine and make your way directly against the wind while waving the less fortunate sailors goodbye. So these are some of the things you can look forward to seeing in the game. We’ll be talking to you soon again and until then - have a great time and stay classy! 4 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Achilles77 20 Posted July 21, 2017 (edited) Awesome! Can't wait for the update, will there be any more clothing (racing car helmets etc) and new craftables other than engines? Edited July 21, 2017 by Achilles77 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Aleš Ulm 1725 Posted July 21, 2017 There's a lot of adjustments and fixes for existing items but, there's not much new (I mean thing not related to the new features). It's a bit unfortunate but I can't tell you why, what were our artists working on (in addition to cars and weather), because it's a kind of surprise - I hope that I will be able to give you more information about that in about a month or so . 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Hurricane43 36 Posted July 21, 2017 (edited) Nice update... Thanks... Will we the explorer be able to color blocks also and if so when is that planned? I would hope this is not just for the editor, because i really want to arrange my home with different colors such as my walls, and floors, and also not rely on modders which will have the coloring in the editor section. I can see this being an issue also if the editor has items like this and not the explorer's. My first thought is why am i not getting coloring blocks and the editor does... Is the inventory pouches planned for this update or the next update? Will the weather in each biome continue to rain or snow? Or will it stop at times? I could see an issue with it continuing to rain or snow the entire time i am in a biome.... What is the current discusion with stacking levels like stone, stone chuncks at 20, also books dont stack, and many other items currently sit at 20, will we see adjustments in this update so we can test it out and give feedback? Edited July 21, 2017 by Hurricane43 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
chivas477 56 Posted July 21, 2017 Good update, but got to say i'm more excited by the feature of painting blocks with different colors in the editor, it will make me able to do a lot easier pixel art and other creations, will wait patiently for that update, to pick up the editor again Keep up The Good Work!!! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Aleš Ulm 1725 Posted July 21, 2017 Coloring blocks in Exploration: that is definitely something we want to have as well - we still need to discuss how will this be implemented in detail. Inventory pouches: definitely not this update. I feel we really need to have it when we enter Steam in November, but since it's not as trivial as it sounds to implement, I'd rather not give an exact update where it's going to be introduced. But rest assured that we feel this is really important. The object stacking remains unchanged for this update. Could you maybe start a new thread about it (sorry if there's already one - just point me towards there) where we could discuss it separately? If we are to make any changes those will be mostly on per-item or group basis and we'd first like to talk about it. Thanks! Weather: sure, the weather you experience is based on the biome (no snowing in hot arid regions etc.). Also, the weather changes happen based on a certain system - it's not that it keeps raining every two minutes or so. We're looking forward to getting some feedback there. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MisterPoop 8 Posted July 21, 2017 A few ideas to make the game even more awesome. 1º - Pirates - This game needs to have NPC's with more AI. Pirates should be a way for you, before going on a journey, prepare yourself. Ships with cannons and stuff like that. 2º - Robots - You should be able to build robots. For example, robots that could help you get your building materials. That would be crew members operating in a ship cannons to hit pirates that would attack you. 3º - Treasures. You should have maps, treasures with gold diamonds. 4º - Sunken pirate ships should have also treasures and materials. 5º - When your ship went down in a fight, the world should be persistent and all your stuff should stay on the bottom of the sea. That way you should be able to explore the sea. 6º- Sea structures. Common it's obvious. Regards Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Sereiseth Chhay 0 Posted July 21, 2017 Could we have character more smooth and cute than now, in the future? I feel my character so ugly now. lols And pet, also so like a robot. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
WijkagentAdrie 384 Posted July 21, 2017 7 minutes ago, MisterPoop said: A few ideas to make the game even more awesome. 1º - Pirates - This game needs to have NPC's with more AI. Pirates should be a way for you, before going on a journey, prepare yourself. Ships with cannons and stuff like that. 2º - Robots - You should be able to build robots. For example, robots that could help you get your building materials. That would be crew members operating in a ship cannons to hit pirates that would attack you. 3º - Treasures. You should have maps, treasures with gold diamonds. 4º - Sunken pirate ships should have also treasures and materials. 5º - When your ship went down in a fight, the world should be persistent and all your stuff should stay on the bottom of the sea. That way you should be able to explore the sea. 6º- Sea structures. Common it's obvious. Regards There are already treasures, sunken ships, and sea structures. I definitely agree on #5, especially a way to salvage ships would be nice. For Ales: Can we also place the engines in houses to function as power generators that run on wood instead of ylandium? Also, I've made a quick sketchup with all the blocks that would be useful: Maybe 1x3, 1,4 or rounded versions would be nice, but the ones I've drawn (some are already in the game) gives us a full set to build nearly everything with. Also, could we have some smaller/different car lights that we can place on our creative built cars, including maybe some sort of doors and different types of seats/steering wheels? Adrie 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Achilles77 20 Posted July 21, 2017 39 minutes ago, MisterPoop said: A few ideas to make the game even more awesome. 1º - Pirates - This game needs to have NPC's with more AI. Pirates should be a way for you, before going on a journey, prepare yourself. Ships with cannons and stuff like that. 2º - Robots - You should be able to build robots. For example, robots that could help you get your building materials. That would be crew members operating in a ship cannons to hit pirates that would attack you. 3º - Treasures. You should have maps, treasures with gold diamonds. 4º - Sunken pirate ships should have also treasures and materials. 5º - When your ship went down in a fight, the world should be persistent and all your stuff should stay on the bottom of the sea. That way you should be able to explore the sea. 6º- Sea structures. Common it's obvious. Regards Those are great ideas! Even building robots like Terminator like robots would be awesome! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Hurricane43 36 Posted July 21, 2017 I can start a new thread this weekend, as am busy now with work and all... I like the idea of a "per item" or group for inventory issues. My top one would be stone, chuncks and marble at 20, as if you want to make a nice huge house or castle, with the stacking at 20 is alot of going back and forth and habing inventory issues... i think for myself most pressing are with stone, chuncks, marble, and some other i can list later as the most pressing... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
WijkagentAdrie 384 Posted July 21, 2017 3 minutes ago, Hurricane43 said: I can start a new thread this weekend, as am busy now with work and all... I like the idea of a "per item" or group for inventory issues. My top one would be stone, chuncks and marble at 20, as if you want to make a nice huge house or castle, with the stacking at 20 is alot of going back and forth and habing inventory issues... i think for myself most pressing are with stone, chuncks, marble, and some other i can list later as the most pressing... I feel quite the opposite, for me it's usually the little stuff filling my inventory, a few plants, tools, some food, some flint, some wood for fire etc. When those slots become available due to plant pouches and toolbelts 20 per stack should be more than enough, as you will be able to carry far more than now due to having more slots ofcourse Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Hurricane43 36 Posted July 21, 2017 Thank you Ales and team for the amazing sneak peek, we all want to make this game even more amazing than it is, and am sure you can see some of the passion we have... Good on you guys to listen, talk, and give us some insight to what is going on behind the scenes... Thanks for taking a minute to answer some questions during your busy schedule... Am going to test alot more this weekend and give input on my playstyle. So ylands, drinks, pool, and food this weekend.... 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Aleš Ulm 1725 Posted July 22, 2017 It's good to see that we're on the same page as most of the things are planned to be added at some point as well. As soon as we have NPCs we'd like to have some more interactive encounters like pirates raiding the ylands - for example some of them staying on the beach guarding their boat with a chest filled with loot with others venturing deeper in the yland looking for things to plunder. In general, once we have NPCs (both friendly and hostile), the gameplay will get a huge boost in many ways. You can already find sunken ships on the map (look for floating debris - sometimes it marks just like that) but those encounters can be more interactive and you should be able to salvage those. The robots you mentioned - definitely! Actually, we've had them as a part of the roadmap on our website pretty much since we put it there and that's one of the things we're really looking forward to having! It won't be a trivial feature to implement (we want them to be fully programmable) but if done right it will be epic. And thanks a lot for the great sketchup - I wil definitely get back in touch with you about those! Thanks for all the feedback and have a splendid weekend! 4 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bladefury 2 Posted July 22, 2017 Ales, when you talk about robots, could we possibly see Exosceleton type robots that could fight for you? Those type of robots? because that would be awesome! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Aleš Ulm 1725 Posted July 23, 2017 That would be awesome indeed! As a side note - I know you guys keep asking about the robots from time to time but I'd rather not go into details about that because of two reasons: firstly at this point, we ourselves have only a very rough idea about how we want them to work and before we're ready to discuss it any further more research and testing need to be done. And secondly - we are currently not working on this feature at all. Given everything that's already planned it is very unlikely they are going make it into the game sooner than within a year or so (unless we decide to strip them down of the advanced features we'd like them to have... which would be a pity). I know you are as excited about them as we are but I don't want you to be misled and to keep you guessing with every single update if they're already coming or not. We'll definitely let you know as soon as things start moving since we're gonna need a lot of feedback on that from you anyway. Don't worry though, there are many other awesome things coming your way before that 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
