Sneak Peek #48

[Aleš Ulm 1725]

Hey there, fellow ylanders!

With the update 0.8 “Meaningful Music” arriving in roughly two weeks, it’s high time we told you some more details.

 

Recent fixes

First though, let me give you some info about important fixes, as usual. A few days ago we released a hotfix meant to fix the issues where players were getting disconnected (a lot). Even though there may still be some cases when that happens, the game seems to be more stable now in this regard (let us know if you still experience this issue). At the same time, we made some changes that have substantially lowered the lag experienced whenever a new player has joined a more complex MP game. This rather quick fix was done at the expense of those who are joining the game - it may now take them somewhat longer to join, but this is only a temporary state and will be eventually resolved as well.

Initially, we planned to release another hotfix this week since we managed to fix another rather severe MP issue - actually one that could have been causing a lot of various problems. Before the hotfix was properly tested, we were finally able to reproduce yet another MP issue - one where players got stuck waiting to connect to an MP game. Since releasing the hotfixes creates some overhead, and with the next update coming out in about two weeks, we decided to release these fixes with the regular update instead.

 

Upcoming features

So back to “Meaningful Music”. Obviously, the biggest new feature is the dynamic music. We believe it will add a lot to the game atmosphere. To give you an example of what to expect - the combat music intensity is decided based on how much danger you’re in (based on your opponent's danger level), so you’ll be able to tell pretty quick if things get ugly and you should maybe consider performing a tactical withdrawal (sometimes known as “escape”) and live to fight another day.

The adventurous tune played when sailing the seas; the subtle music heard when diving into the depths. Specific tracks played at sunrise and sunset... we’re pretty sure you won’t be disappointed.

I’ve already mentioned new, free head models and hairstyles - and we’ll keep adding more. Also the hair now supports physics, which looks really nice.

You will now be able to buy decorations (will talk about those in detail the next week), armor skins and we’re also introducing packs, which let you get several things at once at a discount price.

We are already working on several large features for update 0.9 (that’s why there isn’t more to 0.8), but we will discuss these things with you once “Meaningful Music” is released to avoid potential confusion where some players might expect these features to arrive in two weeks' time.

 

Wubba lubba dub dub! (Rick and much more  one more time courtesy of @spyler.1989)

Upcoming fixes

As always there will be fixes present in the update. The one that I want to mention is MP map fix. The map should now work correctly both in SP and MP. To achieve that we had to rewrite the feature, which resulted in some changes. The map now looks a bit rougher (but is still nice enough) and it shows the initial world state, so if you, by some weird chance, manage to sink a whole yland in your world, it will be still present on the map. Your current location will get uncovered in every map currently present anywhere in your hotbar (regardless of whether it’s active or not). The feature is ready for note-taking which we plan to introduce in one of the future updates. And one important thing: the changes made to the map system will result in resetting your current maps (sorry, there’s no easy way of avoiding that). Please make sure that when 0.8 comes, you’re not located somewhere out there in the vast blue sea (if you need the map to navigate, you can take a screenshot of it for future reference).

 

That’s it for today, and I will talk to you next Friday. Until then have a great time, ylanders, and stay classy!

[Baz Foobar 102]

Looking forward to this one, thanks for the heads up.

[Eujen 29]

Oho! This is another really good sneak peek! I am soooo excited. Especially for the new heads and hairstyles..

I do have one small question.. you said.. hair now supports physics.. does it mean.. there's a chance.. for clothing... to support that as well? (Say like.. Maybe capes if we'll ever have those added in? Or like long trenchcoats?)
Anyhow! Cheers lads.

Keep up the good work.
<3

[Baz Foobar 102]

23 minutes ago, Eujen said:

... Maybe capes if we'll ever have those added in? ...

 

 

[RedEagle_P1. 905]

4 hours ago, Aleš Ulm said:

Hey there, fellow ylanders!

With the update 0.8 “Meaningful Music” arriving in roughly two weeks, it’s high time we told you some more details.

 

Recent fixes

First though, let me give you some info about important fixes, as usual. A few days ago we released a hotfix meant to fix the issues where players were getting disconnected (a lot). Even though there may still be some cases when that happens, the game seems to be more stable now in this regard (let us know if you still experience this issue). At the same time, we made some changes that have substantially lowered the lag experienced whenever a new player has joined a more complex MP game. This rather quick fix was done at the expense of those who are joining the game - it may now take them somewhat longer to join, but this is only a temporary state and will be eventually resolved as well.

Initially, we planned to release another hotfix this week since we managed to fix another rather severe MP issue - actually one that could have been causing a lot of various problems. Before the hotfix was properly tested, we were finally able to reproduce yet another MP issue - one where players got stuck waiting to connect to an MP game. Since releasing the hotfixes creates some overhead, and with the next update coming out in about two weeks, we decided to release these fixes with the regular update instead.

 

Upcoming features

So back to “Meaningful Music”. Obviously, the biggest new feature is the dynamic music. We believe it will add a lot to the game atmosphere. To give you an example of what to expect - the combat music intensity is decided based on how much danger you’re in (based on your opponent's danger level), so you’ll be able to tell pretty quick if things get ugly and you should maybe consider performing a tactical withdrawal (sometimes known as “escape”) and live to fight another day.

The adventurous tune played when sailing the seas; the subtle music heard when diving into the depths. Specific tracks played at sunrise and sunset... we’re pretty sure you won’t be disappointed.

I’ve already mentioned new, free head models and hairstyles - and we’ll keep adding more. Also the hair now supports physics, which looks really nice.

You will now be able to buy decorations (will talk about those in detail the next week), armor skins and we’re also introducing packs, which let you get several things at once at a discount price.

We are already working on several large features for update 0.9 (that’s why there isn’t more to 0.8), but we will discuss these things with you once “Meaningful Music” is released to avoid potential confusion where some players might expect these features to arrive in two weeks' time.

 

Wubba lubba dub dub! (Rick and much more  one more time courtesy of @spyler.1989)

Upcoming fixes

As always there will be fixes present in the update. The one that I want to mention is MP map fix. The map should now work correctly both in SP and MP. To achieve that we had to rewrite the feature, which resulted in some changes. The map now looks a bit rougher (but is still nice enough) and it shows the initial world state, so if you, by some weird chance, manage to sink a whole yland in your world, it will be still present on the map. Your current location will get uncovered in every map currently present anywhere in your hotbar (regardless of whether it’s active or not). The feature is ready for note-taking which we plan to introduce in one of the future updates. And one important thing: the changes made to the map system will result in resetting your current maps (sorry, there’s no easy way of avoiding that). Please make sure that when 0.8 comes, you’re not located somewhere out there in the vast blue sea (if you need the map to navigate, you can take a screenshot of it for future reference).

 

That’s it for today, and I will talk to you next Friday. Until then have a great time, ylanders, and stay classy!

Looking forward to that map fix! Keep up the good work

[Eaglestorm13 2]

Still need sp optimization too. love the game hate the studdering.

 

[Vilos Cohaagen 16]

Nice! Keep up the good work 

[Fight or Flight Gamer 4]

Will be able to zoom out on the map far enough to see all the islands we've discovered? That would be helpful. Thanks looking forward to the all the new updates!

[Zal334 1]

On 09/03/2018 at 6:23 PM, Eujen said:

Maybe capes if we'll ever have those added in? Or like long trenchcoats?
 

I second this!! Trenchcoats and such would be great for the pirate feel! Applying physics to other clothes items like skirts/dresses or scarves and ponchos would be a really nice touch too, if it's at all reasonably possible.

[Kathryn Davidson 1]

Not really looking forward to new stuff added to the game when the game (for me) crashes with no notice. The NPC's don't sell anything really worth having, and I play on mute anyway. What would be nice would be to play without it stuttering on and off again until it decides to just COMPLETELY FREEZE until I turn off my computer to get it off my screen.  Can you fix things like that first?

[kimbuck 746]

wow  dynamic  hair...do  we have to craft  shampoo?.... aloe vera shampoo ..good for the scalp  ... guess it     will be nice   but would be better if  introduced after the  game is  made to run smoothly 

[Eaglestorm13 2]

9 hours ago, Kathryn Davidson said:

Not really looking forward to new stuff added to the game when the game (for me) crashes with no notice. The NPC's don't sell anything really worth having, and I play on mute anyway. What would be nice would be to play without it stuttering on and off again until it decides to just COMPLETELY FREEZE until I turn off my computer to get it off my screen.  Can you fix things like that first?

I agree The shuddering should be a main priority over anything else to me at this point.

[Onedown 28]

10 hours ago, Kathryn Davidson said:

Not really looking forward to new stuff added to the game when the game (for me) crashes with no notice. The NPC's don't sell anything really worth having, and I play on mute anyway. What would be nice would be to play without it stuttering on and off again until it decides to just COMPLETELY FREEZE until I turn off my computer to get it off my screen.  Can you fix things like that first?

While I agree that playability should be the main focus I'd like to share some insight and correlations I have gained from 15 years as an industrial electrician / electronic technician.  Different people have different natural talents and any kind of company has to put the talents to the best use if they want to be successful.  Some people are more analytical and therefore make great troubleshooters.   Some people are more creative and therefore make great designers.  Some people are at their best when they are given a plan to follow.  It makes no sense to take your followers and designers and throw them at troubleshooting when they can be more effective doing other jobs.  As a sidebar I realize this is an oversimplification.  I'm frustrated as well at not being able to play Ylands right now but as consumers there is nothing we can do besides make suggestions because they control what and how much talent is available to them and how they use it, not us.  I watch the forums for news and make suggestions and report the bugs that affect me the most and then I go and be happy playing games that already work.  At some point the will either succeed with Ylands or fail and we as consumers can't control that.  Personally I hope they prevail.

[Eujen 29]

As I said in another thread. 
I don't see an issue with them adding new stuff to the game. 
They are a team composed of more than 1 or 2 people. 
As @Onedown said above. You have different roles for people. 
3d Artists, Programmers, Testers, Graphic Designers, Lead Developers etc etc. And each are doing their own job each day.
While yes.. I do know that the game isn't running at it's best. They said themselves that Early Access for them is the way to test Multiplayer. And as they said in quite a few threads now, they want and will fix issues with MP. 

Even if it is not an MP issue, the most we can do IF we want the game to actually be fixed. Is actually help the developers. "I have a crash? Ok. Let me take the logs from the game folder and mak a thread on the forums in the bug section on how that happened"

I worked for companies such as Ubisoft and Electronic Arts, and what most people don't know is that the developers when they attempt to fix a bug.. They can't reproduce it with steps like "My game crashed pls fix"

You need to actually help em and say like "Ok so I just started a new game, grabbed resources off the ground, and upon attempting to build a knife, my game crashed to desktop with no errors what so ever" Basically write down your problem as detailed as possible. So that when they attempt to reproduce it. They can see where the problem is and fix it a LOT easier.

I can tell you from experience that we had random crashes too where i worked previously on different titles. But upon further inspection they all happened because of a reason. I did that or did the other thing. 

Anyhow. I might start to sound like a broken record but. 
The game is still in Early Access, and compared to other titles the devs actually want the game to succeed because they create a game for us AND a platform to build our own games. This is the most Unique idea and game that i have seen in years. 
So.. what I can say is.. try to be more reasonable with them. Crashes and other issues happen. So attempt to reproduce it yourself and help em find out how that issue happens. Screenshots, videos, logs, dxdiags etc.
You don't HAVE to do that. But it's the best thing to do if you want them to actually fix issues that can be pretty serious. In return giving you a better and better experience.

Cheers!

[Kathryn Davidson 1]

While I am glad Eujen has a platform to tell us he works in this industry, I don't see what his CV has to do with me voicing my opinion.  I do not work with computers, software, or programming, but even lowly non-industry people such as I know that crashes happen.  As I am not an insider who is able to name-drop the companies I have worked for but don't anymore, I don't think telling me that I need to do all the stuff a professional beta-tester does would do helps. I don't know how to accurately "attempt to reproduce" the accident that is the problem, as the game crashes at least once every single time I play. I have sent the information the game devs asked us to send when problems occur that aren't easily fixed, but what happened was people commented on how they solved or tried to solve the same problem on their game and the devs marked it as solved. Fun!

Taking the extra time to record every gameplay, take screenshots, work up a log (I assume of key logs, or maybe a diary) and what ever else he thinks I should do would turn what often seems like an amazing game feel more like a boring, unpaid job.  If all that is needed to fix the problem, then perhaps some getting some programming students to intern as beta testers would be in the best interest of the game.

Not going to name drop, but this is not my first dance with early access, beta games, or even alpha games. Rushing to add more fluff to a game that lags, stutters and crashes doesn't seem like the best thing to do.  And fixing the things that stops me from playing the game in the first place would give a better and better experience than telling me in jargon to shut up and take these vendors that sell stuff I can literally gather myself right behind said vendor.

[Onedown 28]

1 hour ago, Kathryn Davidson said:

Taking the extra time to record every gameplay, take screenshots, work up a log (I assume of key logs, or maybe a diary) and what ever else he thinks I should do would turn what often seems like an amazing game feel more like a boring, unpaid job.  If all that is needed to fix the problem, then perhaps some getting some programming students to intern as beta testers would be in the best interest of the game.

I absolutely agree with you on this point it certainly isn't your job or any other customers job to troubleshoot a game in early access.  Some people enjoy that but for the most part people buy games because they enjoy playing games and game developers that rely too heavily on free labor from their customers place themselves at great risk of alienating their customers before a game is even released ( I should say finished here because the game is already for sale and that is what constitutes release).  I think so far the official dev posts have been respectful requests and Ane has never failed to say please.  I hope they stay respectful and remember that it takes customers to make them successful.  I think the majority of players think the concept of the game is great but we can't play a concept that is at present unplayable for a lot of people.  I really miss the days when games devs gave out free copies of games in exchange for beta testing because now somehow gamers have been duped into paying for concepts instead of finished games and i find it even more amazing that we actually buy into it, only twice for me and the first was a total disaster for the dev.  What used to be give and take between gamers and devs is now take and take.  The one and only reason I have submitted any bug reports or helped at all was the game currency that came with the purchase which i'll hopefully be able to spend once the game is finished which basically is at present worth a little more than the purchase price of the game.  I'd like to see the game succeed but not to the point i'm willing to invest hours of my time helping them.  In the end it's up to them as I said earlier to succeed or to fail.  I think it's a terrible idea for players to pressure other players into working for free and an even worse idea for devs to pressure players.  Just to be clear I haven't seen the devs here try to pressure players and i think they know they are the ones solely responsible for the outcome of this project.  I think within 5 years only the most predatory game devs will still be using early access without any kind of real compensation and only the most uninformed gamers will still be buying into the insanity of buying a product on what is promised.

[Kage'd 9]

Any word on the possibility of a tool belt of some kind?

[Ane 1213]

15 minutes ago, Kage-e8038c9be6912346 said:

Any word on the possibility of a tool belt of some kind?

That's definitely in our todo list

[Eaglestorm13 2]

7 minutes ago, Ane said:

That's definitely in our todo list

 

Hope not before the game gets optimize to remove the shuddering.

[Kage'd 9]

Yay! It would be nice to see it go live in 0.8 

[kimbuck 746]

Optimization will be a continuing  process throughout the life of this game. Anything new  added will affect how the   game runs. 

If the  devs were to try and  implement every demand  put forward  by those  not involved in the games construction,  what ra mess we would have! Logically they will ignore the " i want this now" crowd and try to  follow their  roadmap as they simultaneously  swat bugs, release  hotfixes, and analyse trouble logs  supplied by players  seeking to help.

Just because i  can play a bass trombone left-handed ( yes-- thats true in RL ! ) doesn't mean i can   blow  my  own trumpet in telling the devs whats wrong with the  code etc of the game, but i can tell them of  my experiences playing it, and that's what matters... if the  experience is  good,   recommendations will be good,  and people will  buy the game. That means  more finance for the devs to  improve and develop the  game.

Sometimes i post here  my  frustrations  with the  game   and its usually  over something thats pivotal to the game and if not attended to, itt will see others players  experiencing the same frustrations  simply   leave the game.

Our comments  here  are read..and  noted. I have received  feedback,  which is  encouraging.  All we should so is  keep   providing them with  feed back. They will listen to whats constructive, and whats a good idea.  If they Choose to ignore the   "sword wielding  kill all and  destroy all" minded players,  well .. this is a game of   creativity and  exploration....  and its obvious form the forum posts the  majority  here are of that genre.

All we  need to do is play the game   note whats  good and whats not, and  occasionally  poke    Ane  and Ales  to remind  them we are still here

Edited March 15, 2018 by kimbuck

[Eujen 29]

Alright.. I'm sorry if my reply to this thread was offensive in any way or anything of the sorts. I didn't want to make it sound that way.
By no means did I 'pressure' other people (Or at least that was NOT my intention) to do the job of a tester.  (I'm not affiliated with BI in any way so if there's shi* to be thrown at someone,  do throw it at me, since I'm not the best at putting an idea across)
 

Yes my CV has nothing to do with this. I was simply saying that issues happen in bigger companies as well. (not pointing any fingers here. Just talking generally > ) And when you post in the bugs section. At least try to make the thread/post somewhat understandable as to what the actual issue is. As I am pretty sure I wrote in my reply above "You don't HAVE to do that. But it's the best thing to do if you want them to actually fix issues that can be pretty serious."

Maybe I'm a bit 'triggered' now. It just 'bothers' me slightly that some people (no fingers. again) tend to take the worst out of an Early Access game. Instead of trying to offer 'pointers' as to how some issues happen. Since you will find some threads that just say they have an issue but that's about it. As to why I said what I said above about 'getting videos, logs, detailing in how the issue happens' is for the sole reason that. Someone posts in the bug section, most likely the devs look there for issues. So when you have 5 threads that say "game crash pls fix" and only 1 thread that details how a crash happens.. Then that 1 thread can get lost. In return, maybe getting to the game still having that issue.

All in all though. I apologize again if anything. Since I'm just talking generally here.
Maybe I just really like this game / dev team for the sole reason that they're active with the community. And they're telling us most if not all of their plans with the game.
They said the game will have an in game shop from the start, and their plans with it, and their plans with the game in general, those things alone are more than what 90% of Early Access titles do.

As to me saying I'm fine with them adding stuff. Some people complain about EA titles not having content. some complain about game not working etc. And I just wanted to detail as to why I'm fine with them adding stuff. If they have the people to do it.. Why not?
Yea the game lags, stutters, crashes (Altho imo I never really experienced most of the issues, but I mostly play Co-Op so yea)
Just saying that.. If you have a 3d Artist that doesn't know programming and they just make 3d objects.. does that person not work? It's their job to make 3d assets. So if they can add that in the game without much of a hit to stability.. there's no problem.

Anyway.. I know what I wrote above may not be the best way to word it. And some people may find offense in what said. For that, again, I apologize. Not my intention.

Cheers