Dev Diary #36

[Aleš Ulm 1725]

Hey there, fellow ylanders!

 

Today I would like to talk a bit about the Ylands servers, which is something we promised a long time ago but didn’t have time to do so until now. We’ve gathered A LOT of feedback over the past few months - way too much to deal with in a single post, but let’s start with those things you mentioned many times and return to servers in Dev Diaries at least once per month or so (promise ).

 

Server Linux distribution

As you may know, Ylands is powered by Unity and making simple projects run on Linux is very easy. Unfortunately, Ylands isn’t a simple project anymore. Don’t let me be misunderstood - a Linux port is possible, but it would take time and manpower we now need elsewhere, and to be completely honest we will need it for another task definitely at least before the game comes out of EA. If we made a Linux DS distribution, we would have to take care of it - it isn’t a “Fire and Forget” thing. Once people start using something, you have to make sure they are heard, bugs are fixed, code is updated - and you are all aware that we have many problems elsewhere. It’s true that it seems things will finally get better with new senior programmers arriving, but we would rather make them fix what’s broken than have them work on something new. That being said - we do know a lot of you prefer Linux to Windows DS for obvious reasons.
 

Simpler startup for new DS users

I have to say that we’re really happy with how people are helping those who don’t have enough experience with DS (especially since we have a very minimalistic “manual”). Things can definitely be improved so that even less technically savvy people can enjoy running their own DS - but it is not our priority at this moment. It will happen, but for the immediate future, we will still rely on the helpful community and step in where needed.
 

Be able to host XX players (where XX is any number higher than the current state )

The problem here is quite obvious - it’s not that we don’t want to change that one number somewhere in the code, it's just that the game is not ready for it. Our goal is to make sure that the game can handle more players at once (hopefully much more). This is one of the goals of some of our new colleagues. We will keep you posted on their progress.

 

Servers get cluttered real fast by dead bodies, things just lying on the ground etc.

This is something we are already working on. Bodies will eventually disappear and so will the random clutter. Things that decay will be removed first, solid ones later, and some specific ones will remain (no one wants a rare ylandium crystal to disappear, right?). What will also play a role is whether something has been spawned as a by-product (stone chunk as a product of digging) or if it has been placed in the world intentionally (so that stone chunks you placed along a path don’t start suddenly disappearing).

 

Ability to toggle the Creator Cube without having to go to the Editor

Yes, we hear you

 

Regeneration of resources

We know that it’s not a lot of fun to come to a world with all resources already gone. Pretty much from the beginning, we planned to have a system that would spread seeds and make all the flora grow - not only to recreate resources, but to make the world visually more dynamic. We also have some plans for resources that need to be mined. This won't come before leaving EA.

 

Ability to teleport to a specific player

Definitely a very useful feature. We will add that.

 

A lot remains to be done... proper tools are needed! (Image courtesy of @TheClockArm)

 

That’s it for the DS part - in a few weeks we will continue with this list (there are at least 20 other topics that we want to cover).

 

Now that we’re answering questions - some time ago we released the Q&A video. Only a fraction of your questions made it into it, and we promised we would try to answer the other ones in our Dev Diaries. Here’s the first batch of answers.
 

Will we be able to tame more animals in the future?

Definitely (quite obviously goats, which will, by the way, provide you with milk). Eventually, we would like you to be able to tame even predators and use them to fight by your side.
 

Will the map be bigger?

If you’re asking about the standard Explore map then no, that is not planned in the near future. However, you will be able to travel from it to another world, which will be big enough to keep you occupied for some time.
 

Could I please make popcorn with corn seeds?

We already have a smaller update planned that will be about improved farming, cooking and fishing. It will make it more fun and rewarding, and bring new recipes like the one you asked for.

Any chance you have some items that can be made from gold in the Workshop?

Definitely! We are planning to let you create both small and large items (statues) from gold, to show the others who is it they’re dealing with
 

How many major bugs need to be fixed before full release?

Several thousand (when you count things like minor visual glitches, values that need to be tweaked etc.). Several hundred if you count “critical” ones (game not behaving as expected, MP issues etc.)
 

Could you give us a sneak preview or mention a couple of the pets that will be introduced?

It’s no secret that parrots will be coming - everyone keeps asking for it, and so it shall be done. I think we will be hinting about another one shortly.
 

And that’s it for today. Have a great time, ylanders, and stay classy!

[WijkagentAdrie 384]

Sounds good overall, especially the DS bits and the new developers  One thing I'm questioning however is the resource respawning: I think it's absolutely essential to have this on leaving EA. Without it a lot of other fixes/improvements won't make any sense either, such as increasing the amount of players for a game. A higher amount of players on a map size that isn't going to be bigger, where resources are already running out on spawn island doesn't sound very playable to me.

Adrie

[Miguel Preguisa 443]

3 hours ago, Aleš Ulm said:

Bodies will eventually disappear and so will the random clutter. Things that decay will be removed first, solid ones later, and some specific ones will remain.

 

Does it apply to singleplayer games too? I have a habit of displaying my stuff all around and I can imagine that this system would mark them as a "rubbish".

See this picture of my old world: 

[RedEagle_P1. 905]

I love Ylands and I feel it has a lot of potential. I am hyped about Tencent getting behind it too. 

I wish you guys all the best and will be hoping to support :). 

Edited May 11, 2018 by RedEagle_MGN

[bojo2736 1016]

I want a predator friend! 

Improved farming: please please please make planting more precise. If seeds you plant could snap to a grid (as they do in the Sims) so gardens would look better. And make the plantable pots actually easily plantable. Window boxes hardly work at all. I need flowers around my house. And working vases inside.

[TheClockArm 52]

1 hour ago, bojo2736 said:

I want a predator friend! 

Improved farming: please please please make planting more precise. If seeds you plant could snap to a grid (as they do in the Sims) so gardens would look better. And make the plantable pots actually easily plantable. Window boxes hardly work at all. I need flowers around my house. And working vases inside.

Or maybe give seeds the option to snap to a grid? So we can do BOTH free place and grid place. As for grid placement, I think it should only snap on x&z axis while conforming to the ground on the y axis. However you choose to do it, I agree that seed placement and farming need a bit of work  

[WijkagentAdrie 384]

Regarding farming: Could we please have some sort of automation? Maybe make a coupler we can place on cars, allowing the coupling of various attachments such as seeders, plows and fertilizers  This could be expanded to diggers and other construction vehicles to flatten/smoothen land to make roadworks a lot easier!

Adrie

[BigBoss87 68]

Really really nice features!

Thanks!

 

[Brbrmensch 32]

those are nice features you mentioned, please take a look at unplayable lags and other complains sometime as well

[Indomitus 388]

On 5/12/2018 at 7:17 AM, bojo2736 said:

I want a predator friend! 

Improved farming: please please please make planting more precise. If seeds you plant could snap to a grid (as they do in the Sims) so gardens would look better. And make the plantable pots actually easily plantable. Window boxes hardly work at all. I need flowers around my house. And working vases inside.

I would be fine if planting just gave us an accurate targeting point.  Show me exactly where it's going to go, and maybe give the option to snap on a grid.

[bojo2736 1016]

Agreed. I wonder what the cursor even does?

[Frumuselu Codrin 0]

I bought the game mounths ago and still works like s**T.In some parts of the island I have 30 fps ,in others 100+.is unplayble.COME ON GUYS...DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS.==I have 6700k,gtx 1070 ,ssd ,16 gb===

[Apokh 18]

On 14.5.2018 at 8:44 PM, Frumuselu Codrin said:

I bought the game mounths ago and still works like s**T.In some parts of the island I have 30 fps ,in others 100+.is unplayble.COME ON GUYS...DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS.==I have 6700k,gtx 1070 ,ssd ,16 gb===

Whats bad about 30FPS? You should skip playing "Alphas" if you want polished gameplay. And stop using caps...it´s infantile

[V-Alfred 367]

2 hours ago, Apokh said:

Whats bad about 30FPS?

Hahaha, they're usually people(newcomer millennial or GenZ) that suddenly playing games in 60+FPS.. I guess they never feel the rough good old days.. 

[Frumuselu Codrin 0]

Whats bad about 30FPS?!?!?! In these days there are players who enjoy plaing in 30 fps ?!?! Man ..we are in the year '18 not '72 ..I would love a little optimization instead of adding objects updates...#Apokh write me in private ,I can give you and address of club 60+,where everybody listen Abba band and enjoy playin' tetris games..

[StoutCrusher 37]

On 5/14/2018 at 1:44 PM, Frumuselu Codrin said:

I bought the game mounths ago and still works like s**T.In some parts of the island I have 30 fps ,in others 100+.is unplayble.

There is an issue with some spawned trees, or the destroyed Church building, the one with the front section broken in half and laying on the ground. I find I have better FPS by going into the Editor, making sure the broken Church isn't in my world, if it is, I delete it. Then I delete all the trees, it is time consuming. When you run a server, getting it to last longer than a few days is priority, doing this is a necessity. In the rare moments you are running around in a forest and all the sudden FPS sky rockets, there's more than likely a glitched tree somewhere. Sadly, to find it means deleting all the trees in the area, but if you're in the Editor, then just delete every tree and place new ones so you know this isn't an issue. Players will chop the few trees you placed and make forested areas on their own. Now the issue on the Coast or out in the Ocean are flying Sharks, when you see one, just kill it, this will help your FPS rates. Also, Horses are an issue, don't ride them, just kill them. Lastly, Ships...I think Ships are broken right now due to the grandness people build on them. Having 1 Ship near you that is built up with a lot of parts seems to kill FPS rates. To resolve this issue, we all use Propeller Packs and no Ships, we do still use Rafts and Boats.

If you don't think this all helps, StoutCrusher & Friends S8 (Dallas) has been up since 18 April, that's over 1 month!

[SyxtySyx 184]

3 hours ago, StoutCrusher said:

There is an issue with some spawned trees

Seems to me that the Tall Coniferous trees when originally spawned don't show a name when targeted. Once chopped and replanted from the seeds, the tree once grown will now show it's name. I have also noticed that Palms don't show a name until they are fully matured. 

 I don't know squat about code or scripting, but I assume that there could possibly  be script errors caused by incorrect entity tags. 

It seems worse in MP, but I still notice a FPS hit in SP game.

I think the issues with the churches and some of the other generated structures has to due with clipping since I seem to spot flickering textures on a few of them which leads me to believe that there are overlapping objects and such.

[SyxtySyx 184]

On 5/18/2018 at 9:22 AM, Frumuselu Codrin said:

Man ..we are in the year '18 not '72 ..

Lol Pong reference. 

Not sure if I would go as far as saying that it is unplayable since I have 1147 hours ingame. 

[Indian Chief 239]

17 hours ago, SyxtySyx said:

Lol Pong reference. 

Not sure if I would go as far as saying that it is unplayable since I have 1147 hours ingame. 

 

Wow Syxty, I wonder if anyone has played more than you? I'm at 767, so the game is definitely playable.... just with a few "rules" on each server like Stout mentioned makes things run smoother. 

[bojo2736 1016]

1210 hours for me.  I bought it on the release date. 

 

[V-Alfred 367]

See, if it's not that enjoyable, 200 hours is really the MAX..  God knows what were you doing with your life for 50 days(1200 hours). 

[bojo2736 1016]

On May 20, 2018 at 12:07 PM, SyxtySyx said:

 

I think the issues with the churches and some of the other generated structures has to due with clipping since I seem to spot flickering textures on a few of them which leads me to believe that there are overlapping objects and such.

Flickering blocks: I found while working inside my barrier, there were indeed two blocks placed. Using hammer, I could deconstruct and get rid of the extra. Though how they got placed in the first place, I have no idea.

[V-Alfred 367]

7 hours ago, bojo2736 said:

Though how they got placed in the first place, I have no idea.

You can do that especially in Multiplayer. It happens when your connection have delay (high latency) between you and the server, or I would say laggy and then you build or put the blocks rapidly. When delay happens, 2 kind of input which is after each other will often overlap. I often experience that when I play on EU or NA, because I'm from PA region. 

[Skadiii 0]

i really like the rpg update,especially the new creatures like the golems,goat people and such. things like zombies and such would also really suit the game,maybe like a zombie survival mode or something. but the game is lacking danger so im allways happy to see new entities in the game.
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the "exploration mode" should be free in my opinion as it is the <core> of the game, and it would attract way more people onto the game. things like costumes cosmetics,advanced buildings,specific modes would be payed for.
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the character creation could also use a touch up since the whole player base looks similar due to a very limiting character costumization. features like eyes,heads and hairstyles should all be in seperate categories and should have their own sliders for colors,maybe even height sliders would add a unique touch. there could also be some premium: colors,hairstyles,faces which you would have to pay for.maybe even add races (elfs,zombies,aliens,etc.)
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all of this would take alot of time to make but, in conclusion, since its a sandbox game, the things i listed would launch the game up and running for years to come. and im more then glad that the developers read and listen to their community!

ps: we need sprint in this game