Sneak Peek #51
Hey there, fellow ylanders!
Right now, we’re testing the upcoming update 0.9 "Comfortable Cooperation". If things go right, this might be the last Dev Diary before it gets released. If, however, we see the testing requires more time, there will be one more before you get your hands on it.
There’s one thing that we haven’t discussed yet that is part of "Comfortable Cooperation". As you may already know, one of the new features is how your avatar visuals will be treated. Up until now you always had to select a name and appearance of your avatar for every single game you started (Explore, Create, or any custom game). Starting with 0.9 you will have access to your persistent avatar in the Main menu (under the Home section, which we plan to make a cool place where you will be able to adjust your avatar, check your pets, achievements and much more). There you will be able to change your avatar appearance at any time / as many times you want to. In any game you then enter (new one or one where you already have a character), your avatar will look just the way you set it up. In some games you will still be able to choose a role before you enter them, which will change your clothes and equipment, but your character’s facial features, hair and skin color will be just as seen in the Main Menu panel.
That much we already told you. At some point, though, we decided to add what we originally planned for some future update – a feature we might call Ylands name (or game name, if you wish).
The way how players have been identified in the game has been a bit confusing up until now. When communicating with us, some have given their Steam Id, some their Bohemia Interactive id, the nickname they chose when filling in their Bohemia Interactive profile etc. Also, it was way too easy for griefers to simply change their name and keep harassing others while assuming a new “identity” with every game they entered.
What we, in the end, decided to put in 0.9 is the following behavior. Every player (be it a new one or someone who’s been playing for a longer time) will be asked at the screen where their avatar can be adjusted to enter their new Ylands name.
* this name must be unique. After you pick your name (if the game confirms that it‘s not already used by someone else), you can be sure that the only one with that name present at any game will be just you
* you will be able to change your name one more time in case you make a bad call the first time. If, for some valid reason, you’d need to change it again, you would have to contact our support and they might help you with that
* in all games, new or existing, you will be seen by others by this name
* the name can contain only common alphanumeric characters There are many advantages to having such a unique easy-to-work-with identifier. It will be much easier for server admins to manage their players and for players themselves to report those who misbehave. It will be very helpful when, in the future, we implement some sort of friends list. The disadvantage is quite clear - some players might have liked the fact that they could enter each game as someone new, and those will probably miss that feature. We have, however, gone over both pros and cons of implementing this, and in the end decided that having an easily manageable environment, where people can quickly locate and identify those they want to play with and stay away from those who have proven to be problematic players, is something that we want.
Some explore new worlds, others create them (First blocks of a Runescape Ylands map courtesy of @Demonai_Warrior) Here we come with another round of questions and answers!
I think the game lacks a story line. Explore/survival mode shouldn´t be just go to island to island gather resources, explore caves and stuff. There should be like something you have to do to "complete" the game. For instance, Minecraft in survival mode, the "end" of the story line, is to kill a dragon. There are a lot of players asking for something like this. When Ylands comes out of EA as Ylands 1.0, it will be with a big bang and a whole new world (that is, by the way, the reason, why only a minimum of new objects are added into the game these days – we need something to fill the new world with ?). It will be at that point that a storyline will be presented to players.
Any chance you have VR support in the plans? We have done some basic tests and were able to run Ylands with a VR headset. That being said, there’s a long way between putting together a quick prototype and something that is actually fun to play with (and something that doesn’t leave you feeling sick for the rest of the day ?). It’s definitely possible that we will venture further in this direction, but for now we have other priorities.
How about making small npc towns, like maybe of 4-6 nps. Like in the image of this post, make a "native american" town, a wild west town, a small pirate yland town, or even a stone age town! And to make it simpler, just have only have one npc from the village sell the goods that they make! Something like that was our plan when we implemented the NPCs (along with pirates raiding ylands from time to time). Unfortunately, it became obvious, that we needed the programmers to focus on some other task, so while NPCs are in the game, their AI is pretty much nonexistent. Things are changing for better, though, because just yesterday another senior programmer joined our ranks. He will be focusing on AI, which he has a lot of experience with. The team is growing so fast now that we’ll probably dedicate one of the future Dev Diaries just to tell you who’s working on Ylands right now – we’ve definitely came a long way from the four or five people we started with ?
Maybe can add more weapons? There will be both new weapons and armors available when the new world comes out with Ylands 1.0 later this year.
How about specific weather or temperature on specific spot that you can set in Editor? This is, indeed, planned. Both letting players set a specific weather in the Editor, but also a machine that would let you affect the weather while in a game.
So that’s it. As always – do let us know what you think and don’t forget to check next week’s Dev Diary. Until then, have a great time, ylanders, and stay classy!
* you will be able to change your name one more time in case you make a bad call the first time. If, for some valid reason, you’d need to change it again, you would have to contact our support and they might help you with that
* in all games, new or existing, you will be seen by others by this name
* the name can contain only common alphanumeric characters There are many advantages to having such a unique easy-to-work-with identifier. It will be much easier for server admins to manage their players and for players themselves to report those who misbehave. It will be very helpful when, in the future, we implement some sort of friends list. The disadvantage is quite clear - some players might have liked the fact that they could enter each game as someone new, and those will probably miss that feature. We have, however, gone over both pros and cons of implementing this, and in the end decided that having an easily manageable environment, where people can quickly locate and identify those they want to play with and stay away from those who have proven to be problematic players, is something that we want.
Some explore new worlds, others create them (First blocks of a Runescape Ylands map courtesy of @Demonai_Warrior) Here we come with another round of questions and answers!
I think the game lacks a story line. Explore/survival mode shouldn´t be just go to island to island gather resources, explore caves and stuff. There should be like something you have to do to "complete" the game. For instance, Minecraft in survival mode, the "end" of the story line, is to kill a dragon. There are a lot of players asking for something like this. When Ylands comes out of EA as Ylands 1.0, it will be with a big bang and a whole new world (that is, by the way, the reason, why only a minimum of new objects are added into the game these days – we need something to fill the new world with ?). It will be at that point that a storyline will be presented to players.
Any chance you have VR support in the plans? We have done some basic tests and were able to run Ylands with a VR headset. That being said, there’s a long way between putting together a quick prototype and something that is actually fun to play with (and something that doesn’t leave you feeling sick for the rest of the day ?). It’s definitely possible that we will venture further in this direction, but for now we have other priorities.
How about making small npc towns, like maybe of 4-6 nps. Like in the image of this post, make a "native american" town, a wild west town, a small pirate yland town, or even a stone age town! And to make it simpler, just have only have one npc from the village sell the goods that they make! Something like that was our plan when we implemented the NPCs (along with pirates raiding ylands from time to time). Unfortunately, it became obvious, that we needed the programmers to focus on some other task, so while NPCs are in the game, their AI is pretty much nonexistent. Things are changing for better, though, because just yesterday another senior programmer joined our ranks. He will be focusing on AI, which he has a lot of experience with. The team is growing so fast now that we’ll probably dedicate one of the future Dev Diaries just to tell you who’s working on Ylands right now – we’ve definitely came a long way from the four or five people we started with ?
Maybe can add more weapons? There will be both new weapons and armors available when the new world comes out with Ylands 1.0 later this year.
How about specific weather or temperature on specific spot that you can set in Editor? This is, indeed, planned. Both letting players set a specific weather in the Editor, but also a machine that would let you affect the weather while in a game.
So that’s it. As always – do let us know what you think and don’t forget to check next week’s Dev Diary. Until then, have a great time, ylanders, and stay classy!
