Dev Diary #48

[Ane 1213]

Hi there, guys!

This week we have some exciting news to share about Ylands! Earlier this week, Ylands won the "Serious Game Development Award" at a prestigious game exhibition, sponsored by the Chinese Central Academy of Fine Arts and the Chinese Cultural and Entertainment Industry Association! The premise behind this award was "How to combine games with education", and so our in-game Editor was taken as an example of how it could be used as an educational tool for game designers.

 

And speaking of the Editor and what could be created with it... P1Gaming Community has just won a competition organized by Tencent, both for best builds and best creative games! Congrats, guys! You can tell how much effort went into it Check it out and be prepared to have your jaws dropped, because this is some impressive stuff!

Good job, guys! You must be really proud

 

Also, while I'm here, I'll sneakingly remind you that the other day I created a post where you can tell us about the most annoying Multiplayer issues you've experienced, or the ones that you know have been in the game for a while. Feel free to check it out and share your thoughts there. Here it is: https://ylands.com/community/topic/22382-multiplayer-issues

 

And that's it for this week! We'll be back next week with some more info on the development of the game! Have a great weekend!

[RacerX 0]

On 9/14/2018 at 7:42 AM, Ane said:

Hi there, guys!

This week we have some exciting news to share about Ylands! Earlier this week, Ylands won the "Serious Game Development Award" at a prestigious game exhibition, sponsored by the Chinese Central Academy of Fine Arts and the Chinese Cultural and Entertainment Industry Association! The premise behind this award was "How to combine games with education", and so our in-game Editor was taken as an example of how it could be used as an educational tool for game designers.

 

And speaking of the Editor and what could be created with it... P1Gaming Community has just won a competition organized by Tencent, both for best builds and best creative games! Congrats, guys! You can tell how much effort went into it Check it out and be prepared to have your jaws dropped, because this is some impressive stuff!

Good job, guys! You must be really proud

 

Also, while I'm here, I'll sneakingly remind you that the other day I created a post where you can tell us about the most annoying Multiplayer issues you've experienced, or the ones that you know have been in the game for a while. Feel free to check it out and share your thoughts there. Here it is: https://ylands.com/community/topic/22382-multiplayer-issues

 

And that's it for this week! We'll be back next week with some more info on the development of the game! Have a great weekend!

1: nobody cares about PR crap. What we care about is a functioning game that we payed for

2: annoying Multiplayer issues I've experienced are the ones the Devs should have tested themselves and not leave it up to the paying customers to do

Edited September 16, 2018 by RacerX

[RedEagle_P1. 905]

Ane, I would like to apologize for the internet as seen above. 

Moving on, congrats! I am very hyped to see Ylands used for education -- that idea has excited me ever since I heard the game will be used in some top universities in game development. 

I really hope this game get promoted as an engine and not just a game. Excited to see what the future holds. 

 

[RacerX 0]

22 minutes ago, RedEagle_P1. said:

Ane, I would like to apologize for the internet as seen above. 

Moving on, congrats! I am very hyped to see Ylands used for education -- that idea has excited me ever since I heard the game will be used in some top universities in game development. 

I really hope this game get promoted as an engine and not just a game. Excited to see what the future holds. 

 

Yep and so would these people. Because education is what is REALLY important right?

or maybe this one? All 736 of them

 

Edited September 16, 2018 by RacerX

[Indomitus 388]

Or you can try reading these.  All 1698 of them.

 

700 versus nearly 1700.  That's a ratio pretty much on par with GTA5, one of the most consistently popular games of the past few years.  (Pro tip:  Don't throw numbers at people who know numbers better than you do.)

 

And when you're done, here's a little more light reading:

Quote

...Im done with this game and BI

That was a month ago.  Do you need us to craft you a door?

 

Over the past couple years, I've bought several Early Access games.  They've all been fun, and I've enjoyed being part of the process every time.  Out of all of them, Ylands looks like one I might stick with for quite a while, once the Editor is up to the challenge of my coding style.  (I push systems to their limits, and frequently break them.)  There's a LOT of promise in the Editor, especially knowing they haven't even revealed all of the planned features yet.

The replay-ability for the game is pretty good, since one part of the game is creative in nature and the other part is procedurally-generated exploration.  I'm enjoying the offline gameplay, and once Online MP is stabilized, I'll rejoin that part of it, too.  I might even consider building my own Ylands server, who knows.

The players will come.

[RacerX 0]

4 minutes ago, Indomitus said:

 

The players will come.

I bet they dont. Go into Multiplayer lobby. How many people are playing? You can keep kidding yourself all you want if that makes you feel better. But I posted the facts like it or not. Not my problem anymore. Have fun

Edited September 16, 2018 by RacerX

[Indomitus 388]

"Will come" not "are here."  They haven't even started the marketing push yet.  You're not very bright, are you?

Don't let the door hit you when you leave.

[RacerX 0]

30 minutes ago, Indomitus said:

"Will come" not "are here."  They haven't even started the marketing push yet.  You're not very bright, are you?

Don't let the door hit you when you leave.

On second thought maybe they do need to focus on education...yours!  lol

Edited September 16, 2018 by RacerX

[RedEagle_P1. 905]

10 hours ago, Indomitus said:

"Will come" not "are here."  They haven't even started the marketing push yet.  You're not very bright, are you?

Don't let the door hit you when you leave.

Indomitus, I think we are best off just not answering or talking to people who have such a strong view. Ignore and move on is what I do. 

[Indomitus 388]

23 hours ago, RedEagle_P1. said:

Indomitus, I think we are best off just not answering or talking to people who have such a strong view. Ignore and move on is what I do. 

I almost agree.  In some cases, briefly engaging trolls can serve 2 purposes:  First, they can be more easily identified under alternate names.  For example, this particular pest is not new to the board.  This animosity is very familiar, and I could easily guess a couple of previous identities here, and one or two in the game.  Second, mods tend to take more notice when you light them up, show their true colors.  Just have to take the high road when you do it.  What they do with it from there is their decision.

That said, I think we're done with this one, so here's a helpful tip for everyone, on using this board:

How to Ignore a User:  Hover your mouse over their name.  Look for "ignore user" and click it.  On the following screen, select the items of theirs you want to ignore (posts, messages, signature, any mention of them) and click "Update Preferences."

[Onedown 28]

6 hours ago, Indomitus said:

I almost agree.  In some cases, briefly engaging trolls can serve 2 purposes:  First, they can be more easily identified under alternate names.  For example, this particular pest is not new to the board.  This animosity is very familiar, and I could easily guess a couple of previous identities here, and one or two in the game.  Second, mods tend to take more notice when you light them up, show their true colors.  Just have to take the high road when you do it.  What they do with it from there is their decision.

That said, I think we're done with this one, so here's a helpful tip for everyone, on using this board:

How to Ignore a User:  Hover your mouse over their name.  Look for "ignore user" and click it.  On the following screen, select the items of theirs you want to ignore (posts, messages, signature, any mention of them) and click "Update Preferences."

Why is it some people call everyone who disagrees with them a troll?  Just because you get mad doesn't mean they are trolling.  Divergent opinions are important to progress.  Galileo was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1633 because he had a divergent opinion that turned out to be correct.  Let's not throw back to those days when differing opinions were not tolerated.  This is my helpful tip to you,  don't take the opinions of someone else as a personal attack. 

[kimbuck 746]

I  often disagree  with the voices  in my head....    But  you are correct,  if  everyone had the  same  opinion and never thought "outside of the box" ...we would be playing  stone age versions  of Ylands  on a cave floor  somewhere and grunting  with excitement ......

[RedEagle_P1. 905]

I just feel like this statement was taking it too far: 

On 9/15/2018 at 6:12 PM, RacerX said:

1: nobody cares about PR crap.

 

[Onedown 28]

1 hour ago, RedEagle_P1. said:

I just feel like this statement was taking it too far: 

 

I don't think it's taking it too far at all,  first impressions carry a lot of weight and when enough people give a game a thumbs down and the game turns to mixed or mostly negative most people ignore the fluffy ads and pass without even giving the game a try.  I know I and most of my friends don't even bother looking at games once they get to mixed reaction because there are just so many games with very positive and mostly positive ratings.  I think game consumers are just getting tired of the buy it years before it's finished shtick.  Especially when a game has so many flaws.  It takes a whole lot of time and a lot of Ad dollars to turn things around.  Because yeah,  people don't care about the ads (what he was calling PR) as much anymore, they care about fun and if around half the people who play a game think its not fun I feel like there is a 50/50 chance I'll think it sucks too so I tend to stick to games with better ratings.  The last EA game I played there was also a call for the few current players to post positive reviews,  however that game shut down 6 months later anyway.  They should have made sure that what they presented to consumers and took money for was as playable as possible but they neglected to do that.  Little bugs in EA games eh,  who cares but some of the bugs in this game are huge deal breakers.  Also it seems to me a lot of the people posting these days aren't even playing the game, they are themselves spending time in the editor which doesn't seem to have the huge issues with sync and lag.  Ylands could have been an enjoyable experience for a lot more people if they had only concentrated on the most annoying bugs instead of plowing ahead with their time table.

[Miguel Preguisa 443]

This wasn't about different opinions. This was just about being rude.  It's always better to keep things polite.

How does these (same or similar meaning as the first from RacerX) comments sound to you? 

1. I would be more glad if you wrote something about game updates 
2. This again? Isn't there anything to share about the development itself? 
3. You don't want to give us what we want to read, heh? Always the same... 
4. Nobody cares about this. 
5. Nobody cares about PR crap. 
6. Go **** yourself and ***** this ***** totally ***** game.

Just one step from armageddon  You see, this is why I'm not on his side in this argument. 

 

Edited September 18, 2018 by Miguel Preguisa

[RedEagle_P1. 905]

I think there is a difference between strong constructive criticism and breaking people down. 

The discussion we are having now for example is quite constructive and we are all learning. When name-calling comes in though, people get hurt or offended and break away. I really want this forum to be a place of constructive criticism and honest debate without what is too common on some forums. 

[Indomitus 388]

On 9/17/2018 at 2:42 PM, Onedown said:

Why is it some people call everyone who disagrees with them a troll?  Just because you get mad doesn't mean they are trolling.  Divergent opinions are important to progress.  Galileo was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1633 because he had a divergent opinion that turned out to be correct.  Let's not throw back to those days when differing opinions were not tolerated.  This is my helpful tip to you,  don't take the opinions of someone else as a personal attack. 

The individual in question is a textbook example of a troll.  In all of their posts, under this name and previous ones (yes, I'm convinced their venom is not random at all) they have brought nothing constructive into any of the conversations.  Only attacks against other players, the game, and occasionally the devs.

This board is about sharing our experience in this game and giving constructive feedback to the developers so they can make it better.  A person can have a negative experience and still be positive about it.  In fact, my current opinion of Online MP is a negative one, but it's improving, and I'll try to give constructive feedback whenever I have something to say.

The comparison to Galileo, by the way?  Laughable.  This isn't religious persecution, pal.

[Achilles77 20]

Let me say I purchased the game about a year ago, way before it was even on steam, I enjoyed it so much that i bought 3 extra copies for my friends. We played for weeks, and being in pre alpha I had so much hope that this would turn out to be an amazing game. After a few weeks, we had basically done it all, so stopped playing until some more content came, this was over a year ago.. 

I understand that the devs are working on the game, I just feel they may have gone off track, with updates such as "meaningful music" or this new scripting editor, I believe players want to actually play the game and content within the game, not worry about editors and awards the game has won, sure you can show case that once you have a fully functional game, I am sorry But i have to agree with RacerX at this point, the game has many untuned bugs to say the least, the multiplayer lags and doesnt function like it should, I tried to play a little last week, and no new content really added into the game, still the same small islands, with the same buildings, creatures, domes and scenery. 

I notice there's a few righteous fanboys on these forums that attack anybody that doesn't agree with their views, you need to understand though, there is plenty wrong with the game at this time, and if you see my other posts I've given my personal views and what needs to maybe get added into the game, but it seems the devs are occupied with things to please the minority who praise the game on every little post or update (good or bad) that the devs seem to make. 

 

 

[Indomitus 388]

Let's compare and contrast a little here:

Achilles77 gives an opinion that could be taken as negative, but does so in a polite, constructive manner.

RacerX launched attacks and offered nothing to advance any meaningful discussion.  Not just in this thread, but previous posts as well, and the pattern was clear from their very first post.

 

Achilles77, while I strongly disagree with your post, you at least approached it like an adult.  In response, I'll point out that BI has quite a few people working on this game, and not all of them are focused on the same things.  Some parts of the team will advance in their tasks more quickly than others, and progress in one part of the game does not mean progress is not being made elsewhere.  This is perfectly normal in an Early Access dev cycle.  We can (and should) point out things that we would like to see improved, but we can't prioritize things for them because we don't know everything that they have planned.  We only see part of their list.  If you've paid attention to previous Dev Diaries and other communications, you'll be aware that there are TONS of improvements and new features waiting to be rolled out, and BI will do so when they feel it's the right time.

The Visual Scripting, in my opinion, is an update that was timed appropriately.  Releasing that to the Early Access users allows us to test it and learn how to use it, so we can get a head start building more interesting games, compositions, and worlds for the users that will come with the full release.  It's a smart strategic move.  (It also, honestly, primes the hype train a little, as we start pumping videos about it onto Youtube and other places, and you can't fault them for that because in the end they have a game to sell.)

[Aleš Ulm 1725]

Let me just step in with a few words.

Firstly we have never tried to hide from criticism or ignore it. I know we can't expect all the  people to read our Dev Diaries / read them regularly but those who do know that we are talking about these issues quite a lot. 

"I just feel they may have gone off track, with updates such as "meaningful music" or this new scripting editor"

You can't be further from truth. Meaningful music update was mostly created by one programmer who wasn't even part of the core team at that time and an audio designer. It had zero impact on potential delay of any other features while adding a lot to the gameplay. And as for the new scripting editor?

Ylands has always meant to be a game and a platform at the same time.  I don't really see how we can go "off track" by actually polishing and finalizing one of the the main game features - one we've been promising from the day one

Also, just because some parts of the game are still broken we're definitely not going to act as if nothing has happened when we win a prestigious award.

You feel like the new visual scripting editor was our only priority and that we're ignoring other game issues? Then you probably haven't noticed that in that same update we've brought the most fixes ever present in any update . And there will be even more in 0.11.

I think it's obvious we've moved into the polishing / fixing stage already but if the pace feels too slow for you just put the game aside for two or three months and come back later - unfortunately I can't give you a better advice at this point. I'm aware that we promised to leave EA sooner but things are how they are. I understand that the game ratings look worrying but that's the price we're paying for being too slow (or, to be more precise, for making poor estimates  ) - but at the same time you should know that everything mentioned in those negative reviews are things that are being looked into and are getting fixed one by one.

[Aleš Ulm 1725]

As for how people who criticize  the game are treated - these forums have seen a ton of criticism in the past five years. You can look up posts which are basically several pages of people pointing out games flaws, disagreeing with us  or getting worried about something. If you take your time find and them, you will see that in the absolute majority we discuss things with the players, other players either agree or disagree with what we or others have said - all that in a nice and civil manner.

I have never seen anyone who voiced any concern in a civil, well articulated manner to be attacked by the community. Strongly disagreed with? Sure, but that's how discussions work.
I'm pretty sure that everyone who follows few pretty basic rules (let's call them common decency) is welcome at these forums regardless of whether they praise the game or come to criticize it.

[RedEagle_P1. 905]

Well said.