Dev Diary #56

[Aleš Ulm 1725]

Hey there, fellow ylanders.

For a long time we have tried to separate general topics and those that covered upcoming features into two specific types of posts - Dev Diaries and Sneak Peeks. Lately the difference has started to become less and less apparent, so we believe it’s time to continue with just Dev Diaries that will, from now on, contain everything we want to tell you at that point. In other words: the name will always be Dev Diary from now on, regardless of the actual content. 

Now let’s move over to more important things - actually to VERY important things. This Tuesday, Ylands has been released in China as a part of Tencent’s Early Access programme. Below you can see the release video. Tencent's artists created an epic vision of what Ylands can become and we'll do our best to get there.  (big grin) 

Jokes aside, this is a big moment for us. Getting to this point was anything but easy, but if we succeed in China, Ylands will get yet another boost that Steam players will benefit from - the team can grow even larger, issues are reported and reproduced faster and the game will become more "visible". It may sound like a cliche but we truly are extremely excited about this. It’s a great satisfaction to watch the first Chinese streamers play Ylands - even though we have no idea at all what they’re talking about, it’s obvious they’re having a good time playing the game (and so are we while reading texts shown in their channels "translated" by Google Translator - so unless Skynet is going to eradicate humankind with poorly translated jokes, the AI will have to evolve a bit more before it becomes an actual threat  (smile)  ).

 

Chinese Ylands Early Access trailer (link leads to Tencent's online video player)

And last but not least - Ane and Marci (in other words our "Ylands Community and Marketing Department") have started posting more interesting content through our social channels, from time to time we are releasing short Instagram stories where various Ylands devs talk about what they’re working on right now, and there’s some other interesting content being posted as well. If you want to know more about us and about what we do, don’t forget to check those once in a while!

Speaking about being more informed - next week I would like to let you know what’s causing all those darn issues related to ships, and what are we currently doing to fix it.

That’s it for today. Have a great weekend, ylanders, and as always - stay classy!

[RedEagle_P1. 905]

Good job on the release in China! Look forward to all this game will become!

[Miguel Preguisa 443]

It feels somehow off to see Ylands like this. I'm glad that this may help the development in some way. But I hope to stumble upon as few ChinaYlands material as possible in the future.

Edited December 15, 2018 by Miguel Preguisa

[RedEagle_P1. 905]

I just found out P1's work is featured in the new Ylands China trailer! It's even the thumbnail! 

https://v.qq.com/x/page/k0805b08uxe.html

Be proud P1 team! 

 

[bojo2736 1016]

So, are we going to get the clothing choices I see?

[bojo2736 1016]

Also, can we buy the 10Cent version?

[RedEagle_P1. 905]

You would need WeGame. It's not worth it really. 

[bojo2736 1016]

I am a bit of a completest.... 

[A3_Melle 150]

Congratulations Ylands team with this milestone! The trailer looks really great, do have a question: will the Ylands version in China be the same as we are running(steam) with features? I did see a train (driving on tracks) pass by, the same with that vulcano that would just be pretty cool to have on a Yland you visit (and dangerous of course)?

[Brbrmensch 32]

the trailer is great, too bad the game has nothing to do with it

[Knoble 3]

Yeah! 1.0! and you guys still can't get the targeting system right! 
I am aiming at the wolf directly in front of me, and a hit the tree 5 meters to my  right. I swing again and this time I hit the grass behind the wolf! Your fix to this, remove 1st person view.

Its sad when you are given a GREAT game like Ylands, and the Priority over the most important feature of a survial game, the ability to defend yourself, has a lower Priority, then adding NPCs.

So while you are patting yourselves on your own backs, We are all sitting back here looking at each other wondering who you got in charge over there? ATM I am guessing the person in charge of the Ylands development team is a rabid raccoon with a magic 8 ball, but what do I know. 

Hope you fix it soon! Till then, "may your sails never block your view!"

 

Edited December 15, 2018 by Knoble
used the wrong word

[RedEagle_P1. 905]

2 hours ago, Knoble said:

Yeah! 1.0! and you guys still can't get the targeting system right! 
I am aiming at the wolf directly in front of me, and a hit the tree 5 meters to my  right. I swing again and this time I hit the grass behind the wolf! Your fix to this, remove 1st person view.

Its sad when you are given a GREAT game like Ylands, and the Priority over the most important feature of a survial game, the ability to defend yourself, has a lower Priority, then adding NPCs.

So while you are patting yourselves on your own backs, We are all sitting back here looking at each other wondering who you got in charge over there? ATM I am guessing the person in charge of the Ylands development team is a rabid raccoon with a magic 8 ball, but what do I know. 

Hope you fix it soon! Till then, "may your sails never block your view!"

 

Its not 1.0 yet. 

FPS cam will be back, it was removed for fixing until 0.12.

[Aleš Ulm 1725]

I am guessing the person in charge of the Ylands development team is a rabid raccoon with a magic 8 ball
Now that would be a fun (although somewhat unpredictable) boss to have  

Seriously, though, we've not yet reached 1.0 (we still have few months ahead of us) but we will be fixing and improving things even beyond that. I understand that removing 1st person view wasn't a popular move, but switching to it because there may be some issues with 3rd person view during combat isn't really a solution. If there are issues present, we'll find them and fix them. If you like the game and want to help us with that, you can report those issues or create a post with feedback.

As for the Tencent Ylands version: players are indeed required to have WeGame client installed (which is similar to Steam).

You don't have to worry about them having access to something present in the video that the Steam version doesn't have - in the trailer they are showing how they see the future Ylands games, it's a vision of things to come. We really like what they've created and who knows what Ylands games / Explore worlds will look like in the next few years?  

[Aleš Ulm 1725]

FPS cam will be back, it was removed for fixing until 0.12.

Now that is not entirely accurate . It will take much longer for us to bring fully working and polished 1st person back (a LOT of things will have to be (re)created - pretty much every avatar animation will have to be changed, combat will have to heavily adjusted etc.). As we said when we removed it - we don't have enough resources (people/time) to do this before 1.0 so it will definitely come at a later date (just like the water simulation).

It's true, though, that for 0.12 we are planning something related to this, but I would like to address this in one of the first January Dev Diaries.

[Aleš Ulm 1725]

Oh, I forgot about one more thing - we're received some games from our community to check why are they still running very slow. So far the main culprits have always been (just as we expected) ships. Even if you have one ship in your scene - even if doesn't move, if it's SP, it can slow the game down easily by several dozen fps. This is something that will be fixed in 0.12 and I will talk about it in the next Dev Diary. If your game doesn't perform well enough even without ships, please send them to me via PM, we're always ready to check the out. Thanks again!

[bojo2736 1016]

Ships... in a sailing game... can't wait for 0.12

[Knoble 3]

Listen I am not complaining about you removing the fpv! I am complaining, because you cannot hit what you are aiming at! I have given a couple of examples below! I will mspaint some pictures for the devs if they need it. 

I have a wolf in front of me! He wants to eat me! I have a sword! I want to defend my self, and maybe get some meat! I swing my sword, and I chop down a tree behind the wolf? The wolf kills me! Why, cause you care less about my targeting system then the wolves! Is this some type of conspiracy?

I want to build this wall. This block is in my way! I use my hammer to remove the block! And the block i am standing is removed. Imagine my surprise in that Wylie Coyote moment!

Please stop trying to fix, add, or think of anything else, till you can fix that. Being able to hit what you are aiming at should have been the first thing you fixed, even before going to alpha.  

[TheSparkPlug 128]

I'd be happy with being able to open the chest I am actually looking at, rather than a random one... above, below,  off to the side or even behind me.

[Knoble 3]

20 hours ago, TheSparkPlug said:

I'd be happy with being able to open the chest I am actually looking at, rather than a random one... above, below,  off to the side or even behind me.

Exactly!