Dev Diary #68

[Aleš Ulm 1725]

Hey there fellow ylanders,

just like the last time, today we pick a specific topic that we'll cover in-depth. This time we'll talk about all the improvements related to ships and sea in general that you will notice in update 0.12.

Pretty much ever since we added ships in the game there have been some related, annoying issues present.

Firstly, let's talk about multiplayer issues. Let me quote Filip "Buckey" Krijt, our programmer who worked on the fixes and improvements:

"Ships are a major part of Ylands, and sailing from yland to yland has always felt pretty cool in SP, but was tainted with the unpredictable danger of becoming shark food in MP. Basically, character movement on ships was not properly synchronized, so over time, the client would see their character in a totally different position than where he actually was on the server, and would eventually fall overboard. This was done because ships can only be correctly simulated and moved on the server, so the client’s character movement calculation would and the clialways be wrong,ent character would constantly be moved to new positions by the server – the lack of complete synchronization here, while annoying, was perceived as the lesser of two evils.

To solve this, we have integrated the notion of being attached to a ship into our network synchronization system, with an attached object now using position relative to that of the ship – effectively enabling the server to accurately tell the client where on the ship (instead of in the world) it currently is, and the client being able to simulate reasonably from there. Overall, we think this is a solid improvement and hope that, together with the ship physics and wave simulation movement improvements, it will make sailing in MP much, much more enjoyable for you!"

Yland Belle ship by Weezle (workshop)

Another problem was that ships were getting capsized by small objects, things were getting teleported away, and lot of other interesting situations.  With the upcoming update the ships have been re-calibrated, and so these situations should not happen anymore. The improvements we made have brought some other positive aspects as well, which never hurts, does it (smile). You should be able to unstuck your ship by moving backwards with more ease . While moving cars on ships still remains to be implemented, you can now transport horses.

Having ships consisting of dozens, hundreds or even thousands of custom blocks had a massive impact on game performance, regardless of whether the ships were moving or not, whether it was in a single or multiplayer. In 0.12 this problem has been resolved. The way ships (and cars, for that matter) are constructed has slightly changed. When you drop a ship hull in the scene, the ship is, by default, in what we call a "construction mode". It is absolutely static, can't be moved around, and so on. You can't leave the construction mode unless you have at least the bare minimum of what your ship needs in order to start moving around. Once you leave the construction mode, all the blocks you put on your ship get optimized so that don't affect the game's performance. This optimization process can take up to several seconds if your ship consists of a large number of blocks. If you'll want to edit your ship later, you can always enter the construction mode again, perform all your changes, and exit it again.

 

Ship of the Line by Georgecrushington (workshop)

But wait, there's more!

* There are larger waves at the sea now, so sailing is much more fun - we're sure you're going to like it.

* We have fixed the very ugly glitch where it was possible to look below the water surface without seeing the underwater, visual effect

* We have eliminated the effect the wind direction had on ships' speed, because the wind direction wasn't indicated clear enough, and until we found a way to do so, it was confusing for many players. The ships now feel much more responsive than before.

Also let's take a bit of tie to answer some of your questions:

The UI looks nice. But taking up the whole screen can be problematic, especially the inventory, if you are currently being attacked by something while you are in there. It has been requested in the past to make the outside bits less opaque so you can still see a bit. Is this in the plans?

We understand that this is an issue. Ylands is complex game that requires quite a complex UI - but we agree that it's important that you shouldn't completely lose awareness about what's going on around you so we want to make UI transparent enough so that you still have some idea what's going on around your character.

Will the new UI finally stop disabling me from seeing advanced items when I join a multiplayer map?

We are not entirely sure what you mean by this? Is this related to crafting some way? Are you able to see things you believe you shouldn't have access to?

I'd love to see a detailed list of what is coming out for the 0.12 update -- I find all the little sneak peaks a bit hard to tie together. (maybe next week DD, could be a collected list of 0.12 "resources"?)

That is a good point. We'll discuss how to handle this in the best way. Maybe we could have a sticky forum post where all the features would appear as they are announced.

That's all for now. Have a great weekend, ylanders, and stay classy!

[bojo2736 1016]

I'm going to build a horse transport ship.  

[Marci Magyar 160]

And guys, keep those questions coming for next week's Dev Diary

Have an amazing weekend!

[RedEagle_P1. 905]

Yay! I can finally build that boat base

Hopefully 0.12 will make servers really stable so we can keep our progress for the long hall without wipe. 

Will 16 player servers be a thing in 0.12? 

[Houp 237]

I would like to add a small note that at the moment we try to have list of new features for Visual Scripting (https://community.bistudio.com/wiki/Category:Ylands_0.12)

[Igor Q. 519]

Will the new UI finally stop disabling me from seeing advanced items when I join a multiplayer map?

when joining a map, the UI recipes starts from zero and forces you to build all the core buildings from the beginning and disabling the ability to see "late game" items until you build them.

For example, if I join a new explorer world and want to make it my objective to make a rifle as soon as possible, I shouldnt have to search wiki on what are the required resources/buildings to get that rifle....it should be visible from the start..

 

Alot of times joining a new world there will already be crafting stations available...but you cant see what you can build because of the visibility issue...

Edited March 8, 2019 by Igor Q.

[RedEagle_P1. 905]

23 hours ago, Marketing Marci said:

And guys, keep those questions coming for next week's Dev Diary

Have an amazing weekend!

Can you confirm if power barrier and is coming to editor maps? 

Also can we make multi-biome editor maps with caves? 

Also can we add logics to explore maps now? 

[WijkagentAdrie 384]

Oof, I'm a bit surprised by the removal of the wind feature. Is this temporary or permanent?

I don't think that the indication was the problem, it was merely the fact that the wind changed 180 degrees every 5 seconds, making it so that you couldn't plan your sailing tactics at all. Instead of removing I suggest actually working out the wind mechanic properly, with slower changes to wind direction/strength, maybe a way to predict this vaguely to plan journeys ahaid, and most important, have different sail shapes with different speeds according to the direction. This mechanic would actually make sailing fun instead of just pointing your boat in a single direction and tap W twice. For those players there's steam/ylandium engines anyways.

Adrie

 

[RedEagle_P1. 905]

Also can we optimize boats made in the editor or in the main game in the past? 

Edited March 9, 2019 by RedEagle_P1.

[ovring 2]

And can we optimize other constructions (houses for example) in editor and put it in explore?

and yes, possibility to export game logics to explore maps can be such a great thing...

Edited March 9, 2019 by ovring

[Indian Chief 239]

G'day, just wanting to know if the update comes out next week? Just so I don't waste time on a build on a server for it to get reset.

Cheers

[Deadeye_Rob 908]

On 3/9/2019 at 4:19 PM, RedEagle_P1. said:

Also can we add logics to explore maps now? 

I think this is a very 'logical' improvement.

With explore servers being the most played element of Ylands it would be great to allow us to add in our own little logic based features to give us more control over our servers.

[Ane 1213]

On 3/10/2019 at 7:28 AM, Indian Chief said:

G'day, just wanting to know if the update comes out next week? Just so I don't waste time on a build on a server for it to get reset.

Cheers

No, not next week

[Indian Chief 239]

37 minutes ago, Ane said:

No, not next week

Thanks Ane, not rushing you guys. Appreciate the response. Have a fantastic week

[Aleš Ulm 1725]

Hi guys!

Thanks for the feedback (questions not directly related to this DD we will answer as a part of this Friday's DD - that way more people will see the answers since not everyone follows the discussion below the post)

Recipes getting reset: I see now, thanks a lot! We'll definitely look into this

Wind removal: this isn't permanent, but the flags showing the wind direction weren't enough and less experienced players were getting confused by ships suddenly coming to a stop etc. (yes, the way the wind changed was one of the issues). When we have some nice visual indication of the wind and there's better logic behind the wind change, we will put it back in the game.

Also can we optimize boats made in the editor or in the main game in the past? Yes, you just need to enter the construction mode and exit it once for the ship to get optimized.

[bojo2736 1016]

8 hours ago, Deadeye_Rob said:

I think this is a very 'logical' improvement.

With explore servers being the most played element of Ylands it would be great to allow us to add in our own little logic based features to give us more control over our servers.

This is already possible on a limited basis. I am looking forward to what will be added.

[RedEagle_P1. 905]

4 hours ago, Aleš Ulm said:

Also can we optimize boats made in the editor or in the main game in the past? Yes, you just need to enter the construction mode and exit it once for the ship to get optimized.

Very hyped about that!

[jchob 354]

Nice to hear you are still working on improvements.

I think I haven't read anything concerning the blueprints fix. It's disappointing when it fails and totally "destroys" the building plan. 

We don't want you to rush the update, but we are getting waaaay anxious about it ?

Thanks 

Edited March 12, 2019 by jchob

[Ane 1213]

4 hours ago, jchob said:

I think I haven't read anything concerning the blueprints fix. It's disappointing when it fails and totally "destroys" the building plan.

Can you link to the bug post? Not sure what issue you're referring to

[bojo2736 1016]

It's the someone is using this bug. 

 

[RedEagle_P1. 905]

Is a model creation system planned for Ylands editor? 

[bojo2736 1016]

15 minutes ago, RedEagle_P1. said:

Is a model creation system planned for Ylands editor? 

What is that?

[RedEagle_P1. 905]

2 hours ago, bb cakes_P1 said:

What is that?

So you can make your own furniture and stuff. 

[Indian Chief 239]

Blueprint alignment needs to be looked at. Any chance you can make it to snap to the grid? As adding on is near impossible unless you've got the blueprint on the correct alignment, and 90% of the time ends up floating.

[Ane 1213]

17 hours ago, bb cakes_P1 said:

It's the someone is using this bug. 

 

Ah, in that case it will be fixed in 0.12.