Dev Diary #75

[Marci Magyar 160]

Hey there fellow ylanders,

This week, let's talk about friends with benefits.

In the next update (before you ask: we don't have a fancy name yet, and yes, it's coming soon(tm)) we will be focusing on the social aspects of Ylands, trying to make sure your adventures are a bit less lonely and it's easier to find like minded individuals to explore with.

One of the coolest and most useful tools in your arsenal for this will be the fancy new "friends list" feature, so let's get to know this piece of code a bit better. Disclaimer: Mr. Friends List is still young - and will probably grow / change / surprise us before he is ready to go public - so please take everything here as "work in progress".

First of all, let's see WHY we are adding this feature to the game:

• We always wanted Ylands to be a highly social game, where you explore, build and play together with others. And while those things are certainly possible even now, we feel there is room for improvement - and that is the main reason for the friends list, to make it easier and faster to find people to play with
   
• Amongst other things, the feature will revolutionize the way you communicate with others within the game - gone are the days when you have to use an external solution for this, the friends list will let you chat with whoever and whenever
   
• An extension of this will be the more streamlined way of meeting others within the game. Since you'll be able to communicate with any of your friends, regardless of their current activity - you will be able to easily set up a game or jump into an exiting one, even from the main menu - with your friends
   
• At the end of the day, this is just a step (an important one) towards making sure you have to spend less time trying to get into a game and more time playing with your friends
   

Now let's dig into the crunchy details! Within and with the friends list, you'll be able to:

• search for friends and add them to your friendslist,
• see if any of your friends are online and what games they are currently playing,
• (if possible) directly jump into their game,
• invite them to a game you are currently playing,
• block people you don't want to receive any messages from
• create a “clan”, which is a group of players that play with each other often and can have a special group chat window,

Some extra juicy bits for last

• all invites and requests will be handled through our new notification system
• within the notification you'll be able to accept or reject any invitation / request
• the clan feature will be expanded in the future, to make it more robust

So there you have it - a first look at the new friends list feature coming to Ylands. Hopefully you like the direction we are going with this, if yes - let us know how you'll be using it (maybe it will trigger some new ideas), if not - let us know how and what you'd change / add / remove!

That's all folks - for now - stay classy and have a great weekend!

[Marci Magyar 160]

Oh and keep the questions coming, we'll answer them (and last week's one) in the next DD!

[Igor Q. 519]

Sounds like an upgrade from the PVE mod I made ? 

will we also have the option to not appear online?

Will the update for this patch also take a very long time to come?

Any news on new costumes? (I still want a demon costume)

Does ylands plan to ever implement 3D model imports?

Edited April 26, 2019 by Igor Q.

[TheSparkPlug 128]

Will we be able to use our (perfectly adequate) Steam friends list?

[CdriXX 29]

No fix today? 

[Miguel Preguisa 443]

As I'm not a part of the P1 nor do I use Disscord, this news are welcomed. I actually played an online multiplayer game in Ylands only once ? And it was pretty fun! 

Will we be able to view other peoples friendlists? 

Is the "friendship" going to be approved from both sides (like Facebook) or one sided (follow on a non-secured Instagram account)? 

[Indomitus 388]

Is there any plan/possibility for the chat to include voice?

[V-Alfred 367]

next update is called "The Friendzone".. ? lol

anyway, how about global and local/yland chat channel?

[Marci Magyar 160]

14 minutes ago, V-Alfred said:

next update is called "The Friendzone".. ? lol

anyway, how about global and local/yland chat channel?

Fantastic Friendzone.....hmm....that could work......?

[CdriXX 29]

@Marci MagyarHello, no fix today ? ?

[Marci Magyar 160]

4 minutes ago, jeunekeum54 said:

@Marci MagyarHello, no fix today ? ?

Not that I know of - any reason you were expecting one specifically today?

[RedEagle_P1. 905]

Clan update seems like a great idea! 

I would love a global chat and a new users chat to help new ppl too. 

 

 

[CdriXX 29]

7 minutes ago, Marci Magyar said:

Not that I know of - any reason you were expecting one specifically today?

@Marci Magyar Thanks for the reply, the bug about deconstructing items inside the magical barrer, the bug about drill (and the others ...)

Edited April 26, 2019 by jeunekeum54

[Marci Magyar 160]

Just now, jeunekeum54 said:

@Marci Magyar Thanks for the reply, the bug about deconstructing items inside the magical barrer, the bug about drill (and the others ...)

Oh don't worry, they ARE getting fixed, but I don't have the ETA sorry

[SweetPeaCC 16]

With all this social stuff gearing up, is there plans for Official Explore servers coming back to use said friends with? With separate PVP and PVE servers?  Will we be able to have many clans or sub clans?                         

[bojo2736 1016]

Maybe because the servers are still having issues?

 

[RedEagle_P1. 905]

Do you have plans for 16, 24, 48 player servers? 

[Shadow72 187]

Do you guys plan on making sea voyages more dangerous? Maybe pirates or sea monsters?

[Igor Q. 519]

1 hour ago, Shadow72 said:

Do you guys plan on making sea voyages more dangerous? Maybe pirates or sea monsters?

Same! I really want thunderstorms with huge waves to be able to destroy the ship

[RedEagle_P1. 905]

1 hour ago, Igor Q. said:

Same! I really want thunderstorms with huge waves to be able to destroy the ship

They have talked about something like this

[kimbuck 746]

How about  lightning  being   dangerous ...if   caught  outside   on a high  area?   ( death message    " Oh  snap! you have just  been fried inside your  metal armor.."    )

 

[Oliver Hope 261]

18 hours ago, Shadow72 said:

Do you guys plan on making sea voyages more dangerous? Maybe pirates or sea monsters?

Ahhhhhh, its the KRAAAKEEN!!!!!! 

[Fompster 141]

Is there an estimated time for when the water terrain tool will come back?

Will there be an easier way to collaborate with other people on the editor - maybe even being able to do real time building in the editor?

[jchob 354]

Nice to see a friend list. 

Actually, we need an improvement on how chat works. It's to fast, I mean, non native English players take longer to read and suddenly text is gone. 

When helping people, explaining how things works takes long time because they miss the text. 

Please make a chat history. 

I have the idea that I've read somewhere about this friend list coming along with the possibility to share our protection barrier with friends? Anything about it? 

Thanks