Scripting in Standard Explore

[Adam Snellgrove 1451]

Hey there.

So regarding the disappearance of the scripting "feature" in standard Explore. First, to set things straight, this wasn't a deliberate change to the game, but as Houp mentioned before, this wasn't a planned feature and so wasn't part of QA testing when we were releasing 0.14 and it got booted without us even realising. But I talked to Aleš and we have come to the conclusion, that the benefits outweigh the risks, so we'll be making this "feature" a real feature in the future.

In fact, it will be present in the 0.14.1 hotfix. You'll be able to add scripts to existing entities and edit existing scripts. But it won't be possible to add new game logic objects to an existing save since that has the potential to seriously compromise the save and overall functioning of the game itself.

This isn't a temporary solution, but a feature we are going to continue to support going into the future. We are also looking into making admin tools possible, to give you protection against potential griefers. 

Finally, I also wanted to address the concerns, that we are concentrating solely on the Editor and letting Explore die. I will address this issue thoroughly in the next Dev Diary, but in short: we are not getting rid of Explore and it is going to be an integral part of Ylands for years to come. It is a great mode that we all love and we'll be giving it a lot of love in the near future. But enough about that, or I'll have nothing to write about this Friday ?

And that's it for now, so stay classy Ylanders!

P.S. If you have any questions or suggestions regarding this, don't hesitate to write them here, we're listening ☺️

[RedEagle_P1. 905]

Will explore be fully playable on mobile?

Will you limit the explore experience so it can be played on mobile? 

Let's say a game developer makes a mini-game that is pay-to-win, a new person who just bought the game plays this mini-game and sees a need to buy coyns to play or to upgrade. How is this gonna pan out? 

PC gamers have many great games to chose from, if they hear that this game is limited to also work on mobile, won't they turn away to other games like Ark, Hytale etc. ?

 

 

 

 

Edited September 9, 2019 by RedEagle_P1.

[Adam Snellgrove 1451]

Explore won't be playable on mobile, at least not on current mobile devices that are available. If in the future mobile phones get stronger, we could revisit this idea.

All mini-games with monetization will be flagged as having monetization and players will be warned, that this game includes monetization. Also, creators won't be able to add monetization into a game, that didn't have monetization before. They would have to upload the game again with the implemented monetization options. But it will be possible to add further monetization into a game, that has any monetization elements, so if you think of something col to add later on, so don't worry. Just have to have some kind of monetization at the creation of the game (even a placeholder game logic would be enough).

[RedEagle_P1. 905]

18 minutes ago, Adam Snellgrove said:

Explore won't be playable on mobile,

That makes a HUGE difference. We were all afraid Explore would be greatly limited to work on mobile. That was part of the basis of my post. 

19 minutes ago, Adam Snellgrove said:

Explore won't be playable on mobile, at least not on current mobile devices that are available. If in the future mobile phones get stronger, we could revisit this idea.

All mini-games with monetization will be flagged as having monetization and players will be warned, that this game includes monetization. Also, creators won't be able to add monetization into a game, that didn't have monetization before. They would have to upload the game again with the implemented monetization options. But it will be possible to add further monetization into a game, that has any monetization elements, so if you think of something col to add later on, so don't worry. Just have to have some kind of monetization at the creation of the game (even a placeholder game logic would be enough).

Will this game be free-to-play on mobile? 

 

[RedEagle_P1. 905]

Also, is the inability to export games something intentional or a mistake? Will it be hot-patched?

[bojo2736 1016]

Thank you, @Adam Snellgrove.  Thank you for listening.  Thank you for taking this @Aleš Ulm and the team.  Thanks to all the Devs for giving us this important tool back. 

[Houp 237]

15 minutes ago, RedEagle_P1. said:

Also, is the inability to export games something intentional or a mistake? Will it be hot-patched?

/exportlocal

We still need to figure out how to keep that option for you, expert users. However,  many users were confused by having 2 different "export options" and 2 different "show directory" so we removed it from the menu. It is still available for you.

[Miguel Preguisa 443]

PreScriptum: I accidentally commented on another thread, but I hope most people know that I'm commenting on the direction of the game updates. 

I play mostly singleplayer Explore. And this comment is mostly centered around my personal view. 

Let me now list all the "recent" updates to the game and what do I know them for (or what were the main features for me). 

• 0.14 Multiplayer Playlands, Editor improvements
• 0.13 Multiplayer improvements
• 0.12 New UI, game mechanics improved 
• 0.11 Game mechanics improved
• 0.10 Editor improvement, visual scripting
• 0.9 New UI, multiplayer sharegames
• 0.8 Music improvements
• 0.7 NPCs
• 0.6 Ability to paint added
• 0.5 Cars
• 0.4 Editor Workshop 
• 0.3 Books
• 0.22 Funfair + some assets 
• 0.21 Caves

These are almost three years of development. If we start the other way around, there are some of the most memorable additions to the game for me (okay, to be honest, I kind of forgot about the Funfair even though it was actually fun). New cave system made me to start a new Explore scenario, which none other of the above listed features did. I still hoard books on every occasion and I love to read through them on boring days. Cars are something I like to play to this day. I quickly made modular pieces for racing and improved on them. I now "work" on third generation of it along with a racing map. 0.6; 0.7; 0.8 each made the game feel more alive with "small" additions. Almost every update after that (0.8 has been launched on 28.05.2018) was centered around polishing, multiplayer improvements or Editor improvements. The last feature that made me go wow for more than few days is the visual scripting introduced in 0.10. I like playing around with it, but it still isn't anything that would add more fun into my Explore scenario. I believe that the last year or so wasn't big for the specific group of players who enjoy singleplayer Explore the most. I'm monitoring the game and browsing forum more than actually enjoying and playing the game. And I'm waiting for the almost mythical 1.0 that is rumored to give us a many new things (a world even!) to play with.

Because when I play Ylands, I still play with mostly two years old features. 

Edited September 9, 2019 by Miguel Preguisa

[Igor Q. 519]

Even though I don't play explorer as much as other people, I think we need REAL blueprint support.

Right now blueprints only work locally. I don't see any reason why we can't have blueprints saved from the editor and saved into our profile. It would make it easier to build our "ideal home" easier and faster on a new explore map.

 

Additionally, we had some mention in an old Dev diary of mini bosses in the explorer mode...are we still gonna get that? Right now there isn't much to do in the game once you collect the main resources...it feels a bit barren. Having something harder and bigger to work for would be nice in the game, like a giant pyramid that can be explored. Or having actual human NPC's we can talk to, engage with, fight with, etc. More AI is needed to make the game feel less lonely.

 

[Adam Snellgrove 1451]

3 hours ago, RedEagle_P1. said:

Will this game be free-to-play on mobile? 

 

I think I mentioned it somewhere, but not sure where ?

The mobile version will be free, but players won't be able to create on mobile, just 'consume' already made games. 

[jchob 354]

5 hours ago, Igor Q. said:

Even though I don't play explorer as much as other people, I think we need REAL blueprint support.

Right now blueprints only work locally. I don't see any reason why we can't have blueprints saved from the editor and saved into our profile. It would make it easier to build our "ideal home" easier and faster on a new explore map.

 

Additionally, we had some mention in an old Dev diary of mini bosses in the explorer mode...are we still gonna get that? Right now there isn't much to do in the game once you collect the main resources...it feels a bit barren. Having something harder and bigger to work for would be nice in the game, like a giant pyramid that can be explored. Or having actual human NPC's we can talk to, engage with, fight with, etc. More AI is needed to make the game feel less lonely.

 

IgorQ, in standard explore maps you can take a blueprints. As far corcerning editor, you can make a composition, create a temporary explore map, pull it into editor, and place the composition. Then play that explore map, and take a blueprint from that blueprint. 

I'm pretty sure you know this, so, I don't really understand what you are mean about blueprints. Although, in editor explore maps you can't take blueprints, sadly. 

[jchob 354]

6 hours ago, Houp said:

/exportlocal

We still need to figure out how to keep that option for you, expert users. However,  many users were confused by having 2 different "export options" and 2 different "show directory" so we removed it from the menu. It is still available for you.

Thank you all for making the export and script back again. 

I apologize if I (and others) got to hard on you, but I was really disappointed.

Thanks @Adam Snellgrove for being there and thanks for talking with the team. Tell them we are very thankful ??

 

[Adam Snellgrove 1451]

No trouble. We're in this together trying to make the best game possible and your help and suggestions and feedback are crucial for that ? And that's my motto and the teams motto.