Dev Diary #96

[Adam Snellgrove 1451]

Hey there Ylanders!

I have to say, preparations for 1.0 are ramping up and everybody here is looking forward to the next few months of hard, but exciting work. And with that, I thought I’d share with you a few updates on future features and what is the situation with certain aspects of the game.

So as I promised last week, let’s talk about the water. As you know, water isn’t what it used to be for some time now. The trouble is, that water right now is hardcoded to be at level zero and once it’s put somewhere else, it starts breaking other things in the game. But our team is working on an improved simulation for water, but it won’t get into the game until after the release of 1.0. But that will be one of our top priorities post 1.0.

On the other hand, Explore is the talk of the day, since that will be getting the greatest of facelifts. As I mentioned before, there will be fewer Islands in a map, but that doesn’t mean there will be less to find. We are doing this because we want to make every Island unique and fun to explore rather than finding a third Taiga Island and floating away in disgust and boredom ? In this “improved” Explore every Island will be worth discovering. That is another thing coming to Explore: DANGER. You won’t be able to go to sleep at night safe in knowing, that all the animals are also going to sleep. No. Mutated bears and wolves will be coming out of their caves to hunt! And you are the prey ? Now you’ll be able to get rid of this danger on every Island, but you’ll have to ‘conquer’ the cave responsible for the beasts. And the lair will always be guarded by an alpha-monster protecting its home. But if you defeat this powerful enemy, you’ll be able to stop the spawning of dangerous animals on that Island ?

The Major General suddenly regrets flushing that puppy down the toilet

In other news for Explore, while there won’t be regenerating resources (yet), we are working on it. In the meantime though there will be more resources on the map as a whole and you might even be able to look to the sea to provide ? And some resources should be on every Island, so you’re not hampered early game by having bad luck and not having a specific resource at hand. And for those worried about the smaller number of Islands, do not fret, because we are also working on the concept of ‘Connected Worlds’. We have talked about this in the past, but in short, this should give you the possibility to jump to another game through a portal and keep playing, giving creators countless possibilities ? We are doing our best to bring this feature to you as soon as possible.

And that’s it for now, so have fun and stay classy Ylanders!

P.S. I’ll be on holiday ?‍♂️ next week, so expect less of my presence on the forums and also less content throughout the week (no Ynterview for example). But I will be preparing a Dev Diary (albeit probably not as ‘meaty’) so there’s that to look forward to ?

[RedEagle_P1. 905]

Talk of 1.0.... we have been expecting you *turns around in chair*. 

[bojo2736 1016]

I am glad you brought up the water. I came to the forum to ask about that.  @Ane told us that portable water was going to be a thing.  So if I want to build a pool, I can fill it with water. I don't have to try to build it around existing water.  I hope this is in the planning.  

Will water be able to be animated?  Like making a waterfall?

In the meantime, the work around for water has been using a trigger zone.  Is there a way to make characters and horses have the swimming animation in the zone?   I want swimming pools and water features!  

 

[Igor Q. 519]

This is awesome. I really hope Ylands can introduce some kind of "chunk" system like Minecraft where each chunk is an island.

And with that, have some sort of algorithm that can seemlessly (using seed # for each island) make an infinite archipelago. (And just store each island chunk as a local file or something).

[Indian Chief 239]

Hi Adam,

 

Let me start with have a fantastic trip away and know that you will be missed (a week is too long without you).

I think using point form might be a better idea so my thoughts/suggestions don't get mixed up( in no particular order of importance here we go).

1. As you've brought up the ocean.... I for one think it's pretty important to have an improvement( maybe not fully working as I'm guessing it's being a pain in the @$$!) before full release. As sailing is a vital part of exploring, and I feel new or returning players from full release should be able to enjoy a bug free sail. I really hope a water bucket is invented in game like bojo and others have mentioned.

2. Editor items. Now in the past I've asked you and also previous devs if all the editor items will be made craftable( I even took pictures of all the items not yet craftable but are in the editor/explore game)

I'm just wanting to now if this could be something that we can hope for in the future. ( I'm happy to resend pictures of items I think would really improve the person touch ylands could offer). Happy to send you with more information via private message Adam.

3. A small bug, but when you craft the leather helmet, it won't show up on your head until you relog. I use the skin, not sure if this effects it or not.

4. More of a statement..... I think the communication is starting to really improve... keep up the good work guys!

5. Crafting menu. I feel that the over all look is coming along nicely.... but it still needs improvement. Especially the suggested area of crafting, and how items are grouped is a little difficult for newer players.

6. First person view. Just wondering is a fully supported version will be implemented by full release? I know you've tried steering us away with new and improved camera features, but I feel giving a player an option is the best solution. Imagine owning an ice cream shop but only offering cholate!... Dam it I wan vanilla haha.

7.Blueprints. Ahh when these first came into the game I was worried, then loved them.. and now I'm happy minus the alignment of when you place a blueprint. Have you looked into adding this in game?

8. Multiplayer. I'm not going to ask what's already been discussed but rather just wanting to now what your plans are for the future?

Will you bring back the explore server's? Or have they been retired, or just on holiday? When the game testers test the game, have they tried out multiplayer? It'd be really nice to be able to play on the same server for a near unlimited amount of time.

9. Renewable recourses.... oooo baby!

10.Blueprinting ships. It has been mentioned in the past.. But just wanted to see how things were going with being able to blueprint ships? 

11. I mentioned it in another message last week. Have the devs thought about a tool belt to help with the storage as a vast majority of the items I hang onto are tools.

12.WAKE UP!!!!!!! and the list of question's goes on. I'm not sure how many others feel the same way, but I'd love to see the sleeping times changed for when you wake up so we can see the beautiful sunrise. 5am up with the birds?

13. Lucky for some and but not others. To help with the annoying issue of players logging out inside a house or build, is there any way of not allowing players to log out inside your barrier?

14.Animal, with the new inclusion of the amazing animals... I might have more than hope on this question. Do I have any hope that a horse one day will be able to carry a cart/wagon which can carry either grouped resources like stone chunks,clay,sandstone chunks, logs etc (another way to encourage a player to upgrade their play/horse but also to help with storage and movement of items) and the wagon other players. Or even making an npc that rides around of the back of a wagon selling items, or on sailing ships going from yland to yland in search for more business.

15. The world is round.... I'm guessing this isn't a possible thing, but I was hoping that maps could at least be. In that it'd be nice to show just the "important parts" of the seed rather than the endless sea that is. I do feel that if you can make the world round it would mean less ocean to have to load? Might help with extending game play as memory is freed up. A while ago the maps use to show up where different resources were found.... just seeing why this was taken out/not added back in again?

16. Lucky last... will ylands look at adding steam achievements at any stage? This might help with adding interesting achievements to unlock.

 

Thanks Chief 

 

 

[Adam Snellgrove 1451]

Wowza @Indian Chief ? What a list! But thanks for taking the time to write it all up ? There are some really great points and suggestions made. 

Only thing I'd ask is if for bugs you could make a separate topic for each bug in the bug department, but otherwise, I'll take the suggestions and start carving them up to the relevant authorities on Monday (I didn't have a book to read on the plane anyway ?) and try and get you some answers soon (though there are some really difficult and meaty questions, that we might even know the answer to yet ?)

But again thanks for the effort you put into this and know we'll get around answering as many as we can as soon as we can ?

[Adam Snellgrove 1451]

7 hours ago, bojo2736 said:

I don't have to try to build it around existing water.  I hope this is in the planning.  

Yep, that's the plan...eventually

7 hours ago, bojo2736 said:

Will water be able to be animated?  Like making a waterfall?

 Good suggestion. I'll ask the guys, if anyone is working on this or planning to on Monday. But definitely something for down the line, once we have water itself figured out ?

 

7 hours ago, bojo2736 said:

Is there a way to make characters and horses have the swimming animation in the zone? 

Not right now I don't think and probably not a fix around we'll be implementing. We'll probably be using those man-hours to do some work on the actual water ? But it would've been nice ?

[Indian Chief 239]

Thanks Adam, I know there's a lot. I appreciate you (hopefully) being able to answer most of my question's.

I'll be sure to add the bug to the bug topics.

Safe travels

[Deadeye_Rob 905]

I'm really intrigued with the future water mechanics!

 

Im probably getting ahead of myself here but..... The first Bioshock game is my most treasured game! I assume you can see where I'm going here.

Naturally in order for my 'North Atlantic Project' to work is dependent on the new mechanics.

Id love to build the perfect commercial utopia under the waves!

 

Will the new water be affected by placed blocks? Will I be able to build watertight structures?

 

im excited here guys!

[Adam Snellgrove 1451]

10 minutes ago, Deadeye_Rob said:

Will the new water be affected by placed blocks? Will I be able to build watertight structures?

Hopefully ?? But the plan with water isn't yet completely finalized as we are now concentrating on 1.0 and also trying to figure out, how to implement water, so it's as flexible as possible and able to do all kinds of cool stuff.

[bojo2736 1016]

Is there a reason why the game bothers to render seaweed and sharks way out in the depths of the ocean? It is both useless and bothersome. whan I am trying to extend map life I will do a mass delete of the seaweed. I have freed up as much as 20 mb doing so. It really is only needed just a small distance from shore. 

[Indomitus 388]

On the subject of water:  I want to repeat the request to be able to remove/drain it from closed-off areas somehow during regular gameplay.  I hope their new design includes that possibility.  I've pretty much mastered the art of the Underground Evil Villain Lair.  I'd love to try my hand at an Underwater Evil Villain Lair.

Edited September 21, 2019 by Indomitus

[bojo2736 1016]

Underwater building needs to be a thing. I agree.

Also, you should be able to kill a shark in the water. Maybe a harpoon, or even the pointy stick. Even punching them would be something. As it is, you are just a tasty treat.

[Adam Snellgrove 1451]

So @Indian Chief I have some answers for you ?

1. The ocean will definitely be operational on release and there will be a way to repair your ships too (though not sure about an actual water bucket ?)

6. First person camera: unfortunately, fully working first person camera available in Explore won't be present in Explore before 1.0 (but should be by 1.0 ?)

7.  Can you be more specific about what you want us to improve about blueprints?

8. We are working on further optimizations in MP, raising the limit for specific games.

 We still want to bring these servers back but first we need to fix some issues (which players are experiencing on their servers as well - such as game crashing or becoming too slow after playing it for a long time).

10. working on it ?

13. We need more info on this - is the main issue the fact that their avatar is left behind once they log out?

14. There are plans for the horse to carry a container of sorts.

15. Actually this topic is a bit more complex. I think we may discus it in one of the Dev Diaries when I get back next week.
16. We may be adding Steam achievements at a later date, but we will be adding something similar - but more immersive - before that.

[bojo2736 1016]

13. Yes. Please make avatars not persistent. This would solve a huge problem that exists now on MP.  Please please please.

[kimbuck 746]

persistent   avatars ... a typical "funeral pyre"  forming on P1 Eu server. There are also other bodies scattered around..