Explore Map Size

[SkyggeEngel 11]

Currently playing cooperatively with my wife and the explore map size is very disappointing. We had 4 islands, a polar region and a starter island. We finished building a boat and exploring in the span of an hour.
I remember playing this in early access and having tons of awesome locations and islands to explore, is there any way to bring this back to give the game more playability?

[Adam Snellgrove 1451]

12 hours ago, SkyggeEngel said:

Currently playing cooperatively with my wife and the explore map size is very disappointing. We had 4 islands, a polar region and a starter island. We finished building a boat and exploring in the span of an hour.
I remember playing this in early access and having tons of awesome locations and islands to explore, is there any way to bring this back to give the game more playability?

We will see how the servers hold up, but right now you can have up to 6-7 Ylands on an Exploration map but they are all unique and all have things to find and stuff to do. But you can make a custom Explore map in Editor and have as many Ylands as you like ? But it won't contain tiers and Random Encounters, though you can create your own and then have others play it too.

[RedEagle_P1. 905]

On 12/6/2019 at 8:11 AM, Adam Snellgrove said:

We will see how the servers hold up, but right now you can have up to 6-7 Ylands on an Exploration map but they are all unique and all have things to find and stuff to do. But you can make a custom Explore map in Editor and have as many Ylands as you like ? But it won't contain tiers and Random Encounters, though you can create your own and then have others play it too.

The editor only creates 6 islands in explore-generated maps. 

P1 is using old maps. 

[Gui205 0]

On 12/6/2019 at 12:49 AM, SkyggeEngel said:

Currently playing cooperatively with my wife and the explore map size is very disappointing. We had 4 islands, a polar region and a starter island. We finished building a boat and exploring in the span of an hour.
I remember playing this in early access and having tons of awesome locations and islands to explore, is there any way to bring this back to give the game more playability?

Yes you totaly right for 17$ ... Please do something do increase the map size with much more island ... 

[Indomitus 388]

2 hours ago, RedEagle_P1. said:

The editor only creates 6 islands in explore-generated maps. 

P1 is using old maps. 

In addition, Editor scenarios don't have the map (M) functionality, which is a pretty significant shortcoming.

[SkyggeEngel 11]

Our main issue is with the time it takes to fully explore everything though, we killed the alphas, explored the Islands and caves and reached ylandium power tech all in the span of a day. If only we had some more places to explore, this would keep us playing longer. The world just feels too small, especially after playing other games with the same features. Perhaps a way to generate and travel to a new world when you reach the map border would be possible. Something akin to Atlas' grid system maybe?

 

[Antimidation 21]

On 12/5/2019 at 3:49 PM, SkyggeEngel said:

Currently playing cooperatively with my wife and the explore map size is very disappointing. We had 4 islands, a polar region and a starter island. We finished building a boat and exploring in the span of an hour.
I remember playing this in early access and having tons of awesome locations and islands to explore, is there any way to bring this back to give the game more playability?

I agree. At the beginning I was taken in by all the great atmospheric refinements and view distance. After I've played 1.0 a bit now, i've noticed how small everything feels, the islands are too close together, for one thing. Not only that but the tiers that have been added do a bit too much revealing on the map "Travel to this island first" with a huge icon telling you where to go. I can't stress this enough for the exploration part of the game...it felt amazing to just find these things for yourself and face down danger for yourself. With the tier armor and progression in game now it feels a little bit too linear. It wouldn't hurt if the starting island was a little bigger too. There needs to be more random things in the game.

What if there is a chance to find iron on your beginning island but only if you can stand to dig through stone and several layers of earth? 
I'd love to see random encounters with actual pirate ships with enemies you either have to outrun, destroy, or barter? You have this amazing world and I know the design is in place for us to make it our own but I kind of feel as if Exploration is indeed an after thought. The one thing I do like about exploration now, aside from all the new lighting affects, clouds, and view distance....is the fact that there is real danger at night and it's tough gaining ground in caverns with your initial weapons.

Edited December 8, 2019 by Antimidation

[bojo2736 1016]

3 hours ago, Indomitus said:

In addition, Editor scenarios don't have the map (M) functionality, which is a pretty significant shortcoming.

This is disappointing.  Especially if you are using the sandbox map, the island is much larger (though not as large as in the past) and having the map with the markers on it would be useful.  If that isn't possible, how about a craftable compass that would be in the compass slot full time once you crafted it?

[JeremiahKane 24]

On 12/6/2019 at 8:11 AM, Adam Snellgrove said:

We will see how the servers hold up, but right now you can have up to 6-7 Ylands on an Exploration map but they are all unique and all have things to find and stuff to do. But you can make a custom Explore map in Editor and have as many Ylands as you like ? But it won't contain tiers and Random Encounters, though you can create your own and then have others play it too.

Now I won't pretend to fully understand the coding side of things, but my suggestion would be to make an option to allow players to choose how large they want their worlds to be. You can restrict this on your server for now, while you're still testing things. But letting players choose anywhere from six to, I don't know, maybe 30 islands to generate would allow those simply playing alone or peer-to-peer with friends to get the most of their games. I'm a little hard-pressed to consider the game much of an exploration game in its current state.

[Adam Snellgrove 1451]

On 12/14/2019 at 6:27 AM, JeremiahKane said:

Now I won't pretend to fully understand the coding side of things, but my suggestion would be to make an option to allow players to choose how large they want their worlds to be. You can restrict this on your server for now, while you're still testing things. But letting players choose anywhere from six to, I don't know, maybe 30 islands to generate would allow those simply playing alone or peer-to-peer with friends to get the most of their games. I'm a little hard-pressed to consider the game much of an exploration game in its current state.

I will look into this and see, if something like this could be possible, what the obstacles to this would be and how they could be overcome.

[JeremiahKane 24]

3 hours ago, Adam Snellgrove said:

I will look into this and see, if something like this could be possible, what the obstacles to this would be and how they could be overcome.

That's great. Thanks, Adam. My thoughts on some of the obstacles, both client and dev side, would be managing the generation of the world so that it won't overdo it on the client's system. Generation and load-times client-side would be the potentially worst part, as it'd most likely take longer.

[assasin172 2]

Bigger map or islands that would generate as you move on would be great addition.

[Adam Snellgrove 1451]

4 hours ago, assasin172 said:

Bigger map or islands that would generate as you move on would be great addition.

That is actually something we're looking at. Not completely like this...but similar ?

[cruinne 0]

+1000 for that.  I really like the potential here.  It's left me thirsty for more ?

[SkyggeEngel 11]

So procedural world generation? If that is what we're talking about here, that would make this simply amazing. Maybe even the old cave systems with the giant rooms at the bottom. Most magical moment I ever had was finding an Alice in wonderland style teaparty deep deep in huge cavern.
I like what I'm hearing but I'm also scared of getting my hopes up

[bojo2736 1016]

Caves used to be challenging. Now, meh.

[renderin 61]

I am VERY disappointed as well. I really feel like the explore mode is broken, The cool thing earlier was that you had to look for birds moving to even know which direction to go looking for an island. Now you can SEE them from the starter. It feels REALLY dumbed down to me. also having the icons on the compass that indicate where islands are is a bad thing and kills the entire explore aspect. I will only assume that the highlighted area on the map is the entire usable space in this mode. Very weak, as I was able to explore every island within an hour on the bamboo raft. THERE IS NO REASON to even build a ship. IMO this game has gone downhill.

[bojo2736 1016]

Build a small boat, it's all you need. 

[Igor Q. 519]

On 12/15/2019 at 11:51 AM, Adam Snellgrove said:

I will look into this and see, if something like this could be possible, what the obstacles to this would be and how they could be overcome.

As a suggestion, why not create a difficulty modifier for building things? For example, if you have it set to hard mode, you need 4x the material to build something. All of a sudden, building even a wooden raft can be challenging

[SkyggeEngel 11]

11 minutes ago, Igor Q. said:

As a suggestion, why not create a difficulty modifier for building things? For example, if you have it set to hard mode, you need 4x the material to build something. All of a sudden, building even a wooden raft can be challenging

This would only up the price rather than the challenge, the journeys would still be as short and the exploration would be as lacking. I can see where you're coming from but it'd only make it seem like the game has more to offer, rather than actually give it more to offer. All while making it a grind.

[Igor Q. 519]

Just now, SkyggeEngel said:

This would only up the price rather than the challenge, the journeys would still be as short and the exploration would be as lacking. I can see where you're coming from but it'd only make it seem like the game has more to offer, rather than actually give it more to offer. All while making it a grind.

What kind of challenge do you want then? Usually sandbox games are a grind

[bojo2736 1016]

The biggest problem with "the grind" in this case is the dearth of resources.

[SkyggeEngel 11]

2 hours ago, Igor Q. said:

What kind of challenge do you want then? Usually sandbox games are a grind

It's been detailed further up in the post by me and others, more islands to explore and more distance and challenge in finding them.
like renderin further up said, you used to have to follow seagulls to find the islands and you had alot more space between the islands.
The game has been massively reduced in size and scope and thanks to all our feedback, the devs are possibly now looking to bring this size and scope back.
I'd rather have this over another grindfest, but with respawnable resources, I dont see how it couldnt have both. If resources respawned, you could allow for manually adjusting some sort of crafting multiplier.
I'd make a new suggestion for that feature though, just to make sure it gets the attention of the devs. Dont see why we cant both have our way.

[Indian Chief 239]

You gotta remember guys Ylands is aimed at kids... so for us adult's the challenge Ylands use to be was enjoyable... kids don't like challenges... hence why explore mode is the way it is. Can the dev's change this sure... will they.. let's wait and see. For me.. Ylands is just a building game now, they should rename explore to landscape building mode

[Igor Q. 519]

3 hours ago, Indian Chief said:

You gotta remember guys Ylands is aimed at kids... so for us adult's the challenge Ylands use to be was enjoyable... kids don't like challenges... hence why explore mode is the way it is. Can the dev's change this sure... will they.. let's wait and see. For me.. Ylands is just a building game now, they should rename explore to landscape building mode

Ylands playground is for kids, not the explore mode! ?

[Indian Chief 239]

 

@Igor Q. mate that's the way it should be... for me it's too much holding your hand now! Where's the adventure.. the excitement?