Dev Diary #109

[Aleš Ulm 1725]

Hey there, fellow ylanders!

Ylands 1.0 is out and even though we're already working on update 1.1 and planning many others that you will see in 2020 this feels like a good moment to slow down and address concerns that you voice the most.

We don't know what to do in Ylands

Right now there are three things you can do in Ylands.

Play Exploration (if you bought the DLC or if you are an Early Accesser), which is a survival game that is still being improved and enhanced.

Play other games - basically embrace Ylands as a platform. While Exploration has been around for some years the platform is fairly new and it will take weeks (and possibly even a few months) before the newly come creators get a full grasp of what it can do and interesting games start to appear in a higher number. The same goes for Playlands. We have bigger plans with it but we'll start by continuously adding more and more games. We are even planning to find a way how you, the creators, could have your minigames become a part of Playlands.

And finally, you can Create in the Editor or Sandbox. The Editor is more aimed at game creation with a huge amount of options, including visual scripting, while Sandbox is pretty much a playground in which you can build, experiment and more. We have already registered quite a few new creators, which makes us very happy and we are looking forward to your creations. If you need help with anything, don't hesitate to ask our new Content Specialist @TomasGestinger.

Exploration maps are small. We want bigger maps with more ylands. We want to be able to explore more.

We understand that this is a crucial issue. After all, it's called "Exploration". The reason why we had to shrink the map is purely technical. It doesn't have anything to do with the mobile platform since it doesn't include Exploration anyway, but we are already working on a way to give you a much bigger world to explore. We will be able to tell you more early next year.

We struggle when finding various resources

We hear you. We have gathered enough feedback and you will see some improvements in the next update 1.1.

The game is crashing, there are some problems with servers.

Unfortunately, the ultimate test for a multiplayer game is its release. A lot of never-before-seen stress-related issues surface and have to be dealt with. And that's exactly what we're doing right now. We've already released the first hotfix and are working on fixes that will appear in 1.1 that will be released in early 2020.

You've taken our private dedicated servers. We can't play anymore with our friends ... or can we?

The removal of private dedicated servers has caused a lot of accusations and wild rumours. Let's go over what it means and what it doesn't ? 

Players can no longer host Ylands on their own dedicated servers. In other words, you can't have Ylands server running on your own hardware. But there are still many other ways how you can play with your friends and some of those come completely free.

If you don't want to spend any money you can host the game locally. That means that you will run Ylands on your own PC (not as a dedicated server but as a common game) and let other players join you. This obviously has one major disadvantage - other players can join your world only as long as your game is running.

If you want to do this but at the same time let your friends enter your world even when you're offline, you can use a feature we call sharegames. By using sharegames, your world can be dynamically hosted by any of your friends that are currently online. This way you can all play in the same persistent world.

The paid option is to rent a server from us and start your game there.

And in early 2020 we want to give you the option to be able to rent your own server from a certified third party server provider. That way you will be able to have full access to the hardware and decided yourself how and what is run there.

I hope this answers some of your most asked questions. We will be monitoring everything you tell us and do another dev diary just like this one soon.

And also we are entering the Holiday Season and so I'd like to wish you all a peaceful few weeks ? The next Dev Diary will be next year the 9th of January, so see you then.

In the meantime - stay classy, ylanders!

[bojo2736 1016]

Happy Holidays, devs.

I have never gotten sharegames to work. No one  I play with can access them if I am offline.

[Adam Snellgrove 1451]

2 hours ago, bojo2736 said:

Happy Holidays, devs.

I have never gotten sharegames to work. No one  I play with can access them if I am offline.

We are looking into that. But it is really weird. If one of your party that tried to get in while you were not there could send us output_logs and maybe the name or ID # of the sharegame, we could look at what specifically in this case seems to be the problem.

And you have the merriest of times ?

[bojo2736 1016]

I will try to get logs this weekend

[Miguel Preguisa 443]

Happy Holidays ? 

[Igor Q. 519]

Any news when we can have more AI options? I'd love to be able to "hire" soldiers that I can bring with me into caves.

[A3_Melle 150]

Happy holidays Ylands team! 

[Marci Magyar 160]

[Edwin-c54f672a82af8139 1]

First I want to start off with Merry Christmas to the developers+Yland players who celebrate Christmas and to those who do not, Happy Holidays.  

(I won't dance around it and layman terms it right away.)

I don't want to make money creating stuff for you guys.  So I would like a new option in your store's servers tab.  A $10 a month server for Exploration where the only thing that we the ($10) subscribers can do is edit the map via creator cube.  I'm not interested in creating content to sell to other players while renting a server from you guys.  I'm fine with the $20 tier a month for those who want to make money while renting said twenty dollar server. 

[Adam Snellgrove 1451]

5 hours ago, Edwin-c54f672a82af8139 said:

First I want to start off with Merry Christmas to the developers+Yland players who celebrate Christmas and to those who do not, Happy Holidays.  

(I won't dance around it and layman terms it right away.)

I don't want to make money creating stuff for you guys.  So I would like a new option in your store's servers tab.  A $10 a month server for Exploration where the only thing that we the ($10) subscribers can do is edit the map via creator cube.  I'm not interested in creating content to sell to other players while renting a server from you guys.  I'm fine with the $20 tier a month for those who want to make money while renting said twenty dollar server. 

The price is more down to the power of the dedicated server, because when you rent a server, there is a whole server there just for you whenever you need it. After we collect enough feedback from players, we'll see, if we need stronger/weaker servers and that will adjust the price. So it's not because of the monetizing aspect but about the JUICE ?

[bojo2736 1016]

We are still waiting for Nitrado. I have no idea if their pricing will change. But currently their pricing is more in line with $10 ish per month. Depending on the slots you are renting.

@Adam Snellgrove can you tell us what the hold up is? So far I have paid for a month I can't use. It's only $13 but I don't like to waste money either.  I don't know if I should hold off resubscribing?

[Adam Snellgrove 1451]

On 12/21/2019 at 1:57 AM, bojo2736 said:

We are still waiting for Nitrado. I have no idea if their pricing will change. But currently their pricing is more in line with $10 ish per month. Depending on the slots you are renting.

@Adam Snellgrove can you tell us what the hold up is? So far I have paid for a month I can't use. It's only $13 but I don't like to waste money either.  I don't know if I should hold off resubscribing?

To be honest I too am a bit lost at what the hold up is. They are supposedly in talks with our management, so I guess there has been some hiccup in negotiations, but it shouldn't be too long hopefully ? 

[bojo2736 1016]

Nitrado never gets back to me either, so there is that.

[2023 Samuel Williams 3]

hi 

[ShadowCAT629 1]

Are there any plans on moving the game to console, like xbox one for example? 

[Adam Snellgrove 1451]

13 hours ago, ShadowCAT629 said:

Are there any plans on moving the game to console, like xbox one for example? 

Yes there are. We are working on it.

[ShadowCAT629 1]

Will the xbox version have expedition mode? Or will it be removed like the mobile version? And will it be kept up to date along side the PC version? 

[Adam Snellgrove 1451]

On 1/10/2020 at 6:59 PM, ShadowCAT629 said:

Will the xbox version have expedition mode? Or will it be removed like the mobile version? And will it be kept up to date along side the PC version? 

If we do an Xbox version (which we are very much hoping to), it will have Exploration and will be kept up to date with PC (maybe with slight delay).

[ShadowCAT629 1]

I highly thank you Adam, I will come to you if I ever have anymore questions