Dev Diary #160 - Building in Exploration

[Aleš Ulm 1725]

Hey there, fellow ylanders!

I'm excited to say that based on the way you react to the new Exploration we feel that we're moving in the right direction. We are fully aware of the new issues you're facing, and we have already fixed quite a lot of those so when update 1.5.1 is released (which should be in early February); hopefully, your experience will get even better. But as we said before, 1.5 was just a beginning so please let me share with you some of the plans we have for Exploration in 1.6. Before I do that, however, I would like to mention that we are now listening to your feedback even more closely than ever so in addition to "new" features, we will be fixing and tweaking a lot of things you keep reporting. I believe very strongly that when 1.6 hits your devices, you will see that what we said about creating the new Exploration together weren't just empty phrases.

Today I would like to let you know about something we plan to do about building (actually we have quite larger plans for 1.6 when it comes to building, but we are not yet far enough with these to make them public  ). Many times the building in Exploration simply sucks. When you compare it with the Editor, it's so much more difficult to build anything sophisticated. Your avatar gets in the way, you can't get to places that are too narrow or too high... and so you often wish that you could just fly freely around and place things. And that's exactly what we plan to give you in 1.6.

 

Our plan is to introduce a new simple (re)movable workstation in 1.6 that when used will let you fly around it within a certain radius with a free camera view and build with ease. Obviously, you have to be careful around your surroundings because that will leave your Avatar exposed but I think that it always is a good idea to get rid of any predators around you before you start building a house anyway. We believe that this will result in building things in a much more intuitive and user-friendly way.

 

 

And since we're talking about flying around - we are fully aware that the propeller pack is now quite overpowered (especially since your enemies can't often get to you) and so we're doing some changes to address that. We won't be removing it because it's a lot of fun but we will adjust the way it works so that by crafting it will make your life easier and more fun, but won't result in you being immune to every danger.

 

 

There's so much more to tell you about and I'm looking forward to talking about the new Exploration in the upcoming weeks. Until then - stay healthy and classy, ylanders!

[Obba95 10]

Thank you for listening to the community! This is exactly what I've been waiting for ?

[zarwil 393]

This sounds amazing!

When it comes to the propeller pack, might I suggest making it harder to craft as well? In general I think quite a few of the late-game items and workstations are way too easy to obtain. For exploration/survival games like this, exploring the tech tree gives you natural goals and reasons to keep playing. Conversely, once you've completed the tech tree, the game isn't much fun anymore.

Edit: Another thing you can explore in the future is to make the islands even more unique in terms of scale, shape and dramatic terrain. The recent update definitely improved this aspect of the game, but after exploring a couple dozen maps, the absolute majority of islands look nearly identical. They're roughly the same size and are either mostly round, or have a horseshoe shape. You've made strides on this front, but you can do even better I think!

Edit 2: Also, re-introduce sharks and add some new dangers/random events in the oceans! We also want flowing water back!

Edited January 21, 2021 by zarwil

[RedEagle_P1. 905]

Great to see you guys listening to the community and moving this in the right direction!

I think a lot of people will enjoy the new building mode. 

[SweetPeaCC 16]

Will we have to use the workstation anytime we want to build? If you wanted to expand the tech tree a chain saw or a Item vacuum cleaner/ shop vac type thing to pick up things or harvest with would be cool. 

Edited January 21, 2021 by SweetPeaCC

[JohnMFSteel 93]

If this is going to make clipping of blocks when building possible.
The workbench allowing for setting placement position with specific X,Y,Z values for intricate placement might be nice.
Sometimes the difference in pleasant looking placement and a clipping or worse flickering nightmare is only .001 in a direction.
Kinda difficult to do with directional arrows or free placement.

also being able to move around existing plants with this rather than needing to harvest them before hand would be nice, and would also allow for on the fly crop mazes, like with Ramie or Corn. (I would use Ramie personally that stuff grows THICC) As well as just garden redecorating without hassle. sometimes you wanna move things around you know?

[spiritchaser28 920]

This is everything I want to read. I want the game to challenge us, give us rewards based on those challenges...so yes to all of this! I will spend a lot less time now complaining and making suggestions and will spend more time with compliments

 

Edited January 21, 2021 by spiritchaser28

[jchob 354]

Awesome.

Just to give my feedback on that: please please, with the new build mode, please add an option to make things unpickable. That would be the best thing ever. Many players still build in free place mode in exploration, because there are lot of cool items that cannot go into blueprints, and sometimes new additions around are better to place after the blueprint was placed and built.

Not sure what you are going to do about the proppeller, but if it somehow is your idea to make it get 0 energy, please make the "fall down" invincible. For example, the Potion of Flight ables you yo fly for some seconds, but when the effect ends, you will die if you are to high above the ground.

But this new building concerns me, because having to use the workstation will be a pain if we just want to place some bits here and there around several village places.

But, let's see how it goes and with more info from you

[Bob Salvador 82]

Great, official /freecamera mode, I am using this command in actual exploration when I want to build higher. Hope we will have more options than just flying around because it's kind ish in the game.

[Adam Snellgrove 1451]

18 hours ago, zarwil said:

When it comes to the propeller pack, might I suggest making it harder to craft as well? In general I think quite a few of the late-game items and workstations are way too easy to obtain. For exploration/survival games like this, exploring the tech tree gives you natural goals and reasons to keep playing. Conversely, once you've completed the tech tree, the game isn't much fun anymore.

Yep, we'll also look into this and possibilities of rebalancing some of the late-game items.

18 hours ago, zarwil said:

Edit: Another thing you can explore in the future is to make the islands even more unique in terms of scale, shape and dramatic terrain. The recent update definitely improved this aspect of the game, but after exploring a couple dozen maps, the absolute majority of islands look nearly identical. They're roughly the same size and are either mostly round, or have a horseshoe shape. You've made strides on this front, but you can do even better I think!

We are working on new island generations, though it will take a bit more time, but in the future you should be able to see much more varied islands.

18 hours ago, zarwil said:

Edit 2: Also, re-introduce sharks and add some new dangers/random events in the oceans! We also want flowing water back!

Random events and adventures is another focus for us ?

 

[NoNoNumGum 55]

On 1/21/2021 at 9:52 AM, zarwil said:

When it comes to the propeller pack, might I suggest making it harder to craft as well? In general I think quite a few of the late-game items and workstations are way too easy to obtain. For exploration/survival games like this, exploring the tech tree gives you natural goals and reasons to keep playing. Conversely, once you've completed the tech tree, the game isn't much fun anymore.

Yes! This would be awesome. Me and my friend can literally speedrun endgame items in about 30-60 minutes. The game is really too easy in my opinion. A little more  challenges would be  pretty cool.

[NoNoNumGum 55]

@Adam Snellgrove

Also to add on the the island generation suggested by @zarwil

 

Are you gonna work on better cave generation? As of now they look pretty man made. It would be cool for more dramatic caves!

[bojo2736 1016]

Can you make an option inside the new building workstation to make things unpickable? 

[Adam Snellgrove 1451]

On 1/23/2021 at 6:15 PM, NoNoNumGum said:

Are you gonna work on better cave generation? As of now they look pretty man made. It would be cool for more dramatic caves!

That's not being worked on right now, but it is planned down the line to improve it.

On 1/23/2021 at 7:47 PM, bojo2736 said:

Can you make an option inside the new building workstation to make things unpickable? 

I'll ask about it.

[SweetPeaCC 16]

I'm going to hate it when the perfectly balanced and Awesome but not Over Powered Propeller pack is taken away from me :(

 

 

[TheGamingChair 12]

wonder how the prop pack is going to be balanced ?

[IEuphe 116]

4 hours ago, TheGamingChair said:

wonder how the prop pack is going to be balanced ?

maybe they'll change it so it needs a type of fuel to work or even when it's being used, it only works for x amount of time before it needs time to recharge? i'm just guessing.

[TheGamingChair 12]

On 2/12/2021 at 2:52 AM, IEuphe said:

maybe they'll change it so it needs a type of fuel to work or even when it's being used, it only works for x amount of time before it needs time to recharge? i'm just guessing.

im just imagining someone flying and then running out of fuel, and crashing down lol. i like the second idea

 

[spiritchaser28 920]

I like the idea of the propeller pack requiring fuel. They use that in Journey to the 12 Kingdoms. There's a gauge display on the left under the health that shows the propeller pack battery level. Yeah I fell to my death a few times but that just made me keep a better eye on the battery levels and proceed with more caution and planning.