Experimental Build for Update 1.6

[Marci Magyar 160]

Hey there Ylanders!

Another month, another Experimental Build for you to sink your teeth into, before the imminent arrival of the update itself!

Available to every Steam user, the Experimental branch offers players a chance to:

• test upcoming features & changes
• test your games & scripts
• report any bugs & provide early feedback

But first, a couple of things to be aware of:

How to try the Experimental Build

• go your Steam library right-click Ylands
• select Properties, click the "Betas" tab and enter "ExperimentalIWillBackUpMySaves" as the password (excluding the double quotes)
• this will unlock the "i_will_back_up_my_saves" branch
• after selecting the branch and confirming it, Steam will begin downloading the new experimental branch

Important information

Now is a good time to very strongly urge everyone trying the experimental branch to back up all your game data (saves, scenarios, etc.). You can do that by:

• browsing to "<steam installation folder>/userdata/<your steam id>"
• copying the whole "298610" folder.

Keep in mind that the experimental environment uses a completely new user database, meaning that the game will require either playing as a guest or creating a new BI account (available through a link in the game) and then creating a new Ylands character.

If you leave your saves folder intact, you will be able to load your older saves and scenarios with these caveats:

• loading older saves will create a new character for you
• editing scenarios will result in the scenario having more contributors - the user from the live version and the user from the experimental version

For these reasons, we very heavily WARN AGAINST using any data created/modified in the experimental branch in the live version. Also keep in mind that since experimental and live environments are completely separate, you won't be able to see your friends playing the live version in the Social tab.

With that out of the way...onto the good stuff!

Update 1.6 changelog (experimental)

Please note: since we optimizing building blocks (all should be finished in 1.7) you may notice some slight color differences when compared with the original blocks. This is unfortunately something we cannot fully fix - if you detect such a difference, you can adjust the color yourself (these blocks are already optimize and won't further edited)

HIGHLIGHTS

New exploration changes

We've finalized some of the features introduced in 1.5 and fixed many related issues. We are already working on some really cool Exploration features and improvements for 1.7, so let us know what you think.

Custom scenarios for Exploration

We can now add handcrafted games into exploration - you will encounter these while exploring the world. We believe it will spice up the Exploration experience even more. Our plan is to let you, the creators, do the same in one of the future updates. That is our ultimate goal - allowing you to enhance Exploration with your creations made in the Editor.

Vendor NPC crafting

You can now summon various types of vendors for your game by crafting vendor banners in the new "Pigeon post" workstation and placing them. Vendors sell basic resources, but even some rare materials.

Ownership of building blocks

Building blocks are now easily removable by the player who placed them. You also don't have to wait two minutes for the blocks to harden, now they harden instantly.

Protective barrier removal

Protective barrier has been removed from the game and replaced with Co-op mode, which has similar functionality, but applying to the whole game instead of a small area.

Co-op game mode

If you mark your game as a "Co-op Game", you will become a mayor, which gives you the right to assign privileges to other players with which they can deconstruct, build and damage entities.

Propeller pack gameplay optimization for Exploration

The propeller pack was a bit too strong and once acquired the player never felt in danger again. The propeller pack now generates heat while in flight. The heat will be increased every time the propeller pack is used (even when you just staying in the air on the same spot). Reaching the heat limit will overheat the propeller pack and force you to glide to the ground.

Building station

We simply want you to make the building easier and faster. Also, the new limitation of the propeller pack can make the building more difficult, and therefore we add this new option to enter free-camera which lets you fly around while you still have the ability to build.

General UX improvements 1.6

The first impression is the most important so we decide to tweak and adjust a lot of details in Ylands interface.  

Play local/MP/continue game flow UX improvements

Improved UX for new games. We understand that all the options regarding local, multiplayer, or hosted games were confusing for a lot of the players, so we redid it from scratch. Let us know what do you think about it.

Game publishing experience improvements

Publishing your game to the Workshop should now be easier and more intuitive. We got rid of confusing terms like "protected" and improved the general publishing workflow.

Random Encounters' themes and content additions

Despite its name, random encounters were too random, so we decide to put things in order a little bit. Random encounters are now sorted into themes and every yland generated on the map will have exactly one theme selected from viable options according to its tier and biome.

Clothes Customization extended for resistance and movement properties

There is also something new for the editor. You already had options to modify clothes, but now you are able to edit them on so many levels for movement and resistance. With this, even the UI displaying properties of the clothes (resistances and movement bonuses) was changed to better understand those values.

Mythical Animal variants 

New mythical animals are now available for you in the editor - in the future we want to have a mythical variant for each animal in the game. It's up to you whether you want players to meet those in the games you create.

Editor: Custom Controller

A custom controller is a system that allows a creator to reassign the controls from the player avatar to another object and make that object move according to the user (supports MP games as well).

Editor: Terrain improvements

Creators can now apply Terrain Volume game logic using visual scripting, providing limitless terrain edit possibilities.
Dynamic terrain material blending now makes the terrain look better when you paint over it
Editor: Global leaderboard

Creators can now motivate players to achieve better scores! With a global leaderboard, you may compete in your own games with others.

Editor: Advanced UI

Advanced UI support for rotation, scaling, flipping, setting UI position from a script.

Editor: Text scripting (beta version)

Allow creators to write their own custom scripts using the text version of our visual scripting, in the text editor of their choice. These scripts can be then attached to any entity or game logic. Please note that this is a beta version - it's quite likely that you will have to update some of your scripts when 1.7 is released.

Editor: MIDI track support

You may now compose your own MIDI tracks which will help you to set up the right mood for any occasion. 

Audio: Music playlist

Have you managed to create brave new music for your games? Let's get them in order with the new music playlist option. 

NEW ASSETS

Mythical Wolf (2 variants)
Mythical Rhinoceros (2 variants)
Mythical Horse (2 variants)
Pigeon Post
Building Station
7 Vendor Banners
Demolition Sledgehammer
Wooden Rake

ADDITIONS / TWEAKS

Disabled PlayerSettings.stripUnusedMeshComponents since that seems to be the cause of the bug.

[YLD-20301] Removed: adding yland map icon for undiscovered ylands[YLD-28411] Added: Chat screen: Chat channels are now sorted by the latest activity in them.
[YLD-28526] Added: VS: you can now show a specific codex page for a user.
[YLD-28395] Added: Continue tab to the game detail screen 
[YLD-28808] Added: DirectJoin info within in-game pause screen.
[YLD-25830] Added: Editor: movement bonus parameters to any equipment.
[YLD-28782] Added: VS: several instructions working with rotation (Lerp rotation, Slerp rotation, Rotation towards, Rotation angle, From to rotation, Rotation angle axis)
[YLD-28777] Added: VS: Clone vector/Clone color script tiles
[YLD-282761] Added: VS: you can now disable the default death screen and you can respawn players from the script now.
[YLD-28759] Added: VS: Raycast/Raycast terrain now returns also "Hit normal" vector.
[YLD-28231] Added: Building station mode that allows for free movement while building
[YLD-19231] Added: Small Info prefab, unused variable removal.
[YLD-28648] Added: Transparent overlay after finishing the editor wizard.
[YLD-28618] Added: VS: "Get magnitude" and "Get squared magnitude" of vector script tiles
[YLD-28178] Added: VS: UI widget position/size/rotation is now exposed in VS script.
[YLD-28171] Added: Editor: you can set the widget's rotation now
[YLD-28809] Tweaked: localization of the game name in the social screen
[YLD-25831] Tweaked: Allow item details to show custom movement bonuses set in the editor
[YLD-24445] Tweaked: Disabled the 'Maximum FPS' slider while 'Vertical Synchronization is enabled.
[YLD-28979] Tweaked: Escape screen no longer offers 'Invite Friends' button in games which do not support invite.
[YLD-28402] Tweaked: Adjust single-player game option name/hint
[YLD-28668] Tweaked: world-saving is not available in SP games.
[YLD-28411] Tweaked: Chat channels are now sorted from the latest to the oldest (once we also get a fix on the backend side)
[YLD-28023] Tweaked: Exploration player data (character, ship) are now saved during the exploration session, instead of just at the end. The approximate time between player saves updates corresponds to the game save period - 10min by default.
[YLD-28209] Tweaked: Editor: Data sets/Custom image library now works with the File browser (no need to copy your files to the specific folders)
[YLD-27640] Tweaked: VS: default If script tiles are now prefilled with "equal" script tile
[YLD-28117] Tweaked: Explore: Unsummmoning ship with a padlock on the helm will remove the padlock from the helm
[YLD-26973] Tweaked: VS: you get a warning now when you try to teleport a player outside the universal bounds of the game
[YLD-27649] Tweaked: Editor: now you can not export game with skills with an undefined icon
[YLD-26650] Tweaked: VS: menu items for storage variables are grouped by type and sorted by name inside the type
Tweaked: Demolition Hammer animation shorter.
Tweaked: Increased the amount of resources in the recipe needed to craft propeller pack
Tweaked: VS: Entity get color now has color id as a parameter (so there is no need for 3 similar script tiles)
Tweaked: Removed Repeating rifle and gun ammo from the Hunter Vendor along with some obsolete items
Tweaked: username in "<username> WHISPERS" is no longer uppercase.
Tweaked: It is no longer possible to change the game name in multiplayer settings unless the current name is invalid.

FIXES

[YLD-29243] Fixed: Chat: in-game format of different types of received messages is inconsistent
[YLD-29245] Fixed: Disabling and enabling codex pages through script makes the given codex page non-working for the rest of the game 
[YLD-29054] Fixed: Player dying at the same time opened chest is destroyed is causing inventory being stuck after respawn
[YLD-21193] Fixed: Movement speed bonuses should no longer cause backward movement under any circumstances.
[YLD-29035] Fixed: when the container/workstation is destroyed, any associated UI screens are closed automatically.
[YLD-29091] Fixed: Blueprint camera gets stuck when starting the selection while aiming at the sky
[YLD-24601] Fixed: Skill list Icons are stretched over the slot and blurry
[YLD-28842] Fixed: Chat messages in-game should not be sent twice when hitting enter fast
[YLD-29010] Fixed: Explosives in an inventory do not explode
[YLD-28647] Fixed: NullReferenceException is thrown when exiting the game while linking energy nodes with Energy Linker
[YLD-28768][YLD-28771] Fixed: Demolition Hammer offers deconstruction action even when full inventory.
[YLD-28948] Fixed: Friends: Loading a friend's profile for the first time causes a second or two long hiccups. The 3D model is now initialized in Awake instead of on-demand.
[YLD-28778] Fixed: Dropdown button text "Game you shouldn't miss" width on the main menu.
[YLD-28474] Fixed: MP client characters interacting with boats and rafts should no longer trigger a terrain and entity unload.
[YLD-25831] Fixed: Localized text for stat damage type in item detail popup.
[YLD-25831][YLD-28843][YLD-28697] Fixed: Sharegame/Servers FAQ button translation, Equip stats in Item Detail Popup, Stats overlap when high values, Stat rows added to a prefab on Item Detail Popup
[YLD-28865] Fixed: Editor: rotation widget used with 90° grid may result in rotation which is not in the grid
[YLD-28036] Fixed: Editor: undo/redo for properties changes on cars does not work correctly
[YLD-28664] Fixed: VS: list of available emotes in Play emote is empty when the first argument is set to This
[YLD-28707] Fixed: Experimental explore: a dead player can respawn on the position of his death if he goes to the main menu and back
[YLD-28682] Fixed: VS: Get custom color is used for Particle effects returns color instead of true/false
[YLD-28691] Fixed: Editor, skills: changing animation of modal state does not work
[YLD-28690] Fixed: Editor: particle preview on skill timeline does not work
[YLD-28697] Fixed: Sharegame FAQ button text, server status text changed.
[YLD-28749][YLD-28697] Fixed: Sharegame/Dedicated server FAQ button width, text. Status text-overflow changed.
[YLD-19226][YLD-25641][YLD-22833] Fixed: Removing the last entity from the surface of an animated entity either by picking it up or destroying it should no longer cause problems on connected clients.
[YLD-28697][YLD-28681] Fixed: Sharegame FAQ button now displays a pop-up prompt for external browser usage. Enable/Disable server status button added instead of a checkbox.
[YLD-19231] Fixed: Real values for item attributes display within the Inventory Screens.
[YLD-28663] Fixed: Message system: Messages are instantly sent when you scroll at the beginning of your conversation with anyone
[YLD-24430] Fixed: Improved water surface avoidance
[YLD-25960] Fixed: Mining drill charge is not updating UI.
[YLD-28612] Fixed: Custom Images remain visible in Genesys Playtest even after they are removed from Custom Image Library GL. This, unfortunately, leads to more frequent invalidation of the precomputed SSD for playtesting, which will make entering the playtest mode more time-consuming.
[YLD-28530] Fixed: Rented servers: When the Workshop is down, trying to host a game from it will result in in-game data corruption.
[YLD-28476] Fixed: Masts and other animated objects should not be left in a buggy state after destroying and creating them again
[YLD-28408] Fixed: Submitting console commands now skips the profanity text filtering to make their execution a little bit more responsive
[YLD-28132] Fixed: Exporting games with custom images should not fail anymore for users who have non-ASCII characters in their Windows user names
[YLD-28430] Fixed: Keybinds are loaded properly after starting the game again
[YLD-26313][YLD-25950] Fixed: placing some animals on a ship can be done only from the air
[YLD-27834] Fixed: Editor: explorer was not refreshed after deleting the entity shown in it
[YLD-28434] Fixed: When you click the Message button in the Social screen, it redirects you to the chat screen, but with the wrong user selected
[YLD-28327] Fixed: Editor: Editing particles on equipment in the Player role did not work correctly
[YLD-28358] Fixed: Editor: it should not be possible to copy-paste exported script module. (it was possible by mistake)
[YLD-19226] Fixed: Editor: picking animated items did not work for clients in MP
[YLD-26311] Fixed: Editor: rotating item will automatically place it in the middle of the screen
[YLD-28016] Fixed: Blueprint Camera should not shine the flash all the time, but only when actually shooting
[YLD-20129][YLD-25404][YLD-18624] Fixed: Horse can now be summoned even when unloaded, and runs to the player instead of teleporting when close enough.
[YLD-24653] Fixed: Control Hint for the Build Range is not shown anymore in Alternate Mode
[YLD-28141] Fixed: Deleting Energy generator in Genesys will properly propagate in the energy network now
[YLD-27993] Fixed: Resetting control settings now also correctly resets mouse sensitivity and Y-axis inversion
[YLD-28284] Fixed: Cannot place some animals from Hotbar if switching to them from any weapon
[YLD-28285] Fixed: Cannot place objects or project table near ship blueprints
[YLD-27259][YLD-28309][YLD-28325] Fixed: 3D Game Logic icons should be rotated properly now, and rendered on AMD GPU in the first place
[YLD-26907] Fixed: Assembling the ship while another player is connecting to the server displays an unscripted notification
[YLD-12532] Fixed: Thumbnail of Seed Packet Box is centered now
[YLD-12531] Fixed: Seedling item previews are now centered
[YLD-28019] Fixed: Editor: in some cases, you were unable to save your game if it contained broken entity welds
[YLD-26199] Fixed: Friend list - After friends join a clan, a player can't see the clan under his name
[YLD-28313] Fixed: Editor: a copy of a chest and label referencing an item in the chest did not work correctly
[YLD-28177] Fixed: VS: script tiles sometimes overlapped each other
[YLD-28286] Fixed: Items dropped twice from inventory on a ship should not disappear anymore
[YLD-27218] Fixed: 3D GameLogic icons now do not have the horizon visible through them
[YLD-28116] Fixed: VS: dropped only part of existing item stack was not correctly recognized by the Event listener
[YLD-28123] Fixed: you were able to claim ownership of an unknown but padlocked ship
[YLD-27934] Fixed: If a sleep request was pending in multiplayer, the UI icon would stay on even after joining another server
[YLD-27380] Fixed: Profile screen displays incorrect name when opening the profile popup for the first time
[YLD-28165] Fixed: Editor: changing scenario description did not work
[YLD-26388] Fixed: FPS should not drop heavily on mobile devices anymore when aiming with guns
[YLD-28176] Fixed: dig action event is twice on a pickaxe which breaks visual scripting
[YLD-26776] Fixed: The wrong count is set to count selection when crafting planks
[YLD-26889] Fixed: VisualScripting: some tiles are overlapping in the search results list
[YLD-28161] Fixed: UI editor: changing selection of widgets could cause wrong label text in UI
[YLD-26989] Fixed: Placing preview does not disappear when hovering the mouse over the Mobile UI while playtesting Genesys scenario
[YLD-26982] Fixed: Hint to activate Performance Monitor is not shown anymore while playtesting Genesys scenario with mobile controls
[YLD-27476] Fixed: Player should no longer be locked in vehicle control mode when ragdolled while controlling a vehicle.
[YLD-22172] Fixed: Custom UI: On input text changed was called always twice
[YLD-28115] Fixed: Editor: Unique items were mergeable with non-unique ones of the same type in some cases
[YLD-28038] Fixed: CTD: crash when you try split stack of items inside inventory container to already full stack of items
[YLD-26975] Fixed: Opening inventory when playtesting Genesys scenario with mobile controls should not throw an exception anymore
[YLD-26980] Fixed: PC Hints of custom controls should not be visible when using touch input while playtesting Genesys scenario
[YLD-27976] Fixed: in some cases, you were not able to control a ship with engines after you unsummoned it and summoned it in one game
[YLD-26871] Fixed: Creating huge compositions should not freeze the game anymore
[YLD-28119] Fixed: Owned exploration rented servers protected with password are now discoverable with the same priority as those without password.
[YLD-28114] Fixed: Explore: now you can not use lock anything on other player's ship (or paint them or enter/exit construction mode on them)
[YLD-28111] Fixed: Explore: key lost connection to the padlock after traveling to another yland
[YLD-28039] Fixed: Explore: summon button is faded out if you unsummon it while another player is controlling the helm
[YLD-28032] Fixed: Editor: NPC with a weapon with a particle in hand in Entity template broke Object properties window
[YLD-28010] Fixed: The new explore allowed creating DS Save for Nitrado servers which it actually shouldn't have because Explore servers are not visible in multiplayer lobby.
[YLD-26611][YLD-20855] Fixed: Entities should not stay stuck in the highlighted state after hitting them with melee attack randomly anymore
[YLD-27990] Fixed: VS: scripts using Damage/Kill tile in 1.4.1 were not correctly transformed to a new form to 1.5 (if you already resaved your scenarios then you need to switch instigator and target tiles)
Fixed: action cooldowns no longer stack upon leaving/entering exploration mode game.
[YLD-27922] Fixed: Corrected initialization estimate of WaterVolumes in GenesysEditor
Fixed: Increase the amount of wool dropped by Woolly Rhinoceros from 1 to 5
Fixed: Mobile controls in Genesys playtesting should now support rotating entities when placing them

[Miguel Preguisa 443]

I'm unable to give it a try. I managed to update to the Beta, but now it just gives me FATAL LOGIN ERROR : Cannot connect to destination host.

Any way how to solve this? 

[jchob 354]

this is awesome, cannot wait to test it ?

[Sazzle 30]

haha love the update :)) although I was hoping that the work station build mode would have included the snap rotation like in editor.

[spiritchaser28 920]

I'm just loving this long list of fixes and additions. Took me several minutes  to read it and will probably take me months to fully comprehend all the changes LOL

[JohnMFSteel 93]

Having a blast on the experimental build so far! The Encounters feel a lot more varied now & my Home zone has like 4-5 ylands! (2 of which are a pair of strands that look SO nice together *chef's kiss*)

Only issues I have noticed so far are:

the player preview in the inventory is pixely
The help popup I got when I first built my boat took me to the wrong codex entry
A Mer-people monument that's in my home zone has some starfish with the tooltip TBT_Pick, also said monument had some trees clipping into it
Jeans clip through boots
 

Thoughts:

A ring on the ground to show the radius of the building table you are currently using would be nice (I'm loving the building table)
I'd like to see a toggle for block collision some of the more interesting shapes are difficult to achieve without clipping blocks into each other. Domes, tents, Archs, really most things that have a circle or triangle as one or more of their base shapes

 

Edited March 18, 2021 by JohnMFSteel

[empeorgame3(2) 15]

Hops Again. Nice I appreciate it.

Edited March 19, 2021 by empeorgame3(2)

[spiritchaser28 920]

I have not played the experimental build yet. Has anybody tested how we can make blueprints from compositions in editor? The old way was place the composition on a legacy explore map, but now since we have no barrier generator how exactly will it work? We can't import compositions into the current version of explore so I guess my question is will legacy maps have the same sort of presets that exploration does in 1.6 so we can still blueprint those editor made compositions?

[UnrulySaint 0]

Hey I've ran into the same issue as spiritchaser28 I created a legacy exploration map go to multiplayer settings and there's no coop mode there available so I can't make any blueprints from the editor because I must be a Mayor to do so any help would be appreciated

[ocnoglittle 760]

On 4/10/2021 at 2:51 PM, UnrulySaint said:

Hey I've ran into the same issue as spiritchaser28 I created a legacy exploration map go to multiplayer settings and there's no coop mode there available so I can't make any blueprints from the editor because I must be a Mayor to do so any help would be appreciated

They fixed it in the patch  

[spiritchaser28 920]

@UnrulySaint I had a temporary workaround for this.....and if I would have known you were experiencing issues,(feel free to tag me) I would have sent you an old legacy map that had mayor privielges.......but as @ocnoglittle says, they fixed it. 

 

Edited April 23, 2021 by spiritchaser28