5th Q&A with Aleš

[ocnoglittle 760]

Hi everyone! In case you missed the 5th Q&A, here are the links:

Twitch - https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1019064084

YouTube - 

(Subtitles will be available for the YouTube version. Please let me know if you need help getting them in your language.)

Summary:

Q: From Ocnog: Did we already ask about a chainsaw?

A: Yes

Q: From Drago: Can we have an automated smelter (so we can either do 12 at a time or even more stacks of ore at a time)?

A: It is a question of balance, but I will ask the designers.

Q: From Jarda: How far ahead do you plan out the updates? You already know what will happen in 1.7 and 1.8! Do you already know what will happen in 1.9, 2.0, 2.1?

A: Usually we know what will happen roughly 2 updates ahead. For example, we know 1.8 will be about polishing and doing things in the backlog. There are things both for the editor and exploration that have been bothering players for months or years and we want to address them. Usually, we try not to make long-term plans because they become invalid. Every Monday at 1 pm we have a meeting to talk to the leads of each department. We talk about the updates, among other things. This week, we started finalizing what will be in 1.9. We don't want to plan too far ahead because we want to be able to respond quickly to player feedback. With 1.8, Ylands will be fully released in China and we will get even more feedback. Tencent realized that rather than just the min-game platform, they also love Exploration. There are over 1 million players who have Ylands in their wishlist in China.

Q: From Mello: When are you going to play Ylands with us on the Friday stream?

A: I definitely can play. I am really bad at anything competitive but I have a lot of reasons prepared about why. I am not sure about this Friday but definitely this one or the next one.

Q: From Stainless on the official Discord: Will Ylands ever be available to play on Mac? From Lady_whynot and Falkenkopf: Will Ylands be available to play on Linux (with or without a Windows partition?)

A: It is not that easy because Ylands uses Unity and supporting these new versions would be a lot of work. It is definitely possible. We aren't sure how many new players this would bring. It might make sense to first have a version for Mac OS because we want to add it for schools. We need more players for PC and mobile first.

Q: From Deadeye_Rob: Are there any plans to have more server providers instead of just Nitrado and Bohemia Interactive?

A: Not at this time.

Q: Follow up from Ocnog: Why not?

A: Each server provider has its own issues. It is not as simple to just send it to the other companies. It is a lot of work to support each server provider.

Q: From Spirit: Can we have glass doors?

A: Definitely.

Q: From Spirit: Would it be possible to remove the streaks in the glass windows?

A: We don't want to remove everything so you can't see that it is there.

Q: From Naru: Why were the clear blocks (glass and ice blocks) removed?

A: We optimized how the game renders and lights things but that came at a cost. We needed to remove transparent materials because they were misbehaving. We had to do a lot of hacks to make the water work. It would be a lot of work to add them back, and we have more pressing issues to attend to. We might be able to make the streak more transparent.

Q: From Spirit: Can we change the color of the streaks so it isn't the same color as the frame?

A: Yes, that can be easily done.

Q: From Drago: Can we have rocket launchers?

A: Because it is a game for kids as well, we don't want to have tons of modern weaponry, including mines. Both those things didn’t fit with the game. Maybe someone like Naru can make it in the Editor. (Naru: We need more animations, and then it would be possible.)

Q: From Jarda: Can we get the propeller hat that explodes (from the Dev Diary) in-game?

A: Yes but not an exploding one.

Q: From Bobo: Can we get a howitzer that shoots only fish in Ylands?

A: Did we run out of normal questions? Please keep sending us inspiration and some of them will make their way into the game.

Q: From Ocnog: And/or some other fish gun? Can we have an update just for fish related things? Maybe it can be 1.9: Swimming Sharks where you bring back the sharks and add more sea life (sea turtles, dolphins, giant krakens that spawn instead of an island-based custom scenario) and add more fish to catch using the fishing poles and fish guns and more things like this.

A: I would like to make 1.9 about water (sea life, sharks, underwater Random Encounters, storms while you are sailing, etc.) We can definitely upgrade the fishing mechanic. It sucks right now.

Q: From Ocnog: Can we get lasers? Maybe in the energy update?

A: We want to add new things for the energy update, like lasers, energy streams that can harm players, and if something goes into that stream. 

Q: From Ocnog: What do you think about the idea of adding a game setting (like making energy lines invisible) to control if the propeller packs have unlimited flight or not? That would be super beneficial for player-made games and Legacy Exploration maps.

A: We are already thinking about this, but we are worried about consistency for Exploration maps. You don’t want to make it confusing when you travel between maps. That is technically possible, and I can see it happening just for legacy and player-made games. I know this will be unpopular, but eventually, we will have to stop supporting and remove Legacy Exploration.

Q: From Jchobs: Is it really needed to remove Legacy Exploration from the game itself?

A: Eventually we will add a feature that might break it unless we do a lot of work to add a version of the feature just for the Legacy Exploration, so instead we will just remove it at that point. We will definitely wait until after we change how the players make blueprints.

Q: From Spirit: Is it possible to let the players have more control over ladder placement (at least place them symmetrically by default)? And can we have ship ladders and rope ladders allowed in blueprints in the future?

A: Blueprints definitely need to change. For the rope ladders, we might already have a task. There are hundreds of tasks, so it is coming eventually. I remember that the placement is painful. I will discuss it with the designers. Exploration will be more about sailing in the future, so this is a priority. I hope you will be pleasantly surprised about how many things we add based on your feedback as part of Update 1.8.

Q: From Spirit: Will totem blocks be craftable in 1.7?

A: We just need to set a recipe. I am assigning it to Naru. Tell Naru when you want something changed.

Q: From Naru: Why isn't the machine gun in Exploration? Is it too overpowered?

A: I will have to discuss this with the designers.

Q: From Jacky Joy: Can we have a button to copy the orientation (like store rotation in Editor) for Building Mode?

A: Building is already very complicated. We don't want to add more keys you have to press, etc. We definitely want to make building better.

Q: From Ocnog: Why were some recipes removed? Like the guns?

A: I had no idea this happened. I will ask about this.

Q: From Ocnog: What is going on with the Workshop? Are there plans to improve it?

A: We definitely have plans and there are definitely issues. The workshop isn't made by the Ylands Team directly. It is done by a different part of Bohemia Interactive (front-end developers). We have done the first round of improvements, but there are still issues. We plan on doing a second round of improvements and hopefully, the front-end developers can work on it soon.

Q: From Ocnog: Can we have a separate set of tags for the compositions? It was easy to search for a ship or a house earlier and now it is a mess.

A: Please make a forum post about the complaints. There are always emotions when there are new things, but we didn’t want to make it work worse. Tell us what you hate or like about the old or new workshop and we will make changes.

Q: From Spirit: Can you add the ability to change the descriptions within the Workshop website, instead of only in Editor?

A: Add this to the forum post. The workshop got the least amount of love because it isn’t just done by Team Ylands. I will do my best to make sure it works better in the future.

Q: From JonathanHunt: Can players have the option to disable explosion damage globally for their exploration worlds? Also is it possible to allow living entities to take damage but without terrain or blocks being affected?

A: We don't want to have it for every single map, but for maps you own, maybe. We can change the default Co-op settings for all your maps (non-friends wouldn’t have the ability to modify terrain, including explosions).

Q: From Jchobs: Can we get a custom list (not friends/clan) for Co-op Settings?

A: It might be addressed in 1.8.

Q: From Sandy: Can you increase the default number of mutants (especially ones that drop ylandium dust) in Legacy Exploration maps?

A: We definitely can, but I need to discuss it with designers. We need to make sure all players want this before we make a big change. We get contradicting posts about the game being too easy or too hard.

Q: From Ocnog: How many Custom Scenarios are currently in the game? More than 5?

A: I will ask. I know some are unfinished and we will continue to add them.

Q: From Ocnog/Jchobs: Nikki told us to ask again about making the scuba helmet brighter. We were thinking maybe a small radius with brighter light, so it is still scary, but you can see the random encounters.

A: If it is not a task already, I will create it. I don’t want to make the oceans brighter, but making the helmet functional is needed, so players can see the underwater Random Encounters.

Q: From Ocnog: Who is Pypse-bis‎?

A: A new member of the Ylands team. He is part of the Editor Designers and he is a great guy. 

Q: From Ocnog: What about adding leaves/debris on the ground? And fallen trees?

A: Maybe far in the future. We can't do additional new assets for the next couple of updates because the graphics department is very busy already.

Q: From John_Steel: Which department is the least busy so we can fill them up with work?

A: Every department would say it is not them. When it gets closer to a “data lock” when you should have all the features finished so testing can commence, we are all super busy. QA has it easier in the beginning, but at the end, they have the most work to do.

Q: From John_Steel: Can we have a rotation randomization button in Building Mode? 

A: We have talked about it a lot and will add it.

Q: From Mello: Do you want us to be able to make sounds during the Q&A?

A: Sure, as long as it isn't distracting. Maybe add booing sounds for answers that aren’t good enough.

 

 

Previous Q&As:

 

 

 

 

Edited May 14, 2021 by ocnoglittle

[ocnoglittle 760]

Please reply here with questions for the next Q&A, because we ran out of questions today ?

[Nikki Severin 1146]

Ran out? RAN OUT? 

This is officially the end of the world as we know it! 

Quickly! New questions..... uhhhh, uhhh, how about... FISH CANNON, no wait, we asked about that. Okay then, something else... HELP US WITH THE QUESTIONS! 

[IEuphe 116]

i keep missing these. are they doing more Q&A's because i have an idea or 2

[ocnoglittle 760]

@IEuphe yep, they are every 2 weeks. The next one is May 25th at 8pm CEST. 

Feel free to put anything you want to tell Ales here or you can type it into the Twitch chat live

 

[spiritchaser28 920]

Question about vendors, since they can be killed can we maybe have an option they can only be killed by the person that placed them, or if we do kill the vendors, can we have the option of getting our materials back to make another vendor flag ? (Pole and cloth are easy to come by, but I realized I was losing 30 gold pebbles everytime I killed one to make the outfits match the place.) I think this could solve the issue of wanting different outfits for them since the outfits are random.

Edited May 12, 2021 by spiritchaser28

[SandyT 129]

Now that we can craft vendors, it doesn't seem like we have the old vendors on the new exploration. The vendors we craft do not offer a lot of the items that the old vendors did, especially like Andre and Eddie who offered ore options to purchase and others with decorative household items like paintings. Are the old vendors gone for good in the new exploration? I know I sound like a broken record on the next question, but I would like to be able to get some of the items we can't craft like pots and pans. I was told that they would show up in random encounters. So far, I've found very few random encounters to even search for them. Will this be changing? Or is this by design?

[ocnoglittle 760]

2 hours ago, spiritchaser28 said:

Question about vendors, since they can be killed can we maybe have an option they can only be killed by the person that placed them, or if we do kill the vendors, can we have the option of getting our materials back to make another vendor flag ? (Pole and cloth are easy to come by, but I realized I was losing 30 gold pebbles everytime I killed one to make the outfits match the place.) I think this could solve the issue of wanting different outfits for them since the outfits are random.

I hope PVE settings would include non-killable vendors. But maybe that could just count as a "placed entity" and be part of the Co-op Settings. Stop trying to steal gold from the vendors. You paid them to show up, so don't be greedy ?

 

11 minutes ago, SandyT said:

Now that we can craft vendors, it doesn't seem like we have the old vendors on the new exploration. The vendors we craft do not offer a lot of the items that the old vendors did, especially like Andre and Eddie who offered ore options to purchase and others with decorative household items like paintings. Are the old vendors gone for good in the new exploration?

I agree about the other traders. I miss them a lot.

11 minutes ago, SandyT said:

I know I sound like a broken record on the next question, but I would like to be able to get some of the items we can't craft like pots and pans. I was told that they would show up in random encounters.

Naru is making Random Encounters with pots and pans, but they haven't been added to the game yet. I would love these to just be craftable instead. You only sound like a broken record because Spirit says it every day ?

11 minutes ago, SandyT said:

So far, I've found very few random encounters to even search for them. Will this be changing? Or is this by design?

For the scarcity of Random Encounters, I believe it is a bug they are working on. @Nikki Severin can you check on it? Naru said something about an issue spawning the "bigger" REs.

[ocnoglittle 760]

Question for Aleš in 2 weeks: What is going on with the traders?

 

...unless @Nikki Severin wants to answer earlier  

Edited May 13, 2021 by ocnoglittle

[spiritchaser28 920]

2 hours ago, ocnoglittle said:

You paid them to show up, so don't be greedy

LOL I know but, if I want them in a different outfit because it doesn't fit the area or time period I am trying to reflect, my only option is kill them and not get my materials back. Then do it again, until I find a vendor that somewhat fits the look of the area. You can burn through several thousand pebbles trying to get the right looking vendor.

I'm hoping the PVE settings would include a no kill vendor option as well.

Edited May 13, 2021 by spiritchaser28

[spiritchaser28 920]

Question about car chassis and ship hulls. Can it be possible to use the demolition hammer or sledgehammer on ship hulls and car chassis once every entity is removed from them? Currently you cannot.

The only way to get rid of these is to physically destroy them. This would be especially handy for cars, so a person can make a blueprint of the car on a map, then demo hammer all of it when they want to go to another map and take their vehicle materials with them to remake the blueprint.

Edited May 13, 2021 by spiritchaser28

[IEuphe 116]

i did write a list of questions but can't find them although i can remember one off the top of my head.

is it possible to duel wield, i don't mean 2 weapons at the same time but rather holding a torch and a melee item at the same time so i can fight close range in dark caves/night time rather than going in blindly and hoping for the best.

[ocnoglittle 760]

Well, you have a week and a half to remember your questions. I would forget all of them if I didn't write them here ?

[spiritchaser28 920]

This is a question brought up by SGT_Shodan in Ylands discord. He wanted to start a game with his kids and was curious why the starting map could not be made into a sharegame.

[spiritchaser28 920]

Another question about vendors. Is it possible to have  recurring shipments? Such as wood shipment, stone shipment, iron shipment, etc? It's one thing I love about the traders but it appears as though the traders cannot be found now. (CORRECTION: Yesterday I found a trader on a new island)

Edited May 19, 2021 by spiritchaser28

[spiritchaser28 920]

This was brought up by @Nikki Severin on the last stream. Hunger. The characters get hungry way too often. Is there any way we can extend the duration of time before we get hungry? I think if somebody ate that much in real life they would explode.

[ocnoglittle 760]

Spirit: Why can't we make the starter island in Exploration into a Sharegame?

I just realized this was on the list twice ?

Edited May 19, 2021 by ocnoglittle

[ocnoglittle 760]

From Nico and Ocnog: Can we get a rework for the ladders? They often give an error message about not enough room or don't behave as expected.

Edited May 18, 2021 by ocnoglittle

[spiritchaser28 920]

Question about propeller packs. Since the nerf we have not been able to change the color of the pack. I am assuming this is because of the animations caused when overheating. Is there any way we could maybe have the default color of the pack a more neutral color? Such as steel or light grey? Orange doesn't exactly match everybody's outfit color choices.

Edited May 19, 2021 by spiritchaser28

[spiritchaser28 920]

Can we have a "Librarian or stationer vendor" Someone that sells all the books, pens, pencils, quill and ink, paper, leather parchment, etc? 

[spiritchaser28 920]

This question is about the ylandium refinery. It is super loud and makes a high pitched whining sound. Any way we can change this sound to something a little less loud and obnoxious? Lots of people have commented about the sound in various discord channels. ( Saying they mute the sound, or walk away when it's running) ...I personally don't mind the second sound it makes when it starts to run low on fuel (sounds like an engine purring)

Edited May 20, 2021 by spiritchaser28

[ocnoglittle 760]

I actually really hate the second noise... lol

I will also add something about the charging station noise.

[spiritchaser28 920]

The second noise sounds a little like the steam engine. I guess that's why I like it.

[ocnoglittle 760]

It isn't smooth enough or something. I will have to listen to it again, so I can complain about it accurately. ?

[spiritchaser28 920]

Another question. Will we be able to control time duration on our personal maps on exploration in the future? Length of days and nights, etc. We could just have a couple options. Normal, short day, and long day.

 

Edited May 22, 2021 by spiritchaser28