Ylands

[Asid]

Dev Diary #151 - Update 1.5 FAQ
Thu, 5 November 2020



tl;dr
- FAQ with our Project Lead
- New Update 1.5 news
- Ask your questions in thread below




Hey there Ylanders!

We have a very special Dev Diary today because Aleš swung by to tell us something more about update 1.5. We collected some frequently asked questions about the update on the forums and asked Aleš to clarify them for us and boy did we find out a lot of interesting and exciting stuff about Update 1.5 🤩

So read on and if you have any follow-up questions, don't hesitate to ask in the thread below and hopefully, Aleš will have time to answer them too 😊

Will travelling from one world to another involve travelling into other player worlds?
Yes, that's exactly what this means - although it doesn't need to be just another player's world. We plan to have dedicated servers for all biomes that players will be able to visit and explore. Our current working name for those ylands is "Sinking worlds" because after some time the original world will disappear and will be replaced by a newly generated one. This way there will always be places to explore and gather resources.


How will your starting world look? Which biome will it have? Will it have enough resources?
The starting world will be only one biome. You will be able to choose from a selection of biomes (not all since some would be too harsh for a newly arriving castaway). It will have resources that, among others, allow you to create a ship. To get resources not available in your world you will have to travel to different worlds with different biomes.


Will strangers be raiding players own personal worlds?
As long as your world has MP enabled and is not protected by a password then yes, this would be possible.

Will building a ship be much harder or will the basics stay the same?
No, it will be the same.


Will these changes (summon-able and temporarily invincible boats) affect all maps or just exploration maps? (Will boats in other mini-games also become invincible?)
No, these changes will be present only in Exploration.


Will ships that players have already built be compatible? Or do players need to wait till 1.5 to build a compatible vessel?
We are still looking into this. Technically it is possible, but it opens a door to certain kinds of exploits that's why we're still analyzing it.

How will the map from the concept art released a few Dev Diaries back be implemented into the new Exploration?
What you're referring to is a world map (please note that the final version you'll get in 1.5 will be visually slightly different) and it serves several purposes - firstly you use it to select in what biome your starting yland will be located. Secondly, you can use it (since it'll be accessible via your ingame menu all the time) to check ylands in other biomes and travel to them - if you are steering a ship and are located at the outer area of your current world.

How will the ship summoning mechanic work?
You will be able to summon your ship (if you have one) via a Radial menu button. It will appear in a nearby empty sea area. Also, you will see your ship's location on your map.


Will the number of players able to play together change?
The maximum will remain the same.


Will you revisit the trading mechanic in 1.5 or later?
This is something we're discussing. Definitely not in 1.5, but we might do some changes in 1.6 based on what we see happen in games.


Will the worlds you travel to be procedurally generated and in a way infinite, or will there be a limit to the number of different explorable worlds?
There will be a certain number of Yland maps per biome region - right now it's 20 in total. But some of them will change from time to time.

Will Update 1.5 be a polished final product?
No. While the core mechanics such as travelling between worlds will be fully functional, this is such a big change that we will need feedback and will very likely make some adjustments. We will be providing a list of features that will be temporary or subject to change. Also in 1.6 we would like to focus on the ylands themselves.

Will we ever see explore on mobile?
Bringing Exploration to mobiles is actually one of my personal priorities for 2021 but never at the expense of the PC experience. Mobile will have to work with PC standards and bypass them if necessary, not the other way round (dumbing down the PC version to facilitate the mobile version is a big No for me).


You mentioned 1.5 will be about "Exploration, Travelling and Socialization". What are the Travel and Socialization aspects of 1.5?
In order to get resources to craft everything, you will be required to travel and explore new places. You will get to meet new people - some of the ylands you discover might be someone's worlds and pay them a friendly (or less friendly) visit, you can meet with other players when gathering resources or exploring worlds that don't belong to anyone.


And that's it from us this week, but definitely leave a question if you have one and your feedback in the thread below and as always, stay classy Ylanders!

[Asid]

Dev Diary #152 - Ylands Streaming
Thu, 12 November 2020




tl;dr
- Streaming every Friday at 16:00
- Following the Competition
- Q&A's with Team
- Looking for talented Streamers




Hey there Ylanders!

This week we have more of a relaxed topic. We'll be talking about our new streaming sessions we're doing and what we're planning for the future.

So as you might have noticed, every Friday at 16:00 CET over at ylands

 we stream for an hour or two talking about Ylands, right now about the Competition https://ylands.com/competition and overall having a good time. If you haven't seen our streams, you can check one out tomorrow!

But from the get-go we wanted you, the players and members of this fabulous community to have a say in what we stream, so if you have any suggestions of what you'd like to see, what games in Ylands you'd want to watch me play and what you would like to talk about, always let me know because I'd be more than happy to oblige 😊 What we are planning to do though is to keep monitoring the Competition and all the wonderful submissions we're already seeing pop up in the Workshop. We'll be playing these games predominantly and having a look, how they play, how they work, what we like and dislike and provide feedback to the Creators. And after the Competition finishes, we definitely want to feature the winning games on the Stream and if possible invite the Creators unto the Stream, to tell us something about the game, what was their inspiration and how they made it. It, of course, isn't a requirement of the Creators but it'd be really cool 😅

During this time we'd also love to have some live Interviews and Q&A's with members of our team, so you get to know them a bit more and we'd love to have a streaming party, where a bunch of our team members get together in one room to stream and talk about Ylands 😊 But that will probably have to wait, till it is safe to meet up in bigger groups again.

We are also looking into more ways to make the watching experience more enjoyable and how to enhance our streaming. So if you have any suggestions about that, they'd be really appreciated. And finally, we'll be looking into finding some fun streamers, that would also like to stream about Ylands and give them an opportunity to stream with us or even host them on our channel 😁

So look out for all that and until next time,

stay classy Ylanders!

[Asid]

Dev Diary #153 - Grenades and Bow
Thu, 19 November 2020



tl;dr
- New Grenade and Bow improvements
- Better animations and aiming
- Coming in Update 1.5




Hey there Ylanders!

Some pretty exciting news today adventurers regarding bows and grenades. Yes it is a bit of a weird pair up but hear me out 😅

So first off we made leap and strides in bow shooting and in 1.5 we'll be introducing countless improvements, but the ones you'll probably notice the most is the appearance of the actual arrow while shooting the bow (and the crossbow btw and I will not get drawn into a discussion if a crossbow is technically a bow or not 😁) and the overall aiming improvements we made to the bow. For instance, you'll be able to see the trajectory after you fire the arrow, making it easier to correct your aim. Bow animations have been also improved, but maybe most interestingly, now when you hold the bow drawn for too long, your arms will get tired and your accuracy will suffer greatly, making your shot much more unpredictable.

The second item on our list today are the grenades. Grenades are very powerful weapons but haven't seen too much use in Ylands, because they are cumbersome to wield and inaccurate. Well no more! Grenades now how two modes. The quick throw (which is the standard mode) lets you toss a grenade fast in the direction you are facing. The height of the throw is affected by the angle you are looking at the target. But if you press down the right mouse button, you enter the aimed throw mode, in which the trajectory of the grenade will be visualised and you'll be able to lob that exploding pineapple 🍍 exactly where you want it.

Improvements to both the Grenades and the Bows are great fun and even our team of Designers made a small multiplayer map to try it out and had an awesome time with it 😁 So a lot to look forward to 😊

And that's all for today Ylanders, so don't forget to tune in into tomorrow's stream at 16:00 CET and until then, stay classy Ylanders!

[Asid]

Dev Diary #154 - Custom Images
Thu, 26 November 2020







tl;dr
- Custom Images added for more personalised UI's
- Usable in Particle Effects
- Shareable via Compositions

Hey there Ylanders!

While we are working tirelessly on update 1.5, the first part of the big Exploration overhaul, our Editor team has also cooked up a pretty nifty new feature and as you might have seen in the video above, it will be a lot of fun 😁

We're calling it "Custom Images" and what this lets you do, is import your own images into the game and then use them in a variety of ways. So for example, as you have seen in the video, you can make the HUD much more personalised and add images, that aren't available in our catalogue. You can also use these images in custom windows or on custom controls when making a game for the mobile platform.



But that's all still very much the domain of the UI, but another area, where you'll be able to use your Custom Images is in particle effects, so now you will have absolute control over the special effects featured in your game.

Adding new images will be done through a new Custom Image Library game logic and it will be very simple and straightforward and it won't work just in games, but also in Compositions. This way you can then share whole libraries via compositions.

Of course, there will be a system in place to make sure vulgar and inappropriate images aren't uploaded into the game and before the update, we will post here on the forums rules, on what is acceptable to upload and what isn't.

And that's it for today Ylanders, so let us know, how you are planning on using these new Custom Images and until next time, stay classy Ylanders 👋

[Asid]

Dev Diary #156 - New Assets in Update 1.5
Thu, 10 December 2020



tl,dr
- New Assets
- Native American weapons
- Sunplate Armour
- New Monster
- New Random Encounters for Exploration un Update 1.6




Hey there Ylanders!

As with every update, 1.5 is bringing a lot of cool stuff, including revamped Exploration and custom bitmaps. But another great addition to the game will be the heap of assets, that are coming to Ylands.

The theme of our assets in 1.5 are Native American cultures and we have a slew of cool new items, that you'll be able to add to your games.

First off we have added some very neat weapons to the Native American tribes in Ylands, be it the feathered crossbow, bow or rifle and the Shaman will get a unique set of clothes. We have also added a new Chieftain headdress, which will be also craftable in Exploration. Another craftable additions are the new stone tablets depicting different creatures of myth and legend and a new totem block representing the Wendigo. The Wendigo is also getting his own statue, which you'll be able to craft in Exploration and will be a good way to warn adventurers off of a certain dangerous area 😉



But that's not all! We have also added a new Sunplate armour set to represent pre-Columbian cultures in Central America with their own choice of cool weapons to choose from. This will also include some new stone furniture to go with the aesthetic.



And finally, a new monster is joining the mix: The Totem Golem! A fearsome adversary that communes with nature and fiercely defends the natives from harm.



And the best thing about these additions is, that now our designers have them available and will be adding them to Random Encounters for update 1.6 so look out for these in the future 😁

And that's all for today, so until next time, stay classy Ylanders 👋

[Asid]

Update 1.5: Enhancing Exploration
Mon, 14 December 2020



tl;dr
- Update 1.5 is OUT!
- Exploration revamped
- New Native American Assets
- Improved shooting and grenade throwing
- Custom Bitmaps




Explorers of Ylands rejoice! Update 1.5 - Enhancing Exploration - is finally out for you to try and enjoy, and it brings a host of new goodies and improvements for Exploration, many of which had been requested by the community for a long time.

We have reworked and revamped the Exploration experience from the ground up, offering a truly engaging and exciting adventure, in the veins and spirit of what we originally envisioned for Exploration many moons ago.

Players can now travel to and explore countless different islands, in different biomes on their trusty ships, linked to their person for the first time ever - creating a new bond between players and their vessels.

And this is just the beginning! Update 1.5 is but the first stepping stone for an amazing Exploration experience - over the coming months, we will keep updating Exploration until it is as good as we can make it and the community is happy with it.

Of course, we have packed this update with some other goodies, improvements and fixes as well - read on to find out more!

Update 1.5 - Enhanced Exploration - major features

Exploration update first phase: the beginnings of the new and improved Explore experience is here; players can now use the brand new world map to sail to different biomes, where they can explore (and exploit) procedurally generated islands. Ships will now be tied to players so they can use their favourite vessel to explore the high seas.



Native American assets: we have added a whole slew of new assets for both players and creators!



Custom bitmaps in the Editor: creators will now have the option to import their very own bitmaps into the game, opening up a brand new dimension of customization options.



Shooting weapon improvements: we have made major improvements to how bows/crossbows & grenades are handled within the game; make sure you try them out!



....and hundreds of fixes, improvements to every aspect of the game!




For more detailed information about the changes and additions, head over to our new Exploration Feedback section https://ylands.com/community/forum/88-exploration-feedback/ with a handy FAQ made by Aleš 😉 - we would love to hear what you think of the new Exploration and how we could improve it. Also, check out the changelog for all the juicy deets 😁

To keep track of all the latest news, follow Ylands on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

Until next time, stay classy!

[Asid]

Dev Diary #158 - Exploration, ahoj!
Thu, 17 December 2020

tl,dr
- what's next for Exploration



Hey there, fellow ylanders!

Update 1.5 is finally out and boy, what a big one. We brought you a lot of optimizations, as well as some extremely handy Editor tools - especially the ability to add your own images to be used in your user interfaces, will help you create even cooler games.

For many of you, however, the most important in this update is something completely different - the first step towards reworked Exploration.

I know that it took us quite a long to make this first big step. I also know that no matter what we do this first step won't please everyone. But I consider it a new beginning, a clear signal that we're serious about this. And because since it's just the first step, let me tell you what our vision is. Please note that I'm talking about a vision and not about things "that are planned". That's because we will carefully listen to what your wishes and ideas are and even though it's obvious we won't be able to implement all of those, together we will make sure that we're addressing things that are important.

We see Exploration as a unique world filled with places you can visit, explore, where you meet your friends and strangers alike. Where there is ALWAYS a new place to go, new yland uncharted, new challenge to accept. Place where you build yourself a home, a place which you can make sure will be there and won't get wiped with any update. Place, where you can enjoy whatever new we introduce without starting a new game every single time.



A world where we care more about things that are broken than adding new features at all cost. That doesn't mean that there will be no new content by all means. Even though many of you believe we should add flying vehicles, trains, submarines and a thousand other things as soon as possible (just like we ourselves used to believe), we will primarily focus on making sure that what's already in the game works as expected. That it's fun. That you can live amazing stories with your friends.

Now let me get back to the update at hand. This update was huge, the changes we made under the hood were quite big so there were some issues that need fixing - for example the one that prevents players from eating under some circumstances. We've already found and fixed the most annoying issues reported and will be releasing a hotfix today or tomorrow.

Let me thank you again for your patience. Stay safe and classy, ylanders!

[Asid]

Dev Diary #158 - New Frosty Goodies
Thu, 7 January 2021

Hey there Ylanders!

It's getting a bit chilly outside 🥶 So I thought I'd show you some of the cool stuff coming in the next Goodie Pack 😇



A lot of new items and creatures are coming in the next Goodie pack, so I sneaked into the polar regions and took a snap of a few of them. The whole theme of the Goodie Pack revolves around coldest places on earth, and so we added a host of new creatures to inhabit these regions. So you'll be able to befriend a Reindeer and run away from a Snow Tiger. And of course beware the fierce Wolverine 😬 But even more ancient beings will appear in Random Encounters: The Mighty JÖTUNN!





You'll also need some warm clothes, so either put on some tried and trusted expedition gear or don the latest in Expedition fashion. You'll also get some new research equipment to decorate your humble Expedition Station, which you'll be able to equip with some new metal doors, plastic pylons and ice formations 🧊





Coupled with that the new Goodie Pack will come with some new exciting Random Encounters and a slew of bug fixes, that our team has been tirelessly working on, though even more bug fixes are planned for the Major Update 1.6 🥳

So until then, stay classy and warm Ylanders 😁

[Asid]

Dev Diary #159 - Ylands Creators Competition Winners
Thu, 14 January 2021







Salutations Ylanders!

So it's finally here! The first-ever Ylands Creators Competition Winners Announcement! 🤩

And first of all, let me stress, ALL entrants were great. There were loads of truly fantastic games and we really really enjoyed playing them. But there can only by a certain amount of winners, so here we go:



Best Game Award

1st place - ☆TINY SEA☆ (Spyler & Christal) https://play.ylands.com/asset/8712

2nd place - NEXT GENERATION (Mello1223) https://play.ylands.com/asset/8739

3rd place - Puzzle RPG - Spirit Guardians: Dalvanie (Eucha) https://play.ylands.com/asset/8821

4th place - Lochford Horror 3 (Euphe) https://play.ylands.com/asset/8605

5th place - Police Pursuit (P1 Gaming) https://play.ylands.com/asset/8931



Special Category Award

Best action game - ☆TINY SEA☆ (Spyler & Christal) https://play.ylands.com/asset/8712

Best RPG game - Rigale (Cernunos) https://play.ylands.com/asset/8622

Best puzzle game - NEXT GENERATION (Mello1223) https://play.ylands.com/asset/8739

Best narrative game - Lochford Horror 3 (Euphe) https://play.ylands.com/asset/8605

Best composition - Santa's Workshop (HanniNanni & Dr Hase) https://play.ylands.com/asset/8733



Congratulations to all winners, but if you haven't won in this round, do not fear, because VERY SOON a new season of the Ylands Creators Competition will begin 🤩 And if it's just half as awesome as this one, it's going to be...AWESOME 🎉

So try out the games of the winners but also all the other games that were made for this fantastic competition and till next time, stay classy Ylanders 😊



P.S. Join us tomorrow on
ylands
 at 16:00 CET to play the winning games and more with me 😁 And don't hesitate to jump into Ylands to join in the fun while we're at it. I'd appreciate it 😅

[Asid]

Dev Diary #161 - New Ship Type
Thu, January 28, 2021




tl;dr
- New Ship - The Junk Ship
- It's many uses
- A change in the team

Hey there Ylanders!

Today I have two pieces of news to share with you. First, let's begin with some new cool content, that will be arriving in the next Goodie Pack: The Junk Ship!

This has been quite exciting for us because we weren't sure we'll manage to finish the development on this beauty on time, but because of some really hard work by our team, it will appear in the next mini-update. This new ship will bring countless new possibilities to your builds and a missing Eastern feel to our growing navy 🤩 The first Junk Ships appeared during the Han dynasty in the 2nd century and were an integral part of river and sea voyages throughout history up until today in and around China and her neighbours. The supposedly largest Junk Ship ever built was that of Admiral Zheng He. It had nine masts, was 130 metres long and 55 metres wide 🤯

While our junk ships won't resemble those of the legendary Zheng He, they will be pretty easy to build and will be as fast as a small wooden ship, making it a great vessel to start your adventures on 😁 Also it is an absolute must when travelling to the Eastern Biome regions as it will fit right in 😀

And the second piece of news is a bit bittersweet because after nearly two years having fun with all of you and working on one of the most exciting projects I will be leaving Ylands in three weeks time. It really was a great honour and wonderful experience to start my gaming industry career with you all and I couldn't have asked for a more chill and classy group of individuals 🤗 But as with every great story, there comes an end and it is time for me to sail off to my next adventure. We are already searching for someone fun to replace me and take care of you all and this is by no means a goodbye from me. I'll still be here for three weeks, so this is not my last Dev Diary and we'll have time to chat some more. And even after I leave, I will always take an interest what's happening on my favourite Exploration and Creative platform 😊 But in no sense is my leaving because of any dissatisfaction with the community or Ylands, quite the opposite I have really enjoyed every second of it chatting with you, seeing Ylands grow and improve while making silly videos and getting to know you all during our Streams 🙃 Just a new adventure called and me being the adventuring type I had to heed that call. So again, thank you all for your kindness, creativity and classiness and I'll see you around.

So until next time, stay classy Ylanders.

[Asid]

Goodie Pack #3
Tue, 2 February 2021



Highlights

Polar assets - Whether you are a bold Explorer planning to visit arctic regions or a Creator making a game from icy lands, you will love this update. And if the cold isn't your cup of tea - give a try to the brand new Junk ship!

Fixes - many of them addressing the most critical issues experienced when playing the new experimental Exploration


New assets


New creature: Jötunn
New creature: Wolverine
New creature variant: Reindeer
New creature variant: Snow tiger

Plastic pillar blocks (4)
Snow blocks (26)
Metal door
Inuit hat
Inuit parka
Expedition gear
Knitted cap
Santa armour boots
Frost armour
Research equipment (3)
Ice formations (5)
Inuit idols (5)

Junk Ship
Junk sails
Junk hull
Kayak

Additions / Tweaks

[YLD-28117] Tweaked: Unsummmoning ship with a padlock on the helm will now remove the padlock from the helm

Fixes

[YLD-28023] Fix: / Tweak: Exploration player data (character, ship) are now saved during the exploration session, instead of just at the end which should prevent players from losing a significant amount of their progress. The approximate time between player saves updates corresponds to the game save period - 10min by default.
[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-26776] Fixed: A wrong count was shown when crafting planks
[YLD-28123] Fixed: You were able to claim ownership of an unknown but padlocked ship
[YLD-28285] Fixed: Objects or project table couldn't be placed near ship blueprints
[YLD-28286] Fixed: Items disappearing twice from the inventory when dropped on the ship
[YLD-27934] Fixed: If a sleep request was pending in multiplayer, the UI icon would stay on even after joining another server
[YLD-26388] Fixed: Heavy FPS drop on mobile devices when aiming with guns
[YLD-28176] Fixed: Dig action event was triggered twice on a pickaxe which breaks visual scripting
[YLD-28284] Fixed: It is not possible to place some animals from Hotbar if switching to them from any weapon
[YLD-27380] Fixed: Profile screen displays incorrect name when opening the profile popup for the first time
[YLD-28530] Fixed: Rented servers: When the Workshop is down, trying to host a game from it results in the game data corruption.
[YLD-28430] Fixed: Keybinds not loading correctly after restarting the game
[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-28016] Fixed: Blueprint Camera shines the flash all the time, not only when actually shooting
[YLD-28038] Fixed: CTD: Crash when you try split stack of items inside inventory container to already a full stack of items
[YLD-27259][YLD-28309][YLD-28325] Fixed: 3D Game Logic icons should are sometimes nor properly rotated

[YLD-28327] Fixed: Editor: Editing particles on equipment in the Player role does not work correctly
[YLD-28165] Fixed: Editor: Changing scenario description does not work
[YLD-28115] Fixed: Editor: Unique items are mergeable with non-unique ones of the same type in some cases
[YLD-28032] Fixed: Editor: NPC with a weapon with a particle in hand in Entity template breaks Object properties window
[YLD-27218] Fixed: Editor: 3D GameLogic icons have the horizon visible through them

[YLD-28177] Fixed: VS: Script tiles sometimes overlap each other

[Asid]

Dev Diary #162 - Goodie Pack #3
Thu, 4 February 2021



Hey there Ylanders!

Some of you might have noticed some cool new stuff arriving in Ylands this Tuesday and you'd be absolutely right! The Goodie Pack #3 is out and it is full of cool new assets to play around with.



First of we have the inclusion of a new culture in Ylands, the Inuits. These descendants of the Thule people inhabit the Arctic regions of Greenland, Canada and Alaska and are experts of living in the most dangerous and life-threatening environments. They have a rich and old culture and while we did our best to emulate it, we in no way claim to be absolute experts 😅 But we have added some Inuit clothes attire, that will be of great help to Arctic explorers planning on making their base in the land of ice 😊 There are also a few Inuit idols, that you can use to decorate your arctic home and give homage to the people of the Great White North.

But there is more to aid your expedition, including the newly added expedition gear, knitted cap and research equipment. You can also use new Plastic pillar blocks and add a Metal door to the mix to complete the Expedition Research Station.

Beware though, because new dangers will inhabit the snowy biomes too, including a number of new animals. We have the fearsome Wolverine and dangerous Snow Tiger to contend with, while you'll also be able to come upon the Reindeer (if it flies, please call Santa but also send us logs 😂). These should make the colder biomes a bit more diverse 😁 In the Editor, you can also youse the mighty Jötunn straight from Norse mythology and in update 1.6 they will be making appearances in Exploration as well in new Random Encounters, so watch out 😊

And finally something more for the Eastern biome the beautiful Junk Ship, which we talked about at length last week. It is a cheap option to get your Exploring underway and to blend into the Eastern biomes well. But for even the earlier early game or for just short trips on a map we have also added the trusty kayak, which should fill the space between a raft and a small boat.



There were also a slew of bug fixes, which should make life in Experimental Exploration a little bit easier 😁 So check out the changelog to find out more about these and as always if you find a bug, please let us know and if you have any feedback, please let us know since we are still actively gathering issues from the new Exploration and taking them on board to make the experience as good as possible 🤗

And so until next time, stay classy Ylanders.

[Asid]

Dev Diary #163 - Future of the Barrier
Thu, 11 February 2021



tl;dr
- Not happy with the barrier
- Rework of building and map protection
- Removing the barrier
- Adam leaving, Marci filling in

Hey there, fellow ylanders, it's Aleš here!

Today I would like to tell you a bit more about changes you can expect in 1.6's Exploration. We will talk about protecting what's yours and setting the game world rules to fit your idea of the perfect place.

Let's start by saying that we don't really like how the barrier works in the game right now and even though it has served its purpose for a long time we think we could make a better, cleaner, more intuitive solution. Let's first discuss what the barrier is actually good for and how can we make sure these things will still work well when it's gone. The main areas where the barrier came in handy were these:

•   it allowed players to create buildings they could easily dismantle for whatever the reason was
•   it protected your little piece of the world from damage caused by other players, but also it prohibited them from doing things like removing terrain and such
•   it protected your avatar against damage



Not only wasn't the barrier concept very intuitive to new players, but it had several shortcomings (that we always planned to fix, but never got to it). It couldn't be moved when placed. It wasn't big enough. And most importantly, you only had one. This last thing has become a major blocker now with the new Exploration which is actually centred around the idea of travelling among distant locations and even though you can have one home where you return and where you could have the barrier, we feel it's extremely limiting. So we are planning to introduce these features:

•   improved building via the new workstation (we already covered that here)
•   allowing yland owners to set the rules for their maps



The first feature we already covered (see here https://ylands.com/community/topic/29514-dev-diary-160-building-in-exploration/)
We want to give you full control over your games and that's something that isn't possible with the barrier. As a result, the barrier will be removed from the game in 1.6 and in its stead game owners will be able to set up rules on what can different types of visitors do in this particular world. We believe you will find this extremely useful 😊



And then there's another thing I would like to mention. As you probably know, our Community manager Adam is leaving next week. We are currently looking very intensely for a replacement, but before we find one, Marci will try to take care of some of Adam's duties as best as he can. What does this mean? Since Marci has enough work as it is you can experience a bit longer response times on our side. Fortunately, there are already some awesome players who are a great help to us on the forums plus I will ask other devs to keep checking the forum (especially the bug forum). Hopefully, this state won't last too long.

At the same time, if you ever encounter an issue that you consider critical or anything that requires our immediate attention, don't hesitate and PM me directly on our game forums. I will do my best to reply as soon as I can.

That's it for today, we will talk to you again next Thursday and so until then... stay healthy and classy, ylanders!

[Asid]

Dev Diary #164 - Special ylands and Leaderboards
Thu, 18 February 2021



Hey there, fellow ylanders!

Here we are with yet another portion of 1.6 goodies and today we‘ll talk about both something for Creators and something nice you‘ll experience in the new Exploration.

So what is it that the Creators may like? Let‘s say that you are making a small cool action game where the goal is to score as many points as possible. That‘s great but what‘s the point in having such a game when you can‘t store the best scores and show it to players to make them try harder, to give them more incentive? So in 1.6 we plan to introduce something we call Global leaderboards. Regardless of how many instances of your game are running at the same time, they can all store and retrieve (and show) ... well... global leaderboards. We are looking forward to seeing players compete with each other and we might even have a competition in future about getting the highest score in selected games! Also, if you‘re a Creator, you really shouldn‘t miss the next Dev Diary where we‘re going to talk about something really great that we‘re going to introduce with 1.6 (hype intended).


Before I get to introduce a new Exploration feature, I would like to quickly address some questions from the last Dev Diary we posted. Firstly blueprints - in the new Exploration you will be able to use blueprint camera only on ylands where you have appropriate privileges. Our plans, however, are to do a big blueprint upgrade in 1.7 because we feel they hold a great potential we have only barely touched. We will be able to provide more information about this sometime after 1.6 is released. There has also been a question asked about setting specific Exploration ylands as PvP/PvE only. We looked into this and while we understand that this is an important setting to have we ran into some non-trivial issues when looking for ways to do this properly and so this will be in some form present in 1.7.



And the cool new 1.6 feature for today? Well, we have been working on a system that allows us to present you, the players, with much more than an yland when you sail to a new location. With 1.6 you will be able to come across specific locations, custom-made, non-generated scenes. What does it mean? Imagine you sail to an uncharted yland on the regional map and instead of the ylands you‘re used to you come across something very unique - like a small floating outpost. This can be pretty much anything and the great thing is that we can keep adding these „random encounter scenes“ without having to update the game. We believe this will enhance the greatly the exploration aspect of the game.

The question some of you will very likely ask is - if you can make custom ylands and expose them to players in Exploration, can I do that as well? Can I create my own yland (city ... or anything else) in the Editor and then have it in Exploration? The short answer would be: not... yet . But we are getting there and it is something that definitely deserves it‘s own Dev Diary.


That‘s it for this week, I‘ll talk to you next Thursday and until then... stay healthy and classy, ylanders!

[Asid]

Dev Diary #165 - A different kind of scripting
Thu, 25 February 2021



Hey there, fellow ylanders.

After we‘ve talked about several Exploration improvements you will find in the next update 1.6, today we focus on something big that Creators will surely like (if you‘re interested in Exploration, don‘t worry, there‘s plenty more cool stuff in 1.6 we‘ve yet to talk about).

We‘ve seen a lot of amazing creations that pushed the limit of what is possible with visual scripting (and many time genuinely surprised us). Games like this make us, the whole platform, move forward, but it also showed more clearly what is not really surprising. Visual scripting is a great tool for learning, for making simple-to-medium complex games, but once the game complexity reaches a certain level, working with the visual script, navigating through it and in general making the code intuitive and easy to work with because really difficult.

That‘s why with 1.6 we‘re bringing you a beta version of non-visual scripting. You will be able to create text scripts, that can be attached to Entities and Game logic object in the editor and when the game runs this script will be executed in a similar way to the visual script.




The fact is that internally the visual script has always been a visualization of javascript-like language so now you will get the chance to bypass the visual scripting and type in the code directly. Instead of describing these features in many more paragraphs, we put together a short FAQ that will, hopefully, answer most of your questions. We are looking forward to discussing with you this topic more in the followup discussion.

Q: You said „beta version“ - what does it mean?
A: This feature requires a lot of work based on a lot of feedback that we would like to get from you, the Creators. Therefore it is very likely that 1.7 may bring some changes and you will be required to go through your scripts and update them. Also, as always with a feature of such size, there may be bugs. The more feedback you provide, the better it will get.

Q: What language is it? What syntax can we expect?
A: The syntax and commands (the „generic“ ones, not the ones specific to Ylands) is pretty much javascript (even its file extension is .js). However, it‘s not 100% javascript, since it does not support some features, so you can probably think of it as a javascript subset. You will find more about this in the online documentation.

Q: Is this meant to replace visual scripting?
A: Absolutely not. For us, visual scripting remains the primary way of scripting and we will keep improving it in future.

Q: Can we use both scripting and visual scripting in one game?
A: Sure!

Q: Will there be some sort of editor, IDE we will be able to use to edit the script?
A: No, not at this time. With so many cool editors out there supporting .js syntax we‘d like to focus on other areas of the scripting/game - at least for the time being.

That‘s it for today - don‘t hesitate to ask about anything that remains unclear and I‘ll talk to you next week. Until then - stay healthy and classy, ylanders!

Let us know what you think on our forums!