Hey ther... wait, what? The greeting is in the title of this Dev Diary?
I guess there has to be a reason for that. Well, let's explore what that reason might be!
Finding the right friends is the best thing that can possibly happen to you. And being friends as much as we are colleagues here at the Ylands HQ, we only wanna support the sentiment. Right now, finding a fellow Ylander on the map is no easy feat. "The southern part of the map, but a bit to the east next to the tier 1 yland and then turn right at the shipwreck". Sounds familiar? Yep, we know it's a complicated task to guide a friend to you.
But that will be no longer! This is going to be the end of all the verbal navigation because from 1.9 onwards you will be able to see your friends and clanmates on the map! As long as you're on the same map, you'll be able to see each other. That should make your sailing days run a bit more smoothly since you won't have to spend time looking for each other on the map.
And how have you been doing with collecting your Achievements? Sounds like an abrupt change of topic? Nah! This will be another way to flex your shiny Titles that you earn by completing certain Achievements, as these will be visible on the map as well! So better hurry to get that Title that you want to flex with in front of your friends!
Well, Ylanders, this was a quick update on how the work on 1.9 is going. We hope that you're as excited as we are about this watery update!
What are you curious about? If you have questions about 1.9, let us know in the comments!
Till next time, Ylanders!
Stay Classy!
Dev Diary #207 Ylands in 2022
Hey there, fellow Ylanders!
With the first week of the new year, we meet again to talk about all things Ylands! We hope all of you spent the holidays relaxing, playing games and having fun with your loved ones and so you're ready to dive into what 2022 brings (hopefully things that are much better than the last years). We at team Ylands are already at full speed working on the very cool update 1.9. Next week's Dev Diary will get back to talking about what you can expect to find in it, but for now, I would like to take the opportunity and mention what we've managed during the last 12 months.
2021 was a big year for Exploration. Just like we promised in 2020, much less focus goes towards the Editor which we consider powerful enough already (even though when it comes to user-friendliness there's still some way to go) and started changing and expanding Exploration. Now, a year later, we have a lot to show.
We've made the maps much larger. We made literally hundreds of improvements and fixes to the multiplayer experience. We made a list of all the most sought-after features and improvements you suggested and many of them you can either already find implemented or present in the upcoming 1.9. Ylands is already quite a massive game and so even when you add dozens or hundreds of improvements it's very likely that you still see things that need to be fixed or improved.
Speaking of things that we still have uncrossed on our list - we know you want things like the return of the first-person camera. Don't worry, we hear you and 2022 will, just as 2021, show that we are serious about making things right.
As much we've been trying to improve in everything we do, there are still some things we didn't manage to do right. One of the most important probably is communicating how the game has changed to players who come back after months or even years. Especially those who supported us when we were a premium title during the Early Access (or even earlier than that). We're failing at letting them know that even though the game is now Free to play, it's because of the Editor and minigames so that everyone can play with it and have fun and the game core, the Exploration, is still paid, which hasn't changed.
To name a specific case where we failed - we just found out about a player who has bought the game way back to support us and when they returned, due to a technical issue on our side the game indicated that they need to buy the Exploration DLC. At that point, they had all the right to be angry at us. And this is something that we must make sure never happens again.
If 2022 shows us anything, it's that we remember you guys and we will do a much better job at appreciating you. Thanks for staying with us.
So much for today's Dev Diary and the next week, we'll get back to discussing cool new features. Until then...
Stay classy and healthy, Ylanders!
Dev Diary #206 Happy Holidays!
Hey there, Ylanders!
The holidays are approaching fast and it is time to for us to spread the words of thanks.
First, we would like to thank you, our players, for your support, creativity, kindness, loyalty, and all the good vibes you've been sending our way. It is the source of energy that continues to motivate us and push us forward. Your feedback gives us valuable information and helps us improve Ylands. So thank you for that and please keep doing what you've been doing, we appreciate it very very much!
Secondly, I'd like to give a big thanks to the developer team. If it wasn't for your hard work, persistence, creativity, positive outlook, and team spirit, the game would not be the same. We are incredibly excited to work together in the upcoming year and bring our players new and improved features and big doses of awesomeness.
The holiday season is a time of peace and rest, so don't forget to stop for a moment and take a break from your day-to-day life and enjoy the little things in life. We wish you all a wonderful holiday season filled with joy and love.
We also wish you, Ylanders, to stay healthy, happy and classy!
Dev Diary #205 Automated Testing
Hey there, Ylanders!
We are now fully focusing on bringing you adventures set below the waves and we're already seeing some pretty cool stuff that we'll be showing you in the upcoming weeks. This is how it always is quite early in the development of an update - things are being designed, a detailed document made, prototypes created... so not quite something that can be presented to the player base (especially since some of these things often end up being removed from the update).
But what we're working on are not only things that you players will experience first hand. Today we would like to mention a tool/system that our programmers have been working on for some months now - Automated Testing. Ylands is already an incredibly complex project and adding any new feature, regardless of how carefully done, many times ends with something breaking someplace else in the code. Regardless of the hundreds of hours that QA puts in testing before every update is released, it is not humanly possible to test all the situations which may arise. And this is where Automated Testing comes in. Even though the system still needs a few months to be fully ready, it's already possible to create various tests and run them regularly to see if something didn't break.
Imagine this very simple test - a few objects are placed in the level and the character is told to pick them up and then we test if they are all in the character's inventory. This could be one of hundreds of tests that run automatically and report only when the test outcome isn't as expected. It could be anything - a problem with reaching the objects due to pathfinding, objects disappearing, problems with picking up objects, or with the inventory. If a problem is found, it is reported and QA can check it (for example see a recorded session to find what went wrong). This will hugely (probably starting somewhere before 1.10 is released) improve the game stability and the number of issues present.
(screenshot by YoHasLEGO)
Automated tests or not, the most important thing we have apart from our internal QA is ... you. You have reported hundreds of bugs and the absolute majority of these have been fixed. Your feedback matters and the game is now so much better because of all the time you have spent talking to us. For that, we are extremely grateful.
So this is it for today and we'll see you next week when we're gonna start talking about some juicy Exploration stuff.
Stay safe and classy!
Dev Diary #204 Two Years Young!
Hey there, Ylanders!
We’re thrilled to announce that we’re celebrating our second birthday this week!
It's been a long and crazy ride over the last two years, and while it hasn’t always been easy, your feedback provided us with the energy and determination we needed to keep going.
The same people who brought you the Ylands you knew and loved returned to take charge of the game about a year or so ago. Since then, we’ve released three major updates, with every one of them focused on improving Exploration, as well as offering larger maps, making improvements to multiplayer, and several hundred other enhancements and fixes – all of which culminated with recently released update 1.8.
We’re really happy with how the last update turned out and even happier with all the positive messages we’ve been receiving about the progress Exploration has made. We’re even seeing a number of players return after leaving Exploration because they felt it had been abandoned.
Well, we’re finally on the right track and we fully intend to stay there. For example, we just finalized our update goals for the upcoming new year and every single update is aimed at improving Exploration in a major way.
In honor of our second anniversary and to thank you for all your help, we’re offering a 50% discount on the Exploration pack and on most items in our shop for a limited time. An exclusive shark costume is also available, so you definitely won’t want to miss this unique opportunity!
Finally, our birthday simply wouldn’t be the same without you, so we’d love to invite you to a special birthday stream on Twitch this Sunday, December 5th starting at 4 p.m. CET. We can’t wait to share a virtual birthday toast with all of you!
Until next time, stay classy!
The Ylands Team
Patch 1.8.1 Changelog
Hey there, Ylanders!
It's me! Your patch notes!
What's new
New birthday-themed main menu
Added Strong Shark costume asset
Assets Strong Shark costume asset
Fixes Fixed: Titles in player settings could not be set. Fixed: Some collectibles cannot be equipped (e.g. Strong Shark) [YLD-34808] Fixed: Locked entities on ship cannot be unlocked after travel [YLD-34418][YLD-20905] Fixed: Water sometimes has holes in the distance when the terrain is loading [YLD-34602] Fixed: rhododendron can be planted in pots
Dev Diary #203 Oh ship!
Hey there, fellow Ylanders!
With update 1.8 successfully released, we are now fully working on 1.9. We've already mentioned what its theme will be so maybe we can provide you with a few more bits of information.
Firstly, we are aiming at making ships a more important and integral part of life of those who choose to go and explore those far horizons. From small things like naming your ship to introducing some cool new things to make your seafaring more fun and more interesting, and last, but certainly not least, to being able to damage, sink and repair ships (in maps that are set as PvP).
(screenshot by NICO14973)
But that's just some of the things that will happen above the sea waves, but what about the vast areas below them? Well, they have been void and bare and both without enough interesting things to see and gameplay mechanics to play with... So this ends with 1.9. We are adding a lot of cool stuff in the depths (and obviously fixing some long-standing issues with light sources underwater). This is also extremely exciting but as much as we would like to share more, everything has its time.
And what else is new? We're getting close to announcing the results of the recent competition as the final votes are just coming in from the team Ylands judges. Also, it's been almost two years since Ylands left Early Access, and though we had some problems in the past, right now the game is much better and we feel we're on the right track... and that's definitely something to celebrate, isn't it? :) But we'll talk about this more the next week.
Until then make sure you stay healthy and classy, Ylanders!
Patch 1.8.0.1 Changelog
Hey there, Ylanders!
The post-update release patch notes are here!
What's new:
An updated tutorial with several bugs fixed
Hunger immunity bug fixed
Workstations on ships should keep their rotation after being lit or put out
Several Mobile UI issues were fixed
General bug fixes
All fixes and tweaks [YLD-34617] Fixed: Exploration: player may not get ever hungry if he was on Tutorial yland. [YLD-23147] Fixed: Some cave random encounters are not generated. [YLD-33439] Fixed: Parented entities are rotated after being replaced by another entity in their spawn chain (e.g. workstations placed on ships after being fed). [YLD-34585] Fixed: Placing a blueprint containing a vehicle should now finish properly, assembling the vehicle and removing the blueprint table. [YLD-34602] Fixed: Some potted plants disappeared. [YLD-34614] Fixed: Leaving an exploration game while seated on an animal companion no longer breaks camera and movement upon reentering. [YLD-34630] Fixed: "Freeman" achievement hidden. [YLD-34632] Fixed: Obtaining screenshot using F11 takes screenshot correctly with UI. [YLD-34639] Fixed: Wrong entity is painted sometimes when there are multiple entities stacked on top of each other and you are painting in a downwards direction. [YLD-34681] Fixed: Get Custom Key Action State script tile in Custom controller's script does not work. [YLD-34720] Fixed: Coop settings in in-game multiplayer settings should show always properly now. This bug was older than changes done for 1.8.0.1. [YLD-34742] Fixed: Pumpkin clothes showing under coconuts in recipe groups. [YLD-34546] Fixed: VS: spawning animated game logic object does not work. [YLD-34597] Fixed: VS: Entity + Game logic object does not work correctly as argument of Send Message To Server script tile. [YLD-34604] Fixed: VS: Custom controller with parameter variables stops working in some situations. [YLD-34706] Fixed: VS: it is possible to switch to client script of Entity/Logic storage even though it is not supported. [YLD-34741] Fixed: VS: Time trigger elapsed time and Delayed instructions elapsed time is reset after savegame load. [YLD-34438] Tweaked: Editor: we now show only names of first up to 10 columns in Data set properties. (lot of lines were slowing down the game significantly). [YLD-34612] Tweaked: Hunger gain rate decreased slightly when sated. [YLD-34732] Tweaked: Make logs drop basic 1x1x1 log blocks on destruction. CleanupKillSystem now processes all MovingBasis followers on the collided entity before the entity itself. It also clears the parent transform id for the character being saved to ensure the former id is not kept and propagated to the character's FollowMovingBasis.
Dev Diary #202 New Beginnings
Hey there, fellow Ylanders!
This Dev Diary comes out on Friday. Not because we would be resting after we released the update 1.8, but quite the opposite. We‘ve been busy talking to you, listening to your feedback, checking your bug reports and working on a patch, which will come out next week and will fix some minor issues and imbalances.
So far we‘ve been extremely happy with how this update turned out. We are getting some really nice messages about the progress Exploration has made and once again we are seeing the return of players who left because Exploration felt abandoned.
Right now we KNOW that we are on the right track and we‘re going to keep walking it. We‘ve just finalized our update goals for the next year and yes, every single update planned is going to improve Exploration in a major way or fix what doesn‘t work as intended.
So what can you expect to come first?
First quarter of 2022 will see us improving many things related to ships and sailing. We will take you to dangerous places below the sea surface and bring, once again, a large number of improvements based on things you‘ve been asking for.
Welcome to the new era of Exploration - we‘re glad you‘re here with us to witness it :)
Stay classy and healthy, Ylanders!
Dev Diary #201 Update 1.8: Awesome Achievements + Dev Stream!
Hey there, Ylanders!
Update 1.8: Awesome Achievements is out now! What do you think so far?
In today's dev diary, we would like to show you what happens when you ask a person, who loves their job and project, to write you a short quote for the dev diary. (big grin)
All jokes aside, our Project Lead, Aleš Ulm, wanted to tell you "a bit" about the direction of Ylands in the past, in the present and a tiny bit about the future.
"There's a page at our internal documentation system. It's called Awesome & Crazy. I created that page at 10:07 am on 16th February 2015.
That page contains all the awesome and crazy ideas that we wanted our game to have. The list is long ranging from things that we've already implemented to such that we had (and still have) no idea how to implement. For me personally this page IS Ylands. It's about exploring and having fun. Unfortunately, at a certain point these things changed. Not only wasn't Ylands fun to play anymore, it wasn't that much fun to make.
When I've returned to the Project Lead position I set us in a direction to fix that. Now, about a year later, I think we've found again our passion for making Ylands and are having fun again. And we hope that it will be fun for you to play.
Judging from the new players that are slowly coming back to Ylands some of you already noticed and I would like to thank you for that. This feedback is incredibly important to us. If you like the direction we've taken during the past year, please let us know. Rate us on Steam to make other players see we're back and worth giving a try, it's immensely important to us and shows us that what we're now building makes sense. That thumb up (which you can always change, if we fail you), telling your friend that devs at Ylands have come back to their senses, that's the fuel we're now running on.
As someone who was there when the Ylands was born and is now in control of the project, I will make sure we will all get the game we've dreamed. And if still not convinced? Well, come back to check 1.9, which, with all its focus on sailing, diving and exploring, will surely make you see that Ylands is back."
There has been a lot of information about 1.8 today, which is why we will remind you of this again, but, much like Marvelous Mysteries did, Awesome Achievements also had a special dev stream, where we introduced some of the new stuff that 1.8 brought to the world of Ylands.
Have a wonderful time playing Awesome Achievements and...
