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Ylands Update 2.1: Sunken Sands is live!

[h3]Ahoy Ylanders,[/h3]

The heat wave is peaking, and the Crimson Shores are in serious trouble. You know how it is when an actual crisis strikes. Every single senior adventurer in Classy Adventurers Guild is pretending to work as hard as possible, writing complaints about exceeding heat regulations in the workplace just to avoid dealing with the actual emergency. But not me! Horatio Reginald Elmwood - Adventurer Extraordinaire is the full package! Sadly, not even I can handle this situation alone. That's when a promising adventurer like yourself is needed!

Luckily, the C.A.G. is bringing several very classy improvements to help deal with the new challenges. Let's see what we've got!


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What's New in Update 2.1


[h3]Inventory sorting[/h3]

Every neat freak's dream is coming true. Test the sorting by hitting a single button, adventurer!



[h3]Clay in Tropical caves is up for grabs[/h3]

The constant righteous complaints that I, Horatio, was making for several months finally persuaded Ylands' nature to rethink its rules. Splendid!

[h3]Whole new set of bronze tools[/h3]

Because there are never enough tools. Every Ylander knows that.

[h3]New animals - Alpacas, Jackals and Coyotes[/h3]

What's more to add? Animals and tools have this one thing in common.



[h3]Pause the Ylands[/h3]

The pause was paused for a while but now it is finally on! Hit ESC to pause the singleplayer game.

[h3]Retain some items after death[/h3]

Sometimes it can be very frustrating to sail close to the wind. So, some of the most crucial items earned a well-deserved don't-fall-out-of-an-inventory protection.

[h3]Recipe definitions improvements[/h3]

Unlocking new recipes should be way less overwhelming and will make so much more sense now. Finally!

[h3]Camera improvements (interpolation)[/h3]

Let's skip the technicalities and put it like this: Great performance improvement on high-end setups. And a lot of other classy stuff including many fixes, quality-of-life improvements and Editor enhancements. You can read all the details in our changelog HERE.



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Crimson Shores Need Your Help!



[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]



You thought that the first task C.A.G. gave you was exciting? Well, trust me, adventurer, you have seen nothing yet. The sands of Crimson Shores await a true hero and they will get... YOU! This task won't be easy but don't worry, what's the worst that could happen if you fail? Crimson Shores will get fully consumed by war and hatred and you will become a laughing stock at C.A.G. So, stay calm and classy, adventurer, and meet me on Elmwood's Outpost's ancient library where we parted last time.

Once you succeed, the Arid region is a better place to live and C.A.G. adventurers are drinking their favorite tea again (English Breakfast with a splash of whole milk, seriously you should try that) then it will be the time to flood the room #screenshots-ylands on our Discord with beautiful Crimson Shores pictures.

Until that time, adventurer,
Stay Classy!

- Horatio Reginald Elmwood, the Adventurer Extraordinaire

Dev Diary #282 Get Updated on more 2.1 Update Features

[h3]Ahoy Ylanders![/h3]

We are getting seriously hyped for the 2.1 Update. You have no idea how hard it is not to announce the biggest features before the update is out! What can you do... the answer is obvious; we can let you know about all the other things! Last time we featured 2 features that you wanted the most and we also announced the clay changes and new tier of tools in the diary here. Today will be all about the quality-of-life, and by that we mean your Ylands life. Let's get to it!



[h2]Automatic Anchor Lifting[/h2]

Have you ever tried to set sail and instead saw a pop up saying: "anchor is down."? Well, enjoy these signature moments while they last, since their time is coming to an end very soon.

[h2]Ship Deconstruction[/h2]

Getting your resources back? Duh! The sentimental loss of changing a ship for a new model is already tough, so now you can atleast salvage what's left from the old one. The only limitation is that there can't by anything placed on the ship. There were a few interesting things we had to deal with while creating this feature. For example, it was quite easy to generate decent amounts of resources just by repeatedly building and deconstruction the ship again. πŸ˜…
[h2]
Camera Interpolation[/h2]

Ok, don't get scared by the name of the feature. We had a bit of an issue with changing the camera position in every frame. Insert a sentence explaining programming magic that sorted it all up, or if you can't make yourself to understand it act as this is some kind of very intentional meta joke. - Done βœ…. Voila, and that's how Ylands programmers dealt with the issue. Clever, right? The result? On high-end devices you should notice great improvement in the visual performance.



This is all dear adventurers! Ok, it is definitely not all, but everything else was forbidden to share until the actual release of the update. 😁 What do you think about these quality-of-life improvements? Let us know in the comments and have a great summer weekend!

Stay Hydrated and Classy!

EXPERIMENTAL Build - Update 2.1

[h3]Ahoy Ylanders,[/h3]

The update release is closing into the finish line, and you can test what it will be about in the Experimental version!

Available only to Steam users, the Experimental branch offers you guys a chance to:

  • test upcoming features & changes
  • test your games & scripts
  • report any bugs & provide early feedback (#experimental_build room on our Discord server is a great way to do that)


[h2]How to try the Experimental Build[/h2]

  • BACK UP YOUR GAME DATA (see below)
  • go to your Steam library and right-click Ylands
  • select Properties, click the "Betas" tab and enter "YlandsExperimentalStaging" 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



[h2]Important Info - Backup Your Game Data[/h2]

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 "/userdata/" 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!

Please note: not all features that will be released in the full release are available in the Experimental build, also it is possible that some features might be changed or balanced before the full release.

[h2]HIGHLIGHTS[/h2]

The story continues!

When the 2.0 update was released you seemed pretty psyched about Elmwood's Outpost. So, it seems pretty clear now, that the story is quite interesting direction for Ylands. The Story now continues in the Arid region, we don't wanna spoil it so let's just say that politics is a complicated matter. In real life, in Ylands, on the sandy beach of Arid ylands or even under the sea.

Recipes Definitions Improvements

This is something we already addressed in 2.0 and now the recipes are moving to yet another level. Unlocking recipes should now make much more sense and be way less overwhelming than it used to be. Let us know what you think! New Bronze Tools, Clay and Obsidian in Tropical Speaking of overwhelming, how long have you been looking for clay the first time you played? Now you simply go to one of the tropical caves. Finally, right?! This was one of the feedbacks that we simply couldn't ignore anymore. There were more possible solutions, but the winner is copper vein and bronze tier of tools. Wanna know more details? See the dev diary HERE.

Inventory sorting

One of the most wanted features is finally here. We went through several suggestions that Ylanders from over the world have made, and we are presenting the sorting button. Right now, it has only one way of sorting and we are looking forward to see your feedback on this new feature. If you want to know how exactly the new button will sort your rucksack you can check recent dev diary HERE.

Quality-of-Life Improvements

Some items earned death-protection and not even the worst dreams can persuade you to drop them. Fog shouldn't be that thick anymore as we received a lot of feedback in this direction, you can deconstruct ships now, don't need to raise anchor before hitting the waves and some more.

New animals

Alpacas, coyotes and jackals are ready for taming. Sadly, coyotes and jackals are too small to be your new ride, alpacas on the other hand...

Pause for singleplayer

Yeah. No, it is not a joke. It is here. Any singleplayer game can be stopped simply by pressing ESC. Along with several more UX improvements, let's see if you can spot what are those!



[h2]Critical Blocking Issues:[/h2]

  • DO NOT DIE in Elmwood's Outpost arena or else you will be stuck
  • DO NOT DIE OR RECONNECT in trapped room with mummies on Crimson Shores


[h3]Known visible issues which will be fixed in 2.1:[/h3]

1. Broken button in the local map
2. Broken health bar when you travel from Crimson Shores
3. Difficult to find some mythical animals in adventure (especially new jackal)
4. Cutscenes in the new story yland will be tweaked more
5. Holes in the pyramid on Crimson Shores
6. Many texts are not translated and have some typos in the new story yland

Dev Diary #281 Get your Ylands screenshots featured!

[h3]Ahoy Ylanders![/h3]

You might have noticed that we have a great community. You also might have noticed that we love sharing our community's screenshots. Whether it's Twitter, Instagram or even TikTok we always find a way to feature your cool builds and beautiful sceneries. Today we want to encourage you to join to share your own share of screenshots!


AAAFrom
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[h2]How to create a screenshot[/h2]

While you are in the game you simply press F11 and the screenshot will save to: "This PC β†’ Pictures β†’ Ylands β†’ Screenshots". Also, it is nice to know that you can hide your UI. This is done by the "Home" button by default.


Lona (Sofie72)
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[h2]How to share your screenshot[/h2]

Again, easy sleazy. Join our Discord and head to the #screenshots_ylands room. Then just drop it like it's hot and enjoy the chit chat with your fellow ylanders!


πŸ’œπ•Ώπ–Šπ–‰π–‰π–Žπ–ŠπŸ’œ
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[h2]How to get featured[/h2]

There is only 1 rule here. Make it good looking. Screenshots love some nice aesthetic background. If you are taking a picture of your ship for example, use the sunset, nice clouds or some gorgeous generated yland. When taking images in Editor, place your creation on an yland. That is, if you want us to share the creation further. We have seen enough of the Editor staple green grass. πŸ˜…

Whether you are posting something beautiful you've encountered, something epic you've built or basically anything, if it can catch our eye in the screenshot room, we will feature it in one of our Sunday community screenshots posts. ❀️


JB

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That's it! Create beautiful screenshots, join our Discord server and get inevitably featured on our socials. Of course, while you wait...

Stay Classy!

Dev Diary #280 The 2 Most Wanted Features in 2.1 Update

[h3]Ahoy Ylanders![/h3]

The 2.1 update is incoming, and we still haven't show you so many of those new features! In this diary we will feature two features that you asked for the most. Right at the end of this diary you will also learn what new animals we are adding in the upcoming update. Let's get to it!

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[h2]Overwhelming Fog Blindness[/h2]

Soon to be gone! At least to a certain degree. The realism was the original idea, but when you can't see your own hand in a fog, well, that's rare irl too, maybe even epic or legendary! Also, you made it quite clear that the impenetrable fog can be quite a nuisance. This is why we are tuning down the intensity of the fog in most of the weather types. Finally, you will be able to see the sea again!



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[h2]Get Your Inventory Sorted[/h2]

No, we don't mean make your own system and then move everything to the appropriate slots. We are bringing you a button to do it all for you! We must admit that we are quite excited and curious to see what you will think about it. Let's check how exactly it works. The sorting system going from the top is following:

  • Containers
  • Tools
  • Weapons
  • Armor
  • Clothes
  • Food
  • Materials, resources, plants and so on

Of course, it is even more detailed, and we are looking forward to seeing your feedback about this when you get the chance to try it out.

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Just before we say "stay classy" to you let's check out the new fauna as we promised! We've already wrote about jackals in the diary here, and since we don't want them to be lonely there will be coyotes and alpacas coming along with them to the world of Ylands.



Hopefully, you are just as excited as we are about the 2.1 update and before the time comes, you know what to do...

Stay Classy!