Ylands News

Hey there, fellow Ylanders!

We're working hard on update 1.10 and since update 1.5 it's always been about Exploration first. This is not going to change, but we understand that the ones who like to create cool contraptions or worlds in the Editor might feel neglected, which is why the past few updates brought a lot of Editor and scripting improvements as well.

So today we would like to let the Creators know, what the near future holds for them.

We are currently working on something we internally call "Custom Exploration". We've already mentioned it in our Dev Diaries, but let us remind you what it's all about.

We want to let Creators build ylands in the Editor (or in the Sandbox mode) that players will be able to visit with their ships from the Exploration world. This will result in much more than the ability to create a cool "home" for you with the help of cool things that only the Editor offers. We are going to add incentives for Creators to come up with cool experiences for players who want something more than what Exploration currently offers. At the same time, it will be something that is based on the core Exploration gameplay. You can think of it as Mystery Ylands... created by players for players, friends or strangers alike.






We will reward Explorers for sailing to these worlds and leaving notes and ratings for others if what they found is worth experiencing.

This feature was originally planned for 1.10, but we now see that the first version would be too rough around the edges and missing some of the cool things that make it interesting. So we decided to take more time working on it and will release it in 1.11 in a better shape and with more tools and documentation ready for the Creators. We will also be giving the Creators enough information in advance so that their creations can be available to players as soon as 1.11 is released.

The Editor and content creation will get much more love not just thanks to "Custom Exploration", but also thanks to Ylands EDU version, which is doing surprisingly well and which, in the end, seems to be something that the Ylands game will profit from even more than we expected. But that's a story for a different time :).

We're looking forward to talking to you the next week. Until then - stay classy!

Hey there, fellow Ylanders!

Let's talk about yet another thing that you will get to find in the next update because you asked for it ːsteamhappyː.

Several of you told us about how annoying it is you are not able to eat while exploring while riding a horse or, more importantly, hold a compass (so you can tell where you're going). This is something that wasn't initially even planned for 1.10 but since this suggestion keeps appearing, we decided to squeeze it in.





Oh, and did we mention that because you will now be able to hold items while riding you can travel through the darkness while holding a torch or a lantern?

Anyway, the moral of the story is as always - the more you talk to us, the better the game gets. Thanks for all your feedback!


That's it for today and we'll talk to you again next week. Until then stay healthy and classy, Ylanders!

Hey there, fellow Ylanders!

Firstly we would like to thank you for the huge amount of feedback we got based on the last Dev Diary. It's just awesome to see how much thought many of you have put into it!
Today we would like to share a bit more information about the Blueprints update we're planning for the next update. So far you your options to build something awesome and (re)use it in Exploration as a Blueprint were extremely limited. That shouldn't be the case anymore.

If all goes well, in 1.10 we'll introduce some rather big changes to Blueprints. Blueprints and Compositions will turn into two types of Blueprints (naming can change) - Explorer and Creator Blueprints.



Let us share a bit more about their specifics:

• Creator Blueprints are pretty much what Compositions were (and your existing Compositions, will, in fact, be considered Creator Blueprints). Within those you will be able to store pretty much everything you create in the Editor. However, those will be usable only in the Editor.
  
• Explorer Blueprints will be usable in both Exploration and the Editor. The biggest change when compared to pre-1.10 Blueprints is, that you can create those in the Editor and then use in your Exploration world. Also, they can contain much more than just building blocks. You can have a Blueprint of a house, filled with items, surrounded by a garden with flowers and trees.
  
• In 1.10 you will be able to use these only locally and we'll check if it all works as intended and improve it based on your feedback. In 1.11 we will add advanced options of sharing and monetizing for creators of both kinds of Blueprints.
  

Even though it will become much easier to create amazing Blueprints and use them in the Exploration, don't forget that they're still just that - something that requires your effort to get all the resources (be it materials or specific items) to build it. The more sophisticated the blueprint, the more effort you'll need to build it.

That's it for this week, as always, let us know what you think and on top of that...

Stay classy, Ylanders!

Hey there, Ylanders!

It's been a while since Ocean Odysseys was released and yet we still keep getting more and more feedback about the update - which is what we like to see!

Your feedback helps us make the game better and more enjoyable for you, and also us (the devs play Ylands too of course!).

So this week's Dev Diary will focus on making changes that may not be immediately apparent but will immensely improve the game. Let's talk about balancing and rebalancing.

A lot of the feedback you are sending our way has to do with a lot of different little elements, which is why we said that it was about time we took a sweeping look at Ylands and balanced some of its parts.






One such part, for instance is biomes. Biomes now offer little more than different flora and fauna but other than that they are quite similar when it comes to gameplay. This is something we're looking into and would like to give more meaning to the biomes and hint at what difficulty ylands you might expect in each biome, rather than give away the difficulty using the yland tier system. This is, of course, very much work in progress still, but we're excited to be exploring this direction.

Another crucial part of the game is crafting. This is yet another area where we feel we need some enrichment of the whole process. So currently we're looking at the possibility of more crafting stations and a more meaningful crafting process in general.

We also feel like the hunger and temperature systems deserve some love, which is why tweaks and reworks are being explored in this area.


What type of balancing would you like to see in ylands? Let us know!

And till next time...


Stay classy, Ylanders!

Hey there, fellow Ylanders!

Most of the features and tweaks and fixes you find in Ylands' updates do come from your feedback. However - we are players as well. And we play Ylands as well. And yes, from time to time we too get angry and frustrated by what we experience.





Some time ago we had an internal poll where we asked the team what small, easy to fix things annoy them the most. Because those are minor issues that shouldn't take that long to fix or implement, you will very likely see some of them fixed in the next update. So, here are some examples of what the devs themselves put on that list:

• Show particle/visual effect on workstation while something is being crafted in it
  
• When I travel into a new Yland, spawn the ship in the 'free-to-travel' zone instead of outside of it so that I can change my mind and immediately travel elsewhere without needing to turn the ship around and sail into the travel zone again.
  
• Be able to light a torch in hand without going to inventory
  
• Button to dismiss all "NEW" notifications from crafting
  
• Allow players to change weapons when reloading (crossbow or any weapon). Often I'm stuck reloading when I want to fight.
  
• Make it more obvious that the player is receiving damage
  

Do some of those annoy you as well? Are there other things that you think could be easy to change but would make a difference?

Next week we can talk about any ideas you throw at us. Until then stay healthy and classy!