Ylands News

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!

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

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

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 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!

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

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

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 👋

tl,dr
- Experimental Build for Creators to try out new Update
- Cool new features in Editor
- Sneak Peek into new Exploration at the end 😉

Hey there Ylanders!

1.5 is nearing its release and with it countless new adventures in our reworked Exploration, though a lot of work still awaits us to make the experience perfect 😊

But before we release 1.5, we wanted to give our Creators a chance (especially now with the competition still in progress) to try out their games in our improved and fixed Editor to make sure, everything works, as it supposed to. That is why we would be very happy if the brave among you dived into our Experimental branch and gave the Editor a spin. But beware, there are a few things you should be aware of before you do, so please read very carefully the Exploration Build post so you don't lose any of your data during transfer.

But what can you expect in this Experimental branch? Well you can check out the full changelog in the Experimental branch post itself, but just to name a few:

Improved profile page

We've improved the profile page (accessible by clicking character portrait in the Main menu). See your favourite games, your friends' Avatars or their friends.



Custom bitmap import

As you have already seen in last weeks Dev Diary, Creators can now import their own images to be used as game UI (panels, buttons, icons...) or even in custom particles. Please note that all custom bitmaps are checked before the game is made visible on Workshop.



Dynamic lights visible on mobile devices

We keep tirelessly working so that your mobile gaming experience is as close to PC as possible and made big improvements regarding lighting in mobile games.



Terrain roughen tool

Making a natural-looking terrain is so much easier with this new tool and with a couple of modes to try out too.

Unfortunately, we couldn't fit some of the bigger gifs unto Steam, so we are hosting them on gifyu.

https://gifyu.com/image/j0Ni
https://gifyu.com/image/j0NR

Controlling a non-player object

Two new instructions have been added: Get Horizontal Input / Get Vertical Input, which will return player X / Y controller input. They can be used in new Event Listener event - On Fixed Update to "animate" any object as if controlling the player. Please note that this feature currently works for SP games only.

https://gifyu.com/image/j0QJ

And much much more!

So please check out the post about the Experimental Build and see you in Ylands Creators and stay classy 👋

P.S.

Pst. Explorers. Come here. Don't think we forgot about you. I sneaked out a small sneak peek at the new map system just for you 🤫

https://gifyu.com/image/j0Nj

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

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 👋