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Dev Diary #131 - Water Editing

tl;dr
- New ways to edit water
- Wacky water features to play around with
- Creators can make in-land water for their players

Hey there Ylanders! 

So Update Watery Water is coming ever closer and yet we haven’t talked about the water too much yet. Well that’s about to change! We have some really cool new features coming into 1.3 that’ll let you really explore your creativity with our liquid friend. So first thing’s first, there is a new tool next to the terraforming tools, which will let you add water blocks. Now, these you can then extend and expand to your heart's desire, as long as they’re not too close to the sea (we don’t want that saltwater mixing up with the freshwater 😉). Now, this water works the same as seawater, you can swim in it, float in it, even put ships in it!  





You can also envelop the water in a specific type of terrain, so it makes a kind of pool, which is pretty neat, and also it will make sure there isn’t a box of water floating somewhere in space. And while we are still working on possibilities to make water flow (since mobile devices still aren’t powerful enough to render anything like that), the water now makes countless possibilities...well possible, like the pictures below 😊 I can already see Ship Parkour, where you have to sail and jump from one “Water Tile” to the next 🤩 



Finally, there is also a possibility now in the Editor to regenerate water, so while you are in the Editor and digging near the sea, you can simply press this button and the sea will regenerate to compensate for the loss of land. We are also working on this happening in the game in real-time, but that will be for another update sometime down the line. 


And that’s it for now Ylanders, so until next time, stay classy and safe! 

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Dev Diary #130 - Compass

tl;dr
- New compass for Exploration

Hey there Ylanders!

Put your Exploration hats on, cause we're off on adventures today! We talked in an earlier Dev Diary, that we'll be adding quite a few new Random Encounters, especially in the water, but some of us may ask, how do we find all these exciting locations! Well no need to worry, we are adding the cool new compass into the game. This handy fellow will do, what every compass does and show you, where North, East, West and South is but also if you get close to a Random Encounter, it will show you the right direction to get to it. You can craft a compass at a blacksmith station by combining an iron ingot, a needle and you'll need a hammer of some sort (which is sound advice for many a situation in real life as well). Additionally, we have updated the ship's compass to show Underwater Encounters, so you can find those sunken mysteries when you build yourself a proper ship 😉 For now, you'll also have the compass on a raft, but we'll be removing this in Update 1.4 to make the ship a bit more valuable and the raft experience a bit more authentic 🤩



The Compass will be available in the Editor as well and we are planning to give it some cool functionality in a future update for Creators to play around with, so something to look forward to.

And that's it for today Ylanders, short and sweet 😊

So until next time, stay classy Ylanders!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Dev Diary #129 - New AI Features

tl;dr
- Editor Improvements in Update 1.3
- Tell your AI where to go and who to attack
- More features coming in later updates

Hey there Ylanders!

Hope you are all doing well and are in good health. Things are getting a little bit back to normal here in the studios and we’re working full on to bring update 1.3 to you as soon as possible 😊

There are a lot of improvements coming in 1.3 in Exploration, Sandbox mode and Playlands, but we’re also working on some new Editor features. And one of these is added functionality to controlling the AI. You might have seen the video, where the Major General is being chased by a stampede of NPC’s. Well, this was made possible with the new Editor puzzle piece tile called “Move to position”. "Move to position" allows the AI to move to any position specified by the creator. You can set up at what speed and with what behaviour the AI moves. So whilst before you could set up AIs to loiter around or Patrol certain points, now you’ll be able to send them anywhere at whatever speed and with any behaviour towards the player you wish.



Another great addition will be the "Attack player" puzzle piece, which allows the AI to attack according to entities. So, for example, you can set up a trigger zone and when a player enters it, the selected AI attacks him while leaving other players alone. Or you can set, that a creature will attack just someone, who pulls a lever, whilst the others can watch while giggling slightly under their breaths 😄 For the future, we'll also make it possible for a certain group of players all belonging to one team being attacked by certain creatures and AI's so look out for that in a future update.

So some really exciting tools to play around with in Update 1.3: Watery Waters and a lot of AI shenanigans to be had 😀 And that’s all for today, so stay classy, but most importantly stay safe Ylanders.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Dev Diary #128 - Underwater Adventures

tl;dr
- Underwater Adventures
- Scuba Diving Gear
- New Random Encounters

Hey there Ylanders!

Your adventures on land are going to get even better with update 1.3 with the new rideable mounts letting you explore Ylands like never before, but there is yet another frontier, that will need proper exploring: The deep blue Sea!



With update 1.3 being called Watery Waters we would be amiss not to add a ton of new adventures into the beautiful blue waters of Ylands. For that you’ll need proper equipment though. That’s why we’ve created some under water scuba diving gear. There will be three types: Leather, Iron and Zirconium air tank. Each will hold a different amount of oxygen. You can always refill the tanks when you’re above water, but beware the meter, when you’re below, because you don’t want to be caught out exploring an ancient ruin underwater when your oxygen runs out!



And there will be plenty to discover underwater, with loads of new Random Encounters to be featured in update 1.3, that will take you on many an adventure. I don’t want to spoil much, but let the pictures talk for themselves 😊





There will be plenty more to do with water, but let’s keep something for other Dev Diaries 😁

So until then, stay classy and stay safe Ylanders!

Dev Diary #127 - New Terraforming Improvements

tl;dr
- New Terraforming Improvements
- Flatten will be a powerful tool
- Sandboxers will have more fun

Hey there Ylanders!

We have some exciting news for the terraformers out there, those who want to reshape the land itself to their own image. The terrain tools are getting a major overhaul and many improvements. You may have seen the Major General giving a stellar review of the new tools in the video, but there are so many new features coming, we have to cover them a bit more here too 😊

So first thing’s first. As you might have noticed, we have switched Add, Remove, Flatten and Paint to a 2D brush. This brush will always rotate according to the angle of the terrain it is pointed at. You can really get creative with this brush and it opens up new untold possibilities for terraforming.

Also, flatten is getting a lot of quality of life improvements. So while in the past you had loads of limitations with flattening, like the ability to only flatten horizontally, now you can adjust it to your preferred angle. This makes, for instance, mud house building possible like shown in the video 😁 Flatten has really become a powerful tool to use in the Editor.

The same has to be said about Paint, which used to have a lot of the same limitations as Flatten, but these have been removed and the tool has been significantly improved. Now you can paint pretty much any surface without any limitations.

Another great addition is the Direction lock, which locks in your brush, once you press down the mouse and keeps it at the same angle, making consistent terrain much more easier to create. This function can be turned off any time, but it is a really cool addition to your terraforming arsenal.

We are also looking into making objects connect to the new terrain type, so you don’t have floating flowers above your new canyon, but we are planning that for 1.4. But it is in the works 😁 All of the above though also applies to sandbox and the terraformer gun, so you sandboxers out there will have great fun also 😊 The tools aren’t so complex in Sandbox mode and so versatile, but they’ll be a great improvement to the past version.

So overall some great additions, that I think all of you will have loads of fun with and I can’t wait, what you’ll create with them 😁 But until then stay classy but most importantly stay safe Ylanders!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]