Ylands News

Hey there Ylanders.

So we have three significant pieces of news Ylanders, so strap in and get ready to rumble!

Firstly we are making some changes to how we deal with servers. Before we were quite free-handed with dedicated servers because we wanted you to experiment and there wasn’t a better alternative at the time. But now with the recent changes in monetization and the more demanding multiplayer games, we decided to streamline the server situation, so we can better protect and support them in the future. This way there won’t be any chance of manipulating the server information and scamming players out of their hard-earned Coyns. We also weren’t able to support private dedicated servers to any significant point, and so players using them couldn’t find random pets and encounters, which were available to others. To be able for us to protect all Ylanders and support them all, we have to know they are running the game on certified servers always with the newest version because in the past some players also reported bugs, that were outdated and fixed long before. So this is why we are discontinuing the support of private dedicated servers and in the future players will be able to rent servers directly from us or from our friends at Nitrado and you’ll be able to customise precisely what you need from your server and some of the options are mind-boggling!

In other news, we are constantly thinking, how to better reward our great Creators, that make great and fun games for the rest of the community. In our last big update, we introduced custom monetization for Creators, but we were asked (and quite rightly so) ‘now what do we do with all these Coyns’? Well while we will be adding some really cool premium blueprints and other fancy stuff into the in-game shop, we are also working on a type of ‘cashback’ system, that we’d like to implement next year. This means, that Creators will be able to turn in a specific amount of Coyns for a bit of real-life honest to god money. This will give Creators even more incentive to create some truly remarkable and fun games knowing, that they will be rewarded for their effort. And as you might have noticed, the release is just a few *an unspecified unit of time* away and with this release we are primarily opening the game up to Creators, so you’ll get a head start in creating your…creations and preparing for the cashback feature, when you’ll be able to turn in all your stockpiled Coyns 😉



And finally the biggest news: Today we are opening up a beta, that will become in time the final version of 1.0. You won't be able to try out Exploration just yet and it will be just PC, not mobile, but Creators will get to tinker with all the new Editor features and see if their games run in the new environment but also help us make this release the best it can be. We need you to test out everything and tell us, what’s not working, what could be better and what you’re enjoying/not enjoying. You should, before plunging in, back up your files, because anything could happen. You won't be able to upload games to the Workshop, because they would be deleted anyway, but you'll be able to try out the Sandbox mode, Editor, local games and some of our gameplay showcases we created and you'll find an updated Playlands too with two new games bringing the total number to six. So this is really just to test everything out and see, what you think 😊 Also we wouldn't recommend making any purchases (and we'll disable them wherever possible), because you won't get to keep them after the release. Further down you’ll find the access code with which you’ll be able to activate the beta in the Ylands properties section. Now remember, that this will be a highly unstable environment because it’ll be constantly updating and changing, so have patience on that front 😊 And please send as much feedback to our forums (https://ylands.com/community/forum/14-bugs-technical-issues/) as possible, because it will greatly help us, especially with stuff we can still quickly fix and improve.

Steam beta branch access: BackupYourData

So there it is Ylanders, all pretty exciting stuff but still not as exciting as the nearing launch 😁 We are really looking forward to it, but remember (because we sure do), it wouldn’t have been possible without your help, and for that, we give you our thanks.

So until next time, stay classy Ylanders!

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Hey there Ylanders!

Many times I was asked if we’re going to have ships and cars in blueprints. We already have houses, which you guys love (and we do too), but the questions kept coming and understandably so. It would be so cool to get the needed resources and then just plop your majestic steampunk ship you’ve been working on for so long and start exploring. We took this suggestion to heart and started working on implementing this and making it reality. In fact @Khanecz has been working his behind off for quite some time, but finally, we can say, that with the release, you’ll be able to capture any car and ship you create and use it later as a blueprint. And it doesn’t matter which boat hull you use, be it the small one, large one or the new Catamaran ship, that’ll also be available come release. This way you’ll always travel in style in Exploration. And while you won’t be able to capture blueprints on your mobile devices, you will be able to use them and download them from the shop 😊





And while we’re talking about everything blueprinty, we’ll also be adding a lot of cool premium blueprints you’ll be able to purchase for Coyns. A few highlights: the cousin of the dreaded Red Baron, the Crimson Train! This baby will get you anywhere in style. The Buggy, on the other hand, loves the feeling of sand under its tires and the large ship blueprint is fast and agile, ready for any adventure in a hurry. But we’ll also release some free blueprints to get you started, like the little basic ship, a basic car and some nice wooden buildings. Connected to this will also be the discontinuation of some of the older blueprints, which we found as not visually pleasing anymore and out of style. Those of you, that bought these or downloaded them will still be able to use them after release, but they won’t be available in the store.





So what will you make into blueprints and are you looking forward to whizzing around in your favourite car and ship around all the new and improved Ylands? Well we sure are 😉

Today let’s talk Exploration 😊

We have already hinted a few features coming into Exploration with the release, but if you’ve seen the gameplay footage on our Facebook page, you might be intrigued further. While we have talked about the Yland tier system, now we have a final version of it. There are going to be 3 tiers of difficulty + a 0 tier as the beginning Yland. There you won’t get attacked by anything and you’ll have ample time to get familiar with the mechanics. But the other Ylands are in no way this forgiving. After a few nights, mutants will start hunting on the surface at night and no one will be safe. This is why a sturdy home will be necessary. But the brave may want to venture out into the night to hunt down the dreaded Alpha and stop the mutants from spawning. But this is really a challenge only for the hardened adventurer.


Tier 1


Tier 2


Tier 3


Random Encounters Gear (not all)

The animals and mutants will differ in power and image depending on the Yland tier and biome. So, for instance, you’ll be able to meet a normal Wolf, but also a Rabid Wolf, Furious Wolf and on the Mutant side a Mutated Wolf, Tainted Wolf and an Infested Wolf with all mutants having their own colour palette. Yland tiers also affect, what you’ll be able to craft in different tiers. So while in tier 1 you can craft leather and stone armour, you'll have to venture into the caves to get the right resources to prepare for tier 2 with for instance iron armour. You also might have noticed some weird armour not currently available in Exploration. This will be only available from Random Encounters, so look out for those Conquistadors in their shiny breastplates and if you want their gear, give them battle!


Mutated


Tainted


Infested

We have also decided to open up all the different now available skins to the public since interest in buying them anyway was very low. All the current owners will get a full refund of their Coyns and the skins will now become their own items in Exploration, that Explorers will be able to find in Random Encounters as unique items. So everyone will be able to enjoy the glorious happiness of wearing Legionnaire Armour...if you manage to defeat the mighty Legionnaires 😁 Also these before exclusive items will be added to the Creators Cube and will be part of the Editor to give Creators even more options for their games.



So as you can see, we have big plans with Exploration and it doesn’t stop here. After the release, we have even more ideas to make Exploration the go-to survival platform on PC and we will keep adding new and exciting stuff to this ever-evolving world, that is Ylands!

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2603793446333085

Dear Ylanders,

the Ylands offices are buzzing with activity as we are nearing the final release of Ylands 1.0 and we’re all getting excited. But today’s Dev Diary is really something because we have kept this under wraps for some time, but we feel it’s time to show you, what we’ve been working on the past couple of months, but safe to say, Ylands has never looked so beautiful.



Overall, we have overhauled the weather system and at the heart of this upgraded visual style is the new atmosphere simulation. We're using a physically-based atmospheric scattering model that is responsible for the colour of the sky, lighting and reflections. We have made extensive changes to this fairly realistic model to make sure it all fits perfectly to our unique style. Our clouds, for instance, will be polygonal and thus they’ll fit in with the rest of the game’s aesthetic but they’ll also fully dynamic and procedural. Meaning you'll never see the same cloud twice. They’ll dynamically change from small puffy clouds to an overcast sky.



Another feature we upgraded is lightning during night time. We felt, that the nights could get a bit too dark (and full of terrors) and so we moved from the very dark and impractical kind of night to a lot more stylized and bright night. Night scenes are now lit with blueish light. Night is now a lot more atmospheric and you can finally see where you're going during when the night sets. But that’s not all. Every visual part of the game has been reworked or tweaked to work well with everything else including post-processing and particle systems. And best of all, all of this doesn't affect performance 😁



And one more notice for creators concerning light. With the recently updated post-processing, we have tweaked the luminosity of glowing objects. Before the update, objects were glowing too much, so we had to adjust the glow range to provide more consistent results across the whole range. We have lowered the maximum luminosity and stretched it across the whole range. So, please notice that after release, you will have to ramp-up the glowing property approximately 4x times to achieve the same luminosity.



And that’s all for today Ylanders. What do you think about the new sunsets? Will you be able to fight the urge to just watch one sunset after another?

Hey there Ylanders!

If you watched our video on Facebook, the Major General might have spoiled today’s Dev Diary a tad bit, but for those, who did the sensible thing and paused the video the minute MJ opened his mouth, here’s the cool news.




A while back we improved on the Animal AI and gave you more options to control them through the Editor. Now it is time for the most dangerous animal of all! Humans!!! Soon you’ll be able to do much more with humanoids than ever before. In your scenarios and games, you’ll be able to make them hostile to the player, equipping them with close combat weapons. They’ll be able to detect a player and when at a certain distance, attack him. Or say you have a precious treasure in an abandoned keep…seemingly abandoned keep. And a player decides to steal your gold and shiny things. Well that might trigger two guards, who were hiding behind some strategically placed pillars and show him a thing or two!
But that’s not all humanoids will be capable of from now on. You’ll be able to plan a patrol trail for them and thus you’ll be able to populate your cities with moving crowds. Also, their stances can be different. They can be hostile, indifferent or even flea at the sight of a player, so maybe there’s a suspicious character with some lovely trinkets and the player has to stop with a well-aimed shot…but the bugger is legging it! You’ll be able to use AI behaviour (before called waypoints) for humanoids and assign to them many more things than ever before.
And here’s the kicker though! All of this will also be possible with animals, so now you’ll be able to craft much more complex encounters for your players 😁


And that’s all for now Ylanders, so stay classy!

P.S. Check out our Facebook and the Major General's video on this topic to see, how the new NPC tools work: https://www.facebook.com/YlandsGame/videos/939620803078678/