Ylands News

Hey there, fellow Ylanders!

So, let's see... You have explored dozens of ylands, uncovered hundreds of recipes and laid down thousands of blocks. And you think you know it all. That you've seen it all. You have it all. Right?

Wrong!

Update 1.10 brings something special for those of you who travel the uncharted horizons. Those who welcome challenges.

If this sounds like you, get ready to start the grand search for the fabled mythical animals. In the upcoming update you will be able to come across notes left by the famous zoologist Nicholas Arbeo. Each note can lead you to one mythical animal no one has ever seen in Ylands. And you can be the first one to tame it.





There are a lot of those to discover. And if you - as unlikely as it may sound - manage to discover and tame all of them, you're up for a pretty cool surprise in 1.11.

That's it for today, my fellow explorers. Until we meet again - stay classy!

Hey there, Ylanders!

We are going at full speed towards Update 1.10 so it is about time we updated you with some news on what you can look forward to: news! No, for real, this dev diary will be all about news and information!

Today we're going to have a look at something brand new that was designed to keep you informed about everything important going in the game: a notice board.

Sometimes, it can be a bit tricky to keep up with the latest news, important announcements, scheduled maintenances and other pieces of information. This is why we added a notice board to Ylands. This way, all the important information will be at your fingertips within the game. We recruited a very skilled and also a very cute owl messenger to set up shop in the Main Menu of the game so that you can easily access all the news he carries.





While this may seem like a small thing to add, we hope that it will help big time. Some time ago, we spoke about streamlining the player experience and this is another small step towards that goal. The whole update will be filled with improvements like this one and we are looking forward to sharing it with you! With what you know about the update at this point in time, what do you think it's going to be called? Let us know!

That's it for this week and we will be back to share more news with you next week!


Stay classy, Ylanders!

Hey there, fellow Ylanders!

This time we come to you a bit earlier than usual as our team will spend rest of the week surviving in the woods. But we have good news and good news can't come early enough, right?

During our journey to make Explore great again (and even greater) we've already fixed and added a lot things that we promised and that you asked for. We're still not done by any means, but we are very happy that we can announce that in the upcoming update 1.10 you will finally find a fully working first person camera view.





Originally we planned to release this in update 1.11 but we managed to fix some blocking issues sooner than we expected. This, in combination with the fact that you've waited long enough, led us to the decision to include the FPS camera in 1.10 instead of 1.11. We delayed what we internally call "Custom Exploration" into 1.11 as the FPS camera is, based on your feedback more important, and we managed to make it work.

Why did it take so long?
Well, having both camera modes in a multiplayer game that has melee combat more sophisticated than just simple bashing in front of the avatar (like Minecraft) and is low-poly is quite tricky. It has to do with camera position, different control schemes, animation problems, balancing both modes in MP where each player can use a different one... the list goes on.

When we introduced the new combat support, having both camera views was no longer possible with the amount of time and manpower that we had and so we decided to disable the FPS mode until we're able to make it work.

So how did we managed to solve all the problems?
The honest answer is - we solved most of them and, at least for the time being, got around some of them. The new mode is not perfect, we will continue working on it of course, but for now, it's fully working.

Basically there are three things you'll notice when you use it:

• You'll see just your hands, not your forearms and rest of the body. It's not because we would plan to release a VR version but simply because otherwise we would need to make a ton of new animations. The main character has roughly 1500 animations and, unfortunately, we can't use many of those, as it wouldn't work well with FPS camera.
  
• Riding a horse or driving a car in the FPS mode can feel a bit nauseating for those who are prone to such things. That's why by default the camera will switch to third person as you start controlling those (you can override it, though)
  
• There are few cases where the existing features need to be a bit tweaked to make the experience better.
  

So FPS camera has finally made it back and this time it stays. Yet another promise kept, still some to go :).

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

Hey there, fellow Ylanders!

In our quest to create a great Exploration experience, we are getting back to various features that have a great potential but in their current form and shape are simply not good enough.

One of them is definitely fishing... so what can you expect to change in the upcoming update 1.10? Firstly the whole "feeling" of catching fish gets better. Not only is fishing getting better visuals, but also better controls that now require a bit of skill to actually catch something. In 1.10 you will be watching the float and waiting for it go down.





And since fishing will require a bit more skill it should also be more rewarding, right? Well, that's why there's a lot of things to catch! And not just fish... :)The type of catch you get will depend on not only where you are (such as what depth is the water around you), but also on the weather conditions. You're more likely to catch certain fish during the clear morning weather, while some are active during the night or when it rains (and some even during thunderstorms!). On top of fish variety, we've added several different types of fishing rods.

We hope that the new fishing will be yet another feature you'll like in 1.10.

That's it for today.

We'll talk again in a week so until then... stay classy and healthy!

Hey there, fellow Ylanders!

Today we would like to tell you something about new assets that you will be able to find in 1.10.

You will be able to find a lot of new underwater objects such as Giant Starfish, Giant Sea Cucumber, Giant Sea Urchin... and many more things that may or may not be also Giant.

Speaking of underwater assets - we are fully aware that in the 1.9 we pressured players too much to go into depths and get ingredients for various recipes, even such that would be possible to craft without those. That is something we are planning to adjust for 1.10 as part of a massive rebalancing which, we believe, will address a lot of issues you've been reporting. We plan to talk about that in the next Dev Diary.





To make travelling the seas more fun in 1.10 you will also find new ornated ships bows, big steam and ylandium engines and a brand new motorboat. To make it easier to sail to other ylands there's a new primitive ship waiting to be crafted.

Based on your feedback we'll be releasing also objects that are not related to sailing such as a glass door or a scroll.

That's it for today and we're looking forward to talking to you next week when we'll discuss the general improvements planned for Exploration. Until then have fun and stay classy!