Hey there, fellow ylanders.

Today I would like to address one specific concern that some players seem to have.

You’ve probably already noticed that we're getting closer to Ylands 1.0 and thus the updates contain more and more fixes, optimizations, and improvements - and yes, at the same time we decided to temporarily disable some features even though it wasn’t easy. The good news is, however, that the game runs faster and looks better, and once we do some MP-related improvements, we believe we will be quite close to the full release.

With sandbox games it’s quite common during this stage for players to grow concerned about the fact that feature X or Y may not be added before the game is “released”. To feel that the game, if it stays this way, is missing something essential.

Let me assure all of you that we still intend to put a lot of effort into the game before we leave Early Access and we believe you will be happy with what will be added / improved before that time. That being said, we understand these concerns.

We’ve said that for us everything begins with Ylands 1.0. We have some very cool things in store for you in 2019 - both features you asked for and features that you didn’t know you wanted until you laid your hands on them. :) We’re planning to add some very original features and fresh ideas in Ylands - something we wanted to do for a long, long time now (with sharegames being such a unique feature and an indication of many of the cool things to come!).


Are you ready for some treasure hunting? :) ( Pirates vs Indians! game made by @Igor Quintero)

To make sure these are not just vague promises, we will present you with a post-Early Access roadmap for 2019 sometime next year. You will see that if anything, the pace of adding new exciting things will accelerate. That we definitely are not interested only in expanding the Editor and Visual Scripting, but that Explore will get a ton of love as well. We hope that not only will this help you better understand where we’re headed and diminish those concerns, but that we will be able to cooperate with you better than before.

I’ve been saying this for several years now, so someone can possibly say that it’s getting a tiny bit old, but since it has remained true the whole time and nothing has changed since that, I feel there’s no harm in repeating this:

We’re just getting started :)

That’s it for today. Have a great weekend, ylanders, and as always - stay classy!

Hey there, fellow ylanders.

On Wednesday we released a small patch: 0.11.1. In this patch we have addressed some of the issues you reported right after you played “Peak Performance”, and made some improvements as well.

First of all, I'm happy to tell you that this update brings many new music tracks to the game, while vastly improving some of the existing ones as well!

Secondly, just like other similar games where multiplayer plays a major role, in the Home menu section it's now possible to rent a server (or a server “slot” to be more exact) where you can upload your game. This comes as an addition to options like hosting the game yourself or turning the games into “Sharegames” (which are, under most circumstances, hosted by us for free). Renting a dedicated server slot will provide you with a very secure and reliable service with the server located in a datacenter closest to your area. We believe that many of you may find this convenient, and what’s more - since these servers share the code with what we make available to players, any improvements we make to these servers will be available to those running their own dedicated servers. Those interested in renting a server may find more information at this FAQ.

So that's what happened this week, now let's talk a bit about the future, shall we?

We have started working on several features for 0.12 even before 0.11 was released, and we plan to keep you updated very thoroughly until it’s released. Let me just name some of the planned changes and improvements.

• multiplayer optimizations (especially related to ships)
  
• main menu overhaul (based on player feedback) with a slew of new features such as a better, more logical and more accessible structure, quick game finder, and much more
  
• ingame user interface overhaul
  
• radial menu overhaul
  
• improved hints
  
• improvements based on your feedback related to the removal of the first person camera (we will discuss this again quite soon)
  
• many camera-related improvements and fixes
  
• and, as always, many fixes. 0.11 brought a huge number of fixes and I think it's safe to say that 0.12 will be even bigger in this regard :)

For some time now we were quite focused on the Editor and Visual Scripting. While we will keep bringing new features to the Editor with every single update in the future, we feel it’s time we made some improvements to the Explore mode and the base game mechanics as well. Basically we are working on something that should give you some direction, goal - to make what one could call the “end-game” more interesting. How much of this will be present in 0.12 I can’t tell right now, but I'm pretty sure there will be something for you to notice. :)


Ready to go exploring? (Spanish galleon courtesy of @amoreno1able)

Also, we are planning some changes for 2019 related to how we inform you about everything. So far we've tried to make sure that some features in the games come as a surprise to you. This "secrecy" has often resulted in you, the players, being pleasantly surprised by some of the changes, but at the same time it has opened doors to possible misunderstandings. While there are still some things that we will keep secret (like some features related to the new world that is in the works), we would like to be more open about the development. As a part of that, we would eventually like to provide those interested with access to updates some time before we release them (this will be very important, especially for the creators who will be able to check their creations and provide us with feedback in time).

And finally I would like to let you know that earlier this week we have fully refunded every player who has ever bought any decorations. If you're one of them, all the coyns you spent on decorations have been added to your balance.

That’s it for today. Have a great week, ylanders, and as always - stay classy!

Version: 0.11.1.61282

• Fixed experimental first person camera console command not working under some circumstances
  
• Fixed building blocks rotating uncontrollably when being placed under some circumstances

Version: 0.11.1.61242

• New music - many music tracks have been improved, some new added.
  
• Added option to rent official server slots (more details will be provided in the upcoming Dev Diary). You can read the FAQ here: https://ylands.com/community/topic/22828-dedicated-servers-faq/
  
• Based on players' feedback, there was also new additional object control added to the building system. You can now offset the object from the cursor in the horizontal plane with RMB + WSAD. This ignores terrain and other objects to allow precise placement in places hard to reach beforehand.
  
• Players can now switch to first person camera and back by using the console command "/fpscam enable" and "/fpscam disable" (without quotes). Please note that at this moment we consider the first person camera to be an unsupported feature. It doesn't work properly in many situations. Eventually it will be replaced by a reworked system.

Known issue: first person camera can't be enabled / disabled when already in building mode (but you can build while it's active). Please make sure building mode isn't active (select hand in hotbar etc.) when enabling / disabling the camera.

• Added new codex page "Building", showing how the new building controls work
  
• [YLD-13418] [Visual Scripting] Players can now enable/disable Unstuck and Freecamera commands via VS
  
• [YLD-13417] [Visual Scripting] Players can now enable/disable nametags via VS
  
• [YLD-13419] [Visual Scripting] Players can now enable/disable the trading feature via VS

• [YLD-13491] [Building] When using the axis movement while in the middle of automatic placing, the block appears in front of you
  
• [YLD-13462] [Building] Players are not able to move the block along axes once they are in the automatic placing
  
• [YLD-13408] [Building] Blocks are placed on the wrong grid when near vehicles
  
• [YLD-13399] [Building] Items placed in freeplacing mode will get stuck exactly where you placed them, within a bounding box of a vehicle
  
• [YLD-13416] [Editor] Copying entities with script can delete the script
  
• [Editor] Disable interaction does not work with lootable entities
  
• [YLD-13477] [Visual Scripting] Script issue when on different language settings
  
• [YLD-13398] [Forum] Game editmode, Can't delete or step back
  
• [YLD-13455] [Dedicated servers] Player is not able to control cannons on dedicated servers
  
• [YLD-13427] [Sound] Explosive sounds are too loud
  
• [YLD-13426] [Sound] Box opening is too loud
  
• [YLD-13328] Combat music is not playing correctly
  
• [YLD-13344] Logs fall way to deep into the ground when you cut down the tree
  
• [YLD-13441] Block movement interferes with the placement of blocks while stacking
  
• [YLD-13252] Catapult has broken colliders
  
• [YLD-13405] Invincibility indication does not show on clients
  
• [YLD-13397] NPC dialogue will not pop out after non-host player exits the game by alt+F4
  
• [YLD-13382] Chaining attacks while walking forward is inconsistent between weapons

Fixed wrong rotation on the following items:

• Frag grenade
  
• Potato grenade
  
• Improvised grenade
  
• Dynamite
  
• Dynamite bundle
  
• Bomb

Fixed wrong scale on the following items:

• Rusty gear
  
• Piece of chain
  
• Diamond
  
• Horseshoe
  
• Piece of chalk
  
• Feather
  
• Old coin
  
• Rusty key
  
• Blank keys

• Increased container gold/valuables yield
  
• Increased gold yield from dead players
  
• Lowered gold drop on hit
  
• Increased gold speed penalty
  
• Overall weapon damage increase to compete with armor resistances
  
• Updated in-game tutorial
  
• Improved UI notifications
  
• Increased UI font
  
• Disabled Unstuck and Freecamera commands
  
• Disabled trading
  
• Various graphical glitches and map improvements

Hey there, fellow ylanders.

This week we have finally released the update 0.11 “Peak Performance”. It is by far the largest update that we’ve done so far.

We’ve been working on the optimizations for quite a long time and are very happy with the results. In massive scenes with tens of thousands of objects we’ve seen FPS rise well over ten times. In newly generated games without lots of structures (like Explore), the FPS gain is lower but still noticeable. The important thing is, though, that the optimizations aren’t only about getting higher FPS - we managed to make the game run smoother in general, and we are far from being done!

We have made some serious under-the-hood changes and improvements, so it's quite likely that we also broke some things. This is why we'd like to ask you to report any bugs, anomalies, or flying sharks you experience. As we've said, this is just a step (an important one) towards improving the game and further fixes, changes and performance gains for custom ships and multiplayer modes are coming with update 0.12.


With the new optimizations Ylands runs faster and smoother - anyone fancy a race? :)

While we are very happy about the features present in this update, there are things we could have done better. The most obvious error is that we were unable to communicate properly to our players how some of the new or updated features were supposed to work , which made it difficult to use those. We could have been clearer with telling what the intended behavior is and what issues need to be reported and fixed. Because of the sheer size of the update, we focused almost entirely on getting things done and didn’t put enough effort into making sure the changes to existing systems were documented and explained well enough - for which I apologize.
We’ve discussed how we need to improve this - we will take some steps to fix this for 0.12 and will do a much better job in the future. I will talk about the steps we intend to take soon in one of the Dev Diaries.

We’ve been analyzing all the feedback you’re providing us with and will release several fixes and improvements in the upcoming small update 0.11.1, which - if everything goes right - should be released in a week or so. In this update we also plan to let you enable the first person camera via console command (as an experimental, unsupported feature). At the same time we will be actively working on a better solution to this problem.

Another thing that you’ve been asking about is the termination of the official Explore / Create servers. This was a decision born out of necessity, yet could have been communicated much better. As most of you know, these servers were not moderated by us, filled with griefers and people who were actively looking for ways of spoiling the fun for others. Even though we’ve introduced several features and fixes that helped with some of the issues, many others remained. For many new players these servers are one of the first places they go when they start playing. The fact that those were our official servers made it look like this is something we consider fine. After getting quite a lot of feedback on this we’ve decided to terminate those servers until we come up with fixes for several specific issues. When we do, we will restart those servers - we consider them to be a very important experience, especially for the new players. It goes without saying that even those running their own dedicated servers will benefit from those fixes and improvements. So the bottom line is: this is a temporary answer to a problem we are facing, and we are doing our best to solve it - so yes, the official servers WILL come back in the future.

That’s it for today. Have a great weekend, ylanders, and as always - stay classy!

As part of the Steam Autumn Sale, you can now get Ylands with a 20% discount!

Tell your friends about it and explore, create, and play together! 🏝️

https://store.steampowered.com/app/298610/Ylands

Ahoy ylander!

We have some amazing news to share with you today: the biggest update for Ylands since it entered Steam Early Access - 0.11 Peak Performance - is now live for all of its players!

The new update boosts the game’s performance resulting in a massive framerate increase of up to 750%, while other major highlights include new combat and building systems, new avatar faces, replays for the level editor, and more.

We've also created a new developer diary video to present an overview of the update:
https://youtu.be/hvAPcr1DjAI

PERFORMANCE BOOST

Thanks to the implementation of a new renderer, which is the code that generates a game’s visual image, players can expect to see framerate increases of up to 750%. It means the game will run much better on everything from work laptops to high-end gaming desktops.

COMBAT 2.0

A new combat system adds new mechanics such as dodging, parrying, light and heavy attacks, and combos. Fighting is perhaps not the best way to settle a conflict, but at least it is now a lot more fun.

BUILDING 2.0

We’ve built a better building system for the builders that like to build buildings in Ylands. It makes it so that it’s easier to place or connect objects right where you want them to. Players can now build their cheese mausoleums, opera houses, or star destroyers (for example) with much more ease.

EDITOR REPLAYS

Imagine being able to look over the shoulder of Da Vinci as he paints The Mona Lisa. That’s essentially what the new Editor Replay feature is all about. You can now watch step by step how Ylands content creators built their masterpiece scenarios and games.

NEW AVATAR FACES

All Ylanders received a huge face-lift from the finest plastic surgeons working at Bohemia Interactive, free of charge. It increased the level of detail and graphical fidelity while still keeping in line with Ylands’ signature low-poly art style.


And as usual, the update also delivers a wide variety of bug fixes and improvements.

We are very proud of this update, and we hope you will have an amazing time (re)visiting your yland! We are also happy to announce that Ylands is gearing up for its official release on PC in spring 2019 – with other platforms to follow later.

Until next time, stay classy!

The Ylands team

Hey there, fellow ylanders.

I bring good news - the waiting for Update 0.11 is pretty much over and we believe that this will be the last Dev Diary before it’s released. We are now fully committed to doing the last few tests and wrapping up everything so today’s diary will be rather short.

Let's summarize the main features of Peak Performance:

• Large performance improvements, especially in scenes with many objects
  
• Combat 2.0 - new combat engine where you can not only combo light attacks and heavy attacks (different for each weapon type) together but can also dodge and parry attacks
  
• Building 2.0 - improved object placement and snapping allow for a more streamlined, easier and better building experience
  
• Vicinity looting - a fast and intuitive way of picking/dropping items around you
  
• Improved character faces
  
• Improved digging
  
• Quick and intuitive way of accessing Workshop Compositions directly from the Editor
  
• Numerous Visual Scripting improvements
  
• Two new pets
  
• You can now colorize vegetation
  
• You get to see nearby ylands on your compass
  
• There is a new notification system in place
  
• New loading screens
  
• New and improved music tracks
  
• Water rendering improvements
  
• Shadow rendering improvements
  
• Direct / indirect light model improvements

At the same time we have disabled the water simulation and first person camera mode temporarily (see previous Dev Diaries for further explanation) but they will return eventually. We’ve made a lot of changes in 0.11 to make sure that in many situations switching to first person camera is no longer necessary and further improvements are planned so that the 3rd person camera view works better in tight spaces. Please note that the current first person camera will soon become available as an experimental, unsupported feature accessible via console command.

There’s actually much more in 0.11 - there’s around 300 fixes and improvements (and those are only the issues that players might be interested in knowing / which are not too technical - in fact the number of all fixes and improvements in 0.11 is close to 1500). We are super excited about this update since it is the biggest one we've ever released, choke full of goodies and you are going to be able to play with ALL of them very very soon!

That’s it for today. Have a great week, ylanders, and as always - stay classy!

Hey there, fellow ylanders.


The updates we've been releasing during Early Access keep getting bigger and bigger so it should come as no surprise that Update 0.11 named “Peak Performance” is going to be, once again, a huge pile of goodies. We've already talked about most of the features this update brings in the past Sneak Peeks, but there are still some things we haven't covered.


With the cool new visual scripting in place we’ve been working on a fun new multiplayer Ylands game we call Gold Rush. We’ll deploy that on our servers so that once you get 0.11 you just click a button (if you visit MP Lobby screen you surely won’t miss it), we find the best server for you with an empty player slot and take you there - this “auto-join” is also a new feature in 0.11. We’ve spent a lot of time testing it and we're having a blast playing...and hopefully you will too!


There are times in the game when we need to notify you about something and so far it was possible only through ingame warnings or a console - neither of which are ideal solutions. Starting with 0.11 we’re introducing a new system of notifications so whenever something important that needs your immediate attention happens (for example, if due to connectivity issues your Sharegame wouldn’t save properly) a cool looking notification pops up. For now we support only “critical” game events but in 0.12 we’ll add other kinds of notifications as well as a notification center where you’ll be able to conveniently go through all of them.



We’ve actually did mention this some time ago but since it’s an important change it makes sense to remind you so that this doesn’t catch you by surprise. Just like we decided to temporarily disable water simulation, in 0.11 we will be also disabling first person camera mode which was never fully supported by many game features and modes.
We know that many of you have been using the first person mode when performing specific tasks like building and precise object picking. You don’t have to worry, though, because in 0.11 we made sure all these areas are improved (by implementing a new building system, vicinity objects slots, and others) and we’re pretty sure you’re going to love those improvements. As for the first person view - we would definitely like it to return to the game at a later date.


We said several times that “Peak Performance” brings better performance and the game runs generally more smoothly, but I realized that so far we’ve never mentioned memory consumption. Up till 0.11 if you had a lot of building blocks in your scene the memory consumption could be extremely high. Truly massive scenes that used to consume over 10 gigabytes of RAM now take up only about on third of that. In other words - the memory this huge scene consumes is now quite close to what a newly started game with no buildings at all takes up. I'm pretty sure that some dark Programmer magic had to be involved but since this means we all can now create huge exciting worlds... I think I'll let it slide this time. ;)



That’s it for today. Have a great week, ylanders, and as always - stay classy!

Hey there, fellow ylanders.


It’s a lot that Update 0.11 is going to bring to the table, so let’s once again uncover some of those features for you.


We’ve already mentioned that with 0.11 you will be able to find other ylands around you more easily. Eventually the ylands will pop up in the distance but until that happens we came up with a temporary solution that works like a charm. The ylands around you are indicated inside the compass that is visible when you're in control of a ship. Don't worry, though, that we would make it too easy for you. We all know how much fun the actual process of exploration is, so you can forget about seeing all the ylands appear on your compass right away ːsteamhappyː You will still have to pack some food supplies as you set out into the great unknown...


And another new thing: we liked how our avatars looked, but who says they can't look any better? Well, certainly not us, because we've just improved them (and even their bodies to a certain extent). We even threw in some brand new ones. We're very happy with the result and the feedback we've been getting so far about these has been nothing but very positive.


We must make sure that when Ylands 1.0 is released all present features are working as they are supposed to. That leads us to the water simulation. If you don’t play the game in multiplayer, chances are you didn’t come across any of the truly serious issues, but in multiplayer this feature can become a real nightmare - resulting in some very unpredictable behavior and even severe exploits. There's no easy fix for this, the water system needs to be rewritten. Once that is done, it will look better, run faster without any issues, and we'll be able to simulate very cool things you asked for - like lava or rivers. Unfortunately we won't have much time to work on this before 1.0 is supposed to hit, so after spending a rather long time discussing this, we decided to disable water simulation in 0.11 and keep it that way until the system is reworked. That will happen some time after 1.0 is released in 2019.

What does this mean? Well, actually not that much ːsteamhappyː Visually the water will still look the same. You will be able to swim both on the surface and below. There will be waves, ships will sail over it as they do right now. Only when you create a hole, the water won’t start flowing into it. You won’t be able to add water with the Terraformer.



We know that this is quite a change, but it's definitely not permanent (we would like to add at least some way of adding the water to selected areas in the editor before the new system is available), and we feel it’s better to do something more radical like cutting a feature out, rather than releasing something bugged in an otherwise polished game version. Of course we'll gladly discuss this with you below this post!



That’s it for today. Have a great week, ylanders, and as always - stay classy!