Ahoy Ylanders!

Start gathering those materials and prepare to get your hands dirty as this year’s Steam Base Builder Fest is here!




This means that you should take some time to work on your home base and polish up the things you've been meaning to polish for some time now (you know what we're talking about!) and to help you out with that, during the Base Builder Fest we’re cutting the prices of the Exploration DLC by 50% from 23/01/2022 to 30/01/2023.



Don't forget to let us know which adjustments, additions, renovations, rearrangements, upgrades, restorations and repairs you've done while working on your base!


Be sure to follow Ylands on Facebook, Twitter, Tik Tok, YouTube, Twitch and right here on Steam!

Ahoy, fellow Ylanders!

As you might have read in the previous Dev Diary, we do read your reviews and feedback. We read both the positive and negative - and even though in the last two years we see the negative ones appear less and less with every new update (hence the rising average recent reviews score), there's surely still a good deal of those thumbs down.

There are reviews like these

"I was expecting this to be a single-player sandbox game, but it's more like an MMO with in-game shops. Not for me. Others may like this but I can't recommend it."

"The game is bad. Every minute is a waste on this piece of garbage."

"This shizznit sucks cannot get past the tutorial cuz the game keeps finding a new glitch to softlock me from continuing"

"boring"

"What exactly did I just download?"

(copied from recent ones, Steam, English)

Some obviously provide a bit more feedback than others (and those we answer), but most negative ones don't really help us make the game better - and that's fine. We don't really expect everyone to spend their time telling us what exactly they don't like about our game.

However, there's one specific type of negative feedback that we consider unfair. From time to time we see people posting about Ylands "still being a Roblox clone", "focusing on the platform and ignoring the exploration" and so on. The interesting thing about this is that we, as the devs, see for each player when was it they last played the game, and most of those who post (or update) such reviews have not played the game in the last two years or more.


And that's the only thing we're asking - if you want to tell others about what the game is like, give it a try.

Two years ago we had to change the course back to where we started because we spent some time going in the wrong direction, but now we're back. In many ways, we are much better than the game you once loved. We have larger maps than we ever had. We have better AI. The game is way more optimized and the multiplayer code is way more stable. Don't just take our word for it, though, this is what other players say:

"Its been a while since I've played this game and at the time I deleted it within 30 min. I decided to try it again and they seemed to pull off No Man's Sky level updates and they're still going strong. Give it a shot If it's been a while or you're thinking about trying this game especially if you like games like Minecraft, Ark, Alas, Sea of Thieves, or Deadpoly."


"open world survival game where your main base is a ship. Has come a long way since launch, and it rocks pretty hard now"


"...So why the positive review? Because as of a year ( or maybe two) ago, Bohemia has come to their senses and decided to focus heavily on exploration. The game is far better now than it was even 6 months ago..."

"In the beginning the game was trash, it performed badly, there was basically no gameplay, no advanced game mechanics, and a very short, very strict tutorial on how to play the game. Now the game performs very well, it is not hard on your GPU usage and they added more features, more animals, and basically more stuff that the player can enjoy. So I voted yes because the DEVs have done an amazing job since the beginning :)"


"I played this game since 2017 and have seen many changes in the game, some good and some not so good. I took a year off of playing and just came back earlier this year and wow the changes and the games sure have changed. I love this game from the early days and fell in love with it all over again. I have met a lot of players over the years and became friends with many of them. I would recommend giving this game a chance and you will be surprised."


"I am very surprised how far this game evolved, and I really appreciate the hard work of the developer team. I enjoyed many hours exploring, crafting, building and everything was pleasable."
(copied from recent ones, Steam, English - and there's plenty more where those come from :) )


This is the result of almost 40 people working tirelessly on the game for the last two years. To provide you with cool updates - the 48th is on the way. Yes, we've already brought you 47 updates and if nothing else, it should be enough for you to give the game yet another try and then tell us what you think. If you still don't like what you see, let us know. We'll fix it and the next update can be much better because of you. (mrknutí)

Stay classy, Ylanders!


PS: Yes, 47. Here they are (the game was available even before it entered Steam EA)


1.11 Crafty Crafts
1.10 Ymproved Ylands
1.9 Ocean Odysseys
1.8 Awesome Achievements
1.7 Marvelous Mysteries
1.6 Trading Territories
1.5 Enhancing Exploration
1.4 Creators Club
1.3 Watery Water
1.2 Astonishing Adventures
1.1 Eastern Endeavors
1.0 Ylands Yncoming
0.14 Playful Platform
0.13 Fine Friendships
0.12 Smooth Sailing
0.11 Peak Performance
0.10 Clever Coding
0.9 Comfortable Cooperation
0.8 Meaningful Music
0.7 Cheerful Characters
0.6 Countless Colors
0.5 Rainy Roads
0.4 Stylish Sharing
0.3 Wonderful Writing
0.22 Fabulous Funfair
0.21 Dangerous Depths
0.20 Playful Presents
0.19 Boats & Buccaneers
0.18 Endless Exploration
0.17 Enjoyable Editor
0.16 Wicked Woodsman
0.15 Enormous Explosions
0.14 Wild West
0.13 Armored Appearance
0.12 Happy Horse
0.11 Fancy Furniture
0.10 Extended Editor
0.9 Classy Container
0.8 Elementary Editor
0.7 Gorgeous Gallery
0.6 Amazing Alchemy
0.5 Happy Holidays
0.4 Energy Exposed
0.3 Egyptian Euphoria
0.2 Release Rampage
0.1 Statue Science (25th October 2015)

Ahoy Ylanders,

Over the past year, you gave us so many amazing ideas, constructive criticism, and encouragement. Thank you!

We notice everything you tell us. Many of your suggestions have already made it into the game (like the fact that you wanted the FPS camera back!) We discuss your ideas on a regular basis in meetings. Of course, if you tell us about a bug, we immediately jump on it and do our best to fix it. We always appreciate both positive and negative feedback as long as it is constructive, which helps us make our game better.

An example of constructive feedback:



When you tell us something nice, we notice! Once a week we share positive vibes within the team by sharing some of the nicest messages we get from you. Thank you, you motivate us to keep working hard. It is a pleasure to work for a Community like you! Some examples of our Monday Motivation:




Last but not least we would like to remind you how to send us feedback. The best way is always to send us an in-game message (especially when it comes to bugs). When you do that we get your logs (documents with technical information about your last session in the game). Logs help us determine where the issue is. Other channels:

Discord: https://discord.gg/ylands - Channel Feedback

Steam: https://steamcommunity.com/app/298610/discussions/1/ - Discussions - Suggestions and Feedback

Forum: https://ylands.com/community/forum/11-suggestions-feedback/

Thank you again for all the support in 2022. We are excited to work with you another year!

Stay Constructive and Classy!

Ahoy there, Ylanders!

Welcome to the first post of 2023! We're all back at work, discussing various features and improvements planned for 1.12, but there's still one thing we need to do first - release a patch that will fix and improve various aspects of Update 1.11. Those are either some smaller improvements that we were not able to test thoroughly enough in time, as well as fixes for issues that you've reported. You can expect this patch to be released before the end of January.

Before the end of the year, we had a really nice holiday-ish live stream where we looked at some of your creations and, boy, were there some truly magnificent pieces! We also realized that it's been some time since we did a specific Q&A stream so you can expect one in the near future.

Also in the upcoming weeks, we'll start sharing various pieces of information about the 1.12 update with you, as well as info related to Creators Club.

By the way - Ylands EDU, an alpha version of Ylands specifically suited for use in schools has gained quite a large momentum here in the Czech Republic, which we use as a testing ground for the education version. The feedback from the teaching community has been absolutely epic, and it's very likely that this year will see many schools here using our game.

Why should you care about EDU you ask? Not only will this eventually lead to a bigger Ylands community, but it will result in Ylands becoming a more tested and stable product, that will be with you for many years to come.

And that's it for today. You stay classy, Ylanders!

Ahoy Ylanders!

So it's that time of the year again. The unmistakable, unavoidable sound of Mariah Carey's "All I want from Christmas" announces that time when overworked devs finally get some rest leaving you, the players, with the latest update to play with.

We believe that 2022 was a good year for Ylands players. For a few days, every team here in Bohemia Interactive was supposed to say three words that summarize their project in these. For us, it was really a no-brainer.

Back to roots.

In the last year, we added a lot of things you asked for. Returned things we temporarily removed. We fixed several ancient annoying bugs. And after all that, Adventure (aka Exploration) is now close to what it used to be and, in some ways, even better.

Since in 1.11 we introduced way more content even for those who don't own the DLC and fixed issues we found to be annoying, especially for the new players (with more of those fixes coming in 1.12) we are looking forward to something we could call restarting Ylands. A game that is engaging and accessible to new players, with improved systems and game mechanics that experienced players will be able to enjoy for dozens of hours or more.

But even though we are looking forward to introducing these things in 2023, life is not about Ylands (or any other game for that matter :) ) and this is the time to remind ourselves of that.

Whether in Ylands, another game, or away from computer or mobile, our whole team would like to sincerely thank you for your support and wish you all the best in the New Year 2023. May you and your loved ones be happy, healthy, and safe so we can meet in a couple of weeks. Time flies fast and so we'll be back before you know it. Or, as a great man once said: "Smoke Me A Kipper, I'll Be Back For Breakfast".



You stay classy, Ylanders! 

Quote Edit

Changelog

FIXED

• Gifting of Exploration DLC in Ylands Shop.

Ahoy Ylanders,

One of our favorite new features of Update 1.11 is definitely the Blueprint Market. This special place in our in-game shop enables you to buy awesome buildings, ships, or anything else that comes to mind, made by other players in the game. So if you want to support fellow creators or just don't have time to build such crazy builds like them, this is a place for you!

It took only a few hours for the BP store to kick off with amazing and complex creations. We have been watching with excitement how fast you filled the store and started giving us positive feedback about this feature. One of our favorites is a quote from comments on our Forum:

"WOW! There are more blueprints available today than yesterday and some of the builds are so amazing! Thank you for making this change. It will be my pleasure to purchase some of these blueprints that other players have spent so much time building and I'll be able to give back to them a little. I can tell right now, that I'll need to buy more coyns - there are so many I could use! A question though, will we still be limited in the number of blueprints we can have? I keep a separate folder on my desktop to keep the blueprints that I'm not currently using due to the limit allowed in the game. Just wondering if that has changed also. Thanks, again!"

- Sandy T.

These very good questions led us to create Blueprints FAQ, which we update regularly so if you have any questions, have a look. https://ylands.com/community/topic/32180-111-update-blueprints-faq/

We have of course encountered a few issues. Some of them are already fixed with the latest patch, and some will be fixed as soon as possible. Thank you for letting us know.

Thank you everyone for being so creative and making the market what it is today.

Stay Classy

💙 Blueprints can now be finished after the player uses the "Stop building" functionality.
💛 Entity "Any" does not break blueprints.




Fixed:
[YLD-41816] Fixed: Blueprint does not build correctly when you use "Stop Building" in some cases.
[YLD-41822] Fixed: Any rope with entity "Another rope" can break blueprints.
[YLD-41871] Fixed: The download number shows a number of openings, it should show the count of purchases.
[YLD-41805] Fixed: EDITOR: Logic storages are not initiated.

Ahoy Ylanders,

Here we go with Update 1.11! 🙀

With every update we bring to our players, we get craftier! Get it? The update is called CRAFTY Crafts! 😁 We gave some much needed love to our core systems, namely Crafting, Blueprints and Visual Scripting. This update also enhances the RPG experience by giving you randomized loot drops from enemies, new monsters (did someone say ghost pirates?!) and a brand new gifting systems allowing you to show love for your friends! Now let's get to the good stuff!

• Crafting overhaul
  
• Blueprint market
  
• Gifting system
  
• Randomized loot
  
• New monsters
  
• New visual scripting

• Custom tools with variables and custom functions don't work.

We are working on a hotfix at the moment and it will be out soon.

Crafting is a crucial part of our game. We listened to your feedback on our forums so this update brings an overhaul to Crafting. Changes to UX/UI of a key part of the game might be a risky move, but we have done our best to combine your feedback with our design to bring a smooth experience backed by focus tests. New Crafting should be much easier to navigate and for newer players, it is much more user-friendly. As with any major change, it might take some getting used to so please send us your feedback along the way!


Since last update, you have been creating Blueprints in the Editor and bringing them to the Adventure mode, which is great! What is even better is the fact that this update brings the ability to share them with the world. You can either make your friends happy by sending them your creations as a gift or you can upload your Blueprints to the shop, where others can purchase them with coyns. This is only the beginning of what the shop is capable of and we can't wait to see it booming with your crafty creations!



Do you have that special someone in your Ylands life? They deserve to know! And the best way to make sure they find out is sending them an in-game gift! Want them to sail the seas with you? Get them the Exploration DLC! Their ship isn't the best? Gift them a Blueprint of a cool ship! Want them to look sharp? They need a new costume and a new pet! Bonded while picking up sticks and crafting sails? Send them the Proposal emote ;)

Adventure awaits and so does randomized loot! As you explore, you may be surprised by the variety of loot that is dropped by enemies you slay and chests you discover in your journeys. Now be on your way into the unknown, adventurer!

BOO! Did you get startled? If you didn't, wait till you see the new monsters roaming the lands of Ylands! They're dangerous, they're mean and they're sooooo cute! We love them and we hope that you will too! But make sure you have the right equipment to face them because they can be tricky to take down!



Adventure is not the only part of the game getting our love and attention! Lots of hard work went into the Editor and here's what's new! Visual scripting underwent a major change in this update. Mostly in the user experience sense, where we for instance gave more room for the scripting canvas by reducing the size of Instruction palette. Canvas itself also underwent improvement, sporting a new grid system which is automatically snapping scripting blocks to the nearest cell, making the script looking nice and neat. Also, the main header is now redesigned to be more consistent with rest of the editor and is now ready for new features planned in future updates. Last but not least, a player requested feature: the new Favorites category, where you can store your most used instructions and categories!

The Toolbox allows users to create and share Editor-side scripts that will help them with their specific problems or fill in the gaps in the Editor's toolset. Generate objects, create specific selections, modify the terrain, and more! Ideal for those projects that require a copious amount of round stairways!


Of course, there are lots and lots of fixes, additions and tweaks to make playing Ylands much more enjoyable. The whole team is super excited about all that's new and improved and we'll be waiting for your feedback about the update. To kick off the feedback, the Project lead of Ylands, Aleš, shared a bit about how he's feeling about Crafty Crafts: "I am really excited about the new loot mechanics. What you get from slain monsters is now more randomized and rewarding, and once again pushes the game a bit closer towards the RPG genre."

Stay Classy!

Changelog can be found here: https://ylands.com/community/topic/32204-111-crafty-crafts-changelog/

Ahoy Ylanders!

We're now very close to releasing update 1.11 and are getting closer to 2023 with every passing day. And because of that, I would like to use the Dev Diary to tell you what some of our plans are for Adventure in the next year.

In 2023, if everything goes as planned, we would like to release three large updates - 1.12, 1.13, and 1.14.
We've been working on Dungeons for some time already and based on their current "fun factor" (or the lack thereof) decided not to release them with 1.11 but to keep working on them until we're happy with the result. They may be released in 1.12, but because there is another feature that we definitely want to release with that update, Dungeons may appear as late as 1.13.

That "must-have in 1.12 feature" I mentioned is something we've been thinking about for about two years (and even mentioned it once or twice during that time :) ) and now it finally feels like a good time to add it to the game. We'll provide you with more detailed information in one of the January Dev Diaries, but - in a nutshell - we want finally to give players a stronger incentive to explore both the game world and various features. Make every game you play a bit less generic and a bit more of a story. And, finally, give players more goals to achieve.

As much as it would be cool to start naming cool future features the very important thing to say is that we still feel the game is not in the state we want it to be. After roughly two years of making wrongs right and getting back to the roots we believe we are now back on the right track... but there are still far too many things that need to work better, and, more importantly, be more fun.

Sailing and ships are a major part of the game and yet there is still a ton of work before we utilize their full potential. With the Energy, we barely touched the surface. Crafting, even with the UI improvements coming in 1.11 is still something that needs a lot of love. And we could go on.

Long story short - even though the next year will see new features coming to Ylands, our priority will be to take the things that you already like and make them better. All this is based on your direct feedback, just like the last two years.

That's it for today, so stay classy, Ylanders!
Aleš