The update release is closing into the finish line, and you can test what it will be about in the Experimental version!

Available only to Steam users, the Experimental branch offers you guys a chance to:

• test upcoming features & changes
  
• test your games & scripts
  
• report any bugs & provide early feedback (#experimental_build room on our Discord server is a great way to do that)

• BACK UP YOUR GAME DATA (see below)
  
• go to your Steam library and right-click Ylands
  
• select Properties, click the "Betas" tab and enter "YlandsExperimentalStaging" as the password (excluding the double quotes)
  
• this will unlock the "i_will_back_up_my_saves" branch
  
• after selecting the branch and confirming it, Steam will begin downloading the new experimental branch

Now is a good time to very strongly urge everyone trying the experimental branch to back up all your game data (saves, scenarios, etc.). You can do that by:

browsing to "/userdata/" copying the whole "298610" folder. Keep in mind that the experimental environment uses a completely new user database, meaning that the game will require either playing as a guest or creating a new BI account (available through a link in the game) and then creating a new Ylands character.

If you leave your saves folder intact, you will be able to load your older saves and scenarios with these caveats:

Loading older saves will create a new character for you
Editing scenarios will result in the scenario having more contributors - the user from the live version and the user from the experimental version
For these reasons, we very heavily WARN AGAINST using any data created/modified in the experimental branch in the live version. Also keep in mind that since experimental and live environments are completely separate, you won't be able to see your friends playing the live version in the Social tab.

With that out of the way...onto the good stuff!

Please note: not all features that will be released in the full release are available in the Experimental build, also it is possible that some features might be changed or balanced before the full release.


The story continues!

When the 2.0 update was released you seemed pretty psyched about Elmwood's Outpost. So, it seems pretty clear now, that the story is quite interesting direction for Ylands. The Story now continues in the Arid region, we don't wanna spoil it so let's just say that politics is a complicated matter. In real life, in Ylands, on the sandy beach of Arid ylands or even under the sea.

Recipes Definitions Improvements

This is something we already addressed in 2.0 and now the recipes are moving to yet another level. Unlocking recipes should now make much more sense and be way less overwhelming than it used to be. Let us know what you think! New Bronze Tools, Clay and Obsidian in Tropical Speaking of overwhelming, how long have you been looking for clay the first time you played? Now you simply go to one of the tropical caves. Finally, right?! This was one of the feedbacks that we simply couldn't ignore anymore. There were more possible solutions, but the winner is copper vein and bronze tier of tools. Wanna know more details? See the dev diary HERE.

Inventory sorting

One of the most wanted features is finally here. We went through several suggestions that Ylanders from over the world have made, and we are presenting the sorting button. Right now, it has only one way of sorting and we are looking forward to see your feedback on this new feature. If you want to know how exactly the new button will sort your rucksack you can check recent dev diary HERE.

Quality-of-Life Improvements

Some items earned death-protection and not even the worst dreams can persuade you to drop them. Fog shouldn't be that thick anymore as we received a lot of feedback in this direction, you can deconstruct ships now, don't need to raise anchor before hitting the waves and some more.

New animals

Alpacas, coyotes and jackals are ready for taming. Sadly, coyotes and jackals are too small to be your new ride, alpacas on the other hand...

Pause for singleplayer

Yeah. No, it is not a joke. It is here. Any singleplayer game can be stopped simply by pressing ESC. Along with several more UX improvements, let's see if you can spot what are those!

• DO NOT DIE in Elmwood's Outpost arena or else you will be stuck
  
• DO NOT DIE OR RECONNECT in trapped room with mummies on Crimson Shores

1. Broken button in the local map
2. Broken health bar when you travel from Crimson Shores
3. Difficult to find some mythical animals in adventure (especially new jackal)
4. Cutscenes in the new story yland will be tweaked more
5. Holes in the pyramid on Crimson Shores
6. Many texts are not translated and have some typos in the new story yland

You might have noticed that we have a great community. You also might have noticed that we love sharing our community's screenshots. Whether it's Twitter, Instagram or even TikTok we always find a way to feature your cool builds and beautiful sceneries. Today we want to encourage you to join to share your own share of screenshots!


AAAFrom

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While you are in the game you simply press F11 and the screenshot will save to: "This PC → Pictures → Ylands → Screenshots". Also, it is nice to know that you can hide your UI. This is done by the "Home" button by default.


Lona (Sofie72)

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Again, easy sleazy. Join our Discord and head to the #screenshots_ylands room. Then just drop it like it's hot and enjoy the chit chat with your fellow ylanders!


💜𝕿𝖊𝖉𝖉𝖎𝖊💜

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There is only 1 rule here. Make it good looking. Screenshots love some nice aesthetic background. If you are taking a picture of your ship for example, use the sunset, nice clouds or some gorgeous generated yland. When taking images in Editor, place your creation on an yland. That is, if you want us to share the creation further. We have seen enough of the Editor staple green grass. 😅

Whether you are posting something beautiful you've encountered, something epic you've built or basically anything, if it can catch our eye in the screenshot room, we will feature it in one of our Sunday community screenshots posts. ❤️


JB

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That's it! Create beautiful screenshots, join our Discord server and get inevitably featured on our socials. Of course, while you wait...

Stay Classy!

The 2.1 update is incoming, and we still haven't show you so many of those new features! In this diary we will feature two features that you asked for the most. Right at the end of this diary you will also learn what new animals we are adding in the upcoming update. Let's get to it!

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Soon to be gone! At least to a certain degree. The realism was the original idea, but when you can't see your own hand in a fog, well, that's rare irl too, maybe even epic or legendary! Also, you made it quite clear that the impenetrable fog can be quite a nuisance. This is why we are tuning down the intensity of the fog in most of the weather types. Finally, you will be able to see the sea again!

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No, we don't mean make your own system and then move everything to the appropriate slots. We are bringing you a button to do it all for you! We must admit that we are quite excited and curious to see what you will think about it. Let's check how exactly it works. The sorting system going from the top is following:

• Containers
  
• Tools
  
• Weapons
  
• Armor
  
• Clothes
  
• Food
  
• Materials, resources, plants and so on

Of course, it is even more detailed, and we are looking forward to seeing your feedback about this when you get the chance to try it out.

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Just before we say "stay classy" to you let's check out the new fauna as we promised! We've already wrote about jackals in the diary here, and since we don't want them to be lonely there will be coyotes and alpacas coming along with them to the world of Ylands.



Hopefully, you are just as excited as we are about the 2.1 update and before the time comes, you know what to do...

Stay Classy!

Let's make this diary a bit different. Every two weeks we have a meeting where we go over all your feedbacks and reports. We have made some major changes in the crafting UI in the past and we are happy that you seemed to like it. Still, we are getting a lot of comments and suggestions towards additional crafting improvements you'd like to see. Which is magnificent! We've already implemented some of those ideas with the last patch 2.0.5, but when it comes to feedback we are never satisfied. That's why we want to ask all of you to let us know what you would like to see added and what you dislike or like when it comes to crafting and/or its UI.

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Here are just some quick suggestions to get those feedbacking masterminds of yours started. ♥️

• How do you like the crafting interface?
  
• Does the crafting menu feel intuitive in all stages of the game?
  
• Have you ever experienced frustration while crafting, do you remember why?
  
• Do you have some cool ideas? Don't hold back and feed us with it!

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Thank you in advance for any feedback loot that you decide to drop for us, and we can't wait to start reading! Wanna know what we already implemented from based on the community feedback? Read our recent Community Corner HERE! Thank you for being here for us and driving us forward Ylanders!

Stay Classy!

Join us for Q'n'A and sneak peek into the process of art creation.

Who is here to get some moolah?! Probably no one, but that's not important and we won't let this silly fact to drive us away, right? For anyone new, experienced, old and young who might find it useful, here is some info regarding Blueprints.

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Cool, right? All it takes is to create something nice and upload it to the shop! Set your price and hey, you can tell other adventurers about it on our Discord server. Whenever someone buys it, they can build their own version of your ship, house or whatever wonder you created.

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After you have built something remarkable get your Blueprint camera ready! In the Adventure mode you have to craft it. In the Creative mode you can access it through the Creator's Cube. Do you have the camera ready? Great! Hit the left mouse button and select the area of your Blueprint. Press it again and select the height of the selection area you've just selected. Then you just confirm the capture with the same button, and you are good to go to name and save your new Blueprint.

The next step is uploading your new creation to the workshop. Head to the Blueprint menu, right next to costumes and pets menus. Select your captured Blueprint and hit "UPLOAD TO WORKSHOP". Then you just set its price tag, tags and anything else you want and tadaaaa! You are ready to serve your first customer.

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It is probably even easier to create Blueprints in the Editor. You don't need a Blueprint camera, here you simply select whatever you've just build and click "SAVE AS A Blueprint" in the "SELECTION AND PROPERTIES" section. Then you have to select what kind of Blueprint you are making. The Game Blueprints can be used and built in the Adventure mode, where the Creator Blueprints can use special entities that are not banned from the realm of the Adventure mode. On the other hand, it allows them to be even more cool and unique!



After this, you will again see the "UPLOAD TO WORKSHOP" screen that was shown at the start of the diary. You set the price of the Blueprint, name it and so on.

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Now you know how to create Blueprints! Wheeee. Let's recap!

1. Select a wonderful object, that you built

2. Save it as a Blueprint

3. Upload it to the Blueprint shop

4. Obey the Blueprint marketplace rules. Read them HERE.

Do you find these informative dev diaries helpful, adventurers? Let us know in the comments, or feel free to ask for specific diaries or anything else you would like to know! Good luck in your building endeavors and Stay Classy!

The grind is hard. That's the truth and every gamer knows it. Is grinding rewarding? Yea, maybe. Is that really what we want, tho? I doubt that. Nikki doubted that, Anna doubted that, and after the community have been doubting it for a while, everyone else in the office started to doubt it too! Eventually it became undoubtable that we will reduce the amounts of Exploration Points and Resource Packages needed to unlock next regions.

I am happy to say that these changes are live already and it is thanks to you Adventurers! If it weren't for Ylands community grinding the feedback so hard, well, let's just say thank you! Your input is the main thing that helps us grow. Now, let's look into some details!

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Easy sleazy explory pointy decreasy by almost two thirdsy! Yea, that's all there is to reveal. Easy as that. Here are the exact numbers of Exploration Points that you need to unlock each region.

Arid - 40 EP (used to be 100)

Far East - 100 EP (used to be 250)

Temperate - 250 (used to be 750)

Tundra & Taiga - 500 (used to be 1500)

Arctic - 850 (used to be 2500)

This change is especially important for every adventurer that likes to progress together with their Classy Adventurer's Guild friends. You can earn most of the EP together by finishing the same diary tasks and exploring random encounters!

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If you are more of a gatherer than an explorer these changes are meant for you. Here are the exact numbers of Resource Packages that you need to unlock each region.

Arid
2x Stone chunk package
2x Logs package

Far East
2x Leather package
2x Sandstone chunk package
2x Clay package

Temperate
4x Leather package
2x Magic dust package
4x Iron package

Tundra & Taiga
4x Leather package
4x Coal package
6x Sulphur package

Arctic
6x Leather package
4x Copper package
4x Zirconium package

Oh, I almost forgot! On Mobile you need only 50% of all Resource Packages and EP.

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The outcome of these changes could potentially allow the fastest players to unlock Arid already 1 or 2 hours in game, but hey, I don't want to underestimate anyone! On the other hand, the estimates towards the Arctic unlock-time are quite a mystery, so I am genuinely thrilled to see the first speedrun!

I hope you will like the changes as I am a big fan. Also, please keep sending your great feedback and ideas, our Discord #suggestions_and_ideas is the best room for that: https://discord.com/invite/ylands

Thank You and Stay Classy Adventurers!

- Patrik

First things first. The winners of the Space Rabbit costume from the last dev diary giveaway are: PieofHeaven, Degar! We will contact them directly soon. Yes, one of the words "host" (not hosts, not hosting etc...) was in the title. Savage, right?!

Now to the big changes! It has been a while since we announced what we are working on as the 2.0 update was such a big deal. Finally, the time has come. Update 2.1 is shaping up nicely and we can announce one of its biggest features. The Bronze tool tier is coming to the world of Ylands!

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You asked and we hear you. Clay just screams out from the crafting menu: "Use me!" but it is nowhere to be found. This will be left in the past very soon. Look for clay in the Tropical caves from the next update and you can start melting some "first-glass" obsidian stuff right from the start!

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The Arid is changing. Yes, there will be more than just bronze tools, but let's leave that out for now.

You can look forward to a Bronze Pick, a Bronze Hammer, a Bronze Knife and a Bronze Saw. Watch out for the Bronze Pick in particular, as that will be the number one tool to mine iron from the next update.

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With obsidian tools moving to the Tropical Region, we obviously need a new material. All hail copper! You can mine its ore from copper veins and deposits. As always, you need to smelt the ore into ingots using the Smelting Furnace. Then a new station is stepping into the spotlight: the Copper Caster!

Combine copper ingots with the rest of the components, use the Copper Caster and tadaaaa! Your new bronze tools are ready for some tooling.

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That's it for today adventurers! Stay tuned for more news regarding the 2.1 update and congratulations to the winners of the giveaway, and as always...

Stay Classy!

Highlights

• Loot containers' aren't spawning above or below the player anymore
  
• Handbook notifications adjustments
  
• The crafting menu now remembers the last selected item
  
• Progress on the old version of Mystery Ylands can be restarted

Changelog 2.0.5

FIXED

[YLD-45213] Fixed: Placing creator blueprints containing custom variables with custum enums should not break editor anymore.
[YLD-45312] Fixed: Loot containers should not spawn inside buildings out of player reach anymore.
[YLD-45316] Fixed: Players should not have problems restarting mystery ylands.
[YLD-45577] Fixed: Several blocks were missing in recipe bundles (algimer, baroque, totem) and should be added to all owners.
[YLD-45424] Fixed: Mobile players in creative should once again have all recipes opened.
[YLD-44507] Fixed: Sale tag in shop is no longer visible when there is no sale at all.
[YLD-45502] Fixed: VS: Client scripts referencing custom functions from different client scripts do not work correctly.
[YLD-45139] Fixed: Editor rotating gizmo should not slow performance anymore.

Fixed: Replaced obsolete painting entities with functional ones in Painting vendor bundle.

ADDED / TWEAKED

[YLD-45234] Added: Handbook indicator will now continuously blink until the player opens the handbook for the first time, making it easier for brand-new players to find the feature.
[YLD-45261] Added: Toggling character panel will now remember the last open character panel and will open that one if it is available.
[YLD-40810] Added: The crafting screen now remembers the last selected recipe and the TAB button should open the last opened window (cube, inventory, crafting).
[YLD-45399] Added: When a player dies in the Adventure, his loot container is visible from a distance.
[YLD-45234] Added: Diary highlights should be more noticeable.
[YLD-45562] Tweaked: Several quests in the tutorial were adjusted or created anew for better understanding (also visuals of texts in the tutorial were polished).
[YLD-45646] Tweaked: Unlocking biomes now require fewer resources - less grinding is needed.
[YLD-45219] Tweaked: Tree stumps HP were increased significantly.

Tweaked: Lowered Resource and Exploration point values required for Region purchases.

Tweaked: Bounds positions for loot container marker snapping.

Whether you are exploring with pals, your little ones, the significant other, cat on your lap or just a bunch of adventurers you've met on our Discord server we think that Ylands is really great when played together. New Ylanders are coming in every day, so we've decided to sum up all the multiplayer options.

Btw. Can you guess how many times the word "host" is used in the diary? If you do you can win one of the 2 Space Rabbits costumes!

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There are two options how to play Ylands multiplayer. Join a game or host one. You can find your friends' games (from your in-game friend list) in the social tab of the menu and simply join them.



Hosting is a bit more ticklish, but it ain't rocket science either, let's explore it further.

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There are three ways to host an Ylands multiplayer game at the moment. You can see their differences in the screen above and we will go through them in more detail below. While they are different, they do have some things in common. By default, your session is always "Not visible to the public". You can enable this option so anyone can see your game and potentially join you there. If your game is not visible to the public only your friends can find it. Make sure to add your pals to your Ylands friend list. You can always set a maximum "Player Count" and the "Passphrase" for an additional control.

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Probably the easiest way to embark on an adventure together. It is free and easy to setup. All you need to do is to press Esc while in the Adventure mode, select switch to "Host Multiplayer" and click the "Update" button. Your game is now running in multiplayer and is visible to your friends. Up to 9 other players can join you!

There is one little catchy catch tho. The host needs to be online. There is no hosting a game without a host. Someone could even say that it is a quite hostile multiplayer option.

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This Steam-only multiplayer option is also really easy to set up, and the host doesn't need to be online, yay! In other words, the host is whoever starts the Sharegame therefore, it requires a password (elsewhere it's optional). The possibility to swap the host might come in handy as someone with the top of the shelve setup can offer the best performance.

You can host up to 3 games with the data capacity of 80 Mb each for free. Just to paint a picture, that is a lot of space unless you are building whole cities or gargantuan bus infrastructure for giant geese who live in those ordinary-human-size cities. Anyway, if you wish to build enormous structures, and cities together, you can rent more space on the steam cloud - up to 5 games with capacity of 500 Mb each. You can turn it on the same way as ordinary hosting, or you can set it up through a hosting tab in the menu. Then you can make all your weird giant geese dreams come true.

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The third option is renting your own server. As you can see on the first screenshot it has all the perks there can be, but for a cost since we need to pay to the server provider for that. There are two tiers of servers which you can find in the shop: Elementary servers and High Performance servers. Elementary servers can host universal (supports cross play) or mobile scenarios. High Performance servers can host any kind of scenario whatsoever (also supports cross play) and provide faster loading.

If you choose to host a server, you can do it both ways. Find the "Hosting" tab in the menu and upload a game save or switch to the "Host on a Rented Server" while in the Adventure Mode in the "Multiplayer Settings".

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Currently there is only one mobile multiplayer option, and it is the "Rent a dedicated server" - the same hosting process, the same joining process.

In case you want to play cross-platform on PC and Mobile there is one thing to be mindful of. The mobile and PC platform maps/scenarios work differently. Putting it simply, PC maps are more complex and can't be run on a mobile platform. Because of that, make sure to set the "Platform" box onto "Universal" while setting the "Host on a Rented Server". Also, it is advisable to host the cross-platform multiplayer from a mobile device as on a PC your map will most likely be of the complex kind and therefore making you ineligible to host a universal game.

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Just a quick last note! While playing together be mindful of your actions. The default PvP settings are enabling friendly fire! In case you don't want that or want to adjust your Co-op settings so no one destroys your sandcastles or geese bus stations you can do that in the "Game Settings" tab inside the in game "Multiplayer Settings".

How do you play Ylands? All by yourself or do you prefer some company and what of these multiplayer options are you using?

Share with us in the comments and Stay Classy!

Also don't forget! This diary is a host to the counting giveaway, so post a comment with the answer. The winners will be picked randomly and announced in the next Dev Diary #276. Host, host, host!