Update 2.2: Tremendous Techtree is here! Let's dive into more than 200 improvements and 18 new major features. See Highlights at the top, New Assets in the middle and all of the small and big fixes at the bottom of this page.

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Progress on your own terms! Unlock core and (most) optional recipes in a brand new Tech Tree. Discover all of the recipe categories, decide what you want to unlock and be the master of your own progress. Curious about details? Find out more HERE.


New rewards for handbook tasks and story. Some rewards can be obtained only through the handbook and nowhere else, so remember to claim them!


Compass is now always visible and has an all-new visual for increased contrast. Yes, now you can see it even during bad weather. We also added the detection of cave entrances, so you know where (not) to hide when the storm hits.


Players are now able to communicate via an in-built proximity voice chat in multiplayer sessions. In Adventure mode you can only hear Ylanders that are close to you. In Creative mode you can be miles away and still hear each other clearly.


We felt the item detail window was too hidden, so we displayed it more prominently (replaced the "Used In" button). Used In was moved to the item detail window, along with several new functions (Link to the crafting recipe, ability to craft more of the same item, etc.).


The alchemy table now works as any other workstation (potions are researched in the Tech Tree as most of the other recipes).


Do you often run out of space in the region map? Now all your maps are single-player by default. This should double the space for your own ylands!


Now you can change the borders of your avatar's face. You can gain some as a reward or buy some in the shop. Your avatar's frames are visible by everyone who sees your avatar.


Flora and fauna are now region-specific. We also changed the visual (both terrain and new entities) of every region. There are now some new animals like hens, and many new plants, rocks, and trees.


Random encounters are now region-specific (except for vendors). Vendor encounters were rebalanced and their compositions were updated. Optional recipes were separated into smaller pools to reflect progress in the Tech Tree. We also added a new method for the optional recipe and exploration point acquisition (Interactive entities hidden in Random encounters).


List of valid entities for inventory containers extended (or changed). Tutorial rebalanced for new changes. Items automatically removed from containers no longer drop on the ground
Destroyed entities from REs no longer drop resources. Hardened items no longer fall to the ground when terrain is modified below them. Stumps can be removed using a pick tool. Empty categories in the Crafting menu are hidden until you learn their contents.


Boats were rebalanced to be slower than most ships. Ship speeds were rebalanced for a more linear progression. The angle of optimal wind was increased and the negative effect of sailing against the wind decreased. The power of sails and engines is applied by an exponential curve - less power is required to reach a reasonable speed.


Players playing on mobile are now being assisted with aiming.


Some radial menu actions were moved to a separate hotkey.

You can send feedback messages with attached saved file containing your progress at a selected yland.


Whenever the game autosaves, an indicator flashes in the bottom right corner. Should you experience issues with an internet connection, the game will display that as well. Also, losing progress when your internet connection is poor should be mitigated to a minimum.


Organize Toolbox neatly into virtual folders.


Introducing an alpha version of a powerful debugging tool for Custom Games containing complicated Visual Script. Add breakpoints to Visual Script tiles, test the game in the Debug mode, and walk through the script step by step. This feature is hidden by default but can be enabled by /enabledebugging 1.

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ACTORS:

Takahe

Hen

Stormfeathered Banty

Skinwalker



ENVIRONMENT:

Basalt Formations

Tall Basalt Formations

Chalk Formations

Pebble Stones



PLANTS:

Equatorial Grass

Monsoonal Grass

Moorland Grass

Red Maple

Willow

Alienifer

Alienboo

Alienlow

Alientato

Alienflower

Alientail

Aliendron

Sunflower

Cow Parsnip

Amorphophalus

Ginseng

Morel

Parasol



VEHICLES:

Elven Ship (+parts)



ITEMS:

Folder

Suitcase

Hunter's Satchel

Hen Bait

Stormfeathered Banty Bait

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[YLD-40870] Added: Crafting screen now hides empty categories and recipe groups until the player learns at least one recipe that belongs to that category/group.

[YLD-46698] Added: Border images to the store and profile tab.

[YLD-48091] Added: New specific charge attack for colossus.

[YLD-48988] Added: Some interactions now have animations assigned (Open/Close doors, containers, Padlock operations, Cannon Reload etc.).

[YLD-49572] Added: Created a Diary event condition for a new event guiding the player to create a Torch - NIGHTFALL NECESSITIES.



[YLD-36526] Added: VS: Get/set rotation offset for map markers.

[YLD-45242] Added: VS: Get platform script tile to client script.

[YLD-45843] Added: VS: You can now edit/delete variables in search panel.

[YLD-47118] Added: VS: On loading camera fade in started to client Event listener.

[YLD-47362] Added: VS: Get/set text size for Text/Input widgets.

[YLD-47432] Added: VS: On local player loaded to client Event listener.

[YLD-48470] Added: VS: Is open (doors/chests) script tile.

[YLD-49586] Added: VS: On Invulnerable Hit event.



[YLD-44476] Added: Editor: you can attach AI Behavior to actors from AI Behavior's properties.

[YLD-46148] Added: Editor: CTRL+LMB Doubleclick on a Group should select all Groups in the scene.

[YLD-46149] Added: Editor: "Remove all" button to properties window for array type attributes.

[YLD-46490] Added: Editor: Custom Tools: an "On cancel" branch to the Show Progress Screen VS tile.

[YLD-46674] Added: Editor: Layout - you can now select which widget you want to be able reference in scripts.

[YLD-47354] Added: Editor: Show selection in explorer to RMB context menu of current selection.

[YLD-48467] Added: Editor: entity preview to Properties window.

[YLD-48531] Added: Editor: the third view for game logic objects (no icons, just how they will look in game).

[YLD-48602] Added: Editor: you can set up visibility of a compass widget now.

[YLD-48605] Added: Editor: number of selected objects to Properties window.

[YLD-48748] Added: Editor: Open dialogue parameter to each dialogue's option. You may now create dialog trees without using any scripting.

[YLD-48884] Added: Editor: Entity class / Any entity filters to Trigger zone.

[YLD-49056] Added: Editor: Custom tools: Is Valid In Game Blueprint script tile.

[YLD-49114] Added: Editor: Custom tools: Show In Add Entity Panel script tile.

[YLD-49220] Added: Editor: Custom tools: tiles working with AI Behaviour game logic object.



Added: A couple of Oriental themed Far East region Random Encounters.

Added: An exponential curve to Power to Speed ratio for all ships (0.5).

Added: Mythical Takahe taming Random Encounter.

Added: Tier tags for enemies, tools, weapons, armor, ship and diving gear.



Added: VS: Get/set healthbar visibility to custom tools.



Added: Editor: "Is Obsolete" Visual Script tile.

Added: Editor: Custom Tool Folders.



[YLD-46339] Removed: one variant for each Remove label type (entity, game logic, group).

Removed: Explosive kegs from Conquistador Fort RE (Explosives balanced for Taiga Region and above).

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[YLD-44874] Tweaked: Entering Ylands that need to have their data downloaded shows the download progress.

[YLD-45277] Tweaked: Increased Project table placing distance to match Blueprint placing distance.

[YLD-48103] Tweaked: Goat: Charge attack made a bit slower and the attack with head is visible now.

[YLD-48104] Tweaked: Goat light attack is a bit slower, fixed transition to combat idle pose.

[YLD-48106] Tweaked: Goat: Use current special attack animation as heavy.

[YLD-48108] Tweaked: Deer: Charge attack changed not to look like being hit back and bounce off player.

[YLD-48113] Tweaked: Changed Colossus Special Attack animation to be less shaky and added a significant windup.

[YLD-48540] Tweaked: Rebalanced existing Vendor Shipments and added new ones.

[YLD-48638] Tweaked: Rhino: Character dismount had wrong exit pose rotated sideways, now set correctly.

[YLD-48950] Tweaked: Increased angles of favourable and unfavourable wind effects + lowered the speed penalty incurred.

[YLD-48960] Tweaked: Attack cooldown for Male and Female NPCs set to 3s; Combat Range set to 100m; Heavy Attack chance set to 30% (previously 60%).

[YLD-49638] Tweaked: Ships: Single |W| hit now sets max speed.

[YLD-49778] Tweaked: Adjusted the priority of interactible entities when focusing entities, so that the ones that provide an interaction are focused more often that those without any interactions. One specific case where it should help is focusing the ladders on your ships.

[YLD-50383] Tweaked: Introduced damage instance caching to the system that takes care of monitoring damage for Handbook purposes. This change should significantly improve performance when getting hurt (i.e. remove stuttering) as well as reduce unnecessary allocations.



[YLD-39810] Tweaked: Editor: Duplicate now does not override copy/paste cache.

[YLD-44523] Tweaked: Editor: Custom tools: Cancelling Progress screen in Tool mode now does not revert made changes.

[YLD-45935] Tweaked: Editor: Game now prevents Script module export if there are any issues in it or in its components.

[YLD-46061] Tweaked: Editor: If placing composition with Storage Game Logic objects updates existing ones then now user get message about it.

[YLD-46061] Tweaked: Editor: Update Storage Game Logic objects are moved to a new position after a blueprint is placed.

[YLD-46128] Tweaked: Editor: Adding new images to Image library and music to Music library is now faster.

[YLD-47095] Tweaked: Editor: It shouldn't be possible to playtest/export scenarios containing actors in animated groups.

[YLD-48048] Tweaked: Editor: Changing properties of Custom HUD/Window should be now more responsive. (faster).

[YLD-48249] Tweaked: Editor: Contextual search is cleared when there is no object to be shown.

[YLD-48323] Tweaked: Editor: Behavior of moving entities with terraforming tool.

[YLD-48340] Tweaked: Editor: Update font colors for legibility.

[YLD-48509] Tweaked: Editor: Even invisible trigger zones can have custom color set.

[YLD-48530] Tweaked: Editor: Keep GL view settings in camera preview (now it always hides game logic objects).

[YLD-48624] Tweaked: Editor: Block dimension info added into info box for entity under mouse cursor.

[YLD-48668] Tweaked: Editor: Size of helper grid crosses when dragging an object.

[YLD-48741] Tweaked: Editor: New answer options in Dialogue GL are now enabled by default.

[YLD-49413] Tweaked: Editor: .csv file are now imported automatically after you select them in file browser.

[YLD-49551] Tweaked: Editor: When creating blueprint consisting game logic objects then Creator's blueprint should be preselected now.

[YLD-50004] Tweaked: Editor: Names of text sizes after adding new Medium large size.



[YLD-39810] Tweaked: VS: Duplicate for script tiles will not override Copy-Paste cache anymore.

[YLD-46283] Tweaked: VS: Error message when trying to send message to server/client with argument of unsupported type.

[YLD-46742] Tweaked: VS: You are now able to delete the last canvas. It will also delete all variables / enums in the script.

[YLD-46844] Tweaked: VS: Equip item will now equip item to empty slot even though player's inventory is full.

[YLD-48411] Tweaked: VS: Show bubble now supports any object as Text argument.

[YLD-49119] Tweaked: VS: None is now set as first in the list of enum's options.



Tweaked: Implementation in story section so that it's better equipped to detect whether the reward page should be displayed. The section code now also has some idea of where the chapters actually start.

Tweaked: Adjusted landscape occurrence in biome regions to increase chance of bigger ylands.

Tweaked: Alchemy Table now should work like regular workstation.

Tweaked: Beds renamed to be more differentiated.

Tweaked: Burning items like candles and lanterns are not extinguished automatically by time.

Tweaked: Camel combat animations retimed to new AI combat design.

Tweaked: Chairs renamed to be more differentiated.

Tweaked: Chilly woes event task so it requires the player to craft Cup of Tea instead of Stew.

Tweaked: Chimera: Combat movement is redone to new speed of 3 m/s, more action in combat idle, light attack fixed twitchy legs, heavy attack longer, swipe longer windup phase, charge attack changed not to bounce off player.

Tweaked: Clay can spawn in Tropical Mountains.

Tweaked: Coconut Drink is now consumed like a potion.

Tweaked: Coconut Drinks and Cup of Tea can be drunk no matter the hunger level.

Tweaked: Crickephant: Shorter and different light attack; longer, more powerful animation in heavy attack; stronger and longer special attack with more obvious windup phase.

Tweaked: Decrease minimal Dig strength on Copper vein so that Obsidian pick can dig it.

Tweaked: Descriptions of items tweaked to help with finding them.

Tweaked: Digging terrain should no longer give random items.

Tweaked: Doors renamed to be more differentiated.

Tweaked: Elven bow's accuracy and draw time nerfed.

Tweaked: Engineer Vendor now also offers Sulphur Chunks and Rubber Slabs.

Tweaked: Farmer's Revenge spread and effective range significantly nerfed.

Tweaked: Flint Chunk gets more visible models.

Tweaked: Increased base speed of Junk Ship, decreased base speed of Upper Deck Boat.

Tweaked: Lamps renamed to be more differentiated.

Tweaked: Lowered HP of mutated animals.

Tweaked: Mayan clothes renamed to Plumed Clothes.

Tweaked: Moved RE101 Mark I Armor Random Encounter from Taiga to Polar Region.

Tweaked: Names of carpets and teepees to be more distinguishable.

Tweaked: Non aggressive animals flee distance reduced, their ranged vulnerability increased.

Tweaked: Potion Ingredient tag removed from Grass.

Tweaked: Relict and Encounter Secrets given the No Catalog tag to prevent confusion in editor.

Tweaked: Removed Explosive kegs from Conquistador Fort RE (Explosives balanced for Taiga Region and above).

Tweaked: Rocks renamed to correspond their color and drop.

Tweaked: Sacks, Urns, Boxes and Cabinets renamed to be more differentiated.

Tweaked: Ship hulls more vulnerable to fire damage.

Tweaked: Signs renamed to be more differentiated.

Tweaked: Statues, idols, busts and monoliths renamed to be better differentiated from each other.

Tweaked: Stone Armor renamed to Flint Armor and Rockhard Armor renamed to Stone Armor to better resemble their recipes.

Tweaked: Tables renamed to be differentiated more.

Tweaked: Tombstones and sarcophagi renamed to be more differentiated.

Tweaked: Vases renamed to be more differentiated.

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[YLD-33503] Fixed: You can rotate actors around X/Z axis.

[YLD-34915] Fixed: Player can appear under terrain after reconnect on owned ship near steep terrain in some rare edge cases.

[YLD-36691] Fixed: You can see holes under waves if they are close to steep or modified terrain.

[YLD-37944] Fixed: Scrolling the mobile inventory fully down before playing through the tutorial that has the player craft a stone axe no longer results in the tutorial flow being stuck until session reset.

[YLD-41766] Fixed: Skills: Particle does not appear while wearing a costume.

[YLD-41959] Fixed: Saves not found on Linux/Steam Deck.

[YLD-43182] Fixed: A rare exception that could occur when you accepted a clan invitation from a clan leader of another clan who also received your clan invitation and decided to accept it before you (it resulted in the original player trying to join a non-existent clan, throwing an unhandled exception).

[YLD-43595] Fixed: Issue that was causing needless allocations and spending CPU time on the in-game hotbar.

[YLD-43747] Fixed: Barely a Scratch! handbook event now properly unlocks after hiting an actor (animals/players/NPCs...) instead of general units (which also include vehicles).

[YLD-44743] Fixed: RE272 has a palm seedling that grows into a full tree on a table, exceeding all weight limits for the particular furniture.

[YLD-44838] Fixed: Some haunted entities do not revert color when the encounter is thoroughly exorcised.

[YLD-45396] Fixed: Left hand and fingers position in two handed ranged weapons changed.

[YLD-46169] Fixed: Game Logic Label GL can be assigned as its own label (can lead to errors).

[YLD-46171] Fixed: Mythical animals won't spawn in MP.

[YLD-46211] Fixed: Only one detail panel (item / bundle) should now be visible at a time in the trading screen.

[YLD-46361] Fixed: You can not playtest games with Player teams with assigned Player roles in some cases.

[YLD-46643] Fixed: Head and arms snap no more after attacks.

[YLD-46817] Fixed: Custom camera watching player is shaking when player is moving.

[YLD-46858] Fixed: Moved terrain on worlds from before 2.0.

[YLD-46894] Fixed: Obsolete crossbow bolts cause Blueprints to not load properly.

[YLD-46951] Fixed: Capturing Blueprint causes an exception in some cases.

[YLD-47739] Fixed: Hitting Return key in input fields should just submit the element and not do another action.

[YLD-47930] Fixed: Blunderbuss/Madman's Boomstick: Floating musket ball during reload, fixed missing animation on musket ball in shot to stay hidden.

[YLD-47932] Fixed: Bullet visible in barrel during shot for too long.

[YLD-47932] Fixed: Flintlock Muskets were showing bullet in barrel due to deleted animation keys.

[YLD-48131] Fixed: Missing loop on combat movement for Alpaca, Badger and Lizard.

[YLD-48268] Fixed: Smoke particle on engine on boat is now stopped instead of destroyed. Looks visually better.

[YLD-48336] Fixed: Mitigated an issue where the whole chat system would completely break when encountering a network issue during loading your clan data. Now it should load the rest of the chat system gracefully. (Reported on the official forums.).

[YLD-48364] Fixed: Fixed multiple particles on engine and also small mistake i forgot to check for situation when engine does not contain particle generators for smoke.

[YLD-48487] Fixed: Propeller packs that where stuck in overheat mode forever on loading to map should be fixed now.

[YLD-48594] Fixed: Text bubbles above the same entity can overlap each other.

[YLD-48638] Fixed: Character isn't sliding in dismounting Bear, Rhino and Wolverine.

[YLD-48759] Fixed: Set the looping ON in Block with 2H weapons animation.

[YLD-49193] Fixed: Mutated animals sometimes generate on tiny islands in the middle of the sea.

[YLD-49459] Fixed: Pet Dragons: Made the basic idle short and idle variant 2 much shorter, which were the source of the getting stuck in controller.

[YLD-49611] Fixed: Pick all ignores items placed to grid.

[YLD-49618] Fixed: Handbook rewards (manifested in Experimental): players with live progress still having unclaimed reward icon.

[YLD-49743] Fixed: NPC man/female cannot be selected as default value for entity type variables.

[YLD-49859] Fixed: Portraits in social screen should no longer be offset and covering status icons.

[YLD-49978] Fixed: Scrollbar in the mobile version of multiplayer settings popup is no longer super chonky.

[YLD-50154] Fixed: Layout in the feedback popup could get messed up when the input field got near to the character limit.

[YLD-50227] Fixed: It should no longer be possible to close the crafting screen during the tutorial that teaches players how to craft the stone axe, which could get them stuck until session reset.



[YLD-38395] Fixed: Editor: Script modules have wrong preview in Blueprints.

[YLD-39773] Fixed: Editor: Scenario name change gets reversed when you also change any of the Performance game settings.

[YLD-43625] Fixed: Editor: Non-interactive entity spawns when you click on it with LMB and RMB in the same frame.

[YLD-46706] Fixed: Editor: It is possible to select entities outside entity weld with Ctrl+double click in weld editing mode.

[YLD-46713] Fixed: Editor: Disabling punch attack also disables damage for unarmed NPCs.

[YLD-46781] Fixed: Editor: Cut operation gets cancelled when you try to paste onto a ship via RMB context menu.

[YLD-46850] Fixed: Editor: Copying objects from group edit mode into scene doesn't work correctly.

[YLD-47272] Fixed: Editor: Visual of Path GL.

[YLD-47889] Fixed: Editor: If you drag unselected tile in custom window, it will disappear and can freeze the game.

[YLD-48094] Fixed: Editor: There is missing "Start" in History panel which would get you before the first undo step.

[YLD-48168] Fixed: Editor: Undo for changes on an entity can remove attached Labels from the entity.

[YLD-48184] Fixed: Editor: Terraforming terrain near Entity welds breaks entity movement with terrain movement.

[YLD-48244] Fixed: Editor: Script module's private component GLs are available in VS to be referenced.

[YLD-48250] Fixed: Editor: Changes to a group object's position/rotation from outside of group edit mode don't persist.

[YLD-48453] Fixed: Editor: Non items are not added to weld in weld editing mode.

[YLD-48536] Fixed: Editor: Camera does not follow a reference point in camera preview.

[YLD-48630] Fixed: Editor: Rotation animator set to "Align with translation" does not work correctly in animator preview.

[YLD-48677] Fixed: Editor: Pixel cube in properties window is partly invisible.

[YLD-48919] Fixed: Editor: Roughen terrain type sub-options are missing tooltips and highlight.

[YLD-49388] Fixed: Editor: Removing item from container also cancels placing tool.

[YLD-49428] Fixed: Editor: Camera preview does not work correctly sometimes if you try to preview the same camera with different settings.

[YLD-49476] Fixed: Editor: There is no visible pivot widget when editing group's/entity weld's pivot.

[YLD-49501] Fixed: Editor: Camera looks in empty space on new Yland/Archipelago maps.

[YLD-49703] Fixed: Editor: Cut/paste of entities on vehicles does not work correctly.



[YLD-44939] Fixed: VS: Copy paste of events with variables does not work correctly.

[YLD-46226] Fixed: VS: There is an incorrect error message when you try to move a static group.

[YLD-46287] Fixed: VS: Enum to array does not work correctly in Custom tools.

[YLD-46371] Fixed: VS: Functions with arguments of Entity/Game logic/Group array type does not work correctly.

[YLD-46635] Fixed: VS: A script error in object spawned by Entity template does not navigate you to the source of the error.

[YLD-46819] Fixed: VS: Removing active propeller pack from player causes it to continually overheat when reequipped.

[YLD-47465] Fixed: VS: There is not working "THIS" available in Entity/Game logic/Group storage scripts.

[YLD-47849] Fixed: VS: Show bubble sometimes does not work correctly for animated objects.

[YLD-47905] Fixed: VS: Replace <source> <search value> <new value> throws internal error when search value is empty string.

[YLD-48325] Fixed: VS: Color literal tile get deselected after closing Color picker window.

[YLD-49007] Fixed: VS: There is no reference line to object referenced in Custom enum.


[YLD-46626] Fixed: Custom Tools: UI aligned to screen edges is not aligned correctly.


Fixed: A problem where searching for new Blueprints didn't work from the main menu.

Fixed: An extra ending slash in Blueprint tags list in the Blueprint detail popup.

Fixed: Current HP of some NPCs exceeds their maximum HP, resulting in looong healthbars.

Fixed: Entering Editor after account switch results in error spam.

Fixed: RE103 - Medieval House contains obsolete variants of paintings (replaced with pieces done by a more talented painter).

Fixed: Vendor NPCs are not present in a newly created map until another day passes.

Fixed: VS: Set AI Behavior does not work.

Fixed: VS: Tiles working with recipe have empty slot for recipe.

Ahoy Ylanders,

What do you love the most? Whether its your mum, spouse, yourself, your favourite pet or tea brand, Ylands game or the day after a paycheck, one thing's for sure: everyone likes sales and discounts! That's no secret, right?

That's also why we're writing this diary. This Valentine's Day won't be secret at all! Quite the opposite—Valentine's sales are coming to the Ylands shop and we hope they will be as visible as light itself. Let's see what we have in store for you!




Everyone should get on board with this cute Fox On Board pet! You can see it in its eyes that it already loves you. Sadly, Foxy won't be here forever and is available only until 22nd of February.


In case you need to propose to your significant other, this February there is a 50% discount on the Proposal emote! Also, we wanted to make sure that our lovely Fox won't be alone so we are throwing in a 30% discount on the Gryphon and Fairy pets!

But THE SALE is the Vases recipe bundle, which is 80% off. Feel free to gift it to all of your friends and go picking flowers together!


Already got the Fox On Board pet? Great! Send us a screenshot with your new lovely pet on our Discord server to the #screenshots_ylands. On the 13th of February, we will randomly choose 3 winners from everyone who sends a screenshot of Foxy accompanying them. The prize is yet another Fox pet that the winners can gift to their significant other.

Lastly, let us express our love to you. Thank you so much for constantly returning the love that we put into the development of Ylands by sticking with the game in the good times and worse times.

Stay Classy, Ylanders!

Ahoy Ylanders!

In game development, not everything we do is immediately visible or playable in the upcoming updates. We often find ourselves preparing for future features, creating tools for designers, or making adjustments to NPCs, resources, or gameplay mechanics to enhance the player experience. Sometimes we need to get back to the old features or technology and rewrite the code or change the graphic assets so it fits the game better.




Gameplay adjustments are often necessary during the development to improve the overall player experience and ensure a fun and engaging gameplay. Let's explore an example of gameplay adjustments made for Ylands, specifically related to the introduction of the Tech Tree and resource placement. When preparing to release the Tech Tree, a significant improvement for Ylands, the design team had to carefully reconsider the placement of resources throughout the game world. The goal was to create an experience that encourages players to explore the Ylands world, discover new recipes within the Tech Tree, and ultimately, have fun.


Luckily, not everything has to be handled by the programmers. They often cook up some nifty tools that designers can use to sprinkle in all sorts of stuff into the game without any coding. Adding a quest into the handbook can be a good example. That way, the seasoned programmers can put their focus on the really important stuff while the game keeps getting cooler. Yet, creating tools like this is not instant and starts delivering visible impact exactly one update later.


It is not uncommon for game developers to introduce a completely new feature, only to realize during team feedback or playtesting that it requires a few additional elements to enhance understanding and enjoyment. At times, these additions can be quickly implemented. However, in other cases, programmers may resort to "hacking" or applying temporary fixes, these deviations are often responsible for bugs in the future. Therefore we need to rework this code in the future updates, as they can hinder the implementation of new features. Additionally, when extending an existing feature, developers may discover that the initial code was flawed or some important aspects got overlooked. This realization requires reworking the code to address the shortcomings and avoid accumulating technical debt.


We hope that you enjoy every new update even if there is no "flashy new feature" and we "just improve" something for you. All the changes, whether they are small or feels invisible are made so the Ylands could be an even more awesome game than it is now.

Thanks for understanding and Stay Classy!

Hello Ylanders!

Do you ever wonder what happens to the bugs which we at the QA department find in the game and submit into our system? Today we'll take a look at their journey!

If something in the game doesn't work or doesn't match the way it was designed, we'll mark it as a bug. This can be a whole range of things - from a badly rotated block to the game crashing completely.



Let's say, for example, we're entering the incorrect block. We assign it the proper priority, "epic" (what feature or group of tasks it belongs to), component (which areas of the game it applies to), and which version of the game it belongs to. Then it is important to determine a "fix version" in other words, when we want to have the issue fixed. For example, if we want the bug to be fixed by the next update we assign a fix version with the next update number. If it's an issue that isn't as pressing, we assign it a Backlog fix version and then such bugs are solved when the person they are assigned to has time. This brings us to the last step in the issue creation and that is the "assign" part. We use it to determine who is in charge of fixing the issue.

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In the case of our poorly rotated block, we will assign an issue to someone from our art team who takes care of the visual parts of the game. So the issue landed on a graphic designer in a "To Do" status. Our graphic designer will fix the bug by rotating the block to the correct position and sending it back to QA. They do this by switching the bug to the "Prepared for testing" phase and assigning it to the QA lead. They must also remember to fill in the revision (the version of the game) on which the issue can be retested. QA then waits until the revision is built and at that point it can start testing if the block is rotated correctly and if it's been fixed on PC, Android and also iOS mobile devices. The "Prepared for testing" state is then changed by the tester who is testing the issue to "In test". This is how the others can tell that a tester has started working on the issue and we avoid two people testing the same thing at the same time.

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Now we are at the stage where either the issue is fixed or we have some reservations about it. If it is fixed on all devices we can close it (switch to "Done" state). If we are still not satisfied with the solution (for example the block is turned in the right direction but too much) we add a comment to the issue, fail it and send it back to the graphic designer who fixed it, they fix it again and send it back to QA and this is how it goes on until we are satisfied with the fix. However, there may be cases, and it is very common, where fixing one issue causes a new issue or several new issues. For example, the moment our block is turned around correctly, a problem with the integrity of Blueprints may occur. By changing the pivot of something we break the Blueprints of the people who used that block in their Blueprints - because it also gets rotated in their Blueprints. So we submit a new issue and link it to the one already fixed.

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When testing, it's important to remember that every fix can have consequences, and just because we fix something doesn't mean it won't break something else. Game development is a very lively and dynamic process. It's made up of many pieces and there is room for error in each of them, so it's important to not only test individual parts, but also the whole. Therefore, please be forgiving and if you find something that doesn't work, report it to us. Now you know what path your issue will take and that it's a winding road.

Have a great day, enjoy playing and Stay Classy!

Ahoy Ylanders!

We're thrilled to share some behind-the-scenes insights from our 3D artist department about a new animal coming to the Taiga region in Update 2.3. This is going to be a great one so you will have to wait a bit longer for it.

The Creative Journey: From Squirrels to Cows
Our journey began with an open slot in the Taiga region, prompting our designer to suggest adding a new animal. The first idea was a giant squirrel, but animation challenges led us to brainstorm further. We then played with the idea of something prehistoric and herbivorous, like a dinosaur. Imagine that in Ylands! However, we soon realized that the best idea was right in front of us, especially with the upcoming 2.2 update bringing encounters reminiscent of the bygone cowboy era. Our designer, Pypse (who often interacts with you on our Discord), came up with a brilliant idea: a cow.

Merging Utility with Aesthetics: The Taiga Cow
This cow isn't just an animal; it's a symbol of our commitment to blending utility with aesthetics. It animates well, is great for riding, can be milked, and fits perfectly with the Taiga's cowboy theme. Deciding on the type of cow was challenging, with numerous breeds to choose from. We settled on the unique Highland cattle, known for its shaggy coat.




Artistic Challenge: The Highland Cattle Model
Creating a model of the Highland cattle required special attention to its distinctive, shaggy fur. Thanks to our team of experienced artists, we found a fantastic direction for stylization, making our cow model a work of art. We're excited to show you the initial versions of the fur!



Bringing the Cow to Life: Sounds and Animations
In the Ylands team, we hope you'll also appreciate the sounds and animations of this noble Taiga creature, integral to our thoughtful stylization process. We're in the process of creating those, so stay tuned!

Thank You, Community
Your feedback is crucial as we continue to develop and refine our game. We're grateful for your participation in the Ylands community. Your adventures, challenges, and achievements inspire us every day and we are so excited to hear what you think about this furry cow addition to Ylands.



Happy exploring in Ylands, and we can't wait for you to meet our newest Taiga resident!

Stay Classy!

As you might have gathered from the previous programming dev diary, changes always carry the risk of introducing bugs – and this goes double for last minute changes. Programmers are conditioned to avoid risks where possible; after all, it’s our job to make sure that this huge machine of a game works as expected. But in some situations – such as when a winter festival is to be held for the first time and the game lacks throwable snowballs – you just have to pick up the gauntlet and roll with it despite the short timeframe, because you feel that the fun potential is worth the risk.



We already had throwing controls complete for grenades, but wanted the snowballs to behave more like an arrow does, just hitting a target and disappearing instead of exploding violently. Sometimes, programming new features is just like LEGO, you take existing pieces and creatively combine them in new ways, and that’s it. There’s also another way programming is like LEGO – sometimes to get what you want, the only way is to tear the current construction down and rebuild from scratch. Fortunately, for snowballs it was the first case, because we have already invested time into making projectiles work well beforehand.

So let's have a quick look at how projectiles actually work in Ylands! There are two main approaches to simulating motion – kinematics and dynamics. Kinematics is where we directly describe the motion via an equation based on position, velocity, and acceleration. Dynamics behaves more closely to how the actual physics works, by applying various forces to an object, which can then generate motion based on its physical properties – mass, inertia, shape, etc.

Looks like dynamics must be the way to go, being the more accurate option, right? Well, there's a catch. Due to its complexity, dynamic motion is much harder to predict, analyze, and make deterministic – key properties for a multiplayer game, since they allow us to have exactly the same projectile trajectory for all players. In fact, most motion in Ylands is kinematic, except for vehicles and ragdolls, which are too complex for kinematics. Choosing a simpler but a more controllable approach where possible is actually very common in game development! So we opt to simulate projectiles via kinematics, but we need an equation for projectile motion. Very fast projectiles such as bullets can be thought of as having a constant velocity, and thus moving on a line. Having an initial position P₀ and velocity v, their position at time t after firing can be easily calculated as P = P₀ + v ⋅ t. In fact, we can take bullets even further, thinking of their movement as instantaneous – their velocity is so large that they can reach any point we shoot at immediately after they are fired. This simplifies the simulation to checking whether any object lies in the line of fire between the origin point and the target point, which the physics engine can conveniently calculate for us via a raycast query.

The simplified equation can only take us so far however, because it excludes the effects of a very common force - gravity. With bullets, we could ignore it because the initial velocity was so large that we hit the target before gravity has a significant impact on the trajectory. But that won't work for slower moving objects such as arrows, grenades, and, you've guessed it, snowballs. What gravity does is it applies uniform downward acceleration (gravitational acceleration) to the object, building up velocity over time. The equation for uniformly accelerated motion is P = P₀ + (a ⋅ t²) / 2 where a is the acceleration, in our case the gravitational acceleration g. If we combine this with the effect of initial velocity as seen on the bullets, we get the final equation P = P₀ + v ⋅ t + (g ⋅ t²) / 2. This is a quadratic equation, meaning that the final trajectory will be a parabolic curve – which is what we expect from snowballs and arrows.

Once we have the equation for calculating projectile position at time t, it becomes a simple problem of tracking how much time has elapsed since the shot was fired and moving the projectile to the calculated position based on current time. Except now we are ignoring all the obstacles along the way! First thing that comes to mind would be checking for collisions at the current position – if we overlap with some object, we have just hit it and can deal damage to it.

Unfortunately, this won’t work for fast projectiles and thin obstacles – the way the game simulation works, we can only update the projectile position after a fixed amount of time passes from the previous update. If we just check the previous and current positions there might be no collisions, but only because we have already fully passed through the obstacle – a phenomenon known as “tunneling”. But hey, we’ve already solved this for bullets! We can again look at the previous and current position and check if anything lies between these two points via a physics engine raycast. If we hit something, we determine whether the obstacle stops the projectile movement – in which case we stick the projectile into it and apply damage – or if the projectile should pass through the obstacle unhindered.

And that’s the gist of it! This small bit of kinematics allows you to throw a snowball (or a grenade if you’re not feeling particularly festive) in the face of your fellow Ylanders. It also allowed us to implement gun and bow aim assist for mobile and gamepad controls in 2.2, so stay tuned for that – and stay classy!

Patrik from marketing here! 2023 was a wild one for Ylands. Just consider the craziest thing, instead of the awaited 1.12 version we released the biggest update in Ylands history: the 2.0. Even though this was the bomb, there were so many other important numbers throughout last year. Let's see some marketing and game data!




You sent 101 691 messages and spoke for 76 243 minutes on the Ylands Discord server. What can I say, you just love to chat and admire each other's work. If you want to find some friends to play with, our Discord server is the best place for you. Now, we know, that you were not bored, and here is proof that the Ylands Marketing team also had a lot of fun this year.

4 Ylands Streams were held, 1 of those was quite a revolution as it took place on Discord, being closer to you all as we were playing games together, competing, chatting, and chilling. We posted over 300 Posts on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter X, and within traditional weekly community screenshots, we shared 156 of your in-game screenshots and amazing builds. From the video perspective, we presented the world with 2 trailers and 61 short videos for our TikTok and YouTube. If you are not following us on some of these social media you should definitely give it a shot!

We held 18 competitions and contests, and delivered at least triple the amount of prizes and giveaway items! We simply don't know the precise number here as sometimes, we just have to reward you randomly for being so awesome and helpful to each other. Last but not least we released 50 Dev Diaries and 21 maintenances were run.

But let's get back to you, Ylanders!


5 617 blueprints, yes that many amazing creations were uploaded to the blueprint shop by you, Ylanders! And what about all the wonders you accomplished directly in the world of Ylands? Oh boy! You picked up and cut down 1 245 456 plants, tamed 11 227 animals out of which there were 1 777 horses, and crafted 26 705 134 items. Surprisingly enough, among these 26 milion, there was only a single cultist skirt crafted. Those are all amazing numbers and we couldn't be happier.

Thank you so much for all the time that you spent with us, whether it was chatting with other Ylanders on Discord, creating blueprints and sending us your screenshots, watching our videos and liking our social media posts, and most importantly for the time you've spent in the world of Ylands.

We wish you to Stay Classy in 2024!

Hello Ylanders,

We’re back with an exciting blend of news about our latest feature: Handbook Rewards. This addition is all about enriching your entire journey in Ylands, with a special focus on those initial, crucial hours of gameplay.






A Rewarding Start

We understand that the first few hours in Ylands can be decisive. Players who overcome the initial learning curve tend to find deeper enjoyment and stay longer. With this in mind, Handbook Rewards are designed to make the early stages more engaging and less daunting. By offering meaningful rewards for early tasks, we aim to help new players find their footing and uncover the true potential of Ylands.

Rewards Across Your Journey

But it’s not just about the start. Handbook Rewards bring value at every stage of your adventure. Whether you’re gathering essential resources, unlocking unique and powerful weapons, or acquiring special collectibles, these rewards are tailored to enhance your experience.

Streamlining Progression

A key goal of Handbook Rewards is to offer a smoother progression path. These rewards come in at just the right time to help you unlock new regions and tackle the challenges ahead. It’s about reducing the grind and increasing the enjoyment of each milestone you reach. While also giving you a long term goal to aim for in the case of Story Chapters or some more difficult Region conquering Diary Events.

Looking Forward

Handbook Rewards represent just one step in our ongoing effort to make Ylands more engaging. We see great potential in integrating this system with future features, like daily quests or login bonuses, to continually enhance your gaming experience.

Your Feedback, Our Compass

As you delve into this new feature, we’re eager to hear from you. Your experiences, especially during the early stages of the game, are invaluable in helping us refine and evolve the Handbook Rewards system.

Thank you for being part of the Ylands community. Your adventures, challenges, and achievements are what inspire us to keep improving and expanding the world of Ylands.

Happy exploring, and here’s to many more rewarding adventures ahead!



Stay Classy!

Ahoy Ylanders!

Updates are consistently geared toward enhancing your gaming experience. Each update brings a combination of significant features and behind-the-scenes improvements to ensure smoother and more enjoyable gameplay. Let's delve into the journey of these features.



Wish List
Our wish list is a culmination of various sources, including community suggestions, insights from focus tests, brainstorming sessions with our designers, and feedback from our team members. We also take into account thoughts gathered from QA feedback sessions, creating a comprehensive pool of ideas.

Priorities
Every update is driven by specific goals, such as improving recipes for new players or transforming sailing into a thrilling adventure. We compile a list of approximately 40 objectives for each update, aiming for a balance between fun and functionality.

Design
The Feature Owner plays a crucial role in crafting a design document with mockups to visualize ideas. Some features are even prototyped using our Editor, adding a tangible dimension to the creative process.

Design Review
A creative huddle takes place involving the Project Lead, Producer, and Designers. Their focused brainstorming session ensures alignment with our overall vision and addresses any potential challenges.

Implementation
With a detailed plan in place, we share our ideas with the implementation team. Each feature follows a specific timeline, accompanied by status meetings and vigilant oversight to ensure a smooth transition from concept to reality.

Feature Review
We did it! Upon completion, the Project Lead and Producer evaluate the feature's integration into the game, considering its overall enjoyment factor. Other developers also provide feedback during this phase.

Feature is Ready
The moment of truth arrives as QA takes center stage. Rigorous testing is conducted to identify and address any bugs, ensuring the feature is polished and ready for release.

As our team eagerly tackles the next project, they remain committed to resolving any issues promptly. We're excited for you to experience the new feature and have a fantastic time with it! 🚀🎮

And that is a feature's journey from the point of view of Production. Do you have any questions about this process? Let us know in the comments!

Stay Classy!

In this week's dev diary, us in the QA department have been asked to talk about game dev experience from our point of view. We've been scratching our heads how to convey the Tester Experience TM and after some thought and pondering, we've decided to focus on the life cycle of an update and put forth the following description of events. As you read this account of ours, try to immerse yourself in the spirit of good-natured humor sprinkled with just a tiny bit of desperation. We do love game dev in general and our game in particular after all, but perhaps being tasked with finding the mistakes and shortcomings in everything we touch reflects in the mentality and jokes we make. But all we do, we do to help make Ylands as amazing as possible.


The culmination of several months' worth of pressure effort and preparations. At long last, an update is released, however the work isn't done here by any means. For us at QA headquarters, the ride continues and the show goes on.

During the release maintenance window, we scramble to double check that crucial systems and infrastructure work. Some things we can reasonably expect to work once live, but things like logging into the app, the workshop, servers, exploration and similar cornerstones of the game can hide issues we only discover last minute. Usually things are fine, though sometimes the maintenance window needs to be prolonged for us to be able to deliver. And in the absolute worst case scenario, if a blocker is only uncovered now, we have the option to break the glass and hit the Big Red Button to roll back the update, restore the previous versions and dive deep into what went wrong. Needless to say, nobody likes to even consider this option, least of all us at QA HQ.

Let's assume things went more or less well, losses are within parameters and move on to the next stage. Our wonderful community manager announces that the maintenance is over and an update is live and we start dealing with the fallout.




It's close to assured that there will be issues to iron out after an update. Nobody is perfect after all, and while all of us in the dev team give it our best to achieve that state, it's ultimately impossible. So, in the first days or possibly weeks after an update, we spend much of our time investigating any issues that eluded attention until now and roll out hotfixes and patches to control the fallout. The tempo is rapid and while we all long for relief in this time, we know it's important to keep the pressure up. Rapid QA response to fixes and other commits, attention to detail and in some cases, figuring out why a critical issue flew under the radar are the items on the agenda in this period. Forecast: crunches with a chance of meatballs. Eventually, the most burning issues are wrangled and we can finally let out a tired sigh of relief. For a short while, it's done.


A thick line between the previous update and the next has been drawn and we finally start looking to the future. We regain our strength, we refocus, we learn. The length of this window heavily depends on how many patches were pushed for the last update and there always exists the possibility that relief never comes - the sheer amount of necessary work takes so long that we can find ourselves deep into the next update's life cycle even before the previous one is over. Speaking of the next update...

When an earthquake hits, a tsunami may follow. The development of features and new content doesn't halt just because things needed fixing. Eventually, we need to turn our eyes to what's on the horizon. There is a surge in workload as requests for testing start coming en masse and we give one last tearful wave to the short period of reprieve as it sails away. The quicker we dispatch these tests, the more time for adjustments, polish and feedback there is and, as it logically follows, the better the state these new features will be in. And as we send back bugs and feedback, retest, report newly found bugs, return whatever wasn't sufficiently improved, rinse and repeat.


As the ongoing cycle matures, there comes a time when everyone needs to take a step back and look at the larger picture. Before the dev team fully commits to a given state of the game, feature states need to be re-evaluated and prioritized. Sometimes you can be enthusiastically crunching away at a feature but find out you didn't quite have the time to get it done, sometimes the core is done but during development you find out there are simply too many issues for you to be able to fix before it's too late and sometimes, a feature was just too large and took so long to finish that we at QA HQ simply don't have the time and people to properly make sure it's in the best possible state. This is the point where hard decisions have to be made. Will a feature be postponed? Will its scope be reduced? And will it still be viable after that? Sometimes it is better to postpone than to release something we're not happy with, after all.


The data just came in from the boys in the lab and it's dire. The vague threat of another disaster has taken a more concrete shape, the dreaded data lock. From here on out, no new features get in and it's all about polish, fixes and making sure everything works together. And even then, every new merge needs to be considered carefully - is it important enough? Is it safe? Can it break something else? Is it a new issue or something we've been able to live with already? These and many more questions are behind every new ticket we throw at the rest of the dev team from now on.


After data lock, a new branch is built - Release Candidate. It is here that any merges deemed important and safe enough go and are tested in the name of stabilizing the build and making sure it comes out in it's best form. For us at QA HQ, that's not all however. It is at this moment that we start retesting any and all new things, be it new features or tweaks of existing ones. No ticket gets left behind as we have to make sure that nothing broke between us first seeing a ticket and now, after hundreds and hundreds of commits that could have potentially influenced whatever we're looking at. We also launch a large scale integrity test of the whole game around this time to ensure that there are no critical weak points in existing systems. It is a long and laborious process, but we couldn't proceed without it.


Sometimes, when there is a reasonable need, it is prudent to prepare the public at large for the coming disaster. This is where an experimental build might be released for you all to romp around in once the RC build is in a reasonable enough state and there is need for community feedback on the changes the dev team has prepared. This spells another workload surge for us as we need to go through your reports and figure out what's already known, what's new, what needs to be fixed ASAP and to compile your feedback to figure out how to best utilize it. Often times balance changes are made based off of what we gather during this period, which then need to be tested once again.


As we're closing in, mobile and Windows Store submissions need to be covered as well. These can take anywhere between a few days up to weeks to resolve for each submission. The workflow changes somewhat during this time as we need to allocate more time to testing on these platforms before their respective submissions to ensure the builds are healthy, and once a submission has been dispatched we can then reallocate all of that time back onto the main game to run the same tests on the steam build.


It's almost here. The suspense is incredible. Tensions are high once again. Everything seems quiet, things look fine. Maybe it's the job, maybe it's just who we are as people, but whenever things go too well, all of us here at QA HQ start sweating bullets. Like any leadup to a big event, this is a very stressful time. After all, we could always find a last-minute blocker, which is a scenario nobody wants to see. In theory, should such a scenario occur, this is where QA can veto a build instead of giving it the coveted green light. This means an update could be postponed by a week or two to fix something absolutely crucial to the release, but schedule is often very tight and the release process is a complex matter, so unless it's something that renders the game or a large part of it unusable, we often need to proceed anyway. As a result, we might start getting first responders ready even before the disaster hits. During the last moments of this journey, an announcement about an upcoming maintenance is released to the public and soon after, the big moment is upon us all.


This seems familiar, doesn't it? Almost like we've been here before, one might say.

As we close this entry here at QA HQ, we would like to add that there are many aspects of our work, additional intricacies and processes that might even differ between different parts of the game. Those are, however, stories for another time.

Stay QAssy!