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Dev Diary #320 New Packs in ShopApr 26, 2024 - Community AnnouncementsAhoy, Ylanders! There are new packs in the shop for both new and hardcore players among you. Let's see what we have in store... literally. STARTER PACK {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28068198/2e329a1468b2e88b25ed17f8c2edd0346433d324.jpg Starting with the starter pack, which will ensure any new or longtime player swiftly starts off their adventure! So let's see what you get for a mere 2.99 EUR. Arid Region unlock 300 Coyns Bushcraft Avatar Frame Toolbox Lunchbox Herb Bag Obsidian pick Obsidian knife Wooden fishing rod 20× Clay 10× Leather 15× Flint 20× Feather 10× Healing Herb 30× Stone As you can see, there is plenty of useful stuff here. So where is the catch, you ask? Yes, there is a catch, but only a little one. You can purchase the Starter Pack only once per account. It may not surprise you, but in fact, this pack was your idea all along! It took us a while, but we finally found a reliable way to deliver resources to you in the game without breaking its natural progress. SUPPORTER PACK {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28068198/4bf562bc19aea7b658ed10615335eaa37d5c670d.jpg Now we are looking at you, our dearest hardcore Ylanders. An exclusive costume, title, avatar frame, and emote are waiting just for you. On the other hand, your support will mean a lot to us and will help us to continue working on Ylands and bring you many more new updates. On top of that, every supporter can enjoy their own role on our Discord as well as a special "Supporter only" room. Just in case, you can click here to join the Discord server now! Thank you for your never-ending support. Stay Classy, Ylanders! https://store.steampowered.com/app/2904300/Ylands__Starter_Pack/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/2904310/Ylands__Supporter_Pack/2.2.2 Patch ChangelogApr 25, 2024 - Community AnnouncementsHighlights STARTER PACK Starting resources and other important stuff for bargain price! Can be purchased only ONCE per account. This pack is based on our players' feedback and is an ideal choice for starting players who want to enjoy a little boost to the start of the game. https://store.steampowered.com/app/2904300/Ylands__Starter_Pack/ SUPPORTER PACK The most exclusive and top shelf cosmetics for the biggest Ylands fans who want to support the game's development. Entry to a special Discord "Supporter only" room is included in the pack. Not a member of our Discord yet? Click here to join now! https://store.steampowered.com/app/2904310/Ylands__Supporter_Pack/ INTRO For months we evaluated what should be showed off more and now it's going live! New players can get a better taste of what they can experience in Ylands from the very beginning. The time to invite your friends to play Ylands (or reset your progress) is now! New Assets STARTER PACK: Avatar's Tropical Frame SUPPORTER PACK: C.A.G. Admiral Costume Noble Wave Emote Avatar's Baroque Frame C.A.G. BENEFACTOR title ADDITIONS Added: New playable Intro where player will be introduced to C.A.G and main features of the game. FIXED Fixed: Story: Players lost progress from Elmwood outpost. Fixed: Editor: All damage immunity / No player vs player damage check boxes are wrongly checked in Game settings. Fixed: Editor: On Invulnerable Hit event does not trigger for invincible players. Fixed: A handbook memory leak that would occur upon changing the active session (leaving a game into the main menu, changing a server etc.). Dev Diary #319 The mindset of a testerApr 19, 2024 - Community AnnouncementsAhoy Ylanders! Today, let's for once leave the seas of Ylands and instead dive into what it's like to be a tester. In general, us testers get to shine when a new feature or asset is introduced and given to us in its raw state. Here it's important to keep two mindsets: one of a tester, but also one of a player. But let's get to the latter in a little bit. Generally, as testers, we basically have one important job - to grab what we've received and attempt to break it in any way imaginable. Already knowing all that is doable in the game, this is where we do that "all" and way more. We get to wreak havoc and investigate all that could possibly go wrong, and this is where being creative and imaginative really pays off. Finding as many ways to break every new thing as possible lets us, after all, try our very best to bring you everything in the most polished, pristine state after it's reported, fixed and retested. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28068198/3cbcbd6db63c30cf74eb882171c40ed98cbf469d.jpg The mindset of a player comes into the picture when we also have to consider the question of: is this user friendly? As most of us already have our fair share of experience with games, we know fairly well if not only the usability but also design is something that would generally please a player. Overall, it's important to us that every new thing is easy to understand, can be used well, but also looks a way that would catch our eye as players. As such, not only do we find bugs, but also bring our own feedback to the table. When a release is knocking on the door, that's when the most things can possibly go wrong. Instead of testing rather specific things, we now have to look through every single corner of the game to make sure nothing has been broken in the process. Even things that until now seemed minor are important to test so that we can try our best to make the experience we bring you, our players, as flawless as it could be. And then the release comes, maintenance happens, and we have the job and last chance of checking that everything is fine, so we split the most important parts of the game amongst our lovely team of testers and go through all Story ylands, intro, shop etc., basically all that absolutely has to be in a proper state no matter what. And we have to manage in time so that you can get the finished product and continue sailing as soon as possible. Overall, seeing that progress that newly added things go through is really exciting, as it goes from a sometimes rather broken state to a finished feature and we get to experience all those stages. Sometimes that results in funny bugs that we would not otherwise experience while being simply players, which we then get to share with you, our community, afterwards. At the same time, it can be a difficult job since we're not just playing the game. It can sometimes take us days to find how a specific bug happens, which often results in us just doing the same thing over and over and over again until we figure it ou...Dev Diary #318 You suggest, we listenApr 12, 2024 - Community AnnouncementsAhoy Ylanders, Let me start by saying that we love all feedback. Both positive and negative. One of the things that makes us happy is reading your suggestions on what to add to the game, how to balance it, and how to make it better. And we get tons of suggestions and ideas every day from you. How we collect feedback Every month or so I go through every site we have (Forum, Steam, Discord, social media, ...) and write down in a huge multipage table what people suggested and how many people want that idea in the game. Then we talk about the most wanted or just generally very creative ideas at a meeting. We discuss how we could implement them, what would it change and how long would it take. The process of getting your idea into the game is not simple. For every Update, we have a list of features that should be added and bugs that should be fixed. So after we talk about your suggestion in a meeting, we try to figure out which Update it would fit in. Generally, it should go with something similar. Example: Many people wanted to see ghost pirates in the game and we needed some more Random Encounters for Temperate Region et viola! So please note how much work and time goes into getting just one idea in the game. And we have collected hundreds of ideas from you. With the process out of the way let's talk about some ideas that already made it into the game! You suggested adding a utility belt, a backpack with more slots in inventory, an ammo pouch, or more containers. Done! We expanded all containers greatly. We have added an ammo pouch. We have added the much-requested lunch box! One thing we cannot do however is add slots to the inventory, imagine the mess it would create. You wouldn't see the icons properly, we would have to make all the buttons smaller and add a scroll bar in the inventory. Overall this change doesn't seem effective to us. We are always thinking about how to make your traveling luggage lighter though! So I am sure we will come up with something to make you even more content in the future. Tech-tree Tech-tree is something that was suggested many times over many years. And from the first time we read the idea - we agreed! After many months of discussions and work the Tech-tree is now a reality. Blank book/ folder to add notes in Done! We added a folder for all your various notes. One suggestion we get a lot is adding a book you could write in. While it is a great idea it is also very complex since it would require a custom UI screen. Chickens Just one word for you - Takahe. Other things you wanted and we added: Custom Editor tools Running Auto-sort in inventory In case you want to know more about what can or cannot be implemented in the game read our Community Corner: here Thank you again for motivating us to make the game better. Stay Classy! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28068198/f02f2e093b247f716bfb5ca8af53da951772aec7.jpgDev Diary #317 No animals were harmedApr 5, 2024 - Community AnnouncementsAhoy Ylanders! Today’s dev diary will be about how we created life and populated Ylands with various creatures. We believe the visual style of Ylands is best suited for hand-keyed animations. We decided not to use mocap in development as the cartoonish animation style brings more freedom for us as creators and is the only way to achieve the desired animations in many cases. Can you imagine someone could train and force an endangered species like a Pangolin to do a special attack in mocap? (big grin) Yeah, we can't either... So it is also very humane and no animal (or monster) was harmed in the process of animation. When we want to get an animal into the game we first work with references. We try to get as many videos, movies, and pictures as we can. That way we can establish the character and behavior of the animal. If we have a clear character for it, most of the work will be much easier as we know what we want to achieve. We animators need to interpret the character of the animal as we are a type of actors who are not standing in front of a camera but are comfortably hidden behind our computer screens. We don’t experience stage fright, that's cool, isn’t it? For some animals, it is easy to get inspiration as we have them at home, or a nearby zoo, for some it is more difficult like the Pangolin we already mentioned. Sometimes, it is outright impossible to get a real-life reference, such as when we introduced alien animals. But this also has a positive side: if there is no reference for the animal/monster, we can use our imagination! And that’s so much fun! After that, it’s pretty straightforward. We have to make a set of 23 animations that we need for monsters - for example, various attacks, walking, running, and idle variants. For tamable animals, we need a few more animations, and for mountable animals, we need up to 32 animations. Making those hand-keyed animations can take up from 2 to 5 weeks. As all entities share almost the same amount of animations it gives you, the player, the freedom to make animals behave as you wish in the Editor. You can force the peaceful rabbit to behave like a rabid monster. And that is what we like at Ylands, it is your call, your game! So go on, find them, take screenshots, can you count how many animals and monsters are in our game? That's all for this week! Stay Classy! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28068198/e927bffcf23111e003327d145e04351d62779828.jpgDev Diary #316 Notice Board SystemsMar 29, 2024 - Community AnnouncementsAhoy Ylanders! This week, our programmer Radek will share a few insights about our internal system called Notice Board. This nice addition to our game is a digital bulletin board, crafted to enhance your gaming experience by bringing you relevant information happening around the Ylands game. Key Features Dynamic Content Updates: Keeping players informed and engaged is crucial, so we've developed a dynamic hub filled with content to ensure you never miss out on the essential happenings in the Ylands universe. Stay updated on upcoming patches, new shop content, latest features, and game changes. Visual Experience: To get your attention, we have designed an aesthetic board with a charming board theme. Our UI Designer carefully crafted the variants of paper notes that are easily integrated into the dynamic system we developed. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28068198/97bc36aa3570dc840feef9cb9cb9b857645e0b1e.jpg Technical Aspects Originally the tool was required by the marketing team and it was intended to be just a place with brief notes served to the players updated approximately once a month. Because of this simplified design and underestimation of the potential size of that system, we encountered several complications during the development process. We chose a more simplistic approach inspired by the classic blog systems but we had to work with static data uploaded on the server. We chose the JSON file format for storage. The JSON file you upload to the server needs to be manually edited, which can be easy for a tech-savvy person, but can be a nightmare for the average PC user. That's why it's important to choose the right tools while simplifying the editing process itself, which was also underestimated at first. If you're building a tool that requires the work of others while giving you the ability to update content fairly frequently, reach for a database solution rather than static data and expose some simple frontend app with convenient editing tools. Unfortunately, we were limited by time and did not expect that the system would become such an integral tool. Fortunately, there are ways to automate these things, so we created a spreadsheet where the marketing team can update their data while keeping track of what has been published. They then generate a JSON file from that table and just send it to the backend server. While this process still requires the involvement of at least 3 people, editing such a spreadsheet and then uploading the final changes to the server takes much less time. In conclusion, we'd just like to point out that it's always a good idea to consider the importance and potential workload of such a system and invest time in developing tools and then working with them more efficiently accordingly. Since its release, the Notice Board has become one of the most visited places in Ylands. We are constantly working on improving the Notice Board and have some exciting additions planned for the next update. Is there something you'd like to see on ...Dev Diary #315 Getting Players HookedMar 22, 2024 - Community AnnouncementsAhoy Ylanders! With update 2.2, those who started a new game (or reset their progress) can experience a new introductory scene before arriving at the starting island. Let's discuss why it was added and what it brings to Ylands. One of the biggest challenges for free-to-play (F2P) games is retention. Many players try them out, but only a few stick around long enough to make a significant impact. Casual F2P games, like shooters, puzzles, and match-threes, have it easier. They can showcase their core gameplay almost immediately after the player starts the game for the first time (despite clicking through countless popup windows). For a game like Ylands, this is much more complicated. Up until 2.2, you started with nothing and very little to do besides picking up items. You picked grass, sticks, stones, and flint. These were your first minutes in the game, and based on this, you decided whether to give it more time, which could turn into hours. The math is simple: more new players playing the game equals more effort put into improving the game for everyone. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28068198/219ad7ca1d940ae667858334882985ba58fcf66a.jpg In update 2.2, we added the Tech Tree and Handbook Quests. Suddenly, you can clearly see what you can achieve and how to get there. There's always something interesting to do. However, this doesn't entirely solve the problem I mentioned earlier. For the new player, it's more like a promise that there are some great things ahead and that the game becomes much more fun and interesting once you get past the "gathering phase." What we wanted to do was give players a taste of how great it is to have your own ship, explore various unique places, and do it as soon as possible. This is why the short playable intro scene was added. Based on the numbers we've seen, it seems to be working. More new players are finishing the subsequent tutorial than before, and they are staying longer. Knowing that this works, we can safely proceed to the second phase of the Intro scene operation - releasing a vastly improved and polished version of the intro scene. We believe this will give new players even more reasons to invest time in the game, discovering its unique and complex nature. This new version of the intro scene, featuring sailing, underground exploration, and more sailing, should become available in about a month or two. Have fun and stay classy, Ylanders!Ylands Original Soundtrack is up for grabs!Mar 19, 2024 - Community AnnouncementsAhoy Ylanders! All of the beautiful melodies that accompany you on your adventures in the world of Ylands are here for you now. Purchase the Ylands Original Soundtrack by the composer Varhan Orchestrovič Bauer on Steam! Going out to grab some groceries? Put on the dungeon music (aka Memorable Mysteries) and feel the thrill of a golem lurking around the corner on the streets of your own town! Changing a lightbulb or fixing a shelf? Casually Crafting or Building Blueprints are the songs for this occasion! But be careful, you might start to see polygons if you give in to that feeling too much. Facing an aggressive person on the street? Don't forget to change the song on Hostile Hyena and remember, if you manage to gain a certain distance, they'll leave you be! The time to bring adventure to your everyday life is now. Get the soundtrack here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2848670/Ylands_Original_Soundtrack/ Track Listing: Adventure Awaits - Bohemia Interactive, Varhan Orchestrovič Bauer Serene Sunrise - Bohemia Interactive, Varhan Orchestrovič Bauer Casually Crafting - Bohemia Interactive, Varhan Orchestrovič Bauer Building Blueprints - Bohemia Interactive, Varhan Orchestrovič Bauer Propeller Pack - Bohemia Interactive, Varhan Orchestrovič Bauer Evening Encounters - Bohemia Interactive, Varhan Orchestrovič Bauer Very Vague - Bohemia Interactive, Varhan Orchestrovič Bauer Hostile Hyenav - Bohemia Interactive, Varhan Orchestrovič Bauer Memorable Mysteries - Bohemia Interactive, Varhan Orchestrovič Bauer Naval Navigation - Bohemia Interactive, Varhan Orchestrovič Bauer Underwater Universe - Bohemia Interactive, Varhan Orchestrovič Bauer Quirky Quests - Bohemia Interactive, Varhan Orchestrovič Bauer Lazy Life - Bohemia Interactive, Varhan Orchestrovič Bauer Interesting Idea - Bohemia Interactive, Varhan Orchestrovič Bauer Kind Kerfuffle - Bohemia Interactive, Varhan Orchestrovič Bauer Gloomy Ghosts - Bohemia Interactive, Varhan Orchestrovič Bauer Fluty Flute - Bohemia Interactive, Varhan Orchestrovič Bauer Diving Deep - Bohemia Interactive, Varhan Orchestrovič Bauer Terrorbird Terror - Bohemia Interactive, Varhan Orchestrovič Bauer Ominous Omen - Bohemia Interactive, Varhan Orchestrovič Bauer Random Rest - Bohemia Interactive, Varhan Orchestrovič Bauer Just Join (Already) - Bohemia Interactive, Varhan Orchestrovič Bauer Dev Diary #314 Want to see your creation in Ylands?Mar 15, 2024 - Community AnnouncementsAhoy, Ylanders! You may have noticed we do a lot of competitions on Discord. Well, this time we have something extra special for you! Have you met Ros Bobb? Doesn't it feel sad how he is just standing there in the open, his paintings getting washed away by the rain, so he has to repaint them every day. Well, now you have a chance to save him. We want you to build a house, a studio, a stall, or anything else for Ros Bobb and we will add it to the game! How to join: Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/ylands Look at the rules in #competition_announcements Submit your beautiful entry and get a chance to get your asset in the game and win 1000 Coyns! We are most excited to see what our creative community can come up with. And Ros Bobb? Ros Bobb is eagerly waiting in the rain for your help. Stay Classy, Ylanders! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28068198/b490e08f1f0461b3e7f88379e460a23de292692d.png2.2.1 Patch ChangelogMar 13, 2024 - Community Announcements⭐ HIGHLIGHTS ⭐ Tech Tree - When you select a known recipe in the Tech Tree, it will now also be selected in the crafting menu. Continue on your Adventure - Some of you who skipped the last two updates couldn't continue playing. Not anymore! Handbook Rewards - Some players didn't receive their rewards during multiplayer gameplay, but now they will have them back. Elmwood's outpost - A few Ylanders had their progress in this story Yland restarted; we have reverted it. Low memory optimization - You might have experienced a crash on Crimson Shores Yland - this issue is now fixed. FIXED Fixed: Handbook rewards: Collectibles rewards can be claimed for clients again. Affected players will receive all rewards they should have gotten after the loading of exploration map. Fixed: Reduced memory consumed by lights shadow maps to manageable amount. Fixed: Exploration map compatibility issues for saves made in before 1.10. Fixed: Editor: Freeze when you start PC only empty world. Fixed: Editor: Custom transactions in scenarios without gameset/scenario data never finished, always resulted in refund. Fixed: Editor: Is group tile does not work correctly in custom tools when you provide them anything else than Group/Entity/Game logic. Fixed: Entity thumbnails in inventory can sometimes disappear or get switched with different ones. TWEAKED Tweaked: Improved readability of table view.Dev Diary #313 Your Point of ViewMar 8, 2024 - Community AnnouncementsAhoy, Ylanders! Have you ever wondered how feedback works and what goes on behind the curtain? Some of you are in contact with our beloved community manager, Anna, who keeps communication with you. When you write in-game feedback, Anna sifts through all the messages and forwards any unreported bugs to our QA team. Feedback is sent along with the Adventure save of the game from when you submitted the feedback and log files. Often, it's like a detective job, scouring log files for anything suspicious, especially related exceptions or errors. Thanks to this process, we can progress in our attempts to reproduce reported bugs. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28068198/d646eacdbfcf5000860553905d42bf99d2e81a49.jpg HUNTING Some issues are obvious, like visual glitches such as bugged icons of assets. However, often it's not that easy, and we may spend hours trying our best to reproduce the reported bug. In cases where reproducing the bug isn't straightforward, we use Unity tools to import data from log files sent with the feedback to our characters. This helps us see the issue from your perspective, allowing us to piece together the mystery. This tool is valuable, especially because a bug might only be reproducible with your data, aiding programmers in potential fixes. Additionally, it helps us consider scenarios of what happened, better enabling us to understand the situation. Our character, with your data imported, has your clothing, inventory, and map. Combined with the report, we can more easily imagine what was happening when the bug occurred. During our search, we often uncover many unrelated bugs, making the search itself effective in bug hunting. With a small team of testers and numerous elements in our game, it's challenging to keep track of everything. Your reports are crucial, and we take the time to address each one, enhancing the game thanks to your contributions. FEEDBACK It's not just about bugs; it's crucial to see your perspective on what's annoying or unpleasant. We are immersed in the game daily, sometimes missing obvious things or getting lost in details. Your feedback helps us see the bigger picture—the game as a complete product, not just individual pieces. We value your feedback and strive to improve the game accordingly. Some of us in the Ylands team keep a close eye on Discord channels to catch all the bugs or other issues. Feedback on the game can sometimes be contradictory, so we consider the majority of feedback and the core direction of the game. COMMUNICATION Solving reported bugs involves communication with various areas of our Ylands team, especially programmers. We may need help understanding log files, exceptions, and errors. Cooperation with designers is essential too, as sometimes issues are more design-related than bugs, requiring the input of designers. Testers also provide feedback when a new feature is implemented, contributing to the polishing process before the feature becomes fully functional. In the case of your sent feedback...Dev Diary #312 Let's make it colorableMar 1, 2024 - Community AnnouncementsAhoy Ylanders, In today's dev diary, we will look at a significant change in the history of Ylands development that fundamentally influenced the creation of new assets and significantly improved players' ability to personalize their game creations and equipment. In the initial stages of game development, it was essential for us to design a specific visual style that would be unique and have great potential to not visually age soon. This key aspect was further influenced by other particular requirements, such as the need for a smooth change in the time of day, weather, and editable terrain. With an increasing number of players and the amount of time they spent in the game, there came a need for a more significant variability in-game assets, even though the game already contained thousands of unique objects. After testing various options for solving this problem, we decided to make all game objects colorable. On the one hand, this decision was great because it potentially created infinite variations of current assets without negatively impacting the data size. However, on the other hand, it brought a tremendous amount of work for the entire graphics team. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28068198/f90e9d5b97d278aefcceb2189d5eae8282c8e8d4.jpg To preserve the original visual style, we designed a system that would keep the artistically stylized shading of the model while also adding the possibility to colorize this model with three different colors. We achieved this effect by adding a second UV set to each model, which contains information about which part of the model is colored with one of these three colors. The original shading of the model remained stored in the first UV set, which now only contains different shades of gray. The final visual of the model is created inside the game engine using a custom shader, where the black-and-white shading is multiplied by the defined colors. In the game, there is a database where each object has its base colors stored, so the resulting visual corresponds to the original one, with the new option to change this coloration anytime. This new feature allowed us to create even more beautiful and diverse game environments, and more importantly, it allowed you, our players, to unlimitedly customize your creations, such as building your dream house and coloring it according to your preferences at any time in the future. Do you use this option in the game? What is your favorite way to use it? Let us know! Stay Classy!Dev Diary #311 Designer's Ship InspirationFeb 23, 2024 - Community AnnouncementsAhoy Ylanders! We all love some ships, right? This time Prokop the Asset Designer (and a Deckleader as is written in his sea book) has something to say to you classy bunch, as he might be one of the biggest historical ship enthusiasts among the team. For designers, it is important to draw inspiration from things they are passionate about, so take this as a peek inside the mind of an Ylands designer! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28068198/0b83c8ecb1fb13cbba81c79df29ddf83f4220f79.jpg Building a ship as your mobile base and travelling across the vast oceans is an inseparable part of the Ylands experience. But that is also not far from reality, because not only you, classy adventurers, use your ships as mobile bases. Did you know that ships were, and in many cases still are, floating manufactures with plenty of "workstations"? That's right, during the Age of Sails many specialists with their proper equipment were a part of the crew. The sailmaker was a skilled tailor able to stitch and patch any damaged sails, the cook used the stove aboard to bake fresh crackers. But perhaps the most skillful artisan of them all must have been the ship carpenter able to not only repair the hull, but also make a whole new bow figure if it was hit with a cannonball for example. In the diaries of the great explorer James Cook, you can learn that when a mast was broken in the storm, the captain ordered the ship to be dragged to the shore on a desert yland. Then the carpenter looked for some good tree and made whole new mast from it. All that was done in only a few days, but imagine doing that to repair your ship in Ylands, that would have been quite the workout! Although many expeditions in our real world are no longer done aboard sailing ships, you can still experience uncovering the unknown under the sails and charting new maps in Ylands. As the game medium simplifies things but also allows many fantasies to come through, you can build your ship however you like without the need of having properly trained carpenter. And with the upcoming Update 2.2, you may even get your ship going faster with the new Elven Sails than you could with an engine! Let us know what your favourite sail ship is and a fact about it in the comments. For Prokop, this would definitely be the brig La Grace, as its captain, Augustine Herman, was the only known Czech privateer in the Caribbean! Stay Classy, Ylanders!Update 2.2: TREMENDOUS TECHTREEFeb 15, 2024 - Community Announcements{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28068198/20b5a0f75de4626fdb1bbcd5bda9073083d27ffd.png Ahoy Ylanders, It is finally here! We know, we know, it's been a while and sorry about that, but we think the major improvements and over 200 fixes, additions and tweaks are worth the wait! Before you skip to those long requested features, let us thank you for sticking with us in 2023, you are making wonders in Ylands! Let's see what Update 2.2: Tremendous Techtree has brought for you! Tech Tree Tired of randomly exploring the world to find specific recipes? So were we. But now, we're introducing a much better way to get them - The Tech Tree! Finally, you can take technological progress into your own hands and be in charge of advancing through the tree and helping it grow. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28068198/2bdec2021cf780a465ee0751cca40a638641a37f.png Wanna know more specifics about the Tech Tree? Go see this Dev Diary: https://ylands.com/community/topic/32592-dev-diary-298-big-technology-change-incoming/ And to help you get started with the Tech Tree, we have a competition on our Discord! Join in and compete with other adventurers for the limited Fox on Board pet. Join the competition here: https://discord.gg/ylands?event=1207664814902480976 Handbook rewards Handbook is great, but everything can be improved. That's our mindset in a nutshell, so what is the Handbook improvement? Rewards for you! Some of these rewards will be useful in your journey and some are Handbook exclusive. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28068198/c1e9bb694daa96419d89555b4d05f388ee474863.png One of the exclusive rewards is a C.A.G. avatar frame that can be claimed only by helping Reginald Elmwood with his assignment. What are some of the other rewards? Go open up your Adventurers Handbook and find out! Compass improvements Behold! A brand new never-disappearing compass found its way to Ylands. Storm, fog, night or the brightest sunshine - worry not! With its updated visual, the new compass will always help you find your way... or cave entrances, as those too are marked on the compass from now on. (Our miners reported dozens of hours saved when looking for resource deposits.) Avatar frames Wanna treat yourself by getting an exclusive look for everyone to see? A whole new section of the shop is here and with it an immense dose of style! Choose yours and show it off for all Ylanders to see! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28068198/a749fbd7582da3b82c272ad9deb0d21d919afda8.png Proximity chat Yeah, every game has some kind of voice chat, but where is the immersion? In close proximity. So, make sure to test this new feature out with your closest friends! At least in the Adventure mode, where you can only hear each other when relatively nearby. But worry not, when playing in Creative, you can hear each other regardless of how far apart you are. Mobile aim assist Yet another thing you've been asking for quite often. Here it is! Better aim for mobile users. Pew! Pew! Pew! Are you curious about other new features, fixes and additions? See the Ch...2.2 Tremendous Tech Tree - ChangelogFeb 15, 2024 - Community Announcements⭐ HIGHLIGHTS ⭐ 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. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28068198/524655ad147e658c2e19d43a5d767ddd5beb89f1.png Tech Tree 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. Handbook rewards 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 overhaul 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. Proximity chat 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. Inspection window overhaul 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.). Alchemy changed to crafting The alchemy table now works as any other workstation (potions are researched in the Tech Tree as most of the other recipes). Region map multiplayer adjustment 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! Avatar frames 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. Biotop polishing 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 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). Quality of life improvements 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 c...Dev Diary #310 Valentine's Day SaleFeb 9, 2024 - Community AnnouncementsAhoy 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! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28068198/4569e6e330d1d0cb016f31ee3677765fd28965c7.jpg Limited Pet 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. Lovely Sale 'till 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! Discord Foxy Rewards 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!Dev Diary #309 Not all work is visibleFeb 2, 2024 - Community AnnouncementsAhoy 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. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28068198/5ad40a61886b148405d14f3ef7566c3d825fc3c5.jpg Gameplay adjustments 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. New tools for designers 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. Technical debt 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. Have fun with any new update 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!Dev Diary #308 A bug's journeyJan 26, 2024 - Community AnnouncementsHello 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. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28068198/ae2779e1c4d4163ea7caf2b9047fc7a893dc2d59.jpg 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. 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. 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 Blueprin...Dev Diary #307 A New Resident in TaigaJan 19, 2024 - Community AnnouncementsAhoy 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. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28068198/f743fcfec9d9579f9c40116d3376efe070371813.png 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! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28068198/b8178efc2247faf1e0f4841af42b844c831e9b0c.png 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!Dev Diary #306 Projecting Projectiles to SnowballsJan 12, 2024 - Community AnnouncementsAhoy Ylanders! 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. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/28068198/6a0c90a02ea0c965bea956626556841975cdcccb.png 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 eng...
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