This is a really exciting update, for me, and hopefully for you!
Shout out to user "Randy Marsh" for the feedback and suggestions that encompass most of this update.
Balancing
First, I've really spent time getting the balancing and flow of gameplay feeling better. The hotfix yesterday was meant to keep the game from reaching 100% popularity at only half-way through the upgrades...but I do feel it made the start of the game a little more boring, and was still just not polished enough.
It's still a little slow at the start, but that's intentional. The popularity-to-customer spawn rate has a much smoother increase, now.
My new goal today is to play and complete the game, and ensure that popularity doesn't hit 100% before the final upgrades.
Auto-Stocking: Idle Gameplay
This is what really makes this update fun and satisfying.
A couple feedback items for the game have been that it just wasn't truly an Idle game because there was actually a required time of active gameplay while stocking the pond.
To remedy this Auto-Stocking was introduced. This allows you to select fish you wish to be auto-stocked when the nighttime comes. Stocking will happen from the most expensive to the least. Once all possible fish have been stocked, the pond will then automatically open for the next day.
This effectively allows you to put the game to the side, and just let it run until you are ready to upgrade, at which point you can simply disable the "Auto" toggle during the day, and it will behave like normal with no auto-stocking.
QoL
- Fish Highlighting - Fish are now highlighted if you mouse over their button in the stocking menu while they are currently in your pond.
- Fish Labels - Hovering over fish in the pond when deleting will now display a similar panel from the stocking menu to show you their icon and their cost, making it easier to manage the ponds stock.
- "Open Pond" Button Relocation - There have been a few issues with the "Open Pond" button covering up fish, so it now has been moved over your character/shop.
Going Forward
As I stated at the top, my most immediate goal is to complete the game to ensure that the new balancing will allow you to purchase upgrades in-line with the popularity increasing.
Ideally, you will need to get all upgrades to effectively get 100%, and you should have them purchased around 90%...now it will differ a bit player-to-player, but on average, this is the goal.
Once this is feeling really nice (maybe it's already there), there are a couple more QoL improvements I'd like to make, and then finally I want to bring a mini-game that will take place in the empty space under your shop while the pond is open.
I should be able to work this in within a few days, and at that point I feel the game will be beyond my original expectations.
Thanks again to everyone supporting me, and my development efforts by purchasing and playing the game. I hope to bring you the highest quality with this game and future releases, and it's because of you all that I am on my way to doing that.
Happy Fishing!