Ahoy, cosmic debtors! We have once again made it to FISH FEAR ME Friday!
First, patch notes! As always, patch notes marked with ⚓ are community suggestions.
Patch Notes
Game Balance
- ⚓ Significantly buffed money-making weapons:
- Party Cannon: $1/shot -> $5/shot
- Ritual of Pain: Changed money gained per ritual from $5 to $10 (LVL 1-2), from $5 to $25 (LVL 3), and from $10 to $50 (LVL 4-6)
- Metal Detector: Changed like so: LVL 1: $1 per overheal, max $25 -> $1 per overheal, max $50 LVL 2: $1 per overheal, max $50 -> $2 per overheal, max $75 LVL 3: $1 per overheal, max $100 -> $2 per overheal, max $100 LVL 4: $2 per overheal, max $200 -> $4 per overheal, max $200 LVL 5: $3 per overheal, max $500 -> $6 per overheal, max $500 LVL 6: $3 per overheal, no max -> $10 per overheal, no max
Money-making weapons were broadly underpowered as a category, given their high opportunity cost and low reward. The idea in buffing them like this is to make them more viable in the early-game and provide a stronger risk-reward profile: here's a way of getting significant extra money on top of your fishing, but you miss out on getting a more combat-viable weapon in that slot.
Bugfixes/Misc
- ⚓Fixed a bug where Metal Detector + Summoning Ritual would produce extremely loud noises when triggered simultaneously
- Fixed a bug where damage numbers were showing up as the wrong color
- Optimization: Changed fish and projectile physics from dynamic to kinematic
- Optimization: Made squids spawn trails slightly less often
The dynamic->kinematic change should ideally have zero effect on gameplay but decently improve performance. If you notice anything behaving strangely (like its physics is "wrong" for whatever reason) let us know -- this is probably why!
Upcoming Content
Optimization and Usability
Visiting programmer Noé has been hard at work recently doing controller UI navigation, and it's starting to show results! This game has a lot of menus, and each one requires a semi-bespoke solution, so it's a bit of a Herculean task. Still, progress is being made!!
WOMEN WANT ME
Work on the WOMEN WANT ME expansion is going well! I recently spent a day jamming with Josie Brechner, the game's composer, as we figured out the arc of the expansion's new song. The song's name is KINGFISHER, and it's both a tragic tale of the Lady of the Lake's eternal solitude and an absolute banger. I've been listening to a WIP version of the track on loop all morning -- it's really good.
As some of you know, when I work on content expansions for games, I usually start by setting up a few new mechanics to play with, and then putting them through their paces. For SNAKE FARM: THE CURSE OF RAMONA, this was bomb attacks and teleporting snakes; for WOMEN WANT ME, I'm starting out by creating some new fish AI patterns!
This stop-and-start pattern is useful in a few different contexts -- here, it creates a swarm of lizards that aim and pounce, but it can also be used for the Mimic Octopus I posted about a couple weeks ago:
Get ready to never trust a bounty again :)
Community Spotlight
I'm excited to report that FISH FEAR ME has its first mod!! Sea Sick Me by SilverQueenRuby is a mod that rotates the camera alongside the boat, de-centers the boat and UI, gives physics to UI elements, and adds screenshake when you're hit. I'm not adding a gif to demonstrate, because I genuinely cannot play this mod for more than thirty seconds without feeling physically ill. It's a delight.
Check it out!
https://www.nexusmods.com/fishfearme/mods/1
Question of the Week
What's your favorite fish?
Happy fishing,
Heather Flowers