Hello everyone,
I would like to make a short summary of the latest update and talk a bit about what will come next. But first of all, we should talk about current problems in the gameplay. Just to remind you right now we are digging into messed code after the fired programmer left us without any documentation and desire to help (sic!). But more about the current situation later.
[h2]Big fish[/h2]
For the last months, players have been unable to catch big fish as their max. the size was limited to 80kg and then to something around 200 kg. In one of the latest updates we removed those limits and now all fish can reach their max weight on the map. That means monsters are swimming in the waters and they caused many problems. Right now maximum fish weight in UFS2 is 1250kg for Beluga, 810kg for Tiger Shark, 390kg for European Sea Sturgeon, 450kg for Gian Grouper, and more.
But it seems big fish have stamina problems which can be serious gameplay-breaking issues at higher levels. Sooo….
Believe us or not - it was sometimes a fun thing to mess with fish scale/size.
[h2]The fish stamina system is broken [/h2]
Yes. It is and it is directly correlated to fish weights. We have been investigating this issue for the last few days and we just couldn't even tweak the current code as once big fish stamina is somehow correlated with their weight…so fish with stamina that is around 0% doesn’t even bend the rod as the system shows it as 0 kg. So fish fly all around if you only try to reel it in or pump the rod… and we just couldn’t do it.
So going further – the current system of fish stamina needs to be done from scratches and we already have a calculator for us which will determine how long the player will have to fight with the biggest fish to keep the fun and enjoyment of catching them. Once it will be done right with 1250kg Beluga, with reel drag 90kg (80-90%) should take no longer than 15 minutes, and right now it takes…hours (we are still stunned that someone is so motivated to reel in fish for few hours, we should give you special awards/achievements for that).
This is a serious issue that we are aware of and hopefully, we will be able to replace the current code with our own without breaking the game.
[h2]Fish speed & fight[/h2]
Another issue was that fish during a fight are just standing in one place and they just act like a rock, not fish. Yesterday we figured out how to tweak it. It was a bit tricky but we found a way to do it properly. Fish now moves as they are supposed to from left to right, up and down, and require you to follow them and keep proper line tension…but it seems we did them a bit too fast. And yes – we have been testing it, the whole team but it just felt good for us for example none of us had issues but that is why UFS2 is available in Early Access.
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
Ah, also – fish swimming animations and other will be improved in a short time.
[h2]Lures and fish size issue[/h2]
Yes, it is still an issue but we did many tweaks in the current system and it won’t be good till we will rework it. I don’t know if any of the players noticed but spinning lures don’t have treble/jig head size we will fix that together with the new lures system but that’s not all. We have a few solutions here for players and I will list them below:
- New lures system that is based on hooks/trebles/jig head sizes
- New popup information that shows information about your hook not matching fish in the area you cast the rod
- Add new information in the equipment/store about the fish weight range that can be caught on specific lures & hook size
And in the later stage:
- Lures are affected by weather and time of day
- Lures that have different ATTRACTIVENESS for each fish specie
- Lures that behave properly (fixed animations and physics – that may take more time than the above two points)
- Lures having hooks/treble/jighead size number
- Color affecting ATTRACTIVENESS
If everything will go according to our plan, we should release such an update in February.
[h2]Float / Feeder[/h2]
These two methods are in the shadow of spinning right now and we would like to change them. This one will require a lot of work and adjustments in fish AI, so it will be used just like in real life.
The amount of equipment for this method is also low without missing features that has been announced some time ago (ex. ground baits), and we are still aiming for doing all things in RoadMap – it will be just a bit later.
[h2]Fish Behavior[/h2]
As we all know right now you can catch almost any fish on spinning including the famous Beluga, Carp, and others. We will re-work this system completely and fish species that are typically for feeders/floats will be like this in UFS2 too. So rework should include:
- Bottom fish/herbivore/omnivore being catchable in 95% of situations on natural baits not spinning.
- Each natural bait will have different ATTRACTIVENESS for each fish specie
- Bottom fish will be really bottom fish
[h2]Russia is BROKEN! NO FISH! [/h2]
Yes, it was an issue earlier and it was directly related to the lure's size and fish zones. Yesterday we did an update, where we changed fish zones and add 5 new fish species to the map. It should be more alive now but in general Kurile, Lake map contains a lot of Trout/Salmon species that are above 20 kg, so high-level lures didn’t attract them.
[h2]Fix Steam Cloud & Saves[/h2]
We will. It's one of the most important fix on our list but it needs a full overhaul of the current save system.
[h2]Do we test what we release? [/h2]
We do, but we are 5 people that need to handle messed code after the old programmer. You can see that we do updates on different branches and test them before release. You can check these things publicly here: https://steamdb.info/app/1136380/depots/
[h2]Major Updates[/h2]
Right now our new programmer is not working on the same build as we are, as he is handling the whole code that needs to be rewritten so every game update and every game feature will be easy to implement in the future without messing in X additional files.
By that I also mean that we are aiming to move to a new version of Unity 2021 LTS, supporting HDRP. But I don’t know when it will happen as having a clear & functional code is the most important thing right now. Once we will have this – we will move to the new Unity and will start implementing all roadmap features one by one.
[h2]Early-Access[/h2]
We do know that some factors like big fish are just game-breaking issues right now and we are doing our best to fix things one by one sometimes working 16 hours per day. Digging, searching, and testing all changes, as even a change of 1 number can right now break the whole fish behavior or other aspects. So even if we will test everything on our side, we can miss some scenarios or something may just not be present on our side – that is why we decided for early access.
Steam Early Access means that the game is still being developed, and should be considered "unfinished" or even a “beta” version of the game. You can read more about it in the Steam FAQ: https://store.steampowered.com/earlyaccessfaq
Remember that even if we are not replying to some threads, we read them probably all of them, and collect as much data as we can – as this is the most valuable source of information for us. So, if you would like to help us by posting bugs in the forum remember to include information on how it happened or how we can reproduce such issues. A video or screenshot would be also useful.
An issue with bug-reporting F5 (mouse-locked) will be fixed on Monday and this is the fastest way to let us know and include data about your issue.
[h2]What we are currently working on? [/h2]
Besides all fixes, adjustments, and re-writing of the game, one of us is right now creating complete 3D avatars of players for multiplayer mode. It’s a different factor of development so it doesn’t affect current work on fixing the game.
[h2]So…[/h2]
That seems to be a “short” summary of the current status! If you have any questions just ask, and remember that we are here. It is a pretty mess for us but the current situation gives us a lot of lessons and we are on a good way to doing everything right – just like it should be since Day 1 of the Early Access release.
We are really grateful for your support. You are a great community!
Regards,
Rafal & UFS2 Team