It is time for Monday Screenshots but with a Blaugust slant! As we are in the "Introduce Yourself" week what better screenshots to feature than the many faces of the characters I've played recently across games.
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| New World |
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| Throne and Liberty Global Beta |
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| Once Human |
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| Pax Dei Alpha Test |
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| Enshrouded |
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| Battlefield 2042 playing as Irish with my favorite skin |
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| Call of the Wild: the Angler |
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| New World open beta |
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| Oldie but goodie - my Guild Wars 2 launch character... ummm yeah |
Welcome to week two of Blaugust 2024; outlined below:
"Introduce Yourself Week (August 4th – August 10th) – The idea behind this week is to have some structured time around getting to know the other bloggers. I realize that those of us who are veteran bloggers might have already written half a dozen introduction posts by now, but it is a great time to share anything interesting you might have in your arsenal."
As a veteran blogger I do have lots of different posts introducing myself. I will refer you to my first post of Blaugust this year if you want some links and more info. I also shared some info about the Real World me in that post but I left out one of my favorite hobbies: fishing.
I've fished since I was a kid and used to spend every summer day down at my local fishing spots. I was fortunate to grow up in a small town in the midwest with a local lake that I could ride my bike around. Even when I finally got into video games with Sega Genesis I jumped outdoors every chance I got to go fishing.
Speaking of video games I am a big fan of fishing games from Super Black Bass all the way to more modern takes like recent adventures in Russian Fishing 4 or Call of the Wild: The Angler.
My dad also took us fishing from time to time and some core childhood memories were watching my dad rake away weeds near shore so we had a spot to fish for bluegill/sunfish (our local lake was very weedy at the shorelines). Then we'd usually end up at A&W or Hardees for a lunch afterwards. My dad always got a strawberry shake. Good times.
Also I am posting this as a dad myself who is getting ready to take my kids fishing later today. We don't have a small town lake we can ride bikes to so it's a bit of a drive for a good fishing spot here, but I hope the memories for my kids form the same. Though we won't be stopping at fast food afterwards today; if we did it would be Culvers (since they are now down here in the south).
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| Bottom fished up a trout! |
Back when Angler launched it featured just basic fishing methods: float fishing or cast/retrieve. At some point they added a new method for bottom fishing so I jumped in the tutorial and gave it a whirl. Fortunately the game provides all the basics to get started.
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| A big ole' pike! |
First I want to note that I found it a little odd that they added specific rods to the game for bottom fishing when in real life the average fisherman will use their current rod/reel for any method (bottom, casting, etc). Ideally they'd of let us fish with any equipment for bottom fishing and just had bonuses for gear that was more tailored for bottom fishing.
I set out and grabbed a spot to bottom fish and it worked exactly as I would have expected. Cast, wait, and catch fish. I did try some areas with moving water and the weight does move with the water which if you watched closely could fool you to think a fish was nibbling. However, since I had sound on for nibbles/strikes I knew when I did or did not have a fish on.
I finished the bottom fishing quests and moved on to fish some more areas of Golden Ridge Reserve (I don't have any of the other maps they've added). Along the way I found some much improved aspects of the game from my last adventure.
The biggest quality of life change was to make jigging or twitching baits into a "hold the button" instead of having to shake or repeatedly move your mouse to emulate the action. This makes it 100% more reliable to perform the specific action without wearing out your wrist/mouse. Ideally they'd change it to be button press on/off instead of holding the button the entire time.
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| Gold! |
The map also seems improved with better icons and the ability to set/record a ton of custom way points. This was really nice to track the type and level of fish being caught in areas as I tried to fish up a diamond (which I did not).
Lastly; multiplayer worked! I joined and left online matches with ease. It was cool to see a feed of other player catches scrolling past and to be able to jump in a boat and zip by to say hi.
Trollsporet: A Gorgeous New Setting
The Norway Reserve, or Trollsporet as the locals call it, is 37 square miles (96 square kilometers) and features three distinct biomes: Nøkkensjøen, Huldraskogen, and Fossegrimfjorden. Full of opportunities for exploration, You’ll find idyllic villages, hidden paths to secret fishing spots, and astonishing views from the tops of its towering mountains. As a perk of the region, you’ll also get to enjoy the midnight sun and the Northern Lights as you explore the wilderness.
Most importantly the new Reserve will feature 14 fish (13 new species and Northern Pike from the original map). This is not the hundreds of species that can be found in other fishing games such as Russian Fishing 4, but its a step forward. With that said some early comments based on the teaser trailer cast worry that the "new" species are just slightly modified versions of existing (for example: European Perch indistinguishable from Yellow Perch that exist on the current map). I am hopeful there is some behavior and other changes that will separate the new species out.
Also with the new map comes a bunch of open world quests and places to explore. I am still not convinced this is a selling point for the game. Before launch I thought it would be but having played a good bit of the first reserve, Golden Ridge, the open world aspects sort of fall flat. They have zero hook into fishing and are very basic "find this thing". I'd prefer the development effort going into the open world go into some form of progression system for fishing (perk, skill, don't care - something more than what is there today).
I will give the new map a try on the 15th as it's been a bit since I went digital fishing. Hope you enjoyed my cleverly hidden puns in the post. Leave a comment if you found them.
The big change in this patch is the ability to toggle off the strike indicator. This change also came with some developer commentary.
We’ve added the option to toggle on or off the Strike UI during the biting phase.
Dev Team’s Notes: There are two separate options that reside within the Accessibility Menu, which allow you to change the audio and visual cues independently. In the near future, we’re also planning to do more to further improve this phase of gameplay - including improvements to the float and line behavior on the water.
This is a step in the right direction as the STRIKE flashing across the screen firmly placed this game in the "arcade" category of fishing game. It will be interesting to see how this works, but I suspect the latter part of the dev statement about improving this phase of the game will be a requirement before you get a decent experience out of turning the strike indicator off. As it was before this patch I am not sure I could tell you what the game gives as far as feedback for a strike.
For the rest of the patch there were some quality of life improvements. The biggest of which is a chat feature added to multiplayer. Maybe a little late unfortunately as almost no one is playing the game anymore (me included).
Steps forward with this patch but still too little to get me back fishing. What about you?
I thought the first item I'd be looking at would be the daily/weekly challenges but to my surprise they were no where to be found when logging in. No user interface notifications. No signs posted in the main area (which is how you get most of your quests started). It wasn't until I dug through the backpack menu (Press Q for the quick menu and then F for your backpack) that I found the Challenges tab with the details.
The challenges are laid out between daily and weekly objectives and experience rewards attached. I can't really say if the rewards are worthwhile as I already have the end game rods/reels and lures I want to use. There is still a distinct lack of progression in the game even with these changes. There were changes to the store as far as cost of equipment but that doesn't mean anything other than "grind" since it doesn't have much of a change in how you experience the game.
Fish behavior and animation was updated in the patch. Fish seem to scare now and I have had multiple times where a fish ran away (fast!) from me reeling in my lure. I have had to use a bit of finesse to catch some fish. Also did I mention fish are fast? I actually jumped at one Northern Pike that shot out from under the dock I was fishing at to strike my lure. Animations are much better now as well and its great to see fish zipping about here and there compared to the old lethargic activity of the past. Catching fish is a bit more exciting now!
While animations and fish speed are better now and there are some visual improvements to water the actual catching and fighting of fish seems the same. The speed of fish does mean they move around a bit more when hooked but there is still no more skill involved than right clicking when STRIKE appears and holding left click to reel a fish in. If players were looking for any sort of "challenge" to the game with this update they will be disappointed.
Over all I like the changes and its a baby step forward. I enjoy the challenges but other than the satisfaction of completing them I don't feel there is any progression occurring. I will still "chill and fish" in the game from time to time but there still isn't much to do with the game. With that said they did tease us with a new Reserve possibly coming.
Have any thoughts? Leave a comment.
Two changes jumped out at me with this update:
We'll comment on the activity feed first. This was a clear miss for launch in my book. Fishing is about bragging and the fact you couldn't see what others were catching in a multiplayer match meant you had to figure out other ways to share the info which most often meant you didn't share anything. Now they just need to get around to adding chat so we can comment and brag in game. Community supported in-game tournaments will be much more feasible now!
The challenges will be a good addition as currently there is very little incentive for players to log in. With that said the challenges won't solve the problem by themselves. There are more notes in the update about how progression will change because of the challenges rewarding experience so will have to see how all the changes fit together. I will at least log in the first few days/weeks to check the challenges out!
There are also multiple visual improvements in the notes. Boats will now react to waves, fishing line will look more natural, and water will look better (a constant challenge I think this game will face with every update). Most important though: The animation of the fish is now more accurate to reflect the speed of movement. Fish got faster in a recent hotfix but the animations felt off and this change should hopefully put that to rest.
Looking forward to giving this a spin 10/31. Are you planning a fishing trip as well? Leave a comment.
It is changes like this patch to games where I wish I did video content as it would be much easier to explain and show the difference before and after changes. So you will just have to trust me that fish swim faster. Fish. Swim. Faster!
When the game first launched fish were painstakingly slow to the point that players had to reduce the speed they fished at to the lowest setting and even then it was a slow motion activity to watch a fish "strike" a lure. I use quotes around strike because can it really be considered a strike when the fish nibbled on the bait after taking a leisurely stroll through the water?
Fortunately the slow motion fish are gone and in their place are the proactive fish the patch notes promised.
For anyone that played before the patch the difference is night and day. For any new players playing now it will feel good right out of the box. This was the right change to make and the game feels better because of it.
Speaking of the game feeling better; the action of catching fish feels better. There still isn't any real skill to getting a fish to strike or to reel them in, but there is at least some semblance of a fight that matches the animations with reeling and the rod bending. It's not "entirely new game" difference but again for anyone playing before the patch and now they will notice a difference.
The other changes all seem to be in good shape. Reeling speed feels spot on, floating lures don't sink, and moving water/shorelines continue to look better. The only fix that I didn't see a change in is with my line snapping. My line snapped on my first couple fish in the spot where the line always snaps (which sucks because this spot is loaded with fish... the spot just requires some rock climbing to get to and fishing from rocks seems to be the trigger for snapping line).
Over all I am very happy with the patch and fishing in the game is at a tolerable level now. Still not much of a reason for me to fish since I am maxed out on gear, but I have confidence the team will add in some form of progression system soon.
And in true fisherman showing-off fashion here is my latest diamond catch:
Think the fish are still too slow? Leave a comment.
First off there are four banger of release notes right off the bat:
Floating lures not sinking is a good fix; hopefully we no longer have the rock-that-sinks-immeidately-to-the-bottom experience.
Reeling speeds being faster is huge. It ... was ... so ... slow. Now my guess since it says animations it won't speed up the actual retrieval which will still be a problem -- it should not take over a minute to reel in 90 feet of line.
Fish being more proactive hopefully means they are faster and strike faster. Fish in this game are another ... so ... slow. Looking forward to seeing this in action, but suspect there is still a long ways to go to replicate that real life fishing feeling of a fast moving pike slamming your lure out of nowhere.
Lines no longer snapping so easily is a welcome change; assuming it fixes some of the areas where if you fish from an obstacle near the shore it was 100% line breaking everytime you tried to bring a fish in regardless of line strength or fish size. I tested a specific spot near a waterfall where with the highest strength line/reel/rod and catching anything (bass, pike, perch) was 100% line break; assuming because of some issue with object collision that was not visually obvious to me as a player.
Moving further into the notes the are more fixes to water; water being key to a good fishing game (duh!).
And 3rd times a charm for this fix (hopefully!).
That is it as far as patch notes of import, but the developers also left a message at the end talking about whats next for the game.
Now that Patch 1.05 is out, we’ll batten down the hatches for a bit and focus on our first major update since launch. It’ll bring more of the player-requested improvements you’ve come to expect from us, but also add new features that should satisfy those who like a challenge.
We’ll share more about this upcoming update as we get closer to release, currently scheduled for the end of October/early November.
This was interesting to read; especially with the date noted for end of this month. My current feeling on the game is that its a paid alpha. It is very feature incomplete and the fishing experience is basic. The open world is fun but much of that open world has no relation to fishing and thus makes no sense. My wish list at this point for the first major update:
The fishing experience needs to see significant improvement with this update and there needs to be more reasons to come back and fish (i.e. progression system). More fish species would be a good show of confidence for the community. If there is add-on content released that players have to buy this game will be run into the grave by the community.
What are your thoughts?
Hooray; multiplayer finally worked in Call of the Wild: The Angler for my oldest son and I to virtually fish together. Here are some screenshots from the adventure; including my gold trophy northern pike!
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| Taking a screenshot of another player's catch. |
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| My oldest son messing up my screenshot of my gold pike. |
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| Note: don't let 13 year olds drive. |
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| Watching the kid fish like the proud father I am. |
The first note worth mentioning is under UI.
The option to turn multiplayer off is now saved between game sessions.
Finally! It was irritating that this option was defaulted to on, but doubly irritating that it had to be turned off again every time you started the game.
Recommended gear for the optional tutorials now appears as intended in the Game Guide.
It is great that this is being fixed. If you knew how to turn off tracking and then turn it back on you could get the text to display, but that was not at all an obvious way to get this info to appear. This was probably the number one reason I saw people asking questions in discord or on Reddit.
Solved an issue that would prevent players from accessing the Quick Menu under specific circumstances.
Look forward to this fix. Nothing sucked worse than seeing a big ole' fatty of a fish and then not being able to use the quick menu to swap baits for it and by the time you got through the rest of the menus the fish was gone. I swear that is the only reason I don't have a diamond sauger catch...
Fixed a number of issues that would cause items to get stuck in the backpack or in storage.
For those of us with the starting rod stuck in our inventory; hooray!
Fishing under bridges is now possible.
Water under the bridge in my book.
Updated the spawn rate for gold and diamond fishes.
No additional details so not clear if this means we will catch more or less. My hope is less as you seem to catch gold and diamonds without much effort at all.
And lastly there is a single item in the section on Multiplayer fixes:
MULTIPLAYER
Changed the default number of players populating servers from 10 to 8 (maximum server capacity remains 12 players).
Dev Team’s Notes: Bringing a definitive solution to the multiplayer issues is no small task and requires more development time. It's one of our top priorities at the moment. In the meantime, this small tweak should make it easier for players to join their friends online.
I still am not sure this will do anything. I have literally clicked the Join Friend's Game button hundreds of times and never has it brought me to the same map as they are on regardless of if there is room on it or not. I really just want an option to host a private map and invite my only friend to fish with me.
Fixing multiplayer has to be the priority for this team. It is killing the community buzz on the game.
Are you playing Angler? If so what are your thoughts?
The multiplayer mode in CotW: The Angler allows up to twelve fishergamers to drive, boat, and fish together on a single map (known as a reserve in the game). Unfortunately the "join friend's game" does not seem to work as I have yet, after dozens of times trying, been able to join a friend's game. In fact most of the time the game doesn't even represent the online/offline status of friends correctly (usually saying they are offline when they are online playing). The "join game" option on the friends list does throw an error at the user though and then connects to an online map anyways.
More irritating than "join friend" not working is the mind boggling decision that random match making
online multiplayer would be defaulted to ON with no option to have friends-only or private sessions. To top it off the setting for turning mutliplayer off does not save properly so every time you launch the game you have to remember to go turn it OFF again. Fortunately there is no chat or way to communicate with other players in the game so right now there is no risk of getting spammed or told something that would make my mother blush.
Defaulting to ON may seem harmless, but it can mess with the new player experience. What I ran into in my first fishing trip is that I couldn't do the boat driving 101 or driving 101 because another player had spawned a boat or vehicle and it wouldn't allow me to spawn another from the same terminal. Also since we were all playing right at the launch of the game I have no doubt some of my early frustrations not being able to catch fish in the beginner spots for the tutorial was directly because a dozen other players fished the area out (which is a real possibility with how the game works in populating fish in the world).
Anyways; it is 2022 and there is no reason to be defaulting players to multiplayer match making with random strangers unless that is what they explicitly want to do. I do not understand why the system does not work exactly like Expansive World's other game theHunter Call of the Wild. In theHunter you have to actively turn your map into a multiplayer session and then you can control if its public or friends only. It is just baffling that the Angler went with random match making turned on and provides ZERO options for setting up a friends-only session.
Other improvements needed in multiplayer. Voice or chat communication is a must have if there is going to be random match making and public servers. Ideally we'd also get the "search for available games" browser available in theHunter so we can find games (especially important when new maps launch). There also needs to be away to share your catches with others nearby or over chat. How am I supposed to brag about that monster I just landed? I guess I'll just lie about the catches like I do in real life.
At least it is neat to see other players fishing.
The first item I was interested in was the open world aspect of the game. I've enjoyed my time exploring the world and finding different fishing spots. The driving and boats are a bit like driving a hammer in a swimming pool, but they are better than hoofing it out on foot. There is a good bit to do beyond fishing and for anyone looking to get a pot of money to start out with doing the "Golden Tour" quests around the map is a great way to get starting cash.
I mentioned a "proven track record" for the developer in my first post and I feel the game has launched in a good state. There are no major bugs and stability + performance has been good for me. Scanning the forums, discord, and Reddit there has not been an uproar of issue reports so I take that as a good sign.
Now, there is the other side of the track record, which is "is the game fun/challenging?". That is a little more of a "jury is still out" situation. There are some things that were done in theHunter Call of the Wild (Expansive Worlds last major game) that would be perfect fits for Angler, but for some reason were not part of the base game.
The first major gap is the lack of a skill/perk progression system. The only progression, and I hesitate to call it progression, is earning cash and buying heavier gear. Once you have that heavier gear you can catch anything with it which means you plateau pretty quickly. A skill/perk system that unlocks better rods/reels/fishing methods along with "knowledge" type skills would go a longs way to improving the game.
The second major gap, which dove tails with my comments about heavier gear being a plateau, is the lack of a "harvest check" equivalent system. For anyone that played theHunter the harvest check system served as a way to ensure you used the proper equipment when hunting different animals. You could not earn a diamond trophy rating by blowing away a turkey with an elephant gun. Oddly there is no such check in the Angler; if you catch a blue gill on 50lb braid and a heavy rod/reel and its a diamond ... it's a diamond rating. Since you can see the fish in the water this makes catching the diamonds trivial.
For comparison; after casually playing theHunter for close to a year I've yet to bag a diamond kill. I came close a couple times with diamond-eligible targets but missed my shots or in one sad case used the wrong caliber weapon. In the first hour of Angler I caught multiple diamond fish and to be honest they felt no different than any other fish.
I still have confidence in Expansive Worlds to improve this game but there are some head scratchers on design decisions for the game thus far.
I was also excited to give multiplayer a go, but its implementation is buggy and also in the "head scratchers" category of design choices. Multiplayer is on by default so you are always put into a multiplayer match unless you turn the setting off (which you have to do every session). Joining a friend is difficult because they are always getting set to a full map with everyone being defaulted to multiplayer. This system makes no sense and a game like this should NEVER default to multiplayer = on. I should be able to create lobbies that are public, private, or friends only. The developers have acknowledged the issues so I am hopeful for quick resolution to the issues.
Over all I am having fun with the game. It is a relax and chill style game. The fishing doesn't require a ton of skill, which I assume they will address longer term, but its enough fun for me to log on and catch some fish every day. With the lack of a progression system it's hard to see a long term investment so I'd weight that as a key priority for them. Anyone looking for an arcade like fishing experience with a side of open world exploration this a game worth giving a try. If you are looking for a full fledged fishing game then I'd hold off until they make some improvements.
What has me excited?
Open world fishing game. Instead of being plopped on a shoreline or in a boat somewhere the game will place the player in an open world full of not only places to fish but also other areas to explore and side quests to go on. While I am here for the fishing it is good to know there is a world to go along with it. Bonus: the map looks amazing and much larger than I anticipated; areas like an abandoned mining town look amazing to fish in and around!
Proven track record. The developer, Expansive Worlds, has a solid track record with theHunter: Call of the Wild. If Angler follows along the lines of theHunter then I expect a solid stream of content coming to the game. Yes, that means I expect to pay for additions but in today's market it is something to be expected. I never felt theHunter's model of add on content was predatory and I've been happy to pay for the content that interested me (and in some cases paying for convenience).
The fish exist in the world. Many fishing games don't have any actual fish in them; the fish *poof* into existence when they are caught. In Angler the fish spawn and are visible in the world allowing for players to target them and see them interact with lures and bait. This is powered by a complex spawning system that takes several factors into account on determining what fish is where. Once there you can see and target the fish (of course in deeper water you won't see the fish).
Multiplayer. Up to 12 fisherplayers can be in a single map. Assuming it works like theHunter it will be simple to host other players or join other players sessions. I look forward to playing with my oldest son.
What needs to improve?
Admittedly I haven't played the game so I am basing this off live streams and early access content creators, but there are a couple big items I am hoping will change early in the games life cycle.
Strike indicator. When a fish strikes your lure there is a large yellow "STRIKE" banner on the screen. This is fine for the tutorial and for those that want it, but I'd prefer the ability to turn it off. I want to key off rod, line, or other feedback from the game to know there is a strike.
Clunky cut scene when catching a fish. When a fish is caught, instead of the fisherman bending over or netting the fish, instead the game cuts to a scene of them holding the fish. I'd much prefer to see the fisherman get the fish out of the water and have a screen more like theHunter's harvest screen with details about the catch.
What should they add?
I can't leave the post without a small wish list of content I'd like to see them add. For anyone that has played theHunter you know that the community's feedback will be key to what gets added.
Fish finder... of course! There are already boats so this is a no-brainer to add. Also would like to see versions added that can be used from the shore.
Fishing kayaks. The hot trend in real life fishing are 'yaks (aka fishing kayaks). Fishing kayaks are the ultimate customizable fishing apparatus (way more so than bass boats in my opinion) so are a perfect opportunity to enhance the game and offer an array of customization for players to add and show off in multiplayer.
Tournaments. Not sure if this was already a thing or not, but if its not... I want to be able to host a tournament that is enforced by the game.
Tight lines; see everyone on the water tomorrow!
