Game impossible for new players?

[Muu]

So, I was watching someone play, that means I don't own the game myself. I'm posting based on the experience I saw --
They couldn't progress at all. The fish never respawn and they never move, so the yellow (mustard?) fish that spawns next to the player's start point, which seems to have a huge aggro range compared to what we then saw in a walkthrough, would eat any fish that come up. Without being able to acquire whole fish, it was impossible to progress past level 0.
There didn't seem to be anything to do in the game. You can't cast half-eaten fish in or around, all he could do is sell it every time, there didn't seem to be any other controls.

Once all the local fish had been fished up, the game save was hardlocked. There was no was to progress. I recall the player both trying keyboard controls and a controller.

What's up with this, any ideas?

[Mending Mithrix Main]

he kind of doesnt know how the game works
fish do respawn, but im not sure how or when
if you cast a caught fish, even a skeleton, back into the water, it becomes bait, and can catch the next size of fish.
there is an annoying fish called a 'grumper' (i think is its name) that does have an enormous aggro range, but catching a little fish and then turning it into bait makes it a nonissue to the point that its free money.

[Powringhowing]

Each fish has its own unique respawn time
Fish also have unique movement system (they use paths which are slightly complicated for me to explain here), the mustardfish DOES have a path but it isn't noticeable.
If this so called "person" is stuck on level 0 that is just a skill issue.

[ylylyl]

the game seems easy but you have to wait for fish to respawn but fish like Cave Shark you NEED TO WAIT MORE THAN A DAY

[Muu]

It doesn't matter how good or bad a player's skill is, hardlocking the game shouldn't be possible.

I'm inclined to believe it's due to bugs:
- Fish aggro range is increased (it's larger than in the videos I saw)
- You aren't able to cast fish skeletons back into the water
- The controller (as opposed to PC controls) lacks some functionalities?
like idk maybe the player was supposed to quit after realizing they can't do anything and then after real life days come back to the game and fish up some half-skeleton fishes and barely reach level 1, all I know is it was comical how unfair the game was to them with very little skill input even possible, nothing else they could've done, and they didn't play the game again after that. I can only assume it's a bug or oversight.

edit: forget the controller part, I assume the player wasn't using a controller because the game apparently doesn't have controller support, it was a month ago now I can't remember details like that

[Powringhowing]

This also could be just a classic form of "skill issue", the mustardfish (yellow fish) has a REALLY small aggro range, its like half the body of the Cat. So this player was most likely
- Reeling in way too late so his bait would go THROUGH the mustardfish thus getting instantly bit

The game isnt that hard. There's tons of tutorials and guides and even without them you get plenty of hints and tips on how to catch certain fish.

[Muu]

Well, that's blatantly wrong. The mustardfish's aggro range in this case was multiple cats wide. That must just be it then, the mustardfish was bugged on whatever version they played.

[Powringhowing]

Originally posted by Muu:

Well, that's blatantly wrong. The mustardfish's aggro range in this case was multiple cats wide. That must just be it then, the mustardfish was bugged on whatever version they played.

Who were you watching play? Was it a youtuber? I'd be interested in seeing this myself lol.

[Muu]

just a guy in real life, unrecorded, so it'll unfortunately be lost to time and the handful of people sitting on the couches / working at their desks

[Spoider]

I would like to say I had the same issue. The game does not indicate in any way that you are able to cast an eaten fish back into the water, so I was stuck at level 1 without any menu options of any kind.

Obviously, once you know that you can get bigger bait with the eaten fish, it's easy to move past that, but there is no way to get that information in-game.

The fish takes such an absurd time to respawn, and early-game, your cast range is so abysmal that you can very quickly empty out the fish from the entire area you are able to reach. I still do not know how long it takes for them to respawn, as I have not seen them do so

[Muu]

Aside from the aggro range issue it seems like it was impossible to cast an eaten fish back, so maybe there were actually multiple bugs at play here. god I wish I had a recording of this

[HungryMaks]

So you made me start a new save and try the game after several years (and I did the achievement for 100 quests after 2 minutes lol) and I didn't see any bugs. On the first fish I really thought mustardfish would eat it and that's the problem but it didn't care at all, then I lured small fish to the surface first and there was no way for the mustard to eat it. So this post just seems like a skill issue to me.

[Muu]

I can't believe I'm still getting notifications of people calling this a "skill issue"

I know I don't have video evidence but I can sure you with 99% certainty that the distance the mustardfish was aggroing was different to what I can see online, and that recasting eaten fish wasn't working.
This wasn't little timmy or my little nephew playing the game, this was a bunch of game developers playing the game on a big screen.

Now that I think about it being a 'big screen', I hope to god the problem wasn't that mustardfish aggro range depends on screen resolution, that would be hilarious.

[Baines]

Originally posted by Spoider:

The fish takes such an absurd time to respawn, and early-game, your cast range is so abysmal that you can very quickly empty out the fish from the entire area you are able to reach. I still do not know how long it takes for them to respawn, as I have not seen them do so

I quit around Level 4 for a similar issue. I'd caught all the nearby small fish learning to play the game and trying to get better equipment. There was another group near the edge of my casting range, but most casts to that area saw the nearby yellow fish stripping the hook instead.

The game is a pretty much a casual time waster, but I realized I was now stuck having to waste who knows how long before I'd actually be able to "play" again. While the game is moderately entertaining, it isn't engaging enough for me to sit through that extra time.

[Powringhowing]

Originally posted by Baines:

Originally posted by Spoider:

The fish takes such an absurd time to respawn, and early-game, your cast range is so abysmal that you can very quickly empty out the fish from the entire area you are able to reach. I still do not know how long it takes for them to respawn, as I have not seen them do so

I quit around Level 4 for a similar issue. I'd caught all the nearby small fish learning to play the game and trying to get better equipment. There was another group near the edge of my casting range, but most casts to that area saw the nearby yellow fish stripping the hook instead.

The game is a pretty much a casual time waster, but I realized I was now stuck having to waste who knows how long before I'd actually be able to "play" again. While the game is moderately entertaining, it isn't engaging enough for me to sit through that extra time.

starter fish dont take much time to respawn (max of like 5 mins)
if you think about it, every game is a "time waster" thats what games are supposed to do
they're supposed to fill that empty free time with something fun.
yes, there are some fish that take time to respawn
and there still are weird bugs with respawning, but usually if you just quit, go get some food or just play another game, and come back an hour or so later, they should respawn

[AAAAH]

use small bitten fish as bait bruh