In this update12
Full notes
Full The Honest Little Fisher update
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What changed
- UI and audio
- Performance
- Store
- Gameplay
- Balance
The Honest Little Fisher changes
Patch Notes v1.2.0
New Features
3 New Trade Islands
Ironreef Shipyard -- Industrial shipyard run by Rook. Specializes in heavy metals, tools, and machinery
Saltwind Harbor -- Bustling trade port run by Elias Kestrel. Deals in luxury goods, fine cloth, and navigation supplies
Sun Coral Island -- Tropical paradise run by Mina Lani. Trades handmade crafts and natural goods. Features a unique underwater coral layer visible beneath the waves
Each island has its own trade office, shopkeeper with portrait and greetings, fish spawn regions, and quest chain
Multi-layer island rendering with hover glow on buildings
[dynamiclink href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/4274170/The_Honest_Little_Fisher/"]
Home Trade Hub
New island near the starting area run by Otto, the Trade Office Manager
Entry point into the trading system
Exports general provisions and maritime goods
Trading System
Buy-low-sell-high mechanic across 4 islands
40 trade goods in 6 categories: provisions, industrial, natural, cultural, luxury, maritime
Fixed export/import price multipliers per island create profit margins up to 94%
3-tier reputation system per island: Newcomer, Trusted, Esteemed
Higher reputation unlocks rarer, more valuable goods
Cargo hold separate from fish catch, capacity tied to active boat size
Trade rumors in the Buy tab suggest profitable routes
Trade Office panel with 4 tabs: Buy, Sell, Fish Market, Supermarket
Fish Market and Supermarket tabs available at the 3 remote islands
Panel auto-closes when sailing away from trade islands
Captain Hire System
10 hireable captains with autonomous fishing behavior
Each captain has a real boat with 16-directional sprites, collision, and orbiting seagulls
5 stats per captain: Speed, Catch Bonus, Capacity, Value Bonus, Rare Chance
Assign captains to islands (max 4, one per island)
5-state fishing cycle: Idle, Sail to swarm, Fish, Sail to dock, Sell
Salary deducted every 5 real minutes (1 game hour)
Captains pause automatically when the player runs out of money
Offline earnings calculated on game load (capped at 1 hour)
3 conversation types: hire greeting, ambient (every 15-25 min), proximity (within 500 units)
19 unique personality lines per captain in 3 languages
Full-screen hire panel with stat bars, island assignment slots, and captain bios
Sale notifications batched every 10 seconds to avoid spam
38 New Quests
Ironreef Forge (Quests 38-45, 8 quests) -- Industrial fishing contracts from Rook
Saltwind Trades (Quests 46-60, 15 quests) -- Trade-themed quests from Elias, including treasure salvage and a legendary final catch
Coral Crafts (Quests 61-75, 15 quests) -- Tropical reef ecology quests from Mina
Quest chains connect narratively: each shopkeeper mentions the next island on completion
Mix of fish catch and treasure salvage objectives
Improvements
Visual
Improved cloud rendering and visual quality
Enhanced shadow compositing
Island layer system with underwater support and building hover glow
UI
General panel cleanup and polish
Improved quest item display in Fish Market
Compass legend entries for all 3 remote trade islands
Location banner shows Trade Office button at remote islands
Trade Office auto-closes when sailing away
Tutorial
Extended tutorial with additional guided steps for new players
Performance
Distance-based early-out for collision checks (skips distant islands and reefs)
Scratch vector reuse in captain collision loops
Cached captain boat data updated once per frame
Counter-based wake renderer sync
Cached gradient objects for tutorial arrow
Bug Fixes
Various stability improvements
Minor visual fixes
[dynamiclink href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/4274170/The_Honest_Little_Fisher/"]
Source
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