Fish & Gift Shop – Test Update!

This week’s update features some changes to the network and save system, so for now it will only be available for people who opt in to try it. See instructions below.

We’ve also added a number of new trees, fish, and the gift shop, which allows you to exchange coins for medals (be warned, they are quite expensive!).

Details on the beta update

This update brings a new network protocol, using Steam to connect between peers, that should improve connectivity and reduce the number of connection issues (shouldn’t have an impact over connection quality and ping once the connection has been established).

We’ve done our best to make sure it works, but to be on the safe side, we want to do some public testing before completely replacing the older system.

We’ve also changed the format used for farm save data. This should help with some data corruptions people were experiencing. This should work fine and be compatible with farms saved in the previous format. Again to be on the safe side, some volunteer testing will be appreciated.

Some Q&A on these changes

• How do I opt in?
  To try this update, open the game’s properties on the Steam client, go to the Betas tab, and select the “beta” branch. The client will download the update. If the “beta” branch is not shown, please try restarting the Steam client.
• Will my data be safe?
  We’re rather sure it will. If you experience problems please let us know.
• If I opt in, can I go back later to the previous update?
  You can opt out of the beta, but any farm saved in the new format won’t be loaded by previous versions of the game (this has always been the case).
• If I opt in, will I be able to join people outside the beta?
  No, farms with a different version can’t be joined. They won’t appear on the farm list and will throw an error if you try to join via invites etc.
• When will the update become available to everyone?
  Once we have enough data and feedback to make sure it works as expected and no major bugs arise, we’ll make it available to everyone. Depending on how many people test it out and how many issues arise, it can be just a few days, or more.

New features

• Changed networking protocol to use Steam P2P. This should improve overall connectivity.
• Changed save format to a different one. This should help with some save data corruption.

New farm items

• Spinach
• DragonFruit
• Mango
• Papaya
• Avocado
• Angelfish
• Discus
• Blue Tang
• Gift shop

Improvements

• Improved performance of the Shop window when switching categories.

Bugfixes

• Fixed Recycle Farm not recycling all fences.