In this months Developer Blog we will cover Fishing (a lot), Badges, Character Update.

💼 Jobs System
Fishing is here! Well almost... Just a few more days until fishing arrives in MegaPlanet at 00:00 UTC July 4th! So let’s explore what exactly is fishing in MegaPlanet, and how will it work?

Fishing will be recognised as a new job! This means you will now have a choice of how you will earn your daily 1,000 credits from jobs, and you can mix it up between the 2 options! Following Update 46, the jobs menu will show a progress bar for your daily job earnings, allowing you to rate rooms and fish until the earnings bar is full. Once your earnings bar is full you will be able to claim your job earnings at any time, or wait for it to be automatically deposited to your balance at 00:00 UTC.

Once you have filled your earnings bar, you can continue to rate rooms and fish for fun, but will not earn additional credits & XP.

ℹ️ How does fishing work?
To fish, you will need to purchase a fishing rod from the appearance store, you can find 6 different rods under “Hand Accessories”. Fishing rods are purely cosmetic so you can look cool whilst catching, they do not affect your fishing experience or probabilities.

Fishing can currently only take place at the Community Park. Follow the signs to the fishing zone, and have your fishing rod equipped to get started. You will see instructions at the top of your screen when fishing can be initiated.

🐟️ How many fish is there & do they have rarity?
There will be a minimum of 9 different types of fish available to catch at all times. Fish are separated by rarity (common, rare, legendary). The more rare a fish, the more credits and XP you will gain from catching it!

But don’t get too comfortable once you catch them all... Because Mythical will be swimming into MegaPlanet for special seasonal periods, with even higher rewards per fish.

🙋 Can we fish with our friends?
Yes! We made the decision to not show other players fishing line, as we felt this could become confusing if many lines were cast at once. However, when another player reels in a fish, you will see the specific fish being caught, so there will be no telling lies if you fail to catch any fish!

📛 Will there be fishing badges?
Yes! As part of Update 46, 8 new badges have been added to MegaPlanet, 3 of which are fishing related badges! With Update 46 you can find out what the badges are and how to achieve them in-game by going to Settings > Badges > All Badges.

📈 Can I see my fishing statistics?
Yes! With Update 46, we have added 4 fishing statistics to your statistics page to show how many of each fish rarity you have caught. To see this, go to Settings > Statistics > Activity Stats.

🎣 Will fishing ever include animations?
Yes! Right now fishing is a lot of fun, but we think we can bring more immersion to it following the much anticipated Character Update. We will aim to add in much smoother visuals & animations in the near future.

❓️ What else is in Update 46?
Update 46 also contains some bug fixes as well as general stability and QOL improvements. As always, the update notes will be made available on the MegaPlanet forum at the time of the update.

🗓️ What’s next?
Next our focus turns back to the Character Update! Our artists are coming over the final hurdle of recreating assets, which means we can begin implementation of the new system. Finally switching out our sprite sheet characters for a smooth, flexible animation rig. This is a very intrusive piece of work and will take a little time whilst we aim to not disrupt any existing parts of the game, and ensure a seamless transition from old system to new system for players. The perfect scenario is following a game update, you will log back in and see your same characters looking a little cleaner, a little more polished, and moving a little smoother, and maybe even wearing their dancing shoes if time is on our side!

Sitting wont come immediately with the Character update, as we need to do some work art side to make sitting look & operate correctly in a 2D projected world. But sitting will be our top priority following the Character Update.