We’re happy to announce The Fast Travel Update for Critter Cove, available now.
Ok, it may not be the most clever update now we've come up with, but it is a big deal for the mid and late game!
This one brings a whole new way to get around the islands, five new Critters, better performance and new graphics settings, faster loading, and a long list of bug fixes focused on the town and qol tweaks.
Before we get into that, we'd also like to let everyone know that we'll be launching into 1.0 sometime in January, and should hopefully have an exact date soon. We'll be adding lots of new content as well as a huge amount of polish to the game for launch, including a brand new personality type that increases the dialogue in the game by 20%
Fast Travel by Dock Bell
Docks are now waiting to be repaired at Hot Tropic, Shallow Sands, Five Little Crabs, Boomerang Bay, Port Bella, Carn A Vale, Lonely Pools, Twisted Trails, Hotter Tropic and even the pirate hideout. Repair one with the required planks, find and replace the bell, and you and your boat (and your passengers) are ready for the speediest between-island travel ever!
Ring any bell to open the map and pick any dock you’ve fixed. Your home bell works too, follow the trail across the sea and you’ll arrive right beside the bell with your boat tied up alongside.
This also works with rescued critters! We think it's a great time saving addition to the game that isn't just clicking teleport on a map.
Graphics & Performance Updates
We had way too many graphics options going on, so we've kept the options but simplified the categories. The default settings are either low, medium or high.
Heads up: the graphics options changed a lot, that your graphics settings will reset once to the recommended level for your PC. This doesn't touch any of your other settings.
There’s also a new FSR Render option, which draws the island at a lower resolution and sharpens it back up. Great for slow machines.
We’ve continued our work on the shimmer that’s been reported in the forums. Let us know how it looks for you, as this can be tricky to replicate!
5 New Critters & Mush Farmer Outfit
Please welcome Bessie, Coral, Cynthia, Eclipse and Grumble!
And you can now fit right in at the Farmer’s Market with the Mushroom Farmers Outfit, modelled here next to the new fast travel bells…
The Bakery Now.... Bakes
No more customers interrupting the baker in an infinite loop. Customers now queue up at the counter, sit down and eat. Tourists pay once properly, and on busy days the overflow forms an orderly queue.
Load times have improved again, and we’ve also tracked down a whole bunch of little hitches, like when lots of villagers change clothes or the tourist boat docks and the game stutters. We've also improved pathing for tourists and residents, and fixed some bugs where either shops or tourists weren't functioning as they should.
Camera Changes
When a wall or rock gets in the way, the camera now slides in smoothly instead of jumping, and it no longer ends up on the wrong side of your Critter when you’re backed against a wall. The Motion Sickness Helper also makes chances to the boat movement that we think may be causing problems.
The camera changes are quite difficult to test without feedback, which is why we wanted to get them in now. So please let us know how you feel about them in the forums and Discord, and from that we will make further improvements or perhaps allow different options for different methods of movement.
And More...
Along with bugs, we're finding some space for small QoL features to make playing the game a little easier:
Shop icons grey out with a Sold Out badge once you’ve bought the last one
New outfits now stay on after a reload
Diving gear keeps its bonuses when you swap outfit loadouts
Lantern hats light the way from your hat slot
Boats steer more gently on a controller
A replacement treasure map now arrives by letter if you've lost it
You can check out the full patch notes here, and as always, we’d love to see you on Discord.
See you on the island!
