Activision made a big deal about the next generation fish AI under the hood of Call of Duty: Ghosts but, frankly, next to Dovetail Games Fishing looks Crappie. Cod’s fish didn’t migrate based on local food sources, the lakes temperature, or oxygen level.
Yup, Dovetail Games Fishing’s AI is pretty Brill.
I’m not going to be Koi about this, I know Jack about fishing. Saying anything else would be total bull… trout. But, luckily Dovetail have provided a massively informative blog post about their updates to Dovetail Games Fishing.
The main change in phase 2 is that they’re introducing “a Global Fish AI solution to the lake.” This gives all the fish an “underlying behaviour system for our general population of fish in the lake” and more specifically “determines how the carp move around their habitat.”
The carp now look for where they can find food based on the plants around the lake and which parts of the lake will have the most oxygenated water (something which can change based on time of day and the weather), The system takes into account the most basic needs for carp.
Local fish AI’s been improved, too. “Whenever the player does something within the sphere of influence of the Global Fish AI such as casting their line out we then use Local Fish AI to create individual fish personalities,” Dovetail write. Each carp will “react differently after they’ve taken your bait depending on their size and will have differing amounts of stamina.”
What all this AI means is that the devs can start working on showing where fish are in the lake. There’ll be more than just bubbles breaking on the surface. Mud will plume up from the lake floor and splashes as the carp break the surface.
Dovetail’s cast in first-person mode for good measure.
Surely these changes drum up your interest enough to take a dab at Dovetail Games Fishing
Discus these changes in the comments below.
PCGamesN – the plaice for fish puns.