Sponge's Fisherman's Tally

Fish that actually vary in size, a record of your best catches, and a bench that sells rod upgrades.

What it does

Fish that vary

The game already gives every fish a weight and already pays you more for a heavy one. The catch is that the range is narrow, so nearly everything lands near average and a genuinely enormous fish never turns up.

This widens the range. A monster becomes possible, and a runt becomes possible too. Because value already follows weight, a record fish is worth real money without changing a single price.

Every player sees the same fish at the same weight. The game decides weight from a seed rather than a dice roll, and this widens that calculation rather than replacing it — so it stays identical on every machine, with nothing extra sent over the network.

Fish that look their size

The game tracks weight but draws every fish identically, so a record catch is just a number. This draws a heavy fish larger.

Size follows the cube root of weight, because weight is a volume and length is its cube root. Scaling length by weight directly would make a big fish look absurd and push it through whatever it is lying on.

Bigger fish are tougher — optional

Off by default. Turn it on and weight affects health as well as value, so a record fish is a fight rather than a lucky catch. At the default strength, a fish twice the average weight has about 1.5x the health.

Your record book

Every species you have landed, heaviest first, with the weight, what it was worth, how many you have caught, and when you set the record. Your single heaviest catch is highlighted, and a banner appears when you beat one of your own records.

The book is yours alone and stays on your machine, stored as plain JSON next to your saves, so it survives reinstalling and you can read it yourself.

Everyone's board

One row per player, showing the biggest thing each of them has landed in this world. The host keeps it, so it survives the session and everyone sees the same thing. A player joining halfway through is sent the current board straight away.

One honest note. The catch is noticed on the machine of whoever lands it, because that is the only place it happens — so the board takes each player's word for their own fish. The host bounds what it will believe, clamping a reported weight to what this world could actually produce, so nobody can post an unbeatable number. It is not proof against a determined cheat and is not meant to be. Your own book is unaffected either way.

The rod bench

Set a bench down in front of you, walk up, and use it to buy:

• Luck — flattens the odds toward rarer fish. It does not favour any particular fish, and nothing becomes impossible; the gap between common and rare narrows.
• Sale value — pays a percentage more for everything you sell.

There is one bench per world and everyone shares it, along with the tiers bought on it. That follows the game's own money, which is a single pot everybody draws from. The host does the buying, so a client cannot grant itself an upgrade. Costs rise with each tier.

The bench is a plain slab on four legs. A mod cannot add new art to a game, so rather than a bad imitation of the game's furniture it is honestly a box.

When you want it

You want fishing to have a progression and a story — a personal best worth chasing, something to spend money on, and the chance of landing something absurd.

Keys

In the book: ← → switch to everyone's board, ↑ ↓ scroll, Esc closes. At the bench: ↑ ↓ choose, Enter buys, Esc closes. Both keys are rebindable in the config, and both actions are also buttons on this mod's two tabs in Sponge's Mod Menu, which opens on F5.

Settings

Multiplayer

Size is decided by the game's own seeded calculation, so hosts and guests agree without this mod sending anything. Whoever hosts decides the size range, the board and the bench, since the host runs the world.

Everyone needs it for the board and the bench, since both rely on messages this mod sends. Fish sizes are applied by the host, so a guest without it still sees correctly-weighted fish — they just will not see them drawn at the right size.

Requires

Sponge's Core, Sponge's UI Library and Sponge's Mod Menu. Your mod manager installs them for you.

License

See LICENSE in the package.