s&box

30 September 2026

Areas

30 changes in this update

Album

3D specimens - every species you have caught turns as its own model in the fish album, lit in a small studio of its own. Species you haven't caught stay a dark "?"
Turning the model - W and S step through the album and the list follows; A and D turn the model

Sitting room

Television - the television watches every bath you have paid for through closed-circuit cameras and finds the one where the water has started to move
The room's pool - a cast in the sitting room fishes whichever bath is on the television, moving water included, and the first bath's when there is no signal
Specimen tank - keeps a few of the rarest species you have recorded, and opens the album
Sofa - rest there for eight steadier casts

Fishing

Moving water - now and then one bath's water starts to move, with quicker bites and stranger fish

People

Passing remarks - people speak as you pass and when you leave
Commissions in person - a commission is settled with the person who asked for it

Baths

Modelled furniture - a clock, the counter's scale, a television, benches, lockers, changing stalls, the counter and its ledger

Fishing

Casting - the rod turns from the elbow, so casting and striking swing your forearm with it
Reeling - the other hand pinches the crank knob, and the crank turns on an axle out of the reel
Sleeves - both arms wear jacket sleeves

People

Painted people - the attendant, the lifeguard, the waiting woman, the laundress and the porter are posed, painted figures with real eyes instead of the old blob people
Conversations - people greet you according to how far you have come, questions open up as you hear them and are remembered, and replies are typed out in a voice of their own. The camera turns to whoever is speaking
Bait and tackle - E at the attendant's counter opens bait & tackle straight away, headed by one remark from him

Baths

Signs - painted enamel signs mounted flush on the walls replace the floating text
Human scale - your eye is higher, level with the people, and doors, furniture and fittings are a consistent size in every bath

Lighting

PS2 lighting - light is baked into the baths from their actual lamps, with shadows, darker corners, light bounced off the floor and the glow of the pools. Anything that moves is lit by the same lamps, and fog gathers with distance
Lamps - the strip lights glow softly

Water

Water - clearer water over a lit pool floor, with low-resolution reflections, moving caustics, and fish swimming below the surface with their shadows on the floor
Float - a turned pencil float that rides in the water
Catches - a catch hangs from the line under the raised rod

Multiplayer

Other anglers - appear as painted figures holding their rods, with the same float as yours

Interface

Fishing

Fishing hand - the hand now closes around the rod, instead of an open, relaxed hand held clear of it
Fins - dorsal and anal fins no longer lose their trailing edge

Baths

Flickering - surfaces that flickered where they overlapped, at the pool corners, along the corridor ceilings and on the lane marks, no longer do
Floating fittings - lamps, showers, gauges, boards, pipes and windows sit on their walls and ceilings instead of floating off them
Drain grates - the shimmering rows of tiny black boxes along the pool edges are proper drain grates

New lighting, painted people, conversations and a 3D fish album