I'm planning an update to both the game and the OCK that would give creators more control over how the fish will feed. One thing I'm considering would be:
In stead of having an set of feeding values for each food in the fish.def file that override the ones in hatches.def, the values in fish.def would have a relative effect on the hatches.def values, including applying to specific hatches. For example:
Say hatches.def includes a hatch of brown caddis, with the feeding level set to 90%. Suppose the default value for caddis adults is 40%. Now suppose you have brook trout and brown trout, and only the brown trout have a feeding value in the fish.def file, and it's set to 50%.
As it is today this means:
A brook trout is at least 40% interested in any fly that imitates a caddis fly. If a fly closely resembles the brown caddis that are hatching the brook trout could be up to 90% interested in that fly. A brown trout would be 50% interested in flies that imitate adult caddis flies, regardless of whether or not they resemble the ones that are hatching.
With this change in place in would mean:
The brook trout behavior is the same as before because there's no caddis fly feeding value in the fish.def file. The brown trout would be 20% (50% of 40%) interested in flies that imitate adult caddis flies, and up to 45% (50% of 90%) interested in ones that resemble the caddis flies that are hatching.
Does that make sense? That would allow specific groups of fish to still be interested in specific hatches, but to varying degrees.
Also, how about an optional favorite color and size for each food type in both the hatches.def and fish.def file? When a fish is considering a fly based on how it matches a particular hatch, it would still compare the color of the artificial to that of the real ones that are hatching. But when a fish considers a fly based on their default level of interest in that food type, it would then compare it to its favorite color for that food. Same goes for size.
Example:
You could set the favorite color of beetles to black, the favorite size to 1 inch, and the default interest to 50%. Even if there are no beetles actually hatching, a fish would only be 50% interested in an artificial fly that resembles a beetle if it's black and around 1 inch in size. The more difference in size and color, the less interested the fish would be. Thus flies that imitate fish eggs would be most effective if they're the right shade of orangish-pink. You could make "miscellaneous swimmers" (attractor wet flies, like traditional salmonflies) most effective when they're light blue, etc. Favorite colors would be expressed in hex values, just like custom rod and line colors.
What do you think? Is that overly complicated to understand and apply? Or would that give you the kind of control of the fish behavior that you wish you had?
Paul
