Fishing Ideas

Since Fishing is showing up in the game in R22 I think it would be good to rehash these ideas I had a while back so that our in game fishing is deep and fun!

I do not want fishing to just be click and cast and click to reel in your catch. I want to see a more complex and exciting fishing system. I have been doing fishing in games since Ultima Online and have some ideas based on past experiences and new ideas I have been thinking about.

A system where different types of fish had different ways to be caught was one fun system that I played. (Vanguard). It worked like this: Trout for example. You would cast, get a trout on your line (It would recognize the fish and label it) and you have to figure out how to 'fight' with it using the arrow keys. Up, Right, Left, Down. If you figured out the combo then the fish took damage. If not the fish could figure out your combo, and work at getting away. If you did enough damage, the fish was caught. You would have to learn the combo for each fish type. Now, that's an easy enough one to 'wiki' the movement of each fish (or make note as you discover it), or our game could create random combo movements, making each fish unique and hence not obvious. This could be tedious...and I would guess higher fishing skill could alleviate some of the annoyance of losing fish after fish . Perhaps you could even specialize in certain fish.

Another system that I considered great fun was one in which you started out with very few skills. At first all you could do was cast the line and reel it in. Once you gained skill in fishing, you would develop new abilities. There was an ability in one game that allowed you to catch a fish, and then use that fish on your line to try and catch a bigger fish. (called mooching) I would hope you could eventually develop the ability to do spearfishing, net fishing, lure fishing, fly fishing, worm fishing, ice fishing (YIPEE)

That brings me to another detail in fishing which could effect other skills of our character. Creation of bait thru cooking. Also, lures, flies, and nets could be crafted in one of the current skillsets. Traps for crabs and other forms of water creatures would also be a nice craft able item. I remember creating many pieces of bait from small minnows that I could catch at first, enabling me to catch better fish for cooking recipes and for better bait recipes. Also, worm catching could be a part of Gardening/Agriculture in that, when picking your veggies or regents out of the garden, you catch a pile of worms. Perhaps worms could also be obtained on public gardening spots, or just a creature that you could pick up at random times during your travels. The worms would probably have a limited life span (If we wanted to see more realism) which could be increased with the crafting of bait boxes, or some kind of place to store the worms.

A great idea suggested by Avatar Acid: Putting out a lantern or some kind of heat source could also attract fish to your line...perhaps other forms of luring could be enabled.

Also fish schools could be in some waters, and deep waters would hold bigger fish and bigger dangers. The possibility of catching a shark that would quickly endanger your life would make for a more exciting fishing experience...but perhaps that could be on a deep sea adventure and you'd kind of be prepared for that type of situation.

Also, treasure chests, small boxes, rusty junk should all be possible to catch on your line. Perhaps even some rare materials and items could find it's way on your line...

Fishing contests and quests are also a fun way to work fishing! A fun way to earn great fishing related rewards as well.

An Outline Format on the skills for fishing (Thanks Avatar Acid)

1. Fishing Style Skills
A. Fly Fishing
B. Ice Fishing
C. Lure Fishing
D. Net Fishing
E. Worm Fishing
F. Trap Setting
G. Spear Fishing
H. Mooching
2. Fishing Technique Skills
A. Casting
B. Reeling
C. Trapping
D. Luring
3. Bait
A. Minnow Ball (cooking skill)
B. Trout Ball (cooking skill)
C. Cheesy Ball (cooking skill)
D. Worm Ball (cooking skill)
E. Lures (carpentry skill?)
F. Nets (tailoring skill)
G. Fishing Spear (blacksmithing skill)


I could go on and on and on but I will leave it here for discussion/comments.

Thanks so much for reading!

 

If even half of this was put in for episode 1, I'd be happy. The trophy fish are pretty cool to, especially if they scale in display size or require some threshold in size for creation.

Also an in game database accessible from fishing shops showing daily, weekly, and monthly leaderboards that require a fisher to log in thier catch for prizes would be cool.

 

+1 everything they said

 

Nice thread and perfect timeing to bring it back. Fishing is so exciting, finally it is coming. Remember it is the first iteration and will be added to later, so now is the time for feedback, so keep it coming as we fish. The Darkstarr post did not say delayed so it is here. *jumps up and down and cheers*. So many fun details to fishing that are possible for the future.

*Of course so much as cooking recipes for bait, some very cool ideas mentioned in the OP, a bit gross to think about but worm balls and cheese balls to place on our lines if they would stay on the line with a special hook, so special hooks would also be cook with different chances to catch the fish, so use base wouldn't determine everything that would be boring, oh so boring, so don't forget the details of everything we do is what is going to make it fun, not the timer bars showing, how boring could we get.

*That's why getting ore is so dang boring right now, **** long timer bars without any interest will kill any kind of harvesting in our use based system******** *****THERE HAS TO BE MORE THAN LONG TIMER BARS, DON'T FORGET THE DETAILS TO MAKE IT FUN***. Sorry for yelling I am just trying to protect us from this.

*Richard G. did say that worms would come out either during a rain or right after, not sure, but it would be cool if the worms were only out for a short time so a hustle to get, like it's raining gotta go worm hunting.

*Also it would be really cool if while harvesting our crops in our gardens if we occasionally got an insect like a grasshopper, a snail, a slug, a beetle etc that could be used as bait.

*Perrhaps when picking fruit such as apples a chance to get a fly for bait, perhaps we get stung by a bee and the character reacts with an out and maybe some brief tears (*cries*).

* It would be cool if different fish had interesting reactions when being caught, like the catfish in real life is so strange it makes weird sounds, I always hated catching one, not that I'm a big fisherman in real life, but I've fished a few time many years ago and I'm too squirmish with the gore of it, (girly stuff in real life for example; like I don't like to touch the slimy wiggly worms, the fishy smell, or killing something bothers me, I'd rather not see my food alive type of thing, yeah girly stuff, yikes)

*Also details to fishing as mentioned weight of fish is interesting, type of fish is interesting also. To embelish on this see ideas below:
**Some fish you catch will have eggs to harvest on them. Caviar anyone or bait
**Some fish may have swallowed something worth while like a ring or gem that you discover when using the crafting table on them to filet the, or the knife, but the knife cannot produce a perfect filet if that is what you are looking for to cook, just a thought on that
**Some bigger fish may have swallowed bigger items like an arm, ear, boot, or other mysteries that you discover on the crafting table or perhaps on them, perhaps both but it can help in crafting to have interesting details eveolve like discoveries when butchering for example
**Also don't forget that if not fileting the fish that we can use our knife on them to clean the fish, and we may discover things that way also, but perhaps crafting table gives even more chance or not. That part is debatable of course and a whole subject of it's own for later when more details of fishing come in.
**Sometimes you don't catch a fish, but you catch the famous kraken, that may be only further out in the water though or sea monsters,a crab, or lobster, which if not that dangerous may snap at you and pinch you (ouch), perhaps when we can use our fishing boats, or rowboats, which nowmake the ideas for them are very interesting to think about.
**Sometimes you catch message in a bottles, treasure maps that you can do, but which also will have their own dangers and interest to them, also of cours we must occasionally fish up a treasure chest that has interesting items in them perhaps story based stuff or hints to one of our mysteries or quest lines.
**perhaps we wil have a chance fish up ivy or special ingredients to cure illnesses or plague
*** that's one reason I would like character verses the environment, if our character can't contract illness or curses and they cure them automatically with heals and purify(boring boring boring and perhaps situational of course in some ways) thenI feel we lose out on the chance to give some story interestand details to the curing of the ailments. My character wants to find solutions to problems and reflect that there is an illness present by staggering and feels ill or lightheaded.
** I want to solve mysteres, perhaps some fish are poisonous or sting like a stingray, or other interesting things

So fishing opens up all types of fun details for the game. Sorry for the wall of text but hopefully you can skim through with underlines and asterics to find some details of the long wall.

Please Devs going forward don't let boring timer bars be the highlight of fishing. Details are so important, but I trust you, but just sayin those timer bars may be necessary now but they have to be the most defeating, detering thing, that makes you just want to stop doing the thing, like getting ore with a timer and failing after a so long timer goes off. I just quit after a while, but understand that for now this maybe important and first iteration, we will give feedback to improve of course

 

@majoria70 Very awesome post! I don't even recognize all the games those pics are from, but I recognize others

Ah some very good points! I remember in Vanguard some of the fish would be puffy and have hidden notes for quests to do...That would be another awesome way to make fishing have more depth to it.

We can't forget the many types of different bait which could help us to catch various types of fish. Of course, this information would have to be discovered just as our crafting system for the best bait for the right fish is vital information for the adept fisherman. I am very much looking forward to these things in the game.

I love the picture of the girl holding up a great catch...it would be awesome if we had that happen every once in a while when an award winning catch has taken place. The same with Trophy fish.

Fishing events and contests were a thing I really enjoyed in games of the past. The ability to win fishing gear was always a good reason to get out to the nearest body of water and drop a line! And speaking of dropping a line, perhaps there is more to fishing than just cast and wait...Like cast and reel fly fishing...

I hope we can get some great ideas for fishing in our game now that it's finally arriving!