Hello!
I figured this was as good a place as any to post this, and get some other people's opinions and thoughts on what I consider to be a problem with Aetolia, which is fishing. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm a HUGE fan of fishing, it was part of what drew me to the game and what I love to do when I don't know what else /to/ do in the game. It's very relaxing, and it used to feel fun as I levelled up the skill and went through progressively harder holes. Day one of my character's existence, I got fishing and all of the fishing artis because I knew I'd spend a lot of my time with the skill and wanted to try and be the best I could be at it.
However, since then, I've come to realise that there are a few problems that would have soured past me's decision and likely would have stopped me from investing in fishing if I'd known of them at the time.
1) Your actual skill at fishing does not seem to go up. Apart from changing which fishing pole you have access to, a novice angler and a transcendent angler have the same chance to catch a fish in the same hole.
2) The fishing artefact rod is, as many pointed out, simply "not worth it", as it is only ever better than the Master Gulleye's rod at transcendent level (10-15% reduction on line tension when reeling). It does not give you a better chance to catch heavier fish, give you much better odds against them, or anything that one might expect an artefact to actually do.
3) At the time of writing this, I've been fishing for 45 minutes in a lake (FISHING LAGOONS) and I've managed to catch a grand total of 22 fish. That's not even one for every two minutes I've been at the activity. When you get lucky fishing feels great, and when you get unlucky it feels like a chore.
After a small amount of kvetching and discussion on discord, two suggestions were brought up that could potentially address points one and three, and I'll admit I'm not knowledgeable enough to address point two.
i.) Have your skill rank affect your ability to catch fish by bumping up the "floor" percent chances that go to fish. A master angler should know where best to throw their line, how best to lead, and when the best time is to reel - it doesn't make much sense that they're suffering the same fate of circumstance as someone who just picked up a rod for the first time.
ii.) buff artirod plskthx
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iii.) Introduce the SLACKEN ability that had been referenced in <a href="
https://forums.aetolia.com/discussion/2826/fishing-changes/p1">this thread from three years ago. This adds a bit more of a skill factor to fishing and rewards people who actively fish rather than automate or brute force it, by letting them actively participate in the minigame.
Maybe these suggestions aren't perfect, but I definitely think they could help be a step forward in the direction of making fishing feel fun and rewarding again (and not make me dread this milestone of catching 707 fish). I would love to hear your thoughts as well!
Comments
When grouped and fishing, fish are to respawn at a faster rate (after a delay, of course, so you can't just all sit there and AFK, and will actually have to move around). This means that the fishing hole will respawn at a much faster rater after a while so you don't cause overfishing for other people, and you enjoy bonuses to catching fish in a group, e.g. higher rate of getting good fish, or easier to catch fish, or both.
To draw a parallel, it used to be that bashing was a solo activity because you didn't share XP. And it disincentivised people from bashing together. But this was changed with web, to encourage bashing as a communal activity. So I'd like to see the same happen to fishing. This is a multiplayer and social game, after all.