Suggestions and Complaints about Fishing : A heartfelt plea

So before I begin, I want to start and say I love FFXIV, the development team and all their hard work and appreciate the endless hours of fun the game has given me. I have played since ARR and have 12-15k hours across more than one platform.
What I am gonna highlight here are a few complaints and suggestions about a specific part of the game, fishing, which in my opinion, and probably the opinions of many people, is a very undesireable and frustrating part of the game. I enjoy fishing to relax and take a break from the more hectic parts of the game, but there are many aspects of fishing that I believe can be improved to make it better. I will highlight some I have compiled with the feedback of other players, some who also enjoy fishing and some who dont.

1. Bait Box
There is a lot of bait in the game, and having a small seperate inventory in order to put bait away would be greatly appreciated, as someone who farms time limited fish a lot, having 1/4 of my inventory only bait is very annoying. Even if the bait box was a limited size, only 10-20 slots, it would still be better than none at all.

2. Fish Desynth
In ARR, some fish could be desynthed with a chance to get rare items, such as minions or swim suits. Now all fish give are fine sand and sometimes the currencies to be traded for gil. It would be nice if there was a percentage chance to get some bait back from desynthesis as well, as some bait is expensive or from scrips.

3. Salvage
Salvage is a spearfishing skill that allows the acquisition of maps. This would be better to be an activatable buff that works for both fishing and spearfishing, as I hate when trying to gather specific fish that need snagging, I take the risk of fishing up a low level map that I don't need, that overwrite the daily gatherable map.

4. Fishing Log Map
The circle that indicates the fishing hole locations is not very colour blind friendly, I have spoken with friends with different colour blindness, and they agree that on some maps, the visibility isn't great to see where the limits of the circles are. Having a more solid border to the circles would make visibility better. Also maybe some fishing locations need more accurate locations, such as Anyx Old in Dravanian Forelands, there is nothing indicating you need to be below were Anyx actually is.

5. Fish Sell Prices
Rare fish that need specific times and weathers etc, that take potentially hours to catch, that then sell for 100 gil, feels like between either desynthing for fine sand or selling for 100 gil, you are almost punished for putting in the time and effort and gil/scrips for bait.

Continued in Replies

6. Aquariums
More a side note than anything, Aquarium fish are very limited, but the fish just kind of... hover there. Having them swim around even in a looped fashion would be better, and just downsize the big fish so they dont look so sad hovering there unable to move.

So this section is going to be more of a BIG update suggestion for certain parts of fishing and are just suggestions, not demands. I don't pretend to know better than a game developer.

7. Fish Use / Fish Trade-in (this one might be long)
More uses for fish! There is a very small fraction of fish that are used for crafts, the rest are just for getting the tick in the log and being sold for next to nothing or desynth'd. Since desynthing currently has next to no use at all, not having level requirements for being able to desynth things and no unique rewards for desynthing, it is a very redundant system as far as fish are concerned. Like above giving a chance for bait return would be great.
But a suggestion, would be to maybe have tiers of fish more than just normal and green for rarer fish, for starters. Then have a tier of fish that are maybe blue, that are the rare, hard to get, timed fish, and have a limit to them, more could be added over time. Have a vendor you can trade these fish into, that turn them into wall-mounted housing items, or maybe some would be table top or floor items, depending on their shape, size and how they are oriented. This would give value to the items for resale on the market board and give people a way to show off these rare fish and their accomplishments. This coupled with my suggestions for Aquarium updates would make the possibility to make houses more diverse with fish related housing set ups.
Another suggestion, also linked into fish use would be to potentially have a fish trade in vendor, and have only green/blue tier fish be applicable hand-ins. You gain tokens that can be used to buy glamour items, hairstyles, minions, mounts etc, to make fishing a more desirable thing to farm, as currently fishing has nothing to gain from putting in time and effort.

8. Fishing Log
As someone who is actively tracking down and attempting to catch every fish in the game, Having any kind of reward to finishing the fishing log (maybe seperated by each expansion) would be HIGHLY desired.
In it's current state, there are over 1000 fish in the game, with 0 reward for gathering them. It is a HEAVY time sink and costs gil in the form of bait without a gain back. I have spent more hours than I would like to admit farming fish that are only up for 5 minutes every 12 hours, and when I finally get it, there is no reward other than to turn the fish into sand.
While it may be a big ask, having a reward for each expansion completion would be wonderful, I have had ideas like a bubble mount you run inside, a giant rainbow koi fish, a seahorse or for a really big reward, a 8 seater octopus mount, were each player is held in a different tentacle.
This would make more people willing to get into fishing as most dont bother because there is nothing to gain.

My final points, is something I have spoken to people about and most agree that while we think it wont be changed, it seems universal in dislike.

9. Fisher's Intuition
Fisher's Intuition is a horrible mechanic that is frustrating by design, and while we aren't necessarily asking for it to be removed, having the buff unable to drop off a currently hooked fish (much like patience/patience 2 will not drop off until the fish has been hooked) all we would ask is to have the buff drop off AFTER the current fishing attempt. This can also be extended to Fisher's Eye, that also drops off mid cast.

10. Fish Pulling Off The Hook
I get it, it is realistic that you aren't guarenteed to hook a fish. But when you have tried multiple times over multiple irl days/weeks/months, having the best stats in the game, penta melded with every buff you can to help... and a lvl 50 ARR fish still pulls off the hook for the 300th time, it's frustrating to say the least. Having maybe a stacking percentage to your ability to hook a fish (maybe like the fish is wearing down and getting tired) would be greatly appreciated. Also maybe a skill with a very long cooldown that reinforces your line to help with securing difficult fish? I don't know how would be the best way to deal with this, but when it feels like melding and stats have no effect on fishing and it is just purely RNG always, it really is offputting to do.

I am open to opinions and further suggestions! However please be kind, I am not looking for people to harass me because they don't agree or think I am asking to much, these are only suggestions and not demands.

I really hope SE read this and can maybe take some of this feedback, thank you for all your hard work and love for the community, it shows and is appreciated. Thank you.

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Originally Posted by Ryebunny

1. Bait Box

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The devs have explained several times why they won't do this. Basically, they don't want to limit inventory to just certain items. If they ever manage to add more inventory they'd rather let it be used to store anything, rather than just bait or crafting mats or whatever else people want special inventory for.

I want to say that with the Bait Box they have said (something along the lines of) if they were to add more inventory for just bait, they'd rather just give everyone that amount of normal inventory as it's a better use of storage.

Dig the idea of bait returning from desynth - it's something that happens with Ocean Fishing fish and it's quite fun.

Snagging is definitely weird and would love to either see it used more, or have its functionality changed.

There's a lot of fish that do sell for a lot, but expecting every single of the 1,383 fish in the game to have value is a bit of a tall ask. Most are useful, and the ones that aren't are just there to help with log slots and achievement hunting.

Small fish in BIG aquariums do move around. I'd add more biodiversity in what fish can go into aquariums would be great as well!

Going back to what I was saying before - there's a lot more fish that are used for something than you'd think. Beyond crafting and desynthing they are used in quests, aetherial reduction, and for trade-ins. There's very little fish that *aren't* used for something.

There's a BOAT load of achievements for fishing log completion. For 100%'ing up through each expansion you get a unique fishing rod, and for catching all the big fish in an expansion (roughly) there's a title. For just fishing a TON in certain zones, there's titles AND a rod. Loop in Ocean Fishing, and you get 4 minions, a mount, and a handful of titles.

For the Fisher's Intuition (and Fish Eyes) - the buff drops off, BUT the fish that bites could still be on the line. These buffs are checked at Cast, so if they fall off while you are waiting for the fish to bite, there still 'active' until you reel back in. INFACT - with Fisher's Intuition you even get a little 'glass breaking' or 'jingle' sound if the fish tied to the intuition buff is about to bite on the line - so you know you shouldn't reel in. The "You no longer sense something out of the ordinary" line doesn't appear either if the intuition fish is on the line.


The Fish getting away thing is - more specifically - tied mostly to big fish, optional and different content to just normal common tier fish - which are FAR, FAR, FAR less likely to get away. If a common tier fish is getting away from you often, the issue is more likely on you, your gear, or your skill usage, than on the fish.

A big/legendary fish getting away though - that's just hard coded and for most fish are there to give it personality and flavor to the (once again) optional side content. Don't disagree it's frustrating, but providing a pity mechanic would fundamentally change the essence and uniqueness of fishing.

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Originally Posted by Brightamethyst

The devs have explained several times why they won't do this. Basically, they don't want to limit inventory to just certain items. If they ever manage to add more inventory they'd rather let it be used to store anything, rather than just bait or crafting mats or whatever else people want special inventory for.

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Like I said, all the things in the post are suggestions, not demands. And with the announcement they are adding a seperate inventory for the Island Sanctuary items means they must have something in place to have a seperate inventory. ^^

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Originally Posted by Fruity_Snacks

I want to say that

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I mentioned this to another, but with the announcement that Island Sanctuary is getting it's own inventory, the bait box was just a suggestion since that may be something they could do now.

Most fish I have seen (from attempting to complete the fishing log) don't sell for a lot, even if they are incredibly rare, the highest I saw was around 300 gil, which doesn't even cover the bait I bought, but I don't necessarily want fish to give you thousands, more to give them more use, a refund for investment or like I said with a vendor to trade in for different tiers of fish, give more use out of them.

I know the small fish do move round, my comment was more towards more variety of fish but really towards the large fish just looking trapped in an aquarium too small for them would be nicer if they just sized them down but let them move around or have certain behaviours for different fish etc.

The actual fishing log completion doesn't have any achievements actually, getting the fishing rods is just for getting unique fish and isnt anything to do with catching all the fish in an expansion. I was specifically referring to completing the fishing log and ticking off all the locations for an expansion, kind of like how finishing the ARR sightseeing log (which also is a time investment) gave you the fledgling apkallu. My thoughts were following this train, with completions getting rewards specifically per expansions, rather than for overall unique fish numbers. There are a lot of titles in fishing, but my suggestions more revolve around the fact that fishing is quite undesireable, and the only reason for a lot of people, that ocean fishing did so well, was because people wanted the shark mount and minion.

The amount of times I have had fisher's intuition, the buff has dropped mid-cast and then I get the !!! of the fish I needed but it "gets away" because the buff isnt on has happened so many times that I never felt that the buff was still active, but if this is the case, then they can still add it not dropping off until the cast is complete so it isn't confusing, as every person I have spoken to about it was under the impression they dropped off mid-cast.

The fish getting away is meant to be frustrating because you always have a sense of RNG to it, but having a stacking percentage doesnt mean you will even get the fish, even if it was a 90% chance. I am going off my own thoughts, the thoughts of other people who also agree with me on this. I have still to catch the Matriarch which is a lvl 50 fish, isn't timed, always up but is a "rare" fish. I have had it pull off the line over 100 times and have yet to catch it, yet I am lvl 90 with good gear. How does me being 40 levels higher and many ilvl higher not give me some kind of advantage to catch a lvl 50 fish that has been in the game for years? Just seems weird that stats have no weight on this at all is all ^^

And everything I mentioned was a suggestion, I understand that the last two things I mentioned are much less likely to be changed, but I mentioned them anyway because with the majority of people I have spoken to for feedback before I wrote this post, they were the highest on the list of complaints.

Thank you for your feedback ^^

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Originally Posted by Ryebunny

Most fish I have seen (from attempting to complete the fishing log) don't sell for a lot, even if they are incredibly rare, the highest I saw was around 300 gil, which doesn't even cover the bait I bought, but I don't necessarily want fish to give you thousands, more to give them more use, a refund for investment or like I said with a vendor to trade in for different tiers of fish, give more use out of them.

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Personal opinion, but I suspect fishing is designed to simply be a relaxing past-time. A relaxing, if sometimes frustrating, and occasionally rewarding, way to pass the time. Fishing is its own reward, not so much a means to an end. And, as someone that actually knows fish, I kinda simply enjoy seeing how much they try to stick with realism in the variety. Sure, there's still some fantastical fish. But a surprising number of them do actually exist. And, well... much like in the game, not every fish is highly desirable or worth very much.

Fortunately, unlike real life, that's when you go track down some big fish, and pray to the RNGods that they desynth into some valuable swimwear.

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Originally Posted by Hasrat

Personal opinion, but I suspect fishing is designed to simply be a relaxing past-time. A relaxing, if sometimes frustrating, and occasionally rewarding, way to pass the time. Fishing is its own reward, not so much a means to an end. And, as someone that actually knows fish, I kinda simply enjoy seeing how much they try to stick with realism in the variety. Sure, there's still some fantastical fish. But a surprising number of them do actually exist. And, well... much like in the game, not every fish is highly desirable or worth very much.

Fortunately, unlike real life, that's when you go track down some big fish, and pray to the RNGods that they desynth into some valuable swimwear.

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Oh definitely, like I said, I wouldn't expect them to make fish worth thousands. My idea was to have rarer fish be tradeable for tokens to go towards rewards, in order to encourage people to track down these hard to get fish. Or not even trade them, have a log of having gotten the fish in your fishing log gives you x amount of tokens, like how achievement points work with Jonas. Is just a suggestion in order to make this level of fishing more appealing to people who otherwise wouldnt bother, but I do agree that fishing is meant to be a more chill part of the game, but in comparison with other gathering classes, it definitely feels a bit lacking in usefulness and reward as apposed to miner or botany that are essential for most crafting.
But thank you for your feedback ^^

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Originally Posted by Ryebunny

I have still to catch the Matriarch which is a lvl 50 fish, isn't timed, always up but is a "rare" fish. I have had it pull off the line over 100 times and have yet to catch it, yet I am lvl 90 with good gear. How does me being 40 levels higher and many ilvl higher not give me some kind of advantage to catch a lvl 50 fish that has been in the game for years? Just seems weird that stats have no weight on this at all is all

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That one is quite interesting. When I finally got it and looked at the description text in the fishing log I had to smile. So if you could just outgear it, that text wouldn't make much sense anymore.

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Originally Posted by Ryebunny

The fish getting away is meant to be frustrating because you always have a sense of RNG to it, but having a stacking percentage doesnt mean you will even get the fish, even if it was a 90% chance. I am going off my own thoughts, the thoughts of other people who also agree with me on this. I have still to catch the Matriarch which is a lvl 50 fish, isn't timed, always up but is a "rare" fish. I have had it pull off the line over 100 times and have yet to catch it, yet I am lvl 90 with good gear. How does me being 40 levels higher and many ilvl higher not give me some kind of advantage to catch a lvl 50 fish that has been in the game for years? Just seems weird that stats have no weight on this at all is all ^^

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All this is fair, just providing answers since for those in the fishing community not a lot of this is new suggestions and has been addressed elsewhere.

BUT THAT SAID - are you using Precision Hookset on Matriarch, or Powerful? This isn't SUPER well conveyed in game, but some big fish require precision hookset even though they are !!! bites. 100 times escaped isn't unheard of, but is VERY MUCH in the outlier category of things.

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Originally Posted by Ryebunny

Like I said, all the things in the post are suggestions, not demands. And with the announcement they are adding a seperate inventory for the Island Sanctuary items means they must have something in place to have a seperate inventory. ^^

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The key word is separate. Think of it like house storage or the cache in bozja. It won't be accessible outside the zone.

There's a lot of bait out there. Anyone looking to fill their log is best served by taking things one region (expansion) at a time to minimize clutter. All bait is easily accessible from the same region.

I agree with most of that (and made suggestion in that way in the past)

I caught most of my backlog of fishes ; so the tacklebox is no longer an issue for me ; but I used to have more than half my satchel taken by bait.
I get both side : it's annoying, but once you're done with it, it would be a waste of memory in the long run.

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Originally Posted by Ryebunny

10. Fish Pulling Off The Hook
I get it, it is realistic that you aren't guarenteed to hook a fish. But when you have tried multiple times over multiple irl days/weeks/months, having the best stats in the game, penta melded with every buff you can to help... and a lvl 50 ARR fish still pulls off the hook for the 300th time, it's frustrating to say the least. Having maybe a stacking percentage to your ability to hook a fish (maybe like the fish is wearing down and getting tired) would be greatly appreciated. Also maybe a skill with a very long cooldown that reinforces your line to help with securing difficult fish? I don't know how would be the best way to deal with this, but when it feels like melding and stats have no effect on fishing and it is just purely RNG always, it really is offputting to do.

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This. Please, this needs a desperate fix. I don't understand why catching these special fish is so dependent of RNG.

BiS and only managed to catch the Priest of Yx'Lokwa twice; BiS and Greater Serpent slipped off the hook twice. I've been doing multiple windows for two weeks now, and this just shouldn't be a thing (and yes, I'm using Powerful Hookset properly).
I can understand that these fish aren't supposed to be easy to catch, but there should be way more weight on your stats (level, gear, perception, and gathering) than RNG for them. The blue fish while ocean fishing I give a certain allowance for since I know that ocean fishing is a floating casino of fish, but the rare fish outside of ocean fishing really shouldn't be determined by whether or not you win the fish lottery that day.

Desynth still works on a handful of fish, but is subject to desynth skill ( CUL) and RNG

The patch where fish become guaranteed catches with high enough stats is the patch where fishing loses all fun and becomes a mindless activity with zero emotional reward.

No fish should ever be a guaranteed hook. The struggle of not knowing which attempt might be the one you finally catch something is what makes fishing highly emotional and rewarding enough on its own merit. I have popped off more intensely and emotionally for catching some fish than I have for clearing savage and ultimate raids.

That's not to say that every fish is perfect and fun. There have been some truly miserable legendary fish with absurd conditions, namely Lancetfish with how it trapped you in one zone for hours on end if you actually wanted to have a reasonable chance at getting your intuition from two Mora Tecta catches. I never want to see anything like that where players are prevented from leaving a zone like that.

But even with such conditions, I wouldn't want the catch to be guaranteed. If I knew how to catch the fish and was guaranteed to get it just by executing the proper actions, there would be no story to tell about my struggle and no emotional attachment. I will vehemently oppose any suggestion to remove the struggle from the best side activity this game has.

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Originally Posted by ShadowNyx3

... fish with absurd conditions, namely Lancetfish with how it trapped you in one zone for hours on end if you actually wanted to have a reasonable chance at getting your intuition from two Mora Tecta catches. I never want to see anything like that where players are prevented from leaving a zone like that.

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For what it's worth (and to add more to the 'fish is ok actually'), there is no in game mechanic that forces you to stay in the zone. You don't have to lock yourself in the Tempest, you just have to catch double Mora Tecta's which are really not as uncommon as folks make it out to be.