Ocean fishing is horribly designed

[TheUltimate3]

Thing is there is a very simple way to improve this content with changing as little as possible.

Increase the time limit on the boat to 15 mins per area. You still have to have some luck to get the mount and title achievements, makes it easier to deal with leavers, better chances at getting spectral current, makes it more relaxing since more likely to get what you want, be fine to do it with less people at a later stage. The only downside being the achievements are easier to get, but they still are not guaranteed so effort still has to be put in.

Another thing I would include to this would be if you manage to catch a spectral fish in Fishers Intuition it has a 100% chance to proc spectral waters. I say this because of the very particular method to proc it should at least be rewarded. I've done the effort multiple times and caught spectral fish only for nothing to happen which is just...bleh.

That'd likely hurt less if each area was 15 minutes but still.

[Crushnight]

Another thing I would include to this would be if you manage to catch a spectral fish in Fishers Intuition it has a 100% chance to proc spectral waters. I say this because of the very particular method to proc it should at least be rewarded. I've done the effort multiple times and caught spectral fish only for nothing to happen which is just...bleh.

That'd likely hurt less if each area was 15 minutes but still.

I can very much agree with this change, after recent outing of strong start horrible 2nd and 3rd act, during 2nd act we caught required fish 9 times no spectral pop, 3rd act 6 times no pop, yet 1st act I pop it on 1st fish with base ragworm, way way too rng heavy on top of an already heavy rng system.

[Solarra]

I feel rather bad going in to level now because it looks like I unknowingly gimped my party. I had no idea it was going to be this intense and I agree that without some changes it's going to get old fast.
I do like the suggestions people have made for battle content, fishing up treasure chests etc. At the moment it's just fish until the timer runs out and not at all social. Everyone is in too much of a rush to even notice other players let alone interact.

[TheUltimate3]

I feel rather bad going in to level now because it looks like I unknowingly gimped my party. I had no idea it was going to be this intense and I agree that without some changes it's going to get old fast.
I do like the suggestions people have made for battle content, fishing up treasure chests etc. At the moment it's just fish until the timer runs out and not at all social. Everyone is in too much of a rush to even notice other players let alone interact.

The interaction is supposed to come from just having conversations with your group or with friends, which I can say is perfectly fine given the nature that this was supposed to be "relaxing" content. They just shot everyone in the foot by making the only real incentive to do the content outside of leveling being a mount that requires some hardcore cooperation and sacrifices to RNGesus.

But if you're going in it to level by all means to in to level, and don't feel bad about it. That's part of the original intention of the whole thing.

[Maero]

As someone that has always hated fishing (and still do) i find the Ocean Fishing not too bad.
The 2 Hr thing is the one thing however that is annoying and i wonder why, why could they not of had it a half hr or 1 hr apart instead

[DarkMasamune]

I feel rather bad going in to level now because it looks like I unknowingly gimped my party. I had no idea it was going to be this intense and I agree that without some changes it's going to get old fast.
I do like the suggestions people have made for battle content, fishing up treasure chests etc. At the moment it's just fish until the timer runs out and not at all social. Everyone is in too much of a rush to even notice other players let alone interact.

Don't feel bad for leveling on the boat. It's one of the instance's purposes. Heck you can do whatever you want. I triggered currents when I was level 40 ish so I don't see why being there so level would be an issue.

[Espritduo]

I feel rather bad going in to level now because it looks like I unknowingly gimped my party. I had no idea it was going to be this intense and I agree that without some changes it's going to get old fast.
I do like the suggestions people have made for battle content, fishing up treasure chests etc. At the moment it's just fish until the timer runs out and not at all social. Everyone is in too much of a rush to even notice other players let alone interact.

The thing is, it doesn't really matter what you do. As long as you keep fishing, you're helping your party members about as much as you can. The statistics on cat became hungry show that all non-spectral current fish bite on all bait more or less evenly, including the spectral current-triggering fish. There is a very slight difference based on their "preferred" bait, but it is very small. Just fish, no matter your level, abilities, or bait, and you will still get spectral-trigger fish just like everyone else. The party bonuses you're actually going to realistically ever see naturally happen regardless of what people are doing, since they are mostly a natural side effect of just...fishing and triggering currents. The only person who is really affected by being low level is yourself, if getting hi-scoring points is your goal, due to lack of certain abilities and GP. If you're just leveling, then just fish and fish and fish and you will not be a "burden" to the group.

[Payadopa]

Ocean fishing is not a end game content for FSH. Its for group content, a throwback and social, thats it. Its not long, its fun, its rng, and u can powerlevel and do something different. Its nice, a change from the whole game from time to time.

I agree. We need way more social things in this game to bring the community together. Pity it's still an instance but baby steps, people. lol

Before Ishgard restoration I hated crafting. Now I'm starting to see value in it. Same with FSH now. If anything SE managed to convert me. An doing the ferry with FC friends is good fun. I hope they improve upon it and implement more. Social mining in a shaft anyone? Maybe find rare treasure or gold veins. I'm all up for it. Couldn't care less about a 2nd dungeon that's as cookie cutter as the last 70.

[Ryaz]

Now that I've had a chance to play it, I have to agree it's poorly designed. There's just too much RNG involved for it to be fun. The only real input you have is which bait you choose. Most people don't even bother with Patience and hooksets because its better to just fish for as many spectrals as you can so you can double hook during the rainbow.

When I'm a level 80 overmelded fisher with high stats... I shouldn't be randomly losing !!! because the game decides it doesn't want me to have it. I literally went a whole voyage without snagging one spectral fish, despite using the right bait for and lost like half my !!! to random chance. The rest were sharks.

[eaudaemon]

As someone that has always hated fishing (and still do) i find the Ocean Fishing not too bad.
The 2 Hr thing is the one thing however that is annoying and i wonder why, why could they not of had it a half hr or 1 hr apart instead

Same, I find the 2 hour wait time annoying as well, especially for a casual player that only have 4 hours of game time everyday, so I can only do 2 trips (1 if I didn't log in fast enough) and hope that I'll be lucky enough to see spectrals on those few trips, I really wish the wait time would be shorter.