Ocean fishing is horribly designed

[Xiomara]

4. The main achievement rewards (particularly the mount) should be tied to CUMULATIVE points across all trips, rather than the points earned in a single trip. This would mean that it doesn't really matter if you don't get spectral currents, you will get the rewards if you just keep gradually working towards them. This would be MUCH more fun, MUCH less frustrating and MUCH less stressful for EVERYBODY. There can still be some rewards tied to maximizing points like titles.

Switching the achievements to cumulative would be great, because I can only do 1 fishing trip a play session, so soon my window for getting the achievements will rapidly close as people ditch this content. I don't mind grinding for things, so long as i can make slow, steady progress.

[TheUltimate3]

Switching it to cumulative would be the best, but drastically upping the rewards of non-spectral fish could potentially do the trick as well. As mentioned in PangTong's excellent post, regular fish outside of spectrals are functional worthless and if you don't get spectral procs then you could be real unlikely and barely scrap 1k.

[Pepsi_Plunge]

Once you get your achievments and leveled fully, it IS dead content

That can be said for pretty much anything though. Ultimate is pretty much dead content once you've cleared it too. Old Savage-Raids is dead content unless you still want some glamour (but, to be fair, they revived it with BLU a little). How often will you visit the current 5.2 dungeon once it rotates out of Expert Roulette? There are level 50-60 Dungeons I've seen only like 2 or 3 times and spend less time in there then on the fishing boat, because I haven't been around ingame when they were endgame-dungeons.

[Lersayil]

That can be said for pretty much anything. Ultimate is pretty much dead content once you've cleared it too. Savage once you've farmed it try. How often will you visit the current 5.2 dungeon once it rotates out of Expert Roulette? There are level 50-60 Dungeons I've seen only like 2 or 3 times because I haven't been around ingame when they were endgame-dungeons.

The issue isn't unique to ocean fishing, but it is a lot more glaring, as it only gives leveling and a few one-off rewards. For instance I often visit the duties you listed for alt gear, tomes and glamour. Ocean fishing gives nothing after dinging 80 FSH and the point rewards.

I mean, even if it gave some guaranteed small amount of white scrips, it would already be enough for some people to join in every now and then.

[Ultimatecalibur]

I mean, sure, but whats the point? If the rewards stay in the same vein, its a very short lived content bite by design. Once you get your achievments and leveled fully, it IS dead content. The only long term benefit for doing it is white scrips, which is both extremely unreliable, and low income compared to other sources.

These are the entry level voyages and mainly added as a way to speed level fishers. Scripts are there so that new fishers have easy access to the level 58/65/70 gatherer gear. Others will be sticking with Endeavor to complete their fishing log and it will be there for all the new fishers to level/gear up with. This is fine. Long term benefits need only be added to any 50+ voyages rather the Endeavor's level 1 voyage.

Not to mention that the higher level ones might invalidate the older ones if the mount / title is shared between them.

Which will not happen. Once the Endeavor is out leveled and log completed you moving on is fine as long as the Endeavor still exists for those just starting up fishing. This ocean voyage is not for max level fishers and anyone who thinks so is missing the point. The Endeavor will only get invalidated if a new piece of fisher leveling content is added that gives superior XP and scripts for the same time commitment. HoH does not invalidate PotD, so a higher level ocean voyage will not invalidate the Endeavor. The risk is more that a level 50/60/70 ocean voyage gets invalidated by a level 80 voyage even if all 3 share achievements.

[Dustytome]

Switching the achievements to cumulative would be great, because I can only do 1 fishing trip a play session, so soon my window for getting the achievements will rapidly close as people ditch this content. I don't mind grinding for things, so long as i can make slow, steady progress.

The boat adjusts to the number of people that enter with you, so you'll still get a shot at the achievements each time. Had a run the other day with 5 people on the boat (no one left, that was the total the whole run). Three people that run got enough points for the mount.

[Lersayil]

These are the entry level voyages and mainly added as a way to speed level fishers. Scripts are there so that new fishers have easy access to the level 58/65/70 gatherer gear. Others will be sticking with Endeavor to complete their fishing log and it will be there for all the new fishers to level/gear up with. This is fine. Long term benefits need only be added to any 50+ voyages rather the Endeavor's level 1 voyage.


Which will not happen. Once the Endeavor is out leveled and log completed you moving on is fine as long as the Endeavor still exists for those just starting up fishing. This ocean voyage is not for max level fishers and anyone who thinks so is missing the point. The Endeavor will only get invalidated if a new piece of fisher leveling content is added that gives superior XP and scripts for the same time commitment. HoH does not invalidate PotD, so a higher level ocean voyage will not invalidate the Endeavor. The risk is more that a level 50/60/70 ocean voyage gets invalidated by a level 80 voyage even if all 3 share achievements.

I am criticizing the current content, not some alleged future one. You seem to have it figured out, but I don't recall them going into great detail on how they're expanding the system later.

If they wanted it to be a leveling only instance, then sure, they succeeded. Doesn't change the fact that it has very little retention rate, and leveling fishers can burn through to max level in a week tops.

Given their history with experimental content such as this, I think its worth pointing out. Might be moot when a new iteration comes out, but until then, its valid feedback.

EDIT: basically its the same as the current state of Ishgard restoration. Sure it might change in the next iteration, but the place became a ghost town in a few weeks (and I'd say it had arguably more to offer than ocean fishing).

[Jojoya]

I think the biggest disappointment to me has been this isn't working out as a fun social activity as the dev team implied it would be when they encouraged us to queue with our friends.

Normally my FC is a pretty chatty bunch when we hop in Discord to do content together. That was not the case for ocean fishing.

The Discord would go almost completely silent. There were the groans and disappointed sighs as someone missed a catch, had the intuition window close without catching the intuition fish or caught yet another Momora. There was anger when someone got a legendary tug just as the boat changes zone so they never knew what they would have caught.

**Please - don't make it take longer than 30 seconds to catch and hook any fish when there is a hard cut off due to the zone transition.**

There was almost never any moment of excitement to share. Everyone was focused on catching as many fish as possible to maximize their score to get the minion or mount because when they failed to do it, the trip was wasted and they had to start over from scratch the next time. If someone finally got the score needed for the mount, it was "so glad I don't have to do this anymore".

Note that all of this was listed past tense because we're pretty much given up doing it as a group. There was no point when it's a silent, stressful experience instead of a fun social one.

What might change it for the better? As PangTong said, make the point-based reward achievements cumulative instead of trip based. Even if you don't get a great score on one trip, it would still count toward getting that reward in the future instead of being a wasted trip. Everyone would be more relaxed because the time pressure would be removed.

Add in a party scorecard in addition to the personal and alliance scorecards. I don't care how my score compared to RandomPlayer@Balmung. I'm interested in how my score compared to the friends I queued with. It would helpful for creating FC contests with prizes that aren't reliant on getting a top score on the boat (get a final score with a 3 in it? win 50k gil, etc.).

Not related to the social aspect but please change up the desynthesis tables. Getting almost nothing but Fine Sand and Water Crystals has made fish desynthesis very boring. Add in a small chance to get different items from at least the spectral current fish. Untradeable fishing/beach glamours (1-2% chance) and useful crafting materials (5-10% chance unless something rare like Waterproof Cotton Cloth which should be less than 1%) would help in sustaining interest.

Also, there needs to be a more consistent way for level 80 fishers to get white scrip outside of the RNG heavy intuition fish catch. Even getting 3% of the final score as white scrip would help without making it more lucrative than what we get from normal collectible gathering in the same time period.

[RyuSaarva]

Oh I know, I was trying to be sarcastic. Like, if you try to bring up that idea to SE, I'm pretty sure they're gonna reply with collectibles and how you can trade them for scrips.

Also, what sort of unique items would you like to see being able to be obtained from fishing?

how about more of those fish furniture which we have 2 and they are both from ages ago.

[zylo1010]

I've caught multiple spectral fish in one spot never triggered a rainbow. Was kinda mad.