Make FSHing more like FISHing

[Surian]

Apparently i'm the only one who likes fishing as it currently is. I certainly dont want the overly elaborate things of 1.0 back. I fish for relaxation, and it truly is relaxing. Just chatting with friends or your FC, watching the scenery and reeling in when you hook something.

I dont want to have to fight something with 4-5 diffirent mechanics for a minute just to reel something in. I dont want to think of anything even. Just relax and fish.

The ONLY improvement fishing could use is having more than 20 out of the 200 available fish have any use. Most of them could potentially show up in a GC turn-in one day, but who cares about that. More recipes, more uses for them. Heck, bring back fish cutting from XI to find gil and items inside of them.

[Arkghyom]

Off-hand Reels (different looks, actually display on the rod)

Cast

Control Depth - Drop Line/Reel Back?

Depth Meter (different fish based on depth)

Set the Hook - Weak/Strong?

Tension Meter (manipulate drag to keep the fish hooked)

Increase/Decrease Drag

Respond to Tugs (sound cues prompting when to pause/reel)


It could be a bit more like Crafting in that you could have a Distance measure (opposite to progress, when a fish hooks you want to reel it back in…it’ll fight you increasing distance away, if it reaches max you lose the fish)… and utilize techniques to help your odds of baiting HQ fish (chum, drift, jig, troll, & etc… perhaps differentiate it from crafting in that you couldn’t 100% HQ, maybe cap at 50% with the remaining 50% left to chance).

As it is currently, FSHing is pretty lame... there's a ton of potential currently built into the game to make FSHing amazing & honestly... it wouldn't be too difficult. I just handed you the tools, now: make a few reel-models/icons, create a few simple abilities plus their animations, a couple UI elements, & you're done.

SE, Bring it all back!

[G-I-X-X-E-R]

I just wish they'd throw in catching mobs/mini bosses like in FFXI. Some of the funest times I've ever had in ANY game was on the ship. "Hey what are you doing? Don't fish here"....screams and yells, people dieing from a giant sea monster. I'd hide in the ships hold and peek out to watch people fighting this creature. Just awesome!!!

[LlenCoram]

Personally, I disagree with people who say that it should remain completely mindless. My problem with the absolutely mindless, one-button click method is that it's dead boring. I guess it works great for people who don't actually fish that much in game, but in 1.0 (where we could choose to start as any class, gatherer or crafter included) I started as a fisher. It's what I did throughout all of 1.0 to the detriment of everything else, to the point where it took me a year and a half just to get my first combat class to 50. That's playing every single day as well.

I got 50 long before they got rid of Grades 6 to 10 spots, I got my luminary rod in a fairly short amount of time (I was the first fisher I knew who had it in server, save for one person who admitted to being a bot so it doesn't count), and now that we're in 2.0, I've caught at least one of every fish and have just under 30,000 fish caught according to my fish guide.

I fish a lot.

For people who do it as a pastime, who actually do exactly what Yoshi expects of you and fishes in between doing "real game" stuff, sure, a mindless route is fine. For us fishers from 1.0 who actually want some interactivity when we're playing a videogame, it's not enough. If I wanted to "converse with nature," I'd go outside. As it is, I don't need something in game to kick back and relax with; the game is already my way of kicking back and relaxing. I don't want to do "real game" stuff, I want to fish. Right now, how mindless the system is actually stops me from it. I don't fish in between doing things, I do "real game" stuff in between fishing. I will purposely refuse doing dungeons of any sort if I have fish to catch.

Also, before anyone tells me I'm playing the wrong game, keep in mind this is an RPG, and in 1.xx it was perfectly valid to play as you want. If you expect me to fight only, I suggest you're playing the wrong game and might want to try out one of the Dynasty Warrior titles. Since this is an RPG, I get to choose what role I want to play, and I choose to fish.

[Kittra]

-before anyone tells me I'm playing the wrong game, keep in mind this is an RPG, and in 1.xx it was perfectly valid to play as you want. If you expect me to fight only, I suggest you're playing the wrong game and might want to try out one of the Dynasty Warrior titles. Since this is an RPG, I get to choose what role I want to play, and I choose to fish.

*clap* *clap*

Well said, that's exactly how I imagine MMORPGS are meant to be, but instead we now have the mainstream, gotta-go-fast, zombie MMOs that don't challenge or make you think at all.

I am so tired of the same game with a new coat of paint and I am equally tired with the people who believe everyone should like what they like and if they don't, then go play something else that doesn't exist anymore because everything is made exactly the same now. *sigh*

I miss the MMO days where I could just pick up a game and play it the way I wanted to, even when some of those MMOs were extremely restrictive in how you could play them, Phantasy Star Online as an example.

[myahele]

I originally enjoyed fishing and still kinda do. It was nice to be able to go to these certain zones after spending hrs level grinding and to relax and fish. I would fish while listening to music and reading on my tab.

Eventually I realized it was a complete waste of time and it was more profitable and productive to just farm snurbles, raptors, apkallu, etc.

[Gesser]

I originally enjoyed fishing and still kinda do. It was nice to be able to go to these certain zones after spending hrs level grinding and to relax and fish. I would fish while listening to music and reading on my tab.

Eventually I realized it was a complete waste of time and it was more profitable and productive to just farm snurbles, raptors, apkallu, etc.

I could handle the monotony, I could handle the 'lazy' aspect of FSHing... what I can't handle is how unviable it is.

I would much prefer if there were even the slightest level of skill involved, but I could settle for viability.

[Parz3val]

Lotsa talk about Fishing lately, personally my favorite suggestions here.

[DarkStar]

I'm a big fan of Breath of Fire. What does that have to do with this topic? Simple: the second, third, and fourth Breath of Fire games (And maybe the fifth, but as far as I'm concerned that one doesn't exist) had very good Fishing mini-games. Each one got to be more complex than the previous, with various types of rods, baits, distances you could cast to, depths you could catch Fish at, and even a couple special catches, if you used a special type of bait. Furthermore, just about every single type of fish you could catch had a use, ranging from healing items to battle items, and some of them were even on-par with end-game items that were in very limited supply.

If SE were ever to make Fishing something that might actually be on-par with Botany and Mining as even moderately enjoyable, they need to do two things: One, they need to make fishing more in-depth, like the BoF fishing mini-game was, and Two, they need to give some actual uses for a lot of these fish besides maybe being able to turn them in to Levequests and GC Provisioning Missions. For example, we could always use more Culinarian recipes, and maybe we could get an Alchemist recipe for Cordials that requires some currently-useless fish?

[LlenCoram]

I'm a big fan of Breath of Fire. What does that have to do with this topic? Simple: the second, third, and fourth Breath of Fire games (And maybe the fifth, but as far as I'm concerned that one doesn't exist) had very good Fishing mini-games. Each one got to be more complex than the previous, with various types of rods, baits, distances you could cast to, depths you could catch Fish at, and even a couple special catches, if you used a special type of bait. Furthermore, just about every single type of fish you could catch had a use, ranging from healing items to battle items, and some of them were even on-par with end-game items that were in very limited supply.

If SE were ever to make Fishing something that might actually be on-par with Botany and Mining as even moderately enjoyable, they need to do two things: One, they need to make fishing more in-depth, like the BoF fishing mini-game was, and Two, they need to give some actual uses for a lot of these fish besides maybe being able to turn them in to Levequests and GC Provisioning Missions. For example, we could always use more Culinarian recipes, and maybe we could get an Alchemist recipe for Cordials that requires some currently-useless fish?

In 1.0, fishing required you choose your bait and your depth, and the minigame was a really simplified "fight the fish" system. The fish themselves were used in both CUL and ALC recipes for food and for breaking them into both shards and crystals. While fishing you would and could catch all types of elemental shards at random, as well as all dark matter of a certain grade depending on the level of the fishing spot or node you were at. Originally, the three gathering classes could each catch four types of materia catalysts as well, with some being harder to catch than others.

So basically, ARR's fishing took a step backwards. I'm not saying 1.0's was incredible or even on par with what you're suggesting, but it was closer to your suggestion than we are now.