The Quest Journal for (fishing) quests is too empty

[Sjark]

I've noticed this is a recurring thing, and happened in Shadowbringers too, but for most jobs & classes it is less of an issue, since you either have a gathering log to refer to or the quest actually shows where to go.

The exception to this I've realised is fisher. I've been working intermittently on the Studium quest for fisher, and every time I've logged on & decided to continue I open my journal, just to see this:

Description: T'laqa Tia has high hopes that your partnership will bear fruit.
Objectives: Catch garjana wrasse and deliver them to T'laqa Tia

There's no information about what kind of fish it is, what kind of bait it requires, where the fish can be found or anything. I don't even know how much collectability it requires.

What even is the point of a quest journal if I have to return to the NPC who gave me the quest, every time I need a reminder of what to do??

The only reason I have not been as bothered by it before, is that the quests that are guilty of the same, I worked on right away instead of picking up and doing later.

[Hasrat]

While maybe not entirely desirable... I do typically just assume things like this are simply part of Fisher's design. Like. FSH is the epitome of "it's all about the journey, not the destination." The act of fishing is meant to be the true reward, not getting distracted by goals and quests. Sit a spell and cast your cares away.

At least, that's my meta-lore reasoning for why FSH is always just doing its own thing out there unlike any other class.

[Jojoya]

Fishing is designed to be more of a game of hide and seek with the player base sharing information on where to find the fish and what bait to use (beyond the hints given by the dialogue).

For later expansions, there's usually only the initial freshwater and initial ocean bait (or spearfishing) that's needed to catch the required fish so that cuts down on having to keep track of a large number of possible baits.

When you're still not certain what to do, there are multiple fansite databases to use as reference. While more hardcore fishers have their favorite websites for very detailed information, I'll generally use Garland Tools and enter the fish name into their item database. It will list the name of the fishing hole and what bait/spear gig to use in the item information, which is generally more than enough to finish the quest.

Fishing is very much a "you love it or you hate it" activity in the game. Because it has little practical use for crafting, you don't really miss out on anything if you decide to skip it completely or take a more minimalist approach like I do (quickly leveling it so I'll be able to catch whatever fish I need for CUL then ignoring it).

[Sjark]

You guys are missing my point. The information is available in game.

If you check the Studium quests, T'laqa Tia will tell you the information about location, bait and all that - but only in conversation. It is not stored in the journal whatsoever. So if you picked up the quest, they will mention it in a sentence. But if you pick up the quest, and then leave it for later, obviously you won't remember all the details - and the journal is 100% useless there. So instead of using in-game journal, or a log, I end up using google and that's just not right. Why have a in-game feature and not utilise it.

Then you compare it to a fieldcraft leve from Grigge Old Sharlayan. It's packed with information.

Description:
Researchers have often theorized that the environmental aether surrounding holy places such as shrines differs from that of areas which have not been consecrated. We mean to finally put this hypothesis to the test, and I believe that with samples from the Font of Maya in Thavnair, we can shed some light on this long-held mystery.
Requires: Spearfishing Gig

Objectives
Deliver rummy-nosed tetra to Wurtwyb. 0/9

I know everything I need to know, even if I decide to complete it later. We have some nice flavour text, and they have even highlighted the important information in a clear orange colour with black outline.

It's just so frustrating, I actually get irritated thinking about how poorly handled the quest journal was handled for the Studium Quests.

If the NPC says the information needed, there is zero reason to not have it included in the journal. Just copy-paste what they are saying if you want it the lazy way! Anything is better than the current state of those quests.

[Jojoya]

I didn't miss your point. To some degree I agree with you that the information should be included in the quest journal.

For their own reasons, they have decided they do not want to include the information in the quest journal. We suspect it's because of the general fishing design as a explore and discover hobby within the game. with the intent of players collecting and sharing information with each other instead of the typical quest journal handholding that is now standard in MMOs.

Why do they get specific with leves and not the quests? Again, can't tell you. It's a design choice that SE made.

Until such time as SE decides they want to change the design of fishing and/or the quest journal information, I gave you a way to find the information you need without abandoning and picking the quest back up.

[Iscah]

Part of it is that they got very lazy in general with quest journals and don't record anything beyond the first objective any more.

[Sjark]

I'm going to clarify.

You don't need to abandon the studium quests as a fisher to be told what to do, or even how to do it.
While the quest is active, every time you talk to the NPC, they will tell you exactly what you need, no hints, exactly what you need.
What fish you need to obtain, where to obtain it, and what kind of bait it requires is all told to you, whenever you click on the NPC. But it is not in the journal.

So the information is readily available, every time you interact with the NPC, but for an arbitrary reason that is not good whatsoever, this information is not included in the journal. It is not hints or anything, it's exactly all the information needed.

This has nothing to do with "the philosophy of fishing", if it had anything to do with it, the NPC wouldn't be saying all I needed to know!


Having to use a third party tool because the developers didn't include information that is always available by talking to NPC is not acceptable.

I don't mind using the databases that players have worked on together in other fishing cases, because in those case there is no NPC who offers the information freely. I have done this many times, to great benefit. But this thread that I've made is about something completely different.