Short and sweet version: I want to fish in this game. I don't care if Craig doesn't think it's part of the pirate experience. A majority of traditional pirates were navy sailors, merchants and fishermen who couldn’t make a decent living and as such turned to piracy to make ends meet. Fishing is very much a part of the pirate lifestyle.
Long version:
The Angler's Guild
This would be a faction that revolves around fishing in Sea of Thieves.
Bait & Tackle NPC
Players could purchase different baits and lures from this NPC for catching fish. Better bait would allow for catching bigger and rarer fish. Players would also be able to purchase various fishing themed cosmetics for their pirate, their ship and most importantly their fishing rod.
Bait would not be required to catch fish, but it would increase the likeliness of catching them as well as the chance to catch better fish.
Angler Voyage NPC
Players would be able to take on voyages to earn reputation and gold, much in the same way they do with the other factions. Voyages would work similarly to Merchant Alliance voyages where the player receives a list of the fish they have to catch, however they'd have to return to the outpost they received the order from. Just like other factions players could purchase new ranks for titles, cosmetics and better voyages as they progressed.
Catching Fish
Players could cast their rod out into any water to catch fish and while some common fish would appear pretty much anywhere, other fish would only appear in certain regions of the ocean. There would also be fresh water fish that could only be found in waters on the islands around the map.
When a fish bites the line players would be notified by the line tightening and pulling the rod, and they could start to reel them in. However the harder they reel the more tension they would create. This would be represented by the fishing line changing color slowly from white to red (as opposed to a tension bar to avoid hud clutter). If the tension becomes too great, the line breaks and the fish gets away. If the tension is too low for too long, the fish would free itself from the hook and get away as well.
If a player successfully catches a fish, they would hold it like any other treasure in the game. Fish would still be active out of water. If they’re left on the ground or on the deck they would occasionally flop about towards the nearest water source. If they get back into the water, they disappear (Holding a fish while swimming in the water would not cause the fish to disappear). To prevent this, players would have to drop the fish into an open fish crate on their ship. The crate would be able to hold up to 20 fish before they could flop out on their own.
Note: In the same way it is dangerous to store animals on the lower decks for risk of drowning when the ship takes on water, fish would be able to swim out of the holes in the lower decks of the ship if they were currently bringing in water. This would be to create risk for anyone trying to circumvent the storage crate limit, making it possible, but dangerous.
Selling Fish
Players would turn in fish to the Angler Voyage NPC just like any other faction in return for gold and reputation. Because of how easy fish would be to acquire, the gold and reputation received for fish would be small. Rarer and larger fish would obviously be worth more gold and reputation and turning in fish requested by a voyage would be worth significantly more (again, similar to how the Merchant Alliance works).
Stealing Fish
Just like any other treasure in the game, players would be able to pick up other players’ fish in order to steal them and turn them in themselves.
What do others think of this idea? What changes would you make? Let me know! =)
