How to make fishing better?

  • I wondered if you Pirates would have any ideas how to improve fishing? I am not a fan of the current implementation. I never wanted fishing, but now it is here there must be ways to make it better.

    I am sure there are a few who like fishing in real life, maybe even some who like the current version of fishing in game? If that is you, how would you improve it?

    My issues with the current implementation.

    1: Its boring (imo) It is even more basic in its skill requirement than a golf swing mechanic and its outcome for success essentially 100%.

    2: The reward for catching fish is extremely poor (Perhaps in view of how easy fishing is?)

    3: With the outcome for success 100% it seems at odds with having to give the activity 100% of your attention.


    Suggestions ( I will add other peoples feedback to keep it concise in-case Devs read this )

    • Add fishing rod stands on the ships that you can attach your fishing rod too. Then when you get a bite it jiggles a bell and you need to respond to it.

    • The actual fishing needs to be more difficult and bites more infrequent (less predictable). Inline with it being more difficult, the reward for catching the fish should be higher.

    • Add some bigger fish that are even more difficult to catch. These large species can be handed in without the need to cook them, too avoid the issue of stove size.

    • Allow harpoon to catch larger fish.

    • Allow smaller fish to be bait for larger fish.

    • Add passive fishing method such as lobster pots/nets

    • Get better rods, which allow you to catch bigger fish as you level up.

    • Reduce the catch times and health benefits of more common fish.

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  • Harpooning some bigger fish and such

  • Addition by subtraction. Fishing was a mistake, delete it.

  • I'd love them to add lobster pots fishing nets which will allow you to catch stuff passively. I'd also really like them to add another level of fishing, where you use fish you've caught as bait for bigger nasties, like sharks, squid and piranhas.

    Perhaps they could also add cursed wildlife, i.e. there's a chance you could attract a shoal of corrupted beasties that slowly eat your ship until you've harpooned, caught or killed them all.

  • Well we have big fish, we have little fish, now we need cardboard box

  • @wilbymagicbear

    I agree in its current form it brings nothing. Fishing is as mechanical and predictable as dropping the anchor.

    But I do think there is room to improve it.

  • Fishing is pretty boring in real life too. Obviously some people like it. But some people like collecting stamps.

    I like your ideas of improving fishing. Whether they are enough to make me want to spend hours and hours doing it is another question.

  • I think the current mechanics are fine. You mention how it’s a 100% guarantee, and that’s just not correct. The reason you think this is because you have learned how to do it. Early on I’m sure all of us learned to not let the line hit things, fish from a distance where the fish doesn’t hit the shore, etc....

    The biggest complaints that I have heard from people are..

    1. If I’m fishing in the right conditions, I should be landing the correct fish type. It is really frustrating to be struggling in the storm and you get a splash tail and not a storm fish.
    2. The rep is so low for fish. I have almost all of the grade 5 accommodations for fishing and am a pretty high level, it takes days to level up now and that’s with fishing a bunch throughout the day. We rely on finding mermaid gems to gain chunks. This leads me to the next area of complaint,
    3. The rare fish value is great, but at the moment are extremely hard to get due to running out of bait so frequently. You can concentrate on just catching those fares, but sometimes you’ll go hours without catching anything.
    4. Why does the storm change direction when I’m on a ship wreck all the time. (My personal complaint)

    I would love it if they made it more exciting, but that’s not this game mode guys. Fishing is only exciting when you have an amazing fish on real and you know it’s gonna be worth a lot. If you want excitement, that’s called the arena or tall tales.

  • Fishing is fine. It's something to do on those long stretches upwind, which players have been begging for from the start, and it fits in well with the food overhaul in general. As something to do as a main activity for days on end I agree it's lacking, but what do expect? It's fishing.

    Btw, if you want a bigger reward for fishing try eating it for health sometime. It's great.

  • I’d like to see some fish added to skull forts and skely fleets.

    Most people on their way to pirate legend are just grinding forts because they give a good amount of loot for three companies and only take about half an hour with a good four man crew and no one else around contending the fort.

    It would be awesome if there was a barrel in each fort vault that had a few rare fish or even a fort version of a fish.

    Also, same with skeleton ships. The captain ship could drop a barrel when it sinks that has some rare fish and/or Skelton version of fish.

    The grind for Hunters Call is absolute brutal no mater how “easy” a lot of people say it is. It’s just as bad as merchant alliance was when the game first came out. I’ve even played with some people that make big alliances to farm fish on a server same as people do with Athena’s.

    Some fishing events with the Bilge Rats would be awesome also.

  • @major-bones

    I agree there are some frustrating glitches/ bugs, but even without those fishing is a soul destroying chore. It should not take much to improve it considerably. Unfortunately it is probably one of those things no one really cares about. You do not need to do it with the other guilds being more fun. But it would be a nice thing to be fun for us Pirate Legends.

    I learnt to catch fish 100% of the time in about 10 seconds. Cast rod, fish bites after 20 seconds, Always pull back and against the direction the fish is traveling. Then Reel in when it stops moving. Rinse and Repeat.

  • I would recommend having different quality rods. Make the default rod weak and only able to catch small fish like splashtails or pondies. The higher quality rods would be obtained by leveling up with the hunters call. The next rod up would be able to catch trophy fish and more rare fish exclusive to certain locations like devilfish or ancientscales. The last rod (highest quality rod) would grant you the ability to catch sharks. Sharks however would be caught with a different kind of bait. The bait being fish you've already caught like splashtails.

    Another idea would be to increase the difficulty by the line snapping more easily depending on the size of the fish. Splashtails would take a long time to break the line, something like stormfish or trophies could break the line more easily if you aren't positioning your rod fast enough. Maybe the rod itself could snap and you would need to use a wooden plank to repair it.

    Reputation gain with the hunters call needs to be changed. It's really weird that mermaid gems give you so much rep with a group that prides themselves on fishing and hunting animals.

    Smack a statue with your sword= Huge rep gain

    Catch 10 fish and cook them= maybe a quarter of a level.

  • I don't know, I kinda like fishing as it is. Make it too complex and I'm just not gonna feel like doing.

    As is, I can stock up on bait and aim for storms or islands if I want to make a session out of it OR I can just do some light fishing here and there in between other things. I like the easy flexibility of it.

    Now I wouldn't be against some improvements. Larger fish to harpoon could be neat, digging for bait seemed like a good idea, and while I don't care about rep, I can see how it might seem a bit steep for those who do. So maybe that could be tweaked.

    The base mechanics though? Nah, I kinda like them the way they are.

  • I just got Legenedary Hunter of the Sea of Thieves last night

  • Things that I would like to see added:

    • Scaling: we have this for the other trade companies, you're higher level so you get higher level rewards. We all get those ruby splashtails all the time while we're lvl 30+ Just increase the frequency of catching the rarer fish at higher level.
    • Mooching: Being able to mooch a fish would be nice, either have it so that mooching a fish gives a guarenteed Trophy catch with the mooched fish or replace the need for bait with mooching (so you either attach a grub or mooch a splashtail to catch a devilsfish)

    I kind of like the Idea of being able to place traps to catch fish/ wilflife but this might move the focus too much on staying stationary on an island as opposed to sailing around.
    I'd love to see a singe plerson fishing ship with nets you can drag to catch fish in large quantities, making you a target for pirates who want your fish. But that's just a feverdream that doesn't even fit SoT's theme.

  • Fishing was the #1 requested feature forever and every time a post appeared on the forums I just knew it was going to be boring and people would complain about it.

    Its an activity that is supposed to fill up the even more boring spaces in between islands where all you can do is scan the horizon (and usually not see any other ships). There isn't much more you can do with it without making it way too complicated.

    I would adjust the catch times so that common fish and bait-less fish, like splashtails, don't fight as long and don't provide as much reserve health. Fish that you need bait for should give more reserve health and take slightly longer. The reputation system needs to be fixed to match the other companies; its crazy how much difference there is between how many fish you need to catch to get to level 5 vs. the Gold Hoarders, which can get to level 5 with a single captain chest.

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