[dev1008] Fishing Improvements on the Way

[cidbahamut]

[dev1008] Fishing Improvements on the Way
The forthcoming version update will see two refinements aimed at anglers of Vana'diel: more informative fishing messages and the introduction of a "critical bite" system.
New fishing messages
Messages displayed upon getting a bite will indicate the size and type of your potential catch as follows:
Small fish: "Something caught the hook!"
Large fish: "Something caught the hook!!!"
Non-fish targets: "You feel something pulling at your line."
Monsters: "Something clamps onto your line ferociously!"
Critical bites
Players with fishing skill surpassing the rank of their target will register a critical bite, and be rewarded with advance knowledge as to the identity of their prey.

Ex.: (When scoring a critical bite against a black sole)
"Something caught the hook!
Your keen angler's senses tell you that this is the pull of a black sole!"
Scoring a critical bite will also slow the target's stamina recovery in the event of improper reeling, allowing players to reel in lower-level fish with greater ease.
We will also be implementing the next stage of efficiency tweaks and refinements to the fishing system code itself, a process which began last patch with the goal of allowing for a greater range of adjustments in the future. We will continue to monitor game balance and adjust the system as necessary.

Furthermore, we intend to preserve the timing-dependent minigame nature of the fishing system, and make balance tweaks and adjustments accordingly. We are also aware of the significant outstanding issues with RMT abuse and difficulty imbalances related to players’ system environments, and will continue working towards a viable solution. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Source: [dev1008] Fishing Improvements on the Way

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I dunno about you guys but I'm excited about this.

They're finally fixing the messages that they broke nearly half a year ago. I'm gonna be able to tell if I've got a monster by the fisherman's instinct message again. No more futzing with the line and watching for stamina regen or guessing what's monster line behavior and what's just a really thrashy fish.

Critical bites seem pretty unnecessary, but I guess they're nice.

I can't imagine what they think they're going to accomplish with combatting RMT. They've proven incapable of ousting fishbots and if they can't do that then RMTs aren't going to be hindered at all. I expect they'll cock everything up as usual and do something that will shaft legitimate fishermen while the RMTs don't even notice.

[Taskmage]

Re: [dev1008] Fishing Improvements on the Way

I wouldn't go so far as to say "excited" but considering I just started fishing again, this is timely. A little bit moot since experienced fishermen can already tell what they've got on the hook, but replacing the methods you mentioned which aren't particularly fun with a clean UI message is a change I support.

Honestly though, I know this dead horse gets beaten every time a nice change comes up, but this system refinement couldn't have taken a genius to think up and the implementation is probably going to take a couple of man-hours or less. If little polish thigns like this had been done years ago as they easily could have, FFXI would probably be doing a lot better now.

[Kailea]

Re: [dev1008] Fishing Improvements on the Way

out of all the things though that need to be fixed... this? It is cool and all, but... yeah

[cidbahamut]

Re: [dev1008] Fishing Improvements on the Way

Well I'm happy about it...

[Malacite]

Re: [dev1008] Fishing Improvements on the Way

out of all the things though that need to be fixed... this? It is cool and all, but... yeah

My thoughts exactly. They're nice and welcome changes, but this is what they start the week off with?

[Taskmage]

Re: [dev1008] Fishing Improvements on the Way

In the past we've complained about the devs now communicating with the players enough. This tidbit might have just as well waited until the patch notes to announce, but I'm not going to bother to criticize them for communicating too much. I think they're just frantic to make sure the playerbase knows they're doing something, anything so every little thing on their task list becomes newsworthy.