Game Mechanics: Fishing success messages.

[nilbog]

Fixed, pending update

-In our timeline, catching a fish, or a zone-specific item other than junk, will result in 'You caught a fish!'.

[Passenger]

Prior to the Nov. 7, 2001 patch

- https://web.archive.org/web/20030118...icID=176.topic

Dunthor Warsmith
(10/21/01 10:19:46 pm)
You have caught a fish! er, seaweed...

Hopefully this isn't an ancient post here, but I hear the topic enough on other boards and haven't seen anything similar here, so here goes:

Many people have mocked the message that it says you have caught a "fish" when instead, in the Ocean of Tears, you have caught a non-stacking nodrop inedible bunch of seaweed (for Freeport cultural armor temper). Many have asked why its not the simple "You caught, something..." message instead. I think I know why: when you catch a "fish", a bait is consumed, but when you catch "something", do you not lose your bait. VI thought that, for whatever reason (it was "good enough" of a catch?), you should lose your bait on catching a seaweed, and thus simply added it into the existing structure - lose bait=fish. Thus, while the messages don't mesh perfectly, the mechanics do, or at least they seem to.

So, maybe something like this:

Fish Table
You have caught a fish! (bait consumed)
-----------------------
- Fresh Fish
- <Zone-specific Fish>
- Saltwater Seaweed

Junk Table
You caught, something... (no bait consumed)
-----------------------------
- Fish Scales
- Rusty Dagger
- Tattered Cloth Sandal

After the Nov. 7, 2001 patch

- https://web.archive.org/web/20020128...icID=189.topic

Cantatus
(11/8/01 11:52:49 am)
Unannounced change to fishing

Now whenever you fish up a fish, you get the message:
"You have caught Fresh Fish!" instead of "You have caught a fish!" I suppose it is like foraging now so that you don't have to look at every item to find out what it is.

On another note about the fishing changes in general, I fished in Felwithe last week and every I caught out of 40 was a Koada Cichlid. Today I fished 20 times and only caught Fresh Fish. Not sure if they removed Koada Cichlids or if this is just part of the change.

Zacatac
(11/9/01 12:22:12 pm)
Re: Unannounced change to fishing

I believe the message relates to your skill level.

Often it would tell me exactly what I caught, but not always.

I got a "You have caught a rusty dagger" message, then later got a "you have caught something. . ." message on another rusty dagger.

So I think the message is like a skill roll of some sort. At 200 skill, you will get the correct identification 95% of the time. At lower skills, you will see the message less.

my 2cp

Cantatus
(11/9/01 2:43:03 pm)
Re: Unannounced change to fishing

Nah, I got the message every single time I caught a fish. And my skill only changed 3 points (from like 110 to 113) between last patch and this patch. I suppose others will need to confirm it though since I am not an avid fisherman.

Baladarr
(11/9/01 4:23:16 pm)
Re: Unannounced change to fishing

No one seems to have mentioned the other change.

It used to be when you caught something... and got a dagger or sandal or scales you didnt lose your bait. Now if you watch, everytime you catch something and it tells you what you catch, you lose your bait.

mjgreenjr
(11/13/01 7:02:00 am)
Re: Unannounced change to fishing

Actually, you don't loose bait when you catch "something..." You only loose bait when you catch "Rusty Dagger" or "Fish Scales". For some reason, when what you catch is identified you use a bait.

- https://web.archive.org/web/20040117...icID=188.topic

Tinkerten Iktomi
(11/8/01 10:58 am)
Bait going fast

After the patch on 11/7, I noticed that when fishing that with every catch of an Item I’d lose or rather use up some bait.

I know for sure that I lost bait when I caught:

a rusty dagger
a fish scale
a torn silk sandal
saltwater seaweed
as well as whatever fish I caught

the zones I fished in:

Lake Rath
Tox
Butcher Block
OOT

I did a /bug report but it was to close to the servers going down that I don’t think they will catch it.

- https://mboards.eqtraders.com/eq/for...er-asked-a-dev

Balthozzar
01-02-2003, 11:38 PM

Fishing garbage bug

The sandals, rusties, and fish scales are caught in such quantity because of a bug in the fishing tables that I've been /bug reporting for almost a year. The garbage catches appear to be have been inserted into the table for successful catches about the same time that they made adjustments to the fishing and foraging tables before Luclin was released. It was at this time that the successful catch message was changed to indicate exactly what you caught instead of just 'You have caught a fresh fish!' for everything. Note that you get the message, 'You have caught a Rusty Dagger!', but you also will get the 'You have caught . . . something.' message as well. The latter being much more rare for those with high skill.

The fact that this occurs even in Plane of Knowledge seems to indicate that this is a bug with the global fishing tables (if there is such a thing, and they don't simply copy/paste between zones). This tells me that it should be relatively easy to fix. I can tell you, that with over 180 skill, I don't particularly like catching more junk than real fish. If the waters of Norrath, the Planes, and Luclin were really that polluted, there wouldn't be any living fish, would there?

Maybe something like this:

Fish Table
You have caught a ${ITEM_NAME}! (bait consumed)
-----------------------
- Fresh Fish
- <Zone-specific Fish>
- Saltwater Seaweed
- Fish Scales
- Rusty Dagger
- Tattered Cloth Sandal

Junk Table
You caught, something... (no bait consumed)
-----------------------------
- Fish Scales
- Rusty Dagger
- Tattered Cloth Sandal

The salt in the wound is that, because higher fishing skill would increase the chance of pulling from the "Fish Table" (which now included junk), high-skilled fishers were still getting junk and that junk was, more often than not, consuming bait.

[Passenger]

I forgot to mention... On P99, every item caught consumes bait. Even after the Nov. 7 patch, there was a chance for junk to not consume bait, depending on what table it was pulled from.

[Jimjam]

Have we considered the fish we are catching could be level 1 enchanters casting minor illusion, hence why we lose bait when catching daggers and so on - we are actually catching a fish disguised as a dagger!

[Passenger]

Another issue regarding messages:

On P99, attempting to fish in the lava in SolA, SolB, or Temple of SolRo produces the following message:

Trying to catch a fire elemental or something?

However, I was able to successfully fish in the lava in Skyfire and Lavastorm.

- https://web.archive.org/web/20030118...icID=121.topic

Jarnin
(7/26/01 5:09:17 pm)
Fishing in Skyfire

While hanging out killing the MinionsOfScale in Skyfire this past week, I decided to see if you could fish in the lava. I had never tried before, so I figured, what the hell.

I got this message: "You trying to catch a Fire Elemental?"

It made me giggle for a few hours, so I figured I'd post it here.

- https://web.archive.org/web/20031104...icID=142.topic

Qtpie
(9/3/01 11:30 am)
fishing

I yhave been trying with my main to fish in every zone in old antonica. (Not possible as some zones dont have any water.)

Tried fishing the lava pool at the entrance to Sol A. ( Nothing there.) Same with the lava pools in lavastorm.

Probably my most entertaining was fishing inside runneye with a level 15 ranger. The green slime pools on the first level, do have fish in it.

Another interesting place was everfrost. ( not halas, everfrost) I will let you guys wonder where to fish in everfrost, but it has regular fish as well.

I was unable to check if trying to fish in the lava in Dragon Necropolis or Veeshan's Peak produced the message, so that may be worth a look. Are there any other zones with lava?

[Ennewi]

Wonder if the blood pools in Crushbone and Cabilis offer any fish.

[nilbog]

Originally Posted by Passenger [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

...
The salt in the wound is that, because higher fishing skill would increase the chance of pulling from the "Fish Table" (which now included junk), high-skilled fishers were still getting junk and that junk was, more often than not, consuming bait.

Okay, this all makes sense, and why live is still inconsistent with it. Anyone that's curious : if you fish on eqlive, you will either get an identified junk item, or the same item that says 'you caught something'.

Pending Update:

Pre-Nov 2001: DB (special) and Fresh Fish items consume bait; fallback junk (“something…”) does not.

Post-Nov 2001: All identified items consume bait and show their name; generic “something…” does not consume bait.

[Jimjam]

Nilbog your attention to getting right the worldbuilding parts of the game is really appreciated. I wanted to let you know that.