Things I've found: tips, bugs

[nzo]

I like this game, warts and all. However, getting to understand how the game works over logical "how things work in the real world" requires some adjustment to expectations.
Here's a list of observations and tips based on the time I've spent playing so far...

* The amount of Sonar blips for fish don't make much of a difference to the catch; the over-arching mechanic for catch amounts is habitat health. E.g. At 250m sonar history, I laid a long line over ~30 haddock blips and caught the same as over 6 blips 200m away. OK, so some fish move around more than others, but these fish concentrations were the same before and after.
* Habitat rules seem to trump all others (Tuna for example).
I fished a high habitat at <100m depths and got mostly 3 on a deep line. I fished a medium habitat at >400m depth and never once got over 2 per line (even though the sonar was thick with them). Also, It seemed that when the 2 per line max was reached, the bite indicator stopped adding bites at 19hrs, even though on high habitats, I'd get extra bites for another few hours.
* Groups of fish that aren't part of the numbered habitat seem to give better catches.
I tried fishing a relatively thin spread of tuna which wasn't part of any numbered habitat (thin meaning one sonar hit within 125m) and dropping a deepline on one single sonar icon gave me 3 every time. Also, the same rule applied: when 3 fish were on, no more bites as I was fishing in 80m water, so I guess the limiter applied. I could try and find a non-habitat group in deeper water to see if I get 4. Also, I was going to see if I could "fish out" this group or not.
* Sonar isn't like a real fish finder, but works best for the game (and most people who haven't seen/used a real one). It may confuse people (and render the distance passed obsolete) if the sonar kept updating when you were stationary and not based on distance. One of those real world vs gameplay decisions I'm sure the developers thought about.
* I think it's more rewarding to find your own pockets of fish, which don't seem to obey the habitat rules. This make the game more interesting and I very quickly stopped using the main habitats, as the habitat health is so predominant in your catch results, it's almost irrelevant whatever other skills or choices you make.
* I tested a skilled crew member against a non-skilled crew member on various tasks (especially the setting of gear, as I thought this might have something to do with the 2 tuna limit mentioned about) but the unskilled crew did better at setting gear!)
* You can use autopilot to move between deeplines while hauling (but not longlines)

OK, here's some fun bugs and stupid stuff I've seen :)

NPC Ships flying in the sky
NPC ships on top of each other
Fish tips on the land
I dropped a trawl smack into a school of fish and the game went crazy for a sec and put my gear back up on the surface and the net was floating around about 200m to the side - bulging bigger than my boat - and them disappeared again. Nothing to see here - move along!
Crew getting stuck on deck / task (can be fixed by saving game/reloading)
How can fish decide if they are caught or not? There needs to be by-catch as it's kind of ridiculous that you won't pick up mackerel in your trawl when you go through them just because your boat isn't "rigged" for it.
Same for "doors must be 100m or lower to catch fish". Really? Maybe add an inshore fishing restriction for bigger boats, but sometimes schools are right on the surface and there's no logical reason for the 100m rule. I noted that even when fish are entering the net at a rate of "9", they immediately stop if one of your doors goes shallower than 100m. Makes no logical sense and ruins the immersion.
The crew pay system is a bit weak. Crew I've used and trained up are worse paid than someone I was forced to take on to make a crew of 4, yet that unskilled person get more pay based on their starting stats only, not their accumulated skills/stamina.
If you had a storage problem when catching multiple types of fish, any normal fisherman would discard the cheapest fish over the most expensive, not the most recent caught. Should give some better options there for discard.

Nice touches
There appears to be tidal current in the game physics, but it doesn't seem to follow any observable rules (e.g. 15kn speed in a 10kn speed boat going north, so I expected to be going 5kn southbound, but it was the same? It adds an interesting difficulty if you mis-align yourself picking up a float, but if there is tidal current in the game physics, then why not make it part of the gameplay, as you would make use of tidal flow in how/where you can set gear for better results.

[Clyde]

Originally posted by nzo:

Same for "doors must be 100m or lower to catch fish". Really? Maybe add an inshore fishing restriction for bigger boats, but sometimes schools are right on the surface and there's no logical reason for the 100m rule. I noted that even when fish are entering the net at a rate of "9", they immediately stop if one of your doors goes shallower than 100m. Makes no logical sense and ruins the immersion.

I agree 110% on this one. Game is too arcade feeling with this in there

[Steady66]

I have found habitats found by sailing in real time provide better catch than habitats numbered by the game, (habitat tips at port).
I also agree with the NZO on fishing tuna. On trawling I have always continued to go to 200 M depth, regardless of the change in game play by devs as trawling in 100 M was a waste of time. When lowering trawl doors I usually go lower than 100 M as wave action will cause the doors to vary in depth. I have also experienced trawl door action going bizarre of which I do a game save prior to setting the doors to address if that happens.
If there is tidal current action input, it is nothing like I have ever encountered in the real world. The wave action in game can be head scratching at best and making game play almost impossible at worst. Wave action hasn't sunk any boats....yet.

[Lightning1961]

One thing I'll add here.

Don't rush anything while playing.
Many of the bugs/glitches I see complaints about can be avoided by lower speed approaching buoys, and letting the crew finish their current tasks before clicking anything else.