Really? A bottom rod

[AceOfSpades]

You guys are out of your mind adding a special rod for bottom fishing.
This game has become just stupid.
In my opinion every single decision made to date has been wrong.
This is still fundamentally a broken arcade game.
I honestly can say there is not a single thing I like about this title.
Why in the world cant someone make a fishing game worth actually spending time with.
Just glad I came to check out the updates and continue to warn people on my thumbs down review. This game stinks like rotten fish.

Now enter the folks whos feelings are hurt that I spoke badly about a game they like.
Boohoo

[BlackViper]

because its a game.. to make it last longer then 10 hours.. they want to add stuff that you can upgrade and unlock. in order to feel that you get a reward for the efford you make.

if it only was one rod you lvled up in 5 hours and thats it, it would be boring. and you would instead complain about there not being any meaning/value in fishing more then getting coins for cosmetics..

[AceOfSpades]

Originally posted by BlackViper:

because its a game.. to make it last longer then 10 hours.. they want to add stuff that you can upgrade and unlock. in order to feel that you get a reward for the efford you make.

if it only was one rod you lvled up in 5 hours and thats it, it would be boring. and you would instead complain about there not being any meaning/value in fishing more then getting coins for cosmetics..

Maybe you find the hunter boring? Because as far as things to do to consume time, its basically just hunting. All that other fluff, what little there is can be done in a remarkably short amount of time. Leaving only one thing left, what you hopefully bought the dang game for = hunting.
And they didnt go off and invent rifles types over there.
In fact a comparison of the two titles that are supposed to be of the same 'ilk' couldnt be much further apart and continuing to get further apart.
Not saying that the Hunter takes any kind of real skill like real hunting can 'sometimes' take. But I can NOT be deaf and blind in that game and bring anything down. I would bet money so long as you are on any shoreline you could be blindfolded, sound off and still catch fish. It is very much arcade like and continues to get even worse.

If I was the dev team for the Hunter I would ask the bosses that be, to remove the 'Call of the Wild' tag from one of the two games so as not to be confused with this title in any way. I would not want the association.

[BlackViper]

Originally posted by AceOfSpades:

Originally posted by BlackViper:

because its a game.. to make it last longer then 10 hours.. they want to add stuff that you can upgrade and unlock. in order to feel that you get a reward for the efford you make.

if it only was one rod you lvled up in 5 hours and thats it, it would be boring. and you would instead complain about there not being any meaning/value in fishing more then getting coins for cosmetics..

Maybe you find the hunter boring? Because as far as things to do to consume time, its basically just hunting. All that other fluff, what little there is can be done in a remarkably short amount of time. Leaving only one thing left, what you hopefully bought the dang game for = hunting.
And they didnt go off and invent rifles types over there.
In fact a comparison of the two titles that are supposed to be of the same 'ilk' couldnt be much further apart and continuing to get further apart.
Not saying that the Hunter takes any kind of real skill like real hunting can 'sometimes' take. But I can NOT be deaf and blind in that game and bring anything down. I would bet money so long as you are on any shoreline you could be blindfolded, sound off and still catch fish. It is very much arcade like and continues to get even worse.

If I was the dev team for the Hunter I would ask the bosses that be, to remove the 'Call of the Wild' tag from one of the two games so as not to be confused with this title in any way. I would not want the association.

i can be blind and deaf and still fish in real life bro.. its just tossing in the thing in the water and hope the fish is stupid enough to bite, then i just roll a wheel with 2 hands and bam got the fish...

i agree with you that it could feel a bit deeper and more Umpfh in the game but.. i still dont think there is much more they can do then add new ways to fish and new fisheses.. i would love to see a boat droping of crab boxes like in that TV show deadliest catch.

[Mills]

Originally posted by AceOfSpades:

You guys are out of your mind adding a special rod for bottom fishing.
This game has become just stupid.
In my opinion every single decision made to date has been wrong.
This is still fundamentally a broken arcade game.
I honestly can say there is not a single thing I like about this title.
Why in the world cant someone make a fishing game worth actually spending time with.
Just glad I came to check out the updates and continue to warn people on my thumbs down review. This game stinks like rotten fish.

Now enter the folks whos feelings are hurt that I spoke badly about a game they like.
Boohoo

I bet you're a hoot at parties!

[BlackViper]

Originally posted by Mills:

Originally posted by AceOfSpades:

You guys are out of your mind adding a special rod for bottom fishing.
This game has become just stupid.
In my opinion every single decision made to date has been wrong.
This is still fundamentally a broken arcade game.
I honestly can say there is not a single thing I like about this title.
Why in the world cant someone make a fishing game worth actually spending time with.
Just glad I came to check out the updates and continue to warn people on my thumbs down review. This game stinks like rotten fish.

Now enter the folks whos feelings are hurt that I spoke badly about a game they like.
Boohoo

I bet you're a hoot at parties!

what is a hoot?..

[Emme]

OP is 100% right.

After over a year of developement and updating, the core gameplay is still an absolute mess. Still no realistic fish behavior, just the same script that let's you magically catch a fish with every cast.

The actual angling experience couldn't be less exciting. Dev's should have listened at least to one of the hundreds of players who gave feedback at launch, who are all gone now.

[BlackViper]

Originally posted by Emme:

OP is 100% right.

After over a year of developement and updating, the core gameplay is still an absolute mess. Still no realistic fish behavior, just the same script that let's you magically catch a fish with every cast.

The actual angling experience couldn't be less exciting. Dev's should have listened at least to one of the hundreds of players who gave feedback at launch, who are all gone now.

so how exaclty Sir Tuna would you consider the fish being better?
by being harder to catch?.. dont take me wrong.. i totaly agree that it feels very arcady and at some times boring.. you are right. but i cant imagine how/in wich way it could be better...
what can they change more then the fish is harder to find/harder to get?.

[AceOfSpades]

Originally posted by BlackViper:

Originally posted by Emme:

OP is 100% right.

After over a year of developement and updating, the core gameplay is still an absolute mess. Still no realistic fish behavior, just the same script that let's you magically catch a fish with every cast.

The actual angling experience couldn't be less exciting. Dev's should have listened at least to one of the hundreds of players who gave feedback at launch, who are all gone now.

so how exaclty Sir Tuna would you consider the fish being better?
by being harder to catch?.. dont take me wrong.. i totaly agree that it feels very arcady and at some times boring.. you are right. but i cant imagine how/in wich way it could be better...
what can they change more then the fish is harder to find/harder to get?.

I am not sure if I should read this sarcastically? You cant think of ways to make it more realistic, harder, less arcade like yourself?
Ok so in comparison to it's other namesake first off. Which does a decent enough job at portraying hunting. It could be a bit stricter in scent making a bigger difference and it is missing a thing or two the biggest being vision (camo being real a factor) but all the other factors are there that would be in a real hunt, you, the animal, wind factor, distance factor, sound( both to and from), the weapon. Although once again there are flaws but at least the attempt is made. Sometimes you can sit and not have a dang thing to shoot at for 10 or so minutes. And if you set up in a bad place, you might not ever see what you want to shoot at.
Keep that 10 minute time in mind.
Because it is not just this fishing game but every fishing game seems to be under the belief that if the player is not catching a fish every cast lol then the players wont play, and I call bs and point to its namesake as an example. If players wouldnt be willing to do it in the hunter they wouldnt play it. And pretty much its the same player base, although I would say they have run off many on this game.
So comparing fishing to this game like I did hunting above what factors are in real fishing? You, the body of water and the fish, Rod/reel and lure/bait choice, line choice, presentation, wind, water clarity, underwater structures, lure color choice and water temp. All of these things can very easily be represented in the game and could be summed up in the most basic of terms and thus easily put to memory by players. For instance a fish species might have favorite lure, the color choice should be based on water clarity and how sunny it is outside. Then of course the closer you get to showing an optimum lure presentation (lure/color/size/technique) to a species it would bring higher chances for the top sized fish of that species. But I am getting into details of how it could work and thats moot.
So out of those factors what do these devs bring us?
Water and You, thats about it.
The rods, reels, are part of the way there but they they do things like feeder rods lol.
The line is... well it might as well be shoestring it makes no difference.
The fish are not very great in the behavior as far as reeling them in and the behavior is non existant as far as them being a species living in a body of water that you are going after, there is no 'behavior'.
The presentation techniques are pretty wacky in the application. I suppose they are part of the way there on that one.
There is no wind factor.
There is no weather factor as far as changing fish behavior nor is there the same for sunny/cloudy.
There is no water clarity factor.
There is no underwater structure factor. Structure being a loose word can even be a raised 'point' of lakebed that fish of a species congregate.
Lure color choice is irrelevant.
There is no water temp factor.
So we got kind of halfway arcade measure on a few things and alll the rest, nothing not a single bite from this dev team.

And as far as progression, I dont think its necessary, not really a thing in the hunter and this plays to the same crowd. BUT, how bout just having a simple lvl system with achievements and leave the equipment unlvl locked and buyable from day 1 providing player has the cash. And dont lock it behind a cash wall either maing it too expensive.
The result would be a game that if you did things right you would still be catching them left and right, if you did things wrong you could still award the player with a fish ever so often. Like I said in the Hunter it might take 10 minutes to get what you WANT to shoot in front of you. I doubt a player would be turned away if he was only catching one every 5 minutes if they knew that they could learn the game and knock that down to one every cast or two.

[BlackViper]

Originally posted by AceOfSpades:

Originally posted by BlackViper:

so how exaclty Sir Tuna would you consider the fish being better?
by being harder to catch?.. dont take me wrong.. i totaly agree that it feels very arcady and at some times boring.. you are right. but i cant imagine how/in wich way it could be better...
what can they change more then the fish is harder to find/harder to get?.

I am not sure if I should read this sarcastically? You cant think of ways to make it more realistic, harder, less arcade like yourself?
Ok so in comparison to it's other namesake first off. Which does a decent enough job at portraying hunting. It could be a bit stricter in scent making a bigger difference and it is missing a thing or two the biggest being vision (camo being real a factor) but all the other factors are there that would be in a real hunt, you, the animal, wind factor, distance factor, sound( both to and from), the weapon. Although once again there are flaws but at least the attempt is made. Sometimes you can sit and not have a dang thing to shoot at for 10 or so minutes. And if you set up in a bad place, you might not ever see what you want to shoot at.
Keep that 10 minute time in mind.
Because it is not just this fishing game but every fishing game seems to be under the belief that if the player is not catching a fish every cast lol then the players wont play, and I call bs and point to its namesake as an example. If players wouldnt be willing to do it in the hunter they wouldnt play it. And pretty much its the same player base, although I would say they have run off many on this game.
So comparing fishing to this game like I did hunting above what factors are in real fishing? You, the body of water and the fish, Rod/reel and lure/bait choice, line choice, presentation, wind, water clarity, underwater structures, lure color choice and water temp. All of these things can very easily be represented in the game and could be summed up in the most basic of terms and thus easily put to memory by players. For instance a fish species might have favorite lure, the color choice should be based on water clarity and how sunny it is outside. Then of course the closer you get to showing an optimum lure presentation (lure/color/size/technique) to a species it would bring higher chances for the top sized fish of that species. But I am getting into details of how it could work and thats moot.
So out of those factors what do these devs bring us?
Water and You, thats about it.
The rods, reels, are part of the way there but they they do things like feeder rods lol.
The line is... well it might as well be shoestring it makes no difference.
The fish are not very great in the behavior as far as reeling them in and the behavior is non existant as far as them being a species living in a body of water that you are going after, there is no 'behavior'.
The presentation techniques are pretty wacky in the application. I suppose they are part of the way there on that one.
There is no wind factor.
There is no weather factor as far as changing fish behavior nor is there the same for sunny/cloudy.
There is no water clarity factor.
There is no underwater structure factor. Structure being a loose word can even be a raised 'point' of lakebed that fish of a species congregate.
Lure color choice is irrelevant.
There is no water temp factor.
So we got kind of halfway arcade measure on a few things and alll the rest, nothing not a single bite from this dev team.

And as far as progression, I dont think its necessary, not really a thing in the hunter and this plays to the same crowd. BUT, how bout just having a simple lvl system with achievements and leave the equipment unlvl locked and buyable from day 1 providing player has the cash. And dont lock it behind a cash wall either maing it too expensive.
The result would be a game that if you did things right you would still be catching them left and right, if you did things wrong you could still award the player with a fish ever so often. Like I said in the Hunter it might take 10 minutes to get what you WANT to shoot in front of you. I doubt a player would be turned away if he was only catching one every 5 minutes if they knew that they could learn the game and knock that down to one every cast or two.

everything you wrote down are almost totaly pointless.. you might get a fish every cast if you have th greatest gear.. then dont use it.. im lvl 11 and i bearly never get a fish.
i dont give a ♥♥♥♥ about the wind when im fishing, its not blowing under the water.
night and day fish is already in the game. but i dont care bout those cause the night is way less then the day. ive fished in real life, i think the reels feels good. what do you want more from them? the line is a string of white coding.. it can reel in fish and it can snap. what more do you want from it?. I AGREE with the lure/bait choice, it feels like whatever bailt/reel you use, you get any fish at any time. but in call of the wild you can kill any animal with any weapon. so,, dont make a huuuge difference in the end.
i 100% agree with weather... we could need more weather, fog, thunder, rain. and fish reacting to it. water temp seems pointless in this game,, most places are 1 huge body of water, it should have had different temps in different maps then i guess.. water clarity is just for the eye candy. fish wont give a ♥♥♥♥.

Structure ? well dont know if i get you right on that, but there is Structure in the sence of deeper waters..
the fish AI is retarded i totaly agree..

but most of what you mention makes no huge sense to me at all. at least for me it would not make a huge difference in the feeling of it being more or less arcady.. though i do agree with you that the game feels way to arcady, as i lvl up i feel it easier to get fish and i can see myself getting bored fast if they dont come with more maps or new fish to catch...

sure in hunt call of the wild you also do the same thing but there you have to work for youre catches... and the maps are way more pleasing to see, with more ambient sounds.. wich i wish this game had aswell..

but i guess everything is relative to the observer, this is the only fish game ive ever played so i dont know better.. and im not saying you are wrong cause you are NOT.. im just saying i cant see wind and water clarity, temp, the line, and the rod making any difference in gameplay and longlivity at all.

[Emme]

Originally posted by BlackViper:

Originally posted by Emme:

OP is 100% right.

After over a year of developement and updating, the core gameplay is still an absolute mess. Still no realistic fish behavior, just the same script that let's you magically catch a fish with every cast.

The actual angling experience couldn't be less exciting. Dev's should have listened at least to one of the hundreds of players who gave feedback at launch, who are all gone now.

so how exaclty Sir Tuna would you consider the fish being better?
by being harder to catch?.. dont take me wrong.. i totaly agree that it feels very arcady and at some times boring.. you are right. but i cant imagine how/in wich way it could be better...
what can they change more then the fish is harder to find/harder to get?.

There have numerous excellent ideas been shared with the devs over discord as well as these Steam forums on how to actually improve the fish behavior scripts, like over a year ago, at the time after the game launched and got it's first updates.

Here's something that I'd consider to make the core angling much more authentic.

First off reduce the biting rates dramatically. Rates should also depend on seasons, player movement / noise, enviroment such as weather and daytime. Then add a "buff" system to make players being able to bring these rates up again. Could easily be done by adding a "Feeding" mechanic. "Feeding" is something you would do in real life as well to increase your biting rates and should be included in any serious angling game as it could add so much more depth. Spinning is also much too overpowered and needs to be nerfed as well. Also every type of bait should have a dynamic value. Meaning: The more you use the same bait in a certain area, the less it should be likely that fish are going to bite again. It's all just about creating more dynamics with these values to make the player having to adapt like IRL. Because that's something what makes angling an interesting activity in the end.

Then you need to make the script stop just spawning in fish around the bait. Instead fish should behave like present physical objects, that you would need to apporach yourself and not the other way around, true to RL. Right now you will always attract a fish just by casting and if there's no fish the script will make it spawn. The size of the fish is also always depending on the hook size, which is complete nonsense. Only "exception" for this are Legendaries. Whenever the player reaches out to a spot on the water with the boat it should also make fish disappear for a certain amount of time and then slowly begin to populate them back again over time to make things more authentic.

Fish fighting needs a complete rework / overhaul. Fighting a big fish should not be the same like fighting a small fish also taking the quality of the player's equipment into consideration. A stamina system for the player would add another source of spicyness to the angling. Also big fish should be much more rare and smaller fish much more common, to make catching these real big one's a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ highlight for the player.

Also the big open maps don't add anything to the game without having at least some living enviroment and dynamic weather conditions. There's just so much unused potential and it's hurting the atmosphere just because of this. Also just a single option to completely disable the UI and "unrealistic" catching alarms completely, could also help make the angling experience less arcady for players who want this.

And the best thing is, devs could make all such changes optional and just put it in a "realistic" mode, so that any casual / arcade player can still enjoy the brain afk angling experience the game currently is and ever has been. Everyone would be happy and recommend the game - GG

[BlackViper]

Originally posted by Emme:

Originally posted by BlackViper:

so how exaclty Sir Tuna would you consider the fish being better?
by being harder to catch?.. dont take me wrong.. i totaly agree that it feels very arcady and at some times boring.. you are right. but i cant imagine how/in wich way it could be better...
what can they change more then the fish is harder to find/harder to get?.

There have numerous excellent ideas been shared with the devs over discord as well as these Steam forums on how to actually improve the fish behavior scripts, like over a year ago, at the time after the game launched and got it's first updates.

Here's something that I'd consider to make the core angling much more authentic.

First off reduce the biting rates dramatically. Rates should also depend on seasons, player movement / noise, enviroment such as weather and daytime. Then add a "buff" system to make players being able to bring these rates up again. Could easily be done by adding a "Feeding" mechanic. "Feeding" is something you would do in real life as well to increase your biting rates and should be included in any serious angling game as it could add so much more depth. Also every type of bait should have a value. Meaning: The more you use the same bait the less it should be likely that fish are going to bite again. It's all just about creating more dynamics with these values to make the player having to adapt like IRL. Because that's something what makes angling an interesting activity in the end.

Then you need to make the script stop just spawning in fish around the bait. Instead fish should behave like present physical bodies, that you would need to apporach yourself and not the other way around like irl. Right now you will always attract a fish just by casting and if there's no fish the script will make it spawn. The size of the fish is also always depending on the hook size, which is complete nonsense. Only "exception" for this are Legendaries. Whenever the player reaches out to a spot on the water with the boat it should also make fish disappear for a certain amount of time and then slowly begin to populate them back again over time to make things more authentic.

Fish fighting needs a complete rework / overhaul. Fighting a big fish should not be the same like fighting a small fish also taking the quality of the player's equipment into consideration. A stamina system for the player would add another source of spicyness to the angling. Also big fish should be much more rare and smaller fish much more common, to make catching these real big one's a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ highlight for the player.

Also the big open maps don't add anything to the game without having at least some living enviroment and dynamic weather conditions. There's just so much unused potential and it's hurting the atmosphere just because of this. Also just a single option to completely disable the UI and "unrealistic" catching alarms completely, could also help make the angling experience less arcady for players who want this.

And the best thing is, devs could make all such changes optional and just put it in a "realistic" mode, so that any casual / arcade player can still enjoy the brain afk angling experience the game currently is and ever has been. Everyone would be happy and recommend the game - GG

total agree with you on every single point.
<3

[Emme]

Sorry had to adjust some things in the text, but should be done now.

[AceOfSpades]

Originally posted by BlackViper:

Originally posted by AceOfSpades:

I am not sure if I should read this sarcastically? You cant think of ways to make it more realistic, harder, less arcade like yourself?
Ok so in comparison to it's other namesake first off. Which does a decent enough job at portraying hunting. It could be a bit stricter in scent making a bigger difference and it is missing a thing or two the biggest being vision (camo being real a factor) but all the other factors are there that would be in a real hunt, you, the animal, wind factor, distance factor, sound( both to and from), the weapon. Although once again there are flaws but at least the attempt is made. Sometimes you can sit and not have a dang thing to shoot at for 10 or so minutes. And if you set up in a bad place, you might not ever see what you want to shoot at.
Keep that 10 minute time in mind.
Because it is not just this fishing game but every fishing game seems to be under the belief that if the player is not catching a fish every cast lol then the players wont play, and I call bs and point to its namesake as an example. If players wouldnt be willing to do it in the hunter they wouldnt play it. And pretty much its the same player base, although I would say they have run off many on this game.
So comparing fishing to this game like I did hunting above what factors are in real fishing? You, the body of water and the fish, Rod/reel and lure/bait choice, line choice, presentation, wind, water clarity, underwater structures, lure color choice and water temp. All of these things can very easily be represented in the game and could be summed up in the most basic of terms and thus easily put to memory by players. For instance a fish species might have favorite lure, the color choice should be based on water clarity and how sunny it is outside. Then of course the closer you get to showing an optimum lure presentation (lure/color/size/technique) to a species it would bring higher chances for the top sized fish of that species. But I am getting into details of how it could work and thats moot.
So out of those factors what do these devs bring us?
Water and You, thats about it.
The rods, reels, are part of the way there but they they do things like feeder rods lol.
The line is... well it might as well be shoestring it makes no difference.
The fish are not very great in the behavior as far as reeling them in and the behavior is non existant as far as them being a species living in a body of water that you are going after, there is no 'behavior'.
The presentation techniques are pretty wacky in the application. I suppose they are part of the way there on that one.
There is no wind factor.
There is no weather factor as far as changing fish behavior nor is there the same for sunny/cloudy.
There is no water clarity factor.
There is no underwater structure factor. Structure being a loose word can even be a raised 'point' of lakebed that fish of a species congregate.
Lure color choice is irrelevant.
There is no water temp factor.
So we got kind of halfway arcade measure on a few things and alll the rest, nothing not a single bite from this dev team.

And as far as progression, I dont think its necessary, not really a thing in the hunter and this plays to the same crowd. BUT, how bout just having a simple lvl system with achievements and leave the equipment unlvl locked and buyable from day 1 providing player has the cash. And dont lock it behind a cash wall either maing it too expensive.
The result would be a game that if you did things right you would still be catching them left and right, if you did things wrong you could still award the player with a fish ever so often. Like I said in the Hunter it might take 10 minutes to get what you WANT to shoot in front of you. I doubt a player would be turned away if he was only catching one every 5 minutes if they knew that they could learn the game and knock that down to one every cast or two.

everything you wrote down are almost totaly pointless.. you might get a fish every cast if you have th greatest gear.. then dont use it.. im lvl 11 and i bearly never get a fish.
i dont give a ♥♥♥♥ about the wind when im fishing, its not blowing under the water.
night and day fish is already in the game. but i dont care bout those cause the night is way less then the day. ive fished in real life, i think the reels feels good. what do you want more from them? the line is a string of white coding.. it can reel in fish and it can snap. what more do you want from it?. I AGREE with the lure/bait choice, it feels like whatever bailt/reel you use, you get any fish at any time. but in call of the wild you can kill any animal with any weapon. so,, dont make a huuuge difference in the end.
i 100% agree with weather... we could need more weather, fog, thunder, rain. and fish reacting to it. water temp seems pointless in this game,, most places are 1 huge body of water, it should have had different temps in different maps then i guess.. water clarity is just for the eye candy. fish wont give a ♥♥♥♥.

Structure ? well dont know if i get you right on that, but there is Structure in the sence of deeper waters..
the fish AI is retarded i totaly agree..

but most of what you mention makes no huge sense to me at all. at least for me it would not make a huge difference in the feeling of it being more or less arcady.. though i do agree with you that the game feels way to arcady, as i lvl up i feel it easier to get fish and i can see myself getting bored fast if they dont come with more maps or new fish to catch...

sure in hunt call of the wild you also do the same thing but there you have to work for youre catches... and the maps are way more pleasing to see, with more ambient sounds.. wich i wish this game had aswell..

but i guess everything is relative to the observer, this is the only fish game ive ever played so i dont know better.. and im not saying you are wrong cause you are NOT.. im just saying i cant see wind and water clarity, temp, the line, and the rod making any difference in gameplay and longlivity at all.

Not sure what you are doing but I can catch a fish every cast.
Thats fine that you dont give a ♥♥♥♥ about the wind ect but if you ever went fishing and did not catch anything thats because you did not care about those factors but the fish do lol.
I was doing a comparison to show how the Hunter at least tries to bring most realism to the game by having most of the factors one would deal with during a hunt.
They have given us, like I said You, the lake and a half ass job on rods and reels.
I am a part time guide in Oregon, part time because I am too old to take folks ice fishing so I take winters off. All of those factors I mentioned are very important to deciding where and how to fish. There is not a water body in the world that I would be stumped in, barring a few situations like severe barometric drop from a storm front passing.

While the wind is not blowing underwater it pushes the microscopic plant material that bait fish eat to different locations of a lake. Predator fish follow the bait fish. Wind also breaks the surface up this can cause certain fish to rise in the water column providing its not too bright, depending on the fish species. Wind also greatly effects casts.
I do not think I mentioned night fishing.
Line choice is huge when fishing. If you want to loose less lures, loose less fish, get more strikes. It changes how a lure is presented, it changes how it behaves, it changes the depth even as one line type gets heavier it actually soaks up water believe it or not. So line should probably be more than just a white string maybe.
Water temp will drastically change how a fish behaves, if you have been stumped fishing in real life this would be one of the main reasons. Literally a fishes entire seasonal behavior depends on water temp, even when it will spawn.
Water clarity effects how close you might need to be to a fish to entice a strike. If you cant see well through the water the fish cant either. Water clarity can also effect behavior for some species.
So in RL these things do matter and are a difference between someone sitting there struggling to catch a fish while they watch me 50 feet away pulling out one every 15 or minutes. It happens far too often. Hell in my distant past it has happened to me.

Now I am not saying all this should be in the game, but ... A few things would be nice while I am collecting silly cons and stupid paper doll items.

A person once asked me how I can find fishing fun anymore when the chances of failure are next to none. I told him that he goes fishing because when he catches fish he feels he has done something, a sense of accomplishment from presenting something to the fish and getting it in. Well I feel the same sense but I replace luck with knowledge and if I am right I am rewarded for that knowledge.
If it was done correctly players in the game could have that same sense of accomplishment from 'dialing' on a fish and pulling them out like gangbusters.
Just my opinion, dont think I can say much more on the topic lol.

[AceOfSpades]

Oh wanted to answer your 'structure' question.

Fish are not evenly dispersed across a lake. Depending on species there are behavioral things that can change that and part of that is where a fish likes to hang out.
'Structure' is a universal word used for anything that changes the physical enviroment the fish is in. So structure could be a hump on the lake bootom, an old submerged house, a tree, docks, ect. It can also be something like a shadow cast on the water. Fish dont like bright light. If its a predator fish that like to suspend itself in the water column it will actually move with the shadow as it goes across a lakes surface. Some fish like bass are ambush hunters that like to spring out from thier 'structure'.

This would reflect in the game as being places you would find certain species. So if you wanted to fish for say, bass, you would go looking for docks, rocks, tree stumps, ect.

More of that behavioral stuff that seems to be greatly missing from this game.
There is another arcade fishing game that at least gets this 'kinda' right. So it could be done.

And it would have been so much more fun to have a game where the rod/reel/lure combo you used yesterday would not work as well today and you would need to tweak your set up because various factors had changed. That would be far more rewarding IMHO.

[SpiritFire]

they added a bottom fishing rod? damn. im going to reinstall the game =) nice.