The Unique imbalance still exists.

[Neutralize]

While it is true that the uniques have been pretty much all but removed from Colorado, or at least they have been in a capacity where people cannot just easily spam the same spot lazily and pull in a boatload of experience, I'm afraid to report that this problem still does exist in Florida (and possibly Oregon, I'm not entirely sure on that one), or at least from what I've observed from most of my playtime this morning and evening.

To my way of thinking, Trophy fish should be fairly rare as it is, and need a drastic reduction in their respawn rate. They should feel like an exciting reward for diligence, rather than being common enough that you feel disappointment whenever you pull up a regular fish.
Unique fish should be, well...unique. Perhaps only spawning one day out of a week and having the experience and gold reward adjusted accordingly. Something to work for instead of just something that just benefits "insider" knowledge. This random element would also prevent people from just skipping day to day if it were to be say, spawning on a daily basis, or utilizing a similar cheesy tactic to target out what is currently a very imbalanced xp mechanic.

The discrepancy between the xp rates and over-abundance of unique/trophy fish and regular fish pretty much removes any point in having young and adult fish in the water to begin with, and aside from the already rather disappointing elements of less-than-random fish spawning and more natural behaviors, makes the game feel less like a fishing simulator and more like an mmo fishing mini-game (find the best spawn hole, use the same bait, wait for the bobber, click, rinse and repeat).

Never to mention how this mechanic essentially relegates 80-90 percent of the tackle equipment to a useless or secondary role. Why bother even buying standard lures when only premium baits will catch the good stuff? Yeah, fishing in real life, certain fish love certain baits more than others, depending on other conditions, but it's a bit overly specific in the game in its current iteration.

Some serious balance changes are in need for a better longterm game, I think.
My 2 cents.

[Trig]

While i can't say for 100% certain that there is not a unique cat on muddy river, i can say that it is very very unlikely that there is.

Leaderboard showed the biggest at being 7.5lb and just a regular channel catfish, if there were bigger ones to be had there I think someone, in the time this game has been out, would have caught atleast 1.
If there were a unique possible on muddy river, it would probalby not be in the "common" fishing spots for catfish, and in an area people havent been fishing heavily.

[SmokeyTheGoat]

I caught 5 Unique Black Crappies within 20-30 minutes in New York last night. Takes a lot of the fun out of it once you figure out exactly what to use and where to cast to haul out uniques on a regular basis.

Also got 2 unique rainbow trout in Colorado within a few minutes today, doing the thing everyone else is doing.

Uniques don't feel "unique".

[ScareCrow]

And this is information that the developers hopefully will never tell you, and they shouldnt, cause its in the nature of fishing to not know where the fish is at all times

[ScareCrow]

its not only annoying that its easy but its more annoying to hear some kids bragging about it that they @cracked the code@ it should be a bannable offence to reveal info like this its too easy to bag the uniques it makes those kids think they have done a big thing and they have to tell everyone about where it is before anyone else does it.. its the worst part of the chat ever

[JackRbbt]

As a answer covering all your questions about catching unique fish:

- your game level has nothing to do with your ABILITY to catch unique. But your tackle, which is directly dependent of your level, yes! In other words, a level 3 player has the same chances to get an unique, but has no "tools" to do it.

- as far as i know (and, as Alex said in another topic, i "know a lot, almost too much" :) ) are not unique channel catfish in Mudwater River, actually they are not in the game yet. Not sure about Largemouth Bass, i know that are trophy size fish there, so, it's probably to be some unique too. But again, fish size is directly dependent of tackle used. And, frankly, no high level player returned to try to catch an unique bass in Missouri, as they are "easy" to get in Florida.

[Manni]

Originally posted by JackRbbt:

As a answer covering all your questions about catching unique fish:

. And, frankly, no high level player returned to try to catch an unique bass in Missouri, as they are "easy" to get in Florida.

Thats wrong Jackrbbt im lvl 20 now and i go each day to all low lvl sea and try something else to catch there fish maybe sometimes i will find the right equip to catch a uniqe Bass ore catfish. the hope to catch them will die at last.

Best regards
Manni

[DanoUK]

In real life, if I go out and fish and chat to other anglers on the bank, things will come up like "There's a 50lb mirror carp lives in those lilypads over there". I could spent the rest of my days casting to that pad...and never get a twitch!
Just asking a question, no need to be so salty mate!

[ScareCrow]

Originally posted by DanoUK:

In real life, if I go out and fish and chat to other anglers on the bank, things will come up like "There's a 50lb mirror carp lives in those lilypads over there". I could spent the rest of my days casting to that pad...and never get a twitch!
Just asking a question, no need to be so salty mate!

I dont think anyone argues the fact that real life is what it is, but for this game I think we all well most of us wants alittle bit of challenge. thats the thrill of fishing after all, if you can be sure to catch a fish on every throw its going to be more like those arcade fishing games out there

[Jin]

Yes, I agree with most posts. It is extremely important that the fish are not sitting ducks in spots to be found with the correct equipment. For now I will lay down my rod and await further updates. :)

[philaitch]

Trying to stop people revealing the location and times for uniques isn't the answer. The answer is to make the location of the unique 'shoal' different for each person on the server, therefore it wouldn't matter if you watched a stream and saw how and where that person was catching - you'd have to find your own spot yourself. Also, as in real life, if you kept hammering a certain spot, after a certain time the shoal would spook and move off to another area. I'd keep the species preference as to water depth, available cover etc when deciding where that shoal would move to. The amount of information on the screen might need to be looked at as well, if you watch a stream, all of the information needed to spam a spot is available without the streamer saying a word, putting the onus on them to keep it a secret was never going to work.

[ScareCrow]

Originally posted by philaitch:

Trying to stop people revealing the location and times for uniques isn't the answer. The answer is to make the location of the unique 'shoal' different for each person on the server, therefore it wouldn't matter if you watched a stream and saw how and where that person was catching - you'd have to find your own spot yourself. Also, as in real life, if you kept hammering a certain spot, after a certain time the shoal would spook and move off to another area. I'd keep the species preference as to water depth, available cover etc when deciding where that shoal would move to. The amount of information on the screen might need to be looked at as well, if you watch a stream, all of the information needed to spam a spot is available without the streamer saying a word, putting the onus on them to keep it a secret was never going to work.

+1 I have posted that in another thread aswell, the best way is def. to make the spawn individual to to each player I a sure this is possible someway cause its done in other games I have played. this would be perfect for a fishing game and will give everyone a chance to learn how to hunt for fish themselfs instead of getting in with a spoon through the chat, making the chat useless for those who wants a challenge and its unfair

[SevSaint]

Okay lets talk game mechanics.
Unqiues need to be mixed in with the same type of fish. They don't and shouldnt need special treatment to catch. They should just be rarer to catch than trophy fish. The perfect example of this is in Oregon where the cutthroat trout are. Sometimes you catch a unique and sometimes its trophy. But if your farming that spot for unqiues your missing the leveling up power of the brown trout. So its a risk reward thing. This idea should be taken to the max on gameplay in the game. A

Allowing players to move around the map is also a must. Players may face the same struggles of snagging but the ground terrain should also come into play on this.

Adventually all players can own all gold items. And have tons of cash laying around for trips. What happens then. Whats the late game plan. Thats the thing thats going to make or break the game. Players will run out of stuff to experience and get tired of doing the same things over and over for no gain.

[tombomb31]

stop tryng to cheat an the easy way out just fish an youlll have a much better time

[Gurimujouz]

Lol I was gonna try this game out until you mentioned the whole same spot fishing. I actually thought it was random. I'll follow the game for now!

[ScareCrow]

Originally posted by Johnny Drama:

if im honest i really loved the game the first 20 hours. then i realized that this game is nothing dynamic, has utterly disgusting eyecancer graphics and serious engine problems. it feels like some kind of final exam of a student.. like a very early prototype.

i really want to love the game, because it has so much potential, but it basically wastes it in every aspect right now.( well, the shop and the interface and the handling is "ok")

if im honest i would try to get investors and get some help from people who are specialized in certain things and rebuild it from the beginning. since the idea has been quite a success so far, investors will probably be interested... (community investors? kickstarter?... )

maybe just roll on with the current version, get it playable (inventory bug) and then focus on getting an adequate engine running. i dont think this is a simulator right now. reminds me basically - as already stated - of the 10++ year old wow-fishing-mechanic.

i dont see a reason and playing this game any further in the current state.

its the same with many early access games these days. they get on the market in their pre-alpha state and barely ever make it to an acceptable beta status.

just because some marketing guy tells you to call it early access or beta or alpha does not mean anything.

oh yeah falcon lake has a spot on waterfalls where you can get about 1-4 uniques per ingame hour. was there today, 15+ ppl using the method, catching 100% trophy or unique. there is a video on youtube too, explainng the method. its in german and bad audio. but video says enough(setup, location, technique) its called Falcon lake hotspot and its only couple days old.

you should make a game and I will buy it if you can make it better than this one, but untill you do you shouldnt insult someone who is trying their best!