Is fishing really as bad as people are saying?

[YuMu214]

Now before I get started let me say yes, the fishing mini-game can be annoying but I don't think it's terrible or broken. I see discussion after discussion nailing the fishing game to a cross but what I've noticed in my 50+ hours of gameplay is that it gets better the more you do it.

Now I don't go fishing too much unless its for a quest, this might change in winter but I'll probably do more exploring in the mine. Anyway, back to the point. I have a basic rod and I don't use any boosts, I'm also only level 4 with my fishing skill. I've noticed that as my fishing level incresed the crazy difficulity of the mini-game seemed to curve and be a bit more regulated. Again, it's not a cake walk but it's not as horrible as people are saying.

I'm assuming with more levels, better rods, bait, and boosts the fishing game will be a cake walk. But again, it's not un-realistic to win the mini-game even with bare minimum equipment. It's better to have a challenege early on and fail so that when you do succeed there is a feeling of accomplishment. Plus if you're having a bad run early on Willy sells Trout Soup, +1 to fishing :D

[astralprogenitor]

It's not, some people just expect to be instantly able to catch everything easily, which you can't. Personally I love fishing, even though at times it's a bit frustrating when you get the 'super fish.' Currently rank 6 in fishing and it definitely gets better.

Just some serious cases of git gud in this forum.

[Hurodrik]

I don't think it's unreasonable in any way. It can be very hard, if you find a fish that's hard to catch and your skill is slow. But the secret is trying to get better while working on the easier ones first. Of all the water bodies in the game, the easiest one to fish without any skill and the starter rod was on the river besides the blacksmiths place, opposite to the mayors truck. There's mostly small mouth bass there, which is plentiful and very easy to catch.

[YuMu214]

Originally posted by Hurodrik:

I don't think it's unreasonable in any way. It can be very hard, if you find a fish that's hard to catch and your skill is slow. But the secret is trying to get better while working on the easier ones first. Of all the water bodies in the game, the easiest one to fish without any skill and the starter rod was on the river besides the blacksmiths place, opposite to the mayors truck. There's mostly small mouth bass there, which is plentiful and very easy to catch.

I've been using the basic rod to fish everywhere haha. Used it to catch fish in the ocean during a thunderstorm haha

[bunnzy]

It's awful. I hate games like Flappy Bird so I'm useless at it. I'd prefer mini games like you get in games like Fantasy Life. Swear to God, I've managed to successfully catch TWO fish the whole damn time. It just isn't something I can do. I hold it down, it shoots up, I let go it shoots down, I can't get the green bar to hover. I just can't do it.

[Hurodrik]

Originally posted by YuSmites:

I've been using the basic rod to fish everywhere haha. Used it to catch fish in the ocean during a thunderstorm haha

Me too. I just mentioned that place because it was ridiculously easy from the start, while some others made me want to tear my hair of in frustration. =P

[YuMu214]

Originally posted by bunnzy:

It's awful. I hate games like Flappy Bird so I'm useless at it. I'd prefer mini games like you get in games like Fantasy Life. Swear to God, I've managed to successfully catch TWO fish the whole damn time. It just isn't something I can do. I hold it down, it shoots up, I let go it shoots down, I can't get the green bar to hover. I just can't do it.

The key is to click several times to get small incremental movements. Also I haven't tried it myself yet but you can add another key to the key-bindings so you don't have to use left click. That might help you :)

[JoeShmo]

Originally posted by Vari:

It's not, some people just expect to be instantly able to catch everything easily, which you can't. Personally I love fishing, even though at times it's a bit frustrating when you get the 'super fish.' Currently rank 6 in fishing and it definitely gets better.

Just some serious cases of git gud in this forum.

"Git Gud" would indicate there is an overwhelming amount of skill to do fishing, which there isn't.

You can certainly tell those that understand the mechanic vs those that don't ...but even an extremely skilled player will lose a fish due to the random fish ai behavior and fish being able to turn on a dime..and move faster than you can.

Fishing at Skill level 1 vs Skill 10 also means little to nothing. Fishing is "hard" right off the bat..with no learning curve or gradual incline.

People will have varrying outcomes / outlooks on the difficulty of fishing...but it is objecivetly not in line with the rest of the game's mechanics / difficulty. Fishing is in a terrible state, regardless of whether everyone enjoys its frustration or thinks its frustating at all.

[MoonSoft]

Honestly, it was really hard....until I stopped using the mouse during the "reeling" phase. Maybe it's just me, but doing it with the keyboard is much much easier than with the mouse.

Occasionally, there would be times where the fish icon would just crazily move along the meter and make it impossible to catch. I suspect that this is because I haven't progressed much into the game since I've heard people are using baits and tackles and stuff.

I've just entered my first summer and have never used baits (game hasn't mentioned tackles yet). So maybe it's that?

[rincewind]

It's not that bad.
You just need to level up the skill and buy a better rod.

[Zourin]

yup. Low level fishing is a bit rough, but with levels, the 'bar' gets bigger, and with better rods and bait, you can get 'hits' much quicker.

Also, you can alternate the RMB with the X key, which may help some people

[Anserine]

I actually don't find it hard at all. I'm still using the basic rod and i'm a few levels in on fishing too. I'm not sure how other people are doing it but i'm just doing fast little clicks to keep it level when i need to. I'm up for any changes though so it's better for everyone c:

[JoeShmo]

Originally posted by Zourin:

yup. Low level fishing is a bit rough, but with levels, the 'bar' gets bigger, and with better rods and bait, you can get 'hits' much quicker.

Also, you can alternate the RMB with the X key, which may help some people

That's kinda pointing out the flaw in fishing isn't it?

That it only "gets better" after you skill up in it...which requires you to actually catch those fish.

Plus...needing to use a system like both mouse and keyboard commands at the same time to "make it easier".

It seems really off compared to the rest of the game that players have to figure out how to game fishing just to make it "work".

[OtakuD]

After spending a few hours with it now it does get a lot better, I think having 0 skill points in it and fishing in tough places can make the experience seem worse than it is. Someone recommended catching junk in your own pond to level which helped me and once I got the next rod it's been loads better. :)

[tekkalord]

I've found that the fish you try to reel in will either be relatively easy or impossible, there's almost no middle ground.

Heck, I've lost fish in one second because the instant the minigame started the fish shot to the top of the meter and was lost before the green bar got even halfway there. There is absolutely no amount of skill that could make up for that. The green bar couldn't move fast enough.

[YuMu214]

Originally posted by JoeShmo:

Originally posted by Zourin:

yup. Low level fishing is a bit rough, but with levels, the 'bar' gets bigger, and with better rods and bait, you can get 'hits' much quicker.

Also, you can alternate the RMB with the X key, which may help some people

That's kinda pointing out the flaw in fishing isn't it?

That it only "gets better" after you skill up in it...which requires you to actually catch those fish.

Plus...needing to use a system like both mouse and keyboard commands at the same time to "make it easier".

It seems really off compared to the rest of the game that players have to figure out how to game fishing just to make it "work".

As other people have pointed out some locations are easier to fish at than others, also you can get a boost with the food from Willy from day 1. Plus its not using both the keyboard and mouse; it's an option for people that find it more comfortable multi-tapping the keyboard rather than clicking their mouse like their pushing a lane in LoL. I'm all up for balancing the mechanics and making the experience less rocky but the foundation and mechanics aren't horrible right now.