Fishing Progression, Ships, and more

Phantom007

Hi all! I wanted to toss out some of my ideas related to this topic and maybe ask some questions about the AOC design concepts for these along the way. Here we go:

1) Fishing progression: I personally think it would be cool to dive a bit deeper into progressing of fishing besides just using a fishing pole over and over until you cap out. I think it would be very interesting if you can gain skill and use nets, traps, etc along the progression path. These may take more time, but have larger yields. Or perhaps those items would be better used in certain waters, or for targeting specific types of aquatic creatures? Seems like it would make it more fun, more interesting, and break up the monotony.

2) Somewhat related to #1, would it be possible to craft and/or upgrade a ship for fishing purposes as well? That might be reserved for the highest levels of fishing progression, but seems fitting to the game's concepts.

3) Could you provide any more information on the usage of ships in game? I think in a video recently you mentioned that ship crafting would likely be more along the lines of modifications to a ship such as speed, defense, offense, etc? But I'm very curious how they will actually be used in game. Perhaps fishing, trade, travel to other areas, etc? Love to see where you plan to take this.

I think that's it for now! Loving all these recent videos, AMA, and Q&A sessions here lately. Keep up the good work!

SoulsOnFire

1 - I agree there should be different options for fishing. I'd be surprised if they didn't think of this yet though!

Slinkyb

I would like to see fishing being an actual fight with the fish instead of just clicking a bobber or hitting keys in a certain order. Something along the lines of Legend of the river king where you would hold down a button to reel in the fish until the line was about to break then stop reeling until the line is safe then start reeling them in again until you get them in. Its a MMO so i dont expect anything too complicated, but this would be the best route since its simple and would still be a lot of fun.

Lethality

Steven seems to be into all-things naval and seafaring, so with the focus on Artisan progression and the importance of fishing, I'd say our hopes should be high that fishing will be well fleshed-out!

CanceledLegend

I'd 2nd both Phantom's and Slinkyb's recommendations. Would add a request for spearfishing both on-land, underwater and harpoon on a ship. Manually aiming could help make it more interesting.

Considering ships, I'd love to see the ability to mount different siege equipment on them and use them during a node attack or ship to ship combat. Cannon's, Catapults, trebuchets, harpoons, balistae, and changing the cannon shot type is always interesting. Chain shot to attack sails and slow down ships, Grape shot to attack personnel en mass, and of course cannonballs to damage the ship itself.

Shaladoor

Just as a clickable reference which I don't see yet on the discussion:
https://ashesofcreation.wiki/Fishing

I could easily spend a lot of time just fishing. Early leveling could be just as simple as standing by the shore and slowly building up your skill. Higher levels might require special quests that demand an adventurer travel the world and fish up many different species of fish. Eventually, fishers can advance their overall skill with more than just the grind (rod, reel, bobbers, lures, bait, equipment, buffs) and venture to even more remote and dangerous locations.

I would really like the opportunity to buy a fishing boat that allows a player (or players) to climb on board and go out to deeper waters for even more opportunities to find that rare catch. This could start off simple with just a single person fishing boat but could slowly grow large enough to allow other players to all climb on board and fish at the same time. Maybe all fish could be stored in the boat until brought to shore (to allow possible pirating of boats, and to also limit how much a person can fish at a time before returning to shore).

Going even further, the largest fishing boat could contain potentially up to 8 people (a full group of adventurers). Going out to the deepest and most remote waters, they could fish up an extremely rare (and dangerous) creature and risk everything in an attempt to bring it down and drag it back to shore. This could be a once per week thing, maybe requiring special fishing mats (to lure the creature), the largest fishing boat (to have enough players for the fight), and then needing to find the right spot on the map (random each day).

As an extra risk, maybe the spawns are rare and randomly located around the map. Maybe you run the risk of destroying your boat if you lose, in which case everyone dies and spawns back at the shore. But a successful voyage would yield rare mats, transmogs, trophies, or furniture pieces for the wall.

I see a lot of possibilities and also believe it could be so much more than simply staring at a bobber and clicking when it moves.

apmax

Considering Steven's tendency to take inspiration from other MMOs he has played and enjoyed, I would recommend looking into the Archeage fishing system for a glimpse of how fishing might eventually work in Ashes.